No Gym?!?

16 March 2011, 7:20 am by Giggles
Categories: Exercise

Every season on Biggest Loser they have one week where the contestants are locked out of their gym. It’s supposed to build tension because then you wonder, “Oh no! However can they lose weight if they can’t go to the gym?” Which to me is just crazy. Especially the way they do it. Because this season that just meant they had their row machines and their spin bikes outside in the courtyard rather than in the gym. The show is great at their message that losing weight is possible with diet and exercise, but sometimes the sub message that you NEED a gym if you are going to lose weight seems a bit much.

But perhaps I’m biased. Because I’ve never once belonged to a gym so I have a hard time seeing the real need for one.

Here’s what my “gym equipment” looks like.

This is my weight and strength area. I sit on the exercise ball and do lifts, presses, and curls during commercial breaks while I watch TV. I also use the resistance band to tone my legs and strengthen my hips and knees (I read this article – Straight From the Hip – and it makes a whole lot of sense and it has directions for how to strengthen your hips too). I could (and should) start doing abdominal exercises with the ball as well.

This is my yoga/flexibility area. Mat. Strap. And DVDs. I can still bend over and palm the floor (something I want to always be able to do), and the stretching of my back and shoulders is perfect after a long day. Not to mention how my breathing has changed from doing yoga – much more calm and controlled now, deeper and more relaxing.

And here’s my cardio equipment. Shoes. Hat. And a watch. (And a water bottle belt for the summer and long runs.) And I hit the streets. I like using Map My Run to calculate how long different routes are and to track how far and fast I go. I feel the breeze. I say hi to my neighbors. I get to know the neighborhood. I get to watch nature. Brett and I are trying to cover 780 miles on foot each this year. That’s an average of 15 miles a week. 780 miles on a treadmill is enough to make me crazy.

I put my bike back together last week as well and am going to start riding it to run errands around the neighborhood for some extra cardio.

Out of my whole “gym” the shoes are the biggest expense. They cost the most initially and they’re the only thing I really ever replace. But I’d be doing that if I was at a gym as well. Shoes only have so many miles in them. There’s no monthly fee to exercise in my “gym.”

So that’s my version of not having a gym. Sure there are some things I can’t do because I don’t have big gym equipment. I did enjoy the weight lifting and the water aerobics classes I took at BYU. But I haven’t felt a real need for those things in my life. My gym is right here ready to go whenever I am, no excuses. And that’s how I like it.

13 Shared thoughts

Butterflies and Ides

15 March 2011, 9:47 am by Giggles
Categories: Learn Something, Life

:butterfly: Yesterday, in addition to being Pi Day, was also Learn About Butterflies Day. So I watched the NOVA show “The Incredible Journey of Butterflies” all about the migration of monarch butterflies. It was fascinating.

And today we’ll be having Little Caesar’s pizza for dinner. It’s our nod to poor Caesar who was literally stabbed in the back by his friends today.

1 Shared thought

Pi(e)!

14 March 2011, 8:51 am by Giggles
Categories: Food, Happy Things

We had our annual Pi(e) Party a few days early because Monday night is a weird time to have a big party. But it was still a lot of fun.

I attempted to make pie pops as seen on A Practical Wedding – How To: DIY Pie Pops. There is a reason I sewed for our wedding and didn’t cook. Mine turned out okay, but not quite as pie looking as hers did. Hats off to her for making all those.

We did cherry filling, and to keep them from oozing out more than they did I could only put two cherries in each. I used a measuring cup as my cookie cutter to get the right sized circles. And they ended up being just a little too big for the bags I bought, so I wrapped them in plastic wrap and tied a red yarn around them. They weren’t perfect, but they were still a lot of fun.

We’re going to have a few for Family Home Evening treats tonight since today is the official Pi Day.

1 Shared thought

Defining Charity

13 March 2011, 11:39 am by Giggles
Categories: Gospel

Last September President Monson gave a talk in the General Relief Society meeting that 99.9% of the people I talked with thought was about judging and to not do it. However when I listened to it I heard a different message. While it is true that several of the stories were about judging, the talk was about charity. The talk was even titled “Charity Never Faileth.” It was a talk about what charity truly is and how it is so much more than just casseroles.

Reading the talks again to prepare for next month’s conference, this definition from the end of the talk stood out to me.

Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others.

Not a casserole mentioned. That is a definition of charity that I can understand and appreciate. It is a definition I can try to live in my life.

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She’s going to be a mommy!

10 March 2011, 4:40 pm by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things

These will be the only pictures I will take of inside the nest for now because momma bird doesn’t like it when I do it. It also requires me standing on a stool and holding the camera over my head. Momma bird does like having a feeder so close though. She rarely actually leaves our yard. She’s either in the tree her nest is in, the two bushes in our yard, or at the feeder.

But there are two eggs!

It’s only in the last few days that’s she’s been sitting consistently on the nest so they are probably pretty new. It takes 2-3 weeks for them to hatch. So we’ll be watching!

2 Shared thoughts

Humming Happily

7 March 2011, 7:47 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things

The story starts with Brett taking me on a date. And it ends with a hummingbird. Now for the details.

Back when Brett and I first met and a date took a lot of planning and generally lasted a long weekend, I came down to visit him and we decided to go check out the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and see what was out there.

Then, shortly after I moved here Heidi came out to visit and we went out there together. I bought a year membership at that time and have kept it ever since. If you come visit, that’s where I’ll take you. And for a while I was heading out at least once a month just myself because things change that often in nature.

When Brett and I were getting some engagement pictures taken we went out there and got some gorgeous ones. Desert sunsets are something else.

I love seeing the different cactus bloom at different times of the year. I think they are beautiful. And we definitely have to stop and say hi to the tortoise.

But my favorite place is the hummingbird aviary. To sit there and have those tiny gorgeous birds buzz your head and watch them appear to defy physics while they just sit in the air. They are territorial. But they are also creatures of habit and have favorite branches. If you can figure out those branches you stand a good chance of getting a good picture.

And if the new baby birds have just left the nest they will sit still even longer. We have this photo of a newish hummingbird printed as an 8×10 hanging on the wall in our front room. At that size it’s several times larger than the actual bird.

I love getting photos of the hummingbirds. Here are a few other favorites.

See that last one, with the bird on the nest? They are the tiniest little nests and they have one to two teeny tiny little eggs in there and then you get super tiny baby hummingbirds. It’s fascinating.

This past week, after building a snowman on Sunday morning, I was out in our front yard pulling weeds on Wednesday afternoon (because winter and spring really are that short here and we’re already on our way into summer) when I heard a hummingbird in the tree above me. So I sat down on the sidewalk and watched it and I noticed it kept coming back to the same place. So I looked closer, and it was building a nest in our tree. :woot:

Thursday afternoon I pulled out one of my old hooks I used for bird feeders in Utah and Brett helped me put it in our front yard right in front of our front window. We wanted to make the hummingbird feel welcome and let her know that she has good neighbors and has picked a good spot for her nest. I put out the feeder and we went inside and started finishing off the potato chips and within five minutes she found the feeder. I love it. I can sit on our couch and watch out the window. It’s my own little hummingbird aviary experience right at home.

She isn’t consistently on the nest yet so I’m pretty sure there aren’t eggs yet. But I’ll definitely be watching.

11 Shared thoughts

Giggles Parade 2011

4 March 2011, 1:32 pm by Giggles
Categories: Random

March Fo(u)rth!

Today is a perfect day for a parade. So we’re going to do a virtual parade (they’re easier to clean up after). And I want all of you to be in the parade.

To join the parade leave a comment and tell us what you are going to be doing in the parade. We need bands. We need horses. We need some floats. We need some important people riding around in the back of convertibles. We could have some clowns. Whatever you want to do for the parade.

Last year I rode around in a clown car. This year I think I want to drive a float. And it’s a jungle theme float Rose Parade style, so it smells absolutely yummy.

What will you do in the parade?

And just as a point of interest, this is post #950.
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