Looking Good (for a mom)

I was recently placing an Amazon.com order, and since my order already qualified for free shipping, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to purchase a book from my Amazon wishlist. The book was New Rules of Lifting by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. Lou and Alwyn also wrote another book together (with Cassandra Forsythe) called The New Rules of Lifting for Women with the tagline ‘Lift like a man, Look like a Goddess.’.. Read More

Being a part of the Twitter community has exposed me to dozens of other health and fitness bloggers. Many of them are simply amazing people. I’ve added many of their blogs to my blogroll, but I thought I’d occasionally give you links to relevant and interesting articles I’ve enjoyed reading from their blogs... Read More

Last week I talked about how much red meat is too much, and I promised I’d track my meat intake over the course of the week. So now it’s time to share the results. I had a grass-fed steak (Delmonico cut) one day, and a cup of chili another day. I estimate that I hit just about 1.5 servings, maybe just a bit more. It was good to be mindful of my red meat intake, and substitute in chicken or fish (or beans) when I could... Read More

There are a few things I’ve learned NOT to do over the past year. These are common fitness mistakes that either waste your time, or cause your workout to be less efficient. Some of these are mistakes I made, others I was fortunate enough to learn not do before I made them. But they are all thing I see other people doing in the gym, just about every time I’m there. So here’s a quick list of things I’ve learned to avoid — and now you can too... Read More

Years ago, when I was a teenager, I stopped eating meat. I didn’t become a vegetarian, per se, but I stopped eating red meat and pork, continuing to eat poultry and fish. I actually ate this way for many years, but partway through college I added red meat back to my diet. During the time red meat was off the menu, I focused my diet primarily on starchy carbs – pasta, potatoes, etc., and very few green vegetables, however, so I wasn’t eating very healthy!.. Read More

I mentioned in my last post that we were away last weekend. In fact, we traveled out to a piece of family property in western Maryland. It’s a lakefront property, but it’s been in the family for years, and conditions are…let’s just say…a bit rustic!.. Read More

I’ve just returned from a trip away from home with my family from the Washington D.C. area (more on that later). It was a lovely weekend up in the mountains at our family cabin, devoid of T.V. (there is one, but we don’t use it), Internet access, and all of the modern conveniences that keep us occupied here at home... Read More

I have to admit, I’ve been on a bit of a tirade lately about “conventional wisdom.” There are so many times I’ve heard people give health and fitness advice to others, and the advice is either either completely false, possibly true but there’s no research to support it, or the research that supports it is under debate. Yet, thanks to news articles that share the interesting conclusions of scientists, but hold back the boring details (whether the conclusions are based on research or conjecture, how the study – if any – was conducted, what peer reviewers of the study thought about the conclusions), everyone from my 10 year-old neighbor to a Personal Trainer at one of the local gyms will repeat the “sound bytes” from the article ad naseum... Read More