Friday, January 29, 2010

The Power of a Blog

I have been so inspired lately by blogs that I read on a daily basis and I would just like to publicly declare that I want to jump more into blogging!  I feel like there has been some resistance on my part to actually put my heart into my blogs.... to actually put in much emotion or feeling.  I have to admit there's doubt involved.  

It's scary to just put your thoughts, opinions, and feelings out there for the whole world to see.  I love to be open and honest with those that are closest to me, but to share with everyone what's going on in my actual life... yikes.  I know there are different types of blogs that I could do without putting myself out there too much (fitness blogs, food blogs, parenting blogs, more general stuff), and I do read those blogs on occasion.  But my absolute favorite blogs are the ones that are much more real where I read the feelings, thoughts, and emotions of people in every day life.  And that's who I am.  A real, genuine, honest, open type of person just treading the waters of every day life.

Here's the thing.  There is just something so powerful about being able to read other people's life stories, insights, advice, and just real LIFE happening to real PEOPLE.  And I want to be a part of that in some small way.  The internet and its capabilities are so amazing, and reading other people's blogs is like a little gift to me every day.  It is interesting to be able to read what is happening all around you, reconnect with old friends, and read about friends' lives that I don't get to talk to on a daily basis due to busy schedules, etc.  After a year or so of "having" a blog, I feel like I'm finally starting to realize the purpose of it, the power of it, and the gift that it is.  And I want to take advantage of it. 

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothy

I really like protein shakes for breakfast or post work out so I created this fairly healthy shake for a delicious satisfying treat!

Here are the ingredients:
1 large spoonful of peanut butter
1 banana
1 scoop of chocolate protein powder
1/2 cup milk
handful of ice

This is the kind of protein powder I use.  You can get it at Costco.

Put all the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.  I typically put in all of the ingredients in and then eyeball the amount of milk.  If you want a thicker shake, don't put in as much milk, and if you want a smoother shake, add more milk.

You can also use a frozen banana instead of ice.  I typically peel and then cut the banana into smaller pieces before freezing in a small ziplock bag.  This is actually my preferred method, but the morning I made this I hadn't frozen the banana so the recipe has ice in it.  Don't hate.

This makes one large smoothy (enough for 1 person or a smaller shake for 2).  The amount of smoothy also depends on how much milk you put in.

This picture doesn't even make it look good, but it is.  Trust me. Just make it.  You won't be disappointed!!  SO FILLING AND SO YUM.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A look at Leadership in the Civil War


A short while ago, I finished reading "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era" written by James M. McPherson. Of everything in the book, one of the things that struck me most was the value of quality leadership.

Both sides of the war had their fair share of solid leaders and their inept ones. Abraham Lincoln stood out clearly as someone cool under pressure, charismatic, diplomatic, and able to make the decisions necessary to preserve the Union. In my opinion, he stands in contrast to Jefferson Davis, who often let his pride get in the way of diplomacy, preventing him from rallying his opposition in the South to his side. Lincoln barely won his re-election, and did so on the heels of a remarkable Union victory in Atlanta, but throughout the Civil War, he somehow managed to keep even those in the North that were against him still in line and fighting together.

But it wasn't even the President that stood out most to me. No, it was Ulysses S. Grant, General-in-Chief of the Union army. Grant started off a lower-grade officer, and a marginally successful one at that, and he loved the drink, but he earned his way up to the top of the hill. In his career, Grant had his share of defeats, some more critical than others. But what impressed me most about Grant was his willingness to learn from those defeats and his resolve to allow them to make him into a better leader. Long before he was appointed to general-in-chief, Grant proved the kind of man he was in numerous battles, and showed the Union how to win.

In the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862, the Union forces under Grant took a serious beating with heavy casualties. The next day, after receiving reinforcements, Grant planned a counter-attack. All his fellow officers saw the reinforcements as the means to make a withdrawal with a rear guard, so their weary, battle-torn men could get out alive. But, to quote McPherson: "Grant never wavered in his determination to counterattack on April 7. When some of his officers advised retreat before the rebels could renew their assault in the morning, Grant replied: 'Retreat? No. I propose to attack at daylight and whip them.'" Here was a man with confidence in his men, a realistic appraisal of his enemies' own strength, and a conviction to do what he knew must be done to win the battle. And he did it, he whipped them.

Some of the other commanders in the Union, particularly Henry W. Halleck, criticized him for being hasty or too aggressive. The irony there is that Halleck was nicknamed "Old Brains" because he spent so much time planning, preparing, and maneuvering for battle that he more often than not found reasons to avoid meeting his enemy on the field. His was a game of chess where he moved his pieces around the board, but never taking any of his opponents pieces. He stood a stark contrast to Grant, which was never more evident than how he handled the battle at Confederate-held Corinth.

Halleck, with superior numbers, advanced so slowly on the Confederates at Corinth, digging in trenches every step of the way, that the Confederates started taking so many casualties from disease due to lack of clean water, that they decided to pull out. Of course, Halleck saw this as a victory since he "took" the city and managed to "maneuver Beauregard out of Corinth without a fight."

And what did Grant have to say about this? Grant could not see "how the mere occupation of places was to close the war while large and effective rebel armies existed." Grant's view was that Halleck had missed an opportunity to bring the fight to their enemy with superiority and destroy them. In a time when local politics as well as international politics with England and France were dictated by the performance of the armies, Grant looked to be the man to bring the Union military and political success.

Grant proved himself and he proved his concept of warfare up until he was finally shown to be correct. After huge victories in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, the Union army chased the last of the Confederate army north, turning South Carolina into a wasteland behind it. And even though the Confederacy seemed like should be barely hanging on, they had confidence in their Army of Virginia. It wasn't until this army was surrounded and its effectiveness neutralized, that Robert E. Lee finally surrendered to Grant. It wasn't because they occupied places, but because he had smashed the Confederate army into submission.

Grant was not perfect, but he was effective, and in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "He fights." He was not prideful, instead humbly learning from his mistakes and rising above them. He wasn't one to wear an officer's dress uniform, but instead wore a standard Union soldier uniform that was said to typically be muddy from Grant being out in the field with his troops. He understood that effective leaders lead from in front, as an example. They inspire men to follow not by words, but by action. He may not have won the war by himself, but Grant certainly contributed a large part in preserving the Union, and in so doing provided an excellent leadership example that we can still learn from today.

Just Another Day in the Life





Saturday, January 23, 2010

How to Lose 3+ lbs in a Week

I know a lot of people made resolutions to lose weight this year that have yet to see results or are insecure about if they can really do it. I made a decision to lose weight in September 2008. I lost 25 lbs in about 5 months, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had been slightly on the chubby side practically my whole life, and one day I just got sick of it.

Part of my problem was the way I was thinking about food and exercise. I thought of weight loss as this huge monumental milestone that just couldn't be obtained because it would be too difficult. I thought that anything that was healthy didn't taste good, that I was much happier eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, and that I didn't have time to exercise. I also thought that since I wasn't considered, "obese," I didn't really need to change my diet or exercise more.

Here's what I didn't know:

1) Weight loss is logical and mathematical
2) There are an infinite number of good tasting healthy foods
3) Not only could I find the time to exercise (chose to wake up earlier 3-4 days a week), but doing so gave me much more energy and made me feel better than sleeping an extra hour or so would have in the first place!

Losing weight is all about burning more calories than you are taking in. It's simple math really, just hard to do on a consistent basis. To lose one pound, you must burn somewhere around 3,500 calories. However, eating fewer than 1,200 calories a day is going to do you more harm than good causing you to lose muscle and slowing your metabolism. The answer? Cardio!

Jillian Michaels says that cardio workouts are like weight loss extra credit allowing you to burn additional calories without overtraining. For example, ever wonder how contestants on Biggest Loser can lose crazy amounts of weight every week? Yes, cardio is the magic answer.

Here's some simple math for you. Let's say you are eating 1,500 calories a day and that your basic metabolic rate (BMR) without exercising is around 1,600. Along with your normal daily activity, if you can manage to fit in a one hour cardio session in the morning and a one hour cardio session in the evening (and each session burns around 500 calories), this will boost your BMR to at least 2,000. The result? About 1,500 calories burned that day (almost half a pound) and a loss of about 3.5 lbs a week. Granted, if this is the first two weeks of a weight loss plan, you are going to lose more weight because of the loss of extra fluids and drastic diet change.

Now I know what you're thinking. Who has time to work out 2 hours a day? First of all, that example is for more drastic weight loss. Secondly, it's about your schedule and what you make a priority. If getting healthy is important to you, then you will find the time, but a healthy diet and cardio really is key.

If you don't have a ton of weight to lose, I would recommend doing it much more gradually as it is a lot more realistic. A 0.5-2lb weight loss goal per week is much more obtainable, will be a lot easier to maintain, and you don't have to deprive yourself of the occasional splurge. For me, this consisted of eating between 1200-1500 calories a day and doing at least 40 minutes of cardio 4 times a week (yes I took a weekend off here or there and yes I missed a workout occasionally). The key was staying consistent and viewing it as long-term. Eating that hot fudge sundae is fun on occasion, but don't stop eating healthy after one meal of indulgence.

Just think of it as a lifetime commitment to being healthy as opposed to a quick weight loss fix. To lose weight in a healthy way and maintain for life, you have to not only change your thinking patterns, but do things the right way: eat less, exercise more.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Random Pics of the Day


Sadie enjoyed watching the rain last night through her own personal window next to the front door.

Too bad we can't all enjoy life the same way.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Life Updates

Ummmmmm so I definitely took a little bit of a blogging break. Life got a little crazy for a bit but I'm back! The holidays went well, and I am excited for the start of a new year.

Here are some life updates:

In the job world, Scott's company was sold to a new owner and he is now working from home. He likes it so far, and enjoys being able to work with the pups cuddled at his feet.

A lot of people have been asking about what has been destroyed in our house by the dogs as of late, and I am pleased to tell you that destruction has gone from ridiculous to almost none! Aside from Sam throwing up rocks occasionally, they've actually been pretty good. They did eat a little bit of a cardboard box yesterday while we were at church, but they were left alone in the house for about 6 hours and that was the only thing found... not too bad! Sam did turn 1 in December (Sadie will be 2 in July), so hopefully they'll just get easier and easier and not enter into the terrible two's.

By the way, this is what Sam was doing before I left for work today. This is Scott's couch in his man cave where he works hard all day. Don't mind the couch arms that were ripped to shreds. This sleeping angel would never do such a thing.


Annnnd this is going to be the most random post ever with all these misc. updates, but our last random fairly large update is that we also recently booked a Europe tour! May 2nd, 2010 we will be headed off to London, Paris, Burgundy, Lucern, Munich, Austrian Tyrol, Brenner Pass, Venice, Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Vatican City. We will be gone for 15 days, and hope it will be the trip of a lifetime! This has been a dream of mine for many years, and I am so excited to finally go! This was one of those bucket list items for me, and definitely something we have to check off the list before pondering starting a family.:)

That's it for now... I'm hoping to try and blog at least once a week so that my 1000's of readers won't be too upset with me. Blog readers can be truly vicious.

Honest Scrap Award

Kelly has awarded me the honest scrap award.


I am supposed to tell you ten random, honest things about myself. Here they are in no particular order.

1. I am absolutely fascinated by Jillian Michaels. I can't decide if I admire her, am scared of her, simply amused by her, or weirded out by her.

2. I am a serious chocoholic. For reals. It's becoming a problem.

3. I LOVE movies, but I will rarely watch a movie twice. There's no point when you know what is going to happen and why waste the time when you could be watching something completely new?

4. I have a tendency to overanalyze just about everything.

5. I love everything about coffee. I love the smell, the taste, and creating specialty drinks. I love the feel of coffee shops in the morning, pairing coffee with various foods to enhance flavors, and the look of a good solid mug or tumbler. Coffee=love.

6. I love to read! I regularly cruise the online best seller lists and then go check out the ones that appeal to me the most at the library.

7. I am a mountain girl at heart and I cannot seem to find the beauty of the desert no matter how hard I try.

8. I love people. I like to analyze why people do the things they do and why people are the way they are. I love the mystery of personalities and how people interact with one another.

9. I love to learn. If I had all the time in the world, I would take classes of every kind. I would learn to play every instrument, learn every kind of dance from ballroom to hip-hop, take cooking classes, and travel to learn the mystery of various cultures around the world.

10. I can touch my nose with my tongue and often will pick my nose with my tongue just to gross people out.

Your Turn!

I award:

Carrington
Christi
Jaime
Brittany
Ashley