The buck stops... down the road a bit

[By Merry]

No, not that buck...

The buck stops over there

One of the hazards of working at Cranky Fitness is the need to make people think that you are able to keep up with the latest in scientific research. Sometimes I wonder if there is a limit to how much information a brain can absorb. I mean, you only have so many synapses. Don't want to blow a fuse.

Where's a stop sign when you need one?

Is there ever a time that you can stop learning, put your feet up, and say that's it. Stick a fork in me 'cause I'm done. No more studies ever again?

Are theories like buses?

I know the media (media here refers to the news and other information sources that are glib and superficial... as opposed to well-written, extensively researched, and incredibly witty blogs, like the ones Crabby writes) tends to come out with a new study and say "Here! That's it! This is the final answer!" And of course next week they do the same thing with a new study that turns the previous one's findings 180 from the original direction. But that's because they need to save air time for the next round of commercials. Thinking doesn't contribute to their bottom line, so why bother?

Sometimes a seeming contradiction is actually a clarification

The salt study referred to research that focused on people who exercise heavily and who also make a conscious effort to restrict their salt intake. It doesn't supplant the finding that couch potatoes need to watch it on the salty snacks. It supplements those findings. The latest research on vitamin D looks like a total contradiction of what the Skin Cancer scientists have been preaching for a couple of decades, but it's refining the original idea. They're not saying tanning until you resemble a prune is a good idea; they are suggesting that a little sun might help you.

In both cases, the studies presented conclusions that modified the previous conclusions, which requires readjusting the brain. Which is a pain. It's tempting to just think Hell, I don't like that theory. I'll ignore it and wait a few minutes until the next theory comes along.

I keep thinking that sifting through all this medical research can be compared to putting together a jigsaw puzzle: eventually we'll get the complete picture. (And then we probably won't like it and will ask for the puzzle that had the picture of the fluffy kitten instead.)


more cat pictures

Are decisions some kind of hot potato?

Not to sound (more than usually) paranoid, but I can't rely on someone else to do all my thinking for me. I need to make up my own mind about health issues, or political issues, or whatevah. The buck stops here. (In inflation terms, I think it's no longer a buck. More like my two cents' worth.)

Once upon a time, after I got out of school, I worked for a fancy shmancy interior designer. This woman catered to the extremely wealthy, CEOs of major corporations and such, who settled in the richest pockets of the San Francisco peninsula and wanted their mansions to reflect how rich and important they were.

It was hard to sympathize with people who would call up and scream at me because the new paint in the ballroom wasn't quite the right shade of mauve. But what really puzzled me was when people would call up and leave messages asking the designer to tell them (the client) whether or not they (the client) liked the antique chest that she (the designer) placed in their (the client's) living room.

Me, being poor, I have to make up my own mind about whether I like something or not. They'd pay her ginormous sums of money to make their decisions for them. I worry sometimes that this is how we treat scientists.

I'm curious -- how do you handle the information deluge? How many people have tuned out all the latest "findings" and do whatever they feel like?


see more fail pictures

Multiple Choice

Why Yes, This Is the Same Stock Photo
Crabby Uses Over and Over Again

1. The reason there is not a Real blog post at Cranky Fitness today is because Crabby was:

a) Busy preparing to celebrate the 17th anniversary of her (not-yet-legal-in-this-stupid-ass-country) Marriage-like Union with the most amazing Lobster in the world;

b) Too excited about Cranky Fitness being mentioned in Women's Health magazine to get much done;

c) Unable to think of anything good to write about;

d) Too busy dragging some of the nastiest, smelliest, heaviest, disgustingest carpet remnants and other bug-infested cat-pee-soaked items out of the basement for a dump run; or,

e) All of the above.


2. Since there's nothing much going on at Cranky Fitness today, you should go visit another better blog that Women's Health also mentioned, like:

a) Back In Skinny Jeans;

b) Sister Skinny;

c) Big Fat Deal;

d) Lose the Buddah;

e) All of the above.


3. And Crabby will be back soon with her usual:

a) Hastily-researched, sloppily-written health news summaries;

b) Questionable fitness advice;

c) Posts that have nothing at all to do with health or fitness;

d) Awesome blog comments by Smart Funny Readers since the comments are the best reason for stopping by Cranky Fitness in the first place;

e) All of the Above.


The answers to the Multiple Choice Quiz are, of course: (e), (e), and (e)!

And while Crabby will indeed be back soon, it may be a lamer, lazier week than usual due to the upcoming (U.S.) Thanksgiving holiday. She apologizes, especially to all her Canadian readers, whose Thanksgiving she missed entirely because she totally didn't even realize it was happening way back then.

Random Friday: Home-Grown Edition

(Benny, Frank's charismatic dog, courtesy of The Smitten Image)

While Crabby was on vacation, she missed reading many of her favorite blogs. Since then, she's been trying desperately to catch up. So rather than search the entire internet for Random Friday items, she thought she'd just steal stuff from some of her blog friends! use this opportunity to acknowledge some of the great blogs hosted by friends of Cranky Fitness!

Unfortunately, she can only get to a few--so readers are reminded to click on those cheerful blue hyperlinks in the comment section as often as possible. (And on a related note, Crabby knows the Random Rotating Blogroll needs a major update. Soon, she hopes--or at least, well, someday.)

Anyway, so all the info here is courtesy of various Crab-Friendly blogs. Thanks everyone, for writing Crabby's Random Friday Post for her!

Broccoli Sprouts: Smear Them on Your Face?
Well, not quite yet, but the Broccoli Sprout People (who kindly sent Crabby some Broccoli Tea a while back) are reporting that "a topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts" can protect skin from the damaging effects of UV rays. More here--this sounds weird but the data actually looks pretty impressive.

Vinegar: Pour it On Your Head!
'Cause it helps fight dandruff. And vinegar can make your coffee taste better, keep your eggs from cracking, and do a bunch of other cool stuff. Mark's Daily Apple has these and other uses for what must be the all-time handiest item in your kitchen cabinets.

Swear at Work: It's Good for Productivity!
Via the always informative Healthbolt: This interesting article claims that Crabby's favorite hobby, swearing, can actually be good for productivity and workplace morale. F*ckin' A! This is great news! However, the authors caution against swearing in front of senior staff members or customers, which unfortunately takes quite a bit of the fun out of it.

Special bonus: Sara over at the Healthbolt post encourages you to go ahead and swear in her comments section. Crabby did it, with no asterisks or anything. It's really fun, try it!

(Another good blog for swearing, of course, is the reliably funny Fitness Fixation. Kelly swears all the time, thank goodness.)

Stop the Dog From Farting?
According to the Bag Lady, (who just started her own blog, hooray!) a tablespoon of plain yogurt mixed into dry dog food can help with this unpleasant but not uncommon problem. (She also has further tips on that Miracle Substance mentioned above, vinegar, and lots of amusing stories).

Ensure Your Own Quadruple Bypass!
Blame Jim at Chew On That, not Crabby, for any catastrophic diet failures that may result from clicking on this link. Jim passes on the secrets to homemade Snickers Bars, Peanut Butter Cups and other familiar but ridiculously evil Halloween treats.

Sprinkle Chili Powder In Your Doorways?
Yes--to repel ants without pesticides! Jennifer from Tree Hugging Family also fights cockroaches with garlic and will tell you how to make the World's Ugliest Fruit Fly Catcher.

On a More Serious Note--Check out These Fine Blogs and Sites:
Not all our contributors are silly all the time like Crabby is. Find out from Reb what chemo is really like, and get information on death and dying and palliative care from Marijke's new website. Also, Soap Box Girl posted a very touching tribute to her mother on what would have been her birthday. Crabby got all teary reading it and you might too.

Now On To The Gratuitous Animal Links!
Otherwise, how would you know this was a Random Friday?

First off, Hilary and Frank both have some great photos (and even a video!) of a Jack Russell Terrier bravely protecting the world from the onslaught of Killer Waves.

And we must thank Chicken Girl for alerting us to all the wonderful lolcat weirdness at icanhascheezburger.



So, yeah, these cat pictures aren't really "health" or "exercise" related, but, well, work with Crabby on this.



Have a great weekend everyone!

The Crab Has Landed!

Vacation is over, and soon Cranky Fitness will go back to normal. (Not normal in the normal sense of normal; just "normal" for Cranky Fitness). There will be posts having at least something to do with health and fitness, and Crabby will stop making her readers write all of them.

But not quite yet.

Tomorrow there will be a product review or a bit of health news or more advice you don't need, but today, sorry--it's just an end-of-vacation ramble. Crabby is in Transition, and as a Crab who is easily overwhelmed, she does not tend to "hit the ground running." She hits the ground with a plop. It takes her no small amount of time to hoist herself up, get pointed in the right direction, and start putting one foot in front of the other again.

And yes, Crabby realizes that Cranky Fitness really should be posting about the Environment today because it's some sort of Coordinated Blog Thing.

But she doesn't have anything sensible to say that you all don't already know. Cranky Fitness readers tend to be green or at least greenish; you folks are eco-runners and composters and recyclers and animal rescuers and are often far better informed than Crabby is on the nuances of conservation. It would be silly of Crabby to attempt any lectures on that front.

And actually, it's interesting to watch the whole "lets stop trashing the earth and really think about the environment" movement get trendy again. Everyone's becoming fluent in Greenspeak, even the worst of the polluters and politicians. Is serious change going to happen before it's too late? Lets hope so. There seems to be some real momentum going lately and it's very encouraging.

Yet Crabby lived through the Seventies and this all has a familiar ring. When smart choices start costing big money and result in actual taxes that people have to cough up themselves; when the pop culture moves onto the next Big Thing and "green" starts sounding so "last year"; when fossil fuels start costing us what they actually cost the earth to use them, will we all happily pay up because it's the right thing to do? We'll see. Crabby remains skeptical, but is quite willing to be delightfully surprised if folks are actually serious this time.

Anyway.

So Crabby is way behind in her blog duties and may need a few days to catch up. There are emails to answer, dear blog friends to visit, and wonderful new visitors to get to know better. There are posts to write here and guest posts to write for other places. (Also, and this may be TMI: there is a pile of funky smelling laundry that won't just wash itself, real estate documents to contend with, and empty cupboards to stock with yummy cupcakes and cookies healthy whole grain foods).

It's also possible that even when she's back for real, Crabby may not be able to go back to the old policy of responding to every comment left on the blog. Which sucks! How do other bloggers manage to answer some but not others? It seems so arbitrary and Crabby knows she will feel guilty about it. She hopes that people who leave great comments will continue to do so even if sometimes those comments just sit there, being admired and enjoyed but not acknowledged. Comment fall-off is bound to happen, which is horrible to contemplate. Crabby will miss those of you who bail very much. But she can't blame readers for seeking other blogs with more dedicated and efficient hosts.

Gosh, this is indeed a rambly post! But one last thing: On this Six Month Anniversary of Cranky Fitness, Crabby can not thank her readers, commenters and guest posters enough. And thanks too to all the nice blogs that have linked to her. Your collective patience during the Crab's long weeks of vacation was so very much appreciated!

Cranky Fitness readers truly rock.

Thanks everyone, it's great to be back!

Behind the Scenes at Cranky Fitness

Since we had Leah kindly supplying actual Health-Related Content today, Crabby is free to bring you a few updates from the always busy and bustling Product Development Laboratories at Cranky Fitness!

And boy are they busy back there. Completely imaginary Dedicated workers, thousands of them, are toiling away night and day to update this site and bring you the easiest to find without even Googling latest, most important updates in health and fitness news! And it's not just up-to-the minute content, either. Cranky Fitness plans to keep Screwing around with the Sidebar Optimizing its' User Interface continuously in order to try to make a few bucks someday enhance your browsing experience!

Can you tell Crabby recently discovered how to do Strike-Through Type? She promises to cut it out. Soon. Probably. Eventually. Her recent infatuation has probably officially killed it. All the hip bloggers will move on to something new tomorrow. Check back here in about three years to find out what it is and Crabby will kill it again.

Anyway. So, changes. Innovations.

You may have noticed there are new ads again! Hopefully these will acquire some variety over time. Or maybe you will always be taunted by Snack Chips. Crabby herself found herself craving crunchy snack-foods last time she was at the store, and wonders if all the Blogher bloggers are throwing all kinds of crackers and chips and pretzels and other tempting carbs in their carts all of a sudden without even knowing why.

But the Blogher people somehow seem Way more likable as ad partners than the Google Alternative. So Crabby will just eat her snack chips and shut up about it until they get a few more sponsors going. And a cool thing about the Blogher ad process: they highlight posts from other member blogs. Perhaps you have seen these.

The downside: more clutter on the sidebar. The upside: some days, Cranky Fitness gets to clutter up the sidebars of other blogs! Crabby hopes new people will come and subliminally confuse Cranky Fitness with Snack Chips and think the blog is Tasty and Healthy and Addictive and Convenient and Brightly Packaged!

In other blog news, Cranky Fitness made A European List of the top English Language Health Blogs. How did Cranky Fitness manage to make the list at all, despite being too new for a google page rank, not very big, and weird? Well, partly it was because the blog gets so many comments! So thank you, Commenters! We came in at #79, beating out, for example, a blog called UroStream.

(Crabby didn't check to see whether UroStream was about, well, exactly what it sounds like. Who knows? Maybe it's another way of spelling Euro-Stream and its mission is highlight the important health benefits of European-style rowing. Perhaps they're immensely popular and they've got tasty photos spreads of buffed Continental crew teams with tousled hair and glistening bodies. Crabby prefers to think this, actually.)

Cranky Fitness is also now a Blogburst contributor! Blogburst is a syndicator that actual News Outlets sometimes use. So far, they haven't found anything normal enough here to pick up and distribute to the masses, but it has only been a few days. Crabby may experiment every now and then with trying to sound more like a regular health blog in hopes of getting Noticed. So if sudden Normalcy should attack the blog, do not be alarmed! It will be sporadic and temporary.

***Important Update! Cranky Fitness has now moved up to #17 on the European Guy's Top Health Blog List! Why? Who the hell knows, and it's probably a mistake, but Crabby's pleased! Also, she checked out UroStream and it's actually really cute. It's a blog written by a urologist with a sense of humor, though unfortunately it features no photo-spreads of muscular rowers.

So that's all for now, but stay tuned! Crabby is working hard to realize her dreams of making Cranky Fitness one of the very best, most informative silliest but nonetheless weirdly popular health blogs on the Net!

Feed Me!

Crabby finally has internet back on her computer, hooray! However, she's still a day behind, and has only sort of a fake post of her own today. But in the meantime, there is a guest post following almost immediately after this one, in an effort to make up for Crabby's recent slackitude. Stay tuned!

All Crabby has today is a Question and a Cartoon. The cartoon goes first, because you know you're going to skip down to it anyway. And Crabby would like you to at least see the question in case you have an opinion!

So this Nataliedee offering was sent to Crabby by Sara from HealthBolt, a much more informative health site than this one is. But gosh, why do you think this made Sara think of Cranky Fitness?



nataliedee.com

And now on to the question. It's for those of you who have Feed Readers or Blogs or have opinions about Content Distribution. (Sorry, Crabby should have warned regular readers it was a boring question!)

So Crabby has been distributing her RSS feed in its entirety, mainly because she never really thought about it one way or another. But she has recently been alerted to a couple instances of plagiarism (bad, bad, fake blogs!). And she also finds herself feeling slightly confused about the whole idea of feed 'publishing.'

The best she can tell, there are quite a few perfectly legitimate sites that take a bunch of posts from other people's blogs off their RSS feeds, collect them together, and 'distribute' them. Then people come to their sites to read things instead of going to all the original blogs. The legitimate ones always include a link to the original post.

Based on Crabby's very limited understanding of how this all works, she has mixed feelings about it. While she loves the idea of new people possibly discovering Cranky Fitness, she's afraid that when the entire post is published elsewhere, people aren't going to bother going to Cranky Fitness just for the Comments. But they should! Because everyone should see what Crabby's Smart Readers have to say.

So Crabby is curious about the option of just publishing a partial feed. So people could get a sense if they wanted to read the post, and if they did, they'd end up on Crabby's site where the Comments live. (Crabby would of course have to discover the disappointing reality of how many people out there are just going to read the first part of a post and say, "yuck, no thanks." But as depressing as that sounds, she suspects her ego could weather the blow).

What she'd hate to do, though, is mess her readers up! She doesn't want to make Cranky Fitness a hassle. Crabby herself is an internet Luddite who doesn't do her own blog visits by using Feed Readers so she's not entirely sure what impact publishing a partial feed would have. (Also she's not sure how to do it, but she remembers some option in some tab somewhere in Blogger that seemed to offer this ability. She's assuming this would actually work?)

So she's hoping some of you can advise her about all this! Would partial feeds be a Pain in the Ass? What do you other bloggers do--publish your whole feed or only part of it? Does it help your readership to have your posts floating out there in the blogosphere? Crabby is a bit over her head here, which as you all well know is nothing new!

Broccoli in Your Tea? Product Review, Part 2

So sorry! After keeping readers guessing what product Crabby would be reviewing for an entire day, Crabby will now reveal that it was something far less entertaining than her Smart Readers' ideas. More on that below!

But the first Free Thing Crabby received as a Blogger was not smoking-cessation yogurt or caffeinated soap, but Tea with Broccoli in it! (Okay, so the Brassica Tea people may not even know she is a blogger. But she Hinted and they Sent and for that she is grateful. Had they sent Magic Instant Six-Pack Abdominal Creme or Melt-the-Pounds-Away Chocolate Ice Cream she would have been Even More Grateful, but this was pretty cool too).

Crabby was curious about these teas because they contain a very potent antioxidant called SGS. This is the same stuff that comes in Broccoli and Broccoli Sprouts! Anyway, SGS is a kick-ass cancer-fighter and all-around nutritional Superstar.

If you want to read more about SGS, the Brassica people have a collection of research over at their blog. It's a list of actual scientific studies, so Crabby is not too embarrassed to send you over there even though they're also selling the tea and the Broccoli sprouts. (And they also have less technical, more user-friendly info at their site too).

And Crabby likes the Brassica people! They're scientists associated with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and they sound smart and well-informed. For whatever reason, Crabby trusts them when they say something is good for her. But any actual scientists among Crabby's readers who have different information, please feel free to weigh in and set Crabby straight.

Crabby knows some of you disapprove of any food on principal that has been supplemented or tinkered with by scientists. But Crabby does not fear all Franken-Food! To her, it sort of depends on whether the Tinkering is done to make food healthier, or just more profitable. And adding some extra Really Good for Your stuff to tea seemed like a fine idea to Crabby. (The Brassica people, by the way, still tell you to eat your vegetables; you don't get out of it entirely by drinking their tea. Crabby appreciates their honesty on this point, as much as she'd like to replace 90% of her vegetables with cupcakes).

So Crabby was thrilled to get her samples in the mail yesterday, but then she started to worry. What if the tea tasted, well, like broccoli? Being an honest Crab, she knew she'd have to say so, but she really hoped she wouldn't have to be mean to the nice Brassica people.

So she brewed up a cup of Green Tea with Orange and...

It tasted just fine! No broccoli-ness was detectable. Hooray!

(Caveat: Crabby made that cup the way a normal person would, with just one teabag, but usually, she drinks her tea in a Freakish Way. She puts in anywhere from 4-7 teabags in a mug, all different colors and flavors, brews it for 5-10 minutes, then dumps in Splenda (horrors!) and milk. She's really more of a coffee drinker so "normal" tea tastes too watery for her to enjoy. The Brassica tea, it turns out, also tastes good when a bunch of different flavors are combined in freakishly large quantities).

The SGS tea has actually been around for a few years, but it was new to Crabby. She will be ordering some soon and paying with her very own money!

More information about the tea and about ordering it can be found at the BrassicaTea website.

Now Crabby said she would acknowledge the most amusing Reader Guess about what she might be reviewing, but that is so hard when there were many funny ones! For readers who do not regularly visit the Comments Section (click on the link at the end of the post that says how many comments there are), do go back to yesterday's post and see what commenter's guessed. Crabby had many favorites, including one that the author seems to have removed! She hopes it will reappear someday.

So Crabby appreciates all your creative guesses. She hates to just pick one! But having said she would, she found Katieo's guess that Crabby would be testing samples of this appalling food item, to be perhaps the most Amusing. And for those who have not, for some reason, been visiting Sister Skinny on a daily basis, do not miss this recent post of Katieo's, which is very much worth clicking an additional link to read.

Thanks to all who guessed! And to any of you who have either more ideas, Very Silly or Not, for products Crabby should check out in the future, or any other comments about Tea or FrankenFood or Anything at all, please feel free to share your thoughts!

Great Hikes! In, um, pretty much Canada.

So in an earlier post, Crabby asked her smart readers for their hiking (and camping) recommendations, and readers came through! Crabby will just mention a bit about each hike; further details can be found at the "Great Hikes" page in Crabby's somewhat creepy Google Page Annex.

However, here's the funny thing: Crabby was all excited to tell you about one of the best hikes she can remember in recent years. It was a little far afield for her: it started at Lake O'Hara in Yoho Park in Canada. (The photo from the previous post, like this photo, were both from the same hike. The air was crisp; the peaks were snow-capped and the larches were golden. The whole hike was stunning. (These last photos were not ours, however; different time of year). Anyway, it was a fairly easy day hike; not a hardcore back-packy hike. However, there was a bus ride involved and reservations were required.

But... perhaps Crabby should have sent you to some of her other favorites instead: to coastal California perhaps, where you can hike gorgeous bluff trails, or to Yosemite or Glacier National Park, or Bryce or Zion or Yellowstone. Somewhere that's not in Canada? Because the majority of the other suggestions were also for hikes in Canada!

Crabby figures either: Canadian readers are more into hiking and camping than Americans (confirming her grouchy fears about US folks abandoning their parks) or: all the best hiking is in Canada and we should all move there right now.

Crabby loves the hiking at Banff and Jasper and Lake Louise and other well-trafficked locations, but readers were more clever and adventurous and sent in less obvious choices. And again, Crabby is only going to mention them briefly here; highlights and other details that readers sent in are here. Or, you could go to their blogs and beg them to tell you more.

First up, Geosomin of I Am Woman Hear Me Run and The Supposed Golden Path recommends Prince Albert National Park. Besides Lake Waskesui, there are four main day hikes. She also mentions the back country camping routes and canoe camping packages which are "amazing." And along those lines, she also recommends the Otter Lake/ Lake Missinipe area, where the The Churchill River Canoe Company has some great vacation packages. And further south is Cypress Hills Provincial Park, with forests, cliffs, and "an area of the forest where all the trees grow crooked and strangely." Cool!

And, in a demonstration that Crabby still does not know the first thing about uploading photos to her blog, here is Geosomin's picture of Waskesui Lake which looks to be in miniature (at least in Preview Mode) even though Crabby told blogger "large":



Next up are Leah's suggestions, Leah of The Goat's Lunch Pail and Prozac Palace.

She recommends Siffleur Falls along Highway 11 east of the Banff Park boundary. The trail includes rivers and waterfalls and suspension bridges and lovely cool trees. The walk is fairly easy, very popular, and kid-friendly. And: siffleur is the French word for marmot!

She also recommends the Coral Creek hike, a horse trail featuring a stream and an evergreen forest, mountain peaks, and if one perseveres further than Leah did, embedded marine life.

And here's a picture of the area courtesy of Leah:



And finally, to the United States, where Christina at Do or Diet recommends the Noligchucky Gorge Campground in the Appalachians. The "Noli" is a river starting in NC ending up in TN. The campground is set right on the river with great views of the mountains. Nearby is the Appalachain Trail and a train right-of-way hike that is a "genuine pleasure." The river is visible for most of the hike. Other highlights include a Sunday night pot-luck and jam. She also recommends the Virgina Creeper Trail which runs from Damascus to Abingdon. It's mild and very scenic trail and perfect for biking.

So Crabby thanks her helpful readers, and sorry she doesn't know how to do photos yet. And please let her know if she has made any transcription mistakes your submissions.

So have we exhausted this subject of camping and hiking and the joys/annoyances thereof? Or can we muster up anything else to say about it? Comments, about anything at all, are always welcome!

Smart Readers and Blog Comments

This is one of those weekend posts with no actual health information in it. If you're visiting Cranky Fitness for the first time, you may prefer something with a bit more substance. So feel free to grab some healthy and tasty antioxidants! Or you could go do some interval training or even just sit quietly and attempt to meditate. Or heck, visit Diet Pulpit where there a ton of resources for weight loss, or consult Marijke: Nurse Turned Writer who has lots of interesting medical information to share. Because Crabby just plans to yammer on for a few paragraphs about how wonderful her readers are and how grateful she is to have them.

Crabby has visited other blogs, bulletin boards, forums, and places where discussions happen on the web. And while some places are much like Cranky Fitness, many others are not!

Some High Traffic sites feature virtually no reader discussion at all. Theoretically, lots and lots of other people are visiting, but you don't know who they are or what they think. (As a side note, Crabby spent years visiting various blogs without ever commenting at all--she thinks reading without commenting is a very reasonable thing to do! She's just glad that so many of you here at Cranky Fitness are willing to take the time to do it). Places where no one comments sometimes feel a little lonely, at least to Crabby. It's like everyone else but her has something better to do than plop down into the comment section for a chat.

On the other hand, some sites get hundreds and hundreds of comments every day. One could spend hours reading all the comments on just one post--and for Crabby, that's too many! Crabby, both as a blogger and a reader, loves to feel like she "knows" the regulars. So Crabby loves that her readers provide a "just right" feeling of busy-ness to Cranky Fitness. Though she can't always reply to every comment (and she will likely get worse and worse about this as time goes on, sorry) she loves reading them all and knows other people out there lurking are enjoying them too.

Crabby has also noticed that some sites have really contentious comments with all kinds of personal attacks and flame wars and alliances of various sorts. There is much discussion of "trolls" or a common variant, "concern trolls." People are often warning other people "don't feed the trolls!"

No thank you! Crabby loves that you are all nice to each other. No one gives anyone else grief if they have a different opinion. Crabby's favorite thing of all, especially if it's a post she hasn't been able to tend to properly, is when you comment on each other's comments in a supportive way. It makes Crabby feel all warm and fuzzy. What a great community! What awesome readers!

Another nice thing about Cranky Fitness readers is that while they're all amiable and easy to get along with, they're all different. Some sites attract a very narrow age range, or income level, or geographic area, or special interest. Here, there's a nice variety--some of you are health freaks, some not so much; some of you are still in college while others are great-grand parents; etc, etc. It makes discussions so much more interesting than if we were all 23-27 years old; ate solely organic food, and were all eagerly training for our next Ultra Marathon.

And finally, what Crabby likes best about her Smart Reader's comments is their Quality. You folks are funny! And helpful. And thought-provoking. And poignant. Crabby always ends up learning something, and laughing, and thinking, and sometimes even changing her minds about things, which is a very hard thing for a Cranky Crab to do!

So thanks everyone!

Great Outdoors

Here at Cranky Fitness, there is a tendency to engage in a lot of whining. And this is not going to change anytime soon. If fact, today's post is pretty much a rant, but there are Important Announcements at the end, so please hang in there.

So the Great Outdoors is no exception to Crabby's general whine-about-it policy: she has already complained about her fear of encountering lions and tigers and bears while hiking out in the wilderness. She has confessed that she often wonders: will she survive her little five mile loop, or will hungry predators catch her and eat her alive? (And what the heck does that even mean, "eaten alive?" How alive could you be without, say, your head?)

However, Crabby still loves hiking and camping and thinks everyone should do more of it. So she was alarmed to discover that National Park attendance is declining!

What? How could this be?

Sure, gas prices are high, and entrance fees have gone up, but that's true for any family vacation destination. DisneyWorld or even a trip to the multiplex costs way more money than it did a generation ago.

But c'mon. Some people do indeed spend a little money on vacations. And if those people can cruise to Cabo or pack the kids off with them to big resort hotel in Hawaii or spend a week within the confines of the Magic Kingdom, then they could also probably rent a tent and pitch it in a campground, or find a cheap motel near a national park, or at least take a few day trips to a nearby local park with trails and big trees or streams or waterfalls or something.

Everyone seems to be talking the big talk about "going green" and "caring about our natural environment," but no one seems to actually want to go out in it to appreciate it.

(And an aside, perhaps related and perhaps not, kids don't walk or bike to school much anymore, even when they live less than a mile away).

Crabby has great childhood memories of camping and hiking, and perhaps that's why she loves it now. She and her Most Significant Other (whom she shall nickname The Lobster, at least until she thinks of something better) are extremely fortunate: they have a five year old Camper Van that they have spent many nights in. So whenever they can, Crab and Lobster pack up "Fran the Van" and visit various county, state, provincial, and national parks, both in the U. S. and Canada.

(Another rambling aside: Fran the Van is a Pleasure-Way, and she hails from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Crabby and the Lobster visited Fran's factory-birthplace once, spent the night in their parking lot, and in the morning were given a tour and a very nice jar of something-berry jam. The folks in Saskatoon seemed very, very nice and they had super large bugs there).

Not everyone is so lucky as to own a small recreational vehicle; on the other hand, Crabby has spent many a night in her youth and young adulthood in a small cramped funky-smelling tents and managed to have a good time then, too.

Here's the thing: except in rare instances, like the Grand Canyon or Niagra Falls or Half Dome or Bryce or whatever, the beauty and wonder of nature is often subtle. It's not in-your-face the same way a Pixar movie or a Six Flags Scare-You-to-Death Roller Coaster ride is.

Some people have always loved the sights, smells, sounds, adventures and grandeur of the Outdoors. But for many, it took deliberate exposure and education to learn to appreciate the wilderness--sort of like fine wine or fresh asparagus or classical music. And Crabby doubts most people are going to cultivate a taste for it by plopping themselves or their kids in front of a videogame every spare hour.

Is it important for us as a society that we appreciate nature? Crabby has her opinion, obviously, but you may have yours as well and she hopes you will share it here in the commments. And Crabby does not mean that any particular family should feel bad if it really doesn't want to commune with nature--her rant is more directed at our culture as a whole: one that values the Big and Easy and Fake over the Nuanced and Challenging and Real.

End of rant. And so, finally, we have our Two Announcements!

First: You may have seen this one coming. Apologies, but the Crab and Lobster will be off for a long weekend in Fran the Van. There will probably be a Random Research post tomorrow, but comment follow-up is unlikely. And Monday's post may be delayed until late Monday or possibly Tuesday.

Crabby realizes she's been less than conscientious lately too about responding to comments and visiting other blogs. She'll get better when she gets back, and then worse again. But she's in this for the long haul, and is really trying to get the "balance" thing figured out. She hopes you'll stick with her anyway, as she would be heartbroken if you all went away and found better, more reliable blogs in her absence.

And, Second Announcement: Crabby needs your hiking-and-camping related help!

She's hoping to assemble a future post with a "Best Damn Hikes You've Ever Been On" sort of theme.

And she's especially hoping to get her Smart Readers to do most of the work for her! So if you have ever been on an Awesome hike, or stayed at wonderful Campground, and want to send her a short description of it, and perhaps include a picture, Crabby would love to have some posts about this.

She can't offer any compensation other than a link to your blog if you have one and her undying gratitude. Please email her at CrabbyMcSlacker @ gmail.com (skip the spaces and don't worry about capitalization). Tell her about your great hike, why it was great, how long it was, and enough information about location to get readers started (i.e. the trail name and the park it's located in) and Crabby would be most grateful! And a picture you have rights to would be great too. (The picture for this post, btw, is actually one from a Great Hike Crabby and the Lobster took). If Crabby gets a couple submissions she'll do a post about it, and if she gets a whole bunch she'll do a series of posts spread out over a few weeks!

Yikes, what a long post! Comments are always welcome, although Crabby can't seem to predict when she'll be in or not, so possible apologies if she strays again. She's pretty sure she'll be more attentive today, and she always reads them, even when she doesn't respond.

So see you (briefly) tomorrow and have a great weekend after that. (And P.S.-- go outside!)

Housekeeping

This is the sort of post Crabby would normally save for a weekend, because other than one sad little research citation, the whole thing is about blog "housekeeping," not health. But she wants to catch all her Beloved Readers before they scurry off to enjoy the long holiday weekend, leaving Crabby alone by herself in her Crab House, pretending she doesn't notice it needs dusting and vacuuming.

Anyway.

Crabby had planned to be discreet and low-key about the Recent Changes at Cranky Fitness around commenting. She did not want to get anyone who may still be lurking out there too riled up. But then she decided what the hell. Readers knew something was up.

So Crabby has decided to stop being all mysterious about it. It may in fact be a good time to set forth a few Blog Commenting Policies, just to prevent any future misunderstandings.

As Alert Readers may have noticed, the Comments, formerly unrestricted, are now being "moderated." Moderation just means that Crabby gets your Comments in her email and has to approve them before they are released for public consumption.

Moderation is annoying from both ends, but probably worse for Readers. Crabby at least gets to see her words in print as soon as she hits Publish, while you all have to wait and come back later.

And then what happens when you come back? Maybe Crabby is still off doing Crabbish things so you have to return yet again. (Or worse, you might decide Crabby's blog is just not worth the effort!) And then when you do return you find Crabby has released a whole bunch of comments at the same time, many of which appear before yours does. And maybe some of those comments say the exact same thing you did! But no one knows you thought of it first! Or whatever--you may not be nearly as neurotic as Crabby. But in any event, it's a pain.

We'll dump Moderation soon, but if necessary, it may return.

Basically, what happened was that a new visitor did not believe it was fair of Crabby to delete his comments, and so he vowed he would outlast her and keep putting them up over and over again until she relented and let him air his thoughts.

But Crabby didn't like his thoughts much, nor the way he expressed them. And Crabby was too lazy to keep deleting the same comments over and over, so instead she enabled moderation.

Crabby wants to be the first to point out that she was indeed being arbitrary and possibly unfair. If hers were the only blog in the world, it would be inexcusable for her to say "some people may speak and others may not."

But since there are something like 75 million blogs out there, Crabby isn't too worried about this sort of unfairness. Those who find Cranky Fitness an unfriendly forum can find plenty of other places to make their points. There is no First Amendment Right to air your thoughts on someone else's "publication," whether that publication be a small blog or Fox News or the front page of the New York Times.

That said, Crabby really does want to keep an open mind about allowing a variety of different points of view. She lets stuff slide in the Comments section sometimes that others might delete as offensive. But then every now and then a comment seems to "cross a line" and she deletes it. It is her blog and therefore her line. (And these sorts of comments have never been from regular visitors; only first timers with no previous connection to the blog).

So for clarification, Crabby reserves the right to be completely arbitrary about deleting comments. But as examples, here are some things she might delete:

1. Spam. (Which does not mean Reader Recommendations. Crabby loves these! She means things that appear out of nowhere and don't seem to have anything to do with health or fitness). If somehow she messes this up (which she may have actually done once before) and you're a regular reader and she mistakenly deletes you as spam, just come back and make it clear you're really Cranky Fitness fan and are not here trying to sell something.

2. Insults or threats directed at other Commenters or Crabby;

3. Graphic sexual discussions that seem to have little to do with topic at hand; (and sometimes our subjects are quite racy, so context is everything) and

4. General inappropriate weirdness of the sort that suggests that you are (a) mentally unbalanced; (b) intoxicated or (c) at the wrong blog.

(Note: there are some #4 type comments scattered about that Crabby let slide; if you're ever REALLY bored and decide to prowl around the archives some of them are quite amusing).

Does this all make sense?

And now it is time for Crabby to direct you to our Health Research Study for the day, a random and not particularly recent paper chosen only because it involves Housekeeping! Or at least the study of "structured tasks such as cleaning dishes and clothes." This thing is so pompous and pointless, that Crabby can't even bring herself to make fun of it!

It starts off: "As the prevalence of obesity has increased, so has sedentariness..." and doesn't get any better after that. She won't even tell you what it concludes. Crabby's hoping a brave reader or two will take a look here and report back to the class what they think of this ground-breaking research.

So, Crabby hopes you'll all be patient with Moderation just a bit longer until it is gone. We have some posts coming up in the following week that could be considered offensive or controversial, so Crabby may leave it on just a bit longer. Or she may take it off and put it back on again as needed. Either way, she hopes this will not keep you from Commenting on Commenting, or on anything else that occurs to you!

A Big Fat Thank You

So Crabby had stupid questions, and readers had answers!

These last two posts on Fat Acceptance (and on weight and weight loss efforts generally) were all about the Comments. In them, readers shared thoughts and opinions, admitted confusion and sometimes prejudice, and they told stories.

So many of these stories were inspirational. Sometimes they were funny and sometimes heartbreaking. As Crabby read these comments, she was struck by a few things that made her even more appreciative of her readership (and she already knew this was a cool group of people).

1. Though commenters were coming from very different places, the tone was always respectful. No name-calling, no umbrage taken, no "I can't believe you said that." Having been on other sites when Weight Loss folks meet up with Fat Acceptance folks and decide to have a chat, Crabby can tell you that this is not always the case.

2. People's stories seemed to Crabby quite honest and not the least bit bullshitty. What she means by that is: people copped to unhealthy habits or impulsive behavior at certain times in their lives. But they also cited obstacles that sounded real and daunting, and showed tremendous courage and determination in dealing with these and trying to be healthy.

3. Others who weren't fat themselves admitted to some possible prejudices and judgments but were willing to look at them.

4. People took time from their busy days to write really long, thoughtful comments, from the heart.

As an interesting aside, Crabby has been known to check her sitemeter occasionally. (Okay, constantly). A lot of the traffic to Cranky Fitness is unobservable from the number of Comments--Crabby loves her silent readers too, those who don't leave comments but who check in every day to see what's up. There are, happily many of them for each one of you who puts down their thoughts.

Well, a lot of the silent readers were checking in a lot more often these past couple days, just to read your comments as they came in. Your stories propelled a big spike in traffic. (There was also a nice little boost from another source which Crabby will get to in a moment). People wanted to hear what you had to say, and no doubt many were inspired or encouraged or validated by your stories.

So thank you, awesome Cranky Fitness Commenters. Please continue to contribute your 2 cents whenever the spirit strikes, because you are smart and funny and touching and you're what makes readers want to come back and visit Crabby more often!

And more gratitude, on an unrelated subject:

A big hearty thanks to Jacki over at The Cancer Blog. Not only did she say nice things about Cranky Fitness, sending some folks over to check us out, but also she introduced Crabby to a great resource for cancer news and discussion. (Crabby will be stealing their ideas and research updates frequently in the future). The Cancer Blog covers a wide range of cancer-related subjects, so readers with a particular interest might want to go there and rummage around for a bit. But do, at some point, try to make your way back to Cranky Fitness--Crabby gets lonely and sad when you go away for too long!

Fat Acceptance Continued...

This is in lieu of a whole different post that was supposed to be for Thursday. But Crabby found the comments in the previous post on Fat Acceptance so articulate and compelling, she just wasn't quite ready to move on. If any readers missed the last post, skim over Crabby's part and jump down into the Comments, where the real action is.

Crabby has not managed to respond to all the comments in the last post yet, but she promises she will, either there or here. (It's bedtime, but she will be back). She will be in and out on Thursday, attending to the demands of Real Life, but she will also be catching up with you all when she can.

Of course by saying, "let's keep the discussion going," Murphy's Law pretty much guarantees that everyone will have said everything they wanted to say about this. Crabby will have made a big deal out of Nothing, and the Comments to this post will be empty. Perhaps no one else but Crabby is interested in keeping this going. That's fine; she's quite used to making a fool of herself.

But this is her hope: that people will keep telling their stories for a while longer, and her smart readers will comment on each other's comments a bit longer. (Feel free to comment in this post about something your read in the last one). Crabby also hopes inspiration will strike and that she will draw some grand conclusions, or at least have something to add. (More likely she will make some simplistic generalizations instead, and satisfy herself by being impressed and amazed at all of you).

So this is the plan: she will respond to your comments below, and Update this main post with Insipid Generalizations sometime later tomorrow. (Thursday).

As Crabby is very aware, the best thing about her blog are her clever and thoughtful readers.

Breaking: Crabby's Readers are Intelligent and Witty!

So while Crabby is up here in the main post whining and opining, helpful readers are often picking up the slack below in the comments section, providing actual information. Crabby makes guesses; readers actually supply the answers.

In addition, it has been scientifically proven that Crabby's commenters are highly intelligent and witty. A recent study analyzed the comments of 1,000 random blogs and determined that Crabby's were 73% more informative and 124% funnier than average. Oh, does that link not work? So sorry, we must be having technical difficulties here at Cranky Fitness.

Since casual or occasional readers may not realize what a wealth of information is available in the Comments section, Crabby hereby recommends that you start checking it out. In the meantime, Crabby will provide some assistance. Here are just a few interesting tidbits from her readers in the last few days alone:

Conducting some heroic research, Leah personally tried Tropicana Orange Juice with Fish Oil--and found it tasted just fine! And no fish burps! This was after Crabby had slandered the poor juice, assuming it must taste vile.

Dawn informed us that sheep do not have the right of way on narrow paths in New Zealand. And cream filled apple donuts are a health food.

Katieo observed that the Awful Meatball Man actually may be posing naked on the cans of his, um, "product."

Linda was able to tell us what broccoli sprouts (potent cancer-fighters) actually taste like: kind of radish-y when raw, nutty when cooked.

And Samantha clued us in to "lime slime," another bizarre but apparently tasty way to get omega-3's.

Finally we also learned that when confronted by a mountain lion or an axe murderer, the safest course of action is to try to look large and slightly unstable. (Courtesy of Anonymous, who will hopefully become less so at some point in the future).

Crabby apologizes for the fact that this is a very random and haphazard list--please, if you are a commenter who has been contributing all kinds of great stuff, don't feel bad if Crabby missed you. It's random. And she'll definitely be doing this again. Right after the Contest, the Slacker Meme, Dear Crabby and all the other stuff she talks about but never seems to get around to. But she will; promise.