Terre Pruitt's Blog

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

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Posts Tagged ‘San Jose work out’

Fiber Intake

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: , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Serving Size Reminder

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?

From Cal Dining

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »

We Interrupt Your Quest For Health

Posted by terrepruitt on July 7, 2009

This past weekend we went to a park in Fremont, not too far from San Jose.  I was thinking we would be in shade, but we were not so much.  I was terrible and got sunburned and worse, I “let” Hubby get sunburned too.

Now we all know the bad stuff about sunburns.  You got the whole risk of skin cancer increase going on.  This, of course is serious because the sun damages the skin’s cells and when they try to rebuild if something doesn’t work out right that is when cancer occurs.  Since most of us are immune to cancer  (Ya know, “That won’t happen to me.”), maybe we can use some other incentive.

What about the other things that happen that might interrupt our quest for health? In comparison to cancer these things are really nothing but inconveniences, but sometimes that is what it takes for us to take action.

I am talking about being uncomfortable.  I was looking outside and I wanted to go, but I knew it was too hot.  Even if I didn’t go out in the direct sun, I knew just the heat of the day would be too much.  So any normal activity you might do outside could be restricted.

What about sleep?  One of the best things we can do for our body and one of the things that is absolutely essential to health, but ya can’t do it well when you are sunburned.  The first night I think I woke up four or five times.

And exercise.  How uncomfortable is that?  Think about bending a sunburned limb into a yoga pose just gives me chills.  I wore a big shirt to teach the day after (the sunburn occurred) because I was thinking a shirt with tighter arms would be too much but every time I lifted my arms I was in pain because my shirt rubbed on my sunburned arms.

And shower just plain hurts.  Even if you opt for cold water sometimes just the water hitting the sunburn is enough to hurt!

So, I guess, I wrote this blog to myself, because I need to remember the inconveniences so that I remember the sunscreen not matter what.

The latest information is stating that products that block the UVA and UVB rays on the best.  Products containing titanium dioxide and Zinc oxide.  They don’t soak into the skin, they sit on top and scatter the rays.  Also, I am seeing that it doesn’t matter what number SPF you buy, you should apply it often.

So, think not only about avoiding the BIG thing, think short term, think in the now, think about wanting to remain healthy by continuing your normal outdoor activities, sleeping soundly, being able to exercise, and, oh yeah, for the sake of the rest of us—shower!  If you do get sunburned, what do you do to ease it?

Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

My Twitter

Posted by terrepruitt on June 20, 2009

I am not a Twitter expert. But . . . I have picked up a few things from a lot of people who could be considered experts. Plus I have picked up some things from just doing it.

Recently I have connected with a bunch of wonderful people who have less time than I do to spend learning about this.  So, I am going to share a few things that I have learned so that I can just point them at this blog instead of typing it all out individually (on my iPhone, mind you).   Now, here is the catch, this is my opinion and my perception of how it works.  If you have a different opinion or you know that it works differently please kindly share. That would be very appreciated and helpful.

 

For my friends, here is my advice:

-Put a picture up.    Anything, doesn’t have to be you if you don’t want, but don’t leave that twitter box up.  That is not good.  I actually have to be really convinced to follow people that have that (or I have to know them personally and understand that they just haven’t gotten around to putting a picture up).

-Fill out your bio.    Put something there.  If you are Nia person, tell them about Nia, if you can’t think of anything else.  If you have to, read OTHER people’s bios to get ideas.  I have followed people just because their bio has made me laugh.  Make up something funny.  List your likes or dislikes, list what you will be tweeting about, share that you like to work out, share that you loathe exercise . . . .who cares what you write, just put something there.

-Put your web address up.    C’mon, you have a website because you want people to go to it.  Put it out there.  MAKE SURE YOUR LINK WORKS! (Ya, that is a big deal.)

-Tweet.    Oh my, this is the most difficult thing, but the most important.  I am still challenged by it.  But do it.  If you are like me it is kind of intimidating.  If you are following some major people (like I am, and I mean “major” as in they are “celebs” on Twitter) their useful information can make me wonder, “What do I have to add?”  So I started by retweeting other people’s stuff.  Then people would retweet my tweets and start talking to me.  And then I would think of something to share and bam . . . . so it goes.  I still retweet a lot because there is a lot of good stuff out there that I like to share, but I also share my own stuff.  I also like to tweet about stuff happening in the area of San Jose (Willow Glen) in which I teach classes.

The following is easier said than done: don’t worry so much (I still do, sometimes, but I try not to).  The people that you want following you are the ones that want to see what you have to say. Right?  So say what you want and you will get people following you.  People will come and people will go.  That’s ok.

Ok, I will continue this on Tuesday because right now, my word counter is saying that I am way over my self-imposed word limit.  Tuesday I will tell you what I understand about @, RT, and DM.  And of course, if you don’t want to wait, I am sure you can find all of this information out there somewhere else.

Posted in Twitter | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments »

Again With the Asparagus

Posted by terrepruitt on June 11, 2009

Dance Exercies, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia,Ok, you might know that I love asparagus.  And I love it roasted.  Well, even though we live in San Jose and seems like we can get great fruits and veggies all year round sometimes we buy asparagus and it is huge.  Usually when it is that big in order to get to the good stuff you basically have to cut off a lot of it.  Otherwise you are left with really woodsy-impossible-to-chew asparagus.  Well, I don’t wanna give up that much of my yummy veggie, so I peel it.  I cut off a little bit—like I normally would and then I peel the bottom portion.  This does a few things:

1) it enables me to eat more of the vegetable,

2) it gets rid of the hard to chew part,

3) it reveals the soft insides of the stalk

Yay! I don’t have to get rid of half my asparagus.

Yes, I know that I am getting rid of the green, but I leave the top portion.  You can try it yourself and see what works for you.  Of course, you don’t have to be having roasted asparagus for this to work out, you can do it with whatever method you best enjoy your asparagus.

 

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