Alrighty then, I know, I know, it's been a couple of weeks since I wrote anything but I have been very, very busy. Dance week is here and the recital was last night and I'll admit, it was fun. My Bollywood piece opened the show, much to my surprise and happiness, and appeared to be a smash hit. The audience began clapping & hollering from the get-go.  M., M. & S. looked like they were having a great time. The dance was meant to be joyful and they made so. My heart-felt thanks to those 3 brave ladies.

Myself and 7 others in the dept. also danced a hula/Tahitian piece. It went pretty well, I did flub a little. I'm guessing 'cuz I was so tired, my mind and body connection blew a fuse. Oh well, can't win 'em all, eh? All in all, it was a fun night of dance and get-together afterwards. I truly work with an amazing group of people.

We've been asked to perform it again for the meet & greet for Frank Farinaro, the headliner of The Mediterranean Nights belly-dance show in October. Yes, that's right, a male belly dancer. The ladies are really excited about doing it but...Miss S. is unable to participate, again, so I have to step in again. Yeeeeeesh! Oh well, we'll just have to wait & see if I have to change anything to accommodate my knee. The beauty of being the choreographer, I can do what I want! YES! (Fist pump goes here)

Lets see now, I baked a most beautiful rhubarb pie. Honestly, I think it had to be the prettiest pie ever. Picture perfect. It was amazingly tasty too.  At least the 3 of us who got some seemed to think so. Yum-yum.

I'm going to try, yet again, to get some pictures of the dances on here for you next week. But for now it's time to get back down to the mundane things in life like laundry, vacuuming, putting away the dishes and the like. Now that things are going back to normal again, I'll be able to start refreshing workouts and recipes as well as fitness & wellness information.

Keep dancing & be happy people!

Oh my heavens. It was so amazing to wake up and see the temps. were only 69 degrees. Its been since May if I remember correctly, since the temps. have been so low. I actually went outside onto the patio, put the cover on the hammock and laid on it with the animals lying close by at 5 in the morning. I'm gonna need to hang a rope so I can pull it to swing myself. What a life sometimes. Boy, am I blessed.

Unfortunately, it's going to back up to the triple digits weather-wise this weekend. It's ok, we'll plug on through. We're supposed to get more rain chances by the end of next week.

I'm so excited right now. I'm seeing light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I have 1 more loan payment to go out of my paychecks! Yahooey-looey! I can't tell you, nor do I need to tell you, I'm sure, how stressful its been these last number of years. I'm hoping that with the lessened stress factor that I'll be able to drop some more of those pesky, unwanted lb's.

Stress can & does affect your weight ya know. It really does. There are many studies on the subject. Your hormone levels get skewed and such and Voila! fluff remains where it lays. Not nice! I am thrilled that I haven't put the weight I did lose back on but I still have more to go so, hopefully, this reduction in my stress levels will help to achieve those lofty goals of mine. They're really not that lofty, I've been there before and more, so it's not a ridiculous goal. Just more than I wish I needed.

My pal Barbara Applebaum of ApplebaumWellness.com speaks on this and many other issues on her site as well.

Yes, I'm still having issues with my knee & shoulder. I tried to see a NMT (Neuromuscular Therapist) but she was booked the only 2 hours I was free. Of course, right?!? Oh well, I'll get in there eventually. I have additional insurance, 1 of which being accidental or casualty. I think I might even get it paid for by them. I'm going to call to find out. That would be fabulous! (You have to sing the word "fabulous" there, ok)

Choreography on the Bollywood piece is going well. I changed the music and everyone seems to like it even more. Every time I say, "the next part is..." the girls eyes roll back in their sockets, 1 goes into stiff, panic mode, the other 2 throw their hands onto their heads and cry out "my brain hurts!" Cracks me up. But they do say they love the choreography and are having fun. I have crazy ideas, I'm sure most of you already knew that, and they keep asking me where I get them from. I dunno! Just decades of ethnic dancing, I guess.

I'm trying out different apps on my android for nutritional info. like calorie tracking, diary's, caloric intake and outgo ratios. I'll give you my thoughts on these as I attempt to utilize them.

The first one I'm trying is My Fitness Pal. Available on the Google playstore, It asks pertinent questions such as; how much weight do you wish to lose/month or week, how much do you exercise, how long do you exercise, etc. Then it gives you a total caloric intake you should have to accomplish your goals. You type in what you eat, some by brand names, and it keeps a tally for you for the day.

I do find it a little annoying to try to add in what I've eaten. I drink a smoothie in the morning for my breakfast but I make it so its either type in each individual item or just go with a generic "mixed berry" not knowing what they consider it to be. I'll give it a month and then I'll try another one. My Fitness Pal is free, so that's a plus, but it's kind of a pain to navigate through. We'll see. It could just be my amazing, lightening speed with technology. NOT!

My Fitness Pal tells me to ingest 1200 calories to reach my goal and lose 2#'s/week. Of course, if I exercise, I get to ingest more calories to make up for the burning of those. Gee, me exercise? Really?!? So, again, I'm going to see how easy this thing is to deal with and I'll report back to you all as we go.

Yes, I am still, basically, doing the food combination eating. It does seem to make sense to me but it is still hard to not have a potato or pasta with my protein. Decades of eating habits are hard o break but it is getting easier, I guess. I do still have a BIG issue with bread. I just can't let my sourdough go. I just have to have it. Oh well, it makes me happy and I don't eat nearly as much as I used to. Nor do I eat nearly as much meat as I used to. Oh, for crying out loud, I don't eat period, as much as I used to.

Trying to account for my intake should help with my goals and yours if you have some, and I suspect you do. It's a form of a food journal. It's been found to be a very excellent way to help with weight goals. Even if you want to gain, we hate you, weight.

Have any of you gone to Buck & Judy's Dang Rubs website yet? I sure hope so. Just "click" the name and you'll be able to go to the site. I try them on everything, practically.

I'm going to go out & do some fall planting this weekend, I hope. Never got anything outa my garden from the spring. The squash & zucchini plants did yield some veggies but they were never full-sized. Just little guys. So, I think I know what to do this time so I'll try again. Time to get dirty, YES!

I'll be updating my workouts page this week, so keep a lookout for it and have a fantastic week everyone.

Peace out!

Man oh man, my knee & shoulder still hurt. My knee still has a bruise and is a bit stiff but my shoulder still seems to be the biggest casualty of that painful night. I already had an issue in it from my early days of lifting and I do believe this fall made it worse. Great! It hurts to even lift the Brita water pitcher in the fridge. Not good. I'm gonna need to have someone look at it for me I think. I think I might've torn something.

Great news! Buck & Judy's Dang Rubs website is up & running & ready to order from. Please take a look at it. They're still working on putting up some of the recipes they've gotten, but you can check out my recipe page for delicious foods using the various rubs on them. www.dangrubs.com

I used # 9 on some pork chops last night. I rubbed it on the chops, drizzled a little evoo on 'em and roasted them at 350 degrees for 7min. on each side. Perfect! And...yummy, I might add. I'm so excited for all of you to try these rubs. Please, enjoy.

It's been difficult for me to do any strength workouts lately with my good (now bad) knee in pain along with my right shoulder. So, I'm trying to get in some cardio, which I do need, but with rehearsals & choreographing, let alone all of the teaching I'm doing, I'm finding it tuff to find some extra time. gonna try to get on a stationary bike today. Yuck! But one must do what one must do.

Getting more done on the Bollywood choreography. I know the ladies are going to kill me. I get so specific with the movements and its fast. But I know they can do this and they'll look fantastic. S. & I got the veils done the other day. All I need to do is cut the lengths so they're all the same. The ladies'll trip over them. That would not be good. At this point they're way too long. Now I need to figure out what I want with the sashes. I can't wait to see them perform.

Stay well & watch out for the dog!