La faune et la flore de Shenandoah Hazel Moutain.

Sex and the City 2 review.

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Sex and The City

I just came back from watching Sex and the City 2.  It was as good as I expected it to be… or maybe better.  I am not going to give away too much just in case you haven’t watched it yet, but I tell you that Mrs. and Mr. Big are having a big dose of reality, now that they are Mr. and Mrs. Preston, living the American (or New York dream) in their amazing apartment, with a huge walk-in closet.  Kind of boring actually… for Carrie especially.

The movie is very funny and entertaining, and the fashion is beyond amazing.

However, the story is allegedly taking place in Abu Dhabi, but the movie was shot in Morocco.  For people who visited those two countries know that Morocco and Abu Dhabi don’t look exactly the same even though they have sand dunes in common.  It was difficult for me, who visited both countries, to ignore the fake scenes, especially when it comes to showing the shoes sold in the Souk.  The only one pictures related to Abu Dhabi in the movie was the high-rise buildings, and then everything looked like Morocco.  You might find fake Birkin bags in Abu Dhabi but not the Moroccan Aladdin shoes.

I have to say that Samatha was the shining star in the movie, with her over the edge personality.

Charlotte and Miranda slipped into the classic housewives role, with déjà vu stories.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go grab a girlfriend and go see it.

What is charming about this movie is it makes us proud being women.  Especially if you live in the United States.

Seeing the movie today, was for me a great way to start my long Memorial week-end, and I will be, from now on, appreciating more the snuggling on the couch and watching TV with my husband (if you watched the movie you will know what I am talking about), have a nice week-end everyone

Will Body Pump bulk you up?

Every day people look up this question on the web and land on my blog: “Will Body Pump bulk me up?”  So I decided to write a post about Body Pump, and share my experience.

The first answer to the question would be; body pump will bulk you up, but only if you are already fat or have extra pounds.  However if you are not fat, Body Pump will make you look healthy and fit.

I have noticed at my gym that none of the Body Pump women instructors are bulked up.  They are leaner than Yoga and Pilates teachers, and they have unbelievable waistlines.  Seeing the live result on my teacher’s body encouraged me to adopt Body Pump over all other exercises.

When I started doing the Body Pump exercises twice a week I used to ask myself the same question:   “Am I going to look fatter?  Or is it going to make my arms and legs look thinner?”  In fact Body Pump changed my entire body shape, or to be more exact it made me look like I used to look in my 20’s: svelte and firm.

Let me first tell you about my experience: I am 43 years old and I started exercising 2 years ago.  I am not fat, neither overweight but I would look definitely better if I would lose 10 pounds.

When I started exercising it was for the only purpose of losing weight.  We all know that the only way to lose weight is to burn calories and to do so you have to do cardio exercises, which mean elevating your heart rate, and the most efficient cardio in my opinion is running.  (I am saying that to emphasize on the fact that Body Pump alone will not make you lose weight.)

I started running to lose weight.  I liked it so much that I decided to improve my speed by building better leg muscles to prevent injuries, and to build muscles I decided to do Yoga, Pilates and Body Pump.

After 3 months of doing Pilates, Yoga and Body Pump, I have noticed that even though Pilates and Yoga are very efficient and relaxing, Body Pump gave me immediate results: my arm got stronger so did my legs.  I have noticed that it was easier to carry grocery bags, and I haven’t had a back pain or a neck pain for two years now.  The best was when I started being able to increase the speed when I am running, without cramping or limping.

To go back to our question: “Will Body Pump bulk me up?” the answer is: yes and no.

Let me explain to you how fat and muscle work:  From reading a few books about fitness I learned that fat tissues and muscle tissues are two different tissues.  The bad news is that fat will never turn into muscle, and the good news is muscle will not turn into fat if you stop lifting weight.

So when you build muscle, the fat tissues will remain where they are under (or over) the muscle tissues, and this is what makes you look bulked up.  Because you will have two layers instead of one: the muscle layer and the fat layer.  When you lift weight you increase your muscle size and add them to the fat tissues.

Haven’t you ever noticed the fat football players during the games?  They are fit and overweight at the same time.

You can be overweight but have muscle.

So when you already have fat in your body and you do Body Pump, you are going to look bulked up, but not because of the muscles you are building but because of the layers of fat underneath or over the muscles.

However, if you do Body Pump you are half way to losing the fat in your body, but how?  When you build muscles your energy level increases and you will burn more calories with every movement you make, which help burning the fat tissues faster than when you don’t have muscles.  So on the long run, by increasing the muscle tissues you will be investing in a strong body that will burn your fat even when you are resting.

It is like having a small car versus a sports car, which one burns more fuel?

If you lift weights, you become a sports car and with time (especially if you don’t keep eating fat) your muscles will wipe out your fat.

Building muscle has benefit beyond looking good; strong muscles will delay osteoporosis for example.  Muscles are a priceless investment.  Some old people, who lost their muscles, cannot move out of their bed without help, because they cannot hold themselves on their hands or on their feet.

And finally if you don’t want to think too much ahead about getting old, just think of having the first lady’s arms it is not too bad, right?

Feeling on top of the world

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Hiking Shenandoah

Last Saturday Jim and I hiked on the highest point of the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah, with an elevation of 3837.  We felt on top of the world!

Then we visited the Corbin Cabin.

I also took pictures of wildflowers.

Shenandoah national park is a haven for native woodland wildflowers.  Those flowers are 100% wild and are the pure product of nature.  With the help of bees, butterflies, birds and other animals the flowers spread their seeds and pollinate.

Jim and I watched very carefully our steps in order not to harm any wild life on the trail.  The destruction of the tiniest plant can affect the entire forest and the animals.  In Nature all things are connected, like in society.

Smells like Chanel N5

Good morning my bloggers friends,

My beautiful friend Jade hosted me on her perfume-smell-like blog for a short fun interview,

if you want to check it out.

Have a great week-end!

Mirella

http://jadepaloma.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/interview-no4-mirella/

Thornton River in Shenandoah

 Jim and I went hiking on Saturday.  We took a new trail called after Francis Thornton who bought land in 1740 and built a mansion.  I didn’t take a picture of the mansion but we took other pictures to share with you, once again.  The hiking was amazing, it was 10.6 miles (around 17 kilometers).  We came back refreshed, we filled our lungs with first hand O2, and our clothes with ticks; you know those little parasites that suck your blood?

Making sense out of the chaos generated by Arizona law

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Arizona Law, cinco de mayo

When I first read about the protest against the Arizona law I remembered the days preceding my immigration to the U.S.

In 2003 when I started filling the papers at the U.S .Embassy to get my Fiancée visa I had to go through a long process; first I had to declare where I spent the last 10 years of my life, provide witnesses and police records from the places where I spent more than 6 months, then I had to go through a thorough medical exam and get the missing vaccination to prove myself healthy enough to come to live in the U.S.  I also had to pay an amount of money that wasn’t a big deal for the lawyer I was, but could have been a life time savings for another person less fortunate than me.

Last week when I read about people protesting to support the presence of undocumented migrants, I was surprised, and I said to myself: “cool, I didn’t have to go through all the hassle to get to the U.S. then!  In case of deportation a person unlawfully present on the U.S. soil could use million of protestors to rally behind them…”

Then I read about the profiling, then the racism, then the story exploded to become a problem between race and ethnicities, Nazis and banning Cinco de Mayo…

Things start going out of control and my confusion got bigger and bigger…this is when I decided to write this post so I can clear things in my head and give some perspective for an American citizen who might be as confused as I am.  Please keep in mind that this post is not written by a democrat or a republican but by a foreign lawyer with a previous experience defending migrant workers in the world.

The real tragedy in this chaos is the inhuman situation of the undocumented Mexican migrant workers.  It is about being poor, unskilled, unprotected and vulnerable to the worse work condition and abuses.

The most vulnerable category of workers in the world is the unskilled workers, and if you add to that the fact that they are undocumented it make their condition even worse.  When you are undocumented, you cannot ask for minimum wage, your kids cannot go to public schools and you certainly don’t have social security or any kind of health coverage. You could be paid $1.50 an hour and have no right to complain, you can loose a finger or even your arms by doing a dangerous task, no one will care for you because you are invisible to the eyes of the authorities.  It is even worse in other countries:  In the Middle East for example, the growing problem of Asian migrant domestic workers seems to be getting worse with the economic crisis hitting the Arab Golf countries.  For years Asian domestic workers and unskilled construction workers have been tortured, killed, raped and very few institution seemed to care, not even their own countries who are just focused on the national income and the money they bring to their families every year.

The problem of illegal migration and abuse of migrant workers is not only a U.S. problem, not at all; it is a wide growing problem in our world.  The UN has created several conventions to protect migrant workers and their families, and is trying hard to make countries ratify the conventions and implement them.

To go back to our national problem. You cannot protect Mexican migrant workers by supporting their illegal situation.  Migrant workers should have papers, this is the only way to keep them safe from abuse.  We should help making their situation legal and provide resources for those million of people who helped build this country. Very few people seem to raise this question, too busy solving personal issues with racial and ethnic hate feelings?

Hiking Hazel Falls and Cave in Shenandoah.

This week-end, Jim and I went back again to the magical forests of Shenandoah.

The spirit of the woods took care of healing me from my last sickness:)

Finally, my energy is back and so is my vision.

It was a beautiful day.  Spring has left a carpet of flowers all along the trail path.

I took some pictures, but I am sorry for the poor quality, I wished I had Holly’s art or Debra’s skills to capture better the beauty of those fragile plants which may last one or two more days before the heat of the summer dry them up for good.