Shopping Alert: Troy Lite Barbell set!

I received my barbell as a birthday present two birthdays ago and love it but if I had seen it at this price, I would have bought it myself.  If you go to one of the substores of CSN Shopping you’ll find this gem.  Having the barbell set has drastically improved my ability to work out in the comfort of my own home.  And if you’re doing Cathe strength workouts at home, you’ll find pining for one.

This set includes includes 4.5′ bar, pair of collars, and 35 lbs. of rubber coated plates to make a total of 40lbs.  The rubber coated plates is what makes me swoon – they are so much nicer than those nasty cast iron ones you get at the big superstores in their fitness section.  But honestly, the price plus free shipping just can’t be beat!  Don’t forget to pile on Bing Cashback before it goes away in a couple days!  There are coupons lying around, mostly for returning customers, but don’t forget to check the Intertubes for any!  I’m waiting until July 4th to make my upcoming purchase.

Calling all REAL WOMEN…except most of them.

Update (6/29/10): Dove responded calling it an “unplanned gaffe.”  So, it doesn’t sound like the casting company was some kind of scam, it just sounds like this message wasn’t intended to get caught approved.

Wow, Dove really managed to piss me off this morning.

Perhaps you have seen those commercials where Dove touts real women with real bodies?  They have this great marketing campaign calling women to redefine “beauty in their own way.”  It’s a fantastic way to prey on women insecure with their own sense of self (hey, I’m one of them) so that they would buy your more socially responsible products.  Seriously, how many women look like Angeline Jolie?  Not that many…and they want to sell to way more people than that.  In fact, since 2004 Dove has put out advertisements, videos, workshops, sleepovers, and a play to expand their campaign.  The supposed point?  “Celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves.”

Unless you want to be in one of their ads.  Check this out:

STS: Week Four Complete!

If this week didn’t “shock” my body, I don’t know what will.  Because of what I perceived to be a screwed up schedule in the past week, I ended up almost always doubling my lifting days with cardio.  It was the first week in the rotation I ever did that consistently all week and it was pretty tough.  I’m up a significant amount of poundage this week but I imagine that has to do a lot with my monthly reminder and the box of Oreo cookies I downed in three days in response to that monthly reminder.  I am pretty upset with my lack of control on the eating front but I am proud of myself for getting in the workouts I did.

Top Chef: Kids and Kass

I really enjoyed the episode this week.  This week the guest judge was Chef Kass from the White House, and the focus was making nutritious food that was tasty.

As usual, the episode started with a quickfire challenge that actually made me giggle out loud.  Told to make a “bipartisandwich,” the chefs also were required to wear apron where they were joined at the hip.  So each chef only had one hand/arm to work with.  Obviously, having someone left and right handed together would be best but it still was rather amusing to watch.  Frankly, I was disappointed in the chefs lack of respect for each other.  There were a couple who were afraid while holding onto an item that the other chef was going to chop off their hands.  Really?  They’re contestants on Top Chef and they’re accidentally going to cut something off of you?  Now, maybe you’re concerned it wasn’t accidental…well, I understand there are liability waivers but I doubt anyone is willing to risk the lawsuit that would entail you losing the ability to do your job.

Angelo and Tracy ended up winning quickfire giving them immunity during the elimination challenge.  It would have been pretty bad if Angelo hadn’t won given that he runs a sandwich shop in NYC.  Tracy made some kind of reference for having a crush on him but I thought that was tongue in cheek (isn’t she a lesbian?).  Having their immunity, then strategy came into play.  They ended up picking Kenny, they’re biggest competitor, to be on their team.  Thus, in the event that they would be on the bottom, Kenny would have a 50% chance of going home instead of 25%.

Then came the elimination challenge: cooking for 50 middle school children but pleasing the pallets of a bunch of high end chefs.  They were limited to the budget a local public school would get which is $2.68 not including labor and supply costs. There was some drama with the winning team, as Kelly, who made some kick ass pork carnitas in an oat taco shell started to be a control freak who was claiming credit on everything.  This drama queen moment aggravated the actual drama queen of the team, Arnold.  They had some “face off” but it was tame at best, IMO.  They clearly brought the whole vision together and took the top prize for cooking winning the elimination.  (And yes, Kelly was at the very top.)

What was more interesting were the losers of the group — reality television show at its best!  Sort of.  First off, the teams started to bash each other.  I don’t know if it had happened before and they never showed it but it was the first time I saw it on Top Chef.  Stephen blasted the other team over their lack of vegetables, and then Ed retorted back and the preposterous use of sherry (for children and for a budget!).  There also was some smack talk over the use of peanut butter for its over-processed sugars.  But my favorite moment?  When Tom asked Angelo point blank that he may have thrown his team under the bus because he had immunity, Angelo, like the pansy he is, pleaded the 5th.  What. the. hell.  Either say you would never do that or say you completely did that.  Stop being such a wuss and you just look slimy for it.  People can respect a manipulative asshole; people can’t respect a wussy asshole.  I wish he didn’t have immunity so the judges could have thrown him out for that.  In the end, however, Jacqueline was sent home despite the sherry mess Amanda dished out.  It probably had to do also with the fact that Jacqueline screwed up the week before, honestly.  But I’m glad to see her go and I just keep on waiting for Angelo to have his fall…

P.S.  There is one part of the episode that pissed the hell out of me.  I understand that I was weird as a child because I liked vegetables, but for once can we introduce Asian inspired food to children who are not exposed to it?  Nothing makes me happier than a vegetable stir fry and noodles.  Cheap, healthy, easy to make.  I realize that kids for this competition would probably not be open to it, and its better to stick to thinks they are familiar with, but seriously, you want your child to like veggies more?  I’ll give you some stir fry recipes that your kids will ask for again and again.  And, duh — NO one did Sweet Potato Baked Fries?  The mousse was too disgusting?

Summer fun and shade!

This post is inspired by the latest SkincareRx giveaway at jet-girl.blogspot.  Summer is here in Pasadena, and it’s that wonderful weather where its cool in the early morning and evenings, and then the sun comes out to play in the afternoon.  It’s a great time of the year to take a walk in the middle of the day and just bask in that California glow (well, at least before the evil heat comes in August).

Despite the fact that I’m of Indian descent (and God just loves me a little more to give me this awesome brown skin protecting me from burn), it doesn’t mean I don’t think about sunscreen.  Sunscreen protects us from UV rays which in turn protects me from skin cancer.  That’s right — the C word.  If putting on some SPF protects me from skin cancer, I’m doing it even if I never have had had the experience of burning or peeling in my life.  And the providing further evidence that opposites attract, I ended up marrying one of the palest men alive who burns very quickly and doesn’t think to put on any sunscreen before he walks out of the house.  So, its up to me to find sunscreen for his and my needs.  I was looking up information about La Roche Posay Anthelios, a French company that claims to have the world’s best sunscreen, when I stumbled about the Yinnie’s post about sunscreens which then in turn motivated me to post about our favorite sunscreens so far.

Sunscreen, like any skin care products, has its organic and non-organic products.  I wouldn’t knock either.  Zinc Oxide is a pretty bad-ass natural sunscreen and Octisalate/ Oxybenzone are highly effective to those who are not sensitive to it.  (Titanium Dioxide has been around as a “natural” sunscreen for  awhile as well but has come under fire for some recent irritation issues.  I don’t have an irritation at all to titanium dioxide, in fact I adore it, but I do remember attending a talk about the toxicity of titanium dioxide to realize that the studies were regarding inhalation instead of skin contact.)  When choosing a sun screen for you, I think its pretty important to find out what works for you and what doesn’t.

STS: Week Three Complete!

Wow, this week was so disjointed, but I manged to get it all in.

Top Chef Returns!

This past week started the season 7 on Bravo.  It was fun reuniting with the old faces as well as the new group now in a new city: DC.  As it seems with the first episode, we get bombarded with all the new contestants.  Trying to keep up with, “wait, which one are you?” and “what EXACTLY are you doing?” is always a bit challenging in the beginning, but such is the format of Top Chef.  

STS: Week Two complete!

Ok, this is a little late…week 3 is almost done.  But I’ve been out of town and hadn’t really had time to sit down with the blog.  So, just a short synopsis this time.

The week started out strong with Disc 4: Chest, Shoulders, and Biceps.  I got it done early in the day and felt invigorated for the rest of the morning.  My next cardio was HiiT: 30/30 and it was a lot easier than 40/20 was the week before.  I did everything on 8 inches except for the fast feet shuffle which I realized later that I probably could have done on 8 inches but I was way too scared to try that at 630a.  Disc 5: Back and Triceps was a lot better this week as I adjusted the weights more appropriately for the triceps.  I think my form on my back exercises are failing to I’m debating about lowering the weights to have better form.  I woke up early to do Cardio Core Circuit the next day but I was so tired that I fell asleep again.  I did do Cardio Core Circuit eventually.  I love the first 3 circuits and loathe the fourth one.  The jury’s out on the last circuit.  But I even did the core pushups!  (well, some of them!)  I’ve been putting my Cathe mini man underneath my sticky mat and it’s been helping me absorb some of the impact; it’s been a great solution.  Then Friday came…I found out on Wednesday that I was flying out to the east coast so I doubled up STS workouts and did Disc 6:Legs and 7 back to back.  I did skip some of the leg exercises on Disc 6 because of time restraints and wanting to have enough energy for Disc 7.  I wonder if most of my problems with the Leg workouts is that I’m not stretching out my legs well enough and I lack flexibility.  The last workout of the week was MMA: Kickboxing.  It had to wait until the evening I came back from NJ.  The first combo just dragged on it seems and the other two were pretty quick.  I like the MMA: Boxing workout a lot more.  The MMAs focus a lot on form instead of a super cardio factor, and when it comes to KB workouts, I think I just like a straight out cardio kickboxing workout.

Needless to say, its been a busy week!  It was pretty hard trying to keep STS in schedule but I managed to keep to it by moving around some things.  I may start Week 4 a day early so I don’t have too much time in between Disc 7 and Disc 10.  What’s funny is that I’m already looking into the LAST week of the rotation because I’ll be attending a wedding that weekend and trying to figure out how best to reorganize that week.  Let’s see if I even get there!  🙂  Also, it seems that I’ve manage to shed off the weight gained at the beginning of the month.  I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll keep on heading in that direction…

STS: Week One Complete!

Actually, I’ve already started Week 2 but I delayed my post because of a death in the family.  I’m still pretty down about it but I figured its best to get up on your feet, and STS definitely helped with it.

This is the second time I’m starting the STS 3.5 month rotation, and the first time incorporating Shock Cardio into the rotation.

For those of you who are unaware of what STS, Cathe’s website describes it as such: “STS stands for Shock Training System and is based on four of the most important training principles in strength training: periodization, muscle confusion, one rep max and progressive overload. STS has been designed using the latest research and is a 3 month strength training program featuring a different exercise routine every time you work out.”  There are no gimmicks to STS, just science (hence why this hottiescientist was so drawn to it!). Shock Cardio came out the following year.  A set of 11 workouts that are not intended so much to be crazy insane cardio, but different kinds of cardio of varying intensity and length.  Cathe dot com describes it as such: “All 11 Shock cardio workouts have been designed to be used with Cathe’s STS strength workouts or as individual standalone cardio workouts. In keeping with the philosophy of always “shocking” your system, Shock Cardio offers a wide variety of different workout types, lengths, and intensities. All of the workouts in this series are under 55 minutes and several are only around 30 minutes in length.”  If you’re expecting Insanity, then you’ll be disappointed with Shock Cardio.  If you’re looking forward to fun, original cardio workouts, then you should consider Shock Cardio.  I’ve done each set separately and I’m hoping this summer to use the two sets together.