The Sundance Film Festival, one of the most prominent independent film festivals, takes place mere minutes from where we live. Because we have a unique opportunity as locals to attend this event, Jason and I try to go to at least one screening every year. Locals can purchase tickets earlier than the general public by registering on the Sundance website between September and December. However, Jason and I usually forget to do this on time and end up scrambling to get tickets when they go on sale to the public. Sometimes our scrambling is successful, sometimes it is not.
This year we managed to get tickets to two shows: a documentary about prominent African Americans called The Black List and a Swedish film called TheKing of Ping Pong. The tricky and interesting thing about Sundance is that you have to choose which films you want to see based off a little paragraph description about them. You don’t have a trailer to rely on or critic reviews to fall back on. Though this does turn choosing a film into more of a guessing game than anything else, it also gives you a chance to experience these films with no expectations or preconceived notions, to be surprised.
The Black List turned out to be well made and thought provoking. We were told by the director and producer, who were present at the screening, that it had recently been bought by HBO. So if you ever get a chance to see it, it’s worth watching.
The Black List
The King of Ping Pong was a decent film and it had some truly funny moments. However, it moved at a glacial pace so we didn’t enjoy it as much as the other show. But overall the experience was still a good one.
The King of Ping Pong
So all you Utah film enthusiasts, next time Sundance is in town give it a try. People come from all over the world to attend and all you have to do is drive a few minutes. It’s worth it!
I came home on Tuesday afternoon for lunch, just like I do every weekday. When I got home on this particular day I washed my hands, just like I always do. While I was in the middle of this washing however I realized there was something odd about the water coming out of the tap-it was brownish orange. At first I thought I was imagining things so I turned on another sink-the same gross looking water came out. After I had tried the kitchen sink as well, with the same result, I called Jason in somewhat of a panic. He called Lehi City and they promised to send someone over shortly. They had received another report of the same thing just a few minutes previously somewhere else in our area and they were unsure whether these two reports were just the beginning of a larger problem.
Gross water
At this point all the worst case scenarios went through my mind. What if we didn’t have useable running water for days? What would we do? Would we have to go stay at a hotel? What if we couldn’t drink our water, take showers, or wash our hands, clothes, and dishes. How would we get by? I was suddenly hit by the realization of just how much we rely on the conveniences we take for granted. Having running water is absolutely vital-what if all of a sudden we just didn’t have it anymore?
This made me think of the complete necessity of having a 72-hour kit. If there was a major emergency and our water system was compromised, and running to the store to grab some bottled water was out of the question, having a 72-hour kit could mean the deference between surviving and not.
Back to my story- we talked to the city water experts one more time and they said they would be at our house in about 15 minutes and that we should, in the mean time, turn on our water to see if this would flush the contaminants out a bit. We did this while we waited and by the time they arrived our water was looking much better. They examined it, took samples of it, and checked our neighbor’s water. They told us that dirt had probably gotten into our pipes from a contractor messing around with the lines in our area, a contractor that didn’t know what he was doing. They could find no traces of the contamination in our neighbor’s water. So they told us to turn on every sink and shower in our house to try to clean out our pipes and use all of the water in our hot water heater to flush out any sediment that may have settled to the bottom of it. They also said the water was safe to bath in and use-just not to drink.
In order to be sure our water was safe to drink we would have to wait two days for test results to come back. And with that they departed.
We were very grateful we could at least use our water for everything but drinking. It was a tremendous relief! But drinking bottled water did get kind of old over the next couple days. Jason and I always felt thirsty.
Our test results have since come back and our water is fine. Yeah!
Sedimentation
Incidentally, we saved a sample of our gross water and although the particulates remained in solution for a whole day by the following day they had settled to the bottom forming a reddish brown sludge. It was not very appetizing.
It’s that time of year again. The time for New Year’s resolutions, and for a lot of you that means going on some sort of diet. Many of us yearly vow to lose weight, however, most of us somehow end up doing the opposite of what we intend to and by the following year have somehow managed to gain weight rather than lose it. And then the cycle starts all over again…thus after many years of yoyo dieting we end up fatter than ever and frustrated at our apparent inability to do anything about it. What am I doing wrong you ask? While there are many possible answers to that question here are some basic tips that as a food scientist, and an observer of many a bad diet, I have come up with.
Tip 1: Beware of the “magic bullet”. We hear about them all the time on the radio, TV, or internet. Yes, you know what I’m talking about, a magical pill or drink you take which makes pounds just melt away with absolutely no effort. Just keep eating at McDonald’s for every meal and continue sitting around playing World of Warcraft for twelve hours every night and take this happy little pill and all your fat will disappear- sound too good to be true? Well, it probably is.
Tip 2: Beware of any diet product that tells you, “No eating or lifestyle changes necessary.” This goes hand in hand with tip 1, once again they are telling you to go ahead, eat a whole pie every night and sit glued to the TV for hours at a time; you will still be able to miraculously lose weight. While this may appeal to many of you, the unfortunate truth is that in order to lose weight and KEEP IT OFF you DO need to change your eating habits and you DO need to change your lifestyle. I know, the truth can hurt, but that’s just the way it is. Even if there is some amazing pill out there that can make you drop the pounds with absolutely no effort on your part (which I highly doubt), are you going to keep taking that pill for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? If not, then eventually your poor eating habits and life style are going to catch up with you and you will gain the weight back, and then some. And you will be worse off than where you started from and more frustrated than ever.
Tip 3: Beware of the fad diet. These are always coming and going-the so called newest and best way to lose weight. Remember the fat free craze back in the 90’s? Or more recently, the carb free craze? These popular diets come and go. Don’t substitute sound nutrition for some new diet fad that in a year or two will be all but forgotten.
Tip 4: Beware of any diet that focuses on consuming hard to find foods or food items that have to be purchased specially. The key to any successful diet is that the eating and exercise habits you establish while on the diet have to be transferable to your life permanently; otherwise you will eventually gain the weight back. A good diet should focus on “normal” healthy food that is found and purchased easily.
Tip 5: This goes along with tip 4. Beware of any diet that centers on consuming one food over and over again in replacement for a meal or normal food. For instance, if your diet consists of drinking the same diet shake every morning for breakfast, what is eventually going to happen? You are going to get sick of having that same shake over and over and you will need/want to go back to eating normal food. If you haven’t changed your eating habits in general than going back to normal food is going to mean gaining weight for you.
Tip 6: Quick fixes don’t last. We’ve all heard the diet product commercials that claim you can lose 10 pounds in one week. Sure, we would all like to lose weight quickly and effortlessly. But the truth is that our bodies resist weight changes. If you lose weight too fast your body will protest and the end result will be gaining back even more weight than you started with. In order to make weight loss permanent and healthy you really should only lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. This does mean you will have to be patient and not expect dramatic immediate results but it also means that you won’t be right back where you started next year.
Tip 7: Don’t get overwhelmed thinking you can never enjoy the foods you love again because you are on a diet-that just isn’t the case. Cutting the foods you love out altogether is really not necessary or desirable. If your favorite treat is donuts, enjoy a donut once in a while; just don’t have them for breakfast every morning. A wise professor once told me, “There is no such thing as a junk food, only a junk diet.” Any food can be part of a healthy diet if we eat it in moderation.
Tip 8: Every attempt to lose weight should include exercise! We lose weight by expending more calories than we consume. Exercise is a great way to increase how many calories we burn. It has the added benefit of increasing our lean body mass, which in turn also boosts our caloric consumption. But exercise does much more for us than just that. Those good ol’ endorphins make us feel good, not to mention the sense of accomplishment that generally accompanies exercise. And our heart will thank us.
But why does exercise have such a bad rep? Many of us avoid exercise like it was the plaque. The key is to make your form of exercise something that you really enjoy doing. Exercise does not have to be a chore. Jason and I love to go mountain biking, hiking, play soccer and racquetball, and snowboard. Though these are great forms of exercise, they are also a lot of fun for us. So if going to the gym really isn’t you thing-don’t go to the gym. Find something you love and stick with it.
Jason on a sunny winter run.
Finding an exercise partner can also greatly increase your exercise success. Not only will they make exercise more enjoyable but they will keep you from making excuses not to exercise. Jason is my partner in crime and I am very grateful he is such an active person.
Excercise makes me happy!
Tip 9: Don’t let the media convince you that you need to look like a super model. Not only is that a pretty impossible goal for most of us, usually it’s really not a healthy goal either. Your goal weight should be healthy and realistic.
Tip 10: Try replacing fattier dairy products for lower fat options. Try using skim or 1% milk instead of 2% and eating low fat or fat-free yogurt. This is a relatively easy change to make. You will get used to the taste of the lower fat options and soon will prefer them over the higher fat alternatives.
In the end, the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to change your eating habits and lifestyle altogether. You need to change the way you think about food. Change how and what you eat, and become a lot more active. And you need to change all this in a sustainable, permanent way. A “diet” that we stick to only until we reach our goal weight will never be successful because going back to our old eating habits means going back to our old weight. Also, it is important to think about what you are including in your diet not just what you are excluding. Fruits and vegetables should be consumed a plenty. Whole grains should be substituted for refined flours. Have health be your goal not just weight loss.
Yummy!
It may take longer to lose weight this way and it will take effort. But it could mean the difference between “Lose Weight” being on your new year’s resolution list next year again- or not.
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