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!

  • Unknown's avatar

  • 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 July, 2014

DVD Swap

Posted by terrepruitt on July 8, 2014

Do people still have DVDs any longer?  My husband and I do.  I like them.  Especially with our Netflix.  I am CONVINCED someone at Netflix is having a good laugh on our behalf.  We will be watching something . . . . it does not matter what . . . and right at the part you are waiting for it will start loading.  I swear.  At first my hubby and I got annoyed, but now it is just funny because it is so comical.  It really as if there is someone who presses a button to stop the show from playing right when it is most important.  It could be, “I know I have not told you the truth about anything your entire life.  I know you are upset with me, but I had a very good reason.  This is hard.  You see I am — LOADING! — or “I love you, Sam.  I have loved you since the moment I saw you.” (Sam opens her mouth and — LOADING! —).  We have learned to laugh.  Netflix will blame our carrier and that is fine.  I don’t care who does it, it just happens and it is funny.  So a DVD is nice, no commercial, no “LOADING”.  Not “LOADING” or getting all messed up when we stop and start the show.  No “LOADING” when we rewind.  Just nice and simple viewing of the movie or TV show.  But does anyone else have DVDs any longer?  Well, I am late in learning this but I did just see it last week and that is ——–LOADING! ——— Just kidding.  I just learned about a website called www.swapadvd.com

Cool!  I am impressed.  Granted when my hubby and I buy a DVD it is because we want to keep the movie or TV show to watch over and over.  And that might sound odd to you — it did when I first met my husband — but it is something we do.  But . . . there are a few exercise DVDs I might want to swap out.  Yes!  That is cool, huh?  You can switch up your workouts by swapping exercise DVDs.  So you could have a group of five let’s say that you do for 30 days, then put them on SwapaDVD and get a whole new set of workout DVDs.  Do that set for a month, then swap again.  Always keeping your workout varied.  Of course, my “set of five for 30 days” is just an example.  You could do one for two weeks.  Whatever . . . . the point is that you can swap and mix it up.

When I first learned about this and thought about posting about it.  I did a quick search of dance exercise DVDs and there is quite a few.  And there are over 500 10 Minute Solutions DVDs.  I love those because you can do a 10 minute workout when you are THAT pressed for time or program the DVD to play as many as you want to get a longer workout.  There are yoga DVDs.  In my quick search just now there seems to be a lot of pregnancy and yoga DVDs.  That makes total sense.  You are only pregnant for a limited time so you want to get rid of the DVD once you are not pregnant any longer.

The website’s info is below:

• You have original, playable DVDs that you do not want to keep.
• You post those DVDs to your “DVD Tower” to offer to other members.
• After you have posted the first 10 DVDs to your DVD Tower, you get 1 “gift” credit from SwapaDVD to get you started swapping (limit one per household).  After that, you earn credits by sending out DVDs to others.
• You may order available DVDs for 1 credit per disc (some DVDs do cost more than 1 credit), plus a Swap Fee of $0.49 per item (no matter how many credits are in the item).
• If you want a DVD that is not currently available, you can place it on your Wish List and we will notify you by email when it is available for you to order.  You can even have it sent to you automatically when it becomes available, with no email necessary.
• When a DVD is requested from you, we notify you by email, provide the address for you to send it out, and even provide a wrapper with postage printed on it if desired!
• Wrap and mail your DVD.
• When the requestor receives it, you earn 1 credit per disc mailed. Yes, you pay the postage to send out your DVDs, but when you request a DVD, the sender ships it to you and you pay 1 DVD credit (some DVDs do cost more than 1 credit)!
• The DVDs you receive from SwapaDVD are yours. We hope that you will repost them to share with other members when you have viewed them, but you can certainly keep them, or give them away. Similarly, the DVDs you send out to others belong to their new owners.

SwapaDVD is a great way to share DVDs with people all over the country!

I think that is pretty cool.  What do you think?  Do you still watch DVDs?  

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Fourth of July Potluck Dessert

Posted by terrepruitt on July 5, 2014

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaIf you saw my last post you know that I was going to make something that I had seen on Facebook for a party I was going to.  I thought it would be a really quick thing.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?  Never, when I make a recipe for the first time, is it a quick thing.  Also, I was reminded why I never melt chocolate.  I don’t know how.  I think the hotter the burner/pan/water the better.  NOT THE CASE!  So I attempted to make pretty Fourth of July Strawberries.  Well, I ended up with yummy strawberries, but they were far from the pretty picture I originally saw on Facebook.  Also, they took WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY longer than I thought.  I started later than I wanted which had us arriving at the party WAY later than I wanted.  But . . . . that is what I get.  And I really do know better.  I just thought . . . . wrong, obviously.  So I made Champagne 4th of July Strawberries.  The “recipe” is here along with some things I learned and/or experienced.  Perhaps this will help you when you attempt to make them next year.

______________________

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yoga

 

 

 

Champagne 4th of July Strawberries

I used:

*A large container of strawberries
*mason jars
*a bottle of sparkling wine/champagne
*about 3/4 of a package of white chocolate chips
*sugar
*blue food coloring

Wash the strawberries.  Put them in the jars, fill the jars with champagne.  Seal the jars.  Let the jars set in fridge at least 24 hours.  When you are ready to make the dessert, take the strawberries out of the champagne and let them dry.  (The dryer they are the better!)  Mix the food coloring into sugar.  Melt your chocolate.  Dip the strawberries in chocolate, then the sugar.  Place on serving tray.

 

_____________________________________

Ok, FIRST of all . . . . one of the best things that comes out of this is strawberry flavored champagne.  Yeah, it is flat, but . . . then it is just like strawberry wine!  (Oh, that reminds me, I have mine to drink tonight—yay!)

So, originally I used chop sticks to remove the Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle Yogastrawberries because I just didn’t want to stick my fingers in the champagne because I was planning on drinking it later.  Only with the first jar.  Once one jar was empty of strawberries I poured the liquid in it and then just plucked the strawberries out with my fingers of the remaining jars.  I set the strawberries on a paper towel to dry.  I patted them “dry”.  They DID NOT dry.  The chocolate did not really want to stick to the strawberry.

I do not know how to melt chocolate, so something that should have taken a few minutes took forever.  I tried three different methods and the last one . . . .the one I should have started with . . . proved to be the best, but still, as most people know (except me) HIGH heat is not good for chocolate or white “chocolate”.  But I was thinking that it would get hard while I was dealing with each strawberry so I wanted it really “melty”.  Most of you will not have the trouble with the chocolate I had.  I had seen some recipes with frosting instead of chocolate, that does not sound as good to me so I opted for the chocolate.  While I was struggling with the chocolate I kept thinking, “I should have gone with the frosting!  I should have gone with the frosting!”

I ended up having to SPREAD the chocolate on each strawberry.  So I would spread, then stir, then spread, then stir all the while battling my “too hot” chocolate.  After the first tray my husband walked by and bravely said, “Can I do anything to help you?”  And I made him stir while I spread the chocolate on the rest of the strawberries.

I prepared WAY too much sugar.  So that is why I did not give an amount in the above “recipe” because I have no idea.  I later saw something that said 1/4 of a cup.  I think I make 3/4 of a cup of sugar.  Also, I couldn’t find any type of sugar in the store besides powdered, regular, and extra fine.  So I just used regular sugar.

I found that pouring the sugar on worked well.  I used a spoon to pour it on the end of the strawberry.  Although, I think if you properly melted the chocolate and waited a bit before dipping in the sugar, it would be fine.  But with my seized chocolate (see I knew WHAT it was doing, I just didn’t know WHY) the pouring method worked great.

Put the strawberries down where you want them to remain.  Once they were on the tray they were NOT moving.  Again, that could be because of the overheated chocolate.  I will try this again.  In fact, I didn’t use all the chocolate so I am going to attempt it again.  Although I am using my seized, crumpling, leftover chocolate . . . so we will see.

The people at the party were very kind and said the strawberries were pretty.  I think they were admiring the colors not the texture.  And then once a bite was taken it didn’t matter.  Chocolate, whether white, milk, dark, or semi-sweet, on a strawberry is really yummy.  So these were ok.  Not the pretty thing I envisioned, but they were yummy.

And I learned a lot.  I look forward to my next attempt!

So, how was your Fourth of July?  Does a white chocolate dipped champagne strawberry sound good to you?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

What To Bring To That Fourth Of July Party?

Posted by terrepruitt on July 3, 2014

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaIt is the Fourth of July . . . .well tomorrow, but if you are going to a Fourth of July party you might have your “dish” decided upon.  Or you might not.  What are you bringing?  Not that you have to bring something, it just seems very traditional to have a BBQ potluck type of thing on Fourth of July.  So I was wondering what you were bringing.  I saw something on Facebook that I want to bring to the party I am attending, but then the hostess has indicated that she is having a “homemade cake that is red white and blue. (Strawberry, blueberry & almond, with stars & stripes inside!)”  That KIND OF is what I wanted to bring . . . . strawberries with red, white, and blue.  So I decided to bring “my” bean salad which is funny because it is really is a recipe from a friend of the hostess.   (Click here for the bean salad recipe.)  That friend is not attending . . . . . whew!  Naw, she wouldn’t mind that I was bringing “her” recipe.  But I really want to bring that “dish” I saw on Facebook, too.  Since I am unable to really think about being creative for a potluck, I am going to bring it.  It is a dessert type dish that needs at least 24 hours to “percolate”.  So we will see how it comes out.  And, I will be sharing about the adventure of it.  Even though it is really simple I have already taken pictures of the first step with the intention of posting about it.  Of course, it will be after the Fourth of July . . . . . but these treats are festive and can be “adjusted” color-wise to make a pretty plate for any occasion.

I needed something simple that I didn’t have to think about.  I have some work to do and I am gearing up for a really busy month of subbing and I am dealing with that “stuff”.  So the post on Facebook was perfect, until I received the menu.  So I did look for other ideas, but was not feeling very inspired.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaEven though I had already purchased the ingredients for the “other” strawberry thing, I was doing a search for things to make that would be festive I found this an “American Flag” made of kabobs of blueberries (as the stars portion of the flag), strawberries, and bananas.  The strawberries and bananas made up the stripped portion of the flag.  It looks so easy to do, and really very pretty and patriotic.  Click over to Menus4Moms to see the full picture and get some ideas on how to do it.  I am providing a tease of it so you will be sure to click over.  I am making a note of it here . . . . . like I often do so I won’t forget about it.  My blog is the easiest place for me to make notes of things.  I use it all the time for my recipes.  And grocery shopping when I want to make the recipes.

So, enough about my Fourth of July potluck party situation . . . . . what about you?  What are you making?  What are you taking?  I am excited to hear.  I know that if you comment and tell me I will be able to refer to it for next year . . . that is if you are doing a “Patriotic Dish”.  If you are doing something yummy, but not red, white, and blue, I can refer to it the next time I want to make something yummy.  So what do you got?

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

More On Downward Facing Dog

Posted by terrepruitt on July 1, 2014

I once briefly wrote about the Downward Facing Dog yoga pose in my post Down Dog. This is considered a resting pose. For many; those starting out or those wanting a gentle type of workout, it is not extremely restful. There are many muscles that are being used so it is a very active pose. This pose could be qualified as a “push exercise” or using the muscles that are used for pushing. Muscles on the back of the body are considered the “push muscles”. There are many benefits to this pose.

The lower body gets the biggest stretch. If you are able to straighten your legs and place your heels on the ground the back of your legs get the stretch. The hamstrings get a good stretch along with the calves. If your heels are up there is still a nice stretch going on. With many people working in office chairs and having the posture of bent legs, tight hamstrings is a very common situation. So having heels up and bent knees is a widely used modification.

No matter how your legs are (straight or bent) your arms are holding you up. This pose does require your arms to do some work. It is considered an arm supported pose. In conjunction with latissimus dorsi, the muscles by the ribs, and your deltoids the triceps are working. So for some their arms might feel fatigued. So even though this pose is allowing for a very big stretch in the back of the legs there are muscles working on the top half of the body.

Even though the focus is in pressing the tailbone to the sky we don’t ignore the front. The front of the legs get a bit of attention, as we are lifting the knee caps.  We also have a sense of our spine lengthening.

In addition to increasing flexibility in your legs, hips, and ankles. And strengthening arms and wrist, this pose relieves depression and helps calm the mind. Additional benefits include:
-Energizing the body
-Increasing circulation
-Improving digestion
-Relieving headache, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue
And it can be therapeutic for high blood pressure, asthma, flat feet, sciatica, sinusitis

I have learned to like this pose a bit more. I was reminded of what I tell my students and what we practice in Nia. Find the Joy in the movement, if you cannot tweak it until you do. I believe a portion of my dislike of this pose back when I first wrote about it, was that I was forcing it.  I was doing it in away that did not feel good for my back. Once I stopped the complete loose action of my spine, the pose became more comfortable. As it became easier there was room to move into the pose better and relax into it.

So, like many things it is good to do it at your level. As you improve it can be done better. The benefits can be received throughout the practice. It is a practice.

How is your Downward Facing Dog?

Posted in Yoga/PiYo/Pilates | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »