Did You Know

NEAT

Just read an interesting fact.  FACT- The Amish are relatively thin people.

Now that was not the only  interesting fact, what was interesting was what they consumed and still remained thin.

 Amish diet includes,  meats, pies, sugars, and the piece de  resistance, FAT!   Yes, fat!

How can they eat all these things, that we are constantly told not to eat, and have  very low obesity in their community…not only do they stay thin, but, are able to do so without  exercise, and that is not all, they also boast lower cancer rates than the rest of the US.

OMG!  Seriously?

What is their secret?  The secret is not a secret, it is called, NEAT.

NEAT stands for nonexercise activity thermogenesis, or everyday movement that does not include exercise.  It seems that an Amish person walks 14,000-18,000 steps per day, which is equal to 7-9 miles!  Now here is the sad part, the average American walks about 5,ooo steps per day.

Standing up and moving is the key to keeping fit and trim and it will also help lowering the cancer rate.

So do we have to go and live in Amish territory?  Not if we don’t want to.

Here are simple no brainers to keep fit and trim.

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Meet Face to Face:  Don’t depend on telephone, emails, or texting to speak to your coworkers, get up and walk to their department or cubicle and get your questions answered face to face.

Schedule Micro Breaks:  I sometimes feel like I am shrinking away as I seat at my desk and bang on the keyboard, fervershly.  Now I find out it is a true fact.  Our posture at work is part of the shrinkage feeling problem.  Seems your ligaments and soft tissue deform after 20 minutes of a slumped over keyboard position.  The solution, get up every 20 minutes and stretch, take a walk , this will not only improve your posture but also increase your NEAT and help burn more calories

Walk:  Walk to work if you can, take the stairs, park further away from the entrance don’t use the escalator or the elevator.  Walk, Walk, Walk whenever you can.

Get off a few stops before or after your stop.  This will put on some mileage to your NEAT experience.

Walk and Talk!  Muti tasking! Another novel idea.  Meet your friends for coffee but take the coffee out and walk your coffee break off.

Reach Out –  but don’t touch someone.  Try keeping things out of reach, in the office, and at home.  This way you will have to walk to what every you should need.  Hey, you can start by putting that remote control out of reach  at home. now this is a NEAT starting point.

 

 

recipe

Caprese Salad with Asparagus Stacks

stacked caprese

This is a great salad and/or side for any occasion . It was one of the two salads that  I served on Easter Sunday.

Recipe:

3 vine ripe tomatoes, 1/4 inch thick slices
1 lb BelGioioso mozzarella, 1/4 inch thick slices (I bought this pre-sliced – magic)
20-30 fresh basil leaves
1 lb asparagus – cleaned trimmed and steamed and cut in half
Salt/Pepper to taste
Vinaigrette

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Place down a slice of tomato, top with a slice of mozzarella, top with 2-3 basil leaves and top with 4 slices of asparagus.  Salt and pepper to taste and drizzle with vinaigrette.

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Easy, delicious and  refreshing. Make plenty because they will disappear!

Note: The extra asparagus I mixed  with chopped  romaine lettuce and  sliced radish and red onion with  more vinaigrette.

 

 

 

 

Family

Easter And The Hunt

 

This Easter we took the kids to a farm so they could hunt for eggs, feed some animals and enjoy the open farm land.  The farm was eggs-actly the kind of place that I would have loved to bring my own children when they believed in the Easter Bunny

photo_4 (5)The egg hunting was nice but it as also pretty pricey!  The eggs in this basket were not cheaper by the dozen.

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Each egg had a little surprise inside of it.

Christian surely liked his little egg prize.  Of course they did not open all the eggs up right there and then, they had too many of them.  So they kept the eggs in an egg basket, that cost an additional $1.00,  since they forgot to bring last years basket with them.  Ok, a $1.00 for a basket it cheap.  Wish I could say the rest of the farm events were as cheap.

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Little baby Emma also enjoyed her eggtravanganza.   She held her eggs so tight and so close to herself that I thought thank goodness they are not real eggs, or we would have eggs all over the place.

 

It would never be a perfect Easter egg hunt without the Easter Bunny.

I think Baby Emma just did not know what to make of this funny looking , person?  I was happy that when she took a good look at this creature she did not go all Bugs Bunny on us.

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Of course my grand kids were happy to take a picture with the Easter bunny.  However, Sophie made it perfectly clear that she knows that this was not the real Easter Bunny, for just like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny comes to their house while they are sleeping and leaves all the Easter goodies for them.

photo_4 (6)Now it is understandable that the kids would want a picture with EB, but when my sister insistent that she and her friend take a picture with  the bunny you could not help but wonder who’s BUGGZY now.

Yes, we did have a  egg-cellent  family fun day!

photo_2 (8)                    Now this Easter egg hunt gave me time to reflect on all the blessings  we have this Easter.  I understand that Easter is not about egg hunting or bunnies but about a time to renew our faith, and a time to reflect on the promise that death does not win out that we live this Easter, and every Easter, in Jesus Christ.   Amen!!