A Lifestyle Blog
I recently tested a Fitbit for Renown Regional Medical Center here in Reno. Did I like it? Sort of. Here’s the blog post I wrote for them on their best medicine blog. Sorry, you’ll have to copy and paste it into your url.
http://bestmedicinenews.org/perspectives/wendy-damonte-tests-out-the-fitbit-and-learns-a-lot/
Did you hear?? I’m going to be a celebrity bartender. Ok, that sentence is just down right funny to me. Because 1) I don’t consider myself a celebrity. And 2) I don’t know how to bartend. The last time I was a “bartender” my friend Amy and I snuck behind the bar at our college hang-out called The Wall and gave beers away to friends. That was 1993. But when someone calls and asks me to help in the battle against breast cancer, I have a hard time saying no. Joe Kelly and David Hughes made that call. So, on March 22nd, please come out to Pinocchio’s on South Virginia Street in Reno between 5-8pm. All your tips will be donated to the Moms on the Run organization. Can’t make it? You can also donate on the Moms on the Run website (http://www.momsontherun.info/) … but please put WENDY’S TEAM in the comment section otherwise we won’t get credit for your donation. And we are up against other bartending teams… one of which made $21,000 in one night!!!! Did I mention we have auction items?? Moms on the Run is a non-profit organization that raises funds to assist northern Nevada women with everyday living expenses while in treatment for breast and gynecological cancers. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Here’s my complaint about eating Paleo. There’s no delivery system. The gurus of “eating like our ancestors” want us to eat meat, veggies and healthy fats. Fine with me! But there’s no delivery system to get them into my mouth. Yes, yes I know. I can make a great salad and pile it high 
with veggies and spinach and lean meat. But this girl can only do so many salads… and trust me, I do a lot of them. I need BREAD to deliver my turkey to my tongue. I need RICE to dump my sizzling stir fry onto. I need CRACKERS to dip into almond butter. And guess what? Bread, rice and crackers aren’t Paleo. Yes, there are companies making Paleo options. Sorry, I’ve tried them. I can’t swallow them…. literally. Well the other day, a miracle happened. I was making dinner and I had some left over frozen spinach. I also had some parmesan cheese out on the counter. I looked at the two and thought, hey, I bet I could combine them and make a delivery system. So here’s what I did. I put a bunch of squeezed and thawed out spinach in a bowl. Next, I dumped a good amount of parmesan cheese in the bowl (by the way, I follow Mark Sisson and he says I can eat Parmesan… so heck ya I do!). I mixed it together and flattened it out into the shape of two tortillas. First, I tried pan-frying one with some olive oil. That didn’t work. I put the other one on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and cooked it at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. And that worked PERFECTLY! It came out just like parmesan crisps only slightly softer. Next up? I put a dollop of guacamole on it, some chicken breast and then folded it up. OMG. Honestly, this is the best sandwich I’ve had in a long time. I would honestly eat this sandwich over anything offered at Subway.
On January 24th, 2014, I gave the talk of my life. It was at TEDx University of Nevada. The talk informs women about the dangers of dense breast tissue, and more importantly, what you can do if you have it. 40% of women have dense breast tissue and you have the right and the need to know this information. Please watch my talk and pass it on to people you know and love. Without grassroots movements like this, women will stay in the dark about this hidden danger. Thank you for being a part of my mission to save women’s lives. The video below my TEDx talk is my Mom’s Story. Please watch that as well… maybe with a glass of wine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPLMWuTlWQ
Whole Foods Chocolates
Valentine’s Day is a day for chocolate, champagne and red roses. Right? Yes, well sort of! This year, I would like it to be the year you give your loved one the gift of knowledge. Knowledge that could save a life. Knowledge about the dangers of dense breast tissue. On January 24th, I gave a TEDx talk at the University of Nevada. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. So for this Valentine’s Day, I’m asking you to watch my talk, send it on to those you love and help me spread the message about dense breast tissue. I was part of a day of knowledge at Microsoft Licensing in Reno recently and because of that day 2 women discovered they had breast cancer even though their mammograms showed NOTHING. Women need to know their density. Learn more by watching my talk. Ok, I’m not a total Valentine’s Day buzz killer. So here’s the deal! Whole Foods now has some amazing chocolates. They come in flavors like milk chocolate with cinnamon hazelnut cream, dark chocolate with caramel and vanilla buttercream and milk chocolate with rich caramel. An entire box of goodness is just 10 dollars! But you can win one for free!! Just watch my video and then make a comment or email me about how cancer has affected you. I will pick the comment that means the most to me ON MONDAY in time for Whole Foods to get you your box of chocolates by Valentine’s day. Good luck!! (in case you can’t see my tedx talk below, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPLMWuTlWQ
I’m going to take you into my bedroom last night. Hey! Watch your dirty mind! Ok, last night I got home from a friend’s awesome birthday party and crashed into bed around 10:45. That’s late for me. And really late for a Wednesday night. Anyway, I’m falling down that blissful black hole toward REM when suddenly my husband says, “Hey, you have to watch this.” “No, I’m sleeping. My arm just twitched which means I actually am asleep. So I’m sleep talking right now.” “No, seriously, Wendy. You have to watch this.” Here’s something you may not know about my husband. When he gets something in his head, there’s no stopping him. After 13 years of marriage, I now know this. So I begrudgingly rolled over and stared into his way-too-bright iPad. I started watching an old episode of Family Feud. By the time the video was over, I was laughing so hard I was crying. My pillow was soaked with laughing tears. This is so funny I had to share it with you. Of course, I couldn’t get back to sleep until after 1am so I suggest watching this with your morning coffee. It will be a great way to start your day! Enjoy!
Pretend I’m laying on a couch and you are sitting beside me with a pencil and notepad in your hands. Yes, this is therapy. And I’m going to spill my guts all over you. I’m doing this because you probably suffer with the same thing I do. I know this because I’ve had lots of conversations lately with people all complaining about the same thing as me. Holiday depression. Ok, depression might be too strong a word. Rut might be a better choice for you. But whatever you’re feeling, you’re not alone. I’m in the trenches with you.
I feel fat. Yes, Wendy Damonte feels fat. But what’s worse, I feel unmotivated to change it. I’m eating like crap. I’m drinking more than I typically do. And all of these factors feed off each other making each individual problem worse. And at the end of the day, there’s me; a mopey, fat, unhappy slug who can’t change things.
Now… here’s what I think happens. The holidays hit… and in my house, that means October 8th. That’s my daughter’s birthday. Somehow, she parlays that one day into a two-week ordeal. Always fun, always with lots of friends, parties and typically, with my family, lots of wine. So now, it’s mid October and Halloween shows up. Again, lots of pizza because we’re out late getting costumes, adding to costumes, tweaking costumes, etc. Well hello November! Now this is where I should suck it up and be as healthy as possible for at least the first two weeks of the month. But the bad, unhealthy, fast food rut has already grabbed hold of me. A nightly glass or two of wine is killing my morning motivation to work out. And Thanksgiving is just 24 days away, so why try?? And then December hits and any chance of getting back to a normal, healthy routine flies out the window like Santa up a chimney. At this point, I’m way too busy to even fit in a 30 minute workout. My daily diet consists of grazing on the food table at work (yes, we have a food table at work that overflows with cookies, fudge, cake, See’s Candy… pretty much you name it… during December) and then eating whatever I can quickly throw together for dinner… think frozen lasagna! And now, it’s the new year and I can’t move!
If I were to put all this into a cycle for you it would look like this:
We get busy… we eat like crap because we’re too busy to cook… we drink more because there are more parties… we start to feel fat… we wake up slightly hung over and that zaps all motivation to work out… we become depressed (get in a rut)… and once you’re depressed (in a rut)… this cycle repeats over and over again. And eventually, we get sick… which is what I did on January 6th… the very day I was determined to stop the cycle.
So you know what I did?? I went on a walk anyway! I was hacking and coughing and wheezing the entire hour I was in the hills. But you know what? I wasn’t going to allow myself to make an excuse. Any excuse. Even one coming from my phlegm laden lungs. I had to start somewhere. So instead of a run, I walked. Instead of going for 2 hours, I went for one. And you know what happened? My body felt worse, but my soul felt much better! I finally had an endorphin or two flowing through my body. And you know what happened next? I had a salad for lunch… and it tasted great! By the time I got off work that night, I was exhausted because I was still fighting a virus, but I didn’t feel like a bowl of pasta and a fishbowl of wine. I ate lightly and went to bed. And guess what? The next day I woke up headache free. I had motivation to fit in another quick workout (which I did on my windtrainer bike inside my house). I’m laughing more. My mood is lighter. My depression is easing… in fact, it’s disappearing. And it’s only been four days! I’m now back on track. So what’s your excuse? Early morning meeting? Go for a 10 minute walk if that’s all you can fit in. You’re sick? Reread the start of this paragraph… I don’t want to hear it! You’ve got young kids at home? Figure out quick at-home workouts you can do. (One of my favorite websites is www.marksdailyapple Search that website for quick workouts!) You’re too fat and out of shape to start? You’re never too fat or unhealthy to try to make a chance. Drink one less soda a day. Eat donuts only once a month instead of weekly. You have a leg injury? Swim. See, you can throw any excuse my way and I’ll come up with a healthy option. Start today. It doesn’t have to be huge. It has to be one step.
What did you do this weekend? I went to a swine auction in Fallon, NV. I literally could end this post right there. That sentence alone is enough to give you a good enough laugh for the day. But you just know my San Francisco self has something more to say. And it starts with the nose. This was my first view of a swine auction. Call it a hog or pig auction if you want. It’s all the same to me.
What you don’t get from the picture above… is the smell. Oh my lord! It’s like walking into a wall of cobwebs. It literally makes you recoil at first contact. I live on a ranch. Cow and horse manure are common place in my world. Pig shit is another story! It’s like no other smell I’ve ever smelled. It literally assaults your nose. It stopped my feet in their tracks. It made my brain wonder if I could really enter this room. Fortunately, like other smells, it passed… but not 100 percent. You know how Thanksgiving dinner smells so good when you walk in the door, but after 30 minutes you can’t really smell it anymore? Well pig shit stays with you. It never completely dissipates…. but at least it did enough to get me in the door.
The day was quickly made better with these little guys.
Some were just 16 pounds… others were about 70.
Several 4-H clubs from northern Nevada attended this auction. The kids buy their pigs in a real auction type of sale.
Then the dads had the fun of putting the purchased pigs into the trailer. Oh this video makes me laugh. Keep an eye on the pigs right hind leg… priceless!
Once loaded up, the pigs were taken home and will be raised by the kids until the Nevada Junior Livestock Show in May.
Last year, our kids raised lambs. We made the jump to pigs this year because… well, I have no idea why. But for the time being, our family has now grown by 8 feet… 8 little pig feet.
When I finally find the time… I’m going to put something like this together from our ranch. But for now, enjoy this from the Peterson Farm Bros. SUPER FUNNY!
I bought a tennis skirt this weekend. That’s weird because I don’t play tennis. Yes, I’m a member of a tennis club but that’s just so my kids can swim on the swim team… not play tennis. It’s like when you go to a Mexican restaurant and the bartender throws in an extra shot of tequila into your margarita. You’re glad it’s there. But it’s not the reason you went to that restaurant. That’s tennis to my family.
So there I was at Kohl’s in the 80% off section… which I’m a sucker for… checking out the clothes that are all crammed together so tightly it’s tough to tell what’s in there. I grabbed what I thought was a running skirt. When it finally came free from it’s 80%-off-rack prison, I realized it was a tennis skirt. It was just a simple black skirt with two knee-length black tights attached to it. Perfect for cool weather tennis… if you played tennis… which I don’t. But then I started to rationalize it. Maybe someone will ask me to play tennis. And if they did, I’d be able to play because I’d have a new snazzy tennis skirt. To be totally honest, I’ve been at this club for more than a year and no one has ever asked me to play tennis. So the chance of that happening is like a bartender giving you TWO extra shots of tequila. But the skirt was only $7.80. How could I not buy it?? Yes, it’s worth two lattes which I would actually use. But still, it’s always better to be prepared for any invitation you might get, even if the invitation is as likely as getting drunk for free at a Mexican restaurant, unless the Mexican restaurant happens to be IN Mexico in which case it’s pretty likely. AAAAHHHHH, are you starting to see how my brain works?? I have these types of conversations all the time! And this one is over spending seven dollars and eighty cents! Imagine the back and forth in my head over buying a new car!! Which I haven’t done in more than 13 years and now you know why! My brain is still arguing the pros and cons with itself over that one! But last weekend, I finally threw caution to the wind and bought the damn skirt! And now there it sits. In my closet. Untouched. Which it will likely stay for the next 15 years… because I don’t play tennis.
I hope this brought a smile to your face on this Thanksgiving Day! I’m thankful for all of you who read my blog, support me in my desire to be a true blogger and for those of you who nudge me when I stop blogging! All your comments and support keep me going and for that I’m truly Thankful! Have a beautiful day!
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I was born in San Francisco and ended up marrying a rancher in Reno, Nevada. I have a big city job anchoring the 5 o’clock news but come home to the country where my husband’s family has ranched for 5 generations. read more...
