How Are You Starting Off Your Fitness Week?

Me rockin' some kettleball squats. Like, forever....

So, I have plans to get in a run tomorrow, and work some legs. Wednesday will see me hit the heavy bag and do an abs workout with medicine balls, and some bench presses (which I've been neglecting lately. On Saturday, I'm doing hell rounds of boot camp with two crazy friends of mine. You think I'm crazy? No, these girls are nuts, and by the time we finish our little Saturday afternoon madness, I really have to go sit down....For like, a few hours!

But, as you see, I have my fitness week planned out.
Now, there are many times when I am spontaneous, and just grab the blades, or my tennis racquet and balls or do whatever comes to mind, but then there are weeks when I like to have a plan.
In life, there's the work week, the school week, and the workout week!
What do you have planned for yours? By the way, I'm still rockin' that kettleball, as you can see! Can't stop me, can ya?! :D

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Post Thanksgivings Day Abs Check!

Ok, you know you all have been doing it since dinner yesterday - looking at yourself in the mirror sideways to see just how much damage you've done! So? How's that stomach looking today? Are you going to have to do a week's worth of penance on the treadmill or around the track? As for me, I was a good girl! Not that I was trying.... my appetite just isn't the wild boar it used to be. Where I used to go back for thirds, now, a plate and a half will do. Ha! So, no worries... the abs are still there!
Can you say the same? Hmmmmm? :D

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Just Ask Me...!

Got questions? Well, I got answers! Check it out! ;)



Email me on the blog or at exceptional_fitness@yahoo.com. Nothing is too personal or risque - I cover it all. So, bring it! ;)

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Giving the Gift of Fitness!

My first executive act as president is going to be.....
- whoop... excuse me. I was having an Obama moment! ;)

But the first thing I want to do this week is to give you all something you can really use. A freebie. I'm passing on one of my favorite little resources that you might not know about - a free workout day at the gym of your choice! Now, who couldn't use that?



Gymticket.com is a service that I have used from time to time, and their gym list keeps on expanding. Through this site, you can get yourself a free workout at gyms all across the country. Those of you that are looking for a kick start to your fitness program or who just might need a new flavor in your fitness lineup once in a while can take advantage of one or as many of these free gym passes that you want! ;)

Gymticket.com gives free passes to all the top gyms including New York Sports Clubs, Equinox, Bally's, Curves, 24 Hour Fitness and more. All you have to do is go to the site, put in your state and zip code, and a list of the gyms near you participating in the program pops up. Fill in some info, they contact you (or you can download the pass and let them know you're coming), and BAM!, a free day of fitness!
No obligation whatsoever beyond your 1 free day.
Here's the link: Gymticket.com

Enjoy!

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It's My 200th Blogday!!!

So this called for something a bit more personal and special...

I know I've been incommunibloggo for almost a week now, but I've been busy! I also knew that my 200th blog post anniversary was here, so I had to hold off for a minute... ;)

I am really proud and happy to have brought my blogging this far, and the greatest part about it all is that I've met so many other great bloggers - YOU - in the processs!
Thanks so much for all the support and comments! I love you all, and will keep blogging my absolute BEST for you!

By the way, I've been blogging for a loooong time....

yes....even then! You just can't see the pen and notebook stuck in the pocket of my lil' diaper! ;)

I've got some great stuff coming up, so stay tuned! See you all around the blogs!

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Cookie Burn!

Ok, now tell me that this isn't just the universe keeping me in check. I've been pretty good lately; nothing fried, nothing fatty, keeping my "one bad day where I go buck wild" a week promise, and therefore, things have been looking good.
So, I decided to indulge myself a bit further and make me some cookies.
Well, I got two results from this little venture. One good:



...and one not so good!



This little blister came from the stove slapping me on the wrist as I reached in to get these babies out!
Don't worry....won't have to tell me twice! Be a long time before I even THINK about making those cookies again! ;)

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A Gorgeous Pre Winter Blading Day

Since the weather was pretty agreeable today, I decided to take my roller blades to work with me and hit one of my favorite paths after work. I'm glad that I got this brainstorm of an idea this morning, because the blade was incredible; the weather chilly and brisk, and I damn near had the entire 6 mile bike path to myself! ;)
Best kept secret - bike or blade in colder weather, and you avoid a ton of traffic!
There was noooobody home. Except other die hards like me!
I took my cam with me, and snapped some pretty fall photos along the way.


A distant view of the Statue of Liberty from the waterfront at Battery Park City. I like the way the ocean and sky look in this shot.


It's definitely a fall scene on the Battery Park section of the bike path. I took some up close pics of the foliage, but I won't bore you with those! ;)




The ducks were out today, doing their usual at the Battery Park City duck pond...



...how do they keep warm in this cold weather?
















I saw this group of Coast Guard guys along the way, and began stalking them, trying to get a good pic. Guess that didn't work out too well! LOL



Finally on the West Side Highway bike path, and it's all mine, baby! I only saw one other blader today. Mostly there were folks in winter gear on their bikes, and a few pedestrians who use this path as their daily route to and from wherever. I need to blade in chilly weather more often! ;)








My last pic, a view of the New Jersey skyline across the water. I love sunlight on the water pics, so I was glad to be able to get a good one here.




So, it was a worthwhile trip in more ways than one. I got a good few miles of rollerblading in, and I got to see the path decked out in its gorgeous fall colors.
I will do this bike path pictorial again when it snows, but I don't think I'll be on the blades for that one! ;)

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Exergaming Kids Fitness

While it's not like the gym class that I both loved and loathed, this innovative way of getting kids more into being fit and active is something that really should be explored as another way to get kids up off the couch and excited about exercising.
While some might not think that this is a good subtitute for traditional team sports and exercise, I think it's great! All you have to do is look at the enthusiasm on these little faces to know that this school is definitely on the right track! ;)

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Cool Body Facts #3

Let's dig a little deeper.... Here are a few cool facts about those insides! ;)

1. The largest internal organ is the small intestine. Your small intestine is four times as long as the average adult is tall.

2, The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet. Pumping blood through your body quickly and efficiently takes quite a bit of pressure resulting in the strong contractions of the heart and the thick walls of the ventricles which push blood to the body.

3. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razorblades. Hydrochloric acid, the type found in your stomach, is not only good at dissolving food, but can also eat through many types of metal.

4. The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels. To put that in perspective, the distance around the earth is about 25,000 miles, making the distance your blood vessels could travel if laid end to end more than two times around the earth.

5. You get a new stomach lining every three to four days. The mucus-like cells lining the walls of the stomach would soon dissolve due to the strong digestive acids in your stomach if they weren’t constantly replaced.

6. Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s. On average women tend to be smaller than men and have less mass to pump blood to. However, women’s and men’s hearts can actually act quite differently, especially when experiencing a heart attack, and many treatments that work for men must be adjusted or changed entirely to work for women.

7. You could remove a large part of your internal organs and survive. It’s possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area. You might not feel too great, but the missing organs wouldn’t kill you.

Okay..... I don't know about walking around with only half of my organs intact. I think I'd just check on out if that ever happened! ;)

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My Favorite Winter Fruit

 

Love these! Pomegranates are one of the things that make me look forward to winter. I have loved them since I was a little girl, and we used to call them "Chinese Apples".
If you pick the right one, you are sure to make quite the mess when opening it.

I won't bore you with a ton of health facts about the pomegranate, but you all know that they contain a high amount of antioxidants, vitamin C, and are rich source of folic acid and vitamins A and E, right? Cool. Because who needs another lecture on fruit? ;) It's better just to enjoy it sometimes!


I like to take a knife and cut an 'X' across and through the top, down a few inches.
Then I just pull the pomegranate apart into 4 sections, and start working on it from there. (since I was taking a photo, I cut that one you see above straight across in half) I don't spit the seeds out, either. I chew down on the juicy buds until all the juice is gone and then I swallow it. You can bet I have one clean colon after I eat a couple of these things. Can't get much better fiber and roughage than that! lol


These are all over the place lately, and I'm buying and eating them almost daily right now. Heads up to all you New Yorkers: Whole Foods in Union Square has them on sale at 2 for $4, and for big ripe ones, not the runts. If you know your pomes, you know that this is a good bargain, and you'd better get down there before WF changes its mind and ups the price!

Hope you all love pomegranates like me. I'm curious, though, does anyone else eat the seeds like I do? By the way, I do that with watermelon too (sometimes). Maybe I'm just too lazy to spit them out! LOL

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What's Keeping You From Being as Fit As You Would Like to Be?

All the info is right there at your fingertips. A ton of health and fitness blogs, websites, magazines, TV shows, infomercials, all plying you with enough info to become a fitness expert yourself. We all know the drill by now: eat less fatty and sugary foods, stay away from fast food, get more exercise, consume less calories, figure out ways to stay motivated to do what's best for your body, etc, etc, etc. We all know which foods fight cancer, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, etc, etc, etc. Unlike in the past, this info is coming at us daily, whether we want to know it or not.

However, with all this information, obesity and all the diseases caused by it are still a growing problem for many. Why is that? When you look at yourself, would you say that you're doing what's necessary to not be part of the unhealthy statistic? Are you really taking as good care of your body as you could be? If not, why not? What's holding you back and keeping you from doing the right things?

As for me, I can tell you, it's a combination of things, when it does happen. For the most part, I stay active and try to eat healthy MOST of the time, but I do have my little slips. I have periods where I can just get a bit lazy, and also when I just want to do whatever I feel like. If that means eating a pint of Haagen Dazs, well then, I just do it. I just DON'T do it every single day. I know that alcohol consumption is bad on so many levels, but when those holidays and special events roll around, you will see a glass in my hand! I'm not going to lie about that! I love beer and wine, margaritas and tequila shots, and if I'm in the right (or wrong!) company, we can all get a little crazy with it!
I love living my life to the fullest, and don't like to feel like I'm denying myself anything. I do, however, know when it's time to pull back, and that's something that I now know how to do pretty well. Next day, back on the treadmill, back to eating right, and doing what I know is best for me. It's my personal belief that you don't have to deny yourself the little things you crave at times, you just have to not have them all the time.

I do manage to stay healthy and fit even though I do break the rules every now and then, but I know that for some, it's not that easy.


For some, finding that balance can be a bit more challenging, maybe because of stress, lack of support, negative peer pressure, temptation, having to take care of others before you can take care of yourself, and sometimes just being plain too tired to go work out or get up and cook. Those are the moments when you can definitely find yourself not making the good choices when it comes to your body and your health.

So, what's your deal? Do you consider yourself to be healthy and at least in decent shape? If not, why not? What's keeping you from achieving that?
What do you think would help you get there? Is it you, or is it some outside influence or situation that's keeping you from reaching that goal?

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"No Server on Port 80".... What the Hell???

I have been building my own websites using Microsoft Frontpage for a couple years now, and my system has always been reliable and worked just fine. So, I go to open my Frontpage today, and get this message "no server on port 80", and therefore, I can't get into my Frontpage application to work on and update my websites! What the...??
I now have 10 websites that I can't create new pages for and tend to. This sucks!!
How does this just happen out of the clear blue? I have had a nasty adware or two come through here, but cleaned it right up. I've been trouble shooting this thing all morning, and can't figure it out. Anybody ever have this happen to their system? What the hell do you do to fix this??

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Did You Know....?

....that recent reports state that watermelon can have the same effect as Viagra on men? Yep! Stop the presses!



The flesh and rind of watermelon contain citrulline, an agent which can trigger the production of arginine, an amino acid which boosts nitric acid in the body. Nitric acid relaxes the blood vessels, which is necessary for erectile function. That's the same thing that Viagra does in men. Nitric oxide can also have a positive effect on high blood pressure and other cardiovascular ailments.

The amount of watermelon that a man must consume to be 'effective' is still debatable, but right now six cups is thought to produce enough citrulline to elevate the body's arginine levels enough to show some results.

In a recent study, a group of men drank 3 8oz glasses of watermelon juice a day for 3 weeks, thus boosting their arginine levels by 11%. The highest levels of citrulline, however, are found in the watermelon rind.



Since it's so low calorie and tasty, you can conduct these studies on your own, eh?
"Watermelon - it's not just for summer anymore!" :D

Eat up, guys! ;)

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