It's Low Cal Spaghetti!

It's Low Cal Spaghetti!

This meal is the easiest, tastiest, lowest calorie, most filling meal I eat when I'm on "the cut". It's the closest thing to pasta without all the carbs and calories, and it tastes great! If you're like me, you get home ravenous and not in the mood to cook.

This ONLY takes 10 mins. - You can EAT 3-5 cups!

1. Take a Spaghetti Squash and cut it in half, scrape out the seeds. (it looks like a long skinny yellow pumpkin).

2. Place it flesh down in a deep pasta dish with a half inch of water.

3. Nuke it for about 8 mins. or until you can slide a knife through the skin.

4. (Use Oven mitts - it's hot) Scrape out the insides with a fork (it will look like a pile of spaghetti).

5. Heat a jar of Rao's Marinara sauce and pour over the top.

(Optional: Add parmesan cheese)

One cup of just the squash is only 42 calories, has 10 carbs and 3 grams of protein.
A half cup of Rao's Marinara Sauce is only 80 calories.
So, have 3 cups of squash and a half cup of sauce and you net out at a whopping 206 calories!!!

You're welcome!

Here's a whole website devoted to this beautiful veggie http://spaghettisquash.net/index.htm

10 Must Do Things to Lose Weight After 50!

10 Must Do Things to Lose Weight After 50!

1. Weigh and measure every week! (Buy a Withings wi fi scale)


2. Journal all food and drink - count calories in vs. cals. burned (It takes a 500 calorie deficit every day to lose a pound a week) DO THE EFF'n MATH! Use myfitnesspal.com

3. Wear a heart monitor (tells you exactly what you burn during a workout - or activity) then punch that data into myfitnesspal.com (I use a Polar FT7)

4. Get your ass off the couch - Get active 6 days a week. Move more. House cleaning counts. (I bought a new road bike - I burn anywhere from 800-2000 calories a ride!)

5. Abs are made in the kitchen! Eat clean. Don't buy anything you know you should not eat for the first 12 weeks. Check out this website www.eatcleandiet.com

6. Use a tracking App like My Fitness Pal - Set a goal and be patient. I chose to lose 1 1/2 pounds a week. I gave myself 20 weeks. I hit my goal right on target. I lost 30lbs of fat and gained 5 lbs of muscle. Size 12 to a 4.

7. Use social media to stay motivated - (Instagram, Tumblr, Blogs, Fitness forums like www.bodybuilding.com ) they are loaded with great advice, tips, healthy tasty recipes, and people who will post pics to keep you motivated and focused. Follow me on Instagram chigby77

8. Take pictures every week! make it your screen saver our desktop on you iPad.

9. Cut out the alcohol as mush as possible. Replace your habit by drinking the new flavored teas, like Red Velvet Chocolate and Dandelion Root!

10. Buy a bike. Cycling saved me from having to workout in a gym every day. Instead I hop on my bike and tool around town (and by wearing a heart monitor I can see how many cals. I burn.)

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Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

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Being right is over-rated. Yup, I said it!

I admit; I’m a control freak…but I’m getting better. When it comes to many things, if I’m “in the game” like deciding where to park the car—I can see twenty steps ahead and before you’ve realized there’s a decision to be made, I will have crunched the number of available parking spots and calculated the most efficient route, or so I think, and I will nag you to stick it where I say. I was born with the burdensome, yet magical gift to quickly visualize the most effective way to do things. This has made me useful to some—and a pain in the ass to others.

i.e. I drive slow people crazy.

I thrive on efficiency. “Anything worth doing is worth doing quickly.” It’s a philosophy, but not a good one.

Of course, its undesirably affected relationships, how could it not? Debating about your significant other’s cooking style or how they stack the dishwasher is never pleasant and most often over-baring. Wanting things done my way is a flawed concept, even if it is the most efficient use of water, time, space, etc… it only serves to frustrate me and piss you off.

So, why do I still do it? Good question…commenting adversely on the way your coworker organizes the presentation or your spouse cleans the garage is stupid on so many levels, I get it, at least they are organizing and cleaning and not me. I thought I was being helpful, come to find out—not so much. It turns out most people find my controlling character trait to be annoying. Who knew?

So, now I must learn to Let Go of my inner Control Freak. Oh, you too? Well, perhaps these tips will help…No promises though.

Acknowledge it. Own it.

First, we must lovingly acknowledge our inner Control Freak. Admitting we have a problem is half the battle. Where have you heard that before? But here’s the new twist; then we must accept that we are NOT powerless against it, meaning “OWN IT”! That’s right, we must first own something before we can change it. I know this goes against the AA manifesto. Actions speak louder than drunken words, or put your money where the drink goes, or something to that effect is all I can say to them. Back to my point, we have to own our shit! The same goes for your neighbor’s dilapidated shed. As much as I’d like to fix it, I don’t own it, so I can’t.

Acknowledgment is the AH-HA moment rapt with great relief.

Owning it—is the power! And who doesn’t want more power over themselves?

Once you admit and own that you have issues and that they negatively affect your relationships—you feel relief in knowing and the power to change it. By the way, once you own it—you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. You have to now and forever take responsibility for this inner demon, otherwise look the fool. Sounds like a downer, so let’s move on.

3 Steps to Free the Beast.

Easier said than done. Acknowledgment and owning it are two things— truly changing an ingrained behavior is a whole other wrestling match. So here’s what I suggest:

1. Practice letting someone else do it his or her way.
For example: Jump in the passenger’s side with the worst driver you know and choose a difficult place to get to, then sit back and enjoy the freedom of not having to nag them. Even, if it takes all day, even if you miss the flight. Bring a book, like this one, pack some sandwiches and bottled water and settle in for an adventure, script unwritten.

2. Don’t be judgmental.
No comments from the peanut gallery! Speak only in positives, like “Hey, look at that homeless man. Aren’t you glad you’re not him!” or “Wow, who knew Texas had so many trailer parks!” However they get there—is how they get there. It’s the journey that most Control Freaks lose sight of and that’s just sad. We get so focused on the destination; we can’t see the road kill along the way.

3. Help them help you.
Let them know you are trying to be less obnoxious. Mia Culpa! Tell them you appreciate their handling the trip, making all those annoying driving decisions and allowing you to relax like a Movie Star riding shotgun! Be encouraging! I know, it sounds so inspirationally cliché. Gross. But, the point is to play like it’s an alternate universe until none of it matters. This way you learn to relax and enjoy the scenery.

So, the message here is to discard the “my way or the highway,” mentality. FREE THE BEAST and be more, “Damn, this highway has all sorts of road side attractions!”

No. You won’t be cured overnight.

I still envision all the “better” ways, but I try to keep it to myself and laugh at my Control Freak when she tries to rear her ugly voice. Instead of nagging, I stop myself with this little poem:

Once upon a task so dreary, I pondered ways that made her weary.
Over many a dumb and curious dispute—It dawned on me that it’s all-moot.

You can make up your own poem or create a pattern interrupt. However you are able to jolt yourself awake before you speak the controlling nonsense, works for me. Using the poem, I open myself to trying other people’s way of doing things. Practice the old stop and listen, rather than shoehorn your ideas down people’s throat.

It’s amazing the things we discover when we let other people solve the puzzle. By forcing my well-intentioned Control Freak to shut up and move aside, I have a lot more free time to surf the net, tweet, and creep on people’s Facebook. Bottom line, I get more done if I leave well enough alone, so everybody wins, like in grade school.

To be honest, this new methodology isn’t always more relaxing, YET! But, it’s getting easier each day I practice, improving my relationships and saving myself from all that un-necessary bickering. So, right there the end justifies the means, in an efficient sort of way. Did I just digress? Hey, you can take the freak out of the girl but you can’t take the girl out of the freak!

10 Concepts to Inner Peace

1. Being right is over-rated.
2. Let them do it. Go have a beer.
3. “Anything worth doing—is worth letting them do it their way”
4. Alternative solutions won’t kill you, but they may salvage your relationships.
5. Expecting others to be like you is a good way to lose friends and alienate colleagues.
6. “It doesn’t always have to be efficient. Stupid works too.
7. Go with the flow, Joe. The water get down stream—the rock stays put.
8. It’s not about the destination—it’s about the journey, so don’t fuck up THEIR good time.
9. Relinquish control, or if you prefer it in Rock-n-Roll, terms “Free yourself and the rest will follow.”
10. Everything has side effects. Not sure where I’m going with this one, so figure it out on your own.

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Microsoftee Must Be Stopped!

Microsoftee Must Be Stopped!: "

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To the Adirondacks and Back to 1977!

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation 2009
By Cindy Higby

Vacation 2009 was a winner. Barbara and I hopped two planes and stole a Ford Edge from the Albany airport (just kidding we rented it) making our way over clouds, past security gates, between migrating bands of weird people, and then cut a swath through thick green forest to get to our lake house in the Adirondacks. She was grumpy on the way there, due to the fact she did not get much sleep the night before. She has travel anxiety and instead of counting sheep like me, she was packing and repacking in her head and worrying about details for things she had no control over, like the fact she might not get any ATT bars in the mountains. She's usually more animated during the travel phase of a vacation, but this time I think she was stressing the length of time it takes to get to Raquette Lake from Dallas, approximately 10 hours, as well as the fact we still weren't sure we'd have wi fi either, just dial up (ugh!). Disconnecting from the universe is hard for us, since we mainline technology. Normally our vacations are not so remote and room service is just a button on the phone.

Regardless of the lack of amenities, I slept like a baby and jumped from the sack before the alarm even went off, excited like a little kid on Christmas morning. The lake house has that effect on me, even after 35 years of going there.

Here's a picture of our view from our dock in the morning. Imagine waking up and strolling down to watch the fog burn off as you sip your warm coffee, listening to the sounds of a Northern Loon and the lapping of soft waves against the rocky shore. Not too hard to take.
We spent nine days with my entire family tucked into two waterfront pine cabins that smell a little musty and decorated oddly (like empty wall space was a bad thing) (see this is where Barbara is such a trooper - she is used to the Four Seasons and the Ritz, not a little One Season hut in the woods). The Higby Camp walls of the big house are covered with my mother's favorite pictures (mostly Loons), as well as a deer head, a stuffed Bass my father caught, and various old photos and lures. It's cluttered to say the least, but it's also "campy", and we are used to it.


My Dad, right before he died this year, bought us a new fish and ski boat, and man was it fun. That boat can buzz to the village and back in under ten minutes - I know this cuz Cale tested it to get emergency ice cream one night. It was easy to fish out of too, even in tight corners. The trolling motor was smooth and the foot pedal placed comfortably so I could sit, cast, motor, and detangle my line...and drink a beer all at the same time.

Mark, Scott, Kathy, Faye, Quinn, Natalie, and Cale all piled in one day and took it to a little cove/beach and tubed and partied. They came back all excited, tired, happy and tanned. Barbara and I had been fishing in the smaller bass tracker that day, and had gone to the Tap Room (which Faye renamed the Tap Worm) for lunch and a beer. then came back and sat on our dock sipping cold wine watching the waves. By now we were fully de-stressed, and realizing the power of the mountains and what getting away from it all really means. At the end of the week were were sad to leave, but had my Class of 1977 50th Birthday bash to attend, in my hometown of Orchard Park, NY.

My friend Mary Pat and I used Facebook and other electronic means to get the word out about this impromptu 50th birthday bash for the class of 1977, and not surprising - a whole bunch of old friends showed up. (if nothing else my class could throw'm down). It was great seeing my childhood best friend Sherrill, my party pal Lauren, my buddies Mark and Dwight and the carzy cast of characters from high school. The key phrase (as we introduced ourselves - not having laid eyes on most of these people since graduation in 1977) was, "Holy Shit!". Some people recognized me - some did not, and I had the same trippy experience with them. It's fascinating how age can change people, especially when you fast forward them 32 years.

Once again Barbara was thrown into the thick of it and carved out her own good time making friends with my old friends and shooting a slew of great photos with our new camera.

The last day we played golf with my friends Mickey and Deb at the Orchard Park Country Club, Thanks to Mary Pat whose a member. All in all it was a great trip. No one lost an eye. Everybody got along. We had a ton of laughs and it was great getting to see so many people I knew in one trip. I highly recommend the Adirondacks as a getaway, but don't go to Raquette Lake cuz well we like that its not over populated. Try Lake George instead!

Here's a short retro slideshow of the class of 1977.

There is No Cool Way to Puke

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is cool and what’s not, although I’ve met a ton of people who just don’t get it and I’m perplexed as to why. Understanding the cool factor, regardless of whether you are young or old, good looking or fugly, fat or thin, make very little money, have no friends, were born in a lean-to in the woods and raised by wolves shouldn’t matter… when it comes to understanding “cool”. It should be innate. But it’s not.

People made/still make fun of Michael Jackson’s nose and appearance. They say he looked like a woman, had carved up his nose to be too small and that it would fall off, joked about his girly hair, pale skin, and his penchant to wear military sequined jackets and such. But when he danced, everybody knows to shut the eff up. End of discussion. There isn’t a soul on this earth who had the “rights” to cool, like MJ did when he sang and danced. If you don’t agree then I’m sorry - you are one of these clueless people I speak of who don’t get “cool.”

Perhaps you want to know why we think Michael was so cool to watch? How did he figure out that his hand gestures, head nods, hip jiving, foot sliding, finger snapping, together with the glove was going to make people stop and stare and admire his talents? The answer is; Michael thought it looked cool and that’s all that mattered. Honestly, most of the time it’s that simple. If you believe you look cool – you will feel cool – and thus you are cool. Bottom line, no big secrets to reveal here folks; If you feel cool you will project that confidence and it doesn’t matter if you are wearing a bright orange life jacket to the Emmy’s, if you think it’s “the bomb” and it makes you feel good, enough people will be influenced and agree with you, as if you slipped them some kind of drug induced crowd think pill. The next thing you know everybody’s wearing orange life jackets. So, the moral of this example is: feel it – be it.

For those who didn’t buy the Michael Jackson example, lets’ take “Larry the Cable Guy”. Larry will tell you he’s not cool, he’s just a redneck, hillbilly of sorts. Truth is he’s very cool! Why? Because Larry first off is way smarter than he pretends. Larry also refuses to follow proper decorum, and in the process makes no apologies. That’s cool. Larry is also a smart man posing to be dumb for the sake of humor. Thus, lots of people who would have otherwise thought Larry to be a big stupid bubba, now think he’s way cool. They will stop channel surfing to hear him talk, regardless of the subject. Larry figured out a way to make “Hillbilly” cool. My guess is Larry feels he looks good in a torn up flannel shirt, otherwise he couldn’t stand in front of thousands of people and deliver jokes. So Larry’s confidence in wearing flannel - made flannel cool. Yup, it’s that easy.

There are however some things in this world that no matter who does them, where or how they do them, there is no way it will ever look cool. For example, there is no cool way to puke. I don’t care if you are Cameron Diaz just out of hair and make up looking like a sex goddess, once she leans over a toilet and foul smelling vomit shoots out her mouth, all bets are off.

I pretty much believe that just about anybody can be made to look cool, but getting them to act cool takes more than you think. Hair and clothes are a beautiful thing, but acting cool is a whole other deal. Unmistakable cool people have inner wisdom and unexplainable skills. Some might say you either have it or you don’t. I think you can be taught how to act cool, eventually, but you have to really listen, take notes, practice for hours, test and retest, and most importantly be willing to change. The last part being the hardest part, of course.

Despite how much people want to be cool, change is beyond their mental perimeter. Just the other side of reachable. Like a dog on a short chain and a juicy steak laying a few feet away. All the “want’n” in the world won’t bring it to you. So, you can either start chewing the metal chain and see where that gets you, or bark your head off and wait to be shot, thus putting you out of you misery. Being cool and understanding cool, don’t always meet.

Let’s start with the playground. Do you remember what it was like to be among a screaming bunch of five year olds in kindergarten? Think back to your first year of school when you were allowed outside for thirty minutes to run off some energy before your teacher tried to sit everyone back down to teach Dick and Jane. Perhaps, like my friend “Bob” you by accidently wet your pants in all the excitement of swinging, climbing and playing tag. Bob was very cool though and he quickly assessed that a couple of times down the hot metal slide - no one would know he wet his pants. On the other hand, if you were my friend “Betty”, unfortunately, you saw no way to cover it up, and just stood their and cried, which made everyone look at you and try to determine why you were crying, at which juncture they pointed and laughed, humiliating you beyond repair. Not fun I’m sure, and yet so easily avoided -so knows Bob the cool kid. Had Betty been cool and had Bob’s inner knowledge, in a quick second she’d have figured the fastest way out of her potentially devastating, life altering mishap was hot metal, and would have turned out to be a high powered attorney instead of a one legged waitress at iHop.

Nuf said.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

The media has said everything you can about this musical genius - personal life disastor. Similar to Elvis, Anna Nicole Smith, Marilyn Monroe, fame destroyed Michael Jackson. Like a moth to a flame... it's more like a person to fame, they get burned to death in the end. It was a shock to hear of MJ's death. I expected this person to grow old with me, and sing me through the latter years. It is not to be and that's a loss for everyone who enjoyed his beats.

Of course Michael Jackson will live on, into eternity. His photos, music, interviews, family, kids, etc...he's left a legacy. he's left us all talking. But most of all he just left us.

Reality TV is Harder Than it Looks!

No kidding...We were picked to be on a new HGTV show called "Renovation Realities"...which means no one helps you do the renovation project--we were all on our own.... We filmed for 60 hours... from Tuesday-Sunday... that gets edited down to 21 minutes and it will air in December on two networks...DIY Network & HGTV! Plus we will be on the HGTV website...as in... see more of "Barbara and Cindy" after the show airs...(that interview was done at the end of the last day - and I'm not sure either one of us made any sense - we were so spent)

The week long shoot was depleting...we were wired with mics (mine kept pulling my pants down so I hope they edit out all the ass shots) and we had a camera man in our faces the whole time...the true challenege was to do all the work and not lose an eye or a limb. We tore out two interior walls and one weight bearing exterior wall!... which had a huge glass window and a front door...here's the crazy part: we know nothing about home improvement!! I've never really used a drill, except once to hang a shade (we thought we could use our friends and our contractor- they fibbed about that)...Soooo, it was a wacked out, free-for-all of Barbara and I problem-solving our way thru it...swinging sledge hammers, a gold miner's pick and anything else I could find in the backyard, weilding power saws, almost getting electrocuted, dangerously firing nail guns that had a bigger kick than Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin on SNL, sawing two-by-fours incorrectly, cutting dry wall the wrong way, slapping mudd on too thick and taping (what a mess), sanding - talk about eating chalk dust, painting the walls and unfortunately the floor got some too--and then setting up the art room to make it all seem pretty.....at one point bricks were falling on us and I went and got the bicycle helmuts!!! And when Barbara was power sawing nails smooth with sparks flying in her hair I made her wear a blue rubber wig (the crew laughed their way thru the shoot) the producer Lori Golden-Styrer said "we were great-just what they'd hoped for."...so I translated that into "crazy people make for good TV watching!" And may I remind y'all - we are nearing 50 yrs. old...so six, 10 hour days, of hard labor was a physical & mental accomplishment. The room actually turned out great...(if you stand back and squint your eyes.)

I still can't feel my fingers, my arms won't raise above my chin, my back is throbbing, my calves are cramping, and I dropped a pant size...

UPSIDE: it was beyond fun!! I am so glad we did it and I'm even happier it's over!

I'll let y'all know when our episode airs in December, the name of the program is "Renovation Realities" and it starts airing on Nov. 13th...we saw the first episode - its nutty.

Do You Know What a Widget Is?

Widgets. Those cute internet search boxes you can download for free from Yahoo, Google, Widgetbox and a bunch of other cool sites. You can pick a weather widget, a travel widget, a clock widget, a countdown to Bush's last day in office widget, or a see my Redbubble.com artwork widget - which is there in the right column of my blog. Whatever you're into, there is probably a widget out there you can post on your blog, Facebook, or website.

I'm involved in redesigning the Travelocity Widget Search Boxes for our World Choice Travel partners. No kidding and it's fun! We have the stand alone widget box for searching Hotel, just air fare, or just car deals...we have the MPSB (Multi Product Search Box) Ha! Don't ya love acronyms! and the list goes on.

When I was first hired I spent days Googling and downloading widgets to my Facebook and this blog. I was testing their functionality and stability as well as how hard were they to post. Some are good, some not so good. But, one thing they all share is the "cool" factor once they are on your page.

Widget designers are like "Gods"...well More like Cardinals next to the IT Gods who can hack the un-hackable. Anyway....everyone needs a widget...so go find one now. Google free widgets, and figure out how to get it up on your Facebook. They are fun and a great way to spread the word...what ever word that may be...God's word, Webster Dictionary words, or Urban slang words...there are widgets for everyone just waiting for you to download!