Archive for July, 2009
Posted by terrepruitt on July 30, 2009
I love these. At first I was disappointed because you can’t actually see the colors, but I looked at them again, and, I like them.
Look, you can see the tiny feet.
He’s not landing because he keeps getting chased off.
Their little feet are so cute!
I always think that we are so lucky because in San Jose, California, we get to see them for a long period during the year. And we have about eight. My friend just posted on FaceBook that she has too many to count. She has to fill her feeders twice a day. We have six feeders and we don’t fill them that much. When it is hot, it works out to maybe twice a week, but when it is cooler they don’t drink at much.
Posted in Birds | Tagged: Facebook Hummingbirds, Hummingbird Silhouettes, Hummingbirds, Nia, Nia San Jose, San Jose Hummingbirds, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, Silhouettes | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 28, 2009
I love coffee. I am not a connoisseur, but I love it. In the August 2009 copy of Self they touted that coffee has some amazing benefits.
The article, well, it is not so much an article as a few pages filled with pictures and facts, has one statement that says that if you want the healthiest coffee you should stick to the home brewed kind because the paper filters catch coffee compounds that can raise cholesterol.
Here are some highlights from that article. The information suggests that coffee MAY:
- assist in the prevention of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
- help your teeth with its “antibacterial and antiadhesive powers”
- reduce the risk of oral cancer by half
- help in limited cancer cell growth and DNA damage
- reduce the risk of breast cancer (in premenopausal women that drink 4 cups of regular coffee a day)
- help prevent gallstones
- reduce risk of nonmelanoma
- reduce chances of diabetes for people who drink 3 to 4 cups of regular or decaf
Information also states that drinking from 300 mg (3 cups of home brew) to 500 mg (16 oz Starbucks Pike Place Roast) in an hour could possibly make you panicky, increase stress hormones, and raise blood pressure.
Way surprising to me, it says that a shot of espresso “has less caffeine than a cup of drip does. Plus, one downside of espresso is that it may raise cholesterol.”
It also suggests to eat your cereal and dairy later, after your coffee because coffee might block the absorption of iron from fortified grains and could lower calcium uptake.
The pages reveal, along with a lot of other publications I’ve been seeing recently, that coffee helps you get through your workout. Not only does it give you a zing, it seems to block your brain from knowing your muscles are tired.
Those are just some highlights that somewhat focus on the health benefits.
Even though I teach my morning Nia classes in Willow Glen not too far from where I live, so I don’t have to get up super early, I still think I have more energy in the morning when I drink coffee. I don’t have any before I teach my evening class in San Jose, nor my late afternoon one in Los Gatos. But I feel like I need that extra “wake-up” in the morning. Do you drink coffee before your workout?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Alzheimer's, breast cancer, cholesterol, Coffee, health benefits, Los Gatos Nia, Los Gatos Workouts, Muscles, Nia Classes, Nia San Jose, Parkinsons’s, San Jose Starbucks, San Jose workouts, Self Magazine, Starbucks, Willow Glen Nia, Willow Glen workouts, workout classes | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 25, 2009
I am actually interested in hearing what you think, because I know what annoys me. So let me know what you think. Add comments to what I have or come up with your own.
It’s annoying when people don’t use:
Car blinkers
Car ashtrays
Car gas pedals
Door mats
Manners
Headsets (hands free devices) for cell phones while driving (yeah, in California it is illegal to hold your phone)
Headsets for office phones (we all do not need to hear your conversation even if it is a “business” conversation)
Office doors (see the above)
Crook of your arm when sneezing or coughing (it is better to cough/sneeze into the crook of your arm as opposed to your hand that touches things)
Bathroom sinks (they’re for washing your hands after you use the restroom before you go back to work. Oh yeah, I’ve seen it happen.)
Ok, I honestly just started out with two, but then I thought that looked kind of measly and I let my brain wander. Let’s see how this one works out. What about you? What bugs you when they are not used properly?
Yeah, “do you know the way to San Jose?” that is what pops into my head, because my blog has strayed . . . . oh well, thanks for putting up with it!
Posted in Entertainment, Misc | Tagged: annoy, california, cell phone, manners, Nia, Nia workout, San Jose Workout, workout | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 23, 2009
I learn new stuff all the time. Some of it is useful and some of it is not. Some of it is fascinating and some of it is not. Some of it is blog-worthy and some of it is not, but I might blog about it anyway.
I was in Santa Clara at a party and I recently met a Miniature Pinscher. Did you know that Min Pins are NOT miniature Doberman Pinschers? I had always thought they were miniature Doberman Pinschers, but they are not. They are actually just a small breed of dog. Miniature Pinschers have reportedly been around longer than the Doberman Pinchers.
“Pinscher” is a “type” of dog, like terrier is a type of dog. This designation refers to the way the dogs behave. There are Doberman Pinschers, German Pinschers, Austraian Pinschers, and another small terrier, the Affenpinscher. According to all that I have seen the Pinshers were developed to catch rats on farms, or fight or guard.
The word Pinscher does not translate from German into terrier, it is actually pincher or biter or some places say “cropped”.
But from what I am reading, the way I am understanding it, the breed is somewhat classified as a terrier due to its high energy level. So even though it is small it is not considered a toy breed, which I guess can be mellow. Min Pins (oh yeah they are sometimes called Min Pins) are quite hyper and need a lot of exercise. Just walking doesn’t sound like that will do for these high energy dogs, they need a lot of play to get there energy worked out.
Also from what I can tell the different Dog clubs that decide what dog is what and what dog gets papers, some say this dog is from a Dachshund with an Italian Greyhound and some say that the German Pinscher was added in with those other two to create the Miniature Pinscher. So who knows. All they seem to agree upon is that it is NOT a miniature Doberman Pinscher. This fact is what made me look into this whole thing in the first place. And there you have it.
Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: Doberman Pinscher, German Pinschers, Min Pin, Miniature Pinsher, Santa Clara workout, terrier, workedout | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 21, 2009
Do you know how much fiber is ideal? Do you know how much fiber the average American eats?
First of all let me tell you a little “un-detailed” story. I visited a friend on the outskirts of San Jose one day and she had a snack sitting on her counter. She asked me to try it and she said if I liked it I could have it because she didn’t really like them and they “didn’t agree” with her partner. Well, I liked them, and so she let me have them. When I got home, I had to laugh. I was looking at the Nutrition information on the package and one serving works out to be almost as much fiber as the average American gets per day. So it dawned on me that maybe it “didn’t agree” with her partner because of that.
Ideally we should be eating about 35 to 50 grams of fiber a day. The average American eats less than 1/3 of that—yes, about 10 grams a day.
Now, as a refresher, fiber is the plant material that is not digested by humans. Our digestive enzymes just can’t cut it. It can be found in whole grain, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and beans.
So, I’ll leave you with this suggestion, try to add a little bit more fiber in your daily intake. Do not add a lot of fiber all at once. But do try a little bit a day. What could you add to your diet today that would add fiber to it?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Average American, beans, digestive enzymes, fiber, Fiber intake of average American, fruit, grams of fiber, nuts, San Jose work out, San Jose Workout, Vegetables | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 18, 2009
You hear it, you know it, we need to be eating WHOLE grain. Ok, so, what does that mean? That means that “wheat flour”, “enriched wheat flour”, “multi-grain”, “100% wheat”, and anything other than WHOLE is not whole grain.
The whole grain is the bran; the outside of the grain where the fiber is, the endosperm; which is the starchy middle part of the grain, and the germ; the little “seed” part in the middle where the vitamins, minerals and some fat are.
I think it is easy to think of a whole “grain” of corn than wheat because most of us have seen a whole kernel of corn, but not all of us have seen wheat. So think of a kernel of corn (ya have to think of one because my attempts of taking pictures of them did not result in something “postable”), you have the outside which is the bright yellow, then the inside which is kind of whitish and liquid starchy, then you have that little bright yellow “seed”. That is the whole grain. So corn—including popcorn is a whole grain.
Items made with “wheat flour” are not. Even though it is wheat it not a whole grain, is has to say “whole” grain wheat flour or “whole” wheat flour. Multi-grain CAN be whole grain, but it would have to say whole grain. Otherwise it could be a bunch of grains that aren’t whole so you are not getting the benefits of the entire grain.
My bread, has whole grain flour (and bulgur wheat, which the MyPyramid.gov shows as a whole grain, but wiki says traditionally it is “de-branned”) as you can see:
My cereal has whole grain.
My crackers do not have whole grain, it just says wheat flour, which means they are made from some form of wheat as opposed to corn or rice . . . but it does not say “whole” so it is not whole wheat.
I think that products can be misleading, so if you are interested in getting whole grain read the list of ingredients not just the package that might say, “100% Wheat” or “10 Grain”. The ingredients has to list the flour used as whole grain.
Posted in Food | Tagged: bran, endosperm, fiber, wheat, Whole grain, Whole grain products | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 16, 2009
Are you bold enough? Are you secure enough? Do you have it in you? Can you admit to what you THOUGHT the lyrics were?
Well, here are a few I can share—whether they were from me or not, I won’t tell—hey, maybe I won’t tell. Let’s make this post twofold.
1–share with me some lyrics you had wrong (or that a friend of yours had wrong or that someone you know of had wrong.)
2–guess what songs these are:
A–In the Garden of Eden
B–Our Love Is Japanese
C–Painted Glove (oh, c’mon, that one is way easy)
Its too hot here in San Jose, California. I know this will work out, right? Care to play?
Posted in Entertainment, Misc | Tagged: Garden of Eden, love, Love is Japanese, Lyrics, Nia play, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Painted Glove, San Jose, San Jose Workout | 32 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 14, 2009
As you might agree our portion sizes contribute to the obesity epidemic in America.
In restaurants a meal is usually more than one serving of each item. I know that we recently went to Morton’s in downtown San Jose and my steak worked out to be probably about a serving and three quarters.
If we started eating the proper serving sizes I am convinced our obesity rates would go down.
In case you are familiar or you want a reminder:
1 gram = about a paper clip or a dime
4 g is a tsp (4 paper clips or 4 dimes)
| One serving of: |
Is about: |
| Meat |
a deck of playing cards |
| Cheese |
the equivalent of four dices |
| Salad greens |
the size of a softball |
| Baked potato |
the size of a computer mouse |
| Fruit |
the size of a tennis ball |
| Bread |
the size of an audio cassette
(but do people know what THAT is?) |
Also remember to check the serving size on the package. If you fill a bowl with cereal, just because that is one “bowl” doesn’t mean that is one “serving”. The bowl could hold more than one serving. Do you have a favorite food that you tend to eat more of than the serving size? C’mon you can tell me, what is it?
Posted in Food | Tagged: baked potato, Cheese, meat, Morton's San Jose, obesity, obesity epidemic, San Jose work out, Serving size, Workout San Jose | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 11, 2009
According to Wiki a Kata “is a Japanese word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs.”
Even though we do not do it solo or in pairs, Nia™ has adopted that word to describe the movements we do to a song. Nia classes are similar to other group exercises in that the teacher leads the group through moves.
Nia uses music and Katas strung together to form a routine.
The average seems to be between seven and ten katas to a routine. Since one of the goals in Nia is to find health through movement, we move in all different ways to the music. Sometimes the katas can be similar and sometimes they can be completely different. One might have you swirling in place or moving around the room. We often use the face of a clock as a pattern for our feet. We will, as an example, step to 12:00, then 6:00 and then maybe out to 1:00, 2:00, or 3:00. We might cross our right over to the left and step at 11:00 and/or our left over our right and step to 1:00. All the while moving our arms, of course.
The most recent kata I learned is full of kicks, chops, blocks, shimmys, and rumbles. It has front kicks, back kicks and side kicks. It has downward chops and upward chops. It has upward blocks, downward blocks, and outward blocks. It is somewhat energizing because you can really put some “oomph” into your blocks—really contracting the muscles, then when you do the shimmy it is a nice relaxing release.
Nia is a full body workout. The katas that are put together to form a routine that gets the whole body moving. Would you like to come see how its done?
Posted in Nia | Tagged: kata, kicks, Nia, Nia class, Nia workout, workout | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 9, 2009
It is funny to me because when we first moved to San Jose, this rose bush had JUST orange roses. Bright orange. Now some come in pink. The ones that do come in orange turn pink.
All of our rose bushes are multi-colored now. Funny how it worked out that way.
I still think they are awesome.
I wish you would smell them.
Posted in Flowers | Tagged: Roses, San Jose, San Jose Roses, San Jose Workout, work out | 8 Comments »
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