Submit a Recipe to Cranky Fitness!

[By Crabby]

Got a Healthy Recipe?

Alert readers of Cranky Fitness may have noticed that we rarely have recipes to share. And when we do, the sharing process tends to include more in the way of bad jokes and whining, and less in the way of helpful instructions for making a tasty meal.

So here's what we're thinking: perhaps readers might like do our work for us share some of their own culinary discoveries?

Please? We're getting really tired of frozen pizza and take-home rotisserie chicken.


What kind of recipes are best?
We are looking in particular for healthy, easy recipes. Recipes with 97 ingredients that use lots of fancy French terms like "en papillotte" or "court bouillon" might make awesome meals but they tend to mess with our heads and make us feel inadequate.

And while we realize that "healthy" has a variety of interpretations, recipes that include huge quantities of sugar, white flour, lard, salt, butter, and bacon will be less favored than recipes that somehow make whole grains, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and lean forms of protein seem tasty and appealing.

Is there financial compensation?
Alas, no. If you have a blog or a favorite website you'd like to promote, we will be happy to include a link to it in your recipe post. You'll also have our most sincere and enthusiastic gratitude for your contribution!

But Beware:
These recipe posts may be published in a haphazard manner, perhaps in addition to another post on the same day. They could appear on a weekend, or be ignored entirely for months and months and then suddenly pop up long after you've forgotten you submitted it. So please do NOT send in a recipe if you have an emotional attachment to seeing it on the pages of Cranky Fitness in any kind of timely manner.

Not Dissuaded Yet?
Hooray! Because we'd love to hear about what you cook and eat and get some new ideas to share with everyone.

What if I don't have a recipe--Are you still taking other sorts of guest posts?
Yes, we are also still open to general guest post submissions too! Though unfortunately, as with the recipes, we can't guarantee we will publish all of them (and we know they're a pain to write.)

What we especially love: posts around 750 words or less on a health or fitness topic that are kinda funny and haven't been published before. Short videos are cool too since we've never gotten it together to do any of our own. These can be instructional or funny--of course both at once is awesome.

Feeling brave and generous and energetic? Please email your recipe or guest blog post submission to Crabby McSlacker @ gmail . com, all one word.

Thanks!

Advice for Grumpy Office Workers

This is a Special Guest Post, Hooray!

It's by Ali Hale of The Office Diet. Have you visited there yet? It's a great resource for busy full-time office workers who still have the nerve to want to stay healthy. There are all kinds of sneaky tips and recipes and such. (Plus, she's funny!) Ali is also a contributor to Diet Blog.


How to Keep Healthy and Stay Sane if you’re a Grumpy Office Worker


Nothing induces crankiness quite like being stuck behind a desk all day, in a room full of people whose presence you’re indifferent about at best, doing a job that makes you seriously consider whether watching kettles boil and paint dry would be more stimulating

Welcome to the world of Grumpy Office Workers, who face various challenges in maintaining some semblance of health and fitness in an environment tailor-made for comfort-biscuit-scoffing and slumping in front of a computer screen for eight hours straight.

The real world came as a cruel shock to me after a degree in English literature (when nine am was deemed “really early”, afternoon naps were almost mandatory and lectures were optional.) After a year and a half in tech support I am almost ready to throttle the next person who can’t use a ‘Forgotten password’ button have just about figured out some ways to manage a (mostly) healthy diet and vague stab at fitness.


Escaping from your desk – move those legs!

If, when you stand up, you see dazzled spots dancing before your eyes, and your legs wobble, you just might have been sitting still for too long. The routinely ignored advice for computer-facing workers is to take a break every hour. Boring, right? But it’s a good excuse to slack off, wander around for a natter with a colleague, and accomplish the twin goals of “being the most popular person in the office” and “being the thinnest” by offering round cakes (see below).

You may suspect that your boss will be irked by seeing you meandering around in an un-busy sort of way. In this case, I suggest briskly striding up and down the corridors with a determined gleam in your eye, as though heading off on some company-crucial mission.

And as a side benefit, you actually fit in some activity that doesn’t feel like exercise. Bonus.


Insist on your full lunch hour and get away from your desk

When lunchtime finally rolls around, many Grumpy Office Workers want nothing more than a decent sandwich and a chance to chortle over Crabby and Merry’s latest post without having to constantly Alt-Tab at the sound of the boss’s footsteps.

However, spending your lunch hour at your desk guarantees a successive stream of clueless co-workers asking “Do you remember where we put the Very Important File?”, “Have you got a few minutes to spare today to fit in a teeny weeny extra task?” and “Is that the third cookie you’ve eaten today?” The second-best answer to such questions starts with N, ends with O, and has two letters. (The best starts with F and ends with Off....)

Rather than lingering at your desk, like the smell from your colleague’s egg sandwich, drag yourself out of the building at lunchtime. Escape to the quiet forest, the green hills, the peaceful lakes … or if, like most Grumpy Office Workers, your surroundings consist of the local high street, escape to the gym.

Yes, I get a nice intense half-hour workout in, and yes, I go back to the office feeling totally de-stressed (until I fire up Outlook again) – but the real reason I am known as the company’s “gym bunny” is because it’s darn peaceful there. No-one from the office has ever bothered trekking to the gym to accost me on a treadmill and ask an “urgent” question.


Cookies, cakes, chocolate and other office goodies

There’s something about free food, especially free fat-and-sugar-laden food that makes it nigh on impossible to resist. Even when it’s the stale cookies left over from yesterday’s meeting, the dubious looking sweets that someone’s brought back from holiday, or the gooey chocolatey Easter cupcakes dotted with mini eggs……wait. That last one was me.

Because my advice here is not “practise some restraint and ask yourself if you really want that sorry excuse for a treat” but instead “fatten up all your colleagues by taking in gorgeous baked goods to sabotage their diets.” You might still be chubby, but they’ll be even bigger: so what if you have to resort to somewhat sneaky means to be the slimmest in the office?

Skinny Bitch Alternatives

This post was written by Jaime, who writes the very entertaining blog Surplus. And you know what? She's not a big fan of the book Skinny Bitch. She's got some WAY better ideas for you.

Skinny Bitch bills itself as "A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous," which I guess it is, or is supposed to be, but what got me to read it (aside from my savviness, and desire to look fabulous) was the fact that beneath this chick-lit-diet-book facade was a call to veganism! Scandalous, I know. Vegans aren't chic! Vegans wear sandals and hemp sweaters! Look at the black-clad chick on this cover - is she a vegan? She doesn't look like a dirty hippie! Although this seemed sneaky (why not "A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Be Vegans"?) I was, I admit, intrigued.

I'm not a vegan, but lactose-intolerant vegetarian is very close, and I've found some great food ideas from the vegan realm. And in the last couple of years, Skinny Bitch has been *everywhere*. By "everywhere" I mean I read about it on the internet and saw lots of people reading it on the subway. It probably was on TV, too. (Oprah? Anyone know?) But it was big, and I was curious.

Are you curious, too? Even if you're not a vegetarian, are you interested to hear why some people think veganism is the way to go? Wonder if you might find some wisdom within these pages to apply to your own health-seeking life? And maybe in a hip, entertaining package? Or maybe you're a savvy girl interested in a no-nonsense guide to looking fabulous - you don't care about veganism, but this book's promises sound great. Thinking you might have a read?

STOP. ABORT. DO NOT PASS GO.

Are you ready for a rant? I have one. But all that negativity is probably bad for my pores. So let's look at this from a positive angle.
Here are some things you could read instead of Skinny Bitch if you wanted a well-written, well-organized, well-researched, readable, intelligent, enjoyable presentation of the same arguments:

On veganism: Fast Food Nation. Doesn't actually advocate veganism, but is a much better version of the chapter in SB on the evils of meat production. You know, it really nails that apparently elusive combination of well-researched and written-with-a-sense-of-narrative-or-cohesion. Or we could just fill three pages with a list of quotes from slaughterhouse workers and call it a day.

On a healthy diet: Mark's Daily Apple. This is a ridiculously thorough health/diet/nutrition/exercise blog. Some of the ideas seem fringe at first, but they're backed up by solid science, come from totally sane people, and can still be applied to your life. And unlike some other books that I might be blogging about having really disliked when I read them this weekend, there are actually fantastic guidelines for healthy eating, rather than an a haphazard aggregation of vague directives.

On badass girl empowerment: The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want. If I made a modest effort to obscure the cover of Skinny Bitch when I read it in public, I can't imagine that I'm admitting to having read this book at all. Granted, I did find it, literally, on the floor of an auditorium. So it's not like I bought it or anything. But then I read it, and kinda loved it. It's more daring than SB, less cheesy, more empowering, less gratuitously cursey. (And I like to curse a lot. But the tone of Skinny Bitch turned me off - maybe because it was coupled with poor writing and shoddy health advice? Hm.) Sure, The Bad Girl's Guide is straight-up chickpowerment, an inherently cheesy genre - also a genre I sort of just made up? - but it's smart, funny, awesome chickpowerment. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just don't tell anyone, okay?

On the science of diet: Good Calories, Bad Calories; Mark's Daily Apple. Yes, Good Calories, Bad Calories isn't 100% perfect. Sometimes Gary Taubes gets a little selective with which studies he discusses. But it's SCIENCE, something hugely lacking from Skinny Bitch. I refuse to accept health advice without any hint of backing it up or explaining why. So while GC,BC was imperfect, I was left pining for its talk of molecules and cells. And, y'know, research and evidence. Whatever.

On exercise: Stumptuous. Not that Skinny Bitch actually devotes more than a few sentences, total, to this topic. But it maybe should've. I swear by this website. "Strong women are cool! Every straight boy should want one!" The fact that I actually *like* going to the gym, the fact that I have any muscles in my arms (or anywhere else), the fact that I can pick up heavy things that two years ago I'd have attempted to move by sheer telekinetic ability or by staring them down - all thanks to this website. (There's also a smart, sane, thorough section on food.)

I'm all for a cruelty-free diet. I'm all for putting minimal crap into my body. I like health-food, and I like being told that Chix Rawk. I just also like books that are intelligently and coherently written. And don't suck.

Random Friday: teenagers, sleep, and sex with stopwatches

[By Merry, by gosh]

Here's another candidate for the Didn't we just see a study about that? category:
Eating breakfast helps teens lose weight. Old news, you say? Well, yes, but it's apparently not sinking in. Surely, the best way to make sure you do not eat any breakfast is to eat a high-fat meal late at night.

That's why I'm irked with Taco Bell for promoting this Fourth Meal concept. You've probably never darkened the halls of this fast-food joint, but they're pushing the idea of adding another meal between dinner and breakfast. Trust me, bean sprouts are not on the menu. Granted, teenagers often make stupid food choices (unless they've changed radically in the last 20 years), but you want them to eat breakfast!

Oh all right, I'll stop. The world isn't perfect, and I'll have to accept that. I do wish there were a Complaints' department for all the things in the world that irk me. (Mind you, it would have to be a pretty big Complaints' department.)

On the other hand, this has been a great week for high-class posts on this blog.
Thanks to Charlotte, you're prepared to deal with any pregnant women (including yourself, if applicable) with appreciation for their size -- they have a reason to gain a few extra pounds. And frankly, it's nice not to be judged in any case. Unless you're in a beauty pageant, like this size 16 teenager. (I like the idea of everyone being in good shape, but I like the idea of people not being sneered at even more.)

Note: This doesn't apply to Fast Food corporations. Please be judgmental about them.

As luck would have it, a lot of this week's guest blogs would come in handy if you want to overcome the Fast Food Corporations and their evil machinations. (Hey, if you can't be profound, use big words.)

• You can bet that Ashley didn't make a habit of late-night runs to the nearest greasy spoon when she lost 60 pounds.
• And Jen gave some good tips on how to kick ass -- or at least improve the one you're sitting on. (And I'm especially glad that she put up with all the 'bottom' puns, even though they must have seemed 'end'less. Okay, okay. I'm finished. Honest.)
• If you take Lisa's advice about planning your shopping trips, then you won't need to go for a late-night fast food run in the first place.
• And if you take Monica's advice and make exercise part of your daily life, you'd be too pleasantly tired in the evening to want to drive around looking for fast food.

Another study that sounds strangely familiar: sleeping is the key to weight loss. Less than 7 or more than 9 hours a night, you're apt to put on the pounds. I love how specific they are. They even specify the different hours of sleep recommended for people of different ages.

If you happen to have a teenager in your vicinity, and they get cranky in the evening hours, perhaps they don't need more late-night meals. Another study claimed that surly teenagers need 9 hours and 12 minutes of sleep at night. (I especially love that "and 12 minutes" part. What happens if they only get 9 hours and 4 minutes sleep? Are they only going to be mildly cranky?)



Then again, those crazy scientists time everything. A new study out claims that the "optimal amount of time for sexual intercourse was 3 to 13 minutes." (No, not counting foreplay.) What amused me about this study was that the scientists, who studied heterosexual couples, equipped all the women with stopwatches. Geez, no pressure there. And is nothing private any more? Next thing you know, they'll be timing how long people spend reading blogs at work!

Have a great weekend everyone! By next week, I hope to hear some news from our travelin' crab.

Five Good Reasons To Quit the Gym

This next guest post is by Monica Shaw--she's a freelance writer who hosts the very informative health and fitness website, smarterfitter.com.

I was on an elliptical machine watching an episode of MTV Cribs when it dawned on me: "this is totally lame." What the hell was I doing sweating my ass off in a dingy gym full of boneheads and bad techno? Why was I mindlessly watching bad TV? And worst of all, why was I paying for the privilege?

That day, I ended my workout early and cancelled my gym membership. It was time to take Fleetwood Mac's advice and go my own way.

It's obvious to me now that the gym and I were in a co-dependent relationship: I depended on the gym to not feel like a lard-ass; the gym depended on me for a small percentage of its monthly allowance. Like all unhealthy relationships, it took me a while (four years) to figure this out, but now that we're apart, I feel happier and healthier for it.

How about your relationship with the gym? It it on the skids? If so, here are a few good reasons to consider a clean break:

1. The gym messes with our goals

Summer shape up!
Get yourself a beach bum!
Get ripped!!

The gym advertises two extremes, get big or get small, then reminds us that we're not big or small enough. In response, we exercise to burn more calories or lift heavier weights. Just look at the weight bench for an example: weight lifters often sacrifice their form (and their poor backs) to lift more pounds than they can correctly manage.

Most of us start going the gym because we want to be healthier and more comfortable in our own skin. But when progress is measured in numbers, it's easy to forget why we joined the gym in the first place. Instead of confidence, we get negative feedback. and sometimes forget our goals altogether. It's good for the gym, because it keeps us (or at least our membership dues) going back. But is it healthy for us?

2. Gym memberships are really expensive

A recent study in the American Economic Review (appropriately titled Paying Not To Go to the Gym) found that, given a choice of contracts, most gym users will pick a monthly contract over a yearly or per-use contract. Over a year, users pay an average of $71 per month but go to the gym about 4.7 times per month. That's $15 per visit, and $852 per year! Think of all the things you could do with $852: buy a really sweet bike, go on a vacation, take Spanish lessons... the possibilities are endless, and far more valuable in the long run.

3. The gym requires exercise

By definition, exercise is "an activity that requires physical or mental exertion". The term implies strenuous effort, like paying attention to a boring lecture or solving a difficult math problem. In effect, but something we have to earn by performing repetitive tasks that we don't enjoy very much. But shouldn't physical fitness be a fundamental right of existence? Wouldn't it be better to simply be active in our every day lives?

Life is full of boring obligations, like lectures and tax forms; physical fitness shouldn't be among them.

4. The gym woos us into a lifetime of gym dependence

Binding contracts aside, the gym fools us into believing we need it in order to stay fit. Thus begins a hideous cycle where it's okay to drive the car half a mile to pick up a gallon or milk, or stay glued to our seats in front of a computer 8 hours a day -- we can simply make up for inactivity (not to mention the ills of the food industry) at the gym.

It seems a pity to spend the day engaged in sub-par activities, only to have to make up for it with another sub-par activity. The gym is an easy way out, so we stop challenging ourself to be active in other ways. It's a strange paradox: has the gym actually made us lazier?

5. The gym burns "empty" calories

Like the opposite of a can of Coke, the gym offers little more than a calorie deficit. For example, the most dominant feature of my former gym is a row of TVs facing the cardio machines. Here's a typical line-up: "Pimp My Ride", "My Super Sweet 16", music videos, Sky News, and sports. Grown-ups, bankers, educated types... we all watch this crap! Sometimes we try to avoid it with iPods and magazines, but is that really the way to enjoy music and reading? Wouldn't it be nicer to curl up on the couch with tea and a good book then go for a long walk in the park afterwards? Why take two otherwise good things like reading and fitness and make them less good by putting them together?

By trading the gym for more mentally rewarding activities like walking outdoors, it's possible to get more from "exercise" than a calorie deficit. Even if "more" is a bit of sunshine or a nice chat, chances are you'll feel better about life than if you spent that time in the gym.

Admittedly, not every gym-goer is a zombie on a treadmill. There are a few good reasons to stick with the gym if it works for you. Here are some examples:

A few good reasons stick with the gym

• You have a gym buddy
• You like to swim and your gym has a pool
• You use your gym's group exercise courses (yoga, pilates, etc.)
• You live in a shitty climate
• You're new to exercise and require the help of a personal trainer
• You're training for something cool (marathon, triathalon, iron man, spam toss)
• You enjoy lifting weights but don't have the space or cash for a home gym

Fifteen Healthy Ideas for Grocery Shopping

This guest post was written by Lisa Newton, whom you may know from the great weight loss community site Iowa Avenue.


How many times have you gone to the grocery store with the intent to pick up “a couple things” only to leave the store with two or more full grocery bags?

When was the last time you saw a special food display at your local grocery store and bought something you really didn’t need, but purchased it anyway on impulse?

Did you buy things you normally wouldn’t, but did so anyway because you went grocery shopping while you were really hungry?

If you answered yes at least once, don’t worry--it happens everyday and to almost anyone.

Here are some helpful and 15 practical ideas that you can incorporate immediately to assist you make healthy decisions and improve the results of your shopping:

1. Plan ahead
Sit down and plan at least three days (a week is better) worth of meals. Although it might seem time consuming, proper meal planning in advance will make your life simpler and less expensive.

2. Look online for your favorite Grocery store’s Ads
Most of us go to a grocery chain store for the majority of our food. Perhaps we frequent a couple. Find their website and see what they have to offer week-to- week. Who subscribes to newspapers anymore? They are now online, so I use this resource all the time.

3. Make a List
Using the online advertisements and your recipe file, make a food shopping list. Don’t forget to include all of the ingredients that you need for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a few healthy snacks.

4. If you have kids, don’t take them
Don’t take the kids – If at all possible, leave the kids at home. Hey, it’s Dad’s or maybe Aunt Laurie’s turn to watch them for an hour.

You need to go to the store without the kids because they won’t:

• Run down the aisles
• Put items in the cart that you don’t want
• Nag you to buy things you know that nobody needs

Also, you get to:

• Focus and finish quicker
• Have a little down time

5. Eat before you shop

If you’re hungry, the chances of impulse buying skyrocket. To solve this problem, have a snack—preferable a piece of fruit—before you go to the store.

6. Wear your pedometer

You’d be surprised at how many steps you walk at the grocery store.

7. Park in a spot that’s not too close

With the addition of your pedometer, enjoy this time for walking, so walk a little more. This gives you some time for yourself, and provides some more activity while you shop.

8. Grab a cart

If you’re purchasing at least three days worth of food, you’re going to need a cart. A cart gives you the freedom to take your time to find what you need. It actually lowers stress. By getting a basket, you’re only going to buy a few items, and if you add more, the basket will get heavy. Believe me, I’ve been there, done that………………:)

9. Go to the produce section first

Many people are tempted to buy the first thing they see when they walk in or something that they want but don’t need. By going to the produce section first, you’ll buy more fruits and vegetables.

10. Don’t forget to check the higher and lower parts of the shelves

In order to increase sales, many name brands or more expensive foods are put at eye level. Typically they aren’t the healthiest. Often, you’ll find the least expensive and most nutritious products on the upper and lower shelves.

11. Stick with your plan

With practice, you’ll start to only buy what’s on your list. If you forget something chances are you won’t forget it the next time.

12. Read the Food Labels!

13. Don’t be tempted by store displays or what somebody else is buying

We’re all different; we are in our own pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. The things that distract you while you are shopping probably occur for a reason—they tempt you. Temptation is a human trait you’ll never lose but can learn to cope with. Therefore, those “buy one, get one free chips,” or “half-price cookies” are on display for a damn good reason. So you will buy them. By buying them, you’re falling right into the seller’s hands. Just remember this, if you are tempted to stray from the reservation, tell yourself: “I made this list and I’m going to stick to it!”

14. Skip the snack food aisle, or stroll down it to prove you won’t buy from it

The bottom line is to keep the healthy foods in your cart and the unhealthy foods out. Remember, the easiest way to avoid eating unhealthy foods is to just say no and not buy them.

15. Plan a “To Shop Time“


A good time for me to go to the store is right after breakfast or lunch. Those times are probably the least crowded making it more efficient for you.

This is my list to help you by providing you with ideas for a healthy grocery store adventure. Do you have any more? Feel free to add to the list, because...

After all, it’s about a healthy lifestyle!

A Superior Posterior

This post was written by Jen Sinkler, a senior editor at Experience Life Magazine) She also hosts a blog called Survival of the Fittest, which besides being quite entertaining, also has some extremely practical health and fitness tips. Crabby actually intends to put several of these into practice any day now--and this one is of special interest to those of us with crappy knees.
_____________________________________________________


In February 2003, having just returned from an intense (but incredible) 18-day tour of Fiji and New Zealand with the U.S. women’s 7s rugby team, I started to develop sharp, stabbing pain just below my left kneecap when I ran.

We were leaving for the Hong Kong 7s tournament less than a month later, so I got into physical therapy right away. I was first diagnosed with tendinitis, and later tendinosis and chondromalacia. (Look for an article on the difference between tendinitis and tendinosis in the May 2008 issue of Experience Life.)

As recommended, I worked on strengthening my vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) muscles, and though the pain diminished somewhat, it by no means went away.

It wasn’t until two years later, when my right knee developed the same condition and I resorted to getting regular hyaluronic acid injections to lubricate my knee joints, that the other cause of my predicament was properly diagnosed.

That cause turned out to be weak and inactive gluteus muscles. I’m probably oversimplifying matters, but essentially, having weak glutes meant I didn’t have full control over my femurs, leaving my knees to dive in toward one another when pushing off or landing.

Due in part to our skeletal structure, women are more prone to this condition, called valgus knees, than men. (Lucky us!) But all is not lost — there’s plenty you can do to fight nature on this point, as Krista Scott-Dixon explains in EL’s September 2006 article "Weak in the Knees."

Bottom line is, strong glutes are a must when it comes to femoral control, and I have to say doing exercises that activated my glutes made a world of difference in my recovery. I won’t regain the cartilage I lost to chondromalacia (R.I.P., old friend), but I’m pretty sure I stopped digging out brand-new grooves.



The video above, graciously provided by my friend Aaron Manheimer of Body By Manheimer, shows a couple of rugby dudes demonstrating how to do my all-time favorite glute exercise, the lateral band walk.

Done properly, it activates your gluteus medius quite nicely. (If you prefer a written description of how to do this exercise, check out “Band Practice,” available in the October 2007 EL archives.)

Aaron also suggested something called a “retro cowboy” to activate lazy bums, and although that phrase conjures up all sorts of stylish images, he really just means you should walk backwards with a resistance band tied around your lower legs. Cowboy hat optional.

If you’re interested in learning more, check out “Go-To Glutes” in the current issue of Experience Life.

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Note: The link for hyaluronic acid has been updated so that it actually points to the correct link, and the link to the strengthening the vastus medialis obliquus (VMO) muscles now points directly to that web page. The Womanagement at Cranky Fitness are profoundly grateful that there is no two-way video on this blog, so you can't see how red our faces are. Sorry, Jen!

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Losing 60 Pounds--from Theory to Practice

This guest post is written by Ashley, who's a grad student in theoretical chemistry. About two years ago she got in shape, lost 60 pounds, and "gained a reputation at school for being a weird workout health freak type." She's noticed that while everyone says you need to change your lifestyle to lose weight permanently, it can be hard to learn the specifics of how to do this! When a fellow grad student emailed to ask her advice, this was her response.

1. Be flexible. This is actually contrary to pretty much any other advice I've ever heard about working out regularly. Most people who fit in working out to a really busy schedule will tell you that you should schedule four or five absolutely set-in-stone times to work out and not let anything change that schedule. This somehow always seems to involve getting up really early too. I think this is stupid. Every single week I evaluate my schedule and what I want to do each day at work and after work and figure out which days I can work out. And yes, sometimes I'm like, well, I need to be at work for this meeting at this time and I want to work on this and then I want to go to Bible study at 6:00, so.... oh crap, I'm going to have to get up and run first thing in the morning.

2. Change your eating schedule so you can handle eating dinner later so that you can go work out after work. The single most common time I go work out is after work, at 6:30 or 7:00. However, this means I don't get home to eat dinner until 8:30 or 9:00. So, you have readjust when you eat and how much you eat to accommodate this. I eat breakfast (which is always a power bar and a diet coke; I am by no means a nutrition nazi) when I get to work at 9:30 or 10:00, lunch at 12 or 12:30, and then I eat one or two pieces of fruit, maybe another power bar, and (most importantly) a carton of yogurt during the afternoon. I eat all this stuff by 4:30 so it has time to settle in my stomach. And sometimes I don't eat all that healthy sounding stuff and I go to Starbucks and get a latte and a giant rice krispy treat. But the point is that I eat a pretty big snack in the afternoon that always includes carbs and dairy so that I can workout at night without dying of starvation.

3. Make slightly better choices when you go out to eat. Anytime I go out to eat and I am contemplating what I want to get, if there are two things that I want equally, I pick the one that's healthier. If there's one thing that I really want and nothing else will do, I just get it. Also, I love dessert and eat it most every day, so I make myself wait to order it. I never buy the cookie when I am getting the rest of my food. I get my food, eat it, and then if I am finished and I want the dessert enough that I am willing to get up again and wait in line to buy it, I get the dessert. Also, I have a rule that when I go out to eat on social occasions, in addition to my food, I can only get two of an appetizer, an alcoholic drink, and dessert; never more than two of the three. Which brings us to our next point.....

4. Drink less alcohol. This is the one where I am going to sound like the old woman that I am, but I never have more than two alcoholic drinks at any social occasion where I have decided to drink. I usually get the first drink when everybody else does and then I nurse a second drink for the rest of the evening. And yes, I often get made fun of about this. There are worse things in life.

5. Plan to do athletic activities. I run a lot of local races, often with other people, so that I will have motivation to go run a lot. Once you commit to doing something with somebody and pay the money for it, you don't want to not be able to do it because you didn't train for it.

6. If there is anything you can do to make working out logistically easier, it's worth doing, even if it costs some money. In my case, this meant renting a locker at the gym. I can keep extra clothes and shower stuff and extra makeup and hair stuff in the locker at all times. That way, I never have the excuse that I can't go work out after work because I have some social thing I want to do later and would need a shower.

7. Work out both days on the weekend. I feel that my adviser owns most of my time Monday to Friday, but I personally don't work that much on weekends. I have a fantasy that eventually my boyfriend/husband and I are going to regularly go run together every Sunday afternoon, but as I have no boyfriend, this clearly hasn't happened yet in my life. But I'm hopeful!

Babies Are Overrated

Today's guest post is courtesy of the awesome blogger Charlotte of The Great Fitness Experiment. Charlotte also blogs at The Huffington Post.

With childbirth these days, it's not about what you gain (a baby) but all about what you lose (fat, skin, your sanity). As if carrying a squirmy watermelon with sharp heels for nine months (ten really, if you're counting by weeks) wasn't hard enough, now pregnant women are held to the impossibly skinny standards of the media as well.

Any woman who has been pregnant in the last few years or so already knows exactly what I'm talking about. Suddenly a baby bump has become the new it bag. But it isn't enough to have a healthy baby. You have to look like a stick bug with a basketball tucked under your shirt. Especially so you can fit into the belly baring, body conscious maternity fashions that are so popular now. Don't get me wrong, I was no fan of the tent dress but there has got to be a happy medium between that and this (look, a pregnant high-end hooker! Who doesn't want to hit that?):



(Although I must admit I laughed myself silly when I saw this one.)

The Toll

The worst part though is after the baby is born. With my last child, people started asking me months before he was even born how fast I thought I was going to "lose the weight." Just typing that phrase strikes terror into my heart. Isn't it bad enough that we have to worry if everything will come out with ten fingers and ten toes and possibly your mother-in-law's nose? Must we add "losing the weight" to the list?

Heidi Klum lost the weight from her 3rd baby in a record-breaking 4 weeks so she could strut her sexy stuff on the Victoria's Secret catwalk. The same sexy stuff, I might add, that gestated, birthed and nursed an actual baby. Side note: I'll never know how men manage to look at women in lingerie and yet still not connect the baby making apparatus with a living, breathing baby. Add to Heidi's example the recent spate of celebs who lose their baby weight in ever-shorter amounts of time. Keri Russel! Trista Rehn! Tori Spelling! Julia Roberts! Nicole Richie! The list goes on and on and on. (Do they ever lose the baby too? I mean if you are losing stuff that darn fast, those little guys are pretty easy to misplace. I'm just saying.)

But it is not with men that I make my complaint. Every person who asked me about losing the weight was a woman. I even had one girlfriend tell me that she envied my extreme morning sickness at the beginning. "You're so lucky! You get to lose all that weight. It probably keeps your overall weight gain down too. I wish I was a puker!"

J.Lo.

Except that somehow it didn't keep my overall weight down. That was why I could totally relate when I read about the Jennifer Lopez's fear about her weight gain while she was pregnant.

"Jennifer is delighted to finally be pregnant. However, she has already put on more than three stones and is only around four months gone. She is huge and freaking out," said a source.

Three stone is about 42 lbs. I gained 47 with my first pregnancy - well above the "recommended" 25-35.

So what's a mom to do? "J. Lo, who is famous for her curvaceous backside, is taking extra precaution against the weight that may be left after she has given birth by waking up at four in the morning to work out."

And if that doesn't work? "Her face has become really puffy from retaining a lot of water. She plans to do a Victoria Beckham now and hibernate for the last few months. You won't be seeing much of her in public from now on," the source says.

So it's come to this: a beautiful pregnant woman had to go into hiding to have a healthy baby and a normal pregnancy. Not because people don't want to think about how she got knocked up but because people will call her fat.

And now that she has given birth to two healthy and - if they got her genes and not Marc's - beautiful babies, the tabloid race is on to see how fast those famous abs flatten out.

The Skinny on Baby Fat
I first read this story on the Skinny Website. And I almost choked on my lunch (the irony of eating lunch while reading a site called "the Skinny Website" is not lost on me) when I read Rian's closing line "It will be interesting to see how fast Jennifer loses the baby weight. Will she be one of the ones who lose it so fast we barely see it at all, or will she be like Britney and not ever take off the extra few she gained? What do YOU all think?"

Rian also points out that Jessica Alba is indeed "gaining weight all over" as if it were a capital crime. Don't people realize that you need your legs to get bigger to support that sack of fluid and flesh? It ain't made of air, people!

This is what pregnant women have to deal with. Britney's baby is not even two and already she is judged as "not ever" being able to take off the weight? I'm no fan of Ms. Spears but you gotta give a girl some time. Jessica Alba is a picture of health and gestation. Jennifer Lopez is a gorgeous mama regardless of the status of her baby-got-back. Enough is enough. Pregnancy, more than any other time, should be a safe haven from weight criticism.

Random Friday: Bloggers, Beer, and Bikinis

[By Merry]

Spring Break!

A lot of people took this week off for Spring Break festivities. To me, it felt as if we were having a Spring Break party right here on Cranky Fitness. Okay, without the beer and bikinis. But every day there was something new, and these guest posts explored a vast range of topics.






Bloggers Gone Wild!

Thanks to Mizfit for enlightening me about Chia, and Karly for making me think about positive self-imagery. (According to Dr. Mirkin, men tend to report their waist circumference to be, on average, 3 inches less than it actually is. It's interesting that women tend to think they're fatter than they really are, and men tend in the opposite direction.)

Kudos to Fury for going on her morning run, with or without gadgets, and to Maggie for training to walk 60 miles in 3 days for a good cause. Heather has definitely stirred my interest in yoga, and Leah has stirred up a tasty way to cook with bananas and also with schnapps. (Which added to Mizfit’s recipe for chia muffins has made it harder for me to think up good excuses not to cook. It’s hard enough to find chia seeds, the idea of finding chia muffins? Bah. You have to bake these yourself.)

You guys have made this a fun week. Thank you all!

Beer and Bikinis!

Lest someone should think that I only mentioned beer and bikinis in an attempt to keep up the number of hits from Google searches, well… you might be right, but I’ll redeem myself by including honest-to-goodness mentions of scientific research about beer and bikinis. Soon as I find some.

It's not strictly scientific research, but an inventor has come out with a solar-powered bikini. It provides enough energy to recharge an iPod or chill a beer. So you won't have to worry about warm beer at the beach -- unless you want to bring your iPod along as well.

UFO Sighting?

There were rumors of a UFO sighting -- yes, an Unlikely Friggin’ Object was rumored to be cruisin’ through the desert.

Naaaah.... that doesn't look like a giant crab on top of that bus. Must be a wannabe imitation crab, something like that.

Still, if you do happen to happen upon a genuine Crabby sighting, please snap a photo and send it in to our Paparazzi department. Who knows, they might even give you credit for the shot, though probably not any reward more monetary than that, since they've perforce taken a vow of poverty (at least until they get paid).

How observant are you?

And here's a video that’s a good test of your powers of observation.



Thanks to Xenia and BCB for sharing this; it is a subject Very Near and Dear to my heart, as well as the rest of me.

Have a great weekend!

Sand-surfer dude courtesy of flickr.

Cranky Fitness Heads into New Territory: Recipes!

Crabby likes to eat but, alas, is awfully lazy when it comes to cooking. So there are never any dang recipes on Cranky Fitness. Good thing that Leah, a good friend of the blog and host of the The Goat's Lunch Pail, wrote this handy guest post to address this serious lack of tasty recipes. Enjoy!

Hmm, the request was for guest posts that, ideally, are fitness-related. Food is related to fitness. This dessert is fat-free, low sugar, and contains healthy things like bananas, dark chocolate, and Schnapps.

I invented both these recipes. They’re easy to make and they’ve been tested many times. The recipes originally appeared on my blog in December 2006, but Crabby said we could recycle so that’s what I’m doing.

Crustless Banana Pudding Pie with Chocolate Schnapps Sauce.

This recipe is suited for celiacs. I’m not a true celiac though I am wheat intolerant. I can get away with having a bit of wheat flour, but I chiefly use spelt and other lower gluten flours. I keep rice, tapioca, and potato flours around for when I feel the need to be gluten-free.

You gluten-eaters can substitute white flour in this recipe.
**

Crustless Banana Pudding Pie

Three ripe bananas.

About 1/2 cup of sugar. The sweetness of the bananas lets you cut down on the sugar content.

Three large eggs.

One-quarter cup of rice flour or potato flour (or starch) or tapioca flour (or starch)

¼ tsp of vanilla

½ tsp salt

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp guar gum (omit if using wheat flour)

Mixture may be thinned slightly with non-dairy milk substitute or non-dairy sour cream substitute if lactose intolerant. Milk drinkers can use the real thing.

Blend in a food processor at a vigorous setting. Give it about three minutes so everything is properly mixed. Pour in greased pie plate and bake at 350 for 40 –45 minutes. Depending on the temperament of your oven it could take longer to set. Cool thoroughly and store in refrigerator. This gets better every day.

This is the base recipe. If you like, stir in fruits and/or nuts like frozen raspberries and crushed pecans prior to pouring it in the pie plate.

This is good on its own and even better when topped with a sauce such as chocolate Schnapps sauce.

**

Chocolate Schnapps Sauce

About a cup of brown sugar.

A tbsp or so of water.

One 100g Lindt Extra Fine chocolate bar. Use the 85 per cent cacao variety. Trust me.

Melt the sugar over medium heat and mix in the water. Break Lindt bar and add. Mix as it melts. If mixture is too thick add more water to desired consistency.

Allow mixture to simmer as you stir in a minimum of two tbsp of Schnapps. Use the real stuff for heaven’s sake. Don’t use that infernal abomination peppermint. I used apricot Schnapps during the invention stage and was very pleased with the results. Simmer for about two more minutes stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat. Serve immediately or store in container and refrigerate.

If mixture hardens set container in a warm water bath until it gets runny and then stir vigorously before serving.

Advice From Your Yoga Instructor

This guest post is written by Heather, who blogs at http://findingatman.com yet another blog you should be visiting! It's really very good.


I know you think you should try yoga.

You need to relax. Lower your blood pressure. Maybe your doctor told you so. Maybe to lose a few pounds.

I know you're not flexible. I understand you can't touch your toes.

I'll tell you what though - I like you a hell of a lot better than 20-year-old Missi Stretchy, the ex-high school cheerleader who is there to show me how flexible she is.

I love people who can't touch their toes. Want to know why?

I've been a yoga instructor for several years now. I started as a hardcore aerobics instructor, back when I was Missi. I kicked ass. I tried yoga. I hated it. A friend forced me to take another one. That one was better and soon after I started studying to teach yoga.

I was still young, I still kicked ass, but now I was kicking it through round after round of powerful sun salutations with extra push ups. I saw my arms tone up like never before while my students groaned. I ignored savasana - bah!

Then I got hurt. It wasn't an ankle twist or a rotator cuff suddenly and screamingly doing something it shouldn't. Studying a style that didn't focus on form and consistently pushing my flexibility led to overuse injuries that I still have today.

My sacroiliac joint was completely out of whack. My shoulders ached and I slouched. I had headaches that nothing could touch.

Then I discovered a different style of yoga, one that focused on basic alignment and letting your heart open to the practice. The theory being that if your body is optimally aligned, then every pose becomes endless. You can just enjoy it instead of struggling to hold it up. There's a life metaphor in there somewhere.

I learned a new way to align my body and use my muscles. My SI joint was out because I was so flexible and kept pushing splits and back bends. My shoulders ached because my shoulder joint was hyper-extended in down dog. By hyperextending my shoulders, I was clenching my trapezius muscles, turning them into iron bands that caused my headaches.

Yoga is a balance of strength and flexibility. Missi’s don't listen when I cue them to try something differently, because to do so would force them to back off for just half a second.

If you tell me you're not flexible, I'll tell you that learning yoga will be easier for you because you have built-in stability. You just need to coax your muscles into letting go a little.

Learning to draw back from flexibility and build the strength you need to safely practice even basic yoga poses requires not being the most flexible, bendy person in the class.

Getting over the competitive spirit of comparing yourself and coming out on top in the flexibility game is way harder.

If you tell me you don't have time, I’ll tell you that you probably need to be there more than anyone. I don't practice poses every day, but in my book even remembering to back away from your desk and stretch and breathe for 5 minutes counts as yoga.

If you don't know where to go, most places will let you try a free class. Look in the phone book or gasp! use the Internet.

If you don't enjoy the class, YOU'RE NOT IN THE RIGHT CLASS. There are hundreds of different styles from restorative to power. If your brain is resisting what you're doing for the entire duration of the class and you come out more exhausted or agitated than when you went in, something's wrong.

If you don't click with the teacher, FIND ANOTHER. Ask questions. Some use music, some don’t. Some have grating voices. But someone teaching at a studio where you pay $20 per class isn’t necessarily better than the teacher at your gym where classes are included as part of your membership. There are good and bad instructors everywhere.

I bet you're stressed because you've been meaning to try yoga for ages now, and it's just one more thing on your to do list.

Don’t worry about it. It will still be there.

If you’re a Missi, don’t take this personally - just be willing to listen next time you take a class.

And to answer that other burning question, yes I heard it and I knew it was you when you farted on your mat the other day.

Maggie Walks

This next guest post was written by Maggie, who hosts the blog Maggie Walks, where you can go for more breast cancer walk inspiration!


I have wanted to participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day (benefitting Susan G. Komen for the Cure) ever since I first heard about it a few years ago. I don't know exactly why walking 60 miles in three days appeals to me... Actually, anything in the name of breast cancer awareness always catches my eye. Not only do I love that pink ribbon, my family has witnessed one of our own battling breast cancer.



Nancy is my mother's sister, and she's always made an effort to be close to my family despite the 3,000-mile distance between us. We're both the youngest of three siblings, so I felt I had more of a right to her than either of my sisters when we were growing up. Certain birthdays meant extra-special gifts for us: for example, a week's vacation visiting her when we each turned 13. She even spent a year learning how to bake and decorate cakes, so that she could make a beautiful one for my wedding.

The 3,000 miles separating us felt like about double that when she was being treated for breast cancer. We were extraordinarily lucky—not only is Nancy a proud survivor, she has been for almost six years! Health facts, like the benefits of antioxidants, come up in conversation more often than in years past but otherwise she's still who she's always been: family. Just with battle scars.

To be perfectly honest, it's a little scary having this disease as part of my family's medical history. I've really hit the genetic jackpot: heart disease, diabetes and now breast cancer. At age 27, I'm just starting to take an active interest in taking care of myself. My sisters have set the bar high—they have worked out regularly for years, eat organic food, and truly respect their bodies and their physical (as well as mental) health.

Well, I'm on my way. I've been a member of Curves for a year now, and am about to hit the 100-workout milestone! I've also logged 36.5 miles in pre-training to prepare myself for the rapidly approaching 24-week Training Program for the 3-Day—mostly on the treadmill, but also outside in Michigan's temperamental winter. I am eating more healthily now than I ever have in my adult life. I work on portion control, eating more of the right foods, and drinking lots of water. It's interesting how much I've learned about my body in the process. I'm much more aware of how food and exercise (or lack thereof!) affect how I feel throughout the day.

I'm going to walk in the 3-Day because I want to contribute something—the money I raise will go to breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. But that's not the only reason I signed up. I'm walking for my Aunt Nancy, to honor her achievement of remaining cancer-free for almost six years. I'm walking for my mom, Linda, who has been participating in The Sister Study, a long-term national study to learn how environment and genes affect the chances of getting breast cancer. I'm walking for my sisters, Mollie and Annie, who also have to include breast cancer in their family medical history. I'm walking for me, so I can get in shape and take better care of myself. And I'm walking for you, because everyone deserves a lifetime.

Sixty miles over three days. Needless to say, I'm scared out of my mind.

Morning Run

This guest post was written by Fury Gekijou--she describes herself as an "ex-patriot, barely-reformed couch-potato living and working in Japan who occasionally loses her mind in the quest for fitness." You can read about her 3-month misadventure training for her first triathlon at Tri Tri Birdie.


It's morning, a beautiful, mild spring morning and I am getting dressed for my run.

I put on my Technical Top. A bra. A technical bra. No kidding. The last time I considered a bra technical was back in my teens when I first started wearing one – a contraption made of elastic, fabric, hooks, wires, et cetera. My “technical” sports bra doesn’t even have any moving parts (unless you count me), but it’s made of this fabulous material that I am certain justifies its ridiculous cost. It’s sleek and black. It was designed by a team of engineers in Japan. It cost a lot of money. I’m not large-breasted by any means, so I am sure any regular, non-technical sports bra would do. Heck, I could probably do the support thing old-skool, with three ace-bandages wrapped around my chest., but the ad for technical bra was so enticing and the website was so cool and...

On go the running tights. Not just any old tights mind you, but Technical Tights. They’re black, kind of shiny, hydrophobic, breathe, stretch, have reflectors, zippers, natty grey flat seaming which make my stubby, chubby legs look long and lean and these tights' instructions claim they have “memory.” I don’t want anything that has been on my butt to “remember” anything! Regardless of how advanced the tights are, they still slide down, so during my run I go: RunrunrunrunrunrunYANKhoprunrunrunrunrunYANKhop.

I put on running socks, also considered “technical” clothing. The socks are made of a material that wicks. Socks don’t have wicking, candles do...but they are the “official sock” of some running team and they're black. Not shiny, but they are black.

Shoes next. My shoes are shiny, too, but not black. I don't like black sneakers. So mine are silver and yellow. The shoes have so many features that they came with an instruction booklet, written in five different languages. I lost the instruction book, so I don’t remember any of the features. I do remember that they lace in some weird way that I had to look at the left shoe (pre-laced thank goodness) to figure out how to lace the right. The shoes have treads and bubbles and gussets and grommets and look very advanced. But they still wear out at an alarming rate. So I bought three more pairs. Why? I can’t wear more than a pair at once. It’s good to have two pairs to alternate and distribute mileage across...but the third pair? I was just in a gear frenzy and got greedy.

I put on my “technical/performance” sunglasses, but the 110-dollar glasses really don’t make me perform any better. In some small way the purchase of my glasses probably made some Visa Credit Card shareholder’s portfolio perform a little better, but my running didn’t improve. I think they make me look cooler but I will confess that sometimes I think my technical/performance shades don’t work any better than the perfectly functional cheapo pair from Dick’s that they replaced. Note: If you sit on expensive technical sunglasses, they go “crunch” just the same as the cheapo ones.

I put the headphones of an MP3 player over my head and into my ears. The player itself is tiny and light – a vast improvement over the big, clunky cassette Walkman I used to use. The player fits in the palm of my hand – or even more conveniently, in my “technical top” sports bra. Sometimes the earphones rub me the wrong way and make the inside of my ears sore. They can make a player that weighs less than three ounces, but they can’t make earbuds that fit comfortably in my ears.

Continuing on with the gear parade, I strap a heart-rate monitor around my chest and put the receiver on my wrist. It looks like a watch, but in addition to telling me the time, the receiver tells me my heart rate (which always spikes when I put the transmitter on because the contacts are always COLD even when I dampen them using warm water). It also tells me how many calories were burned and the date.

I neglected to get a heart rate monitor that has a stopwatch function or does splits, so on the OTHER wrist there’s a stopwatch. It’s a pretty basic one, but I paid extra for the black finish because...well, because it looked more technical. If I’m not careful, the stopwatch, heart monitor and MP3 player all cause interference with each other. In a computerized twist on the old Groucho Marx joke, I thought I was dead the other day because there was no reading on the heart rate monitor.

I put a pedometer on my waist to track how far I run. It occasionally falls off, which means I have to pick it up. This involves stopping. Stopping makes my heart rate drop a little and causes the alarm on the receiver to beep, letting me know that I am not performing at optimal aerobic level. The beeping usually startles me, so that I forget to pause the stopwatch and that in turn messes up my time and/or my splits and then I can’t figure out how long it took me to run the mile before the pedometer fell off. Oh, and sometimes the shock of the impact resets the pedometer. Grrrr. I'm saving up for a GPS unit that will do everything: heart rate, mileage, splits, locations, my tax return, but I have to wait till I recover from the cost of having to replace the expensive technical sunglasses I sat on.

The electronic devices are all battery-powered. The batteries wear out. But never all at once, so I am constantly changing batteries. I’ll be pleased to tell you that I can change batteries in two devices AT ONCE, in the 4:30am darkness and still keep a 10 minute per mile pace (believe me 10 minute mile is an absolutely blistering, technical-tights-melting pace for me). This is an essential life skill we’re talking about here.

All geared up, I head for the door, ready to go out and run. My husband (ensconced on the sofa) notices me and looks, well, frightened. I guess it’s justified, with my looking very much like a Borg what with all the wires and gadgets and black Lycra.

"I’m going for a run," I snarl.

"You don’t seem very happy to be going for a run. You know, when you first started, you were always so happy to go for a run, even when you couldn’t go very far... but now I think you aren’t as happy, and I think..." He pauses and looks at me. "You had less stuff..."

Ever watch kids run around? They go quickly or slowly but they laugh and they smile. They are un-selfconcious, not caring how fast they go or what they are wearing. They're naturals. You can tell that for them, it just feels good to run. It was like that for me when I began, even though I could barely make it to the end of the driveway. It felt so good to go, to run for another minute than the day I did before, to go just a little bit further. In the first few months, it felt especially good to stop. I felt the camaraderie of other runners out in the heat, the rain, the snow, the wind. It felt just as good to run alone. I did all this with very little equipment, just the basics – enough to keep me comfortable and safe from injury. As I added mileage, I added stuff. I’m not sure why. "Just Buy It" syndrome, I guess. I’m sure I’m not the only person guilty of this. The big tragedy isn’t the waste of money but the wasting of what is for me the joy of running; the pleasure of moving for moving’s sake. The electronics sometimes distract me from that.

I take off the player. I take off the glasses, the monitor, the receiver, the stopwatch, and the pedometer. I’m not a competitive runner; I run for fitness, for enjoyment, for the pleasure of being in my body, for the sheer joy of just moving. I don’t need detailed reports on my runs; I just need to know I did my best. My mind, body and soul can tell me that, with no electronics at all.

Have a good workout. =)

Why Care if Women Hate Their Bodies?

This is a guest post by Karly Randolph Pitman--she's a writer, speaker, and mother of four. Be sure to visit her at her website First Ourselves for more information and tips on positive body image and other important topics.

Who cares if you love your body? Why is it important?

These are good questions. After all, loving your body isn't on par with feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, or fostering orphans. It's not like we're ending violence against women.

Or are we?

When we beat ourselves up for not being physically "perfect," however we define it, we are committing violence: violence against ourselves. And because we're all connected, we are also committing violence against other women: our peers, our daughters, and our granddaughters.

For years, I avoided my body hatred, justifying my behavior with, "It only affects me." But it doesn't just affect me; it affects everyone. In her book Like Mother, Like Daughter, Debra Waterhouse writes about how a mother's negative relationship with her body can be passed down to her daughter. But this pattern doesn't just occur between mothers and daughters: society as a whole is bequeathing a negative body culture to the next generation.

I look at my daughters, one a beautiful little girl; the other, a beautiful young woman on the cusp of adolescence. They are fortunate, and blessed to live in modern times. Their foremothers have paved the way for them, clearing the obstacles that hindered earlier generations: They can vote, they have a voice, they can own property. They will witness the first woman in the Oval Office.

So what will prevent my girls from pursuing their dreams? If they buy the lie that they have to be superthin and youthful to be beautiful, that they have to loathe and control and try to shape their female form into something unnaturally unattainable, that will hold them back. The other freedoms won't matter, if they aren't free in their mind: free to love and accept themselves.

I have the power to change that. You do, too. That is why, as a woman, loving your body is some of the most important work that you can do.

It's important because if it remains unaddressed, it will sabotage anything else you try to do. It's scary to put yourself out on a limb, to offer your pearls to the world, and hope that it appreciates their value. It's even scarier if your confidence is undermined, if you're thinking of all the ways your body doesn't measure up.

It's important because you can't separate your body from the other parts of yourself. You can't love yourself while you hate your body.

It's important because you can't be free and clear to love and accept others unconditionally, if you're not loving and accepting towards yourself.

It's important because you can't be the woman, daughter, mother, wife, friend, or woman you wish to be, if you're consumed about thoughts about your body.

It's important because hating your body keeps you stuck. It keeps you in bondage, just as surely as violence, sexism, and injustice does.

It's important because the world needs our sacred femininity.

It's important because we can't fix the "big" problems - war, hatred, genocide, or violence - until we first heal these issues internally, in our battle with ourselves. They come from the same soil. And those problems can't, and won't, get our full attention if we're not healed of our own, personal hatred, first.

In loving your body, you release love into the world. You release courage. You release forgiveness. You release compassion. You release acceptance.

That sounds like important work to me. Love your body; love yourself. Love your body; change the world. Love your body: it matters.

Ch-Ch-Ch- Chia!

This Guest Post is written by the inimitable MizFit, and she's even included a video--unless Crabby has screwed up the coding, in which case she's included a nice blank space. There's a lot more cool stuff at MizFit's blog, so make sure you stop by if you're not already addicted. Enjoy!


Chia seeds are the new rage (if by rage you mean healthy stuff we're told to eat in the name of longevity----which MizFit does) and, indeed, they are precisely the same seed used to grow the frizzy "hair" on the Chia Pet plants.

(It's the easy joke. It's the obvious joke, People, but it bears repeating: NO, you CAN NOT simply eat your Chia Pet.)

Lemmie explain.

The chia seeds are derived from a mint-related plant known as Salvia hispanica. The seeds are high in protein (to know MizFit is to know she is all about the protein), fiber & calcium. Chia seeds are also higher in omega-3 than any other plant source, including the *amazing* flaxseed, which MizFit hath previously commanded you sprinkle on every, single item you consume.

(Does the above fact change my mind? you must view the video in order to to find out.)

Another benefit to Chia (*sigh* I am forced to admit over my beloved flax seeds) is that it expands in your stomach and, as a result, helps you to feel full longer.

In fact, the ancient Aztecs are rumored to have eaten chia before they commenced long marches (I'm thinking if it sustained them through a 'long march' it can definitely see me through a morning with the Toddler Tornado. We shall see.)

Chia seeds are also GREAT for diabetics as they slow down the conversion of carbohydrates into glucose due to their high fiber and protein content.

(I know. MizFit has lost her mind with ChiaLove & is all about espousing the information today. You'll have that.)

Bottom line? Check them out. Chia is great for your health, will help reduce your cravings with their high fiber content and are easy to use.

How easy? (thanks for asking!) Here's a muffin recipe and please to check out the video below.

It's Chiarrific.





(And big love goes out to my DoctorCrush Mehmet without whom the masses might never have realized this amazing seed maketh more than an inexpensive holiday gift for the officemate you barely know). --MizFit

On the Road: Cranky Q & A

[By Crabby]


OK, so I'm not actually packed yet--we don't head off on our cross-country trek until Monday. But Merry's taking over the helm (she's got a post coming up any minute, so stay tuned) and I'm already wondering how I'm going to survive Cranky Fitness withdrawal symptoms over the next couple of weeks. What will I do without you all????

(Boring background for non-regular readers: Crabby, along with her spousal equivalent (the Lobster), and their expressive cat (The Moo), are traveling cross-country via campervan (Fran the Van). They are moving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Cape Cod, at least for the non-winter months. However, their Provincetown house, which has been undergoing renovations, may or may not be ready when they get there. So for the next couple of weeks, the Crab will be concentrating on relocation issues and perhaps not so much on the blog).

But What Does This Mean for Readers of Cranky Fitness?

Plenty! Here are some answers to questions I cannot even pretend have been Frequently Asked.

Should I Keep Visiting Here Every Day Anyway?

Yes!!! In fact, Cranky Fitness will be far more entertaining. Here's why:

Merry will still be here, and will not have the Grumpy Crab breathing down her neck. Who knows what Unrestrained Cheerfulness may break out.

Plus there will be Guest Posts!

So People Actually Bothered to Send in Guest Posts?

Holy Crap, yes they did!

If fact, we have a BOATLOAD OF GUEST POSTS. All of them are good, and some of the are totally awesome. We won't say which are which, obviously.

At first I thought it would be best to run some now and save some for later. Merry might someday have the nerve to consider going on vacation, and having some guest post banked seemed like a nifty idea.

But then I realized that wasn't quite fair. I didn't say, "Please send us a guest post, and we'll run it sometime, possibly months from now, when you have no idea we're running it." Instead I said, "I'm going on a trip, please send stuff."

So since Merry is also here posting, and I might (or might not) send in some updates along the way, there may be quite a few days when we feature more than one guest post. Which just means more Guest Post Goodness for everyone!

Are You Going to Run Every Guest Post Submitted?

Alas, no. We're trying to be inclusive but, perhaps arbitrarily, we're still being somewhat picky. Our taste is certainly questionable enough that no one should take it personally if their post wasn't selected. It was probably too good for Cranky Fitness anyway.

I Sent My Guest Post And Never Heard Back. Should I Be Concerned?

Unfortunately, YES!

I seem to be having some freaky email problems--I've heard from 3 people so far that they have sent something that did not arrive. WTF, Gmail? Is anyone else who has a Gmail account experiencing missing email or is this a special gift to me from Google? I seem to be getting MOST of my mail but not all of it. So if you've sent something and did not get a "sorry no," or a "thanks, we'll see..." or something, please leave a comment and we'll see what we can do. We may not run it this time, but we'll hang onto it.

Will There Be More Opportunity for Guest Posts Later On?

Hell yes! One of us is often going on vacation. Plus, here's a little secret: Cranky Fitness is always open for guest posts. When one of us isn't on vacation, we might be extra choosey, and we'd prefer stuff that hasn't already run on your blog, but if you've got something you think would be a great fit for Cranky Fitness, go ahead and send it in and we'll see what we think.