Talking Wine in a Light Beer Town

Here in the Verde Valley in AZ, if you don’t live in Sedona then you *must* be a Budweiser/Miller Light/Keystone drinker! I say this with affection for my cowboy town.

I visited a booze drive through last night. I parked and went inside to look for some wine. While I was looking the clerk girl asked me if I knew about wine. I said, “a little bit.”

What followed was fascinating to me. By this town’s standards, i am an expert. lol. She never had any idea what to recommend to her drive-through clients. We talked about easy-drinking wines, what Champagne actually is (and found a single bottle of it, all dusty and $50 on the shelf), discussed how to drink port, what is a bold red and what isn’t, and how much wine vs light beer it takes to get someone trashed. How to pick something out that will go over well on a romantic date without spending a fortune (there is no money in this town unless you are a cattle baron).

We spent a fun hour going over everything on the shelves while I selected a nice Penfolds cab for myself that was only $8!

She’d never had wine and was curious, so I recommended she start with the Barefoot Wines, which are very easy and drinkable -  starting with either a White Zin, Merlot or Chardonnay. I even found a White Merlot on the shelves for her to try. She said she likes sweet mixed drinks, so I wanted her to try wines that were easy for beginners. We talked about trying port, on a romantic date, with some nice rich chocolate.

She was very avidly interested in all of this and I felt good passing on what I knew - which granted, is limited. I hope she discovers a few wines.

Living on Adrenaline, Decreasing Stress

All evidence these days points to stress as a major contributor to ill-health, in both body and mind. Apparently stress stimulates the body to respond with creating the hormone cortisol (in the adrenals).

Cortisol is the flight and fight hormone. High and prolonged levels of cortisol decrease bone density and muscle mass and increase sugar imbalances. Cortisol leads to increased abdominal fat. Also, cortisol inhibits collage formation (hello, wrinkles!).

About.com writes, “Studies have also shown that people who secrete higher levels of cortisol in response to stress also tend to eat more food, and food that is higher in carbohydrates than people who secrete less cortisol.” http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/cortisol.htm

The wikipedia explains that cortisol addiction also contributes to clinical depression. The Mayo Clinic lays things out clearly about the negative effects of allowing stress to continue eating away at your body: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress/SR00001

In our modern world, we’ve created a high-stress culture using adrenaline as a fuel source. The adrenals were never meant to be stimulated like this - it’s a very unhealthy fuel.

I’ve been seriously working to decrease stress in my life. I don’t think we take stress seriously enough; we just live with it. Trying to actually eliminate stress is a worthwhile goal! And one I do not think is too far out of line. The adrenals are intended to help us work through temporary stressful situations - ones that we cannot control. Using cortisol as a daily fuel; that was never intended. That is what I am going to work on eliminating from my life.

Joined the Tough Love Weight Loss Support Forum

Press Release from TLWL:
Tough Love Weight Loss is a free support community, where members upload their weight loss video diaries, blog about their weight loss struggles, seek out others for advice and also give advice - all with truth as the most important factor for accountability.

Visit Tough Love Weight Loss

The Tough Love comes into play when members hold each other accountable for their actions, and when they show support for their successes and failures, always putting the member first, even when the member is unable to.

Tough Love Weight Loss (TLWL) is having several contests and is in process of a membership drive. For example, if you get 50 people to sign up, you will win $50!

Come by each Saturday to see Stephanie’s new weight loss video diary. Other members are joining in too. Stephanie started the community in order to get support for herself, and to help support others differently than in the past. She doesn’t want to be coddled or told it is OK to cheat. She wants to be held accountable.

Tough Love Weight Loss holds members accountable for their actions. Join here: ToughLoveWeightLoss.com

For more information see: TLWL or email owner@toughloveweightloss.com. TLWL is seeking weight loss stories, donations for member prizes, and partnerships.

###

Note from me: I always go up and down with my level of fitness and want to stay on track for good. I joined this group to be able to maintain my weight and be held accountable! I recommend joining (it’s free) and getting to know this great group of ladies. Everyone cares and will root you on…and help you stay accountable to yourself. If you join, tell them HippyGeek sent you.

Twitter Grade

I just checked my Hubspot Twitter Grade for HippyGeek - scored a 97 out of 100, and apparently there is nothing for me to improve on. I like hearing that! I need constant positive strokes to fuel my self esteem.

Here’s my badge:

I’m not sure exactly what they are basing the grade on. Follow ratio? Amount or frequency of tweets? Mixture of tweet types?

Have you checked your Twitter Grade? Twitter Grader

My 15 Favorite Farscape Episodes

Since we just finished the Farscape series, it’s fun to go back in my mind and list which ones I love the best. Keeping in mind that many of the good ones are 2 and 3 parters, that does make it harder. But here’s my first shot at it, in no particular order:

1. Out of Their Minds (where they switch bodies - always a good time)
2. A Human Reaction
3. Kansas (fun on the home planet)
4. Terra Firma (more fun on Earth)
5. Back and Back and Back to the Future
6. Thank God it’s Friday, Again
7. Til the Blood Runs Clear
8. Through the Looking Glass
9. The Way We Weren’t
10. The Locket (the ep most like Inner Light on TNG)
11. A Constellation of Doubt
12. Prayer
13. Promises
14. We’re So Screwed Trilogy
15. Unrealized Realities (AKA Bizarro Moya Gang)

Zombies Want Your Brains Song

Here’s a rocking little zombie song on YouTube:

“We only want to eat your brains. We’re not unreasonable; I mean, we won’t eat your eyes.”

This song made me and some friends think - are the zombies lying? Why don’t they also want the eyes? That’s got to be like fresh grapes to them.

I believe they’ll eat the eyes if you let them near your face. They don’t seem awfully picky about what body parts they shove into their gaping maws.  So, consider this a public service - don’t trust zombies to only go for your brainz. They will most likely eat your eyes on their way TO the brainz, and then look around for your liverz and spleenz too.

Application Form for the Evil League of Evil

I wish I’d found this form before the deadline so I could prove my evilness to the League. But it’s still a hoot to read through the application and I can’t wait to see the videos they select:

Apply to the Evil League of Evil

Note - this will make a LOT more sense to you if you are a Joss Whedon Fan. Just saying.

Second Note - remember, Henchmen need not apply. Contact your union.

My New Goal is 100 Push Ups

I have to admit the uber-simple idea of this website - 100 Pushups - is somehow very appealing.

I never thought about push ups much - I do about 15 of them when I do floorwork, and lots of my yoga poses use the same muscles. But taking a look at that fit woman with the cute hair made me think - HEY! I can do 100 push ups too, if I wanted!

I immediately dropped to the floor and and assumed the push up pose. Or, yes, a modified push up pose, on my knees. I did my usual 15 and realized how sloppy my push ups were. I needed to go all the way down, right? I really didn’t.

So I have a new goal. I want to get to 100 push ups, even if I have to use the modified sissy technique. I can work on getting around to the full, proper posture after that. My first step is to whip my 15 modified push ups into shape - going all the way to the ground. Once I feel comfortable with that I will take a closer look at their actual program.

Anyone care to join me?

Join the Mastermind Blog Program

I am signing up for this class right, now, as we speak. I can’t wait to report on it for you all!

Click here to join the Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program

Mop your Floor with Tea

I bought a Libman mop from Rite Aid the other day, as I have a super old and dirty vinyl flooring in the kitchen/dining area of the house. I needed something to really swab my decks.

What’s neat is there’s a little household tip on the baggie around the mop head: they suggest hiding scratches in wood flooring (or wood panels) with tea. They say to brew one bag of tea for each quart of water.They suggest mopping the floor with the tea.

I am guessing this is regular black tea and not something like, say, Chamomile.