Saturday, January 31, 2009

Real Body-Changing Fitness Takes At Least Six Months [Fitness]

but i rode my bike three times this week!!!

 
 

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Depending on how your 2009 fitness resolutions are working out, the results of a study of just how long it really takes to change your body's look could be disappointing or hugely empowering.

University of Wisconsin researchers asked a host of mostly sedentary people to be judged, based on swimsuit photographs, by a panel and given a rank on a scale of 1 to 10. Put on a six-week exercise program, the participants were graded again, and, well ...

The subjects' ratings barely changed, if at all, after their exercise program. And neither did objective measures, like weight or percentage of body fat, or waist size or the size of the bicep or thigh.

So if you're not noticing much change over the last few weeks, don't despair—real change, the study found, takes at least six months of individualized diet, exercise, and weigh-training. Those with serious commitments might be able to shift the scale a bit, but it's worthwhile for anyone working on their goals to read how real people made a real impact in the study write-up linked below. Photo by cogdogblog.




 
 

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Dockers.com 30% Off Sale Items + Free Shipping: Men's Pants $10+, Shorts $9+, Shirts $10+, Jackets $35+, Women's Pants $7+, Capris $7+, Skirts $7+, Shirts $7+ & More

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Trader Joe's Redefines Organic, Puts Glass in Your Sorbet [Trader Joe's]

still wish we had one of these in memphis?

 
 

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via Consumerist by Alex Jarvis on 1/29/09

Specialty store Trader Joe's is very common with the college hipster crowd; decent prices, organic foods, and the ever-drinkable Two Buck Chuck. For tipster Gil's sake, they better have some organic band-aids and DIY Surgery kits — at least one of their products comes with a shard of all-natural glass. Full letter after the fold.

My wife bought some frozen mango this weekend from Trader Joe's in Washington DC. I love the store, and they're generally great about things - but today after taking the frozen mango and making it into sorbet (with trader joe's yogurt) we found something that was not chopped up - a glass shard with sharp edges. It is about 1/6th an inch wide and I'd imagine it would not be so healthy to eat, I'm just glad I found it.

In case Trader Joe's contacts you - I'm happy to give them the info off my bag so they can pull the product.

We're glad too, Gil — and I'm sure Trader Joe's will be eager to learn which of their products have an extra crunch to them.


 
 

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Save Money with Quick and Easy Homemade Granola [Food]

YAGR (yet another granola recipe)...

 
 

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Everybody's scrimping and saving these days; unfortunately eating well and eating cheap can feel like mutually exclusive goals. (There's a reason fast food joints are recession-proof.) The Amateur Gourmet details an easy recipe for baking your own homemade granola that's looks relatively healthy (compared to fast food, at least—though you could certainly cut out some of the sugar), delicious, and inexpensive. Got a favorite homemade moneysaver that you've been relying on during the recession? Let's hear about it in the comments.




 
 

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Dry Herbs for Storage in a Microwave [How To]

fyi...

 
 

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If a great recipe leaves you with leftover fresh herbs, don't leave them to wilt away in the fridge. A few minutes in the microwave can have them ready for long-term storage.

Household tips and tricks blog TipNut.com has a guide to drying fresh herbs in your microwave, oven, or in the open air. To microwave your herbs, wash them carefully, then pat dry to remove all extra moisture. Then, through the magic of controlled radiation:

Place herbs in a single layer on a paper towel, cover with another paper towel. Place in microwave and heat for 2 minutes on high. Turn paper towel and microwave for another 1 minute or reheat in 30 second intervals until herbs are dry and brittle.

The microwave method is radically more expedient than using the oven or air drying, which take several hours and several weeks respectively. Make sure to watch the herbs carefully and dry them in small increments, though—you don't want them to be tinder for a microwave fire. Before storing your herbs, ensure they are completely dry and check their container condensation the following day. If there is even a small amount of moisture, discard the herbs, because it's not worth the risk of mold exposure. Need a source for those fresh, then dry, herbs? Get started with one of our favorite house hacks, an indoor one-pot herb garden. Photo by shawnbot.




 
 

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70% off Coupon for Restaurant.com: $25 Certificates for $3 + a Free Dale & T...

here's your chance to stick it to sekisui!

 
 

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Friday, January 23, 2009

Make Your Own No-Knead Pizza Dough [Cooking]

want to try this???

 
 

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Love a good homemade pizza but don't have time or energy for all that kneading? Food culture web site TastingTable offers a simple, foolproof recipe for no-knead pizza dough. Photo by Gio JL.

We've been down this road before with Jim Lahey's basic no-knead bread, followed by an even faster version of the no-knead loaf, but this new recipe drops Lahey's no-knead methodology on pizza.

If you've never been keen on making bread or homemade pizza dough, Lahey's recipes are no brainers. He does offer one warning, though:

"Making the dough is easy," he says. "Handling it, tossing it—that's the tricky part."

If you give the no-knead pizza a try (or you've made Lahey's previous no-knead bread recipe), let's hear how it turned out in the comments.




 
 

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Claim Your Share ($78) Of The Bank Of America Overdraft Settlement [Bank Of ...

we should see if we qualify.

 
 

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via Consumerist by Chris Walters on 1/22/09

Bank of America has settled a class action lawsuit over its dirty overdraft tricks—things like approving transactions that generate overdraft fees, for example, or clearing transactions in high-to-low order to increase the number of overdrafts. If you're a former customer of BoA, Fleet, LaSalle Bank or United Trust Company, you can claim your part of the settlement fund.

Unfortunately, your part will only be $78, although you can still file an objection or ask to speak to the court about the fairness of the settlement. Go here for all the info; claims, requests, and objections must be postmarked by 1 May 2009.

www.clossonsettlement.com [via TopClassActions.com]
(Photo: TheTruthAbout...)


 
 

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Rouxbe Has Seriously Impressive Cooking Videos [Cooking]

if you're interested...

 
 

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Website Rouxbe breaks down high-quality instructional cooking videos into separate steps, teaching the basic skills you need to be a great cook.

The website claims to "focus on the food" instead of fancy-pants recipes from famous chefs (a la the previously linked Cookstr), and while recipes can be submitted by users, they have to be voted up by the community before they're turned into premium videos. There's also a cooking school section with tips ranging from skinning hazelnuts to butterflying a chicken. What makes these videos impressive is the broken-down, step-by-step nature, letting you skip back and re-watch the detail you need to watch again instead of dragging a slider bar around (which can be difficult with chicken-greased fingers).

Watching most of the videos requires a free membership (which gives you a 30-day pass to everything), but you can check out a couple of the videos without signing up. For completely free cooking videos on a wider range of topics, check out the previously mentioned FoodTube.




 
 

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Drop 10 Facebook Friends, Get a Whopper [Friday Fun]

hah, hah.

 
 

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It may not gel with your health and fitness plans for 2009, but a new promotion from Burger King called Whopper Sacrifice is handing out free Whoppers to anyone willing to sacrifice 10 Facebook friends to the Whopper gods. (At least it should fit in with your "save more money" resolution.) Shameless promotion? Yes. But if you love a good Whopper, it's a nice way to score a free lunch. [via]




 
 

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