How to Lose 20 lbs. in 2 weeks

I was standing in line to check out at the grocery store, and was reading some of the magazine headlines in the checkout-line magazine racks. Almost all of them had some big title reading something like, "How to lose 20 pounds in 10 days," or "How I Fit Back Into My Little Black Dress."

I've never worn a black dress of any kind (nor do I want to), but about a month ago I lost about 20 or 25 pounds in about two weeks. I didn't do it intentionally, but the magazine titles have inspired me to share techniques I learned.

1. Contract strep throat - this prevents eating, and depletes your immune system (which is necessary a little later).

2. Bite your tongue really hard - bite it so hard that you have a big nasty looking cut in the middle of it. Also, a few smaller bites around the perimeter might help too.

3. Start taking some antibiotics (something Penicillin based) - this will help you recover by the end of the two weeks. Also, it will kill all the bacteria in your digestive tract, so any food will shoot right through you.

4. Use a hydrogen-peroxide based mouthwash - this will open up the sores on your tongue nicely, and hopefully (with your depleted immune system) help them to turn into some big ugly canker-like sores. Also, it might make your gums incredibly sensitive to any kind of pressure.

Note: By this time you should not be capable of eating anything more solid than Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. Also, it will probably hurt really bad to eat the noodles, thus deterring you from consuming many of them.

5. When you can't talk or eat anything at all, go to the doctor and get a nice corticol steroid (like Prednizone) - This will help the pain a little, but will also kick your heartrate through the roof. You probably won't sleep for 3 or 4 days, so a little Tylenol PM might help.

6. Slightly solid food - After taking your a week's worth of Prednizone and antibiotics, you should start being able to eat slightly more solid food (like ramen noodles, and crackers that you soak into a kind of mush).

7. Slightly more solid food - After about two weeks, you might be able to eat some pasta. Still, I'd try to avoid anything containing sugar, salt, and kind of acid, grains, etc. These will be way too painful to eat. You should now have lost about 20 to 25 pounds.

8. The follow up - After about 3 weeks you should be able to eat most solid food. Be warned, however, that since to bit off most of your sweet taste buds, most things will taste excessively salty (especially things like cheetos). Things will slowly get back to normal. You might end up with some weird looking scars on your tongue, but you still should be able to taste things like normal.

Well, I it worked for me. I just thought I'd share my experience!

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Legal Disclaimer: If you really try this, you're an idiot and deserve what you get. I am in no way responsible for your pain or problems. Crash diets of any kind are stupid, and a good way to screw up your health.

Like Monkey Riding a Coyote

Today I jumped over my first jump while riding a horse. After setting up the jump, Ike looked at me and said, "I promise that if you look down or aren't in two-point position, you will fall off" (two-point position is how you kind of stand up in the stirrups when you go over the jump). That was motivation enough for me; I wasn't really in the mood to fall off of a horse today.

I'm pretty sure I looked like a monkey trying to ride a coyote, but at least I lived to tell about it. I know (judging by Ike's reaction) that I had at least one (reasonably) good one.


Ike still pretty much told me that I suck at cantering with stirrups (which probably means he's gonna tie my legs to them). I had lots of fun today though, and am looking forward to whoopin' Ciara at horse jumping.

Naan Pizza Recipe

We were at Alberton's the other day, scavenging for new recipe ideas. Ciara found this bread called "naan," which is apparently some kind of Indian (as in India, not Native American) flat bread. Ciara thought it looked like it'd make a tasty pizza crust, so we bought a couple.

Anyway, here's the recipe for it:

Crust:
1 pkg. of naan bread (there's two in a package, see the picture above to see what it looks like)

Sauce:
1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes with onions
1 TB. of Olive Oil
1/2 clove of garlic (minced)
1 tsp. dry basil
1 tsp. dry oregano
Some fresh ground pepper
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar (if needed)

Normal Sauce Directions:
1. Pour the can of tomatoes w/ onions into a medium mixing bowl.
2. Mash up the tomatoes a little with a fork (I like to leave them a little chunky still)
3. Heat up the oil in a saucepan.
4. Saute the garlic a little, so it's a little goldeny brown.
5. Add the tomatoes to the saucepan.
6. Add the herbs
7. Taste it to see if it needs a little sugar (sometimes tomato based things can be a little acidic). If it needs some add a little (like a little pinch), until you think it tastes good.
8. Simmer the sauce on low(ish) heat for 15 minutes or so.

Lazy Sauce Directions:
1. Put the tomatoes in a bowl and mash them a little.
2. Mix in everything but the sugar.
3. Heat it up in a saucepan. Add some sugar if you think it's too acidic tasting.
4. Let it simmer for 10 or 15 minutes.


Toppings:
Shredded mozerella cheese
Whatever else you like on pizza

Pizza directions:
1. Spread even portions of the sauce onto each naan bread.
2. Add some mozarella and whatever other toppings you like.
3. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes.


I thought this stuff was great! Try it out and let me know what you think. Way to go Ciara for making up new recipes!

Raspberry Spinach Salad

So I decided to make this salad for Thanksgiving dinner with Cory's family and everyone LOVED it. So I thought I'd share the recipe. It is super easy and it's really healthy too :)

Raspberry Spinach Salad

One 10 oz bag of spinach
2 cups raw pecans
1 bunch of green onions chopped
3 apples cut up in chunks
1 cup grapes, sliced in half
2 cartons of fresh raspberries

Raspberry Vinaigrette

2 1/3 cup honey
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup white onions, chopped
3 T onion powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup of sunflower or almond oil
1/3 c apple cider vinegar
1 carton of fresh raspberries
3 tsp poppy seeds

Blend the lemon juice, onions, salt, onion powder, apple cider vinegar, raspberries and honey in the blender. Slowly drizzle the oil into the mixture. Blend until it is well mixed. Then add the poppy seeds and blend just until they are mixed in. If you blend them in too much they won't stay whole.

Serve and enjoy!! I love this salad recipe because it not only tastes delicious, but it looks really festive during Christmas and Thanksgiving.

My brain hurts

0110110101111001001000000110001001110
0100110000101101001011011100010000001
10100001110101011100100111010001110011

...That's binary for "my brain is fried".

I just had to do this take home programming test. The stupid thing took me like seven hours to do. Two of those hours made me feel like a big fat idiot. I was working on a method for two text fields that worked together, but they didn't work right...turns out I'd gotten my code for text field one mixed up with text field two.

Pretty much it was like trying to figure out why your bike moves backwards when you pedal it forwards, only to find out that you put the handlebars on the wrong end.

I really like this class, but it's been kind of hellish lately. The programming slave master decided to inflict us with three projects and two tests during the last two weeks of school.

Master Procrastinator

Lots of people say it's bad to procrastinate things...it's probably true, but I wouldn't really know. I am really good at putting things off until the last possible minute.

I had this group presentation in my biology class that we've had all semester to work on. I think I met with my group a total of two times before the day it was due. Both meetings ended up with us each picking an aspect of our topic (genetically modified crops), and then deciding that we had plenty of time to get things done before it was due...it was due on Monday.

Well, Thanksgiving break rolled around, and nobody had really collaborated with anyone else on their research or how we were going to present the stuff. I had volunteered to make a PowerPoint presentation. Everybody in the group went home for the holiday, and on Saturday evening I decided it was time to try calling people to ask them to send me their information. I didn't get most of the information until Sunday afternoon. Then I found out that one of our group members got in a car wreck on the way home, and wouldn't be there for the presentation (she wasn't hurt, just stranded). So she couldn't send her research until Monday.

So we decided to meet in the library at 8:00 AM on Monday; three hours before the presentation. We got all of our information together, made a fantastic PowerPoint presentation, practiced it once or twice, and headed off for class. Everyone did a great job of presenting, and it went really smoothly. Nobody in the class asked a question we couldn't answer, and the professor seemed to enjoy the presentation.

So I've decided that sometimes I'm really really good at putting things off until the last minute (and apparently good at influencing others to do the same). I should probably do something about that...

YEE HAW!! Making Progress

I had another horse riding lesson on Saturday, and (surprisingly) I don't have any really crazy stories to tell. I have noticed, however, that Ike keeps making me take the horse over bigger and bigger things. It started out with one puny little pole on the ground, then two puny little poles, and now (since I'm pretty much a master horse rider) we have advanced onto a giant green pipe thing (about 10 inches in diameter).

Ike did make me canter around a lot, so I'm sore all over the place. Oh! and I had my first experience using two sets of reins! It only took him like ten minutes to show me how to hold them, and which one should be on top (I didn't really get it). Then I made the dumb mistake of letting go with one hand to scratch my ear...luckily I guessed right about which one should be on top.

Anyway, I think I'm making pretty good progress with this horse stuff. In fact it's inspired me to join the medieval club and try riding around in a suit of armor while swinging a sword...ok, not really.

Wow...

Holy crap! That last post was really long...

Twilight: a Man's Perspective

I made a deal with Ciara that if she went to see the new James Bond with me, I'd go see Twilight with her. So, last night I kept my word, and took Ciara and my two youngest sisters to the movie.

Now, I was coerced into reading the first book, but only got about a fourth of the way through before school started up again. Based on the minuscule amount of information I know about the series, I think the movie portrayed the book well.

The book starts out rather slow, so the story was changed slightly (at least up to the point I read) to accelerate things in the movie a bit.

What I Liked
Based on the the trailers, I thought it had potential, but feared sitting through the movie wanting to scratch my eyes out (like when I watched The Notebook...or as much of it as I could stand). Thankfully, the movie kept my attention for the whole 2 hours and 14 minutes, which kind of (pleasantly) surprised me.

The vampires were cool. They all had fantastic hair. In fact, I've decided that one day after (probably after the resurrection) I'll have some sweet dreadlocks like that Indian vampire. I thought the baseball scene was awesome! Although I think human baseball is ridiculously boring, I think I could watch vampire baseball for hours.

I liked the lighting a lot. It kind of gave everything a nice harsh contrast, and made the movie seem a little darker. Also, I thought everyone was cast very well. A few people said they didn't like Bella, but I thought she did a good job of playing a pasty white, depressive, impulsive, and somewhat hormonal high-school girl.

Things I didn't like as much
I didn't like all the staring between Eddie and Bella. It made things a little over dramatic (even hyper dramatic at times...yes, I just made up that term). Also, I thought James was supposed to be some wicked tough vampire (according to Mr. Dreadlocks), but Eddie beat him up without a whole lot of effort (the vampire fight was still pretty sweet, I just thought it went by quickly).

The sparkly skin looked a little goofy. I know they're supposed to shine, but I thought it looked a little weird. Also, the special effects while Edward was running up hills and trees and things looked a little weird from time to time.

Also, I wondered about what happened when the people in the city discovered that the vampire barbecue in the ballet studio...

Overall
Overall I enjoyed the movie, and would watch it again once it's out on DVD. It wasn't too teenage-girly, and was entertaining. There were a few goofy special effects things, and too much staring; however, the overall plot and story compensated for those slight flaws. It's an intriguing and refreshingly new story for the silver screen. Shhhh, don't tell Ciara...but I liked it.

Here's a song for you all!

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In My Own Defence

My previous post may have seemed a bit racy to some...it's not really my fault. Ciara was trying to add a play list to the blog, when I made the mistake of saying I should do a funny song dedication to her...she thought it was a great idea. This song came on whatever music station we were listening to at the time, so I decided to use it for my dedication.

I'd like to dedicate a song...

Howdy y'all, I didn't feel like calling the radio station (and I'm a nerd, and I can't attach pictures on the radio)! So, I decided to dedicate a song to Ciara on this blog (please click play to hear it):

Look Ma, No Stirrups!

So a couple lessons ago, Ike the trainer took away my reins...He decided to continue the trend, so once again I found myself in a round pen with a horse, a trainer, a missing piece of equipment, and no way out.

Apparently I have the habit of standing up in the stirrups when attempting to canter (well, technically the horse can successfully canter; the trouble, rather, is with me attempting to stay on the horse). To remedy my problem, Ike thought it best to remove the source of the problem...the stirrups. On top of all of this I was in an English saddle, which is something akin to riding a horse with a bike seat strapped to it.

For twenty minutes I sat on a horse as it ran in circles, while I attempted (successfully, thank goodness) to stay aboard. As we progressed Ike said, "Wow Cory, you're a fantastic rider when you don't have stirrups!" ...I wasn't sure quite how to take that, but as the horse started speeding up again I decided it best to chalk it up as a compliment and hold on tighter.

I'm pretty sure that the main reason I didn't fall off is because I didn't think my body would react well with the hard wall of the round pen. Either way it was pretty exhilarating and, despite the terror, I think it helped my riding ability (which I typically judge by how sore I am the next day). Watch out Ciara, cuz I'm gonna whoop ya at horse jumping (once my body recovers)!

Pre-Thanksgiving

So yesterday at Cory's family's house we had Pre-Thanksgiving! Basically it is exactly like Thanksgiving just a little earlier. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms and all sorts of yummy side dishes. My husband even made my favorite desert in the whole world-- Creme brulee!! Needless to say it was fantastic!

In fact, it was so fantastic that we have decided to celebrate all of our favorite holidays twice! We already have Christmas in July and Pre-Thanksgiving. Now all we need is Easter in June and the Forth of July in January :)

I wish I was better about taking pictures to post, because the creme brulee turned out great and we all had a great time watching Cory torch the tops of them!

Here is a link to the oh so delicious creme brulee we made: Vanilla Creme Brulee

Making the World a Nerdier Place

Hello again family and friends, a month or two ago I was helping Ciara pick out a new laptop. I noticed that the computer manufacturers are really good at being unclear about what you're buying and selling you useless junk.

Some people have a hard time knowing what's good and why when buying a computer, so I thought I'd start a blog about it (woot woot)! So check out my brand new nerdy blog:

interpretech.blogspot.com

Now, I know something about computer components, but I don't claim to have a monopoly on nerdy computer knowledge. SO, if anyone notices anything that I get wrong, please correct me. Also, if you have questions you'd like answered or ideas for posts, feel free to email me (reschkecm@gmail.com) or add comments!

How to parallel park a horse

Hello everyone. This is Cory, and this weekend I felt like I was in driver's ed again. Our good friend the horse trainer (Ike) decided it was time for me to learn how to ride a horse backwards. So he set up a box made up of orange cones, and made me back through them and around them...and around and through them. I'm not sure anyone will be asking me to parallel park their horse, but I did find out I'm pretty good and getting the horse to kick over cones. ...Ok, I don't think I did that badly (at least Ciara tells me I did pretty well).

This horse riding thing is lots of fun, and I think Ciara's got me hooked. Unfortunately for my current income, I think I'm now involved in one of the world's most expensive sports (except formula 1 racing...and possibly fly fishing). Anyway, I'm having a good time, and haven't broken anything yet.

Welcome!!

Hello everyone! We thought it was about time for us to hop on the band wagon and start our own blog so we hope you enjoy it! For our first post we just thought we would let you know what's been going on with us this semester.

Ciara is in the middle of her first semester of a new major and loving it! She changed her major from exercise science to public health and is hoping to graduate next December. She is still working Bed Bath & Beyond as a customer service supervisor and can't believe she has been with the company for over a year and a half already! School and work aside though her favorite thing to do lately (besides spending time with her awesome husband) has been riding. Handsome (her horsey) has been re-located to Utah and Ciara has had waaayyy too much fun being able to ride and jump again.

Cory is still in school too, trying to get a degree in information systems. He's working for BYU doing IT stuff for the Church. He's been trying (sometimes comically) to learn to ride a horse. This past weekend the trainer put him on a horse in a round pen, but took away the reins...he had to (try to) balance on the beast without holding on to much while the trainer chased the horse around with a whip. Fortunately he survived and nobody had a video camera. Other than that life has been pretty much the normal grind.