Until The Thin Lady Sings (lifestyle and culture. diet)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Until the Thin Lady Sings, by Rachel C

WEB ADDRESS: http://untilthethinladysings.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: I am an opera singer living eco-friendly, gluten-free and low carb. I believe in pastured organic REAL FOOD, raw dairy and local organic vegetables!! I love to eat and convert old recipes to healthy ones! I keep my recipes as easy and simple as possible with tips for beginner level. I don't use any artificial sweetener.

MY REVIEW: i had subscribed to this blog in the hopes that the recipes would be leavened by anecdotes from the author's operatic career, but no such luck. It's strictly recipes: low carb, gluten free, sugar free.

These recipes are not for me. My own philosophy is to eat whatever you want, in moderation. However, that's beside the point. If you want to try living a healthy lifestyle, you'll find these recipes of interest. They are illustrated with photos that make the food look delicious.

Definitely worth checking out.

RECENT POSTS:
--Please Subscribe! :)
--Low Carb Egg Salad served with Kale
--Low Carb Egg Salad served with Kale
--Low Carb Gluten Free Steak Caeser Salad
--Gluten Free Sugar Free Strawberry Ice Cream, with eggless option

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Cara's Weight Loss Journal (diet, health and fitness)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES, with reservations

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Cara's Weight Loss Journal, by Cara Showers

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.carasweightlossjournal.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: I am writing this blog to keep myself accountable to weight loss. This blog, and the friends I have met on here, has helped me stay on track week after week. If it were not for for this blog, I would have quit losing a long time ago and been satisfied with whatever my loss was at the time and gone on with my life. Losing weight is way to hard to do it alone. Blogging helps me through this one pound at a time.

MY REVIEW: The author of this blog joined Weight Watchers 3 years ago and, up until a couple of weeks ago, had lost 104 pounds. A great success story, except for one thing. Losing the weight is only half the battle. The easy half. The other half is keeping it off, and if this poor woman's latest posts are any indication, she's not going to be able to do it. As with most people who lose weight, once they reach their goal they return to the same bad habits that caused them to gain so much weight to begin with. And as they continue to put back on the weight that they lost, they find themselves unable to stop, until they not only put back on ALL the weight, but even a few pounds more.

I hope I'm wrong and that someone at her Weight Watchers meeting takes her in hand and points out that she's sabotaging herself for no good reason...

I recommend this blog, therefore, so that you can see just how easy it is to destroy your weight loss success if you lose your focus at the end -- what any person who has lost 104 pounds needs to do is say to themselves...okay, I stay on my diet for another 3 months, and only gradually come off it. That way, my body will have 3 months to become acclimated to my new weight, and then I'll be able to eat a bit more and it won't automatically convert into fat - which is what will happen if you start eating with abandon immediately.

Sample post

I've been hiding in a corner...

Blue, when you're right you're right. Was I on vacation? Nope, I was cowering in the corner beating myself up.

Can you believe that? Just a few weeks ago, I was on top of my game. On top of my world. Three years of total dedication to my weight loss and three weeks later I feel like a total failure.

I've been eating and eating and eating. I just can't stop. I'm not even hungry most times, I just feel the urge to eat. And then I wonder...

Why can't I get these last few pounds off?

Well, I'll tell you why. I have been doing some deep soul searching lately and I've come to some conclusions.

#1. I love food.

I have a passionate love affair with food. Any kind of food. My favorite, of course, are the baked kind. The sweet, sweet baked kind. But I can't limit my love affair to the sweets. No, I'm an equal opportunity food lover. I LOVE a great cheese burger. And I'm all over the cheese fries. Yup, I'm desperately in LOVE with food.

I kept thinking that one day I'd grow strong enough to over come this love and keep the food demons at bay. But I'm coming to the realization that THAT just isn't going to happen. So what I've got to do is coexist with my obsession with all things edible. I need to embrace it and recognize it for what it is and learn to live with it.

#2. If I really wanted to lose these last few pounds, I'd get off my lazy butt and do something about it. Uh hem. Which translates into... exercise!

Walking is great exercise. Tremendous exercise. It's helped me lose the 100+ pounds that I've lost so far. And walking is awesome for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. But I have to be honest with myself and say that walking--alone--isn't going to help me shed these extra few pounds. I need real exercise.

So somewhere I need to come up with the motivation to kick it in gear and commit to regular, hard exercise. I mean, I don't have to go crazy about the whole thing. Just regular calisthenics you know, would do the trick. Jumping jacks. Sit ups. Speed walking. Push ups. Lunges. Etc., etc.

I have all the resources I need. I've got ExerciseTV on demand. I've got DVDs out the wazoo. I've got several books (one of which is the Biggest Loser exercise plan). I'm equipped. I just need to do it.

So hear I go, crawling out of my corner of shame. Climbing up to my feet and taking that first step...

P.S. Thanks, BlueRaspberry for the email encouragement. You're always there when I need you. Love you!!

RECENT POSTS:
--HOT ONE!!! Weight Watchers magazine for only $2.99 a year!!!
--6 Pounds from Goal...
--One small step for Cara...
--Nobody puts Baby in the corner...
--I've been hiding in a corner...

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Topical Murder and Dated Death

Diet Blog (dieting)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Diet Blog

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.diet-blog.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Diet blog offers updates you on the latest research and views on weight loss, fitness, and nutrition. Filtering the best of diet news and advice, Diet Blog combines it with real-world application and opinion.

MY REVIEW: Well...this isn't specifically a diet blog, it talks about food and restaurants as well. It does have some pretty interesting articles.

Ultimately, people losing weight just need to accept that there is no magic formula, it's just common sense - bolstered by education. This blog gives you an education. But if you just accept that you can lose weight - and maintain a healthy weight - by simply eating less (not cutting out specific kinds of food entirely) and exercising, and that it will take some effort and not be easy, you can do it!

Sample post:

Women Distort Their Own Body Image
I have no full-length mirrors in my house, except for one which I have to open a closet to get to. (I didn't plan it that way, it's just how it worked out.) My brother and sister-in-law's new house -- which I just happened to visit last week -- is full of them, though.

I check myself standing in the mirror every day, but watching my reflection sitting down, or playing on the floor with the kids, was enough to inspire me to do some pretty heavy toning work when I got home.

While I have no doubt that those mirrors were revealing to me what I've been denying to myself, researchers at the University College London say women have a tendency to distort their own body image, so much in fact, that the women in their study believed themselves to be up to two thirds wider than they really are.

From the Daily Mail:

Researchers asked volunteers to place their left hand under a board and guess the positions of the knuckles and fingertips, pointing them out with a baton.
The results, reported today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were used to assess mental models of finger length and hand width.

In general, participants estimated their hands to be about two-thirds wider, and a third shorter, than actual measurements showed they were.

Researchers say that these same findings could be generalized to the entire body. Meaning that when women look at themselves in the mirror or in pictures, they see themselves as shorter and wider than they really are. Study leader Dr. Matthew Longo said this:

There may be a general bias towards perceiving the body to be wider than it is. Some people look in the mirror and receive information which tells them they are not fat, but they still can't use that to override their distorted body model and make themselves believe it.

While I'm not sure I'm buying that this study can be generalized so easily, it's true that women (sadly) have a tendency to not like what they see in the mirror. We talk a lot about how the media impresses this impossible idea of a perfect body upon us. But, what if it's really our own brains telling us that we're shorter and wider than we really are?

What do you think?

RECENT POSTS:
--Pump Up At The Gas Pump!
--Women Distort Their Own Body Image
--Poll: Do Faith Based Diets Work?
--New Slimming Pill Capsiplex Hits UK Shelves
--Hershey's: Make Your Own Candy Bar

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Ms. Cairo writes several blogs including:Seaborn: Oceanography BlogStar Trek Report: Space SciencesTopical Murder and Dated Death

Eliza on the Run (women's fitness)

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Eliza on the Run, published by Eliza Nunez

WEB ADDRESS: http://elizaontherun.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: What comes after coach potato? Because that was me!

Now I am training for my first Marathon starting the journey.

I have many obstacles to overcome including starting at a weight that is considered OBESE, not knowing how to ride a bike (just learned in August '09) and not knowing how to swim (hope to learn before year's end '09).

It's a long road but I'm on my way!

MY REVIEW: A must-read blog for every woman trying to become fit. (ed. And, in my opinion, that should be a woman's goal. Not to "lose weight," but to become fit - because "becoming fit" encapsulates it all - a healthy diet and healthy exercise and a healthy attitude towards one's appearance.)

Eliza's blog is an inspiration and is must reading.

Here are a few sample paragraphs:

It wasn't meant to be ... or was it?

So last night, the weather nixed my run. As soon as I steped out the door it started to drizzle.

Not being one to be easily defeated, I decided I would do a few laps around the block and get a feel for the rain. By the time I finished the first lap, the downpour was starting and I ran inside and decided it would be a night for studying instead.

Today, I didn't really have a run on the schedule being that tomorrow is the Calle Ocho 8K but being that I've missed 3 runs (including yesterdays) over the last 10 days I wanted to get a few miles in. I promised myself it would be an easy run, no pushing myself and being that today I'd be visiting Mrs. Mom it would be on the treadmill ... but low and behold the set of running clothes I have stashed at Mrs. Mom's house was still in the washer (i.e. WET!)

I thought about taking this as a sign and I still might, but I tossed the clothes in the drier and am hoping to jump on the tready in the next half hour or so and get an easy run in. No goal on the mileage, just go with what I feel.

For now, I snuck in this blog post and a little review time while I wait.

RECENT ARTICLES:
-Race report: Calle Ocho 8K
-It wasn't meant to ne...or was it?
-Getting out of a slump (Running after missing a few days)
-Week in review
-The Plot Thickens (sharing the news that she is now officially a grad student)
-Week in review