Awesome Active Wear, Clever Backpacks, and Sneaky Bloggers

Yep, this is a product review post: some Kuhl active wear, (the shorts pictured above), as well as a Kuhl top and pair of pants, plus an Airbac Journey backpack.

And yes, it's a bit annoying when a blogger devotes a post to a bunch of pictures of herself wearing stuff she got for free and telling you what's good about them and what's not, but on the other hand...

Um, on the other hand....

Well shoot, at some point I'll figure out why it's not as annoying as it sounds.

 So, what's the "sneaky"part?

Shopping Cart Olympics

I'm afraid this is not a post about athletic contests involving shopping carts.

These do exist. The Chiditarod, for example, looks to be a real hoot. Teams of human "dawgs" pull shopping carts through freezing-ass Chicago streets for charity, complete with special guidelines for sabotaging other teams. What's not to like?

But no, this is about the imaginary Olympic Games that take place in my head when I go to the grocery store. I don't think I even realized how often I play these games until I saw a funny post by Marie from Mousearoo's Mumblings.

Marie confessed to being a "Judgy Mcjudgerson" because she noticed that the woman ahead of her at the store bought two items: hoodia, and a package of Rolo's candies. Marie questioned the wisdom of this combination.

Marie asked if other folks ever found themselves judging the purchases of others and I thought, holy crap, YES YES YES YES!!!

I am absurdly, ridiculously judgmental about the items people buy. Even though I may smile and make conversation with other shoppers as though I were a normal person, I'm secretly thinking:

"Hey, middle-aged wheezy guy with the large gut and red face and ear hair (ok, so the ear hair isn't relevant, it's just kinda gross)--yeah you, Mr. Good Chance of a Heart Attack on the Golf Course Next Weekend: Do you really need to buy all that bacon and salami and sour cream and chips and full-fat milk and pepperoni pizza and Ben and Jerry's? You think that one head of lettuce redeems that whole basket of junk? Buster, that's iceberg lettuce! It doesn't even count!!!"


You think it's immature and obnoxious to judge other people like that? Wait, it gets worse...

I actually feel competitive about the stuff in my cart. I want to have the healthiest bunch of groceries the cashier has seen that day or even that week.

Do I realize that neither the cashier nor anyone in line gives a rats ass what I buy? Well, yeah, if I think about it rationally. But what fun is being rational when self-delusion is so much more gratifying?

For other neurotic nutballs like myself who want to play shopping cart Olympics, here are some handy rules and tips. Notice that these rules are one-sided rules devised to make it easier to WIN! Because what's the point of competing in anything if you're gonna lose?

1. Judge others by your own standards: As we all know, there are many competing nutritional theories out there; research is often contradictory, and folks of different ages and life philosophies have different goals. So let's say you started on a vegan raw food diet two days ago because of something you read a magazine, and you are chatting with a 96 year old man behind you in line who has fought in 7 wars and still runs ultramarathons. If he has a steak in his shopping cart and you do not: score one for YOU!

2. Don't go to the Farmers Market the same day you go to the regular grocery store. Because you bought your produce there, right, and it was all healthy and organic and local? And now you've got nothing but your less impressive, somewhat processed, "compromise" foods in your cart. So yeah, you know you're going to put organic chard and garlic and local tomatoes in your "Barilla Plus" pasta tonight but how will the cashier and the people in line know that?

Defensive trick: If you are shopping with a family member or a significant other, you can restore any lost Farmers Market credit by working anything you bought there into the conversation. Yes, you will sound like a total jerk, but isn't it worth it to let everyone know that you get better produce at the Farmers Market than at the big chain grocery store?

3. Shop only for yourself. What if a friend or relative asks you to pick up a case of Red Bull, a bag of Oreo Double Stuffs, and a carton of cigarettes? People are going to think you're buying them for yourself!!!! It's almost as bad as when your grandmother runs out of that big bottle of her favorite laxative.

Tip: You can ask the cashier questions about these products to clarify that they're not for you: "My friend wants, um, a package of "Marlboros" but she didn't say what kind. Do they come in different colors?"

4. Special rules apply at super healthy hippy stores: It's no fun to play grocery cart Olympics if everyone around you has piles and piles of exotic produce, dried legumes and unrecognizable grains bought in bulk, cheeses made from the milk of unfamiliar mammals, foreign fermented unpronounceable curds, green juices, seaweed and hemp-based food items, etc. Especially if they remembered their reusable little canvas market bags and you never got around to buying one in the first place!

So in this case: You get bonus points for shopping at the same place as these uber-healthy, gastronomically adventurous creatures. This means you get credit for everything healthy in THEIR carts too, just because you shop at the same store. In this case, the cashier is not the imaginary judge who will award you your medal; rather, it is all the people "out there" who might be hypothetically impressed that you shop at such a virtuous establishment.

5. This last tip is so obvious I forgot to include it the first time and had to re-edit: Don't play the game when you've got too much crap in your own cart! We all have those days when we deserve some junk, or at least manage to talk ourselves into the idea that we deserve some junk. Just like an Olympic athlete doesn't need to enter every event, an Olympic Neurotic Competitive Shopper gets to sit out a few contests and freely toss Snickers bars or Pringles tubes or whatever into the cart. No one will notice, right?

Does anyone else feel either Smug or Sheepish about what you put in your cart? Do you notice what anyone else is buying?

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!

Someone you REALLY want to keep happy

[By Merry]

There is someone you really want to keep happy.

No, not your significant other. Not your mother, either.

The scenario: You want someone to do something for you.

Do you:
a) Ask them nicely and thank them afterwards?
b) Use guilt, insults, and contempt to pressure them into doing what you want?

Counting hands Wow. That's a lot of people who went straight for the second option. Let me re-phrase the scenario. You want something done and you need to make sure the person you're asking the favor of will still be on good terms with you later. The person you're asking the favor of is someone you really, really don't want to abandon you. In fact, the person you're asking the favor of is the person you see when you look in the mirror.

So many approaches to fitness focus on denying yourself – 'you can't have that brownie, it's bad for you' or 'you will run that last mile, you need to do it, push yourself.' What if you tried the opposite approach and treated your body with some appreciation? It feels really good to do something to pamper yourself. Make the body feel appreciated instead of punished.

I know, the first impulse at this point would be to reach for the fudge ice cream, or glass of red wine, the cigarette or whatever else provides immediate gratification to the taste buds. But feeding a junk craving rarely benefits the body. I would suggest that the junk/comfort foods are largely created by forces outside of yourself – what your parents gave you to eat, what advertisers pushed on you, things like that. Once you satisfy the craving, your body often feels worse. And – come on, admit it. If you try a health-food diet for a few months, your body does feel better.

So, instead of gratifying your cravings, do something nice for your body. For example, I just bought 3 new sweaters, the clingy kind that has angora woven in and feels incredibly soft and warm to wear.

The irrefutable logic behind this purchase:

Irrefutable Statement #1 - Wearing something nice makes you feel good.
Irrefutable Statement #2 - Feeling good makes you appreciate your body.
Irrefutable Statement #3 - Appreciating the body you walk around in leads to wanting to do good things for your body. You reach for the peach instead of the peach schnapps, because it makes you feel good about yourself to treat your body well.

So what the hell. Take an hour or two to get a massage, soak in a hot tub, buy that soft, angora sweater. Do something fun. Do something nice today for somebody you really want to be happy for a long time to come.

When do You Buy Organic?

Do you buy organic every time you shop for produce?

Some people do, and that's awesome. But Crabby tends to be a bit hit or miss about it. It's easier when she's at the Farmer's Market, buying local organic produce that was picked that day and looks and smells fresh and lovely. (Or even the farmer's market stuff that's not officially certified organic but is nonetheless grown without pesticides. Crabby doesn't think her kindly neighborhood vendors are lying to her about that).

Buying organic, however, can be tougher at the Big Chain Grocery stores. Sometimes the offerings are limited. Often what they do have is very expensive and old and wilty and scraggly because so few shoppers frequent that section. It's always tempting to stick with the big bright pyramids of perky-looking and attractively priced fruit and vegetables in the regular section, bypassing entirely the sad little clumps of pricey organic fare off in the corner.

But who wants to eat pesticides?

Crabby really doesn't. Even if sometimes she manages to "forget" that the regular produce she's throwing in her cart could be contaminated with all kinds of evil chemicals that no amount of scrubbing will remove.

Help is here, however! If you can't buy organic all the time, there's a handy guide available that rates the best and worst produce in terms of pesticide content. You can apparently reduce your pesticide exposure by about 90% by going organic on the 12 worst items.

And here's an additional important tip: Print that sucker out and put it on your refrigerator! Seriously. Crabby has seen these sorts of lists before and always thinks she will remember which foods are really bad, but when she gets to the store she never does. Take that info from your fridge when you're making a shopping list and put a little "O" by the high priority organic stuff--because that's where you want to spend your organic budget.

Who knows, perhaps if we all stop buying non-organic versions of the Worst Offenders, produce suppliers and supermarkets will get the message and offer more and cheaper organic produce!

(OK, Crabby won't hold her breath on that one. The readership of Cranky Fitness is not that big. It will be quite a while before we can influence the selections on offer at your favorite grocery store. But hell, we're working' on it.)

So, enough with the yapping, lets bring on the list!

Note: a much more attractive, suitable-for-refrigerator-display PDF file is available for free from the Environmental Working Group; also they have a way bigger compilation of pesticide data at their site too. But in the meantime...

Pesticide-Laden Fruits and Vegetables to Avoid:

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Lettuce
• Grapes (Imported)
• Pears
• Spinach
• Potatoes

The "Good" (Less Contaminated) Produce:

• Onions
• Avocado
• Sweet Corn - Frozen
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Sweet Peas - Frozen
• Asparagus
• Kiwi
• Bananas
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Eggplant

So how often do you folks buy organic produce?

Guest Post: Jeffrey on Grocery Store Strategies

Our next Guest Blogger, Jeffrey Rice, is a personal trainer and the owner of Rice Home Fitness in Kansas City. He has a great blog with lots of useful training advice--advice which, in Crabby's case, might have prevented her from a painful shoulder injury. (She discovered she was doing one of her gym exercises wrong!) So be sure to check it out. In this post, however, you don't even need to get sweaty, as Jefferey is taking us on a visit to the grocery store--another place where mistakes can be costly!


Grocery Store Strategy

What you have in your house will determine a large portion of what you eat. Makes sense, right? So you need to shop smart. I eat a ton of food, so I need to shop smart for my health and my bank account. Don't grab just anything shiny like a chimp run amok with a shopping cart. We have grocery chimps for that. So let's discuss strategy:

1. Eat first
You know this is important. If you go into the grocery store hungry, you will get more than you need. Come on.

2. Make a menu
For whatever your shopping period is, make a menu. If you shop a week at a time, make a menu for a week. Choose a day that you can get to the store consistently and always make a menu of meals up to that day. Write down all the basic ingredients. Example

Spaghetti & Eggplant
Spaghetti noodles
Ground Turkey
Spaghetti Sauce
Mushrooms
Eggplant

Make sure you have some like the above example: really easy. Don't get overambitious. That's just another pizza delivery waiting to happen when you get home too tired to stir a roux for half an hour.

3. Make a shopping list from your menu
Now go down your menu, and in the order that items appear in the store (I know that sounds obsessive, but it keeps you from running back and forth, and keeps your head in your list instead of figuring things out), add them to a shopping list and check them off your menu.

4. Add non-menu items to your list
Remember, the goal is to not browse the shelves looking for what you “need.” You will invariably come home with deals so good you couldn't pass them up, except you could have if you hadn't known about them. So add everything else to the list at this point, including things like paper towels and tin foil.

Put some back-up meals on there. You might have a dinner guest you didn't plan for, and now you don't have enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I keep a stock of cans of low-fat chunky soup. This eliminates another reason to go get fast food. It's healthier (I know, sodium) and much cheaper.

5. ONLY BUY WHAT'S ON YOUR LIST
Everything falls apart if you skip this last step. Go through the grocery store with blinders on, looking only at your exhaustive list, trusting it, walking to each item with the precision and single-minded focus of a laser-guided laser. If you do this, you know you'll have what you need for every meal of the week and little more.

Advantages of this system
-You'll have fewer excuses to eat out and you'll be healthier for it.
-You'll save money by cooking at home.
-You'll save money and waste less by not letting food go bad.
-You'll save time wandering around the store, or going back because you didn't know what you were going to cook while you were shopping, and now that you do, you realize you need some eggs.

Really Random Friday

(Album cover photo: danacountryman.com)

Crabby isn't even going to try to tie this mess together with any sort of theme.

And for those of you not too distracted by the brunette's butt cleavage, here's some Dry Scientific Research. But have patience, later there will be Sex and Shopping!

Night shift workers do not, apparently, face higher cancer rates than day shift workers, or at least this study of Swedish workers failed to find any connection. Researchers analyzed nearly 20 years' worth of data. Earlier studies had suggested there might be a link. Crabby is glad because that just didn't seem fair!

And since we were very recently talking about Sunshine, Vitamin D, and breast cancer, there is another new study suggesting that increased intake of D-3 could prevent hundreds of thousands of cancer cases a year. The researchers recommended supplementation 2000 IU of D3 a day, plus moderate sun exposure (but not more than 15 minutes without the use of "clothing" and a hat). Damn, there go Crabby's Nude Sunbathing plans for the weekend! (Note: that was just Gratuitous Bold Text, something Crabby is having fun with today. There is No Actual Link to Pictures of Crabby Nude Sunbathing!) Anyway, from what Crabby has read previously, she suspects not all researchers would agree with these guy's recommendations, but she is too lazy to go find opposing points of view.

Despite all the controversy around Surgery to Reduce Stomach Size apparently bariatric surgery does save lives--at least among the severely obese. In one study, surgery to reduce stomach size cut the overall risk of death by 40%; in another, there was a reduction of 29%.

This was widely reported elsewhere, but it seems to be Big News that Many Seniors Are Still Having Sex. However, in this cheerful update on the sex lives of those in their 70's and 80's, "sexually active" was defined as having sex once a year. Crabby has decided to be contrarian about this whole thing, because, well, she's just that way.

In any event, despite the Horny Headlines, only 26% of men aged 75 to 85 were getting any, even once a year, and women were even less likely to be doing it. (And only 50% of men and 25% of women even indulged in admitted to masturbation!) Crabby has no agenda around Senior Sex--seems to her it fine to have Lots or None at All. Whatever! She just wonders why all the headlines seemed to go out of the way to make it sound like Old Folks are Doin' it like Bunny Rabbits, when that seems not actually to be the case. (And you may note that though the survey was of US seniors, the Yahoo people apparently had to go Spain to find a picture of two Elders smoochin').

Now, on to less scientific stuff!

So Crabby was not the only one who went clothes shopping recently. This post by the always amusing Vanilla at Half-Fast had Crabby laughing her brand new faux size 2's off.

Need to Nag Yourself About Something? This useful site, Hassle Me, allows you to harass yourself by email at various intervals--to bug yourself to go to the gym every few days, or call your mother, or whatever. It may have an Evil Application too: it looks like you can specify other people's email addresses and hassle them too!

And finally, here's a Really Random Observation:

So you know when you set up a Blogger profile you can specify an occupation? Crabby, when she started her blog, decided to call herself a "Professional Layabout." Well, recently the Blogger people did some updating and organized things, and suddenly Crabby's "occupation" was Highlighted in Blue--which means it was a link! Crabby excitedly clicked on the link and discovered there were 21 other Professional Layabouts! Crabby has no idea why she finds this amusing.

Update note: Crabby does not know why suddenly the line spacing has changed on her posts but she doesn't like it! It's too cramped. If any Bloggers have any ideas about how/where to fix this (she can't seem to find the right button) please advise!) Update to the update: If anyone else encounters this line-space problem after a picture or list, Med Journal Watch had a fix which hopefully won't mess anything else up. Coincidentally, it's a health site with a more careful and critical analysis of the bariatric surgery study Crabby just casually cited today. (Date stamp should be fixed too).


Oh hell, just say anything you want!