WARNING: I am going to talk about firearms. If you don't like firearms, feel free to look at these pictures instead.----------Although I originally earned my NRA Basic Pistol Co

Here's a basic day in my life as a Type 1 diabetic*.BASIC DAY6:30 am, Wake up, check blood sugar (prick arm/finger with lancet)Evaluate blood sugar: Too high? Guess at the reason why. Too low? Guess at the reason why. If over 270, or below 80, I must delay normal exercise routine u

I am truly stunned with how much I love Chalene Johnson, creator and star of Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, ChaLeanExtreme, and author of Push. Normally, once I've done a exercise DVD over and over, the instructor gets boring, repetitive and annoying, and out the DVD goes to swapadvd.com

If you saw my grocery cart at the store, you would probably be quite confused. While 90% of my cart is filled with fruit, dark chocolate, whole grains, yogurt, lean meats and veggies, I also often have Sweetarts, Gatorade/Powerade* and candy fruit slices. You might just assume I have a sweet tooth, but these items are actua

Weight loss is just about quality calories in, and calories out, right? Burn 3500 more calories than you eat a week and you will automatically burn a pound of fat*. Easy peasy. Sort of. Tracking calories in takes work, but can be done with a reasonable amount of accuracy. Measuring cups, food scale

For about 72 hours last week, I thought I might be starting a full time job. It was not to be, but in those 72 hours I quickly revamped the legs that keep the stool of my life from tipping over.1. Access to nutritious, filling, sustaining foodBecause of time constraints, I would go back to hav

I have read many a fitness/nutrition/diet book and they usually disappoint. I don't like the 30, 60, 90 days plans because they don't teach or reinforce healthy choices long term. And most books completely overlook the most powerful thing in weight loss/fitness: your brain. This is why I am delighted to recommend, Dr. Danie

I love good for me/tasting food, I love making things easier, and I love saving money. My new breakfast of choice speaks to all three: Overnight Oatmeal.Overnight Oatmeal:1/2 cup oats1/2 cup water140 g frozen berries/fruitThe steps are exactly the same as for my

As much as I love my morning smoothies, they tend to make me cold when I drink them. That, combined with a super sweaty body works great in the fall/spring and summer, but not so great in the cold of winter. But with fruit so scarce this time of year, I still wanted to use my frozen berries, so I createdQu

As you know, I don't do exercise "programs" as prescribed by the creators. I believe that pushing yourself to extremes for 30, 60, or 90 days is a recipe for burnout, frustration and injury. I prefer to take the routines included in the program and

I was reading Redbook magazine the other day when I saw an ad for a product called Masque that made me do a double take. Masque is a "orally dissolvable, flavored gel strip...that conceals any unpleasant flavors associated with your man and his subsequent climax."What the hec

I have been looking for a personal cooler for a while. My old lunch one is way too small for the amount of food I like to have on hand, and our big one is way too big. I've been making do by filling an old brown paper gift bag (ironically labeled "Martin"). I fill it with plastic containers of chopped veggies and other snac

I've been blogging now for 4 years (Happy Anniversary to me!) and I suppose it's time to clear something up. I'm not really Anal Retentive. Yes, I've been called A.R. a million times, but what I really am is a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). According to Elaine Aron, author of

My current exercise program consists of:Weekly:2-3 sessions of weight training (30-60 minutes depending on # of reps)4 sessions of cardio (30-60 minutes depending on intensity)Stretching after every workout.My weight training workouts come from the 12 programs I have complied in a n

I finally decided to start taking fish oil supplements. But I'm not a huge fan of fish and after a recent episode where I threw up my POM Wonderful smoothie because the Flax seed oil I added to it had gone bad, I wasn't really looking fo

I made turkey stock from a Thanksgiving turkey a while back, and recently also made ham stock. Making stock is so incredibly easy (put cooked carcass in pot, cover with water, simmer for 2 hours, strain out bits, skim off fat) and it tastes so good that when we recently bought a rotisserie chicken, I made stock out of that

I realized the other day that half of the spam emails I get are about getting smaller ("Lose 15 lbs. in 2 days!") and the other half are about getting larger ("Gain width and inches with this potent pill!") The implied urgency of these emails, along with main stream media backing these messages up (

I had a job interview yesterday at an ad agency in Portland, OR. and hours later find myself baffled at something that happened. Was I amazed that I could hear dogs barking off and on for the four hours I was in the office? No, I knew it was a dog friendly office, and frankly, Portland is a dog friendly town, so while it wa

I have lots of tricks to comba

In three short months I have gone from someone terrified of guns to someone that loves "shooting holes through paper." And I owe lots of it to Mark and Mike at Cascades Firearms Training they were patient with me during the day long NRA Basic Pistol Course, and

On a recent family trip to The Wayfarer Resort in Vida, OR I packed many things. Clothing, food, books ... the usual stuff. But my two new favorite additions were my

One of my pet peeves is a "public" bathroom that does not have a hook for bags. I often have to go to the bathroom, and I often carry a bag. I've managed to balance my bag on things, hang it on doorknobs, etc. but was pretty much baffled with how to manage a port-a-potty, "Martin can you hold this?" was as good as it got.

I have always had a deep love of the public library system here in the United States. I'm a bit of a book addict and I love having a huge supply of books without having to actually store any in our house. And now, just when I didn't think I could love my library any more, it has gifted me with a way to feed my need for new

Here in Vancouver, WA we are not only blessed with green outside of the house (moss) but inside as well (hard water). Almost every sink, shower and toilet we have has green stains in it. When we moved in to the house, we thought perhaps the previous owners were using the tub to die things green. But I did some Internet sear

I usually try not to post things late at night, but after a day of nursing a wicked cold my mind is swirling with various topics. And the best way to get it to quiet down is by getting one out.In the past few years I have a handful of friends who have essentially freaked out on me. After asking my o

This story is almost too embarrassing to tell. But, I will tell it anyway. When my husband and I moved in to our house over 8 years ago, I found a stash of extra vertical blinds in a closet. Over the years, some of the blinds in the windows have broken or gone missing. I would remember that we possibly had some extra ones i

Although I usually didn't use Twitter or Facebook very much on the weekend anyway, I was still wondering if I would suffer from withdrawal symptoms after deleting both accounts.The only side effects seem to be calmness and random thoughts

Yesterday, after almost four years of daily use, I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts.I deleted them for two main reasons:The Shift Away From Unique ContentI was dragged kicking and screaming on to Twitter but thoroughly enjoyed it for many years. I was able to make connectio

Please do not panic, nothing bad has happened to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I have deleted them because they were no longer useful to me.More on this in the future ...