We are reaching "Calypso Cascades"... and here is a video...(which despite the thumbnail, is right-side up!):
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Continuing On...
Nearly a week ago I mentioned that I was doing a virtual "hike" to Ouzel Falls at walker Tracker, and suggested that you join me. (You still can! Click on the link "Join Me on Walker Tracker" in the sidebar. Then after you have joined, go to "competitions", and join the Rocky Mountain 4 competition... Its full of photos!)
We are reaching "Calypso Cascades"... and here is a video...(which despite the thumbnail, is right-side up!):
We are reaching "Calypso Cascades"... and here is a video...(which despite the thumbnail, is right-side up!):
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Heart rate monitor
Finally I decided to buy a simple heart rate monitor, to really check if I am getting aerobic exercise. It showed what I suspected: only my "faster" aerobic walking is probably aerobic. I hope that the monitor will encourage me to keep my pace up....
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
“Chaverim”
Today is Israel ’s Remembrance Day, when we remember those
brave men and women who gave their lives for the sake of the right of Israel to live in their land, as
well as the numerous victims of terror. Tonight is the start of the
Independence Day celebrations.
Unfortunately, all
too often, in years past, these days have been marred by misunderstandings,
especially between the Chareidi
(ultra-orthodox)and the chiloni (non-religious) sectors.
So I decided to
make a short clip with pictures (mostly from Israel), and many from my family
album, where we see that the Orthodox, chareidi, and chiloni
public can get along, care for each other, . Whether we are Ashkenazi,
sephardi, modern, Litvish, Chassidic, etc,(various sections of Am
Israel) we are one people. Also we need to include those with disabilities.
And for my
non-Jewish special-needs readers, I will say that the message of getting along
with those who disagree with you (you like inclusion, an acquaintance prefers
all special-ed) is just as pertinent. And by the way, I included several
pictures of Ricki in the clip; all are preceded by a heart-shaped transition
effect.
Note: The “music”
for the clip is an A cappella (all-vocal) selection from a disc (of A.K.A/ pella ) which I purchased.
Please do not copy the music track.
(Note : Those women whose eyes were blacked out are women who probably would not want to be featured on the "net")
(Note : Those women whose eyes were blacked out are women who probably would not want to be featured on the "net")
Monday, April 23, 2012
Walker Tracker- Hike to Ouzel Falls!
I am currently "sponsering" a walk there - a virtual hike- to Ouzel Falls (in the Rocky Mountains). Join me! (Sign up at Walker Tracker (it is free), and then join the "Rocky Mountain Hike #4" competition.
Here is a video of COPELAND Falls (which is on the way to Ouzel)
No Shortcuts!
Why am I sitting
down in the middle of the morning to write this blog post, when I really have
better things to do?
Well, I am one of
those persons that our sages call “truth zealots” – people who have trouble
seeing lies and shutting up about it. That’s one factor.
The second factor
is that due to religious restrictions (lasting about a month) on listening to
instrumental music, I have been listening to a (religious) radio station while
working, rather than my MP3 music collection. And, invariably I am subjected to
their ads. And the problem is that whenever the ads play, my blood boils, until
finally I gave up and say now to write my reaction….
So what has me up
at arms? There are SO many things wrong in the world, but the blatant lies of a
weight-loss pill company has me boiling.
“Lose weight! Eat
all you want! Abandon your unnecessary diets! Lose up to 8 kilos a month! Join
the thousands who have lost (with our product)”
Is there anyone who
believes this %^>*$##*$$& rubbish
???
The only way to
lose weight in a healthy way, long term, is through SENSIBLE diet and exercise.
And 8 kilos a month is not plausible. True, you can easily lose 2 kilos the
first week of a diet, but it won’t continue that way.
Losing weight
sensibly means figuring out what is triggering your overeating, and finding
other (non-food) means to achieve those things.
And if anyone out
there is hoping that maybe, just maybe, this %^>*$##*$$& works, the proof that it doesn’t is in
their own advertising.
If YOU had lost
weight successfully with a miracle product, wouldn’t you tell your overweight
friends? Of course you would. So IF they had “thousands” of successful weight-loss
clients, believe me, they WOULDN’T have to pay for prime-time advertizing…….
Sorry. There are no
shortcuts. But believe me, this “long and winding road” to true weight loss is
doable, enjoyable, and FUN!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
True Confessions and the Price of Apple Pie
The most significant
thing about my last two posts is what I did NOT write: I gained three kilos
over Passover. And while I know from experience that I can loose it quickly, a
part of me deep inside is very fearful of backsliding. It would be SO easy to
stop being careful, basking in my new thinner wardrobe, the daily compliments I
receive… and slowly put unneeded pounds back on.
Most of this last
week I was good—kept my diet faithfully, despite a lot of hunger. But then can
the weekend. And I definitely overate today.
At the onset of Passover we had received (from
an organization that we know) three small containers of cooking apples (in
addition to a plentiful amount of onions and potatoes). The onions and potatoes
were used up, but Thursday morning had me glancing at three boxes of apples,
and wondering what to do with them. The easiest way to use them up was obvious
to me…..use them to make an apple pie. But I was hesitant to do so, because my
mother’s apple pie recipe makes a confection that is hard to resist. In the
end, I did make the pie, determined to have no more than two pieces of it. Well,
the two pieces became four. As, in my heart of heart, I suspected they would.
That is the
price of baking an apple pie.
Next time I bake a
pie, I need to honestly access that price.
OK. Now is the time
to go forward, get back on track 100%. And get under 80 kilos again….
I know I've been AWOL
Sorry for being so uncommunicative. Passover was a diet disaster- ate way too much , mostly from lack of sleep. I could tell what was causing me to overeat, but had little self control.
Now that the holiday is over, I am pretty much back on track, and I am working to try and get into a routine that includes a half-way normal amount of shut-eye....
Ricki is still struggling to get back into her get-up-and-get-going early morning wake up, and has missed her ride to school every day since school restarted on Monday. Luckily her sister was able to take her by car most of them. Finally tonight I was able to get her to bed at an early hour, so I hope that she will get up on time tomorrow.
I am still not back up to my usual "walking" levels. Post Passover is also a busy time, and then when that was winding down, I managed to pull my back. (Lugging a heavy microwave back to the kitchen can do that to you......) However, I had noted to myself that this is the first time that I have had back trouble since after losing my first twenty kilos......
This afternoon I curled up with a good book and took a "day off" from just about everything. Tomorrow I hope to get back to my 10,000 daily steps (12K would be even better...).
Now that the holiday is over, I am pretty much back on track, and I am working to try and get into a routine that includes a half-way normal amount of shut-eye....
Ricki is still struggling to get back into her get-up-and-get-going early morning wake up, and has missed her ride to school every day since school restarted on Monday. Luckily her sister was able to take her by car most of them. Finally tonight I was able to get her to bed at an early hour, so I hope that she will get up on time tomorrow.
I am still not back up to my usual "walking" levels. Post Passover is also a busy time, and then when that was winding down, I managed to pull my back. (Lugging a heavy microwave back to the kitchen can do that to you......) However, I had noted to myself that this is the first time that I have had back trouble since after losing my first twenty kilos......
This afternoon I curled up with a good book and took a "day off" from just about everything. Tomorrow I hope to get back to my 10,000 daily steps (12K would be even better...).
Sunday, April 15, 2012
End of the Passover Holidays….
Thursday evening
and Friday day were the last 24 hours of the Passover holiday. But since they
were followed by Saturday, for all practical purposes the holiday (and leaven-less
eating) continued through and until Saturday evening. (And in actuality, bread
will be TABOO in my house until I get my Passover dishes stored away.)
This is the first
year that I did not get my dishes stored away the same evening that the holiday
ended, and left part of the big job of getting them away for the following
morning….and it is all due to our “adventures” from the end of the week.
What adventures?
Well, after staying
up most of Wednesday evening preparing for my coming guests, I dove into bed
Thursday night, ready to get some decent sleep before continuing cooking and
serving the noontime holiday meal on Friday. (After which I would need to
finish my cooking for the upcoming Sabbath….)
Suddenly at about
9:30 am, the lights went out. I opened my front door, and seeing that the
lights were off there, I assumed that it was a general power outage that would
probably be fixed soon. [I will not go into the details of electricity and
Jewish holiday/shabbas (Sabbath) observance, but in general (unless it is a
life-threatening situation), we do not fiddle with our electric
appliances/lights on the holidays, but use them as they were set up before the
holiday or Sabbath starts.] After a while I realized that it was an outage
affecting only OUR building, and the reality set in: I was looking at the
certainty of the next 36 hours being without electric power: no lights, and
more importantly, no fridge!
But of course I
have great neighbors, and whoever I asked gladly took some of my freezer/fridge
items in for the weekend. I also changed my menus, making things simpler (ie,
flexibility). In the middle I paused to give myself a lecture: “Rickismom, you are NOT going to worry, nor
fret, you will do what you need to, not worrying about the small amount of food
that will spoil, etc…..” Of course this is easier to do than say, but
I managed in general to take things in stride.
I also realized
that without electric lights even on Saturday evening, until the electric
company would come fix the problem, there was NO way I would finish getting the
dishes away. And I decided that it wasn’t so bad, that there is no need to rush….
[Image: hand-made matzah--ie, unleavened bread:]
Of course Friday
evening with not enough candle light to read with, I went to bed on time. And
woke up feeling GREAT! And now that Passover is finished I can stop gorging on
junk. [It is VERY hard to diet on Passover, because besides having fattening
holiday meals, matzah (at MORE calories than bread) just doesn’t fill you up
like 2 slices of bread. And in addition there are also many good diet foods not
available for the holidays.]
And I will forgive myself the relapse, as long as
I :
1)get back on track RIGHT away
2)start getting enough sleep
Monday, April 2, 2012
A Reminder From Heaven (or at Least the Heavens)
Yesterday was a blustery type of day. It was supposed to be my last heavy-cleaning day before Passover (which starts Friday evening). I was planning to clean my living room as well as my fridge. That is a lot to do in one day, and I hoped to get an early start. Ricki left at 8 am for school, and I decided to dash next door to her doctor, to get a needed renewal of one of Ricki’s prescription medicines. Then I could buy the medicine early Monday, when I would go for my weekly weighing at the pharmacy. I also wanted to pop over to the bank and pull a bit of money from the ATM machine.
The doctor’s office was empty of patients (as it usually is on Sunday mornings), and so within minutes I had the prescription.
Next stop was the bank. The ATM machine was out of money (as it usually is, and not just on Sunday mornings…), so rather than walk all over town looking for a working computer, I opted for a live teller. I entered the bank and was relieved to see only two people ahead of me. But their business took quite a while. Finally after about twenty minutes, it was my turn, and as I opened the identity card I was holding (having taken it from my purse), I realized that it was Ricki’s. So I started fishing for mine. When I did not find it momentarily, I stood aside and let the next in line take my place. And I then went deep sea diving into the trenches of my purse, until I finally had to admit that my identity card was NOT there. Now not having an identity card is a big no-no in Israel, First of all, you can’t pull cash funds from the bank without one. And I couldn’t get Ricki’s CONCERTA without one (as it is a potentially abusable drug). So I went home and started calling stores where I might have left it during one of my recent purchases….to no avail.
Finally I gave up, and decided to go order a replacement one, consoling myself that I needed a new one anyway since my ID picture contained therein is 80 kilos over my current weight. So I walked to the necessary office, getting needed photographs on the way, and waited nearly an hour in line. Finally at 11:30 I left with a new identity card in hand, but at least 3 hours behind in my schedule for the day. I was a bit peeved and anxious, knowing full well that it would be neigh-well impossible to finish the day’s work. Passing a store, I went in and bought some halvah. Walking home I was having a mental battle: treat myself (poor, poor me…) to halvah, or stick to my diet. And the halvah side won. I was about to take some, when suddenly I was reminded from heaven (or the heavens) that my actions were not correct: a bird flying above unloaded a tremendous amount of bird shit all over me. I instantly lost all appetite, and had to hurry home to change…. Now I am saving the halvah as a SMALL treat for a day that I REALLY stick 100% to my eating plan……
Next stop was the bank. The ATM machine was out of money (as it usually is, and not just on Sunday mornings…), so rather than walk all over town looking for a working computer, I opted for a live teller. I entered the bank and was relieved to see only two people ahead of me. But their business took quite a while. Finally after about twenty minutes, it was my turn, and as I opened the identity card I was holding (having taken it from my purse), I realized that it was Ricki’s. So I started fishing for mine. When I did not find it momentarily, I stood aside and let the next in line take my place. And I then went deep sea diving into the trenches of my purse, until I finally had to admit that my identity card was NOT there. Now not having an identity card is a big no-no in Israel, First of all, you can’t pull cash funds from the bank without one. And I couldn’t get Ricki’s CONCERTA without one (as it is a potentially abusable drug). So I went home and started calling stores where I might have left it during one of my recent purchases….to no avail.
Finally I gave up, and decided to go order a replacement one, consoling myself that I needed a new one anyway since my ID picture contained therein is 80 kilos over my current weight. So I walked to the necessary office, getting needed photographs on the way, and waited nearly an hour in line. Finally at 11:30 I left with a new identity card in hand, but at least 3 hours behind in my schedule for the day. I was a bit peeved and anxious, knowing full well that it would be neigh-well impossible to finish the day’s work. Passing a store, I went in and bought some halvah. Walking home I was having a mental battle: treat myself (poor, poor me…) to halvah, or stick to my diet. And the halvah side won. I was about to take some, when suddenly I was reminded from heaven (or the heavens) that my actions were not correct: a bird flying above unloaded a tremendous amount of bird shit all over me. I instantly lost all appetite, and had to hurry home to change…. Now I am saving the halvah as a SMALL treat for a day that I REALLY stick 100% to my eating plan……
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