Susan Hetrick Transcript

April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment


Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors”. Today is the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. Something that was very important to him was his family. Of course, they’ve carried his legacy down through the years.My next guest is Susan Hetrick. She has a book called “Advice from the Blender: What to Know Before You Blend So Nobody Gets Creamed”. It’s an amusing title, it’s been successful for her, clearly, and it’s a book about how to live with families, how to live with step-families, something that we’re seeing in the world all the time now.Welcome to the show, Susan Hetrick!

Susan Hetrick: All right! Kent, how are you?

Kent: Good! Tell me a little bit about what inspired you to write this book, “Advice from the Blender”.

Susan: Oh, about four years ago, I got married for the second time and he brought two children and a cat and I brought two children and two dogs and a hamster. And we had to figure out how to live together without killing one another. And at the same time, I was in graduate school, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree and one of my classes was a marriage counseling class.We were looking through resources and I could not find very much out there about what to expect when you blend two families. The few books that were available most were over 10 years old. Some were written by people who weren’t even in stepfamilies.And so, I decided that there was a real need out there for a book that actually told it like it was and gave people a better idea, a realistic idea, of what to expect when they enter into a stepfamily situation.

Kent: And what was it like for you? You said you had a hamster?

Susan: [laughs]

Kent: Two dogs… That’s a concern to me more than the kids.

Susan: [laughs]

Kent: What happened with the cat and the hamster? Were they friends?

Susan: Actually, they ignored one another. We ended up having one of the dogs ate the hamster, so…

Kent: Oh no!

Susan: Oh, yeah. [laughs]

Kent: Well, tell us about your book. What does it help people to do, “Advice from the Blender”?

Susan: Well, it’s a short, easy to read book and it’s about eight chapters long. And what I talk about is various things like having realistic expectations. It’s not going to be like the Brady Bunch. Sad, but true.And one of the things that people need to know is they need to focus on making their marriage strong. That is the number one thing that people forget to do. They get so involved with the kids and life and things like that, that they turn around and wake up one day and go, “Oh, who are you?” So, they need to focus on their marriage.They also need to be a united parenting team. Just because someone is the stepparent doesn’t mean they’re not also raising these kids.

Kent: Give us a couple little tips. Your book is constructed of some quotes, some bullet points with tips. Even at the end, you go into some bible verses and things like that. Give us some tips.

Susan: OK. One would be, for example, with the children. You’re dealing with two sets of kids, both who’ve been through, probably, a divorce with their parents. They’re thrown into this situation of suddenly they have a new stepparent, they have new stepsiblings. And one of the keys is to be united on discipline.One of the great things you could do would be to sit down together. As the parents, sit down together, preferably, before you get married, but if you’re already married, that’s OK. Sit down together and decide what are the behavior expectations for the children in the house and what are the consequences for breaking those rules and then present those to the kids as your house rules.This is really helpful because one, your kids can’t argue with the house. But two, I also brings to mind that yeah, the rules maybe different in Dad’s house as opposed to Mom’s house, but that’s OK. Just because they are different rules doesn’t mean that you can ignore them.

Kent: So, rules setting is really important. And there’s a whole bunch of other tips, very practically, to work through this problem.You advertise the book as being Christian and again, there are Bible verses at the end. How does that play into it for you? You have a Masters of Divinity.

Susan: Right. I have a Masters of Divinity in Counseling and Family Ministry. Obviously, faith is a big, big part of my life. However, even if you’re not a Christian, there’s very practical tips in this book for how to deal with a blending family, from everything to the kids to the ex-spouse to the in-laws and the out-laws.

Kent: So, tell me what is the best thing that two people could do when they say, “OK, let’s get married” and they’re thinking about two children, say they each have two children. What’s the first step for them? Should they write down some lists? Should they talk to the children? Should they meet them slowly? How does that work?

Susan: The key, I think, is time, is give it a lot of time and be very, very patient. Kids really don’t deal with their emotions, strong emotions, all at once. So, you can tell your kids, “Hey, I’m dating this person. He’s very, very special to me and we’re thinking about getting married. I want you to meet him and meet his family and get to know one another.”But then, give it time. I mean, I heard of a family just this last year, his third marriage, her third marriage. They met each other in September and decided to get married on New Year’s Eve. This is four months. They introduced their kids the day before the wedding and said, “Hey, guess what? We’re getting married tomorrow!” My advice is don’t go that route. You’re just setting yourself up for a disaster.So, time is of the essence and so is communication. That is vital. You’ve got to talk about all kinds of things like boundaries in your family. Everything from whether or not you like to sleep with your bedroom door shut or open to who’s allowed in your bedroom at any time of the day. Everything from that to discipline to who takes out the garbage and who cleans the house. All of these things have to be renegotiated.

Kent: Well, we can go to your website at advicefromtheblender.com. You’ve got a blog, free articles and more information about the book.

Susan: Absolutely.

Kent: It’s been a real pleasure chatting with you. I can definitely say if I ever get in the unfortunate circumstance of getting divorced and then remarried, I will certainly consult your book and your website. Thank you so much for being on the show.[music]

Susan: Thanks, Kent.

Kent: ”Advice from the Blender” by Susan Hetrick. You can get it online at advicefromtheblender.com.My next guest is Emmy Award winning legendary, wonderful composer, Jeff Beal. Come on back, you can’t miss it.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Christmas, Health, Holidays, Thanksgiving, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, TRANSCRIPTS, PODCAST 

Lisa Marie Mercer Transcript

December 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment


Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” Today is our holiday show, sitting between Christmas and New Years. My next guest is Lisa Marie Mercer, author of “Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness.” Welcome to the show.

Lisa Marie Mercer: Hi, how are you? Glad to be here.

Dr. Kent: Have you been skiing this year yet?

Lisa: Yes, I have. I’ve been skiing where I work at Copper Mountain, and in early September, I had the good fortune of teaching a ski fitness week out in Portillo, Chile. So, I sort of got a head start on everybody else.

Dr. Kent: Sounds like it. I grew up cross-country skiing. I was a competitive athlete up in Minnesota, in the cold. How did you start skiing?

Lisa: It was a very funny story. I met a man who loved to ski. I was a quintessential native New Yorker who thought that even a 40-degree day was in the Arctic zone, but I wanted to be with this guy. So he took me on a ski trip. At first I absolutely despised it, because I couldn’t stay up for one minute. Then about 10 years later I started doing all these balance exercises, working out on the stability ball, and I got up on the slopes and found out my balance was incredible. From there I just got hooked, left New York, moved to Colorado, and the rest is history.

Dr. Kent: So tell me a little bit about “Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness.” This is a book that’s not only about fitness. What’s it about?

Lisa: It is about the benefit of learning to ski or snowboard, or even snowshoe or cross-country as an adult. And I’m talking about the physical benefits, the psychological benefits, and even, for some people, the spiritual benefits. It talks a little bit about my journey into the world of snow sports.Then the second part of the book presents a very, very detailed ski or snowboard or snowshoe fitness plan. It has references to some of the best instructors in North America who specialize in teaching adult beginners. All in all, it’s a very comprehensive book. It’s basically everything you wanted to know about snow sports.

Dr. Kent: And what value does athletics and sports have in our lives, not just this time of year to work off those couple pounds, but for in our sedentary lifestyles where we’re staring at the computer all day, what’s the value of sports?

Lisa: There are many, many values. First of all, you’re getting outdoors. In the winter season, anybody who suffers from any kind of Seasonal Affective Disorder, you’re out there in the snow. There are social values. Let’s take an example of some of the Internet message forums, such as EpicSki.com; that message forum has over 16, 000 members from all parts of the globe. People go on that forum to talk about skiing, and sometimes they even meet up with each other at various parts of the world, so you have friends all over the place.Physically, snow sports are weight bearing, so they prevent the eventual onset of osteoporosis. They improve your balance, which is great just for general walking around. If there’s something on the ground that you normally would have tripped on, most snow sports participants would have enough core stability to kind of drag themselves back up and not fall down and get hurt. So, the possibilities are endless.

Dr. Kent: I know you also work with people one on one, why write a book? Why do that?

Lisa: Why write a book? Because when I first tried to learn to ski, I was what you would consider an extremely fit person. I was a marathon runner. I spent about two or three hours a day in the weight room, but I had no balance whatsoever. And my first day on the slopes was absolutely embarrassing. Then years later, after I did some balance training, I found out it was really natural.Now I work at Copper Mountain where I’m sitting right now. One day in this very spot where I’m sitting, there was a woman, very fit, very beautiful, looked like she worked hard, she was sitting in the cafeteria crying, and I went over to her. I asked her what was the matter, and she said “I always prided myself as being a very, very fit person, but I cannot stand up on these slopes.” And I spoke to her a little bit about the proper type of training, and as I walked away, I said “You know what? I need to write a book.”

Dr. Kent: So you feel that this book can reach out to people that are athletes and want to figure out how to do this winter sports thing. Does it also reach out to non-athletes?

Lisa: Oh absolutely, absolutely. A lot of people I know, especially a lot of people who take my classes out at Mountain Sport Fitness in Frisco, Colorado, they never got into any kind of physical exercise until they started skiing. And it was the skiing that motivates them to stay in shape.

Dr. Kent: And it’s because of the fun aspect? The view and the endorphins? What is it about skiing?

Lisa: There are a lot of things. It’s the social aspect of it, although for some people–for me I often like to ski by myself, the solitude. It’s the fresh air, the excitement, the view. Sometimes you use it as a way of just traveling around the world, seeing different parts of the world, but not seeing it through the point of view of a tour bus. You’re just out there on the mountains getting a view of the scenery, the different topography. It’s just a rather amazing thing to do.

Dr. Kent: Let’s talk a little bit about New Years; it’s coming up. Do you get a lot of people coming in saying, “It’s my New Year’s resolution to get in shape”? What do you tell those folks?

Lisa: I tell them that it should go beyond a New Year’s resolution, because resolutions often get broken. It should just be something that is going to become your way of life. Start to see yourself as an outdoor person, and that’s the way–if you make the total commitment that you’re an outdoor person and this is important to you–then it will be natural for you to want to stay in shape for your sport.

Dr. Kent: I can see several different personalities of athletes. My father and I tend to be very extreme athletes. We like to push the limits, but my mother, when she goes skiing, she’s thinking about the hot chocolate at the end of the hill. Do you get both types?

Lisa: Well, that’s a big part of it. I was talking beforehand about Portillo in South America. When we went the conditions were not really all that good, but the whole environment, it’s just a rather amazing place.It turns out that the same people will often book the same week every year so they can come back to see their friends. You’ve got a lot of the international ski teams going out there, and they just hobnob and socialize with everybody.Part of the day is just spent in the afternoon in the lounge having some cocoa, chatting with people. So, I always tell people don’t overlook the entire experience. For some people, it’s going to be about the thrill and the challenge, but for others there’s just something very wonderful and relaxing about the experience. It can be catered to each person’s preferences.

Dr. Kent: Where can we find out about your next project?

Lisa: You should check out my website which is mountainsport–no “s” at the end of sport–just sportfitness.com.

Dr. Kent: Mountainsportfitness.com?

Lisa: Dotcom.

Dr. Kent: Sally Franz’s book is called, “Stressing down for the…” Sorry, “Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness”. My next guest’s book is called, “Stressing down for the Holidays”.But, on that subject, stressing down for the holidays; how do you feel after doing the exercise of skiing? Is it the same as running or running a marathon, as you said you did before?

Lisa: It’s a little bit different. There is a similar type of thrill, but I would say it’s a little bit more mellow. You feel a little bit more relaxed at the end of a ski run, whereas in a marathon you’re often still a little bit hyper and you’re talking very, very quickly because you’re just moving very quickly. But, the skier’s high is a little bit more mellow.

Dr. Kent: Cool. What are some tips for winter fitness besides just skiing for us this winter? What if, like in my area, we don’t have much snow?

Lisa: OK. Balance training is extremely important for any kind of snow sport. You want to get yourself a stability ball which is very, very inexpensive nowadays. There are some great exercises that you can do on the ball, which I’ve covered in detail in my book.You also want to learn to keep your core muscles, your deeper abdominal muscles very active. And, that’s very simple to do. All you need to do is about 10 times a day draw your belly in and see if you can hold it tight for about 10 seconds; that’s all. Eventually, that will train the deeper core muscles to support you, and eventually you will find your balance will start to get better.

Dr. Kent: What’s the importance of physical balance in terms of our everyday lives?

Lisa: In terms of our everyday life, they keep us from getting injured. One of the biggest causes of injury in older adults is falling, but if you start training your balance at an earlier age you are less likely to fall.Out here in Colorado we have women and men in their late 80s who are still skiing. Although it’s intriguing to watch them ski, it’s equally fascinating to watch them walk across an icy village in their ski boots, carrying their skis and being totally balanced. But, that’s because they started training for it when they were younger.

Dr. Kent: How has athletics balanced your life?

Lisa: That’s an interesting question. It’s balanced it in a number of ways. It’s made me see that balance in the general aspects of my life, balancing work and play, balancing play and family time, balancing work and family time and spending more time with my pets.When we first started to learn to ski, we had just adopted a greyhound. It turned out our greyhound really, really loved the snow. So, we just started taking ski vacations with our greyhound. Eventually, she was part of the decision of moving us out to Colorado.

Dr. Kent: Do you put skis on her?

Lisa: No, we don’t put skis on her, but she absolutely loves to play in the snow. The other day we had some deep powder, and she decided to just jump into it to do her business. And, it was so funny because all you could see was her little smiling head sticking up with her mouth wide open and looking like she was laughing. I wished I’d brought a camera. It was really adorable.

Dr. Kent: That’s a great picture to leave us with. Thank you so much for being on the show, Lisa Marie Mercer. Her website, again, is…tell me again.

Lisa: Mountainsportfitness.com.

Dr. Kent: Mountainsportfitness.com and her book is, “Open Your Heart with Winter Fitness”. And we’ll all do our best to do that. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Lisa: Thank you so much for having me. Have a great day. Bye-bye.

Dr. Kent: You, too. Sally Franz is my next guest with “Stressing down for the Holidays”. Come on back.[music]

Posted by admin | Filed Under Christmas, Food, Health, Holidays, Travel, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, TRANSCRIPTS, Sports, PODCAST 

Jon-Paul Hutchins | Holiday Cuisine

December 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment

 
icon for podpress  Interview with Jon Paul Hutchins: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We had the pleasure of speaking with chef extraordinaire Jon-Paul Hutchins of the Scottsdale Culinary Institute.  He talks with us about holiday cooking, and the importance of culinary teaching programs in the country today. The following is from his press packet online: 


Chef, educator, comedian, musician – Jon-Paul Hutchins has done it all. And after 26 years in fine restaurants across the globe, Executive Chef Hutchins now leads in the kitchen and the classroom at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

After receiving his degree from the Culinary Institute of America and working under some of Europe’s best chefs and mentors, Hutchins returned to America to take the chef position at a small French Bistro. Soon, he was one of the youngest chefs (just 21!) ever reviewed by The New York Times. Not content to rest, Chef Jon-Paul set out to learn more – working in 1,500 seat restaurants, 30 seat bistros, clipper ships and yachts. Impressed by his unique style – no yelling, no screaming, focused on fun –

an apprentice asked him to teach at the New York Restaurant School and Chef Jon-Paul found his passion.

While teaching, Hutchins studied improv comedy at the Manhattan Punch Line and Chicago City Limits. A classically trained violinist and drummer, he also found time to record with former members of Blondie and Iggy Pop and performed as a singer/songwriter/guitarist with his own bands.

For over a decade, Executive Chef Jon-Paul has taught thousands of students at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute – creating an environment where fun and learning go hand-in-hand. In 2001, Chef Jon-Paul and his wife Miss Leslie hit the airwaves in their nationally syndicated radio show “Hot Cuisine with Chef Jon-Paul and the Lovely Miss Leslie” – a mix of cooking and comedy heard in over thirty markets. He has also appeared on HGTV’s “Going Home” and as a featured chef on The Food Network’s “Sara’s Secrets”

with Sara Moulton! 

Posted by admin | Filed Under Food, Christmas, Holidays, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST 

Natalia Ippolito | Stress-Free Travel

December 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment

 
icon for podpress  Interview with Natalia Ippolito: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On the show today, we spoke with Natalia Ippolito about her new book: I Might As Well Be Naked.  This is a must-read, and a must-listen podcast for anyone preparing to travel on the holidays! The following is a biography from Natalia’s website: www.airportbook.com 


Natalia Ippolito is a screenwriter and co-wrote the award-winning screenplay Little Napali Warriors. In addition, she co-wrote the award-winning documentary Bay Area Ghosts.   Like many writers supplementing their incomes in a non-writing occupation, she was part of an elite team with the Transportation Security Administration as an Airport Dual Function Security Screener.   As a meticulously trained TSA dual-function screener, Natalia’s standout abilities to identify and locate potentially life-threatening devices and devices intended on creating massive destruction were quickly recognized by her supervisors. She effectively devoted thousands of hours in front of x-ray monitors and screening passengers and luggage. Her remarkable gift to interact positively with a mostly disgruntled public contributed to her acknowledged superior effectiveness in both crisis and routine situations in a highly stressful environment.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Christmas, Holidays, Travel, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST