Eat to Live - 2 weeks on

Since I've moved to LA I've been eating comfort food like mad! Lots of cheese, cheese products/food, peanut butter, and ice cream treats. And I know I was gaining some weight. I wanted to eat healthier but in the last 6mo my stomache has ached when ever I eat veggies & some fruits. I went through a battery of test around Christmas last year to find out some answers, however all tests were normal.For 3mo I actually cut out veggies from my diet and my stomach stopped hurting. But I knew this wasn't the healthy way to live.

After seeing a couple of articles recently, I looked into and started the "Eat to Live" concept by Fuhrman (book).The premiss is by eating a high nutrient diet, regardless of calorie count, you will consume all needed vitamens/fiber/carbs/protein that your body needs and loose any excess weight until your body archive's it's ideal weight. Another benefit of a high nutrient (no/little bad foods) diet is many conditions improve: hypoglycemic symptoms, autoimmune disorder symptoms, cholesterol/blood pressure, etc. Dr Furhman is a practicing doctor who treats patients who need to loose weight and get healthy fast! And unlike Atkins, this diet seems very plausible from a healthy standpoint. (I never could wrap my head around eating only meat & fat is good for you)

He gives the example that 1 lb of broccoli has more protein then 1 lb of steak. At first you don't believe it but has anyone ever seen 1 lb of broccoli served? When you see the size of 1 lb broccoli it makes more sense. He also explains that what we consider normal hunger symptoms: headache, weakness, dizziness, stomach pains etc are all just withdrawal symptoms from eating so many fats/starches/salt. If you look at clinical symptoms of withdrawal and Americans' "hunger" reactions they are the same. Very interesting point. Not sure I completely believe it but from my 2 weeks on the diet, my weird food reactions have mostly gone away. And when I do eat a high starch meal...they come back...hmmmm.

The goal is to eat 1lb each of raw veggies, cooked veggies, & fruit per day. After eating 3 lbs of fruits & veggies there is not much room in your stomach left for bad foods! He recommends a 90/10 for most people. 90% of the time you "Eat To Live", 10% you indulge. I'm probably at 80/20. He discourages snacking between meals which I do not follow but I don't eat as much per meal as his book recommends. I prefer splitting it up into 4 meals & 1 snack. There are some actually good sounding recipes in the book too. And they aren't too involved, great since I'm a lazy cook. It does take a little more prep time then opening that microwave dinner... so I've devoted 2 hrs on Sunday to steam tons of veggies, enough for a week, and only prepare breakfast & wash lettuce during the week.

After 3 days my cravings almost completely dissapeared. (Very weird since I'm so craving prone & don't have the will power to stick with a restricted diet.) Haven't even wanted meat once! I have lost a few lbs (2-3) according to the scale but I look thinner and my measurements have decreased. Best of all, after 2 days my stomach no longer aches when I eat fruits & veggies!! According to his formula(Women: 5ft = 98lbs, 4lbs for every additional inch), I should be 116 lbs. We'll see if I get there. If I do everyone is getting this book for Christmas = )

Practice Practice Practice (more horsey stuff)

Last night I decided to practice some of my newly learned techniques on Vikki. Since there is no one to longe us, I decided we'd neck-reign in the round pen = ) Vikki actually neck-reigns decently...wonder where she learned that??

Anyway, I forgot my shoulder harness so I really had to concentrate on keeping my upper back straight. Keeping my hand on the cantle at the trot helped my back and once I felt like I had the correct position on her, I went back to both reigns. Poor Vikki was a little confused and wasn't consistent in her gates with my odd behaviour ; )

Back with both reigns, I started to feel when I was sitting right and when I wasn't. I tried to keep the reins fairly loose and soft on her mouth so as not to balance off her as much. She seemed to even out with her balance and gaits as well. She slowed down and I got the feeling that me sitting back was making her use her back more...or it could just be my imagination. I did notice a big difference in out canter departs by sitting back! And I think I did better on her cantering then on Garfield two days before.

Interestingly, my saddle didn't hurt me so much when I was sitting back more. Still had the gel pad on. Maybe it's mostly me seat and Vikki's thinness right now? That means I won't have to drop $1-2k on a new saddle soon!

I'm so excited! After my several year hiatus from riding due to allergies, I'll finally advance and become a better rider!

1st Lunge Lesson (non horsy people may just want to skip this)

Okay is is lunge or longe? I've seen both, which is it!!

My longe lesson went really well. I rode a 6yr, 17h, warmblood gelding named Garfield ; )

First, I've found it helps so much to wear my shoulder harness while riding. If I don't I just can't keep my back straight and sometimes even try to absorb the motion with my shoulders !?!?

The trainer really explained the dynamics of the seat really well. I had quite a few misconceptions about the leg/heel/knee/seat position. I'd hear phrases people would say during lessons and emulate that but the phrases by themselves w/o a detailed breakdown caused the wrong assumptions to be made.

Misconceptions:
Heels down heels down heels down heels down. So I'd jam them down. Turns out, a visibly down heel is a hunter thing. Jamming heels down tightens the leg and causes the toes to jack out. And heels down in dressage means "don't have your heels up" ie. relax your heel and put a little weight in your stirrup and your heel will be parallel to the ground or slightly down.
Don't have any weight in the stirrups. Which came from the statements: you should be able to post w/o stirrups & don't stand in the stirrup, weight in your heels. Which I took to be: how can you post w/o stirrups if you have weight on them... and weight in your heels means not on your toes. So I ended up tightening my legs and pinching with my thighs.
Keep your abdominal muscle relaxed not tense. So to achieve that I think I start leaning forward to balance w/o using my stomach muscles. Actually you use a lot of your upper 6 pack to maintain you balance. The lower muscles also are engage to maintain balance but not as much and tighten up in a different way to "ride the horse your seat".

Carin had me post with outside hand on the pommel and inside on the cantle. This put my upper body in the correct position which of course felt like I was totally leaning back too far. Then she had me sit two strides/post one. Once that improved we incremented to sit 3 strides/post one...etc. We also did some canter departs and I found that holding the cantle/sitting back really helped my canter depart! (I've known I've had a bad canter seat forever) I understand much better now how my canter seat is supposed to work I just need a lot more practice!

More practice and strength! Wow, the amount of pressure need to make Garfield go! I now understand when SF trainer said something like Thoroughbreds don't really need a gas pedal just brakes, warmbloods need a constant pressure on the "gas pedal".

Now I have to build up strength to hold my leg on the hair & post/sit with my leg in an unnatural twist to hug the horses belly. Sounds Easy! No Problem! (kind of reminds me of the Chinese binding feet...)

I miss my morning commute & carpoolers!

Warning: This may sound weird/disturbing to those who have no problem waking up alert or can't imaging enjoying a different lifestyle.

I miss my morning commute! In SF, I had a 50min (rush hour traffic) commute to LeapFrog. Only 17 miles but half through the city with 35 mph speed limit.I also picked up carpoolers that were on my direct route to the Highway.

The longer drive combined with chatting with carpoolers apparently was an excellent "brain wake-up" activity. Plus I learned about places/events in SF, gossip about the company, and other factoids from my carpoolers. (Not to mention the gay talk show on the radio - Sassy Sports, "If they're playing with balls...I'm all over it!")

Now living so close to work I thought, Oh it will be nice to have that time back. Wrong! Just getting out of bed and ready in the morning doesn't get me out of that post-wakeup fog. After only a 10min drive I arrive at work feeling like I'm sleepwalking. It reminds me a lot of how I felt at Lexmark. It takes me 2-3 hrs to really come out of "the fog". It doesn't effect my work if I have a lot of programming to do. However if I'm just planning or documenting or have a little less work due to product cycle,I'm dead in the water. It feels like I'm treading water in the ocean, surrounded by islands, but I don't know which Island to swim to. So I keep spinning around looking at the islands and trying to discern which one it is. Very frustrating.

It's funny because in Lexington I thought I could never commute. Giving up my freedom of arrive/leave times at work. I didn't think I would like having people in my car... etc. When I was approached about morning carpool I didn't think I would like it but I thought I'd give it a try. Now being the driver and having the car probably makes a big difference. But then again, if I were to try to be just a rider, I may end up liking that too.

Moral of this story is: keep an open mind and try it! You may or may not like it but you can't know until you try! AND MOVE BACK TO SAN FRANCISCO!

I'm buying a $75k Dressage Horse...

...vicariously through a friend at the SF stable, also named Sharon.

Actually $75k is a little over her budget but it got your attention ; p


Lanciero is a $75k, 9yr, 17h, Hanoverian training in Prix St George level (Dressage). He is in Burbank so I went to check him out before Sharon and our trainer came down to LA.

He has a very calm & sweet temperament. When I rode him I didn't feel like he was testing me and he didn't seem aggravated while trying to figure out my very novice commands. Interestingly, when sitting on him I didn't feel like I was on a 17H horse. (5'8" at the withers, where the back meets the mane, for the non-horse people) That's freakin huge! Although quite common in the dressage/warm-blood world. But compared to my little 15.3h thoroughbred mare (5'3") that's big. Plus, it's not just the height, they aren't just tall and skinny, the taller they are the bigger all over they are. Yikes!

Anyway, he was a sweety and Sharon & my trainer are planning on coming down to see him in September. They will stay with me and give me a few lessons with Vikki = )

I liked the trainer who was selling Lanciero and she has higher level horses to give lessons on. I've been wanting to take lessons on a higher trained horse to work on my skills. On Vikki I have to train her and learn which takes longer and it would be nice to learn the skills first before having to teach her. I signed up for lessons and we are going to do a lot of work on my seat on the longe line.


More pictures & video clips on Flickr (click on play button at bottom of pics)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picturesofsharon/sets/72157606898273911/
And two videos on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nWMGVmPTzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ExGPwNceic

Outback Copycat Recipies

Here is a copycat recipe for Outback's Cajun Ranch dressing. It's easy and taste's GREAT!
I toss the salad and dressing together in a large mixing bowl before packaging or eating. This action coats each piece of lettuce so there is more flavor per piece of lettuce and you end up needing far less dressing to get the same taste.I also love the taste of canned garbanzo beans with this dressing. Very Yummy!

Outback Ranch dressing
Ingredients
1 tablespoon hidden valley ranch dressing mix
1 cup mayonnaise (the real stuff - lowfat)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1) Mix all of the ingredients in a medium bowl.
2) Chill at least 1/2 hour before serving which is the key step to maximize flavor.

Outback Bushman Bread (bread machine)

Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup honey2 cups bread flour
1 2/3 cups wheat flour
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant coffee
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Vikki is in LA!

Vikki arrived at Cobblestone farm on Monday Aug 18th!

Monday/Tuesday she was quietly curious about her new surroundings. Wednesday/Thursday she was very depressed : ( I felt so bad for her. She seemed kind of pissed at me too.

Friday and Saturday she perked up. We went on a trail ride with some ladies from the barn. They are a pretty active group and trailer off the farm quite frequently. I want to get in good with them so we can go fun places!

The dogs are loving it out there...they are allowed off leash and at night there are a lot of bunnies to chase ; p

Long anticipated Beach Trail Ride

So the swimming things was the coolest ever...well this was 2nd coolest ever.

This was our (Vikki & me) first trail ride off the farm. Pierre & his horse Enzo took us to Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Park. I wasn't sure how Vikki would do trail riding off the farm more or less the ocean & crashing waves.

She was great! She was definitely curious but calm and not freaked out. The crashing waves & noise didn't scare her but she wasn't so sure about the water flowing towards her toes = ) She would try and dance away from the waves. I made her stand in a few but when the water flowed back out she'd walk sideways with the water. It was pretty funny to see and feel!

We galloped about a mile of beach (which tired poor Vikki out!), then walked out and back on the coastal trail, then galloped/walked the mile on the beach back to the trailer. By that time we had quite an audience of beach goers and they got a kick out of us. We had pictures taken of us, questions about the horses, and many horsey pettings. Vikki handled her celebrity status very well ; )

We untacked the horses and took them back to the beach to roll in the sand. The beach gave a collective Aaaaaaawww when the horses rolled. It was pretty funny!

No pictures because my trainer had a sick baby and couldn't come. Next time!

Sucks that I finally have horse buddies & trail riding partner that won't accept gas money!

Vikki's new LA home

This will be Vikki's new home. Cobblestone Ranch near Santa Clarita, CA. Only 17miles from my house, 20 min w/o traffic. Unfortunately there are no pastures here just paddocks. I'm upgrading and Vikki will have her own 24x36 paddock. I could have two horses in the 24x36, as long as they were great together (Vikki & Cato), and I would get a discount on board #2, but at $500 for one, I couldn't afford two at this farm.

The owner was really nice, the staff & families live on-sight in nice guest houses, and the ratio is 40 horses to 3 permanent staff. I do like that ratio because the staff will get to know the horses well. There is a dressage trainer there, a brand new dressage ring, trails close by, and dogs can go on the trails, and on the farm after 3pm. Now the trails are desert and not that scenic/exciting and the Angeles National Forest apparently has territorial drug lords that grow pot, Yeah. I don't plan on trail riding alone until I get to know the area.

But they feed hay not the dangerous(cheaper) cubes. The only a-la-cart option they have is turn-out, which is 15+ minutes in one of the arenas ( I so don't get the SoCal mentality). I do have the option of turn-out with another horse as long as they get along... Any other services are free: graining, blanket removal, medicating, etc. That is pretty cool.

One other drawback is it does get cold in the winter at this farm. Sometimes down to the 20s at night (desert weather is weird). Considering I'll be riding after work/dark in the winter, do I want to deal with cold weather again??

Southern California boarding issues...
So far all I have found for pasture board is 24x36 or 48x48 paddocks with shelters for shade for one horse or 1/2 acre paddock with up to 4 horses it in. People just don't fence in
larger areas. It's very old west feeling to me...horses in corrals. Anyway, my main concern is what would be best for Vikki for a permanent farm? a 24x36 paddock with horses on either side or a larger paddock with several horses in it? I don't like the idea of her being alone in a paddock but I'm uneasy about several horses in such a small area (

Our recent difficulties at Meadowbrook have made me nervous about putting her in a small pasture with other horses. I don't remember this many getting along issues in KY but I think the # horses/smaller space plays a big role.

Java...what happened to embedded/firmware??

I am now a Java Application Developer, wahoo. Not exactly what I wanted out of this job... But my friends & ex-coworkers pointed out that there are lots of Java jobs and if I do it for 2yrs andget good enough it could get me back to the SF bay area!!

I am fast becoming a layout manager guru! And my OO skills are growing daily!

Check out this (awesome) guy. He is a swedish fighter pilot by day and expert Java programmer by night! How cool is that!! And he is cute with a sexy accent = )

pdf MigLayout

Rental Car Upgrade

Surprise upgrade by Avis. The girls were Styln'. Too bad they didn't enjoy the top down. It freaked them out, Wussies = )

Vikki's boyfriend Cato

Cato and Vikki would walk around the pasture just inches apart. They shared the same hay and Vikki didn't lay her ears back if Cato tried to get the treats I was feeding her.

Unfortunately his owners keep going back and forth on giving him up. So the poor lovers have been separated for now ; (

EeaarrrrrrthQuuuuaaaakkkkeeeee !!!

Funny Judge Judy video. They were taping an episode of Judge Judy when the 5.4 Chino Hills earthquake hit.



Link


It lasted a long time for an earthquake. It started out shaking a little and I though Oooh Earthquake, then it kept going and I thought "when's it gonna end", Then it got stronger and I thought "Is this the big one?!?. It kept shaking but lessened in intensity and then stopped.

Jon and Kate plus 8 (kids) reality show

Twins and Sextuplets for one couple.

Eye opening show and surprisingly addicting! This and the Baby Borrowers are excellent show for birth control education for Anyone!

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/jon-and-kate/jon-and-kate.html

http://www.sixgosselins.com/

http://www.nbc.com/The_Baby_Borrowers/

Here it is again The 4th Annual Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest

2008 4th Annual Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/contests/2008/small-cool/

Garlic truck

Rural California is all farm land. Each trip LA to SF in June I saw trucks full of garlic on the highway.

This past trip Aug 8-10th I saw at least 7 trucks of tomatos.

Grasshopper on steroids?!?

WTF?!?

Does smog cause grasshoppers to grow to enormous proportions???? Yikes! This was in my landlords' backyard (TG I have vicious dogs & cats to protect me)

LA is too damn bright!

You think you've seen bright sun in WI, KY, San Francisco (on a sunny day), ... but NO! The sun is so bright here you can barely look down at the sidewalk and your eyes hurt! It's actually depressing... I just wish it would go away! A foggy day here and there would greatly improve my depression from the glaring sun.



I really really miss the SF fog!!!! Not that I want it overcast (I grew up with that in MI and I hated it). The fog is not overcast...it's a cool entity of it's own and fun to watch roll in. When you drive past the GG bridge (pictured on the right) you drive up a hill and into a tunnel. On days like this, where it's sunny and the fog starts to roll in, the fog comes tumbling off a cliff above the tunnel entrance and it looks like it's raining cotton balls & stuffing.



I just want nice sunny days (not glaring sun) with an occasional day of fog here and there. Is that too much to ask!!!!