30 second workout

Okay, okay, I admit.  I sensationalized the title in hopes of getting some extra interest.  But wait!  Don't leave!  You really can work out in 30 seconds!

Back story: I had a baby almost a year and a half ago.  I've since lost my baby weight and I fit in my clothes, but I feel like my body is not the same.  My abs look stretched out and I have really let myself get weak and have basically no tone.  Last spring and summer I was way too overwhelmed to do anything about it, so I got myself a one-piece swimsuit and called it a day.

I'm not pale, I'm porcelain...

Now I am not saying I ever want to show off my playboy bunny print bikini again since I am someone's MOM after all, but I'd like to avoid letting myself go just because I am "too busy" to care about my health and my figure.  I REALLY REALLY don't have time to work out.  I know lots of people use that as an excuse, but I see it more as a hurdle to be overcome than an excuse.  I have a lot of obstacles to doing traditional workouts: we only have one car, so during the day I can't get to a gym and at night I try to spend time with the family; we live in a climate that has seasons, so its often too hot or too cold to work out outside; we have a small condo, and I don't have room for exercise equipment or even much room to do regular floor workouts; I am very busy between caring for my family and running my small business, and I don't have large blocks of time in my day, so it has to be quick; I don't have money in the budget to pay for basically ANY equipment, even the cheap ones; and finally and probably the most "overcome-able" is the fact that I HATE HATE HATE working out in the traditional way.  I hate lifting weights, if you want to see me run, mention a treadmill and I will run AWAY from it, and just about every workout bores me to tears.  That was fine when hubby and I were ballroom dancing all the time and I could trick my body into working out, but now, well, no time, no sitters, etc etc etc.

So let's see. Has to be at home, preferably indoors, no large (or really even small) equipment, can be done in a small space, can be done quickly, and isn't mind numbing.

My answer is doing simple PE style workouts throughout the day.  It sounds silly, and to be honest it feels silly while I am doing it, but its the only way I could cram a real workout into my incredibly busy schedule.  I do things like lunges, squats, jumping jacks, planks, and something that is apparently called a burpee pushup (saw it on TV once and had to google it to figure out what it was called) randomly throughout the day.  I keep a list that I check off daily on Remember the Milk, a great little app that I use in general for to-do lists, and it automatically repeats for the number of sets I decide on every weekday - I take weekends off to rest and play.

The best part is, I don't do them all at the same time.  I don't do a solid 20 minute workout.  Its hard for me to carve 20 consecutive minutes out of my day, but it is remarkably easy to take 1 or 2 minutes here or there to do a set of lunges.  I do a 30 second plank while heating up my son's lunch in the microwave.  When the timer on the microwave goes off, I can get up.  Its super silly, but that is dead time in my day, anyway!  I do 50 jumping jacks during play time in the mornings and afternoons with little man, and he bounces up and down right along with me.  I feel like a good mom, setting the example of being active and not just being a couch potato.  We turn on some music and bounce to the beat!

By the end of the day I have anywhere from 5-20 minutes of workout under my belt, depending on how many sets I do.  Each set takes about one minute, and I am so out of shape, it usually is only about 10 reps, but over the course of the day I get in a decent amount of exercise.  Is it going to transform me into a bodybuilder? No.  Is it the ideal way to work out?  Probably not.  Is it better than nothing?  Man, I hope so!  Even though its not the fat burning, butt busting Insanity workout, its something realistic I can do and let me tell you, I really do feel the results.  I have sore abs the next day, I feel the strain in my legs, and the hubs swears I look better.  (I think he is just trying to get a little lovin, but I will take a compliment no matter what the motivation!)  It's several weeks in and I am actually sticking with it, although I do better some days than others.  I try not to feel guilty, and just keep making it a part of my routine.  As I go, I am increasing the reps per set and adding new exercises to the mix.  Wall sits are the next thing on the list!

Now I get to pick your brain.  What quickie exercises do you like that I can add to my routine?  I initially wanted to do something about my legs and abs, so I am pretty light on cardio and arms.  Any suggestions?  I'm looking for something that doesn't take any equipment so it fits in the budget and that can be done quickly so it fits in my day.  There are lots of great ideas out there, though, so keep them coming!

Live Well Network

I have been so stuck on TV lately.  Its the end of winter, but its still cold, I am getting stir crazy, its grey and dark and not energizing... TV soothes me.  I am a bad person, I know.  Moving on.

I discovered a new network.  Its probably only local, but its part of my channel 4 band - I don't know what to call those "dash" channels yet...  Anyway, for me it is 4-3, part of NBC I think.  Locals, correct me if I am wrong.  I don't really watch the regular channel enough to know lol.

Anyway, it is like PBS for grown ups.  Its a lot of silly, cheaply produced shows with a crap load of content. The hosts are unpolished, there are repeats and obvious filler episodes from time to time, the editing is so so at best and often times it shows, as the commercials cut off some of the transitions, but the CONTENT.  Damn!  It spans everything I love from AMAZING cooking shows (admittedly my favorite) to interior design shows (admittedly my least favorite).  There is even a show called Deals that has great (and some not so great) ideas for how to save money.  Its like they reached in my brain and decided to make a network for me.  I actually like the not so polished look and feel as it is less produced and more human.

My favorite shows are the cooking ones, which are fantastic.  I still love America's Test Kitchen on PBS, but I have to say, Best Recipes Ever, Mexico: One Plate At a Time, and the best one, Let's Dish, are creeping in as my favorites.  I have made several recipes from Best Recipes Ever so far, including an apple, cabbage, and bratwurst braise that was fabulous!  I am dying to try out the decadent mexican recipes.  The host of the Mexico show is a master chef down in Chicago and his recipes are awesome and totally from scratch, but I have to go hunt down some of the ingredients.  Let's Dish is the perfect fusion of fancy foods and less fussy stuff.  They have great tips on prep and how to do things like slice an onion like a chef, which I love watching, but they have everything from microwave meals (not my speed) and simple, modern french fancy foods.  I can't really explain - just watch!

The cooking shows aren't all of it though.  Many of the other shows have great DIY projects, like Mirror/Mirror which is a fashion and beauty show, the kind of annoying talk show, Steven and Chris, and of course, Deals.  I love DIY ideas, and while many of them are not earth shattering, I have gotten some good ideas.  And its not Divorce court during daytime hours, which in itself is worthwhile!

Okay, now that my newest secret is out, I will start crafting again soon.  I have been busy making stock for a  friend's business (I put things in her shop on consignment) so check that out at www.thebabiesnook.com, but I will post some new tutorials someday... I promise!

Local Ethnic Groceries

I have been really uninspired lately hence the lack of blog posts and boring posts that I do post.  Then today I did a crap ton-o-running around and it hit me - I have GOT to share my little secret with you!

I went to my favorite little secret spot.  My local Indian grocery.  The people there are very nice, its family owned, and it has amazing GEMS for sale.  I get "weird" (read: Indian or Thai) food there every once in a while, but I mostly hit them up for spices.  They have GREAT deals on good quality spices.  Granted they come in a plastic baggie that I have to store somehow to keep them from getting all cakey, but that is why I obsessively hoard empty spice bottles.  That is another issue for another day, however.

Anyway, I bought a whole ounce of bay leaves, a giant bag of mustard powder, mustard seeds, pink Himalayan salt, and a bag of cinnamon sticks.  All for like $12.  Whoa.  And it's not just the Indian groceries that rule.  Back in California I used to hit up the Korean groceries and the Japanese ones.  So much yummy stuff.  The coolest part is they carry unusual items that for foodies is just too interesting to pass up.  And its always affordable.

But wait, there's more!  I also used to go to the Indian section of town to check out all the other cool stuff, like saris, other clothing, bangle bracelets, Indian music CDs and movies, and all the other AMAZING stuff that you just can't find anywhere else.  I admit that I didn't brave the clothing shops and henna salons without my Indian friends as guides, but everyone was really nice once they got over me being interested in their culture.  Usually, they were a little like... why?  Oh, ok, cool.  Here's some neat stuff! Just remember that in many cultures bartering is the way to go.  Some times its okay and sometimes not.  When in doubt, ask a native!

So, go.  Explore.  Enjoy!!!

These are a few of my favorite things... portable highchairs

I probably have more experience with this one than any of my other posts thus far. I don't usually buy more than one of something and use them both a lot, but my family lives in California and we go visit about twice a year. I can hardly handle packing clothes much less pack carseats, strollers, high chairs, diaper pails, etc. and babies need so much gear! So I ended up buying cheapo versions of stuff to keep there. And thus this post was born!

We take our little man everywhere with us, and even at home it is nice to have a strap to any chair kind of high chair that we can toss in the trunk and go.  He is so squirmy when he eats it darn near impossible to hold him while feeding, so this was a must for us.  We can take it to restaurants, grandma's, play dates, you get the idea.  And its nice to have at home, too, so we can have an extra seat when his little friends come and visit.

We have 2 travel high chair seats. One we use at home and was a little over $50. The other is in California and when I couldn't get one like we had at home off Craigslist (even though I tried for 3 days), I bought this cheaper version new for around $20-25.  The first I got on Amazon, and the second I got at Target, although both are available both places...

The first is the Fisher-Price Space Saver High Chair.

This high chair has a plush looking pad, a sturdy looking tray, a reclining seat, and a booster for when the child outgrows the high chair portion.  It does just what it says, and it looks fancy.  The reclining seat is kind of pointless to me, since I never really bottle fed, but maybe for some it would be useful.  It has shoulder straps, so once your kid is in this thing, they aren't falling out!  However, I feel like even in its most upright position it is reclined back too far, making for bad posture.  The tray is impossible to get on and off with one hand, which can be hard when wrangling a child.  It is a HUGE tray and while it is "dishwasher safe" the only way to get it to fit is to lay it flat across the bottom shelf.  No joke.  Also, it does not collapse at all.  If you want to take it with you, its the same size it always is, and while it fits in our trunk (we have a mid sized sedan) a smaller car would probably be out of luck, not to mention it takes up half the trunk space, then, which means the stroller wont fit...  Good thing we rarely use our stroller...  Needless to say, it has some issues with practicality.

Enter our "cheapo" version, the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat.

This doesn't have shoulder straps, a sexy looking pad, or a giant slide in tray.  After that, its all pros.  The tray snaps on with little pegs, meaning you can do one side, then the other = one handed.  It has a nifty little lift out tray on top of the tray that has a lid, so if you don't finish your cheerios, you can snap a lid on it and take it with without finding a new container for it all.  All three pieces (tray, food tray and lid) snap together pretty snug so they don't go flying apart.  But that's far from the coolest feature. It collapses.  The back folds down into the seat and the tray snaps on over it facing backwards to make this tiny little high chair cube.  And the strap you use to buckle it to the chair bottom can snap over the top of the tray to act like a handle.  Mind.  Blown.  Its like a parent actually used this one!  It also can be used as a booster seat, the seat bottom is adjustable in height and blah blah blah, but the compact portability is the huge selling feature here.  I would totally buy this one again.  I've considered ditching our expensive one to buy a second one of this for at home, but thus far I've felt too guilty about wasting the moolah.

So there you have it.  Cheaper can be better, folks!  Hope you can profit from my experimentation.

These are a few of my favorite things... zester/grater

A zester beyond all zesters.
The Microplane grater; I love this thing.  It is SUPER sharp, pretty inexpensive at about $12, and is incredibly versatile.  It will grate Parmesan into fluffy mounds (bye bye Kraft cheese-like dust!), grate chocolate into a gorgeous powdery topping, grate fresh nutmeg (WOW!) or ginger (I hate mincing), and zest any citrus to perfection.  Take care when cleaning; the back is very sharp because it is such a thin piece of metal, so don't slice your hand open!

These are a few of my favorite things... Dutch Oven

Le Creuset, eat your heart out.
I so badly wanted a dutch oven.  I NEEDED a dutch oven.  I had to have something that I could start on the stove and transfer to the oven to finish without worrying about what temps were okay and handles that might melt off.  Not to mention a large pot that wasn't non stick.  I needed to create a fond once in a while, like for a soup or something, but I just can't bear metal pans that I burn everything to.  I wanted an enameled version instead of the traditional cast iron, so I didn't have to worry about acidic foods reacting with the metal and making an icky taste.  At the size I wanted (5.5 or 6 quarts at least!), a Le Creuset would run me about $300.  Even at the discount "seconds" store. Ouch.  So I did some sleuthing and found another company that has made the cast iron version for a long time, and recently did an enameled version.  I actually bought it at Walmart for $50 (not available there anymore, but amazon has them on prime) and I have fallen in love.  It may not last for 4 generations as the famed french version, but I can afford to buy 6 for the cost of one frenchie.  The Lodge Color dutch oven has worked amazingly well, and I have not been kind to it.  Against the manufacturer's recommendation, I even took it camping and used it over an open fire.  I have had it at least 3 years now, I use it at least once a week, and no chips.   There is some staining and the enamel has crackled inside, but it is only cosmetic.  At first, the cracking of the enamel on the bottom worried me.  I wasn't thrilled at the idea of chunks of enamel coming off in my food.  However, it has had all that for at least 2 years, and it doesn't affect performance at all. I think its just the look of the finish that has cracked and not the actual enamel.  Bottom Line: a must have for every home cook, I swear! (I also broke down and bought a traditional cast iron version for about $30 I think, and it rules, too!)

These are a few of my favorite things... garlic press

My garlic press.
I admit, I stumbled on this one.  I was at a kitchen store and just happened to pick it up.  It RULES.  The Zyliss garlic press has a hinge on it so the garlic doesn't squirt out the sides or the back where there is a gap because of the arc in the pressing motion... If you don't understand what I am saying, go try your grandmother's garlic press.  Then come back when you are covered in garlic juice and still have to mince it, and buy one of these.  Its not the easiest to clean as it doesn't have one of those plug backs that forces the garlic back through all the little holes so you can remove the leftovers, but I just force it out with water pressure by putting it flush with the faucet or use a brush.  I don't care if there are tiny bits left.  It only gets used for garlic after all. Truly this is a staple of my kit hen. Seems like everything I make has garlic in it!

These are a few of my favorite things... cookbooks

It occurred to me the last night as I murdered yet another can with my crappy (and new... and expensive) can opener, that I have some strong opinions about products. Like most people, I'm often dismayed by items that don't perform, and a little put off by the sea of crappy choices in many categories, like appliances (both big and small). Places like amazon are great because you can read product reviews, but reading hundreds of reviews on 10 or 20 items is exhausting and leaves me with information overload, and often no clearer picture of what to buy. Personal references from friends are great but sometimes I don't know anyone to ask or my friends don't have the same needs from a product. So I thought, maybe by listing stuff I like here and why, I can help people who are like me to find reliable products that fill their needs. I am really lame, I know, but I have to try... manufacturers suck...  So here is the first in a series of many (hopefully).

My favorite cookbook.
The New Best Recipe from America's Test Kitchen is fabulous on so many levels.  First of all, it is HUGE (over 1,000 recipes).  There are very few recipes for "normal" food that aren't in there.  Second, it reads like a book, not a cookbook.  Each recipe has an introduction telling a little about their expectations for the dish (which is good because if yours are different you can modify to suit you; ie: spiciness), many have preparation tips or tips on how to choose ingredients, and interspersed are product reviews on the best kitchen gadgets and tools.  If you have ever seen their TV show on PBS, it reads like an episode (if you haven't, check it out!).  Third, it teaches as it gives you the recipe.  I have become SUCH a better cook after cooking with this book because I understand the science of food, I know new terms, and I know new techniques.  Dishes I used to think were hard are commonplace meals for us now, like beef stroganoff or french onion soup.  I will issue one slight word of caution.  If you fall in love with this book, don't buy any more in the series.  I am not sure about the light and 30 minute books, but I bought the baking book and it was all the same recipes as in this one, with maybe a handful of new ones.  This book is all you need.  My friend recommended it to me and she lovingly calls it "the bible" and its kinda true.  Its a reference book as well as a recipe book. I LOVE IT!

Note: I don't get money from these people.  Although I do GIVE them a lot, buying these things for myself and as gifts for people I like...