Terre Pruitt's Blog

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

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Archive for June, 2018

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Blue Sky And Clouds

Posted by terrepruitt on June 29, 2018

Well, I was looking through some photos trying to find one to post and I came across this one and it made me have a little sense of peace. It was a beautiful day.

Blue sky, clouds, lake, deck, and leaves for today’s Friday Photo.

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Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Liquid Mind Is Great Music

Posted by terrepruitt on June 27, 2018

Once upon a time, when I first got my phone I had Pandora on it. I actually still have the app on it, but I no longer use it because it requires a log in and I just can’t remember it. I don’t even know if it always required a log in and I forgot it or if I stopped using it once it required a log in. I just don’t bother. I have so many log ins to so many things, I rather would not since I don’t have to. BUT . . . we have a Roku and we can use Pandora through it. My husband has a Pandora account. He probably has as many things to log into as I do, but he actually remembers his passwords. Or at least he does a better job than I do. On Pandora you can set up “Radios” or “channels”. He has a few already set up. And he set up one for me for Christmas, which I used through out last year’s entire Christmas season. He also was kind enough to let me set up a “Yoga Radio”.

When I do yoga in the living room I turn on Pandora and scroll over to my Yoga Radio. It is so nice . . . except when I am laying in Shavasana completely relaxed and a commercial starts to blare. Oh well. Otherwise it is great. There are so many great songs out there and Pandora is an awesome way to get exposed to them.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise ClassesWhen listen to my Yoga Radio, I find that whenever I really love a particular song and look up it is pretty much always Liquid Mind. Well, at least when I first started playing my Yoga Radio and I would look up it would be Liquid Mind. Now I don’t even bother looking up because I know it will be Liquid Mind. Liquid Mind has about 15 albums out. Liquid Mind is comprised of composer, producer, and Emmy®-nominated songwriter, Chuck Wild.

Mr. Wild has worked with so many famous people it is amazing. He originally wrote Liquid Mind music as a form of therapy as he and his family and friends — like so many of us — were suffering from anxiety and stress. When he found it to be helpful and healing, he released an album to the public in 1993.

His music is very slow and calming. His website Liquid Mind Music actually urges people to NOT listen to it while driving or operating dangerous machinery as some people may become drowsy and “slow music may cause slower reaction times in some listeners”.

Well, I think it is perfect for yoga, perhaps not Power Yoga or one that is really high energy. But when I am listening to Pandora and doing yoga there are other artists besides Liquid Mind so it works out perfect.

I do love it so much that I have purchased two of his albums. Even though I can listen to it on Pandora, I like to have it on my devices. I will probably end up getting more, perhaps all 15 of his albums.

You can go to his site and listen for yourself. Come back after you do to tell me what you think?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Our Cat Spot – June 25, 2014

Posted by terrepruitt on June 25, 2018

I was going to post this picture as the Friday Photo, but I decided to save it for the actual anniversary. Today, June 25, four years ago our beloved cat was called back to her original posting as an angel. She is missed everyday. She was a very unique cat. Our current cats are great cats. They are so sweet. They are entertaining and very funny at that. But I still miss Spot. I can love new kitties but still miss kitties we had previously.

It was a beautiful day when she died. I snapped this photo as I looked up. John and I sat in the yard for a while. The house was so empty.

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I am just going to point you to some of my Spot posts.  And post a few pictures.  The pictures have nothing to do with the posts, except they are of Spot and the posts are about her.

My Assignment As A Cat Is Now Done, she was an angel.

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Sweet Memory. We used to call her Circle Kitty.

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This post was when we got a bunch of new hummingbirds in the neighborhood. They didn’t know what to make of this. Assessing The Threat Level – Can It Eat Us?

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It is so difficult when a beloved pet dies, huh?

Posted in Cats, Spot | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Blue Bird Eggs

Posted by terrepruitt on June 22, 2018

I don’t know what kind of bird it is.  I don’t think it is a robin.  I just call them the brown birds.  I think it is an Abert’s Towhee.  I have never actually heard of that, but I tried looking it up and this bird looks pretty much exactly like the birds in our yard.  And the information said their eggs were blue with specks.  🙂  I was just going to post flowers all month since it seemed that is where it was headed, but this is too exciting!

Blue bird eggs for this today’s Friday Photo.  YAY!

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Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

A Pain In The . . .

Posted by terrepruitt on June 20, 2018

I was recently reading an article that stated 31 million Americans suffer from some form of lower back pain at any given time. It is the leading cause of people missing work and the second leading reason for people going to the doctor. It also stated that 80% of Americans will experience back pain at one time in their life. Since I didn’t know the age of the article I wanted to see if there were other statistics that might be more current . . . .or different, but my Google search revealed the American Chiropractic Association website with the same information on it as was in the article I read. I know that a lot of my students claim to have lower back pain. Some of them have gone to various professionals to get a diagnosis, some have not. The thing about back pain is that it can be the result of many different things. Some of my students that have lower back pain also say they experience sciatica. Sciatica, like lower back pain can be from different things.

Sciatica is a pain that travels down the path of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve goes from the lower back through the hips and buttocks and runs down each leg. Sciatic pain can be felt anywhere along this path all the way to the foot. Usually the pain is only felt on one side of the body.

I was doing a quick search regarding piriformis syndrome when I came upon an interesting, very informative website. It explains that sciatica can be caused by several different things. It lists six most common causes of Sciatica.

-Lumbar herniated disc.
-Degenerative disc disease, where the degeneration is so severe that inflammatory proteins irritate the nerve in that area.
-Isthmic spondylolisthesis, when a vertebrae has slipped out of position due to a small fracture in the spine.
-Lumbar spinal stenosis, where the spinal canal narrows and compresses nerves.
-Piriformis syndrome, when the piriformis disturbs the sciatic nerve by irritating it or pinching it.
-Sacroiliac joint dysfunction, when this joint gets irritated it might affect the L5 nerve which might cause sciatica-type pain.

This is just a very brief summary of the information. I am hoping you will check out the website yourself to get more details. Each cause has a very short video explaining the issue. I find it very interesting because it is saying the last two causes of sciatica, piriformis syndrome and sacroiliac joint dysfunction are not truly sciatica, but they can cause the same type of pain.

The Mayo Clinic’s website has a few suggestions as to how to help prevent sciatica:

Exercise regularly.
Maintain proper posture when you sit.
Use good body mechanics.

Of course this post isn’t meant to diagnose anyone or anything, but it might help you when you go to your doctor.  Sometimes it is nice to have information so that you can take part in your diagnosis and treatment.

Have you ever had lower back pain?  Have you ever experienced sciatica type pain?

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

More On Yin And Yang

Posted by terrepruitt on June 18, 2018

I posted a little bit about Yin and Yang for a Friday Photo because I received Yin And Yang Himalayan Salt candle holders. The candle holders are not black and white, but in many depictions of yin and yang it is in black and white. The black is the yin and the white is the yang. The candle holders do have circles in each section, but again it is not colored. With the black and white versions there is usually a white circle or dot in the black side and a black circle or dot in the white side. The circle or dot is the representation that there is always yang in yin and yin in yang.

In that post I quoted the Ancient History Encyclopedia, stating the information it had for both Yin and Yang. I am just adding to that. I am adding some of the additional adjectives I have learned that can be attributed to each. Some of the words are repeats of what is in the quote.

YIN:

“Yin is feminine, black, dark, north, water (transformation), passive, moon (weakness and the goddess Changxi), earth, cold, old, even numbers, valleys, poor, soft, and provides spirit to all things.”

Earth, water, cold, dense, moist, heavy, constricting, negative, soft, yielding, slow, female

In regards to Qi:

moves downward, passive, cooling, relates to bodily fluids, relates to the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), runs the inner side of body

In regards to organs:

Liver, pericardium, spleen, lungs, kidneys, heart

YANG:

“Yang is masculine, white, light, south, fire (creativity), active, sun (strength and the god Xihe), heaven, warm, young, odd numbers, mountains, rich, hard, and provides form to all things.”

Heaven, fire, warmth, space, dry, light, expansive, gaseous, gripping, contracting, positive, hard, aggressive, fast, male

In regards to Qi:

Moves upward, active, warming, protective, alert, relates to the muscles, relates to the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), rises in the morning, runs the outer side of body

In regards to organs:

Gallbladder, small intestine, triple heater, stomach, large intestine, bladder

Interesting as the idea is that one cannot exist without the other.  Do you have any to add?

Posted in Misc, Yin Yoga | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Friday Flowers

Posted by terrepruitt on June 15, 2018

This is almost turning into Friday Flowers or Flowers on Friday. I know, I know. But I love flowers. And these are sitting on the front desk counter at the Camden Community Center where I teach Nia and stretch. I was talking to the people at the front desk and these were right in my face and I couldn’t help but notice them. They are so beautiful. They smell good, too!

I hope you don’t mind all these flowers for the Friday Photo.

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Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

New Medicare Card Scam

Posted by terrepruitt on June 13, 2018

Even though I am nearing the AARP* age, I am not quite there yet, but you may have read where I am getting my dad’s mail and he was AARP age. I get the AARP Bulletin which I actually think is pretty interesting. I think it has some good information. Especially with all the scammers out there. I would be totally surprised if there is one of you (in the USA) reading this that has not received one of those “the FBI has a warrant out for your arrest and the police are on the way to your house . . . if you don’t call”. Even though the messages are either in a computer’s robotic voice or in such broken and accented English you can barely understand the message it is pretty scary. The elderly are really not all up to date on all the scammers in the world. In this day and age some believe that Microsoft got an alert that their computer had a virus. So I think it is important for ALL of us to know the scams out there so we can help protect the elderly in our lives. There is a lot of insurance fraud and scams and one of the latest ones has to do with the new Medicare Cards.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitSo apparently Medicare is sending out new Medicare Health Insurance cards. They are replacing cards that have members Social Security Numbers on them with unique identification numbers. This started in May (2018) and will take about a year to reach all 60 million members. The cards are being sent at no charge. But guess what? There are people (cough, cough, I use that word loosely in this situation) who are calling members pretending to be Medicare representatives and they are demanding a processing fee. Or they tell the member that they are due a refund and get the members bank information in order to “process the refund”. Just to be clear, Medicare would never ask for a bank account number and no refunds are owed.  The cards are to help prevent fraud and then here we have scammers trying to be fraudulent. Sigh.

We have to be careful and we need to spread the word and let other people know so we can all thwart these scammers. The more people know the better we can stop it from happening. Will you help spread the word?

*American Association of Retired Persons

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

Zucchini Slicing Made Easy

Posted by terrepruitt on June 11, 2018

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitYou may know that I love to roast vegetables in the oven.  That is my favorite way to cook them and my favorite way to eat them.  Roasting is so easy to me.  I can wash and chop/cut then put it in the oven with a timer (that is the key, because I don’t really want to “forget about it”) and then go do something else.  I have been craving zucchini lately.  Roasted zucchini slices.  Even though I enjoy cooking, I am not great at it.  I don’t have knife skills at all.  In fact when I am using a knife I always hear my friend telling her daughter to hold the knife properly because the daughter was using her index finger on the top of the knife and that is how I cut.  It helps to keep my wrist aligned, but apparently it is not the proper way to hold and cut with a knife.  So the explanation about my knife skills – or lack there of – leads me to my zucchini slices.  I don’t always cut them all evenly.  If I take a lot of time I can do them even, but by the time I am wanting to throw the veggie in the oven I do not have a lot of time so I want to do it quick.  And quick is when they become very uneven.  When they Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitare uneven some end up burning while the others are not cooked.  A couple of weeks ago I realized I could use my mushroom slicer.  I know, I know, this is one of those things where I am very late to the party and many of you know this and probably do it.  But I am confident not everyone has thought about it.

Sometimes I think of things to post about and I decide not to because I think everyone knows it.  But then I read a blog post or I watch one of those “life hack” videos and I realize that even though I have known that particular thing “forever” not everyone does.  It is a good idea to share and those that know can comment or just ignore it and those that don’t can learn something new, right?

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitSo I cut the zucchini the size of the slicer and then — push, wiggle (I have to wiggle them out of the slicer) – voila!  They are all the same size.  There are a few that get cut a little thinner because it might not be perfectly in the slicer, but way less than when I slice by hand.  AND it is done so much faster.  I am sure they even have a slicer like this named a zucchini slicer or a vegetable slicer.  They have so many gadgets for so many things!

I know people have used egg slicers for mushrooms.  I am sure for other veggies too.  The reason I like this particular mushroom slicer is that is has blades and not wires.  I think I had a wire one and it broke.  So I was excited to have found this one.  I don’t even remember where I got it!

I have been enjoying a lot of zucchini slices lately.  I have been just ahead of the peak zucchini season, but now it is here so I will keep on enjoying them.

Do you like zucchini?  How do you slice ’em?

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Posted in Food, Vegetables | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Super Pink Blossoms

Posted by terrepruitt on June 8, 2018

Oh man! Do you ever see something and take a picture to capture the beauty and share it, but the picture doesn’t do it justice? I bet you have. That is this. The other day I was walking back from dropping off my ballot and I saw this in my neighborhood. It is so bright and so big and so gorgeous. This picture doesn’t do it justice. I thought I would share it with you for my Friday Photo anyway.

Does anyone know what it is?

 

Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

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