KiarraSW

Did you ever get a pedo that worked for you? Found a cheapy at Walmart for $5.00 works like a charm. I took it up to the cabin with me last weekend and was super anxious to see how many miles I got in and wouldn't you know it... I lost it when I bent down at the creek. Found it the next morning with only 152 steps on it - Doh! I am just happy I didn't have to replace it after only using it for 150 lowsy steps.

Mini-Challenge Alert...dun dun duuuuhhh! New challenge for the week - "Make it a Mile". This should be easy for all our super hero types out there. The challenge is to simply walk, bike, run, skateboard, psudo-walk on an eliptical trainer, butt scoot, etc a total of one mile in one day in the next week. Here is the catch if you choose to make it more interesting: It should be more exciting than your usual routine. Sounds simple enough right? Here are some ideas... Try walking a portion of the mile on your handsTry some bicep curls while skippingDo Lunges accross the parkGrab a partner and do a three-legged mileCrab walk anyone?Can you say Parkour?? Hopefully this gives you creative types some fuel to make your mile more fun and exciting. For those of you not accustomed to reaching a whole mile in one day, you are off the hook on making it more challenging since the simple act of hitting the mile marker should be exciting enough! To participate in the challenge just log your activity in this thread by next Friday (June 28th).

Ew that doesn't even sound good.

So I am revising my answer slightly regarding the dates because I hate not doing the reasearch and just answering half blind. Here is the actual data for all you fact loving nerdos out there (me included). Gleycemic Index Sucralose (Sugar): 61 Honey: 55 Dates (5 varieties, some better than others): 54 +/-6 I do know that honey is "sweeter" than table sugar so you typically use less. I do not know if this would be the case for dates. Anyone know how sweet a date tastes compared to other more common fruits or sweeteners?

Thanks Maris and welcome back. It is so great that you specified best of will instead of luck! It certainly is a battle of the will isn't it? I find that all things can be accomplished if we just set our minds to it. Well maybe I should rephrase in a more druid-like fashion... All things [that are meant to be] can be accomplished are achievable if we [believe wholeheartedly and] set our minds to it. Any druids out there believe in the Law of Attraction aka "the Secret"?

SO I just have to say thank you thank you for this challenge! The first day I did a quickie moon salutation that was pretty aweful. I decided that I could do much better and have signed up for some local classes. In addition to starting yoga I decided I should officially track my steps as I walk a ton on my 20 acres during the weekends. Wouldn't you know it!? I got 152 steps in and lost my pedometer. I went about my day not giving a thought to the pedometer until I finally colapsed by the campfire eager to see my amazing feat of endurance - deeeenied! Luckily the next morning we retraced our steps and wouldn't ya know it! I am bummed I still have no idea how much distance I covered thusfar but I am happy I don't have to program a new pedo to accurately track my stride.

My thoughts on quinoa are: it is still a grain with all the nasty anti-nutrient stuffs going on that make me inclined to reject it along with all the other grains. There is no nutritional reason to eat grains and many many reasons to ditch them. Sorry if that wasn't the "thoughts" you were hoping for. Back in my uninitiated days I would have said they were a "healthy" alternative to mash potatoes or pasta but sadly now I am not substituting bad for bad so you get the diehard grain-hater response. Dunno much about dates but if they are a dehydrated fruit they would be high in fructose and therefore the glycemic load might not be as good as you had hoped for. Raw honey is readily available and has both fructose and glucose mixed with healthy bee enzymes mmm. If you need to sweeten something, then the only logical way I would go here would be the Honey. It is something that our cave dwelling bretheren used to eat and incidentally tribesmen across the globe still treasure to this day. I am glad to see you are looking for healthier alternatives to the unhealthy standard. Doing research is how we learn and even though I seem to be bash happy, I still encourage you to research and share your finds with us. That is the only way to discover new truths. Who knows, a year from now we may uncover new evidence that grains are in fact essential to human survival... Nah! But maybe something as equally shocking at least. hehe New Mini-Challenge coming soon btw... dun dun duuuuuuh!

Super excited to start my Yoga classes! Lucked out last night and had the instructor all to myself muhahaha.... Who knew there was a right and a wrong way to do something as simple as downward facing dog. I was sorely mistaken in thinking the weight should be felt in my hands - boy was I wrong. If you are considering trying out some Yoga I highly recommend taking a class before you learn bad posture at home or "with friends". Just make sure to take a beginners class and let the instructor know you are new so they can keep an eye on your form. A good instructor will tell you it is all about the breath and the form not in how flexible you can "appear" when doing the poses wrong. Also want to say I am feeling great not eating grains. I don't miss it one bit at this point and am starting to have a much more positive self image. Knowing that you are strong enough to walk away from something with such a powerful grip (opiate like reaction in the brain) and such a highly estememed place on the USDA Food Pyramid, and media etc is a really empowering thing! I not only feel better health wise but I look better and have a super hero sense of confidence and purpose. yes purpose.. I feel it is my duty as a Nerd Fitness Ambassidor to spread the word of Grains villinous tyranny in the pathetic civilized diets of the uninitiated. I challenge our group to take a peek at this incidious crap we call "food" and save a loved one from it's evil disease promoting clutches. Did I mention that breads are now being made with Bromides in place of Iodine? yah the stuff that causes cancer and other bad stuffs. The funny thing is, it is promoted as something we should eat the most of but it is the one thing our bodies have zero metabolic need for. Does the USDA want us all sick and weak minded??

Harness I totally thought of you today! I was out window shopping and found something that might help out with your slip n slide adventures in the Hot Yoga classes. Yoga Socks! they are just silly little socks with grippy bumps on the undersides. If the Yoga Towels don't do the trick or fit the budget you can give those little buggers a try. No need to get official yoga ones either as I have seen socks with the no slip grips just about everywhere. Of course the ones I typically see are for grils but meh I won't tell if you won't. ~ Namaste

Oh wow... Well for your first post about stress you must know exactly what I am reading and when - I swear! Today I found a magnificent site on Lymph and cleaning / detoxing the body and one of the number one killers of lymph flow is stress! Imagine trying to move a tennis ball through a tube sock. Ok now hold the tube sock really tight and try it. Not so easy right? Well that is what stess does to us, it backs us up in more unpleasent ways than one, creating a toxic waste site of our bodies and the garbage men are on strike! How do I combat stress? I basically know that it is bad for me so I don't let the little things bother me. Big things of course are a different story but I have learned over the years that if something is bothering me I have to let it out. My poor hubby or whoever is in earshot usually gets the scoop on how unhappy I am about whatever it is and then I can move on. I feel bad that I dump on them momentarily but the end result is they usually dish some unhappy stuff back and we both walk away feeling free of our garbage for a while. Another technique I employ is I try to always seek out the positive in every situation (sometimes hard at the time) but eventually the silver lining shines through whether it be an avoided accident, saving money, learning a valuable lesson etc. If you are patient the silver lining always reveals itself. Always. Looking for ways to learn from our stressors will inevitably lessen the torture they inflict on us and quite often the frequency in which they do. An attitude of gratitude goes a long long way in avoiding stress and neutralizing it's affects in a hurry. Next time something annoying crops up, try thinking of something you absolutely adore about your grand baby and see how hard it is to stay pissed. Also notice how quickly a smile replaces the scowel on your face. It is like raising an epic shield to deflect a crippling blow from an elite stress boss (sorry gamer analogies are unavoidable). As far as the sunscreen goes, Sun does not cause cancer! A toxic body causes cancer. Sun damage is just a catalyst. How many tribal folk who eat a primal diet and live in the sun have skin cancer? IMO it is the nasty chemicals in most sunscreen that make us more prone to cancer than the sun itself does. Our skin is like a great big sponge that sucks in all the good and unfortunately all the bad that we slather on it. Would you dare drink or inject sunscreen directly into your blood stream? If you are applying it liberally to your skin you might as well be. Think about it... (Sorry for the Druid toxin rant in this post for all ye uninitiated).

I have a question regarding Chi Generation. I am very sensative to Chi and can generally feel it with great ease. The question is, what do you do with it once you "pump it up" so to speak? It is incredibly easy to generate but I know not what to do with it and how to use it. it most deffinately is a Force - would be sweet to stand on my head and lift rocks with a little green guy nearby...

Circling the park on my lunch break today while I slurp down some organic juice from the local juice bar. Did my first moon salutation last night (June 10th) - yeah! Man am I seriously not limber. On a plus side I actually was inspired to swing by the local yoga studio on my way home last night. I got a class schedule and think I can make the times work for me. Thanks Nerd Fitness!

1st challenge done. In true deuid fashion I dis a traditional moon salutation for my stretching. Man am I so not limber.

Haha today I am making up for lost post time I guess. As you may know, I have been doing a bit of a detox regimen as part of my 6 week challenge. One of the easiest and likely best ways of doing this other than hopping in an infrared sauna and sweating your kahuna's off is to simply add this one little wonder drug to your list of supplements daily. I will share parts of my detox arsenal as we go but I must say this is by far my favorite and probably most important in my "kit". Without further ado I would like to introduce you to my friend Iodine. There are tons of articles online amongst other resources that I strongly encourage you to peruse, but this is a small taste of what it is for and how you can benefit from this amazing little trace element we all need daily for optimum health. Are you getting enough Iodine in your diet?