By:  Dawn Workman Bounds

About 10 years ago, I hit a crossroad.  It was one month after 9/11, my best friend was just finishing up a battle with breast cancer, and I got to thinking about what life and living really meant to me and how I could do it “better.”

My best friend in the world had survived breast cancer and her doctor had told her she needed to detoxify her body regularly since she chose not to do chemo and opted for a more holistic approach (which included surgery and radiation, but no drugs).  She discovered and turned me on to Bikram Yoga and ever since, I am addicted to it.

That was just the first change I made to the way I live.

Yoga changes your body inside and out.  It builds muscle and tones you and even improves the function of your organs.  Bikram yoga specifically cleanses your body through detoxification via sweating.  After practicing Bikram Yoga for several months, I started to “sweat clean,” meaning there was no odor.  Bikram yoga also helped me change my eating habits completely, mainly because you cannot practice 26 postures for 90 minutes in a room that is heated to 105 degrees if your system is full of sugar, caffeine, fat,  processed food, and the aftereffects of alcohol.

I had a toddler at the time that I began practicing yoga, and that made me a fanatic about anything she ingested.  I learned how to prepare fresh foods from scratch, which is something I still do at least five nights a week because it is quite challenging to eat healthy when dining out.

I also found that Bikram yoga helps me to perform my job as a court reporter, which, as all reporters know, can be very challenging physically, as well as mentally.  This type of yoga forces me to focus and concentrate for 90 minutes only on myself and the words of the yoga instructor.  There is a posture called Locust, or Salabhasana, that keeps the muscles in my forearms stretched out and loose, and therefore I have no symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Besides cleansing regularly through Bikram yoga, here are some other healthy rules I live my life by:

• Everything in moderation.
• Don’t skip breakfast.  I cannot perform my job very well if I don’t have some protein.  I sometimes will even boil a couple eggs in the morning while I’m getting ready if I know I’m not going to have to time to eat.  I’ll eat them in my car on the way to the job if I have to.  I pretty much only drink water at a job.  I might have a little caffeine or an apple or banana for some sugar in the afternoon if it’s a particularly grueling job.  I carry nuts…raw almonds are best.
• A good tip for lunch is if you order a salad, order it custom. Ask that things like cheese, dressing, croutons, and bacon are either left off or on the side.  That way you can still get a little of something that’s not that good for you, but you control your intake.  If you get a sandwich, try tuna.  Protein is really helpful for concentration, for me anyway.  Lately, I’ve started getting some tuna or chicken salad without the bread, just on lettuce with veggies.  You just have to figure out what foods make you feel the best.
• Read labels.  I won’t buy a box of cereal that has more than 9 g of sugar per serving.  I won’t buy a jar of sauce or a can of anything that has more than 500 g of sodium.  I prefer to buy meat at a butcher shop and try to buy organic and free range products.
• Buy organic whenever possible—especially if you will be eating the skin (versus peeling it off).
• Avoid soda and drink LOTS of water.  Eight glasses a day isn’t nearly enough, especially with exercise.  Keeping yourself hydrated is good for everything from your digestion and elimination to how your skin looks and feels.
• Stay away from refined sugar. I use Stevia and Truvia to sweeten and I don’t buy anything, i.e., applesauce, peanut butter, etc., with sugar added.  You can rinse anything canned to remove some of the sugar/salt from it.
• Buy “real” and “natural” things, rather than things with a lot of chemicals added or artificial flavors
• Rinse ground meats under hot water to eliminate excess grease after cooking.
• Cook with olive oil.

If you incorporate some of these tips into your daily life, you won’t believe what a difference it will make in your energy level and how you feel.  I can’t remember the last time I had a cold/flu.   I attribute that to the fact that I get rid of my toxins through exercise and diet, which in turn boosts my immune system.

Sleep is the other activity that court reporters don’t get enough of, and I know from experience that that sometimes can’t be helped in this line of work.  A healthy lifestyle will help with that, too.  I get my best sleep, even if it’s only 5 or 6 hours, on the nights after I do yoga.  I think I just sleep deeper and I’m more relaxed.

As you can probably tell, I’m really passionate about healthy eating and exercise.  I hope some of the information I’ve provided has been helpful to you, even though I’m certainly no expert; it’s just what I do.

Namaste.

Palm Beach, Florida:  Jan Ballman, Registered Professional Reporter / Certified Manager of Reporting Services,  attended the National Court Reporters Association’s Annual Firm Owners Executive Conference, where court reporting firm owners from around the globe gathered to network and share best practices.   Ballman is a Trustee on the National Court Reporters Foundation Board as well as the President and CEO of Paradigm Reporting & Captioning, Minneapolis, MN…Minnesota’s largest reporting agency and home to the most highly certified court reporters in Minnesota

Palm Beach, FLA: Paradigm President Jan Ballman with DepoSpan President Shelly Hunter, Principal of Hunter+Geist, Paradigm’s Denver affiliate, were in attendance at the international association’s annual meeting on February 5th.

By:  Karen Kelly Larson, RPR

Don’t pretend to be puzzled by the Christmas greeting; you reporters out there all know that that would be a blatant falsehood.  Every time reporters see that misplaced apostrophe, be it on a greeting card, a mailbox, whatever, it makes them want to stick a red pen in their eyeball.  If we’re puzzled by anything, it’s the context within which the apostrophe is used:    Merry Christmas from “the” Larson’s what?  Or why is only ONE of the Larsons sending Christmas greetings?  Have all the other Larsons been inadvertently offended?

Such is the plight of court reporters:  It is impossible to blithely peruse the written world which surrounds us without mentally red-penning all the errors that we perceive within it.  A personal case in point occurred when I attended my father-in-law’s company-sponsored retirement banquet.  A beautiful, glossy brochure that chronicled his career had been given to those assembled for the event, but rather than admiring this testimonial, all that went through my mind as I read it was, “Geez, they REALLY should have had me proof this before it went to the printer.”

I am enough of a realist to accept the fact that I have achieved geezer status, and I also acknowledge that the English language is not a static, inanimate object, but rather an ever-evolving, living organism, which is a puffed-up way of saying that I know that many things that were once considered incorrect spelling and/or grammar usage have now become the norm, and even dictionary-entry fact (“ginormous” anyone?).  Still, the college language major in me cannot help but lament how far afield “acceptable” seems to have traveled.  I understand the need for brevity and brief forms when texting (don’t all court reporters?), but the posting atrocities perpetrated on sites such as Facebook make a vein reminiscent of the River Nile rise and pulse in the middle of my forehead.  Then there is the decade-long battle that my son Sam and I have waged over the importance of proper language structure.  When I would express my disgust at his penchant for skewering his gifted prose with spelling and punctuation flubs, his standard response was, “Mom, the teachers don’t care about that,” and the sordid truth is that for far too many years, they really didn’t; their focus was more on content than structure, with little or no penalty for crimes against the King’s speech (sorry; just couldn’t resist getting that one in there).  I would darkly warn Sam that the time would come when it WAS going to matter and that then he would BEG me to red-pen his papers – and it did come, in the form of AP European History in his sophomore year (and yes, he did beg).

I think the plain truth is that in this era of immediacy — shorter, faster, NOW – how we communicate information has changed, largely as a result of technological advances (in fact, keyboard usage is so prevalent that many schools no longer teach cursive handwriting), so oftentimes structural language formalities get kicked to the curb in favor of just “gitting ‘er done,” while we court reporters, as a profession, pride ourselves on “gitting ‘er right.”  The world, unfortunately, refuses to yield to our will, so it behooves us to cultivate a mental squint and to quiet the itchy hand that clutches a red pen.  We shall content ourselves with being secretly smug that our own transcripts are a true paradigm – the gold standard, done right, every time.

There is, however, one exception to the “squint” rule, at least for this reporter:   For those making entries on the family grocery list, if they don’t spell it right, I’m not going to buy it.

Article XX rocks Paradigm Reporting's Annual Meeting/Holiday Party!

Minneapolis, MN:  Paradigm court reporters and staff gathered together at the Ramada Plaza Minneapolis for its annual Reporter Meeting and Kick-Off The New Year Bash.

As the largest court reporting firm in Minnesota, it’s always a challenge to get the whole team under one roof.  This is the one day out of the year that staff and court reporters hold open to be together. Following the court reporter annual meeting, Fay Gold of Macy’s by Appointment out of the Downtown Minneapolis location, provided a sneak peek at the hottest spring fashions and then provided Top Ten Accessories No Woman Should Be Without.   Happy Hour and dinner followed, which included honoring the 2011 Employee of the Year (Jeff Musch), the 2011 Court Reporter of the Year (Lori Morrow), the ABCD Champion (Angie Ballman-Punton), and Team Paradigm’s MVP Court Reporter (Liz Gangl).    Paradigm was proud to host the band Article XX, a local musical group made up of attorneys and paralegals from the Lommen Abdo Law Firm located in Downtown Minneapolis.

Angie Ballman-Punton, Lisa Richardson, and Karen Larson pose with WWII veteran Jerry Haverberg.

Madison, MN:  Carlyle Larsen, a 2011 Paradigm Veterans History Project Day participant, expressed how disappointed his good friend, WWII veteran and fellow Madison, Minnesota resident Jerry Haverberg was to miss the opportunity to tell his war stories for the Library of Congress.  Mr. Haverberg couldn’t make the trip to Minneapolis because he is receiving hospice care from his home for terminal bone cancer.

Upon hearing this, Karen Larson, Carlyle’s interviewer, and Lisa Richardson, his court reporter, volunteered to make the three hour journey west to capture Jerry’s incredible story.

Jerry was part of the first batch of troops to be sent overseas after war was declared.  He was only 17 years old at the time.  He was captured in the North African campaign and was nearly executed.  He fought on the front lines against Rommel and his troops.

Angie Punton served as a stand-in videographer for the day, and our Paradigm team was able to capture Jerry’s story, not only for his family, but for preservation by the Library of Congress for generations to come.

Minneapolis, MN – Paradigm Reporting & Captioning hosted its Second Annual Veterans History Project Day on October 29, 2011.  Year Two was just as successful as the first as we collected the testimonies of three World War II Veterans and one Vietnam veteran for preservation at the United States Library of Congress.  Paradigm court reporters, videographers and staff volunteered their time and talent to make this day possible.

Minneapolis, MN:  Team Paradigm had an impressive showing for the Walk4Hearing supporting the Hearing Loss Association of America at Lake Calhoun.  The mission of this 5K walk was to raise awareness for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and help eliminate the stigmas attached to hearing loss.

Las Vegas, Nevada – Jan Ballman, RPR, CMRS, President of Paradigm Reporting and Captioning, Minneapolis, MN, was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the National Court Reporters Foundation for a one-year term at the National Court Reporters Association Annual Convention. Ms. Ballman is in her second year of service to the Board of Trustees. The National Court Reporters Foundation supports the court reporting and captioning professions through philanthropic activities funded through charitable contributions.

Minneapolis, MN:  Jan Ballman, President of Paradigm Reporting & Captioning, sponsored and hosted “Top Ten Tips & Take-Aways for Legal Wine Enthusiasts,” the first event put on by the Legal Wine Lovers Committee, a sub-committee of Minnesota Women Lawyers.  The event was held at B.A.N.K. at the Westin Hotel where wine and appetizers were served.  The wine selection consisted of Peter Lehman’s Barossa Shiraz and Jordan J’s Pinot Gris.

Pictured:  Christine Swanson, Swanson Law Office; Jan Ballman, Paradigm Reporting & Captioning; Stacey Sorenson, Hansen Dordell Bradt Odlaug & Bradt; and Leora Maccabee, Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand