Anita's Health Blog

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Garden update 5/25/15

5/25/15 - Strawberries and stowaway lettuce!

5/25/15 - At least I'm pretty sure it's a lettuce plant!

5/25/15 -Today's transplants, 4 ground cherry tomatoes, 2 replacement red Russian and 1 replacement dino kale

5/25/15 - 6 Bok Choy, 3 dino kale and 1 Chinese cabbage

5/25/15 - Green Onions

5/25/15 - Black zucchini plants...not doing well, so I took them out and planted fresh seeds...summer squash.

5/25/15 - Black Simpson lettuce 1

5/25/15 - Black Simpson lettuce 2

5/25/15 - Black Simpson lettuce 3

5/25/15 - Cucumber (one new seedling planted) Black Simpson lettuce rows

5/25/15 - 4 Cossack Ground Cherry Tomatoes and 1 stowaway lettuce in center

5/25/15 - Row 3 - Snap Peas, ground cherry tomatoes, Red Russian kale, lettuce, red onions, Swiss chard and Curled Scotch kale

5/25/15 - Red Russian kale

5/25/15 - Curled Scotch kale, red onions and lettuce

5/25/15 - Curled Scotch kale and Swiss Chard

5/25/15 - Snap Peas

5/25/15 - 2 rows of Snap Peas, 4 ground cherry tomatoes and 1 lettuce in middle

5/25/15 - 6 Swiss Chard and 1 dino kale

5/25/15 - Garden update

Monday, May 25, 2015

Garden update 5/23/15

5/23/15 - Row 1

5/23/15 - Row 2

5/23/15 - Row 3

5/23/15 - Row 4

5/23/15 - pretty mushroom spotted on the way to my garden!

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Garden update 5/22/15

5/22/15 - planted my cucumber plants...the 4 that didn't die off...we'll see if they survive!

5/22/15 - two black beaty zucchini, chinese cabbage, dino kale and bok choy

5/22/15 - Chinese cabbage...only one of the 3 I planted survived.

5/22/15 - two black beauty zucchini, after 2 days in the garden don't seem to be doing too well.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

The Only 3 Moves You Need For A Quick, Full-Body Workout

By Christmas Abbott

With summer around the corner, it's time to start thinking about some simple, quick and easy moves to tone, tighten and lift your booty. Luckily, this quick workout is easy-to-implement and results-driven fitness to targets your tush, build sexy abs and create long, lean legs — the trifecta for a badass body.

Full Squat

The payoff: Gives your butt a shapely boost and firms your thighs, while increasing flexibility.

Stand straight, with good posture. Pull your navel in toward your spine. Position your feet between hip width and shoulder width. Point your toes out about 15 degrees, not too much. Stay rooted in your heels; you should still be able to lift your toes slightly. Raise your arms overhead, and keep them straight.

Flex at the hips first, pushing them back and down as the knees bend and spread out, and bringing your arms in front of you. Lower your butt past your knees all while keeping your belly flexed. You should still be rooted in your heels.

Return to the starting position by standing through your heels and squeezing your glute muscles hard on the way back up. Finish by standing tall and taut. Throughout the squat, always keep your weight on your heels and knees out. Continue squatting for the suggested number of repetitions.

Where it burns: Butt, hips, hamstrings, and frontal thighs, tummy.

Blunders to avoid: Don’t let your knee extend too far past your toes. It’s natural for it to come out further than in a normal squat, but you’ll feel less strain if you initiate the movement from your hips instead of shooting your knee forward to start. Don’t hunch, lean back, or rock as you squat; this can hurt your back and it won’t help you squat any lower.

Tip: If you’ve never done squats before, position a chair or bench behind you. As you squat down, sit on the seat for just a moment, with your hands straight up in the air. Without rocking forward, stand and come to a fully erect position. Keep your butt tight as you stand tall.

The payoff: This exercise not only sculpts and tightens your booty and thighs like nobody’s business but also indirectly promotes muscle growth across the rest of your body, in places such as your abs, chest, and back. It can also increase endurance in the hamstrings, hips, and thighs, as well as some other leg muscles. This movement is great for balancing your stability.

Use a sturdy chair or bench and place it behind you. Take a step away from the bench. Place your back leg on the bench, toe down. Stand straight up, with erect posture.

Flex your hip and squat down toward the floor. Hips should go back and down. Try to get your hip crease to come below the top of your knee. Keep your tummy tight. Continue squatting for the suggested number of repetitions.

Where it burns: Glutes, hips, and thighs.

Blunders to avoid: Your knee should not drift over or past the toe. Also, try not to round your back during this exercise. When your lower back is rounded, you’re more susceptible to injuries such as a bulging (herniated) disk.

Tip: If you slow down during the descent, you’ll stimulate greater muscle toning and development, particularly in your booty and thighs.

Sky Humper

The payoff: This exercise is fun to do and really whips that booty into shape.

Lie back on the floor. Bend your knees and bring your heels close to your butt. Keep your hands on the floor, palms down.

Raise your hips up to create an angled but straight line from your knees to shoulders. Squeeze your glutes, then lower back to start and repeat for the suggested number of repetitions.

Where it burns: Your glutes, hamstrings, and core. This exercise also engages the erector spinae, a muscle group that spans from the bottom of your neck to your tailbone, as secondary muscles.

Blunders to avoid: As with most exercises, do not do this one too fast. The movement is small and targeted, so go slow and you will feel your glutes working like crazy.

Tip: To get a greater booty burn, do a single leg move. Lift your butt up toward the ceiling, then take one foot off the floor and straighten the leg toward the ceiling. Repeat the lifting movement with the leg raised. Repeat with the other leg.

Friday, May 22, 2015

10 Helpful Cooking Hacks

Cut Onions Without Crying

Chopping onions may look like emotional work, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Save the tears for someone (or something) else by placing onions in the freezer 15 minutes before cutting. Chilling onions keeps tear-jearker compounds—propanethial S-oxide—at bay by reducing evaporation.

Find Ripe Avocados

Avocados can be a fickle fruit, and knowing when an avocado is ripe is one of cooking’s greatest mysteries. If the stem at the top pulls away from the fruit easily, it’s ready to eat. Avoid squeezing as it can cause undue bruising.

Keep Ice Cream Soft

Eating ice cream is one of life’s greatest pleasures. The same cannot be said for scooping the frozen dessert. Storing pints—or cartons—of ice cream in Ziploc bags in the freezer keeps consistency in check. Proper storage and temperature prevent formation of ice crystals that can mess with ice cream’s creamy texture.

Remove Shells From Hard-Boiled Eggs

Eggshells present a multitude of challenges in the kitchen, whether it’s ensuring they don’t end up in the frying pan or removing them from hard-boiled eggs. Cooking eggs for the optimal time is helpful. After cooking, gently tap the top and bottom of the egg, then roll it with the palm of your hand to make the shell come off in one fell swoop.

Roast Peppers Using a Steamer

You can thank the Food Network’s resident smart guy, Alton Brown, for this pepper-roasting hack. Collapsible steamers can double as pepper roasters when placed directly on stove burners. Add the peppers, roast for about seven minutes, cover with a metal bowl, remove from the open flame, and steam for at least 10 minutes.

Prevent Asparagus From Burning

Cooking asparagus evenly can be a challenge, due to its delicate tips and thick stems, which cook at different rates. Baking asparagus by folding the edges of heavy-duty foil into a makeshift pan helps prevent tips from burning. If the tips are fully cooked, but the bottom of the stems still have some time to go, fold the foil over the tips to create a protective blanket.

Put Fruit in Its Place

Assembly is everything when it comes to expertly served sangria. The cream rises to the top, and for all intents and purposes fruit is sangria’s cream. To keep the fruit at the bottom of the glass, add it first, then ice, and then pour the drink.

Replace Knives With Floss

Poorly cut cake is the ultimate party foul. Knives cannot be trusted for a clean cut, but dental floss never fails. Unscented floss works in a few ways. When making a cake, you can cut layers by wrapping the floss around the cake’s perimeter, then crossing the ends and pulling; this makes for a crumb-less cut. After the cake is baked and frosted, floss can help you cut the perfect slice too: Hold each end of the floss tightly, then push it down through the cake, much like you would with the blade of a knife. This trick can also be used for cutting soft cheeses, such as brie, or hard-boiled eggs.

Cut Cherry and Grape Tomatoes

Tiny tomatoes of the grape and cherry variety are fast movers. Cutting them one by one is time-consuming, but that’s not the only way to get the job done. Place tomatoes between two lids (the ones from Tupperware or yogurt containers will do) that are facing each other, and run a serrated knife through the space in the middle of the lids, cutting the whole batch with one quick pass of the blade.

Peel Garlic Without Making Your Hands Smell

Garlic peeling hacks abound, but violently shaking the cloves in a jar is a surefire way to avoid smelling like garlic. The movement will separate the garlic from the skin, so all you have to do is chop.