<p>I ran 2 miles this morning- sort of a rest day. A lot of my friends had problems with their longer runs today, so I hope I do OK tomorrow morning with my 10. The weather is just brutal.</p>
<p>Ohiopublic, I was thinking about some of your comments and how you might up your game. Have you considered doing wattage training in the off season? As I’ve commented in prior posts, wattage measures the amount of power you can produce and the higher the level of watts you can sustain, the faster you can ride. Structured indoor wattage training is the best way to increase your foundation in the off season to prepare you for outdoor training and riding during the season. If you are interested in pursuing this, let me know and I can kick around with you the various equipment options for wattage training and how to structure a program.</p>
<p>Dinner’s over. I think I died and went to heaven…</p>
<p>Sigh…</p>
<p>Even bigger sigh… :)</p>
<p>(Although Mr B is taking me out to sushi tonight, I doubt I will see any lobsters…)</p>
<p>Now I’m in the mood for lobster! We can get our local supermarket to steam several (at no extra charge) while we do our shopping. I think that will be tomorrow night’s dinner. I do like living in Maine! :)</p>
<p>I had my hip-issue PT appointment today and I am not permanently wounded, thank goodness. The PT genius did some massaging and stretching and gave me some new exercises and stretches, so I have hope that I can get back to my Tuesday 5K’s soon. I was worried that I had torn something (IT band that connects to hip?, hip flexor?) and instead it was just very strained. I think she massages something that worked though, as now I can walk and don’t think about my hip. Off I go to do my exercises … Clamshells, hip flexor stretches, single leg squats, hip pull-ups and other stuff.</p>
<p>So, thank you iDad for your eating inspiration and beautiful hikes, that you abasket for being consistent in your quest for good health, thank you MOWC for being wild and competitive, even when down; thank you MichaelNKat for being a pro, thank you Sabaray, Ohio, pizza and many others for being on this journey of excellent health. All of you remind me to keep my eye on the prize, which is enjoying a healthy, active life.</p>
<p>MaineLonghorn:</p>
<p>Yeah, Market Basket will steam 'em for you, but I find that they overcook 'em just a bit (by Julia’s standards), especially since I’m finishing in a sautee pan.</p>
<p>Snowflake:</p>
<p>Thanks. Everyone’s wins and losses and just being in the game serves as motivation for me when I need it. There’s just a fine line between getting up and exercising and NOT…</p>
<p>After years of steaming lobsters in an old rusty chipped porcelain enamel pasta cooker or an giant industrial sized anodized aluminum pot from Kittery Trading Post, I finally broke down and bought an All-Clad 12 qt stainless steel steamer pot last year when it was on sale for $99.</p>
<p><a href=“Vince Fulton-E | Zappos.com”>http://www.zappos.com/all-clad-multi-cooker</a></p>
<p>Absolutely perfect for steaming a couple of lobsters. So, I don’t mind an excuse to break it out and steam a couple of lobsters.</p>
<p>Julia Child’s method (and times) that she got from Jasper White call for steaming the lobsters above a couple inches of salted water. Clip and save as these are much more precise than the x minutes a pound formulas in all the cookbooks.</p>
<hr>
<p>Prepare large covered pot with 2 inches of salted water and a rack at the bottom to function as a steamer. Bring water to a full boil. Place lobsters in pot and cover. When the water returns to a boil, follow the cooking times specified for the size lobsters you are cooking…</p>
<p>1 pound 10 minutes
1 1/4 pounds 12 to 13 minutes
1 1/2 pounds 14 to 15 minutes
2 pounds 18 minutes
2 1/2 pounds 20 minutes
3 pounds 21 minutes
4 pounds 25 minutes
5 pounds 40 minutes
6 pounds 55 to 65 minutes
7 pounds 70 to 80 minutes</p>
<p>I used to buy big lobsters, but this little tidbit from Julia converted me to buying (and eating) multiple small lobsters: A 1 pound lobster provides 3.5 ounces of meat. A 2.5 pound lobster provides 4.5 ounces of meat. So, now, instead of buying a 2.5 pound lobster, I get two small 1.25 lbers per person. Doesn’t matter at MB, where the are all priced the same, but a lot of local places charge less per pound for the small ones.</p>
<p>SnowflakeVT, glad to hear your injury was not as severe as you had feared. Certainly sounds like you are on the right path to a full recovery.</p>
<p>In 2006, I stumbled onto the College Confidential discussion board for Musical Theatre when my daughter was auditioning for BFA programs. Along the way, I discovered this discussion board as a wonderful escape from the angst and anxiety that seemed to permeate the MT board. It’s great to be able to participate in an online community filled with people passionate about healthy living and fitness and to be able to share in everyone’s knowledge, experience and quest to achieve their goals.</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree and hooray to Snowflake on the happy news.</p>
<p>My only beef with this thread is that Idad as not YET invited us all for a (as the Newfies would say) “Great Lobster Boil.” 
AHEM.</p>
<p>Michael I know MT is even crazier, and you were 3 years ahead of me, but I know what you mean about audition stress…mcson went to music school and his gf just finished a BFA in directing </p>
<p>I think I met some of you online when my D switched from pre-med to music. She has now graduated from Berklee (summa cum laude I might add) and is driving across the country now on her way to Los Angeles with her BF. Gosh they grow up fast.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from University of the Arts in 2011, decided to remain in Philadelphia (where my office is located) for a variety of reasons and embarked on her performing career there. Along the way, while still a student with 26 hours of classes a week, she got herself certified by Mad Dogg as a spinning instructor and started teaching indoor cycling classes. After graduation, she got certified as a personal trainer and TRX instructor and continued to work in the fitness industry as a way to support herself while auditioning and performing. As she put it then, she has two passions in life: performing and being a gym rat and she couldn’t dream a better way to live and support herself than by pursuing both and at times combining them in her daily endeavors.</p>
<p>Snowflake- good news. I’m glad it isn’t anything serious. I have lots of good PT hip exercises (and iDad knows a lot of them, too) if you need more.
Appreciate the shout out. This board has been fantastic and I feel like we are a true community. (I also hear you about the music stuff- I missed most of the craziness since I didn’t find CC until after vocal performance D got into college and was finished with all audtions). </p>
<p>Yes, send hip strengthening exercises my way. One of you pointed me to the side-plank-clamshell and I demo’d it for my PT and she loved it. </p>
<p>My D is a vocalist, but it seems her passion is writing and arranging and teaching, too, so that will likely pay the bills in LA. She has many alumni contacts from Berklee there, so it should be exciting. My D is not a gym rat, but all her years of ballet turned her into a soon-to-be yoga engenue. The positions she can do are not only difficult strength-wise, but are also beautiful and expressive. Where she got that is a mystery because I am a compact athlete type, but I admire her and anyone with that artistic and fluid movement.</p>
<p>Michael–I wonder if your D knows my youngest D, who is an actor in Philadelphia too. My D was in a show last Spring that had U of Arts grads in it–it was at Play and Players. My D supports herself by teaching acting classes at a private school in Philly. She’s going to start yoga certification this fall so she can add something more to supplement her income. She persuaded me to start yoga. She’s doing a show in Nantucket in Sept and then returns to Philly. </p>
<p>I have been a slug for the last two days–traveling to a wedding in Maine. Hope to get a walk in before the ceremony late today. Will definitely be going for a lobster dinner before we leave tomorrow.</p>
<p>It’s been a summer of salmon, halibut, bass, perch, and cod. I should be sprouting gills anytime now. Still operating on foot thus far. </p>
<p>Not too much to report. Ran twelve 5Ks in my first two years of running. Have spent a lot of time outdoors this spring and summer.</p>
<p>I hope everyone has been enjoying the fantastic weather.</p>
<p>Welcome back, Deborah! </p>
<p>Funny that so many of us have Philly kids! WildChild lives right in Center City (18th and JFK). </p>
<p>10 1/2 miles at low heart rate. Bumped up over the 135 goal to 137 average. I couldn’t do any better with 73-83 degrees, sun and very high humidity. It was awful. I walked a lot starting early to keep HR down. I felt fine at the end, so this is a good system for me as I recover from the fractures, but it is VERY frustrating and takes SO long. The big victory was that I made it (had to drive fast) to Sonic at 10:00 and barely got there in time to get my 99 cent large iced tea. That special goes away at 10am. </p>
<p>Dealing with some frustration since our Kona lodging fell through yesterday- a month before we leave for Ironman! A pipe broke and the unit that we grabbed within hours of WildChild’s gf qualifying was destroyed. The woman is helping us find something else, and I have some options, but not as good as what we had. Wildchild and gf are up in Quebec for half ironman worlds (for her again) and it’s been hard to communicate. Her race is tomorrow and she’s trying to defend her age group world championship from Vegas last year. Fingers crossed. </p>
<p>I think side plank clamshell originally came from iPod nazi’s Amazing Abs video workout program. He has some crazy core stuff in that, many of which kick my butt.</p>
<p>The hip specific exercises I’ve settled on as my favorites in terms of bang for the buck are all in my warmup at these times in the video:</p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>0:04
1:08
3:42
6:00
6:44
7:25
9:20</p>
<p>The last one can be done with just a mini band around the ankles.</p>
<p>At least in my experience, all of these hip exercises continue to improve over years. I don’t think they will ever get to the point where gains are no longer being made. In several cases, it took me years to even be able to do them. I still feel like I’m cheating with the hamstrings on the hip lift.</p>
<p>OK, even though I like the conclusions of the latest diet study, seeing more of the self-reported numbers tells me that it’s as useless as any other diet study:</p>
<p><a href=“http://wivb.com/2014/09/05/studys-raw-numbers-give-closer-look-at-low-carb-diet/”>http://wivb.com/2014/09/05/studys-raw-numbers-give-closer-look-at-low-carb-diet/</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I call BS. If you start with a group of people with BMIs over 30, suggesting that they are at least a bit overweight, and put them on 1500 calorie a day diets (for real) for 12 months, they are going to lose more than an average of 4 pounds (low fat) to 11 pounds (lo carb). 1500 calories a day is below the resting metabolic rate for all of the men (and many of the women) in the study – the energy they would burn sitting on the couch. An overweight man and most overweight women are going to lose more than a quarter pound a week if they are really eating 1500 or fewer calories a day.</p>
<p>I’ve never been able to eat that little, but I lost 90 pounds eating between 1800 and 2000 calories a day. At 1500 calories a day, right now, I would loose weight faster than a quarter pound a week – and a lot of it would be muscle. I would be starving.</p>
<p>In short, I thing the numbers in the study are bogus. And bogus by a LARGE fudge factor. I bet the 150 people were actually averaging over 2000 calories a day on their diets.</p>