Wake Up Call

Balance is Beautiful

Balance is beautiful.

~ Miyoko Ohno

Log stand! (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rukakuusamo/4780504732">rukakusamo</a>.)

Elixirs

Warm, Simple, Sweet Squash!

Today, it's not about elixirs, it's about squash. Beautiful, colorful squash are everywhere just now, and they pair nicely with just about anything. Like, say, steamed kale and a serving of goat cheese. 

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Wake Up Call

On Walking

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well Walked! (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/327939900">Hamed Saber</a>.)

Wake Up Call

On Faith

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.

~ Marie Curie

Climber (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/regi_a/4686464716">aless&ro</a>.)

Buns of Steal

Kangoo Hits Times Square with the KanGURU

I am bouncing wildly through Times Square on what can only be described as moon boots strapped to pogo sticks. Several feet in front of me is Mario, an incredibly fit, mohawked 28 year old who serves as America's most public face for the Kangoo movement. The tourists are going gangbusters, taking our photos as we bounce, flash mob style, between yellow cabs and city busses, sprinting across the street on our 6 inch extensions, dodging pedestrians and onlookers. The shouts followed us as we bounced along:

"That's sooo f'ing cool!"
"Where do you buy them?"
"Can you do tricks?!"

So how did I get there?

Julia Kangoo!
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Wake Up Call

On Danger

Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening.

~ Gertrude Stein

Fencing! (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/4930582741">familymwr</a>.)

Words of Wisdom

Marie Claire Blogger Teases the Fat Kids

New York fashion mag bloggers are SO over the whole fat acceptance movement. Take Marie Claire blogger, Maura Kelly, for example. In a recent post, Kelly pontificates on the new CBS show, "Mike & Molly,"  a sitcom wherein two heavy-set lead characters manage to find love. Adventures in dating and dieting ensue, and great laughs and "aww" moments are had by all. All, that is, except for Maura Kelly, who gets queazy at the mere thought of the whole thing: 

I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

She goes on to qualify her opinion by stating that some of her best friends are lardasses she's "not some size-ist jerk."

Mike & Molly
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Online & Video

Spirit Guides

The Beauty of Diversity

You are uniquely yourself, yet you are many selves. You are both singular and diverse, a continually unfolding being. As my teacher Dr Douglas Brooks frequently points out, the self who you are with your parent is not the same as the self you are with your lover, your child, or your best friend. This does not make you inauthentic in any way. It simply means that you are multi-faceted. At the core of your identity is this play between your singularity and your diversity.

Walt Whitman by photographer George C. Cox, New York, 1887
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Wake Up Call

In Favor of You

I am for people. I can't help it.

~ Charlie Chaplin

Dance! (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersonicphotos/4444746911">kelsey_lovefusionphoto</a>.)

Adventures in Blogland

129 Days of Eating School Lunches and Losing Her Mind

Move over Supersize Me, here comes Fed Up With Lunch, a blog by an anonymous school teacher somewhere in the midwest who has set out to "eat like the kids every day in 2010." On Friday, she made it to Lunch 129, featuring styrofoam-encased wieners and fries, and has minor breakdown. "Today at lunch I just stared out my window and cried. I ended up having to make a quick call to my mother. How grown-up of me...." This just goes to show, school is a drama-filled place regardless of the age its inhabitants.  Also plastic covered wieners would make me cry too.

Fed Up With Lunch

Wake Up Call

On Pushing Through

Only entropy comes easy.

~ Anton Chekhov

 

Pushing Through (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/4931159916">familymwr</a>.)

Wake Up Call

On Swimming

What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!

~ Alfred Adler

Underwater (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerrythomasen/176081589/">GerryT</a>.)

Wake Up Call

Make Your Own Waves

In life you need either inspiration or desperation.

~ Anthony Robbins

Surfing! (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stinkiepinkie_infinity/2732509974">Stinkie Pinkie</a>.)

Elixirs

Superfood Hot Chocolate Time!

Yes, this one is spectacular in taste and in feel. You may be buzzed after this drink, ready to focus on your next book, or to take over the world. And your taste buds will be cheering for more. You will be warmed from the inside out and maybe feel a little fuzzy, in a good way. It's getting cold outside and it's time to bring warming elixirs into the mix. This is one of my faves!

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Aarona Pichinson said "

yay! awesome!

" More comments...

Breaking Lingerie News

Adriana Lima: Mom, Boxer, and Wearer of Fantasy Bra

Adriana Lima, Victoria Secret model-mom, had dinner last night with a bunch of fashion bloggers and a bra. New York magazine has the story, but here are the essentials: Lima is the spokesmodel for Victoria's new $2 million Fantasy Bra. If you're going to put that baby on, you've got to be in shape, and so Lima works out two hours a day (nice!) and drinks protein shakes called Metagenics (dubious)! What does she do in the gym? We know that: She boxes and jumps rope. "I don’t lift weights. I don’t like machines — everything I do is with my body weight," she says. Please note, we've long covered Lima's association with Social Workout Spirit Guide and Meatpacking District celeb trainer Michael Olajide. What else? She's all about the low carb diet, and says dairy and chocolate make her "puffy." OK, look, you'd focus on "puffiness" too if billions of people were oggling your cleavage. It's a crazy world, but Lima seems remarkably sane, all things considered. 

Adriana! (Via <a href="http://fashionista.com/">Fashionista.com</a>.)

Tips

Adding Gum to Your Smoothie

Department of smoothie intel: Smoothie Girl Eats Too covers an important scientific mystery today, i.e. how to thicken a smoothie using guar gum and xanthan gum. Huh? Yep, check it:

...the gums are natural carbohydrates and they do have calories: 20 per 7 g of Guar and 30 per 9g of Xanthan. They impart no flavor to smoothies, but make the shakes thicker and creamier. They prevent ice crystals from forming and therefore make very thick and luscious smoothies and ice creams.

I had absolutely no idea, but apparently these gums are available at a health food store near you. And here's another tip: The new way to ingest your smoothie is via bowl. There's even an acronym for this phenomenon: SIAB (Smoothie in a Bowl). Consider yourself in the know.

Smoothie Girl Eats Too

Online & Video

Wake Up Call

Swing Early

Whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Dawn Swing (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajari/5014987350">ajari</a>.)

Scientific

On Sweat, Ladies, and the Myth of Misting

The Journal of Experimental Physiology publishes a new Japanese study on the pressing physiological question of sweat, which The Times' Gretchen Reynold's notes has received "surprisingly little scientific scrutiny" — all those anti-perspirant ads notwithstanding. Apparently, what's long been known is that fitter people, male and female, sweat more than unfit people; but the new study gets at the specific differences between men and women. Here's the short take:

  • Fit men sweat the most. They start sweating early, and dump buckets. This allows them to maintain high levels of exertion without overheating. 
  • Fit women activate just as many sweat glands as fit men, BUT they generate less sweat from each gland.
  • Unfit men are (seemingly) of no interest. Ha ha ha!
  • Unfit WOMEN, however, "by a wide margin, perspired the least." Thus, they "became physiologically hotter — their core temperatures rising notably — before they began to sweat at full capacity." 

What's it all mean, and why did evolution leave the ladies drier and hotter? “Prehistoric men followed the herds, whatever the temperature, while the women, cleverly, sought out the shade," says one of expert to The Times. “It’s not a bad survival strategy."

Sweaty! (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mangpages/4006422995/">mangpages</a>.)
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ming said "

From the original crazy style conjecture spring and summer ..." More comments...

Reviews

BodyMedia, Me and the Surprisingly Friendly Calorie Matrix

I am a calorie-tracking god. Physical exertion and side dishes alike reveal themselves to me in a silent stream of numbers. Think Neo in the Matrix. What is the source of my power? The nice people at BodyMedia sent me a magical arm band device that tracks everything but my shoe size: my caloric output, steps taken, sleep efficiency, and activity level. Move over Fitbit. 

I’ve been wearing this jobby for about a month, and I’m addicted. Yes, people ask me if there is something wrong with me. They see the monitor and assume I have an ailment. It has been suggested that I wear it on my ankle, but then I’m pretty sure people will assume I’m Lindsay Lohan. 

Once a day I reluctantly take the armband off and plug it into my computer where the data it loads my data onto the BodyMedia website. (The site also allows you to log food intake, so you can balance your calorie budget.) Full disclosure, I have yet to reach the 2,685 caloric output goal the system sets for me, but I have been amazed by how many calories I burn by just existing. Who knew? In fact, the most striking feature of the whole techno getup is that it has made me MORE mellow about my exercise and food, and not turned me into a raving calorie-counting stress case. Based on the data, (accurate to 90%), I can eat a whole lot more and still be within a "losing zone." Love that. Other important things I have learned: 

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Online & Video

Wake Up Call

On Yes

I imagine that yes is the only living thing.

~ e. e. cummings

Sky Swing (Via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ficken/3566179634">bfick</a>.)



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