Vocal and Guitar Lessons

I had my first real vocal and guitar lessons last night, and I am ecstatic. :)

Both of my teachers seemed to understand instinctively what I was looking to get from these lessons, and in vocal, we explored warm up and breathing techniques, and then explored my range, which I am happy to say is ~2 1/2 octaves, from D_ to G. My vocal teacher thinks I can probably extend that upwards a little bit, which would be nice, although really, none of the songs I know use those high notes, so not that important.

What I would like to achieve is better control over my voice, and better projection, etc.

After spending 1/2 an hour down in the basement of Long & McQuade, I rushed up two flights stairs a couple of minutes late for my guiter lesson, which was equally promising.

My fingertips are a little tender, and I have to cut off my finger nails, which is incredible annoying, but I learned the right way to sit when holding the guitar, I learned a VERY handy finger exercise to help me get used to holding down the strings right, I learned a couple basic strumming patterns, and I learned a few of the easier chords. This week, I am to practice chord transitions and strumming using House of the Rising Sun, which seems to be one of the first songs that everybody learns on the guitar.

I also learned how to read tabs, which is new for me, although all of the music I own is for vocal, piano, and guitar, so not sure how much I will actually use it.

All in all, signing up for these lessons was a spur of the moment decision on Saturday afternoon that I am very happy about.

Knock two more things off my bucket list!

Kitchen Zones

Yep. Today's post came from WAAAAAAY out in left field.

After a week of writing about my failed attempts to lose weight, and having made a few very minor updates to my eating and thinking habits, I am taking a break. Only from thinking about my updated plan, mind you - not from actually maintaining my new habits. Although it is only 2pm, and I am very hungry after my lunch.

Hmmm. I'll think of something that isn't too drastic. Maybe a protein shake. Yes, that will do.

ANY WAY....

Back to kitchen design, which is supposed to be the topic of this entry.

I am planning, one day (in about 10 years), to be living in my dream home. I have this home more or less designed, but I run into problems with the kitchen. Kitchens are very complicated rooms, and the options these days for where to put things, and what things should actually go in the kitchen are innumerable. Or at least way to many for me to count.

My list of things for my dream kitchen is as follows:

• Easy to entertain many people. I have a large family, and I am used to having many (20+) people needing to be fed.
• Keep the table-setting and clearing activities out of the cook's way
• Baking area separate from the cooking area
• Sufficient counter space so that small appliances don't need to be stored between uses.
• Children's area. I firmly believe that children should be able to feel useful and welcome in the kitchen, and yet it is a dangerous place for them. I don't actually know what this looks like, but I like the idea of incorporating a play kitchen or something.
• Meal-planning area. I need space to sit down with cookbooks, a computer, pen, paper, calculator, etc. to think about what I am going to do in the kitchen.
• At least one, maybe two dishwashers. I really don't like doing dishes.
• Multiple sinks. One for food prep, one for washing up. Maybe another for drink prep; this is a new concept I am considering.
• Multiple counter heights. I am 5' tall, with short legs. Not everyone is, so that makes life in a kitchen interesting for me.
• Corner cabinets that don't require crawling into to get stuff out of

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

This has been an ever present puzzle for my brain, and today I decided to dig into it a little bit.

In kitchen design, for years, the idea has been that no matter your layout, in deciding where to place your three main stations (fridge, stove, sink) you draw a triangle, and the area of the triangle is supposed to be a certain number, and the length of each side is supposed to be no more than a certain number, and between the three areas, you are supposed to have counter space to work on.

The only problem with that design plan is that it is now common for a kitchen to support multiple people working, instead of just one. And if you aren't careful with your triangle, then the multiple people start tripping over each other.

A new trend has emerged, where instead of planning one work area, you plan for multiple zones, which in theory flow with each other.

• Consumables
• Bread
• Coffee, Tea, Cocoa
• Cereal
• Canned goods
• Noodles, Rice, side dishes
• Finished Products
• Sugar, Flour
• Chilled foodstuffs (refrigerator and freezer)
• Snacks
• Non-Consumables
• Cutlery
• Dishes
• Coffee dishes
• Glasses, dessert bowls
• Plastic containers
• Odds and Ends
• Seldom used small electrical appliances
• Cleaning
• Waste cleaning utensils
• Household cleaners
• detergent and detergent tabs
• rubbish bags
• towels
• shopping bags
• Preparation
• Kitchen utensils and tools
• Various small electrical appliances
• Cutting Boards
• Vinegar, oil, sauces, etc.
• Spices
• Mixing bowls
• Food processors
• Scales
• Cooking
• Cooking utensils
• Pots and pans
• Special oven pans
• Baking trays and racks
• Baking forms and foils
• Baking tools and ingredients
• Tea towels
• Cookbooks
• Operating instructions

Allow me to say: Some of the things listed in these zones, plus the sample layout above, give me the heebie jeebies!

Picture the following activities happening in the kitchen above:

• A family meal (1-2 meat dishes, ~ 4 hot side dishes, 2-3 salads, 2-3 garnishes, buns/bread, drinks)
• Most of the work is done ahead of time, and so when people show up for dinner, the food is mostly ready, with only the following needing to be done.
1. Take the hot food off the stove, move into serving dishes
2. Prep the drinks
3. Set the table
4. Whip the cream for dessert
• In my family, that would involve:
• 1 person making gravy
• 1 person transferring food into serving dishes
• 1 person carving meat
• 2-3 people setting the table
• 1 person getting drinks ready
• 1 person whipping cream
• 1-2 people washing pots and pans to minimize after dinner clean up
• I ask you - can you imagine 8-10 people moving around and through the above zones laid out that way without killing each other (or tripping, starting a fire, etc) before dinner? I can't.

Now, I have to say: my mother designed the kitchen I grew up in, and while it wasn't perfect, it did allow for a few things:

1. Bread, cereal, butter, salt, pepper, toaster and one cutting board were stored within arms reach of the table.
2. The dishes (plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, dessert dishes) were stored on the back side of an island, facing the table.
3. Wall pantry with a shelf that had an outlet on it and doors so the mixer could stay out, and other small appliances could be plugged in and used. When finished with them, the doors were shut. No pulling things out every time you wanted to use them, and no worrying about having clutter-free counter tops - you just closed the doors and you were done.

Brilliant, is my mother. :)

Ideally, then, I would have multiple sinks in my kitchen and possibly multiple fridges, and would break some of the zones above into smaller sub-zones.

• Planning
• Cookbook storage
• Pens and paper
• Seating, work surface
• Shopping Bags
• Aprons
• Consumables (Pantry)
• Canned Goods
• Freezer (Full upright or chest)
• Refrigerator
• Noodles, Rice, Side dishes
• Food Storage (Unopened, Bulk food, etc.)
• Preparation
• Small appliances (food processor, etc.)
• Seldom used small appliance storage
• Small sink (hand, fruit, veg washing)
• Kitchen utensils and tools
• Cutting boards
• Mixing bowls
• Food scales
• Pots and Pans (incl. special oven pans)
• Baking trays, forms, foils
• Baking tools and ingredients
• Operating instructions
• Spices
• Vinegar, oils, sauces, etc.
• Cooking
• Cooking utensils
• Spices
• Vinegar, oils, sauces, etc.
• Stovetop
• Oven(s)
• Plating
• Serving dishes and cutlery
• Hot mitts
• Cooling racks
• Cleaning
• Multi-sink (2-3 compartment)
• Waste cleaning utensils
• Kitchen garbage and bags
• Recycling, Compost
• Dishwasher(s)
• Plastic containers and wrap
• Kitchen Cleaners and detergent
• Kitchen towels and cloths
• Drying rack
• Consumables (Ready-to-eat)
• Refrigerator (drinks, leftovers, condiments)
• Bread
• Coffee, tea, cocoa
• Open cereal, etc.
• Finished products (cookie jar, etc)
• Some small appliances (toaster, coffee maker, electric kettle, etc.)
• Bread board and knife
• Snacks
• Wine fridge/bar??
• Non-Consumables (Butler's Pantry??)
• Cutlery
• Dishes
• Coffee mugs and tea cups
• Dessert dishes
• Glasses

Wow. I am now VERY excited about my kitchen! It will be a challenge to design it without going completely overboard, but at least I have a really good idea of where I want to store things and what the different zones will be!

A few other things that I have thought of while putting this list together.

• The pantry might or might not replace a cold/dark storage area.
• A laundry area should be close to the kitchen, and would contain storage for household cleaners that aren't used in the kitchen.
• If the house is multi-level, then both a dumbwaiter and a laundry chute should be considered.
• There should be some form of seating close enough so that guests can visit with the cook. (Breakfast bar, etc.)

A quick note about setting goals

A lot of people, and I do mean a LOT of people (I googled "making goals and keeping them" and I got about 115,000,000 results), have spent a lot of time writing books, blogs, aritcles, etc. about not just the importance of setting goals, but tips and tricks for keeping/reaching them, and common reasons why people so often fail to reach/keep their goals.

Which just means that I don't actually have to waste a lot of my time figuring all of that out.

In the course of my research about how to effectively set and reach my ultimate weight-loss goal (Weigh 120 lbs) I came across a few helpful links (random selection from the top 10 results):

• Goals: Making and Achieving Them
• Do You Make These 9 Mistakes When You Set Goals?
• Really Simple Goal Setting

From which I gained the following tips and tricks:

1. Pick ONE Meaningful To You Goal. DONE. Weigh 120 lbs.
2. Write it down. DONE. (See above... twice!!)
3. Have a plan. Create small, specific, measurable, PRESENT sub-goals that can be accomplished daily, monthly, etc. Set Deadlines. In Progress.
4. Review previous failures. DONE. (See previous blog entries from this month)
5. Have a positive daily mantra of 2-5 words (in the Present), repeat it out loud.
• I am eating healthy today
• I am exercising today
6. Keep track of progress every day. Working on it.
7. Make the Time. YIKES!!!
8. Be Firm Yet Flexible. All joking aside, this one scares me. If I'm too flexible, I'll let myself continue on as before with negative progress being made. If I'm too firm, I'll just throw in the towel once and for all. Both of which have the result of my clothing increasing in size, which is just annoying. And depressing.
9. Just Do It! In Progress - details upcoming in another post.

The biggest thing I learnt from the articles above is the following:

The goals you think about and write down have to be in present tense too. Not: I will run for 20 minutes three times a week. You have to write: I run for 20 minutes three times a week.

Why? Well, your subconscious mind needs clear direction of what is to be achieved. If you put your goal in an “I will…” form you mind will always strive to bring the goal of running into your life sometime in the future. It will always be out of reach. To actually bring the goal into your life, into the present moment, you have to write it down in present tense.

That actually answers a lot of my questions about why I am unable to meet this particular goal of mine. I ALWAYS think in the future tense about it, and so I never get there. Who'd a thunk it?

That quote, by the way, is copied directly from the blog entry "Do You Make These 9 Mistakes When You Make Goals?" Including the small grammatical error.

... which does not imply that my blog entries are completely free of grammatical errors...



Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem is, if at all possible, even more simple than Weight Watchers.

28 days of 4 meals a day (Breakfast, Lunch, Supper, Snack) plus a protein shake are delivered to your door every month on a day of your choosing. You are to supplement the pre-packaged meals (which are colour-coded!!!) with fruit, vegetables and dairy. They give you a list of options to take shopping.

The shipment comes with a planner for the month that tracks which of the available options you eat, including all of the pre-packaged options, and the items on the grocery list.

All you have to do, literally, is eat 1 package of each colour, add some fruit, vegetables, and dairy, and you're good. Weight Loss Guaranteed.

Right. The only reason I can think of that I haven't been able to lose weight on this diet is that I don't really like any of the options they have for lunch, and so I end up buying my lunch every day, and I tend to make REALLY bad decisions when I do that.

Also, after 5 months of the food, I am kind of sick of all of it, really.

At any rate, this is what the tracker looks like:



In addition to the food, which really has been designed so that if you eat per their guidelines, the calorie intake is low enough to guarantee weight loss, they recommend three 10-minute long activities, and give you two two-week plans to allow for those activities.

The more I think about how easy these programs make it to lose weight, the less successful I feel.

Weight Watchers Canada

Here's the thing. I pay $20/month for access to Weight Watcher's Canada's website, including their calculators, recipes, trackers, really everything but meetings.

And I have a hard time with it. No reason to, really, other than that list I put together yesterday. (See post Once more into the breach...)

The premise of Weight Watchers is actually quite simple:

1. Based on your age, height, and weight you are allowed to eat a certain amount of points every week. This number resets with no carry overs on a weekly basis. They have a calculator for this, and it is updated automatically as you track your weight loss/gain on the website.
2. You can increase the amount of points available for eating by exercising. Every point gained by exercise is another point you can eat. They have a calculator for this, and a tracker with a nice little "Click Here" button to transfer activity points into additional food points.
3. Everything you eat is worth a certain number of points, based on a formula that uses the fat, carbohydrate, dietary fibre and protein values of the food. They have a calculator for this, and for foods that you might not be have a Nutrition Facts label for, they have a very comprehensive database of foods with known values that you can search for. There is a tracker for this as well, with an app that will even remind you to track your food as often as you like. As you add food, it automatically calculates how many points you have left to eat that week.

As I said, simple. You input your basic data once, update your weight weekly, track your food and activity daily, and as long as you stick with their guidelines, you lose weight.

Again, not really sure why this hasn't worked for me.

A few other pertinent details:

• Food tracker has four times for eating: Morning, Midday, Evening, and Anytime. There is also a Hunger tracker embedded into the food tracker that lets you guage how "well" you're eating - I believe this plugs into the science of the glucomic index, but they have dummied the language waaay down.
• Activity tracker simply tracks what you did, how long you did it for (in minutes), and how intense the activity was. There are three options for intensity:
• Low: You can talk or sing, your breathing is regular and you are not sweating.
• Moderate: You can talk, but you can't sing. You breathe often and deeply and begin sweating after 10 minutes.
• High: You can talk briefly, but you can't sing. You breathe rapidly and deeply and begin sweating after 3-5 minutes.

Canada's Food Guide

According to Canada's Food Guide, a woman between the ages of 31-50 should eat the following each day:

• 7 servings of Vegetables and fruit; at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day. Note that some orange fruits can be substituted for orange vegetables. Which is a good thing, since I do prefer fruit to vegetables. Especially orange fruit to orange vegetables. As for the dark green thing, I like broccoli and a few other dark green vegetables; there are enough options that I'm not actually forced to eat things I REALLY don't like, like celery and lettuce.
• 6 servings of Grain Products; half of which should be whole grain. Again, there are enough options that I don't need to eat oatmeal, which I strongly dislike.
• 2 servings of mlk and alternatives; 2 250mL glasses of 2% milk a day - right up my alley. Of course, if I want to enjoy some cheese, then I can't drink all my milk servings... this will bear some consideration.
• 2 servings of meat and alternatives; have meat alternatives such as beans, lentils and tofu often; eat at least two servings of fish each week; and select lean meat and alternatives prepared with little or no added fat or salt
• Include a small amount (2-3 Tbsp) of unsaturated fat each day. Limit butter, hard margarine, lard and shortening. Talk about taking the fun out of life!!! (just kidding... sort of...)

In addition to food guidelines, the following is recommended:

• Take a multivitamin containing folic acid every day
• Drink water regularly; drink more water in hot weather or when you are very active.
• Accumulate at least 2 1/2 hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week
• Limit foods and beverages high in calories, fat, sugar or salt (sodium) such as: cakes and pastries, chocolate and candies, cookies and granola bars, doughnuts and muffins, ice cream and frozen desserts, french fries, potato chips, nachos and other salty snacks, alcohol, fruit flavoured drings, soft drinks, sports and energy drink, and sweetened hot or cold drinks. Is it any wonder that I don't like dieting!?!?!!?

And what is a serving? Well, that depends on the food. See the image below for examples.

Once more into the breach...

Or something like that.

I have been in Regina for 8 months now, and while it should have been easy for me to focus on losing weight while I'm living here basically stress-free, instead, I have been gaining steadily. Again. Looking back, I have now been fighting a non-stop battle with my weight for ~15 years. Mostly unsuccessfully.

Things I have tried:

• Weight-lifting - I maintained weight and lost inches while doing strictly weight-lifting
• Herbal One - in conjunction with weight-lifting, lost 25 lbs, which stayed off until I stopped doing both activities.
• Weight Watchers - Didn't work. I was not successful at logging, or portioning correctly.
• Sara's plan; my sister prepared all my food for me and froze it and pre-bagged it for every day. - Sort of worked. I lost weight steadily (~15 lbs) but wasn't maintainable for either of us.
• Nutrisystem - Didn't work. I really like the idea of pre-packaged, portioned food, but I didn't like a lot of the food choices for lunch, which is my weakest link.
• South Beach - worked for the first two weeks, completely ineffective as soon as I started to add carbs and sugar back in. Also, I don't think it is actually healthy.

In conclusion, what works for me is (as TOTALLY expected) portioned food prepared so that I can grab and go, steady exercise, and weight loss supplements.

Problems that come up:

• Transportation. Both of food and exercise clothing.
• Preparation time (and effort)
• Portioning and craving control
• Vegetables (specifically, lettuce, celery, cucumbers)
• Sticking to a workout schedule
• I like a consistent schedule, but I also get bored with that, too.

Things I have learned that SHOULD help:

• I know how to start exercising and running so that I can go from doing nothing and build realistically from there. (based on various running programs, the Body Building Bible for Women, and Arnold Schwartzeneggar's Body Building book.
• I have access to a free gym
• Portioning: I got a couple of good tools from Nutrisystem that should come in handy - one of them is a drink shaker, and the other is a portion guide that you actually put on your plate and dish food into.
• From Weight Watchers, Herbal One, and Nutrisystem, I have a good idea of what a meal plan should look like.

Next steps:

1. Study the Canada Food Guide, Nutrisystem, and Weight Watchers to determine a meal plan that I will be able to follow.
2. Decide in advance what acceptable options will be if I miss bringing food with me to work, or don't get meals prepared in advance. (I know me, and advance preparation is NOT one of my strong points)
3. Decide on a reasonable exercise program, and figure out where it works into my schedule.

Quick Fixes (While I'm coming up with a real plan)

1. Stop eating a muffin for breakfast - eat a yoghurt with fruit instead.
2. Have a veggie/Hummus wrap instead of egg salad sandwich for lunch. Also, no more lunch specials.
3. Drink water instead of chocolate milk and juice
4. Plan a break in the afternoon before the cafe downstairs closes so I can grab another yoghurt with fruit instead of raiding the vending machines.