Any Day Can Be Mardi Gras

Our family Wednesday night theme dinner last week was Mardi Gras.  We were late.  Mardi Gras this year was celebrated 8 days earlier, Fat Tuesday.  But, who cares?  Why can't any day can be Mardi Gras?

James R. Creecy in his book Scenes in the South, and Other Miscellaneous Pieces describes New
Orleans Mardi Gras in 1835:

Shrove Tuesday is a day to be remembered by strangers in New Orleans, for that is the day for fun, frolic, and comic masquerading. All of the mischief of the city is alive and wide awake in active operation.

Fun and frolic is certainly one way to get your kids engaged in enjoying a family dinner together. 

Ring in the New Year with Lobster Claws

Here's a re-post from last winter.  If you are looking to ring in the New Year with some tasty lobster claws, but don't quite know what to do with them this is for you . . .

What to Do With Frozen Lobster Claws

If you were too spontaneous to have time to defrost them

-increase cook time to 30 minutes
-open the top of the foil and cook an additional 10 - 15 minutes to cook off excess water.

The 4 Hour Body

My friend's enthusiasm over this book, The 4 Hour Body, interested me enough to download it the same day.  He was geeked, and rightfully so.  He attributed techniques in the book to losing double digit pounds in 14 days.  For a tall and naturally thin person this is quite a feat.  As a health conscious person, always looking for ways to improve, I was intrigued.

I downloaded the book on Audible and listened to it in it's entirety in less than a day.  I was not hooked by all of the great tips that I couldn't wait to put into practice.  I was hooked by the bizarreness of it.  Much like you can't take your eyes off of a creepy movie, I listened to nearly 4 hours of weirdness.

Practices I will put into place from 4HB:

‎101 Three-Word Success Tips

A colleague of mine recently posted this in a New Year / New You accountability group on Facebook and I found it so simple and at the same time so powerful that I wanted to pay it forward.
 

‎101 Three-Word Success Tips 

1.Drink more water.
2.Watch less TV.
3.Action makes traction.

4.Try new things.
5.Hang in there.
6.Get better daily.
7.Begin with enthusiasm.
8.Finish with flair.
9.Celebrate small wins.
10.Eliminate wasted steps.
11.Aim higher sooner.
12.Never stop learning.

Lessons From the Rise of the Guardians

I know, I know . . . who goes to an animated film and looks for the business lesson?  Me, me, me, me.  As a parent and as a business leader I could kiss the producers of these fabulous children's movies.  They are captivating, entertaining, enjoyable for all ages, and,

Thanksgiving 2012 Activity That's a Snack Too

Here's a repeat post from last year because it's a great thing to do when the kids are home this week and it's a nice snack to have around if you're entertaining...

I have the perfect easy family activity for today; sugared cranberries. Watch out! They are like potato chips. I bet you can't eat just one.

2 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 cups cranberries
sugar to coat

combine 2 cups water and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. DO NOT BOIL! Add the cranberries and let cool for at least 2 hours. You can refrigerate overnight. In batches, roll cranberries in sugar. Place on wax paper to dry for about an hour. While they are getting ready go for a family hike and get in those 10,000 steps. How many different types of leaves can you find?

Super easy. Super yummy and pretty too.

What else can you do with them?
-use them to top cakes and pies
-add thin strips of lemon peel
-add thin strips of orange peel
-mix with nuts
-use them to top a salad

Drop 500 Calories This Thanksgiving

My diet theory is  -  be good most of the time so that you can indulge some of the time, but you can  drop 500 calories this Thanksgiving that you won't miss.

Cranberry Orange Relish
Most recipes call for 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar per 12 oz. bag of cranberries.  Drop this to 1/4-1/3 cup of sugar and save 50-100 calories per serving.

Sausage Stuffing
For every 1 lb. of pork sausage replace with 12 Morning Star Farms Original Sausage Patties.  This will save you another 100 calories per serving.

Salad Dressing
This is an easy one.  Replace your regular ranch dressing with Bolthouse Farms Classic Ranch..  Face it.  None of us stick to a 2 tbsp. serving when it comes to dressing.  You can drop another 100 calories by making the switch and the dressing is very good.

Cocktails
My favorite part of the holidays!!!  The trouble here is that your body will burn alcohol before it will burn fat or calories so it doesn't matter as much how many calories you are consuming here; you will burn less.  That said, you can still cut another 200 calories by

Beer drinkers - switch to light beer.
Cocktail drinkers - mix with a low calorie mixer.
Wine drinkers (and the above) - mix it up.  Slide a club soda and lime in between drinks.

Don't get tricked by fancy names. Low carb and "skinny" drinks are kind of like saying "less calories than most candy bars".  Here's a website you can check before you shop Get Drunk Not Fat. 

Make the bad calories count and cut where you won't notice to enjoy this holiday!!!
Happy Thanksgiving

Planned to Fail

I had my tunes all set for 10 miles of trails and road.  I had the proper shoes and clothing for the distance run with hundreds of feet of vertical climb and 4 flights of stairs at the 7 mile mark.  But I forgot the Glide.  Ouch!

I should be feeling like I can do anything.  Like Queen of the World.  Instead, I feel like that chipmunk I saw that didn't make it across the road.  In failing to properly plan for a 10 mile run I had planned to fail.  Too much friction with no protection.  This will not feel good tomorrow.  I really should have spent a little extra time planning.

What accomplishment could you have felt better about if you had spent more time planning?

Fall Beauty

We Michiganders may complain a lot about the winter, but without our glorious 4 seasons we would miss out on this . . .

You don't have to travel that far to witness these fall beauties.  I made a trip up I75 to Saginaw the other day and it was beautiful.  I started to see colors like these around the Frankenmuth area.

Get the up north experience without going all the way.  Plan your day trip from the metro Detroit area.

Start out at Don's of Traverse City in Novi.  Take yourself back to the last time you visited the Grand Traverse area without the travel.  My favorite is their real fruit cherry shakes - yummy!

Head west on I96 to US23 north.  Take the Clyde Rd exit (Exit 70) and visit Spicer's Orchard.  You can pick your own or they have them ready to go.  My faves here are the cinnamon donuts and the honey crisp apples.  They have lots for kids to do so plan on staying a little while.  Your kids will have a blast on the climbing activities, bounce houses, pony rides, and they will love climbing the giant dirt pile.  Ah, the simple things in life.  Oh, I almost forgot the corn maze.  It's a lot of fun, but we almost always seem to visit Spicer's the same day as our 20 mile training run. Ugh.



Here we are at Spicer's September 2011

 When you leave Spicer's continue to head north on US23 until it turns into I75.  Continue on to the Birch Run/ Frankenmuth exit.  If you aren't stuffed full of donuts turn left and try Tony's.  I hear they put a pound of bacon on their BLT's.  Otherwise, head into town for a day of shopping, site seeing and fall colors.  With the unseasonably hot weather you have no excuse to stay inside.  Get out and enjoy the beautiful state we live in and get your 10,000 steps without even knowing it.

Weekend Playlist

No kid, or family, left inside this summer.  Get the entire family out.  Don’t be a couch potato this weekend there’s too much going on. 

My absolute favorite summer fair is Milford Memories.  It is in downtown Milford, which is a nice place to visit anytime, and it has a lot of variety.  We go almost every year.  Why we love it: live music, lots and lots of food selection including carny food, and beer tents, and it trails from downtown to Central Park by the Huron River.  Let the kids run loose here there is a giant play area.  It’s not my thing, but they even have a Civil War Encampment where they shoot canons.

Kid Rock fans,

he’s in the big ‘D’ this weekend.  I love this video of his concert announcement.  Last year was the first time we saw him live and we’re hooked.  You don’t have to be a huge fan to have big time fun at one of his concerts.  The Kid puts on a show.  We’re going Saturday night.  Are you going?

I’ve never been to this one, but it has a catchy name Cheeseburger in Caseville.  Caseville is up in the thumb and the fair sounds like it’s packed with fun.  It offers food, music, and water; a perfect combo.  There’s even a 5k on Saturday.  Pre-registration is already closed for that one, but you can register at the park on race day.  Anyone with info please comment below.

There are several art fairs this weekend.  One is even in my own hometown of Brighton (that’s Brighton Michigan, unfortunately not the Brighton Art Fair in the UK which is in September).

Get in your 10,000 steps while checking out the artwork.

FASTFORWARD

August 27^th, The CRIM in Flint offers many different races up to 10 Miles. (There is a discount if you sign up for the CRIM and Brooksie Way together.)

October 2^nd, The Brooksie Way.  This one is in Rochester and made the list for scenic fall runs.  We ran it in 2009 and it is definitely my most memorable finish line.  My husband and I lost each other at the beginning of the race, but I caught up to him at around mile 11.  Realizing that we could finish under 2:00 we held hands and booked it to the finish line crossing together at 1:58.

October 16^th, Free Press Marathon.  We are signed up for this one making it our second appearance in Detroit.  There is also a marathon in Grand Rapids for the western side of the state on the same day.



"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."
-John Bingham

What activity are you going to start?



Make It a Fun Day

Today is going to be a fun day.  Why?  Because I decided that it is going to be fun.  It's a choice  and it's an attitude.  You can choose too.  It doesn't matter what is on your agenda for the day.  It just matters what attitude you decide to attack the day with. 
Do you have to go to work today?  Even if you are not happy in your job you can make it fun.  In fact if you make it fun you might start enjoying your job more and the time will go by faster.
Do you have to do household chores today?  I do.  Sunday is clean the cat box day at my house. Yuck!  I can sit and mope about it, but time is short and I want to have as much fun as possible today. 
Is exercise on your agenda?  It's on mine and as much as I do it and talk about it I don't find it any more fun than the next person. It's tough. I just know that I will feel much better afterwards and since I am going to do it anyway I am going to make it fun. 
I hope that you all have an awesome and FUN day.

Happiness

Still looking for a resolution for 2011?  How about happiness?  It seems to be a current trend with authors, CEO's and magazine publishers.  Why not with you too?

First you have to decide what happiness is.  There are nearly 20,000 books with the word happy in the title inluding one written by the Dalai Lama, The Art Of Happiness.  So many people look to find happiness that one of Harvard's psychology classes, taught by Dan Gilbert, on the subject was one of their most popular classes.  In our own history the search to be happy was so important it was included in the Declaration of Independence; "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Still, what is happiness?

"Dictionary.com says that happiness is good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.  Since good fortune is defined as a streak of luck many of us will only find temporary happiness with that one.  Pleasure is more on target being defined as enjoyment and gratification.  This is perhaps what we think of most when we think of being happy.

A friend of mine describes happiness as the good feelings found in experiences.  Since happiness is a state of mind if you focus on where you are right now and what you are doing then this has to be true.  Happiness is discovered in your experiences.  Think about a new purchase or gift that made you happy; a new car, a new outfit, a new watch.  How long did the good feelings last?  Now think about a really enjoyable experience you had.  Did it make you smile?  I bet it did.  Our experiences bring pleasure and joy; the core of happiness.

Now is the time to be happy.  Here's to wishing you a pleasurable, enjoyable and happy 2011.

Opera Everyone Can Appreciate

Stavros Flatly - Greek Irish Dancers - Britains Got Talent 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg     Irish dancing is good exercise and great for family bonding as shown here.

October

What a great month!  Perfect running weather, a wedding and a baby (both not mine).

MSU Fight Song Nov 7th 2009

5 Tips to Speed Up Your Metabolism | Active.com

We all want to speed up our metabolism . . .
5 Tips to Speed Up Your Metabolism Active.com