Arianera Member

Unfortunately, our dojo has been closed for the last two nights due to the snow (the weather wasn't too bad - but they have the policy that if the school district is closed, or cancels afternoon activities they close too). So I did a home exercise video off FitnessBlender.com instead.

We serve family style and I can't get my family to wait while I plate things, but snapped a picture of tonight's veggie stir fry during the last few minutes of cooking. 1/4 of this pot is approximately 150 calories and quite a bit of food.

Victal - good luck on your upcoming tournament. How long do you have to train between now and then? BWMalone - endurance is definitely one of my weak points, but it has improved in the 10 months since we joined our current school. Glad you are seeing improvements. When my 5th grade son and I went looking for a new karate…

Soup from the freezer. Cut up veggies, hummus and a hardboiled egg. Peanut butter, cheese and apple slices. Planned overs from dinner, stir-fry and rice heat up easily in the microwave. If portion control is a concern, you can set aside the lunch portion before you serve the main meal so that it never even reaches the…

Before I stopped being able to eat apples, my favorite thing was to cube 2 medium sweet potatoes, mix with 2 sliced apples, top with a handful of walnut pieces (maybe half a cup) and a handful of raisins or dried cranberries. Sprinkle with pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) Add a splash of water. Bake covered at 375F for…

Welcome hfenton67

It's good to see some old favorites on your list. With C.J Cherryh I'm a big fan of the early "Faded Sun" trilogy, 40,000 in Gehenna, and the recent Foreigner series, but never got into the Chanur books. For military, I recently read and enjoyed John Scali's Old Man's War, but can't speak to the rest of the series. If I…

I agree that Misty Lackey is writing by the yard and her recent Valdemar heroes whine too much. I've still been enjoying her Elemental Master's Series (or at least I've read through the first few). Have you read N.K. Jemison, C.J. Cherryh, Sherry Tepper or Kate Elliot? (Sorry - I seem to gravitate to female authors) I'll…

After being on a book binge during the winter holidays, I've barely been reading. Just finished my audiobook "The Heist" by Daniel Silva and am not quite sure what I'm picking up next. I also rushed through Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi and going back to find the parts I skimmed over is going very slowly.

They are both YA, but the most enjoyable SF/Fantasy (Non-Dystopian!) books that I have read recently are The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress) and The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily Lily Blue). There's so much out there - It might be useful if you…

I'd be tempted to just time-shift the meals for the "day" you work nights and still enter your first meal as "breakfast" et c.

Go see a GI Dr and/or a nutritionist. Look at reputable sites for IBS and consider both what types of fiber your regularly consume, a fiber supplement, and a probiotic.

I shared my goal for the year with Mrs. Sensei and was told that the amount and complexity of material they expect adults to master increases quite a bit, so that my goal of green belt in a year is quite ambitious. I'm both keen to get back to the rank I earned in my teens and not really hung up on rushing through testing…

Yes I did. I am now officially a purple belt. B) I also finally got to meet the head Sensei for my local Kempo school. It is run by a husband and wife team, who also manage several other businesses. In the 9 months that my son and I have been with this school she has been holding down the fort at the dojo while he has been…

I'm testing for my purple belt/purple stripe (7th kyu) this Friday. I've been ready for a month, but waited so that I wasn't the only adult testing. I'm really excited as this will be my first formal test at the new school. My school lets transfers keep wearing their old belts as an honorary rank to recognize past…

Been on a bit of a reading spree over the holiday break. In the last week or so I have finished: Old Man's War - John Scalzi A Time to Dance - Padma Venkatraman Thirteenth Child - Patricia Wrede Working Stiff - Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell Smile - Raina Telgemeier My current audiobook is: The Heist by Daniel Silva My…

Functional fitness rules! If the goal is to be a better Martial Artist with the endurance to complete longer matches and to strike with power throughout, then I agree that activities to increase endurance are important. But there are ways to structure lifting to gradually increase strength while simultaneously building…

Our tradition is chili and cornbread to accompany a night of board games and movies on New Years Eve. Black-eyed Peas and Collards on New Years Day. My CSA gave us an enormous blue pumpkin/squash during the final distribution, so this year we are roasting a stuffed squash as the main dish.

The rights of a Reader http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/Connections_72_poster.pdf #3 = the right not to finish I have too many things waiting to read to spend time with something that doesn't grab me. Sometime I throw them back to try again later, and sometimes I just DNF

South Jersey - near Philadelphia

If you are having heartburn issues, be very careful with mint or mint derivatives. Mint, along with caffeine, coffee (even decaf), and alcohol are several of the key things that trigger relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and can worsen heartburn

I recommend something like this chard and lentil soup for the stems http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chard-lentil-soup-lebanese-style/ or Pasta with Lentils and Greens if you aren't low carb http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotbeans/r/bl21c6.htm

Just started Old Man's War

About to finish Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

The "martial arts" entry is a slightly lower (599/hour) than the judo, karate et c (680/hour) I often use the "calisthenics, vigorous" (544/hour) for warm-ups and other moderate exertion items (all of the above calculated for a 150 lb person, so your numbers will vary)

If you liked The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, you might want to check out "Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin. The best thing that I finished recently was Cress by Melissa Meyer - it's the 3rd of 4 and Ms. Meyer has matured into a better writer. I'm currently listening to another one I anticipate being one of my favorite…

Recent releases I very much enjoyed: Eon, Written in Red, and The Raven Boys Kate Elliot's "Jaran" Trilogy, Robin Hobb, Elizabeth Moon's Paksennarion books on the fantasy side. On a non SF/YA/Fantasy side, some of my favorite reads were Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Your Inner Fish

Congrats CritialDog! I'm Ari, currently studying Chinese Kempo. I trained Goju Ryu in a small school that looked to Chinen-Senesi when I was teen. Spent 5 years or so as an uncoordinated dojo-rat, and was a green belt (5th kyu) when I left for college, and moved on to other interests. But times were different then, and…

Glad to hear about your success!