Summer's Here: Cheers?

photo: jamesmlink

By Dave Smith

This next guest post is brought to you by the awesome Dave Smith, who has helped us out before with great fitness advice such as his beginners' bodyweight workout routine. He was also a great panelist back in days of yore when Cranky Fitness had an"Ask The Personal Trainer" feature. Check out his informative site at Make Your Body Work, full of useful information and encouragement. And please welcome Dave as he presents some thoughts and research on Summer Adult-Beverage consumption!--Crabby

What I Learned About Mindfulness From My Birthday “Drinking Bender”

I've never been much of a drinker. I’m usually that guy who sips a glass of water at a restaurant (yup, every waiter or waitress’s dream customer). But on my recent 35th birthday I let loose and drank three entire beers (two of them being light beers) in one evening! A wild night, I know.

Fitbit Alternative: Pivotal Living Activity Tracker for CHEAP!

By Crabby McSlacker

So my usual motivation for product reviews is simple: greed.  I get stuff free to try out, and I get to express my many opinions about everything I like and dislike.  WIN!!! So yes, in the interest of full disclosure, I got to try this for free.

However, this fitness tracker from Pivotal Living would only cost me $12 to buy myself, and I am far too lazy to write up a review solely to save myself that amount of money.

I just thought the concept was too cool not to pass along. A fully functional activity monitor for TWELVE DOLLARS?

I know there are a lot of fitness minded folks on a budget who must get tired of reading about the latest wrist-candy that can set one back, in extreme cases, hundreds of dollars.

Hi There Apple Watch!
Are You Really Worth a Thousand Bucks??

So when I got a pitch for a product a wrist-tracker much like a Fitbit that costs less than an umbrella drink at a fancy upscale restaurant, I was intrigued.

What can this thing do? And is there a catch?

Ready for Swimsuit Season?

By Jan Bono

There are few people--or at least very few women--who do not feel at least a little angsty and self-conscious about the whole swimsuit issue.  Even supermodels often resort to photoshopping or bizarre diets to cope with unrealistic societal expectations of women's bodies. What about those who are overweight?

Yet swimming and other water activities are healthy, and it's hard to do them wearing street clothes. Contributor  Jan Bono shares some recollections about swimwear and other challenges she faced on her journey to shed an insane amount of weight and embrace a healthier lifestyle --Crabby

Following a well-balanced food plan will eventually result in weight loss. But as everyone knows, at least intellectually, exercise is the key to burning maximum calories and taking the pounds off just a little bit faster.

Exercise and I were no strangers to each other. I had participated in a variety of organized sports throughout high school. And even after an absence of many years, my muscle memory was still intact.

I wrote “Get more exercise” on my list of New Year’s resolutions the first of every January. And every year I made a good stab at sticking to it by setting up a daily walking schedule. Some years I was still walking regularly into late February or the first few weeks of March.

Car Trouble

 via X-ray Delta One

By Crabby McSlacker

Yes, this is another gripey post, bringing yet more Cranky back to Cranky Fitness. Um, yay?

Our subject today: New cars and why they suck.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Fit

Laughing Cat Photo: Rikki's Refuge

Guest Post by Genie

Yet again I'm very grateful to Genie for sharing more of her experiences with her usual wit and insight! Thanks so much Genie!--Crabby 

A funny thing happened on the way to fit. People started treating me differently. And making the strangest comments. And offering the strangest advice. Lots of others have written about what to expect after weight loss, so I thought I would share some things I experienced. Anyone who has lost some weight knows all about the fun stuff that happens, but there is some odd or not-so-fun stuff too. It’s easy to write about the fun stuff but the weird stuff is a little, well, weirder. And it was certainly unexpected.

Crankified

Cranky Cat via Reb

By Crabby McSlacker

I thought it was time to bring a little Cranky back to Cranky Fitness.

Recently our pal Shelley at My Journey to Fit  posted a great grievance list, and I suspect you all may have some annoyances to report as well.

Studies have shown that griping is an exceptionally healthy behavior, boosting endorphins, lowering blood pressure, providing neuroprotective effects and clearing clogged nasal passages.

OK, so that last paragraph was a lie. But I still maintain that occasional bitching is therapeutic.

Note: some attempt has been made to keep these at least remotely related to health and fitness.

Filling the Void

By Contributor Jan Bono

Quick note: this post is too poignant for the usual meandering introduction, and by now you all know how awesome Jan Bono is, so let's just get to it this time.--Crabby

Sunday, April 26th, 2015, two beautifully decorated half-sheet cakes sat waiting to be cut on the reception table. One was a white cake with raspberry filling and the other was a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse inside. Both had plenty of buttercream icing.

I knew everything about those two cakes except how they tasted. I’m the one who had drawn the designs, gone to the bakery, ordered my love’s two favorite cakes, and convinced the gal to give me both the senior and military discounts.

Perhaps the baker took pity on me because I cried throughout the entire cake-ordering process, and she knew my tears were not tears of joy. My mission that day was to purchase the cakes for my fiancé’s memorial service.

Bali, By Golly!

By Crabby McSlacker

So yeah, we had a great time in Bali, Indonesia.

How about a few self-indulgent details and impressions, accompanied by some unprofessional photography?

Coming right up!

But don't worry, this will be a quicky.  It's been a frantic last few weeks, what with travel and moving and all, and I seem to have lost my ability to string nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs together. Said ability was last seen somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, plummeting down towards the sea, and has presumably now been consumed by hungry sharks.  Ah well. I've yammered enough over the years that some succinctness might be in order anyway.