LauraEmerson's Blog

Change is hard.  It's also fairly constant in the broadcasting business.  Part of that is the migration of people.

In case you haven't heard, my co-anchor of the last few years, Karl Rundgren, is leaving for a job in Texas in early September.  It's a move closer to family for him and his family.  So I'm happy for him.  But I've really enjoyed working with him.  He's not only good at delivering the news, he's a great newsroom leader who helps to chart the course our coverage takes on a daily basis.  He'll be hard to replace.  But we must.

The word went out just this week, including postings for the co-anchor position at Fox Toledo.  Already our news director has a huge stack of tapes.  They come from all over the country.  Some are already anchors.  Some are reporters wanting to make the switch.  You always get a few who aren't even close to qualified, but just think TV sounds like fun.

I just hope that in that pile of applicants is someone who fits the criteria well.  Great writer, good at working with the rest of the staff, smart, creative and experienced.  Of course, for the viewers, they need to look and sound good enough to be credible and watchable.  By the way, both female and male applicants are encouraged!

The most amusing part of this is the applicants who are popping up from within the Toledo market.  One called minutes after the staff was gathered for the announcement.  We still haven't figured out who tipped that person off.  Others have surfaced since then.  Interesting how some people who have not always said flattering things about our station, and its employees, suddenly think Fox Toledo would be a great place to work.  I might have to ask them about that if they come in for interviews.

Another thing that's interesting is the people who are calling Karl to ask for his recommendation.  Think about it.  He's leaving.  It's the rest of us you should be courting.

Yes TV is a competitive business, especially in these economic times.  I'm just hoping that tall and growing pile of tapes will result in the selection of the right one.  After all, during the week, this is a person I spend more time with most days than my husband.

Whether you lived the horror of this string of murders or not, I recommend this book. 

"Evil Brothers" is written by former Toledo Police Detective Frank P. Stiles.  He now works for the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office.

What you get is a very detailed account of the Cook brother's crime spree.  It stretches from the 1970s into the 1980s.  The victims were mostly young couples or young women.  Stiles describes how little motive there was in these crimes.  The serial raping and killing was mostly just for the sport of it.

Having lived and worked in the Toledo area for a dozen years, I wasn't around here when the crimes took place, but found myself amazed at all of the places described in the book that are very familar to me.  Chilling all of the locations we drive past regularly without realizing that they were once grisly crime scenes.

Not only did I read the book, a few weeks after I read it I was fortunate enough to hear Frank Stiles talk about his many years investigating this frustrating case.  His hard work and the eventual use of DNA matching finally put the perps behind bars.  He even talks about additional cases he suspects the Cook brothers might be responsible for.  It's evident that he took the task of catching the bad guys personally.  It was more than just a job.  It bothered him that these killers eluded the law for so many years.

If I have any criticism, it's that the book could have used a bit more editing.  Raab Road is spelled wrong repeatedly.  Sometimes you read about the same scene more than once or twice.  But in the author's defense, the extreme detail does give you some sense of the work that goes into a crime investigation and of how these attacks unfolded. 

Frank P. Stiles does an admirable job of giving readers a sense of who the murder victims were.  Real people.  People missed by the ones they left behind.  People with their own stories.  So often when we cover crime on the news, the criminals get almost all of the attention.  Stiles turns attention many different facets of these cases in a way no one else could.

You can buy "Evil Brothers" at major bookstores, at some local retailers or through the publisher.   www.outskirtspress.com/frankstiles   Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Parker, Colorado 80134
http://outskirtspress.com 1-888-OP-BOOKS

Of course I'm not referring to the military conflict.  The topic is still diet and workouts in the quest for better fitness.  Since I last checked in, the scale has moved very little.  Ordinarily, this is the point in my health kick where I would pat myself on the back for the small gains, and go back to just eating whatever I wanted and working out a minimum amount.

This time it's different.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe the 5 to 6 small meals a day eating plan.  Maybe it's the commitment of making appointments to work out with a trainer.  I think I'm aiming more for long term strength and health this time instead of just wanting a flatter stomach.

One thing I am seeing is a seemingly sudden change in the way clothes fit.  I put on a skirt last week that hadn't buttoned comfortably for more than a year.  Of course it's the product of many weeks of working out at least 5 days a week while watching what I eat, but I am starting to see some positive results.

Another thing that was a pleasant surprise recently,  I unloaded a whole pickup truck bed packed full of garden mulch all by myself.  I didn't even have that much muscle soreness the next day.  That's something I wouldn't always have been able to do, but the weights and cardio made me strong enough to do it.  Yes!

No, I haven't been perfect.  Weekends and parties are still difficult.  Temptations, including giant portion restaurant meals are everywhere.  Processed carbs and too much fat is easier to find than things that are good for you.  But I feel better already.  The effort and sacrifice seem worth it.

Readers, if you're fighting your own health and fitness battle, good for you.  Don't get discouraged.  It's the little things you do every day that add up.  You can't let yourself give up because you miss a few workouts or eat too much one day.  Just do better tomorrow.

Wishing you good health,

Laura

The scale is starting to budge!  Despite my occasional exceptions to the diet rules, the number is moving in the desired direction.  Mind you, this is the home scale, not the official weigh-in scale of the personal trainer, but I'm still encouraged.

Those of us who are working in the Fox Toledo Newsroom today (Memorial Day) are having a 'cook in'.  A cookout without the actual grilling.  More of a potluck, really.  I'm expecting temptations and am hoping I can find some vegetables among the choices.  I think I'll allow myself a hot dog with mustard and no bun.  I brought a fairly diet friendly grilled chicken pasta salad with low carb penne pasta.

My training diet plan says I should avoid beef for now, in favor of chicken or fish.  But yesterday, the smell of grilling was in the air, so I did make hamburgers, but had just one on a whole wheat bun with a side salad.  And that was after an hour of bicycling and aerobics and lots of gardening, so I didn't feel too guilty.

Good habits sure are harder to establish than bad ones, but I am finding that following the eating rules is getting easier as I go along.  It's feeling like less of a sacrifice to steer away from big helpings and refined flour and sugar.  But I'm also seeing that you really have to patient to peel the weight off.

Weekends have been tough on my diet.  Party might as well be a four letter word.  Of course spending time with good friends is always worth it.  But it's so hard to stick to the plan when there's a gorgeous buffet filled with favorites, but I am trying to manage what I call "controlled cheating" when I stray from my diet plan.  At the very least, when the party is over, I'm back to the workouts and the food diary.

One of the two parties this weekend was a small dinner that I hosted.  The menu included grilled chicken and pork, mashed yams, green beans, along with  low carb macaroni and cheese.  By the way Dreamfields pasa, not bad!  Dessert was a choice of fresh berries, ice cream and carrot cake that a couple of the guests were kind enough to bring.  Yes I ate a bit too much.  But in planning the menu, I was going for a combination of healthful and festive.

I'm trying to keep reminding myself that it's not what you do once that matters when it comes to health eating.  What matters is what you do most of the time.

I'm finding that a steady diet of lean protein, complex carbs and veggies requires some time and effort.  I have to make my grocery list carefully, find time to cook and portion things out for planned leftovers and then remember to haul all of those little containers to work.  I'm finding it is worth it.  Being full of brown rice makes it much easier to say "no" when someone in the newsroom is offering to go on an ice cream or burger run.

Another thing that makes the planning and cooking worth it is not having to eat too many of those prepackaged protein bars.  Some taste better than others.  But in my experience, they're not candy bars, just odd, artificial attempts at candy bars.

A daily food log is something I've never done before.  It truly does make you think before you mindlessly start eating something.

To the topic of workouts.  So far, the increase to an hour of cardio at a time has been less difficult than I thought.  Once I've put on the sneakers and gym clothes, sweating for an extra 20 minutes isn't so bad.  I was used to doing 30-40 minutes before.  I just have to get up a little earlier to carve out the extra time before lunch and getting ready for work.

As for the two weekly workouts with The Trainer, he's still teaching me weightlifting one exercise at a time.  We're working up to a full body routine.  I'm surprised at how targeted and specific each exercise is that he has me do.  The weights aren't that heavy.  The number of reps isn't that many.  But within a couple of minutes, I'm maxed out and ready for a rest.  For someone who doesn't have the patience to do a lot of one exercise at a time, I think this'll work just fine.

Keep drinking water, and I'll check in again soon.

Lifestyle changes are hard.  We're such creatures of habit.  Random choices are so much easier than following a plan.  But I'm counting on this plan paying off when my skinny jeans fit and I have to take in a few of my suits.

I'm doing reasonably well following the plan so far.  I'm working out at least five days a week.  My cardio workouts, which used to be 30 or 40 minutes, are now an hour.  That had me worried.  It sounded like it would be a lot harder than what I was used to.  But the bonus is this:  Staying in my target heart rate zone is a bit below the intensity level I was pushing for before.  So now I'm working out longer each session, but I get to work out a little less hard.

As someone who loves food, the eating plan also had me worried.  That is turning out to be the tougher part for me. 

Here's generally what I've been instructed to do.  Eat 5 to 6 times per day.  The good part is, you never become really hungry.  The idea is to keep your body in fat burning mode and supply protein to your muscles.  But these meals are small, specific and require significant planning.   My challenge is sticking to the specific choices on the list.  I tend to want to get creative with meals.  Hopefully I can follow it closely enough to lose weight.

The Trainer has a cool computer spreadsheet which considers your weight, height, body fat percentage and activity level and gives you a specific eating plan.  My job, then, is to look at that and choose items every 2 to 3 hours that fit my personalized protein and carbohydrate requirements.  It's not the extreme low carb diet of Atkins.  Reminds me more of Zone or South Beach, but it isn't either.  You just pay close attention to balance.  I've been cooking and weighing out portions and making good use of my many plastic food storage containers.

So far, I'm not a fan of the few meal replacement bars and puddings I've tried.  They tend to be too sweet for my taste and artificial tasting.  I guess that's inspiration to keep me grilling my own chicken breasts and steaming brown rice.  More economical anyway.

Stay tuned for the next installment of my quest for better health and fitness.  Thanks for reading my blog.   Laura

I attend a lot of local charity fundraisers, usually as host or some sort of volunteer.  Recently at the one for Mom's House, I was in a bidding mood when it came to the silent auction tables.  One of the things I won-- a workout and nutrition plan along with some training sessions from a local personal trainer.

According to those standard health and fitness charts, I'm somewhere in healthy/normal range for weight.  But my waist is thicker than it used to be.  I'd like some of my clothes to fit better.  And TV is sure not forgiving when it comes to extra pound.  Plus, I want to keep a handle on my risk for disease and I want to have more energy and body confidence.

So I met with the man I will refer to as The Trainer for the first time this week.  I don't plan to identify him right now, because I figure if I fail to show dramatic success doing his plan, he'd probably rather not have his name associated with mine.  I am, however, cautiously optimistic that his stories of fairly rapid fat loss and muscle gain will be a reality for me too.

This Saturday is our first workout together.  It's one hour of cardio.  The Trainer's going to show me how to do it properly, complete with a heart monitor, which I have not been using in my workouts until now.  I hope to learn a lot.  Also Saturday, he will look at the food diary I've been keeping for the past week to see what I'm doing with my diet now and where I need to make changes to achieve my goals.  I'm fearful my eating plan will be extremely restrictive and boring and I'll want to cheat.  Hopefully I'm pleasantly surprised. 

Wish me luck over the next five weeks.  I'll keep you posted here and share any nuggets of fitness and dieting wisdom I discover.

We hear it a lot, "Buy local".   So much of our world is filled with big boxes and chains with out-of-town, even overseas owners that it's not easy.   I confess I love the convenience of internet shopping.  You order with a click and in a few days a box shows up at your front door.  I didn't burn my own gasoline and and I saved time.

But I feel better inside when I shop at my local mom and pop hardware store in Swanton.  Or at the local boutique dress shop in downtown Toledo.  The customer service can't be beat. 

My experience at a locally owned restaurant is almost always superior to one at homogenous chain that I could experience in any other city.  It's worth it to get to know the owners, to support someone's dream of business ownership.

Of course we can't always buy local.  Sometimes the Mega Mart is just quick and handy and cheap.  I challenge you, though, to think about your shopping and dining choices and when you can choose, make that choice matter.

Summer farm markets are a great way to buy local.  You don't always get the cheapest price on tomatoes or corn, but you get it fresher.  Fuel is saved because it doesn't travel from faraway places.  And you support the person who grew it who pays taxes to fix the same potholes in the roads as you do.  It's like keeping the money in the family.

Before I rant, I should let you know that I like to grocery shop and I like to cook.  I've even been known to read cookbooks for fun. 

I'm astonished by how often I hear friends, coworkers and strangers say, "Oh, I never cook."  When I hear that, I think to myself, "How do you survive?"

Sure, eating out is fun, entertaining and often a necessity.  Most of us are busy.  But it's really not that hard to put together a quick salad, sandwich, soup or stir fry at home.  Most days I fix a simple lunch for my husband and me before I head to work in the afternoon.  A recipe designed for four feeds us both and provides leftovers to take to work for a dinner later in the week.  I get a kick out of checking the refrigerator and pantry and just seeing what I can adlib.  Luckily my husband is a good sport about eating my experiments.  Of course, recipes are a good aid for the less fearless.

My point is, the ability to do more than just warm up a prepackaged frozen dinner is worth a little effort.  You can in many cases save money.  You can improve the variety of fruits and vegetables you eat and make sure they are fresher.  You can control the fat and salt. 

Guys, and ladies too, for that matter, even if you don't intend to cook often, it's worth perfecting a couple of meals you can use for entertaining.  It's a great way to show people that you care about them.  Please, Non-Cooks, it's really not that hard.  And I'll worry about the future of our society less if I hear fewer people talking about how they can't feed themselves.