CathyM Weight Loss & Health Blog

Had a wonderful trip to Alaska in late June, early July. My husband and I like to fish for and eat salmon. We must be oozing with omega 3’s because we ate it morning, noon, and night for almost 2 weeks.

Southeast Alaska was having a late summer, that is, cooler than normal temperatures and rain just about every day. Afterall, it is a rain forest, so what do you expect? If you are cruising to Alaska, you will most likely stop in Ketchikan. It’s a fun town for shopping but there is so much more, especially totem poles and native American arts. We stayed 3 nights in Ketchikan and then headed to Prince of Wales Island. While in Ketchikan, we took a charter fishing trip and came back with king salmon and silver salmon – yum!

From Ketchikan, we took the ferry to Prince of Wales. The third largest island in the United States and yet a very unpopulated area. We stayed in Klawock and Whale Pass. We were lucky that on our charter fishing day, the weather was nice. We caught silver salmon and halibut. We saw humpback whales and eagles. Spectacular.

On our off days, we did some hiking. We definitely needed rain gear and boots for these adventures. I am so glad I invested in the right rain gear. We have traveled to Alaska before but I never had the perfect outer clothes and regretted it. I found that Cabela’s really had the best deals on what I was looking for. The Catalina Jacket was great, it had a flannel lining with some warmth, attached hood, pockets and kept me dry! The reviews said that they run large so I picked up the women’s Large rather than XL. It fit perfect.

For pants, I picked up the Cabela’s Women’s Gore-Tex PacLite Rainy River Pants. They were a little pricey but they did the job. They were light weight and comfortable. I could easily wear my wool underwear and blue jeans underneath. They also tucked nicely into my boots. I picked up the XL but feel like I could have worn the Large. Since I was ordering at the last minute, with no time to exchange, I decided to be safe and go larger rather than smaller.

On Prince of Wales Island we did some stream fishing. My husband and I both picked up waders. We decided to go with the cheapest available because we just don’t wear them that often, once a year on trips to Alaska at most. We do fish in California, but it’s never fresh water, always in the ocean from our boat. Cabela’s had the best deal. Mine were especially inexpensive and I think it was because they have the felt sole. Alaska is outlawing the felt sole two years from now. So I can use them again next year and then probably not after that. I still felt it was worth it because they were only $55 on sale. These women’s waders have the attached boots and only come in whole sizes. I wear a half size and so rounded up. They were a little large but worked fine. I would not want to wear them for a long hike.

We also brought boots with us that we had purchased a few years ago. They were essential for hiking. Some of the trails started out looking fine but half way through there were areas of mud and flooded streams. They were beautiful and remote hikes, usually we were the only ones on the trail. I wear Muck boots and my husband likes the Bog boots. The exact models we have are not on Cabela’s because they are 5 years old but similar styles are available.

Besides the wonderful fishing and hiking, we did attend some social events. The Mud Bogg races in Naukati we really funny. It rained all day making for quite the mud scene. On the 4th of July we stopped by the Skunk Cabbage Festival, a small town pot luck with silent auction and ax throwing contest. In the evening we were invited to another spectacular pot luck at the Log Cabin Resort which featured a local Blue Grass Band. All fun!

Now I have the right clothes, and the companion pass on Alaska airlines. We’lll have to go back next year!

Find Women's Rain Gear at Cabelas. Great rain gear, boots, and more! They truly do have quality products and great prices.

About a month ago, I got a little spring fever and the urge to improve my garden, upgrade the soil and grow some more asparagus (had some for many years, but never quite enough spears for a meal). I thought that composting with earth worms and adding them to the garden might improve my soil. I had it a little wrong but I think it’s going to work anyway. I bought some red wigglers and then reading as much as I could, realized that they will probably not do well in our dry soil here. But they do well in a worm composter and since we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, we have the perfect food for them along with newspaper and cardboard which is also in plentiful supply.

So I got my worms and made them a temporary home in a bucket with holes, most newspaper and cardboard, some soil and veggies. The worms didn’t look too active at first but within a few days, they were moving about. I added food from time to time and they really dug into a cooked artichoke heart (the good part of course eaten by us humans). I may need to pre-cook and grind up my scraps a little more before feeding them to the worms.

Since we’re in California and it gets hot in the summer, I was concerned about my home made bucket being too small and too hot and not conducive to the long term longevity of my worms. After a few weeks of contemplation, I decided to spring for a Worm Factory 360. It’s the newest model from Nature’s Footprint and with its convenient set up and air flow, I think it might work in our hot summer days. And what a nice coincidence that it arrived on Earth Day! It’s set up now and the worms are in their new home and I’ve got lots of veggie & fruit garbage for them to eat.

I do think that wanting to grow worms seems a little wierd but wanting to have a healthy garden and do something for the environment is not and I am hopeful that I will accomplish both. I’ll check in later and let you know how it goes.

I purchased the Polar FT60 Heart Rate Monitor in May of 2009. My main purpose was to help motivate me and track how much cardio work out I was getting in my exercises. I chose it because it had a feminine purple color, it is water resistant, it tracks heart rate and provides weekly reports, and there is an interface to the PC. I found a great price from a dealer on ebay and purchased there.

I really like the Polar FT60. I exercise 4 – 6 times per week and wear it for my cardio and strength training. It is interesting to watch the heart rate go up and I record my maximum and average rate in my exercise log. It’s all just data to help keep me motivated and it works.

About a month ago I started having problems with the Polar FT60. When I tried to initiate the heart rate, it would show 00, then Check heart rate transmitter! Sometimes it would go in and out, showing what appeared to be the correct heart rate and then going back to 00. I wasn’t sure if there was a problem with the watch, transmitter, or belt but the error message seemed to indicate it was the transmitter. I read the instructions and realized that I had not been washing my strap as advised so washed it immediately and sure enough my Polar HRM started working again. I thought I had solved the problem. It worked for about 3 sessions and then became intermittent again. I tried washing again and accidentally put it in the dryer. Then no go, I started getting the dreaded, Check heart rate transmitter and 00’s and occasionally real high numbers like 200. I thought about sending it all back to Polar under warranty but wasn’t sure if I was going to have a problem because I purchased on ebay and had put the strap in the dryer (how would they know though). I also thought that I should check the battery in the transmitter, just in case. I opened it up and it looked like I needed a tool to get the battery out so took it to a watch shop. They were kind enough to test my battery, it was good and let me try the monitor with a new battery, it didn’t work. Argh. I finally decided to purchase a new transmitter and belt on amazon. No taxes and free shipping and others had reported that this solved their problem.

The new Wearlink strap and trasmitter arrived and they worked! Here’s the link to the Wearlink at Amazon:

Polar WearLink+ Coded Transmitter and Belt Set (Medium-XX-Large)


I also did some testing and both transmitters seemed to work with the new strap but not the old strap. So I could have just purchased a new strap, that would have saved me $34. Here’s the link for just the strap:

Polar WearLink+ Replacement Strap (Medium-XX-Large)


Now as I am writing this blog post, I pulled out my old strap to get the error message correct in this post. It did fail once and I got the error message but suddenly the FT 60 started working properly with the original strap and transmitter. Now I am confused but will keep working with the old strap and transmitter and if they are too intermittent will use the new strap.

So if you’re looking to purchase a Polar Heart Rate Monitor and have trouble with the strap, maybe the above links will help you solve the proble.

If you haven’t purchased yet, Here’s a link to the Polar FT60 at Amazon:

Polar FT60

Also some great prices at J & R:

Polar FT60


And I wouldn’t be cheap like me and try ebay, I didn’t save that much money and would have more options with the warranty.

I have been traveling a lot this year. Partly for fun, some for business, and to visit a family member with leukemia. It’s hard to eat healthy and exercise while traveling. It takes some planning and discipline. I like to do yoga in my hotel room and this year I picked up a travel yoga mat to bring with me. It did the trick. It’s really nice to have the mat to lay on top of the carpet in the hotel room. The mat from Gaiam is reversible with a soft fabric on one side and rubber on the other. It is comfortable and light weight. It might be a little thin to use an only mat if you are on wood floors but on carpet it’s great. It also works to lay it on top of another yoga mat which would be good if you’re visiting yoga studios as you travel and don’t have room to carry your regular mat.

The reversible travel yoga mat is just $29.98 from Gaiam. You can pick it up here: Reversible Travel Yoga Mat

There’s a new law in California – state mandated calorie counts for restaurant chains with more than 20 stores. Many diners will ignore the information but some will look at it. But what wasn’t anticipated is that the affected chains are adding more healthful items to their menu. Romano’s Macaroni Grill has managed to squeeze 880 calories out of one salad. Wow. Reference at the Sacromento Bee.

Being more aware of what we eat, whether it’s calorie counts, or freshness or overall health benefits is a good thing!

It was bliss! An energetic and feel good two days. I wish we could have stayed all three days. It rained on the drive from Los Angeles but by the time we arrived – no more rain. The sun played with us all day, in and out of the clouds.

The first session at noon was yoga with Megan Cannon from the Big Island. She has studied with BKS Iyengar as well as Geeta and Prashant. She taught a wonderful basic Iyengar class focusing on warriors, triangles, and twists with alignment.

The opening ceremonies were next with Samantha Sweetwater, Dreaming Bear and their group. The sign on the stage read, “The Grandest Raw Vegan Eco Peace Celebration in Creation.” The music was fantastic and Samantha facilitated some great interaction within the crowd and her specialty, dancing freedom. I met a friend from Brazil – there was definitely an international crowd at the festival. During the ceremony, an incredible ring formed around the sun, looking like a circular rainbow. Quite spectacular.

Time for lunch, a delicious Mediterranean plate that was enough to feed two of us. I wish I remembered the vendor’s name, I’ll come back and plug it in if I can find it. It was very good and I went back later in the day for a yummy fruit salad and more.

More yoga, yea! Next is Elemental Flow Yoga with Ninaya from Santa Barbara. I loved the way she incorporated the fluid body with sufi rolls and warrior poses. Ninaya is a beautiful young women expecting her second child and with her young toddler close by.

A short break and then it is time for Kirtan with Eostar and her group. Eostar is from Eugene, Oregon and lives in the house that my daughter and her boyfriend had looked to join. Small world. The kirtan was magnificant. Eostar has written her own music and incorporates both vedic chanting and English. I could have stayed all night.

We spend some time walking about the vendors and then to the small doctors tent which has become a dance pavilion. Later, we move back to the main stage for singing and dancing and music from Fantuzzi, Singing Bear, and The Luminaries. We wished we were camping so that we could stay all night but we had to head to our hotel for some sleep.

Saturday is a new day. I start with yoga with Nandhi. I forgot to mention that all of the yoga was in the Sacred Exercise tent. A large purple open air tent. So nice to be outside with the cool Santa Barbara breezes. Nandhi starts by taking us outside of the tent to appreciate the sun and the earth. As we do our yoga, we explore our left Mother side and right Father side and give gratitude to both. Nandhi has a beautiful way of incorporating chanting with yoga in a traditional way. Nandhi is from India and promises a beautiful ceremony tonight for the full moon, too bad I can’t stay. I do go by and pick up both cds for some chanting and meditation at home.

Next on the schedule is Drew Rouse with Bikram Yoga. He introduces himself and explains that his style is command driven yoga. He seems aware that some don’t like that style. I wouldn’t want to hear it all the time but did enjoy his class and felt good that I could do most of it.

Time for lunch, another Mediteranean style meal, this time from Lydia’s Lovin Foods. It was good and I also picked up some crackers to take home.

Samantha Sweetwater from the opening ceremonies now provides an hour of dancing freedom taking us through the elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. She is a wonderful facilitator.

A break to explore the yoga swing, didgeridoo sound healing and other parts of the festival with Lucy and Zach.

The last yoga class for me is with Ardas Wright. She leads a Kundalini Yoga class. Ardas has taught at Golden Bridge and I do recognize her style. It has been several years but I have taken a couple of classes with Gurmukh at Golden Bridge.

After all the yoga, I am a bit tired and head over to the massage healing tables. I am approached by Sya Warfield of urban oasis. Sya lists several massage specialties including Swedish, deep tissue, thai massage, cranio sacral, and reiki. I say that I want something relaxing and healing for my shoulder and she suggests cranio sacral with reiki. It is quite relaxing and my shoulder does feel good afterwards. I would definitely do it again and have her card in case I get a chance to look her up in San Francisco.

The day is over for us. Lucy and Zach are tired and ready to head home. I would have liked to stay longer but it would have made driving at night difficult and so it was best that we head back to Torrance. With little traffic, we make it home in just over 2 hours.

Hope to go back in 2010!

I am totally looking forward to attending the Raw Spirit Festival tomorrow in Santa Barbara. My daughter, her fiance, and myself will drive up Friday morning for a noon start. If all goes as planned, we will arrive in time for the opening yoga session followed by the opening ceremony at 1pm. The rest of Friday there will be opportunities for a couple more yoga sessions, kirtan, music, dance, and of course raw food demonstrations. My daughter and fiance are both vegetarians. I am not but I do love healthy, fresh food. We will also spend a full day there on Saturday with even more opportunities for yoga, meditation, music and food! It is sure to be bliss! I plan to report back with some of the highlights as will my daughter at Living Foods Life.

I purchased the new Earth Pan II cookware last month and they arrived on Earth Day. How appropriate! I had been using a much more expensive non stick set with diamond protection and a lifetime guarantee that well, didn’t come close to lasting a lifetime. I wanted something new and if it didn’t last a lifetime, at least I won’t have to worry about digesting teflon.

I was pleased to find the Earth Pan cookware that had everything I wanted and more – good price, great colors, non stick surface, eco friendly and handles that are not hot to the touch.

Right now the 10 piece Earth Pan II by Farberware is $149.99 at Amazon. The 10 piece set includes 6 pans and 4 lids – a stock pot, 2 skillets, 1 saute pan, and 2 saucepans. Amazon has both espresso and terra cotta. I went with amazon because of the color and free shipping. As you can see from the picture, the terra cotta pans are lovely in my kitchen.

I didn’t just buy this cookware because of the beauty, the eco friendly, healthy non-stick properties are important to me as well. The surface is an innovative SandFlow nonstick surface that contains no PTFEs or PFOAs. I did not research this topic extensively, I took their word for it. Non-stick cooking pans are also healthy because many things can be cooked with less oil.

Another important criteria for me is to have handles that don’t get hot. I don’t know why some expensive cookware does not have this feature. I used Revereware for years and other cookware with plastic handles. The Earth Pans have the newer silicone handles and they are the best. Comfortable to hold and no heat. The pans are also dishwasher safe but that wasn’t a big factor for me. I usually hand wash my pans.

Here’s where to find the best deals the Earth Pans:

Amazon: Earth Pan II by Farberware 10-Piece Cookware Sets

Cookware.com: Earth Pans

Cooking.com:
EarthPan 10-pc. Nonstick EarthPan II Cookware Set, Terracotta

Happy, healthy cooking!

I am so proud that my almost grown kids are taking an interest in their health! That we can enjoy beautiful healthy food and some exercise on Mother’s Day is a great treat for me. My daughter came over early in the day, we had some beautiful berries from the Farmer’s market. She recently started growing wheat grass and we made a drink with the blender. I was surprised at how sweet the wheat grass drink was and the left over fiber went to our dog – no waste. She also made a homemade vegan salad dressing with cashews, that sure was good. We had it on fresh salad greens with avocado. For dinner, the whole family went to a local tofu restaurant – Korean. They serve lovely salads with seaweed, sprouts, kimchi, and more. The soups are all hot tofu based with the addition of your choice of mushrooms, beef, pork, and seafood. Delcious. My son started the Atkins diet last fall and has lost over 70 pounds. Yes, he had gotten quite heavy. He could eat everything at the Tofu Restaurant except the rice.

Besides the lovely, healthy food, my daughter and I took an aerobic dance class at the local health club. It’s a lot of fun and a great work out. I am trying to increase my exercise levels up to 6 hours per week to see if I can drop a few more pounds. I have been on a plateau for a year. I consider that to be good because I have not gained back any weight. I still follow the Sonoma Diet but probably am not being as strict as I should be particularly in quantity of food and maybe a little too much wine.

After dinner, we all headed out to see the new Star Trek movie. We were full and the theatre did not get any snack money from us. It was a fun movie, I enjoyed the way the new actors played the parts of the familiar characters at a young age.

Ever since visiting New Zealand earlier this year, I have been particularly interested in grass fed beef and free range animals. New Zealand is fortunate, they have lots of land with few people. The tour books all mention that there are more sheep than people in New Zealand. The food there is excellent, not just the meat, the seafood, and the produce is great and mostly organic.

California has Proposition 2 on the ballot which is about confined animals, allowing them more space to move around in their cages (if it passes) by 2015. However, it is not about free range or grass fed, so although initially interested in this measure I think I will vote against it. Instead I intend to vote with my pocket book, I have started to purchase free range and grass fed meat and I will continue to do so.

Free range meat products tend to be very expensive. I have started to look for deals. Ralphs has some ground Buffalo meat that is excellent. Marukai has free range chicken. There is a vendor at the Torrance Farmer’s Market on Saturdays with free range chicken meat and eggs (I’ll get the vendor’s name next time I’m there). Trader Joes has New Zealand lamb. Whole Foods has grass fed beef. The prime cuts are expensive but the stew meat is ok in price. All of the grass fed meats tend to be lean which is of course more healthy. Besides that, I want food products without pesticides and antibiotics. Will my family live longer because of it? No one knows for sure but I think so.

After researching the local stores, I am also looking for options to purchase online. I think to make sense I need to purchase in large quantities to minimize the shipping costs. I have a large freezer so have space to store some meat. We actually only eat beef and chicken and pork 2 – 3 nights a week so it’s not a huge part of the budget. We eat seafood often and sometimes vegetarian meals.

The first online merchant I am trying is La Cense Beef. They are based in Montana and have Black Angus beef, all grass fed. No grain, no pesticides, no antibiotics, no hormones. The benefits they say are less fat and caleries, higher in Omega 3’s and more antioxidants. I knew about the less fat but surprised to hear about the Omega-3s and antioxidants. Here’s what they say about it, “Grass-fed beef gleans many of its health benefits from the nutrients in the grass. The grass at the La Cense Ranch is high in Omega-3 fatty acids because they act as a natural plant anti-freeze. These Omega-3s are then present in the meat and dairy products of grass-fed beef. ”

The prices at La Cense Beef seemed pretty good until I noticed that in some cases it was not per pound but per 7-8 ounces. Sirloin steak is $9.49 for 7 oz. A pot roast is $18.99 for 3 pounds. I found a deal for free shipping and will try that.
The website mentions standard shipping 6 – 10 days, that can’t be. Then expeditied and overnight. I guess I have to go through the order process to see if my “free shipping” is expedited or overnight. Looking forward to trying this meat.

Update, the free shipping is 6 – 10 days. No way. I’ll go with $25 off. Be sure not to click on free shipping links on the site, or you’ll lose the $25 off.