's motd Saturday January 8, 2011

[Guest guest]

CAKE BATTER

Saturday, 08 January 2011

Oh, how I love cakes! (Anybody

surprised? LOL.) My father used to bake the birthday

cakes for me and my brother, Lenny when we were

growing up back in New Orleans. We loved watching him

make those wonderful cakes of his.

First, our dad would take out his

cookbook then gather all of the utensils he'd need and

place them on the kitchen table. Next, he'd get out

his mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons and lay

them out as if he were about to do his own cooking

show. (Lenny and I would be his audience. LOL.)

My father would open his cookbook and recite the

recipe to us as he prepared to do his baking magic. "Crack

three eggs, place them in a bowl and whisk." He'd

then crack the eggs and we watched as he whisked them

until they were pretty and fluffy. "Sift one cup

of flour." And with that instruction, my

father would pour the flower into the sifter and sift

away. Lenny and I would watch as the flour drifted

out of the sifter like freshly-fallen snow.

After his batter was mixed, my father would pour it

into a baking dish and pop it into the oven. Lenny

and I would keep an eye on the cake watching it rise

right before our very eyes. Let me tell you, my

father's cakes always turned out perfectly. And the

reason they did is because he followed the recipe

and measured his ingredients to a "T." But no, I'm not

here to tell you how to bake one of my father's

cakes. (Sorry. LOL.) I've got another "recipe" for

you.

That's right, I'm here to share

with you the right mix of ingredients for your body to

help keep it in great shape. Yep, I'm talking about

the right mix of exercises your body needs

everyday! It's a simple recipe for success and

there're only three ingredients. We're going over each

of them today.

The first ingredient is stretching. You

need to stretch your body from head to toe each and

everyday. As a matter of fact...twice a day.

After you get up in the morning, you should stretch

your entire body. You should really tretch your

shoulders, back, chest, arms and legs. And when you

come home after a long day at work, you should get in

your second stretch before turning in for bed. You'll

sleep so much better!

The second exercise ingredient for your body is cardio.

When you do a cardio workout, you're burning lots of

fat and calories. Cardio is a workout for your

heart. You're really moving, dancing

front-to-back and side-to-side. You're reaching over

your head with your hands while doing your leg lifts.

You start feeling the energy and within a few minutes,

you've begun to perspire. Your body's on fire now...good!

You need to do cardio four-days-a-week and

build up to 45-minutes to an hour-long session each

time.

The third exercise ingredient you need is toning.

Now you do burn calories when you tone. But

the main thing it does is build your muscles, making

them firm and strong. For your toning, you can use my

Boogie

Cords or Toning

Rings. You can also tone using

free-weights. You should tone three-days-a-week. By

the way, toning is also called resistance

training and it helps build a stronger back,

chest, biceps, triceps, shoulders and back. You may

not be able to do a whole lot of toning if you're just

starting out. But the more you tone, the stronger

your muscles will get and the more you'll be able to

do.

Now listen up. You can't build a

stronger body using just one or two of these

ingredients. You have to use all three in

order to make sure your body doesn't end up looking

like, well...cake batter!

And one more thing. I never ask you to do anything

that I don't do. I stretch every morning

and evening. I do my cardio four days a

week. And I tone three days a week. I don't

skip any of my workouts because they all

work so well together...for me!

So do yourself a favor. You'd

batter follow my recipe and start your right

mix of exercises...today!

Love,