knee-friendly jump rope

Fitness Magazine caught my eye with "Burn 160 Calories in 15 Minutes."

The exercises are pretty much all jumping rope, and my 40+ knees sometimes like jump rope more than others.   (Many women have told me a bigger problem is post-mom bladder.)

I have to say that jumping rope is a surprise, and though it looks like a highest-impact activity, it actually isn't.   The lower leg muscles have to control the rebound, and you don't leave the ground hardly at all. 

(Bonus: lower leg muscles toned for spring dresses and heels.)

I find what folks really hate though, is tripping on the rope.  How can it be so hard to do something I did for hours when I was 10 years old?
Two options that are a bit more knee-friendly (and less frustrating!):
1)  No rope.  That's right - just pretend you are jumping.   As silly as it sounds, you won't get frustrated tripping on the rope and you won't have to quiet the "Cinderella, dressed in yella..." chants from your childhood (which make you feel even more silly).

2.  Jump Snap.    I've gotten emails from these folks for quite awhile, and apparently Dr Oz gave them quite an endorsement.   Try it!   

My imaginary rope OR the Jump Snap will make a great cardio option for an interval workout.   Jump for two minutes, then do a strength exercise.   A simple, cheap and effective workout for indoors until the snow melts! 

Party of two and a half

Mr Right and I used to have fabulous parties for watching the Oscar's. 

Gold buttercream cake?   Wow. 
I've been holed up with a cold, and now my whole family has it.  I won't be wearing these beautiful accessories or getting a rad manicure for an outrageous party.  I'll be catching up on work and laundry.  Hopefully I'll have a healthy toddler by then.   But what a glittery start I have to planning a 2012 Oscars Party.   :)

Dear Fairy Godmother

Dear Fairy Godmother,

I don't need a prince. Happily-ever-after is going well.

Here's what I would wish for:

Woodway Treadmill - this seems to be the only thing that can carry my 40+ knees on a run longer than 5 miles with no pain the next day.   They have them at my gym and I love them.  Wouldn't it be wonderful though, to skip the drive, parking, checking in and lockerroom and just go jump on this floating-belt-platform guy for cardio?   Could take a 2.5 hour chunk of my day and cut it into a 1.5 hour commitment.  And I could use that hour.

Martha Stewart Craft Room furniture (I don't even do crafts - ??  Love this though.)



These abs.   A bit on the hard side for my tastes, but I would have so much fun "softening" them just a little! 

A week here.

And this to drive, preferably near the ocean.

Sincerely,
Angela B.
P.S. Happy home, family, friends and fulfilling career mean I would, in reality (if the whole fairly godmother thing came to be reality), pass this wish off to someone who needed a job, home or warm meal. Thanks for indulging my fantasy post.

Crescendo

Crescendo, originally uploaded by acastellano.

This makes me want to take surfing lessons.

Maybe not start with this wave :)

Can't you just feel it's energy?

Phit finds on the web

Send your prayers and good vibes to the poor folks in the flooding Brisbane, Australia.  I found this photo of the popular "Keep Calm" poster in a canoe - how appropriate.  It's hanging in my {dry and safe} office and I may look at it differently now.

Loved this post on "The F Word" by Working Moms Against Guilt.  So glad I found these women.

{The F word, in this case, is Flexibility.  As in workday flexibility. Or the lack of it.  And the need for it.}

Have you seen the online Lonny Mag?  Gorgeous.   This spread had an embroidered Marc Jacobs dress ($1,500 yikes) and a multi-thousand dollar white camera I'm drooling over.   A girl can dream.

Snow day

Yesterday was a snow day with all 240 schools in the metro area closed. Here's what it looked like out my office window.
I had an awesome day reading and thinking.  Made way too many lists, but managed to scratch off a number of to-do's as well.

And M had an amazing day, though she preferred the snow out the window.  She wasn't as wild about sledding as her Dad.  She's a beach girl, like Mom.

Kudos Abbey for finding this awesome piece of snow art by Luke Aleckson.

He made this installation with bread tray snow shoes.

via Abbey Goes Design Scouting

Mad (wo)Men photoshopping

C'mon admit it. You've looked at magazine cover models with envy, right? We know they are photoshopped like crazy. But we still believe the image and create (even more) unrealistic expectations of our physical self.

I laughed at what happened to Mad Men stars in this photo from Rolling Stone.

The three women, who have VERY different body types, appear to all have the tinier waists and enlarged cleavage. Not sure why this was necessary since they are so freakin' gorgeous just as they are. Here's a photo of them at the Emmy's.

Had to laugh again at this take on it -- "where's Betty Draper's hand?"

2011 work trends will fuel need for personal branding

Are you bored at work?

New Year's Resolution stats in the January Women's Health magazine say that 46% of women desire a career change.

So I found this info on personal branding even more interesting.

Trends in 2011 include:

More working from home; and more options for jobs in other cities as employers compete for talent and trust off-site work even more.

Vid-casting and Video conferencing. Apparently it will soon be beneficial to have HOS - home office studio - listed when you sell your house. Cool.

Appearing on video will require dressing up from the waist up. Seriously, don't you love the idea of putting on a blouse, jacket, pearls, yoga pants and flip flops?

Flat-Belly Powerfoods

6 Flat-Belly Powerfoods. Eat more, weigh less.

A typical January magazine headline.

But this resonates with me more than past years, since I experienced this at the advanced maternal age of 43:



A pear-shaped, curvy girl, I never appreciated my (pre-pregnancy) flat belly and tiny waist. {EVERY pair of pants had to be taken in at the waist.} Instead I obsessed about hating my thighs.

Nothing like a 10 pound baby and c-section to change the tummy forever. {The good news: it's been awhile since I worried about hips and thighs.} I used to tell my "please help me lose my baby weight" exercise students to get on the ball. The stability ball that is. Check out the exercises here.

And while I am a ball-junky, I can now officially empathize with the tummy that isn't fat but isn't flat.

I can't bring myself to spend my daughter's college fund on a tummy tuck, so I will be doing double time on the ball in 2011, and adding the suggested powerfoods from the January issue of Women's Health (which are really part of a lower-calorie, more-filling strategy, but still good suggestions).

Barley. Loads of recipes and nutrition facts here.

Salmon. Cooking tips here, but do NOT brush with butter if you are baking it. Salmon has plenty of oil and you don't want your taste buds to adapt to that over-fatted slickness. Ick.

Also, I'd highly recommend "wild caught" salmon if you can find and afford it. "Farm raised" means it swims around in a tank with other fish, and all of their own wastes. Another ick.

Lean protein such as chicken. Easy to pre-cook and store for weekly meals. Take another look at these tips, because preparation is key to good nutrition.

Sunflower seed butter has all the satisfying protein and fiber of peanut butter but only a third of the saturated fat.

They also suggest black beans, which I don't like, but I would recommend the black bean brownie recipe.

2010: A Phit Year

Do you love to make lists?

One of my goals in 2010 was to make fewer lists, which I'm trying to be mindful of as I think about goals for 2011.
A list that is more fun to make -- the highlights of 2010.

The Ritz at Laguna Beach with Mr Right

FOUR trips to NYC, including a holiday one.

A happy 2-year old on her birthday (and no sugar!)

Seeing "Promises Promises" with Kristen Chenowith and Sean Hayes on Broadway.

Seeing "The Adams Family" with Nathan Lane and "Lillith" ("Promises" was actually better, but Nathan Lane is hilarious and Bebe Neuwirth is PHIT if I've ever seen it!).

My brother and his wife got a HOUSE for Christmas from her dad. Geez. (I'd been praying for him, he's had a rough year.)

Getting in 12 miles per week on the treadmill most of the year, thanks to treadmill fantasies. :)

Getting quite good at planning healthy meals, the highlight being 22 meals in under two hours.

Two trips to Las Vegas and shopping in the Miracle Mile and spending less than $50.

Being the keynote speaker at a convention of nearly 1,000 and doing a pretty darn good job.

Increasing this blog's readership to over 2,500 per week! Yay!

Now, to make that 2011 list. It will include simplicity, saving and continuing the pursuit of health. It will include reaching my "before 50" goals of raising a happy, healthy child and some less ambitious things like having a conversation in French.

Happy New Year Phit Chick.

NYC trip

I've been back for a week now and I still haven't downloaded our NYC photos. I read up on photographing NYC at night but often I didn't want to take my second baby out in the weather.

So here's some photos that capture our trip (and are much better than what I would have actually taken).

1) The Louis Vuitton Flagship store window display.

2) There was a huge race Saturday and many people dressed like Santa. We ran into large groups of them all day.

3) Something about the lights of NYC at Christmas. Here: Saks Fifth Ave LED snowflake lights and Rockefeller Center Herald Angels.

4) Lucky enough to score tickets to The Addams Family with Nathan Lane (hilarious!) and Bebe Neuwirth (Lillith).

Christmas Angel Bloggess

My heart always aches for the people who won't have Christmas dinner or have to make up excuses for kids who they can't afford presents for.
This gal did a small good deed that avalanched into helping a thousand people.
God bless you Bloggess.

McDreamy on 1997 JCrew catalog

Yep, that's him. Check him out here on Tumblr.
Thanks for the tip Joanna.

Gingerbread yogis

So smart!

You can buy them here.

Elini's in NYC

Eleni's in NYC. Saw them on Food Network last year, and went to visit them last weekend. Beautiful cookies and cupcakes but not worth the calories. A better bet: Magnolia in NYC, Sprinkles in LA and Cupcake A La Mode in Kansas City. (Not that I'm an expert in this topic.)

Elinis was ok, but I was uber-impressed with Chelsea Market. One Lucky Duck (raw, vegan and organic, but mostly just tasty) and the Lobster Market - yum!

marketing wisdom from Zen gal

I love this "marketing for freelancers" post by Shama, particularly the way she describes what marketing is and is not.

Speaking of marketing, my book draft is almost done. Watch for "Mission-Centered Marketing" in 2011. :)

what I'm thankful for everyday

These photos were taken Thanksgiving Day.

(Thanks Joanna for balloon inspiration - I totally stole your idea.)

Phit? Chicks?

I've never been asked, but I know you wonder.

What the heck does Phit mean?

And "chicks" isn't the most flattering term for women. Doesn't sound very Angela.


Well, in 2002 I moved to Liberty MO to be with Mr. Right and was uber-disappointed that there were no decent aerobic studios. No suspended wood floors, no sound systems that played anything that actually resembled music, none of it. A Spinning bike? yeah right. A Reformer? Is that a religion or a political party?

I was teaching 8 or 10 classes a week and had been for 20 years, so this was a tough change.

I signed up to teach a 6am step class at the community center. Six months later, I couldn't walk down the stairs. (Bad floors = painful knees.) I had previously been a part of some really successful small group personal training for women (ala "Club La Femme" 1999 - 2002), so I started some groups so I could work out and sorta teach.

The ladies in these groups created a community that became very special to me. Their friendship was just one of the many rewards. See this and this and this.

One of these friends was Lauren Chapin. She dubbed our community "chicks."

Lauren was the restaurant critic for the Kansas City Star. She was a gem. A farm girl raised in Weston, MO, she appreciated home-grown food and loved organic before organic was cool. She had chickens in her backyard so she could have fresh eggs for breakfast. She made fun of the egg beaters I bought.

Lauren was a class act. She may have been born and raised a farm girl, but in every conversation with her I learned something amazing about her. She taught sculling at Harvard. She studied at Oxford. She won numerous awards for her writing.

Lauren encouraged me to call us "chicks" because "that's what we are, for crying out loud."

She was (and is) 100% right. Miss you girlfriend.

Now, about "Phit."

Laura Mazi is another person I became friends with when I moved to Liberty. Another super-amazing person with a big heart & creative mind.

Laura was (and still is) a middle school media specialist (that's a librarian and then some). She spent time around kids that age, who at the time were calling cool things "Phat."

Phat meant cool.

I loved the juxtaposition of fat and phat. "Fit" being spelled a bit non-traditionally, was also appealing to me. Seemed to sum up my philosophy about health.

Every day I see a new, beautiful blog with a classy name and gorgeous design. But I feel like honoring my friend's suggestions, even if "chicks" is going the way of the 8-track tape.

There are memories and lessons from Phit Chicks that I will always value. Like when the "Candy Woman" did 21 push-ups at the end of the same year she'd survived breast cancer.

So, for now, Phit Chicks will remain our blog title. I'm not one to oppose progress, so I hope you'll email me if you have a better one in mind.

White and Wintery

There was snow blowing around when I drove to work today. Maybe that's why this white room looked particularly gorgeous this morning.

images via This is Glamorous (where I am spending more and more time - beautiful posts!)

step deja vu

In 1996, Larry Durant & I taught a step workshop to aerobics instructors at Lakeshore Athletic Club.

I'm at a conference at the Fairmont Millenium Park in Chicago, and this morning I walked over to the health club that the hotel sends guests to for workouts. Stood there and felt a deja vu thing.

Then I remembered -- November 1996. Packed studio of 100+ sweaty, enthusiastic instructors.

Some of it is funny now. The Madonna-mic, the capri tights, the CASSETTE tapes of the perfect workout mix we toiled over for hours. We were step rock stars.

Today, I watched the teachers in the studio who seem SO YOUNG and SO FIT and I really miss those days. Endless hours of cardio with no knee pain. Wearing sports bras with no worry about a t-shirt to cover baby-belly.

Wouldn't trade my place in life for anything, but, well "those were the days, my sweaty friends!"