Friday, February 26, 2010

finesse at 19 months


Dear Mirabella,
You are awesome on the balance beam.
You are strong and confident.
Watching you sprint from trampoline to slide to rings at Open Gym makes me so proud I could bust.
I love you so much baby girl. When you smile I get goosebumps.
Love
Momma

how many minutes on the stairmaster to work off the chocolate cake?

Phit Chicks may remember our Chocolate Tasting event where we rated treats based on their "treadmill worthiness."

Now the Real Age website makes it easy to know the trade-off in exercise each calorie splurge will require -- check out the Real Age Exercise Estimator.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Michelle Obama introduces "Let's Move"

For the first time in history, the United States is raising a generation of children expected to live shorter lives than their parents. More and more children are fighting diseases, like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, that used to only show up in adults.
As a country, we're spending $14 billion per year in direct costs for health care for obese children.

Last week, Michelle Obama rolled out the Let's Move initiative, an effort to use a variety of strategies to help roll back to the epidemic of childhood obesity in this country.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Friday, February 19, 2010

personal branding book


Planning to read
Me 2.0

a book on personal branding on my Kindle this weekend.
Have you read it?

Update: A decent read with some good ideas. Really targeted at 20-somethings but social media info is good for everyone to read. Thoughts on the resume being "dead" is an eye-opener many mid-careerists should ponder.
3 Angela stars out of five.

Forever 21 - please think before you shop

I knew it was too cheap to be true.

Sweatshop labor in the US – Forever 21 has been running sweatshops in California and using Mexican immigrant labor in subpar working conditions to provide you with cheap disposable clothing. How can you in good conscious spend money on a product that forces fellow women to work in sweatshop conditions? Several of these women have banded to together and created a must see documentary called “Made in LA”. It is very easy to say “Oh yeah, it may be cheap labor but I can’t afford anything better” and thereby distancing yourself from the issue at hand but watching this documentary and seeing the faces behind your garments should open everyone’s eyes.

Additionally, Forever 21 has been taken to the California Supreme Court regarding its unfair labor practices repeatedly. As one factory worker Guadalupe Hernandez explained she earned, “$4 per hour working 10 hours a day 6 days a week in a factory with no running water and no bathroom.” Clearly the cost of fast fashion is too high!

on my mind right now

1) How grateful I am for nasal cleansing. Yogis have been using Neti Pots for years, but they are just now in mainstream healthcare.

SO helpful in getting over a cold. Kinda weird, but definitely worth doing.

2) The people in Haiti. Mr Right has mentioned adopting a child from there and I'd do it in a minute.

3) Saw Quinton Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" on Tuesday night at home. The violence and hate just give me chills. A good movie, I guess, but really disturbing. I would not normally watch, but Mr Right was healing from back surgery and I wanted to get a non-girl movie for him.

I'm grateful that talented people like Trantino produce these movies; it will hopefully prevent us from ever allowing something so awful to happen again.

4) Trying to stop thinking about my cold and get some work done.

The Beauty of Health: Resizing the Sample Size


Apparently representatives of the beauty industry are considering changing the standard sample size - a whopping SIZE 0 -- to a size closer to what healthier women wear (or at least not anerexic 15 year olds).

The beauty and fitness blog on Vogue tells about it here.

About time.

Way over due, actually.

Kudos to them for tackling it.

Hurry please.

Monday, February 08, 2010

On my mind right now:

Haiti victims

Apple's new iPad

how much I loved fitness conventions before every session was a commercial for a new gizmo

Oprah is stopping at 25 years. I've been teaching aerobics, group ex or yoga for 27 years. Time to quit?

My baby girl can now say "yeah" very clearly.

How stressful a month of non-stop business travel has been. Yet how wonderful to actually find time to THINK and READ which I never have unless I'm Up in the Air.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

February day two

Not one to enjoy cold weather or winter, I tend to be ready to bail and move to Los Angeles by February.

To keep myself positive, I keep listing things to love about February.

1. Valentines Day
! Chocolates and flowers and gifts, all definite yums. I enjoyed Valentines Day when I was single -- was fun surprising co-workers and friends with treats. I think I see it as a chance to make up for the things I didn't cross off my list at Christmas.

2. A short month.

3. January, and all it's goal setting and post-holiday blahs - is over.

4. Spring clothes are already in the magazines (and some of the stores)!

5. Another full month to enjoy indoor workouts and classes before the first sunshine-filled days send me outside to walk and run. I think this month I'll try Title Nine Boxing -- not one for boxing classes, but maybe if I hit a real bag, maybe that would be good.