Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

  • I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

    ALL CLASSES ARE ON ZOOM AT 10:00 AM PDT

    Tuesday Gentle Yoga 

    Wednesday Nia

    Thursday Stretch

    Please see my website for details!

    I am also available for private Nia / yoga / Personal Training all virtual, of course!

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • My Bloggey Past

  • ******

    Chose a month above to visit archives, or click below to visit a page.

Archive for October, 2009

« Previous Entries

Yup, She’s Purple And Her Sister Is Pink

Posted by terrepruitt on October 31, 2009

I teach my Nia classes in a studio in San Jose that is next to a pet store.  The groomer that works there usually gets there before the shop is open so she sits outside in front waiting.  Often she has a puppy or a dog that she has rescued and is trying to adopt out.  She seems to be able to rescue them and it works out that she can find someone to adopt them pretty quick.

This time she had her own animals.  I heard them yelping and realized they were puppies so I peeked out.  Imagine my surprise when I saw a purple puppy with black patches.  Her sister was black and pink.  They were jumping and yelping and vying for attention.  They were obviously cute little girls, but with their bright colors it made them even more adorable.

.

Keep in mind these animals are puppies and you know how puppies are.  It was a miracle that they were still long enough to get a shot, but having them be in a particular spot for correct lighting was not possible.  In fact I don’t think the little one was still at all.  I did not retouch the puppies, but I did blur some of the background.

.

The sun was really bright when it was shining on the purple puppy.  The sun almost washed out the purple.  It definitely made her color seem less bright.

.

But she was pretty purple.  And her sister had a pink muzzle, chest, and pink feet.

It was really cute.  They were really cute.  Full of energy.

Since it is Halloween, I thought it would be cute to post pictures of Purple and Pink puppies!

Posted in Entertainment, Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

TechKaraoke SV and Silicon Valley Tweet-Up Joined Forces

Posted by terrepruitt on October 29, 2009

On Wednesday, October 28, 2009, TechKaraoke SV and Silicon Valley Tweet-Up joined forces and held one major party at Rosie McCann’s in Santana Row near the heart San Jose. There was talking, dancing, drinking, eating, singing, laughing, networking, and all of it going on at a very high decibel.

Some great prizes were raffled off:

– a bluetooth headset (a Plantronics Discovery 975)
– a portable storage drive from Seagate
– a cookie basket filled with Halloween cookies from Cookies By Design
– Archos/Viliv Mobile Internet Device (MID) powered by the Intel Atom Processor

There was so much excitement about these prizes that I barely heard the numbers being called and I didn’t hear who won anY of the fabulous prizes. This even was also raising money for Anissa Lopez Foundation / George Mark Children’s House.

Michael Brito, the founder of Silicon Valley Tweetup, announced he was leaving Intel for Edelman Digital.

I met several people and connected with some people I have had the privilege of meeting before. I love tweetups because it shows that the internet’s social media network is really a social network. People coming together in real life after having met and communicated via the internet is really an amazing thing. This was the first SV Tweetup that I was able to attend because I didn’t have a class.  I think I have missed the ones in the past because I was teaching.  I knew I had been missing out, but now I truly understand what I was missing. I am hoping that it will workout that I am available for the next one because I really enjoyed myself at this one.  Also, I believe I heard Michael announce it will be a book signing for Shel Israel, but then again, it was so loud I could have heard wrong. You will have to stay tuned to see . . . .

There were a lot of great costumes there, but this was my favorite!

Posted in Entertainment | Tagged: , , , , | 5 Comments »

Turbo Jam

Posted by terrepruitt on October 27, 2009

I am not aware of how many DVDs there are in the Turbo Jam Library. I have the Five Workout Series, Cardio Party Mix 2, Cardio Party Mix 3, Fat Blaster, and Punch, Kick & Jam.

In this post I am going to give you a breakdown of the workout times for the “Learn & Burn” and the “20 Minute” (Workout).  First let me say that I bought my DVDs a few years ago.  Then, not long after I bought mine, a co-worker bought hers and while I think the workouts are the same hers were arranged differently. She had one DVD where I had two.

1) Learn & Burn

The DVD cover states the “Learn & Burn” portion of the DVD is “approx. 25 min.” It states that in the burn portion you will get a 15 minute workout. So that would be 10 minutes of her explaining the “Elite Eleven”. My computer timer shows the “Burn” portion starting at 12 minutes.

Now learning the moves might not be a cardio workout, but it would be a short toning workout if you are actually participating as Chalene Johnson suggests. Then when you get to the “burn” part the timer on the bottom* (something I LOVE about the Turbo DVDs) shows that there is 16 minutes and 54 seconds (16:54) to the “burn” portion.

There is about 4:40 minutes worth of warm-up.

Then there is 6:00 minutes worth of “Knees and Punches”.

Then there is about 4:50 minutes of “Kicks”.

Lastly there is about 40 seconds of cool down.

This is a great little start to learning Turbo Jam, I think. I think that it is one of those workouts that you can do when you want to move, but don’t want to go all out. And you can do it twice to make it about 30 minutes of movement.

2) 20 Minute Workout

Timer shows 19:18, but you start the workout at about 18:50.

You get about 3:25 of warm-up.

About 3:30 of “Upper Cuts & Punches”.

Then 4:00 of “Crosses and Kicks”.

Then you have your “Turbo” which is the anaerobic portion of the DVD. She says it is 1:30, but the timer shows 1:30 and the first 15 seconds is jumping rope while she talks. (About 1:15 of “Turbo”)

After the anaerobic portion there is a 25 second break. So remember that when you want to quit the Turbo portion, just power through it and then you will have a water break after. During the break keep moving, but you made it through the anaerobic part and the rest is a piece of cake.

The next part is 3:55 of “Recovery Dance Party”. Which is Turbo twists, jabs, crosses, knee lifts, punches and kicks.

Then the timer says 1:58 “Finesse / Cool Down”.

I have to say that watching this to get the break down as I type on my computer makes me want to get up and do it. I actually haven’t looked at this DVD for a long time. I seem to gravitate toward Cardio Party Mix 2. But in all of the ones I have, Chalene makes me laugh every time.

Do you have any Turbo Jam DVDs?  If so, which ones?  What is your favorite?

*The DVDs show a timer in the form of a “grow bar” at the bottom of the screen.  It shows you the full time as a count down.  As the video progresses through each section it indicates the time of each section.

P.S. Regarding the photos: It is really difficult to take a photo of a DVD cover because of the plastic.  Without a flash it is blurry, with a flash you get the bright flash spot.  So, these photos are not great, they’re just to let you know what the cover looks like.  🙂

_____________________________________________________________________________
Beachbody is the same company that puts out the P90X workout.

Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Collage Video

Posted by terrepruitt on October 24, 2009

There is no substitute for going to an exercise class.  The energy and the camaraderie you get from BEING IN a class is uncomparable, but sometimes class schedules don’t mix with yours or you want to just get a quick workout in.

Like me recently, my husband and I were going to go see a play at the last minute at a little theater in downtown San Jose, but before we went I wanted to do a workout.  I pulled out a few of my videos to see the “total workout time” and did a few quick calculations.  I decided on Turbo Jam Cardio Party two.  But it got me thinking about how I love Collage Video because they do a great job of breaking down the “total workout time” on a DVD.

Do you know what I am talking about?  Has something like the following happened to you?  You want an Aerobic workout DVD  because you want to get your cardio done at home, you buy a DVD and that states it is a 60 minute workout. You put it in your machine and what it actuually turns out to be is 15 minutes of warm up and 15 minutes of cool down leaving you really with only 30 minutes of an aerobic workout.  When you were expecting 60 minutes or at least 50 minutes and you only get 30, it doesn’t make for a satisfying purchase (or workout).

Unfortunately you can’t get Turbo Jam from Collage Video so you can’t see a breakdown of workout cycles of those DVDs, but Collage Video has hundreds of other DVDs.  One way you can pick the DVD is by workout type: Aerobics, Muscle Toning, Both (Aerobics & Toning), Stretch/Yoga/Tai Chi, Pilates, Interval training, Dance, Kickboxing, Latin & Salsa, Bootcamp.

Collage, then gives a detailed breakdown of the total workout time, just as I had mentioned before.  Which can be really helpful, when planning your workouts.  If you want to get a combo DVD with Aerobics and toning it is good to know how much you will get of each.  Here is an example.

The above shows you will get 4 minutes of warm-up, 37 minutes of floor aerobics, 11 minutes of standing toning, 6 minutes of toning, and 4 minutes of stretching.  This allows you to plan both your purchases and your workouts better.  You can see exactly how much time you will be spending on each cycle.  I think that is very important.

If you are going to be able to make it to your favorite class, do you have a favorite workout DVD that you do instead?

Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Say: “I Am Wonderful”

Posted by terrepruitt on October 22, 2009

Do you take advantage of the free song that they offer on iTunes. It is a weekly song, but I am not sure when they post it, if it is Monday or Sunday. I don’t always remember to get it, do you? I just now set my calendar to remind me.

I actually haven’t remember that often, I have less than 40 songs, but of those 40 I have six that I absolutely love and listen to over and over. There are more out of the 40 that I like but there are 6 that I think are worth mentioning. And they range across the board and I like them for various reasons. Here they are in no particular order:

Song:                           Artist:

Neo Violence                 The Tough Alliance

Mr. Hurricane                Beast

Already Home               Ha-Ash

Cheater, Cheater          Joey & Rory

The Stoop                    Little Jackie

Wonderful                    Gary Go

I actually bought the entire Beast CD. It is very moving, I mean, for me, it makes me get up and dance. But not like bounce on your toes disco dance, more like pound-the-ground-get-up-get-down tribal dance or something.

I throw Neo Violence into my Nia routines because it has a very dicernible beat. Very catchy tune. Easy to dance, exercise, and workout too. (So is music from the Beast, but . . . the words might be a bit distracting in a Nia class.)

And the latest is Wonderful by Gary Go, kind of sounds like a lot artists out there now, but I love the words. “Say: ‘I am wonderful.’ You are a miracle.” “Don’t Stop to let it pass you by you gotta look yourself in the eye and say, I am wonderful!” “We are all miracles . . . .we are incredible.” Oh, I just love that!

So, what great find have you downloaded for free off of  iTunes? Any you love? Any you would like to tell us about?

Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Catch the Wave

Posted by terrepruitt on October 20, 2009

Everyone can pretty much go out there and look at all the videos that are posted regarding the Google Wave, but since I have a previous post regarding it, I thought I would add some additional information on my blog that I have since learned.  Plus I will link to some of the videos that I have seen.

The first video created by EpipheoStudios.com is a great little explanation of what the wave is.  The video is cute.  It also sounds like a plea to get an invitation.  (Which after watching the Google Wave Overview, I can’t really blame him for begging.)

The next video is from Google and it is almost 8 minutes, but if you watch it, it will have you going, “WHOOOOOAAAAA!”

Here I’ve typed up a summary in case you don’t want to watch the video, but I included a time stamp for each point in case you want to zap to it to see what it is about.

E-mail is 40 years old.  Google is trying to “update it”.  An e-mail sent is somewhat like a letter.  If you send an e-mail to five people there are five copies of the “letter”.  But a wave is a “hosted conversation”.  There is only one copy and it is in one place.  So when people comment on it the comments are stored on one wave and there are not multiple copies floating about. (Time stamp 0:30 of the Google video)

One use could be:  You can open a wave to plan a party (Time stamp 0:58).  Adding your contacts to the wave allows people to see and comment.  You can add a gadget to use it as an invite to a party (Time stamp 1:47) and your invitees can RSVP in the wave.  While in the wave you can click on your address which will pop a google map right into your wave (Time stamp 2:19).

After your party, everyone can drag and drop their pictures into the wave (Time stamp 2:39).

You can embed a wave into your blog (Time stamp 3:20)!  In an embedded wave comments can be on the blog or the wave (Time stamp 3:35).   (UI*)

There is a feature called “Playback” that allows you to see the wave in order of how it was created.  So you can see comments added in order even if they were added after a new blip (comment).  (Time stamp 4:35)

“Robots” can be added to a wave (Time stamp 5:06).  You can tweet and see the people you follow from a wave using a “Robot” (Time stamp 5:25).  The video says “Robots can be used to interface with other systems–anything with an API.”  (Time stamp 6:41)

There is translation in a wave using Rosy the robot.  You can type in English and your contact can receive it in his/her language.  (Time stamp 6:49)

*UI = User Interface

Well, if you watched the video, I bet you can see some of the possibilites that the Google Wave has to offer.  As the video begins the 80 minute video is mentioned so I am sure that you can imagine there are a lot of other things that wave can do.  I will learn about them a little at a time.  I am excited about the possibilites.

When I first heard about this I filed it away under “good for big companies”, but as I was watching the video I had some ideas on how I could use it to help grow my business and to help get the word out about Nia.  Using the internet to market a local business is very different than using it to market a business where product is shipped or can be downloaded.  So this would be a valuable tool . . . . . I can see that now.  I am ready to catch the wave!

Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Wave Of The Future – Google Wave

Posted by terrepruitt on October 17, 2009

It really just might be the wave of the future.  It is a real time communication tool.  Right now it is preview mode – maybe what used to be called beta.  You actually have to get an invitation from Google in order to have access to the preview.

Oh, don’t be all jealous, I didn’t get an invitation, I don’t actually have access.  I can’t give you first hand screen shots or pictures (which you KNOW I love to do).  All I can tell you is that I watched two of their videos and I saw it in action.  (SOMEONE I know has it.)  I didn’t get to play with it, and that is how I really learn, so bear with me when I try to give you a glimpse of the future wave that is about to wash over us . . . .

This is beyond e-mail and beyond chat.  It is beyond whatever type of work sharing program that I have ever seen.  It is cool . . . .I think . . . I still need to get my hands on it to see for myself, but the IDEA sounds cool.  Well, more accurately, it seems very cool for work situations.  I can see how this would have really been awesome when I had a corporate job, but I want to see how it works in the non-corporate-every-day-world.

What is it?  Well, from what I understand, it is cloud computing*.  The information is stored on a server that people (your contacts) have access to.  So instead of e-mail that is downloaded to your computer and instead of web based e-mail which has to be sent and retrieved, it is a bit like chat.  Real time.  Except with this you can put videos, documents, maps, photos, and text in the “wave”.  While you are typing your contact can see it.   And, unlike, chat it is recorded, like a . . . .I am not sure what to call it because it can contain documents, videos, text, photos, and maps, so it is recorded like a record of the “meeting” that you had.

Because it is more than a conversation, because like I said (it warrants repeating) it can contain documents, videos, text, photos, and map it can’t really just be called a conversation or an e-mail.

So for example let’s say, you open a wave with a contact and you can start chatting.  If you need to you can add a document or whatever.  Then you realize that you should have included another contact so you add that person.  Well, that person missed half the “conversation”, but . . . . (whoa!) he can go back and re-play it.  And it will appear on his computer as it happened.  He will see the first portion of the wave, all the way through to the last.  If he misses something or wants to jump ahead, there is a scrub bar.

So it can be real time communication and collaboration or people can play it when they need to catch up.  It is like an e-mail but organized so it actually makes sense.  And to properly use it people could add their two cents into it right where they needed to, or add a document or a video or a photo right in the middle where it might actually make sense, and then there wouldn’t be that annoying forgetting to “reply to all” that we all have either done ourselves or been the non/recipient of.

Whew.  It does so much and it is difficult to explain.  When it was first explained to me, I was not having any of it.  Then when I saw it in action I changed my mind.  But I still want to try it as a “layman”, I am not corporate so I am not convinced it has its uses for those of use that don’t have jobs and “teams” to collaborate with.

I am way over my self-imposed word limit and I didn’t even get to tell you some of what I learned.  Sigh . . . another blog perhaps.

*Cloud computing is the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources as a service over the Internet on a utility basis.

Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Popcorn – Cooked In A Pot

Posted by terrepruitt on October 15, 2009

Recently I had a friend over and she made me laugh so hard.  I was making popcorn for us and she kept saying things like, “If this works . . . .” “I can’t wait to see if this works.”  “Are you sure this is going to work out?”  It made me laugh.  I had a pot and I made a HUGE bowl of popcorn.  I didn’t take pictures at the time because I didn’t think I would blog about it, but then I made some more the other day and it reminded me that popcorn can be a healthy snack.

Ever cooked it on the stove?

I use a pot that will net me as much popcorn as I want.  Remember a little pot will still net you a lot of popcorn.  Since I use different size pots I don’t measure per se.

Pour enough olive oil in the bottom of the pot to cover from 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottom.  You don’t want so much oil that the whole bottom of the pot is covered, then you will just end up with oily popcorn.

Let the oil get hot.  Then pour enough popcorn in to fill the bottom.  I usually let it make about two “layers”.  Then put the lid on.

I realized that I was not good at making popcorn in a pot until I got pots and pans with glass lids.  I always wanted to SEE if the popcorn is popping, so I would lift the lid.  And that would take the heat out of the pot and the popcorn would burn before it popped.  But with a glass lid I can let all the heat build up in the pot, which allows the heat to build up in the kernel and then POP!

I DO move the pot around, shaking it.  I have a glasstop so I lift the pot up to shake it, but if you have a stove that you can move your pot around while it is still on the heat that is even better.

HAVE A BOWL READY!  Because once the pot gets full and the popcorn starts pushing the lid off you need to start pouring.  So just keep putting the popcorn in the bowl, return the pot to the stove, let more popped corn fill the pot, pour, pop, pour, pop.  You might be able to turn the stove off in between that, it all depends on your stove and your pot, but you will get the hang of it after a couple of times.

Re-reading this before I post makes me want popcorn.  Do you like popcorn?  How do you cook it?

After I am done, I just salt it, I don’t use butter.  But if you do, you can just melt it in the pot you just used to cook the popcorn.  And if you do use butter, the calories and the fat content of the snack does go up.  But, I think that butter is better than the “butter” they use at the theater.  What is that stuff?  Ewww.

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

BOSU

Posted by terrepruitt on October 13, 2009

 

Know what a BOSU is?  It is a piece of exercise equipment.  Picture a stability ball, you know those round ones full of air that you can sit on?  Picture that cut in half with a plastic “cap” on the flat side.  It is very versatile.  It can be used for a variety of exercises and it can be used on either side.  The flat side can be placed on the ground so you are working on the rounded side or you can place the rounded side on the ground and do your work on the flat side.

Flat side on ground, standing on rounded sideEither way–depending on what you are doing–you are going to be challenging your stabilizing muscles in addition to the muscles you are exercising.  That is a great way to get more muscles working during your workout, burn more calories, and make you a more strong and stable body.

You can stand on either side (the flat side or the rounded side) and do dumbbell work: biceps curls, shoulder presses, upright rows, lateral and rear deltoid raises, bent over rows, etc.

You can lie on either side (the flat side or the rounded side) and do dumbbell chest presses, supine triceps extensions, curls, crunches, and sit-ups to name just a few.

Using either side you can do push-ups, mountain climbers, or add it to your burpee.

With push-ups you can either put your feet on it or hold it with your hands.They can also be used for cardio work.  They can be jumped on and off of, they can be used for lunges, or as I mentioned before, they can be used for mountain climbers and burpees.

I think they might be a favorite of personal trainers because there is so much you can do with it.

To me they are a little easier to store than a stability ball because they take up less space, but unlike a ball they won’t really challenge your muscles just by sitting on them.  But as I mentioned above you can use them for a lot of different exercises and they will add an additional challenge to almost any workout routine. I think I have see them in the Target by my house in San Jose, so I am sure you can buy them at Targets or stores where they sell sports equipment/exercise equipment.

As with any exercise equipment you use and as with any exercise you do–caution is required.

Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Bow Stance – Nia 52 Moves

Posted by terrepruitt on October 10, 2009

Here is the bow stance.  Now there are a lot of practices and movement arts that do the bow stance—at least I knew it before I came to Nia, so . . . please keep in mind that I am presenting it as one of the Nia 52 Moves because we do it in Nia and that is what I teach primarily.

I consider this somewhat of a deep bow.  One does not need to come down this low.  Usually with the bow stance we are placing a leg back, placing the ball of our foot on the ground and leaving the heel up.  But there are times when we will step forward into a bow stance.  Even if we are stepping forward into the bow stance, we are leaving the heel of the foot that is in the back off the ground.  It is somewhat like a lunge, but the back foot remains on the ball of the foot.

The bow stance can be deep or not, and it can be a stance that we move quickly into or out of or a stance where we settle in and move our arms.  It all depends on the music and the workout routine.   It is great exercise for increasing balance and strength in the core and lower body.

Keep in mind that the feet are not in line.  There is stability by keep the apart, at least hip joint distance apart.

Posted in 52 Moves (of Nia), Nia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

« Previous Entries