jenbusick Member

What are you eating? I recently switched to a low GI approach -- controlling my blood sugar -- and finally started losing weight again without counting calories. First thing I did was give up white bread and potatoes, and cut way back on sugar. When I don't control my blood sugar, it seems, I can't lose weight no matter…

Augh! Ogh! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I cannot STAND Adventure Time! I would rather have ROOT CANAL than have to watch Adventure Time! I get stuck watching it in hospital waiting rooms occasionally, and I cannot imagine why a show that is SO grating and SO gross and horrible is marketed to children! As for Regular Show, I consider…

Don't believe those people who insist that it's addictive. I could quit anytime! Really! Stop looking at me like that!

A-yup. I homeschool my two daughters, 12 and 9. The younger one is physically disabled and has some learning disabilities. They've both been homeschooled from K on, after a year of private preschool to learn all those things like "share your crayons" and "wash your hands" and "Don't cut in line." We are mostly classical…

I'm reading a book right now that's very helpful with situations like that. It's called "Nonviolent Communication" and talks about how to say what needs to be said without provoking defensiveness and anger in response. By the end of the first chapter I was using the technique and finding that it works. If you read the…

My 12-yo daughter has been making her own costumes for years. What she wants to be, costume designers don't make. She wanted to be Susan Pevensie one year; there were no costumes for that awesome character. She wanted to be Katniss Everdeen this year; there were NO Katniss costumes. If it can't be rendered inappropriately…

The problem is especially obvious with costumes, but it's a problem generally with girls' clothing. I had to establish a rule very early that if my daughter wanted a pair of shorts, they had to have an inseam longer than the width of my hand. It made me sad how many pairs of everyday girls shorts failed that test. Why are…

Also, yeah, I've been in some Zumba classes that were not much of a workout at all. If you get a chance, look for a different gym/instructor. A lot depends on the instructor. You need one who's serious about fitness, not just dancing around.

This is a burpee: Do 36 of those (3 sets of 12) <i>in rhythm</i> and really, no other workout is necessary. Go home, take two ibuprofen, try to explain to your spouse why you love Zumba so much...

Heh. You should be in MY zumba class. My arms and shoulders get SO SORE! Yeah, we work arms. I think it depends on your instructor. Heck, we have one routine that includes 36 burpees. It's a workout.

One of the male trainers at our gym started coming to zumba. We asked him why. He said, "One of the instructors dared me to try it, and it turned out to actually be a really good ab workout." So there's at least one trainer's opinion for you. I've also noticed that my abs are much more toned. I've been doing zumba --…

This has been my experience. I also notice a real difference in my workouts. I can tell when I've had a "bad" food day -- I have real trouble getting through my workout, I'm mentally sluggish, and my energy is way off. I can really feel it when I've had too much sugar and too many simple carbs. Although I will note that I…

My dog has terrible allergies, and ended up on prescription Hill's Z/D. Very pricey, and he STILL has problems. Argh.

Crack in a bag! BAHAHA! :laugh: I know exactly what you mean!

Tortilla chips. With anything, but especially guacamole. I could eat the darn things all day. Any kind of chips are bad, but those are the worst.

Big, Big, BIG red flag here. If he's had at least two prior, *serious* relationships that have failed, and he admits that there was abuse in the most recent relationship (even if he won't own his part of it), get out now. He may have been a charmer and a sweetheart before you moved in together, but that's very much the…

It's pretty depressing. I thought surely with the permanent changes I've made in my eating habits, maintaining would be easier. But when I'd gained seven pounds, I had to go back to logging. Makes me really hate and resent those people whose changes make it all breezy for them "OH, I gave up drinking sodas and lost 20…

Fair enough: that statement applies only to processed foods. And I said "part of the sensitive population" because that's what the studies are, in fact, finding -- there are, in fact, genetic sensitivities in play here. For someone who is genetically sensitive, this could in fact make a large difference.

Antibiotic use is actually linked to weight gain. We've known for a long time that it increases weight in livestock, that's why it's in animal feed. But now they're finding that it can cause weight gain in humans, too, most likely through the mechanism of radically altering your normal flora (the bacteria that live in your…

Organic foods are not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. HFCS in particular is being increasingly linked to disproportionate weight gain in genetically susceptible individuals. So that's one way in which no difference in energy value translates to weight-related benefit, if you're among the…

Actually, antibiotics are included in animal feed not for treatment of disease, but to promote weight gain. This is legal in the United States, although it should not be, and this practice (not the practice of giving antibiotics to kids with ear infections or similar) is what is contributing to the frightening increase in…

If you're eating organic food, you're NOT eating a lot of things that are bad for you and that can contribute to weight gain, in particular, high fructose corn syrup (the evidence is piling up on that one -- that stuff is bad for humans), but also, a lot of food additives and estrogen mimics. Compared calorie for calorie…

Here. Feel better: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/tennessee-teen-gives-chance-win-race-help-save-150112311.html

One Direction is a boyband from England. This generation's version of the Backstreet Boys or Menudo. They're not actual musicians; they just sing along to synthesizers and hop around in tight pants looking cute, so all the teen girls can squee at them.

Dude, you are out of touch. Today's younguns have no idea who Hanna Montana was, and Justin Bieber has been superseded by One Direction. Get with it already! Also, realize that the teens you're hearing about on the news are not the only ones. There are lots of great kids out there who never have a mug shot on the news.…

This site has a lot of good information, including some weeklong challenges to get you eating cleaner (One week you give up sodas and the like; the next week you give up something else that's bad for you --so, you do it in stages): http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/

Yeah, I have one of those. It's a pleasant little power fantasy to think you can just say "eat it or go hungry" or "eat it, or do your own cooking" -- unfortunately, yeah, happy little fantasy world doesn't work in the real world. Not unless I wanted to divorce over white vs. wheat bread. I liked the way the other poster…

Some problems can't be solved by the head-on approach. It sounds to me like that's what you're trying, because it looks perfectly sensible to you. And I'm not saying it isn't; but clearly, your wife disagrees. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but what you get and where you end up when you come at it head on ("Your debt…

I am afraid I am going to have to give up tortilla chips. There just is no moderation when it comes to me and tortilla chips. I can eat them in bags and bags and bags... or baskets and baskets and baskets... or any old way really. I like the yellow corn ones and the white corn ones and the blue corn ones and the ones made…

The channel "harperjillian" has a lot of good ones. Jill's a local zumba instructor and a lot of the local zumba instructors use her routines. I can do a whole zumba class at home with YouTube on the XBox, except I don't get the burn I'd get in class. My living room is too small and carpet makes some of the moves difficult.