Healthy Living around the World Showcase ~ June 2016 WISH Challenge!

Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 29th:

It is here! Our final Woohoo Wednesday of the month! Please share something that made you happy today - or sometime during the last week!
 
I always thought you were paddling in the ocean, not a river! I am really considering trying SUP when I am in Florida later this year... Sounds like a great sport!

It is very close to the ocean where we do it just down from the mouth of the river and there are sandy beaches which you would have seen in the photos I have posted. Whilst I enjoy the ocean for looking at and playing at the edges I do not like to venture very far into the surf :scared1:. So I like to paddle on the calmer waters of the river.

Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 29th:

It is here! Our final Woohoo Wednesday of the month! Please share something that made you happy today - or sometime during the last week!

Day 2 of my work conference was really good - we did a Coaching workshop - we learned coaching skills and how to help others find the answers with some clever prompts, questions, meaningful silences and active listening. We learnt a lot about ourselves and came away with some plans for our own goals as well as how to help others identify and work on theirs.

I took the stairs up three floors this morning instead of taking the lift - a good choice but also boy was it hard! I has huffing and puffing and had slowed way down by the end of it :oops:

No work for a week and a half now - woohoo :cool1:

@Flossbolna - thanks for your perspective and explanation of the EU - it does help me to understand a little more from somewhere so far away from it all.
 
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The scary thing to me is now that one country has said that they don't want to take part in this anymore. As faulty as the EU is (and there are huge issues), I always thought it was European consensus that it was still better than going back to the centuries of wars and wars. And on top of that it is the country that has the longest democratic tradition within Europe, that has been holding up the values of freedom even in dark times in Europe. A country which could be a leader in the whole European process. This really worries me.


UK is made of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland an Northern Ireland voted remain. All big cities that have high density of educated people voted remain. Young people voted overwhelmingly remain. 48 % over 16 000 000 voted remain and are devastated by the result.

I will need to stop watching the news now as it's heartbreaking.

But I believe EU will be stronger in the end of this, with or without UK. May be more focus will be put on small places where the globalisation had negative effect and feel left behind
 
I found out that the steam room in my new gym is affecting my rhinitis and have been blocked sinuses since! I wish I made the connection earlier. Raining and my husband is abroad (London!) and I can't go to the gym today so after paying for 2 gyms I will need to get my barbell and dumbbells and step and workout home but I guess it is lucky I have created flexibility for myself

I am feeling really grumpy and down - the news are huge part of that, headache from blocked sinuses, rain. I feel bloated and chubby - and the scale is actually down. Comes to show you how the scale isn't really the main goal - it's feeling energetic and happy & healthy

I am struggling finding wooohooo. I mentioned I have been snacking a lot more and I thought the scale may be little up but it's actually down - does this count as woohoo.

Have a healthy day all
 


I'm pretty bummed this morning. I've been looking forward to running today and tomorrow because our temps are unseasonably low - only 55 degrees at 7:00 this morning... BUT during my run yesterday I did something to my back. It's in a weird spot. I really wanted to give it a shot, but decided to rest today and I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

Can't think of any good woohoo's at the moment. We did get our coaching gear for the season from Under Armour on Monday. Love the stuff this year and free is always good. I went from 3XL gear last year to XL this season. Dropping two sizes is my woohoo.

We leave for our weekend getaway tomorrow. First stop is Cedar Point - a little nervous since I'm not a huge roller coaster fan, but I can stay behind with my daughter and just let my wife ride them with my son. :)
 
Warning: This post is totally off topic, but some of you have asked about why the Brexit is so important, so this is why I am posting this. I will try to keep it non political to keep with the DIS rules. However, of course there is some opinion in putting out what I believe to be relevant facts and I hope that is still fine. Keep in mind that this is my personal interpretation and I have many friends who think the same way, but of course I am not speaking for the German people as a whole, as in every country there are various opinions. But I think my opinion is not a fringe one and is shared by many.

I would not be your stereotypical German if I would not start with history. I am recently reading a very interesting book by a Dutch author about the USA. And one thing that he points out is that the USA is a country that has no history of war within its territory. And I think to a large extent that is true. European history in contrast is filled with wars. Real wars that took place all around the Europeans. Armies marching here and there. Some countries were more hit then others. Poland for example was ever changing borders and distributed again and again between the Russians, the Prussians and the Austrians. Not every country was always involved, but there was plenty of fighting happening. Remember, the whole area of the European Union is smaller than the United States and is filled with different countries with different traditions, languages and religions (well, mainly Catholic and Protestant, but those managed to do quite some fighting between themselves during history). This all culminated finally in World War I, which essentially started out as a European War and ended with 17 million people dying. However, the outcome of WWI was not one to bring peace to Europe. There were ideas on how to restore peace, but for a number of reasons things did not work out and we all now what came next: World War II. (Not going into the reasons for why that happened as that would be too much for this post.)

So, after yet another war that devastated most of Europe things had to change. This time about 80 million people died, of which about 20 million were from the former Soviet Union (the numbers about estimates vary highly about this, but all are in this ballpark. This does include civilian people). Whole cities were destroyed to nothing.

This is the background behind the European Union. Among the EU member states there has not been any war in Europe since 1945, that is 71 years of peace. Yes, European countries have taken part in arm conflicts for all kind of causes. But they have not taken up arms against each other. And that is more or less unprecedented in European history.

What happened? There were a million ideas of how to deal with the question of how to prevent another European war. Obviously the big problem was Germany which had started both WWI and WWII. One idea was to more or less split Germany up into smaller independent countries and kind of de-industrialize it and make it countries where people were only farmers and such. But with the advent of the Cold War, it was considered advantageous to have a stronger Germany (then only West-Germany as the Eastern part of Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union and hence under their control). The solution was however, to put Germany into a strict corset of international control. Between 1949 when the Federal Republic of Germany (what you would know as West Germany) was founded and 1990 Germany was actually not a really independent state with full sovereign rights. Until 1990 the occupying forces (USA, Great Britain, France and Soviet Union) still were around.

One big problem was considered to be Germany's heavy industry as steel means the ability to build weapons. Germany's heavy industry was mainly located in the Ruhr area and use before the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, the Western occupying forces moved the oversight over that area to an international body. Then in 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community was founded by France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy, which then too over the oversight of the Ruhr area. With this Germany was finally part of the body that was in charge of its main industrial area. But not on its own, instead working together with 5 other countries. Then in 1957 they added the European Economic Community to further work together on economic issues and the European Atomic Energy Community. These three communities together were also called the European Communities, sometimes just European Community in short.

So, the idea was working together for a common good: i.e. helping all member states to develop economically and tackle all the issues of rebuilding after the war as well as helping each other to increase the standard of living in all member state. Of course the whole construct has developed since then, through the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the political landscape changed. Lots of countries became new members, instead of 6, there are now 28. There was a new treaty and now it is called European Union. But what stayed was the purpose: to work together to ensure better living for all and peace in Europe.

This is where of course people debate about whether the EU has reached the goal of ensuring better living standards for all. But it definitely has succeeded in preventing the member states to go to war at each other.

One of the foundations of the EU is the internal market, meaning that within the EU economically it is treated as if it were one country. This bring the so called "four freedoms", the free movement of goods, capital, services, and people. This is why I could find a job in Italy now if I wanted, why a French company can work in Spain without any problems and the British can drive over the France and by a truck full of French wine for the guests at their wedding. Besides that the EU also has instituted a large number of other rights and freedoms.

However, the ability to work together and live together has in my opinion changed Europe for its better so much. Young people grow up traveling to other countries, working or studying in other countries.

The scary thing to me is now that one country has said that they don't want to take part in this anymore. As faulty as the EU is (and there are huge issues), I always thought it was European consensus that it was still better than going back to the centuries of wars and wars. And on top of that it is the country that has the longest democratic tradition within Europe, that has been holding up the values of freedom even in dark times in Europe. A country which could be a leader in the whole European process. This really worries me.

Thank you for explaining this. I have a much better understanding of what is happening. I had no clue of the history of it.
 
Wanted to jump on early this morning with my woo-hoo. Yesterday I posted about my 8.8lb weight gain from vacation :(. I stayed on plan all day yesterday including getting to 140 active minutes, so getting right back on track was going to be my woo-hoo. But then I got on the scale this morning and found that I lost a whopping 5.4lbs in the course of a single day! So I think there was some water retention after all,and a 3.4lb gain from a 12 day vacation is much more acceptable than an 8.8lb gain to me! Woo-Hoo!
 


I'm pretty bummed this morning. I've been looking forward to running today and tomorrow because our temps are unseasonably low - only 55 degrees at 7:00 this morning... BUT during my run yesterday I did something to my back. It's in a weird spot. I really wanted to give it a shot, but decided to rest today and I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

Can't think of any good woohoo's at the moment. We did get our coaching gear for the season from Under Armour on Monday. Love the stuff this year and free is always good. I went from 3XL gear last year to XL this season. Dropping two sizes is my woohoo.

We leave for our weekend getaway tomorrow. First stop is Cedar Point - a little nervous since I'm not a huge roller coaster fan, but I can stay behind with my daughter and just let my wife ride them with my son. :)

Cedar Point has a lot of big roller coasters but they also have plenty of smaller rides. I do not like roller coasters either. The mine ride is like Big Thunder Mountain at Disney however my husband had a hard time fitting in the seats. He is roughly 200 pounds. The Iron Dragon is also a nice smaller roller coaster. If you like spinny rides they have a ton. I loved them when I was younger but can't tolerate them now. I think you will find plenty for you and your daughter to do.
 
My woohoo for this week is that I have lost a total of 10 pounds since January but most (if not all) of it being since April when I joined this group. Things are crazy still at home but I am watching what i eat a little more. Last night I really wanted Dairy Queen. I put my PJ's on knowing I would not go then. I did ask my husband to go knowing he was not going to go. He did tell me no so no ice cream last night.
 
Cedar Point has a lot of big roller coasters but they also have plenty of smaller rides. I do not like roller coasters either. The mine ride is like Big Thunder Mountain at Disney however my husband had a hard time fitting in the seats. He is roughly 200 pounds. The Iron Dragon is also a nice smaller roller coaster. If you like spinny rides they have a ton. I loved them when I was younger but can't tolerate them now. I think you will find plenty for you and your daughter to do.

I like normal roller coasters - I just don't like the monster coasters that have a million foot drop straight down. Drops are not my friend!

And don't get my started on spinning rides!
 
Isn't it funny how some people literally "age out" of spinny rides. I still love them, but my husband can't ride them at all anymore. I bought a new coffee mug at the parks and he says when he first looked at it, his stomach rolled!
View attachment 178176

Me too. I opted out of the Tea Cups this trip. The kids and my husband make it go too fast. I so want to love it but just can't.
 
Because the actual fighting only affected a very small part of the territory and compared to the number of wars taking place in Europe in the same time frame, these are just two very short conflicts. He did not say that those wars did not have a profound influence on the country itself, but the collective experience of fear for having your own home being attacked by a foreign nation was not part of those wars.

He made a very good argument, but as I said, I do not wholly agree with his assessment. Iff you want to know more, I can really recommend his book: https://www.amazon.com/America-Trav...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1467176266&sr=8-3
That's a very interesting perspective, and I can't say I disagree. Thanks for sharing.
 
Oh no, another Woohoo Wednesday and again I've neglected to accomplish something Woohoo-able. Let's see... We had an all day management offsite yesterday and part of the focus was to repair the damage done by the recent restructure, so that was cool. I've been using my pilates foam roll every night to lay on and also to do some ab/leg work. I think it has helped my right shoulder to open up... There's still soreness but it has moved or really I think the top of the sholder has released and only further down the arm is still out of wack.

I have Friday off for an extra log weekend. Need to stop in the doctors office for blood work and take one of the cats to the vet, but also trying to think of special festive things to do. Will probably go to a baseball game and possibly take a boat ride somewhere.
 
Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 29th:

It is here! Our final Woohoo Wednesday of the month! Please share something that made you happy today - or sometime during the last week!

The boss left for a vacation that'll last until Mid-August. I am more productive and relaxed without having the thought of a weekly "check-in" meeting hanging over my head. Today I can breathe. YES.

Also - i've been listing Disney pins on eBay for sale and I think I've done pretty good so far - made about $140 with fees and shipping subtracted. If anyone is in the market for Disney pins let me know.


I'm pretty bummed this morning. I've been looking forward to running today and tomorrow because our temps are unseasonably low - only 55 degrees at 7:00 this morning... BUT during my run yesterday I did something to my back. It's in a weird spot. I really wanted to give it a shot, but decided to rest today and I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

That's... a boohoo. I'm so sorry - maybe try once of those Icy-Hot things on the spot? Sports massage? Injuries aren't good in any form :(


3.4lb gain from a 12 day vacation is much more acceptable than an 8.8lb gain to me! Woo-Hoo!

That's an awesome result to the worry - congrats on a small gain. You'll have that gone in no time at all :D


My woohoo for this week is that I have lost a total of 10 pounds since January but most (if not all) of it being since April when I joined this group.

YAY! I'm so happy to hear that we're all helping you on your way to your goals. :lovestruc

Isn't it funny how some people literally "age out" of spinny rides. I still love them, but my husband can't ride them at all anymore. I bought a new coffee mug at the parks and he says when he first looked at it, his stomach rolled!
View attachment 178176

The Yellow and purple version of that mug has been on my radar for awhile at Disneyland. I love how the saucer is attached to the bottom. Have you tried to drink from it - is it heavy/awkward? It may end up as a new pen holder on my desk - as most of my Disney mugs do.

My woohoo is that Coastal Carolina won last nights college World Series game so it's going to a tiebreaker tonight. I just love the CWS.

I have no idea what this is, but YAY.. Woo... go team.

Oh no, another Woohoo Wednesday and again I've neglected to accomplish something Woohoo-able. Let's see... We had an all day management offsite yesterday and part of the focus was to repair the damage done by the recent restructure, so that was cool. I've been using my pilates foam roll every night to lay on and also to do some ab/leg work. I think it has helped my right shoulder to open up... There's still soreness but it has moved or really I think the top of the sholder has released and only further down the arm is still out of wack.

I have Friday off for an extra log weekend. Need to stop in the doctors office for blood work and take one of the cats to the vet, but also trying to think of special festive things to do. Will probably go to a baseball game and possibly take a boat ride somewhere.

I think celebrating a four-day weekend is a pretty big WOOHOO. :)
 
The Yellow and purple version of that mug has been on my radar for awhile at Disneyland. I love how the saucer is attached to the bottom. Have you tried to drink from it - is it heavy/awkward? It may end up as a new pen holder on my desk - as most of my Disney mugs do.

This mug just spoke to me for some reason! It's a "good" mug to drink out of; not heavy or awkward. I've got several novelty mugs from Disney and some of them are a bit odd to drink from, so I know what you mean. The worst offender is my Epcot ball mug (the one with the legs/feet). Something about the curve of the mug makes it very drippy for me. So, the teacup mug gets a thumbs up from me for actual use as a mug!
 
Good afternoon friends! I'm working 5-8 pm on Chat, so I wanted to take a minute to say hello before that. The evening shifts are generally much busier than my early a.m. chats, so probably no time to pop on between calls.

Hmmm.....woohoo for this week would be...... I get to see DD this weekend on the Cape for the July 4th holiday! That is a great woohoo for me!

Okay.... gotta dash and prep tonight's "make your own salad" dinner before my shift starts!...................P
 
Isn't it funny how some people literally "age out" of spinny rides. I still love them, but my husband can't ride them at all anymore. I bought a new coffee mug at the parks and he says when he first looked at it, his stomach rolled!
View attachment 178176

Oh!! I love this mug! I am supposed to not buy anymore Disney mugs (have too many, need to let my supply dwindle by way of accidents, but I am pretty good at not destroying my dishes...), but I think this one will sneak into my shopping bag...
 

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