Jump Rope

In my continual search to find ways of getting myself into shape, and not the pear shape I am currently in.  I have heard quite a bit about the benefits of jumping rope.  Unfortunately for me this is a seasonal outdoor activity, due to the fact that I live in Canada and the huge accumulations of snow in the winter.  Also, it is not possible to jump in the house, mostly because I don’t trust my floors enough to jump on them for any prolonged period of time, I really don’t want to end up in the basement.  Jumping jacks are a second in fitness to skipping, but I like the coordination required for skipping because you need to use your brain at the same time.

From RopeSport.com  http://www.ropesport.com/ here is a list of benefits of jump rope:

FreeStyle Jump Roping is minute-for-minute the single most comprehensive and beneficial exercise a person can do. It’s a sport that can be done as an individual or in groups and can easily be incorporated into anyone’s lifestyle. Best of all— Jumping Rope is fun and entertaining.

EFFECTIVE
Jumping rope can burn up to 1000 calories per hour, making it one of the most efficient workouts possible. It tones muscles in the entire body, developing long, lean muscles in all major muscle groups, both upper and lower. Jumping rope optimizes cardiovascular conditioning and maximizes athletic skills combining agility, coordination, timing, endurance.

EASY TO LEARN
RopeSport’s innovative training techniques and constant emphasis on “go at your own pace” allows people of different fitness levels and athletic abilities to enjoy the learning process and achieve their own level of success in an environment where they are relaxed and comfortable. Whether people want to simply swing the jump rope from side to side or they want to do double jumps on one leg, they are free to learn.

FUN
Due to the variety of jumps and movements that are taught, even at the beginning level, FreeStyle Jump Roping is fun. It encourages creativity and spontaneity, and gives people flexibility in their workouts.

INEXPENSIVE
Compared to many other popular fitness products flooding the market, Jumping rope is very inexpensive, making it accessible to everyone. (See Products for prices and product descriptions.)

PORTABLE
All you need is a 3’ x 4’ area to jump rope. A living room, backyard, office, or gym are all ideal places to jump rope. Just throw a jump rope in a suitcase, briefcase, backpack, or purse, and you have the “greatest portable workout in existence.” Jumping rope is the perfect exercise for travelers.

GREAT FOR KIDS
There has never been a generic exercise that has gained widespread acceptance among children, but FreeStyle Jump Roping is changing that. FreeStyle Jump Roping is "MTV with a jump rope" and children absolutely love it! With recent studies concluding that children in the United States are far too sedentary, FreeStyle Jump Roping is making a major contribution toward fixing this problem. Not just for the gifted or athletic child, FreeStyle Jump Roping can be learned by all, helping them to increase self-esteem and fitness levels. It’s a great activity that the whole family can do together and get fit!

These are all of the benefits that make sense to me when it comes to finding a good fitness routine.

You Simplified - Review

You Simplified - Review

Handbook for a Simpler Life
By Charley Forness – yousimplified.net
$5

There are 5 sections to this book

1 Life Design

Introspection and being honest with yourself if difficult for most people. For me, sometimes I would like to hide from myself more often.

2 Simplify Your Stuff

The essence to a minimal life differentiate between what you think you need and what you actually need to be happy. The most alarming part of this chapter was this one sentence: We replace people and relationships with stuff.  Wow, that makes the new pair of shoes you really, really want seem kind of empty and pointless now, doesn’t it.  The section on keeping certain items of clothing really hit home for me and inspired me to almost empty out my closet.  The section on books made sense to me but is an emotional sore subject for my husband, he loves his books and does not want to part with them for anything.

3 Simplify Your Commitments

Don’t spread yourself too thin.  I have done this so often in my life sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself when I have nothing to do I literally just sit and do nothing.  I have learned from my mistakes and have learned time management skills to help with that.  It amazes me when I mention that time management is a learned skill to friends who are stretched beyond their capacity and they always blow it off as not required in their life.  This books gives many very good very easy steps to follow for learning proper time management.

4. Simplify Your Health

That is the one thing that I an constantly worried about, how do you go about simplifying a healthy lifestyle that works
The exercise advice Charley gives is very simple, 5 minutes of strength, 5 minutes of stretching, 5 minutes of cardio for as he describes is functional strength.  The nutrition advice was a little sparse, but his basic idea of noting what you eat and what makes you feel best is sound.

5 Simplify Your Finances

I think this is the one we are sort of on track with.
Charley’s suggestions are give to charity, build an emergency fund, get rid of credit card debt and any other debt you are hanging on to.

In conclusion, You simplified is a simple easy to read and easy to adapt to guide for simpler living.  We can all use more simplicity in our lives.

Review - The Minimalist Cleaning Method

Review - The Minimalist Cleaning Method
Annie Jean Brewer
http://annienygma.com/
$9.95


This was a good read. To me this book was divided into 4 parts, the introduction, the recipes, the cleaning method and a discussion on minimalism.




What I liked first off in this book was that Annie has an 11 year old daughter, so I can easily relate to that. The minimalist motto is “A place for everything and everything in its place”. Prevention is key to keeping a clean house.  I also believe that this is the main priority to maintaining a clean house.  Everything has to have it’s proper place, if it doesn’t have a place then get rid of it, if you don’t use it regularly get rid of it.  The accumulation of stuff is what is keep me from having the clean and tidy house that I have always wanted.

The next section of the book is totally worth the price tag.  Annie gives recipes for cleaning supplies.  Everything from all purpose cleaners to hair cleansers, it is all there and many different recipes for the few cleansers. Very helpful


Annie’s cleaning techniques are very simple and frankly just plain common sense. But sometimes it is important for someone outside of your home to say the simplest things to you when you are lost in a sea of clutter.  The smack in the forehead and the following words ‘why didn’t I think of that’ is what I need to get me motivated enough to change the way I’ve done things for years.

Annie’s perspective on minimalism is close to mine.  Simplicity is the key.  Less stuff means more happiness and a greater peace of mind.

I recommend this book.

Mothering Quiz

The Family Education website has a mothering quiz that helps determine what type of mother you are.  Here is what it said about me.

I'm a "Love of Learning" Mother! (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving) Intellectually curious and patient, I relish those times with a child when we are learning something interesting together. What's your mothering personality type? Take the MotherStyles quiz at FamilyEducation.com!

Nice to know.

Minimalist Book Sale

Today until Thursday Karol Gajda at Ridiculously Extraordinary is having a minimalist book sale.

http://www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com/minimalist-book-sale/

Of course I bought the group.  It is only 27.00 for all of the books which bought separately would cost around 245. I have had my eye on quite a few of these books for a while now, so how could I possibly pass this up.  I highly recommend buying this bundle because to miss out would be a tragedy.

What I thought I would do is each day I would read one of the books and give a review of it here as well as a link to the website and how you can buy the book if you missed this wonderful book sale.

Wisdom Jar Week 4

This week there is a bigger miss-mash of quotes.  I am having so much fun with this.  My husband put an app on his Ipod touch that has quotes and I am now obsesses with finding the best ones in over 1,000.

1. Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home. -Bill Cosby
2. There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness. Proverb
3. Happiness depends upon ourselves -Aristotle
4. The key to happiness is good health and a bad memory -Ingrid Bergman
5. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. English Proverb
6. A misty morning does not signify a cloudy day. Proverb
7. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly. -Lauren Bacall
8. To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. -William Blake,
9. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. - Anonymous
10. Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. Harriet Braiker
11. Canned music is like audible wallpaper -Alistair Cooke
12. If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing- Zimbabwe Proverb
13. Rock and Roll: Music for the neck downwards -Keith Richards
14. Music is the shorthand of emotion -Leo Tolstoy
15. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived . . . I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” ~Thoreau
16. You can chase a butterfly all over the field and never catch it. But if you sit quietly in the grass it will come and sit on your shoulder Anonymous
17. This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections -Saint Augustine of Hippo
18. The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement. -George Will
19. When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. -Ansel Adams
20. Sometimes you can tell a large story with a tiny subject. -Eliot Porter
21. We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.  Anonymous
22. If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you -Paul Newman
23. Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities -Aristotle
24. A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it. -Alistair Cooke
25. He who stops being better stops being good -Oliver Cromwell
26. Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. Proverb

Vegan for a month

I have been dabbling in veganism for a while now and have decided that I will go totally vegan for the month of November.  I thought that November would be the most realistic month to try since it is after Thanksgiving and before my trip to Florida.

Quite a few of my meals are vegetarian and vegan already, but I want to see if cutting out all meat products for a month would improve my health.

I thought I would use this blog as a record for progress and changes if any and to see if eliminating meat really does improve your health.

Things to Do, Things to learn Thursday

I have started a list of things I want to do and things I want to learn.

So I thought I would post one thing from the list every Thursday.  All part of my accountability.

This week it is writing a children's book

This past weekend  we went to Word on the Street http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/ in support of our friend Michelle who has just stated her own publishing company well-read http://www.well-read.ca/well-read/Welcome.html

While there Sam my 11 year old son got inspired to write his own book and have Michelle publish it.  My son is truly an inspiring person.  For the past two days he has been writing in his journal story ideas, coming up with characters he would like to write about and getting down on paper the basics of a story idea.  I have no doubt that within the year I will be showcasing his book on this blog.

Sam has inspired me to write my own book.  Although he and I have been working on a cookbook for a while now, I thought I would take some time out to work on a book idea that I have had for a while but never thought about doing anything about.  Why not?  Fear, not enough time, I'm not good enough, all of the same excuses that keep most people from doing the things they really want to do.  Like me starting this blog, sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet.

So I have started a children's book and have given myself a goal to be completed by Christmas so I can give it out as gifts to friends with young children.  I will also see if I can put it into an ebook format so that I can put it up on my blog.

Wisdom Jar Week 3

There are quite a few Yogi Berra quotes in this group, mostly because they made me laugh so much.  They also reminded me of quotes from a good friend of ours Cathy, who always messes up quotes and sayings, so I've added a few of hers to the end.

1. No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. - William Blake
2. Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. - Les Brown
3. Do not judge by appearances; a rich heart may be under a poor coat Scottish Proverb
4. Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change. - Golnik Eric
5. Events will take their course, it is no good of being angry at them; he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account. - Euripides
6. It's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success. David Feherty
7. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it - Dr. Horrible
8. Some have been thought brave because they didn't have the courage to run away. - Proverb
9. You've got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.  Ray Bradbury
10. The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'.  - Anonymous
11. Confess you were wrong yesterday; it will show you are wise today. - Proverb
12. Honesty is the best policy. - Benjamin Franklin
13. Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. - Thomas Jefferson
14. Assurance is two-thirds of success. - Scottish Proverb
15. A man should go on living -- if only to satisfy his curiosity. Yiddish Proverb
16. "It's like déjà vu all over again."  Yogi Berra
17. "When you get to a fork in the road, take it" Yogi Berra
18. "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore" Yogi Berra
19. If you don’t know where you’re going, chances are you will end up somewhere else.Yogi Berra
20. " The future ain't what it used to be " Yogi Berra
21. You can observe a lot by watching." Yogi Berra
22. A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. Anonymous
23. Spel chekers, hoo neeeds em? -Alan James Bean
24. A bird in the hand is worth two bushes - Cathy Shaw
25. I’m tired of being a basketball case - Cathy Shaw
26. Hindsight is 50 50 - Cathy Shaw

September 23 Is International Minimalist Day

What a great idea this is.
http://www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com/international-minimalist-day/

Today in celebration of the first annual National Minimalist Day I plan to:
walk home from work
smell some flowers on the way
make a great dinner from food in the freezer
play a game with my son
get rid of 10 things that I no longer need.