Supernatural Botanicals

Julianne Hough’s new DVD workout, Just Dance, is the perfect workout if you love to dance.   Julianne’s DVD features three hip-shaking routines, Work It, Flaunt It, and Pump It.  The routines are fun and flirty…more of a club-style dance.  There’s no hint of a samba or waltz on this DVD.  This DVD provides a serious workout if you keep up with it.  Don’t worry, you can always modify to your level of endurance.  Not to mention, you can learn a few cool moves the next time you are out on the dance floor.

What steps will you take to make next year the best ever?  Don’t know where to start?  Contemplate this progression of actions as depicted by A Mindful-Based Stress Reduction Workbook:

1. Intention shapes our thoughts and words.
2. Thoughts and words mold our actions.
3. Thoughts, words, and actions shape our behaviors.
4. Behaviors sculpt our bodily expressions.
5. Bodily expressions fashion our character.
6. Our character hardens into what we look like.

 I just ordered the new Body By Bethenny yoga DVD on Amazon.  I was all prepared to wait the standard week to receive it by mail, but fortunately, Amazon let me view it for free (after purchase)  immediately…and then stores the video in my Video Library on Amazon’s site.  They also give you the option to send it to TIVO or download it to your computer.  

Kudos to Amazon for not making a girl wait 7-10 business days to start getting a better body.  Cool feature!

Check out the trailer here: 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuAdmYbpUTA

Bethenny Frankel has been looking fabulous…even pregnant.  I can promise you, that’s not easy to achieve.  The 39-year-old, who is having her first child late in life, says she has always been obsessed with her body image.

“Since I was 8, I was obsessed with every single diet ever because I came from a very toxic, dysfunctional household with a complete emphasis and obsession with food and being fat,” says Frankel.

“It was absurd and moronic to be an adult and to be worried about dieting.”

Bethenny says she wrote her best-selling diet book “Naturally Thin” last year and finished her second book, The Skinnygirl Dish, filmed and made her her first exercise DVD this year.

Frankel says she works out up to three times a week doing Pilates, yoga and/or running.  But the compulsive exerciser says she has learned to embrace moderation in exercise, with better results.

“I’m 10 years older [now] but 10 to 15 lbs. lighter [than I was in my 20s],” she says. “I used to work out obsessively five to six times a week. Now, I work out maybe two or three times.”

In order to achieve a killer physique like Bethenny, you definitely have to incorporate healthy eating into your regimen.  Check out her book, Naturally Thin, to take a peek at what she eats to keep looking fab (again, even pregnant!)

Cathy Erway’s new book, The Art Of Eating, depicts her two year journey of swearing off restaurant fare.   Cathy’s blog, Not Eating Out In New York, was the inspiration for her book.  Not only did Cathy lose 10 pounds within a few months of eating in, but she cherished the act of making delicious dishes.  She says it slowed her down and lowered her stress.  Turns out, eating in is ultra-frugal as well.  Cathy says she ended up saving about $75 a week by eating in.  Not only did she learn confidence in the kitchen, but she learned she had a great deal of discipline to say no to the restaurant scene for two years.  This book is such a fun, informative read.  Highly recommended!  Think you could swear off restaurants for two years?

Book Review:  Rinnavation, Getting Your Best Life Ever.

Author:  Lisa Rinna. 

Talk about a pleasant surprise….Lisa Rinna’s book has me surprised!  In Lisa’s new book, Rinnavation, she shares with us advice she’s learned over the years from celebrity stylists and celebrity hair and makeup artists.  She also shares secrets on diet, exercise, beauty, even sex! 

She shares a lot of her life with us in her book, to include her delicious husband, Harry Hamlin, and her two beautiful daughters.  And for the record, she shares lots, and I mean lots, of sexual tricks in the bedroom she and Harry have.   I love that spice about Lisa. 

Another discovery is that Lisa is deep…spiritually, emotionally, sexually, etc.  Beyond the blatant beauty she exudes (and such good hair), girlfriend is a self-help junkie and for that reason alone, one could love her!  When a person reveals their card-carrying membership of the “Self-Help-Club”, you feel they are part of a society that few understand. 

Self-help lovers are continually seeking excellence.  They continually seek making the world a better place to live in for themselves and others.  They continually strive to be more….to create more, to produce abundance.  And they practice being happy beings.  It’s an amazing secret-society, of sorts, that makes you feel more connected to one another.  It’s an unwritten understanding between people who “get” the self-help genre, and those who don’t.

Lisa delves into her personal life and her beauty and fitness routines.  She gives us the skinny on how she looks so darn good all the time.  She even explains the lips…silicone!  She explains the ambition….The Secret and the Power of Positive Thinking.   She explains the happiness….Great sex life with Harry.  She explains the body….fitness-fiend.  She explains the boobs…plastic surgery. 

In summary, Lisa tells you how to get your best life ever.  The basic premise of it is, and always has been, exercise, eating well, big thinking, loving your life, and continual learning.   

Five stars! 

For a quick dessert, dip (rinsed and patted dry) strawberries into melted white chocolate.  I made this dessert tonight, start to finish, in five minutes.  The white stars are simply white chocolate molded in silicone star molds.  This will be perfect for my 4th of July picnic block party (the white chocolate stars colored blue), for a patriotic-looking display.  A Silpat is an extremely useful  tool for this project. 

   I finally received the long awaited email from Amazon….you can now pre-order the series, Thirtysomething, on DVD!  I’ve been waiting for them to release this for years.  This is my all time favorite show.  I became totally and completely infatuated with the delicious Michael Steadman….(Ken Olin.) *swoon*. 

Thirtysomething represented everything I, as a twentysomething at the time, wanted to be as a thirtysomething when I got there….especially the Michael Steadman part!  There are certain shows that can do that to you, that take you back to a moment in time.  You can see yourself sitting on a big (probably green or orange) sofa in your childhood home watching School House Rock, The Walton’s or The Love Boat.

Thirtysomething takes me back to one of my first apartments…I can see the Patrick Nagel prints on the wall now!  I’d have 25 of my closest friends packed in my living room (because that’s how you roll when you are in your early 20s) every Tuesday night to drink in that week’s episode.  It was like an old-school book club.  We were doing book club before it was even invented and considered cool….and I’m proud of that! 

Collect a few of your friends, who are more than likely fourtysomethings today, and have them over to watch the first season of Thirtysomething.  They’ve finally released it on DVD.  Finally! 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRnIHhX8F-o

   Resistance bands…get to know them.  Admittedly, they were a tough sell for me at first as well.  I mean, how much of a workout can these elastic straps give you?  Turns out…they can give you an excellent workout.  The great thing about them is that you really concentrate on your moves, really focus on each muscle, and you can control the resistance for a great workout.    They are also excellent for deep stretching.  These resistance bands come in different widths, the thicker being the most resistance and the thin bands being great for stretching and beginners.  I keep several at my desk and several in our lab for on-the-spot stretching and strengthening. 

The up side:  Not only are they inexpensive, they are on sale today at Amazon.   Check them out  here

   Technology just keeps getting better and better all the time.  Heart rate monitors are essential to your fitness routine.  They let you know when you are working too hard, or not working hard enough.  Typical heart rate monitors have a strap you wear around your upper rib cage along with a watch you wear to constantly detect your heart rate.  The goal is to have a heart rate of 130 or above for an average of 30 minutes (minimum) to be in an aerobic zone. 

Actitrainer’s new gadget not only displays your heart rate, it also displays calories burned, distance traveled, sleep assessment, nutritional analysis, pace, etc., and then displays them in real time with chart analysis.   I have a feeling my sleep assessment would return as “are you kidding me?”   I need to work on getting more sleep.  You do burn calories in your sleep, after all. 

What a fun tool to add to your fitness routine!  And anything that makes a grueling workout better gets high marks in my book!