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Archive for December, 2009

The Day of Many Dates

Dec 31

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy New Year’s Eve!  :)   My eyes popped open at 4:03 a.m. this morning – oh boy, midnight seems like a L-O-O-O-N-G time from now.  I have a feeling I’ll be celebrating on East Coast time and out like a light at 10:02.  ;)   That is, if MSP is driving us home from the party.  If not, I better borrow some toothpicks from the marinated mushrooms I’m taking so that I can keep my eyelids propped open long enough to drive home.  Then it might me more like 10:32.

Yesterday was a great (if not super busy) day.  I had dates with a couple of “new friends”, Tanya and Alicia.

First Tanya.  She is the instructor on the “Physique 57″ DVD.  Still doing my ‘try lots of new exercises till I can get OUTSIDE for a run’ game.

There is only ONE reason really that I chose to purchase this DVD – this little lady right here:

(Photo Source)

I have a little “fitness crush” on Kelly Ripa.  So if SHE does it, I wanna try it too.   Her transformation through the years has been fun to watch.  She’s said in the past that she goes to classes at Physique 57, so now that it’s available via DVD I wanted to see what it does to my body, being someone who already works out with weights and runs.  I’ll keep you posted for sure!

My second date was with Alicia Silverstone:

It was a short date, only enough time for one chapter.  I’ve been coveting this book since its release.  And I took a good long look through it at Borders the day after Christmas.  It has a beautiful full color format and a lot of great recipes.  And as much as I wanted to take it home that day, I knew it was half the price on Amazon.  The first chapter and the intro are great – I have a feeling I’ll love this book.  I’ll give a better review when I’ve read it and tried some recipes.

I also had dates with Costco, Vitamin Cottage, Safeway and Whole Foods!  (Any guesses on what I had for dinner? Yep, Gigande Beans at the WF Food Bar!)

And last but not least I had a date with my kitchen.  It was a messy date, can ya tell?   :)

When you are in the mood for new recipes that are healthy, raw and vegan, head on over to Choosing Raw.

Gena’s blog always inspires me.  She has a style of writing that I could read all day.   And recipes that I could try all day as well.  This week, I tried her Raw Zucchini Hummus and her Cashew Cheese with Meyer Lemon & Cherries.  Except that my hummus wasn’t completely raw, and my ‘cheese’ didn’t have meyer lemons OR cherries in it.  But you work with what you’ve got, right?

The zucchini hummus is genius.  I love it.  I will love it even more when the tahini that I currently have in stock is GONE (because it’s roasted AND salted) and then I can buy the raw unsalted version.  This brand I have in the fridge has an almost burnt flavor that is too strong in this hummus, but luckily it has mellowed out in the fridge the last few days.

Per Gena’s recipe notes I did NOT add the sesame seeds so in turn I also left out the olive oil. It came out with a perfect hummus consistency.  ;)   Yesterday I smeared it on Wasa crackers with some mashed avocado and leftover black bean burgers halves for lunch at my desk.

I know, I know, again with the blurry iPhone photo! How 'bout that snazzy legal pad placemat too?

And the sweet Cashew Cheese?  Amazing.  It reminds me of neufchatel cheese with the subtle tart and sweet flavor.  I couldn’t find Meyer Lemons (so I used regular lemons) and I didn’t have dried cherries (so I added a small palmful of raisins), but it’s fantastic nonetheless.  It made me want to smear it all over a cranberry bagel.  But that would defeat my ‘clean eating’ somewhat.  So instead I’ll probably put it on some Ezekial toast or a sweet wheat cracker that I happen to have on hand. It would also make a perfect breakfast crepe filling.

Gena's Cashew Cheese with Lemon

Part of the excitement in trying this cashew cheese?  Getting to use one of my new xmas gifts from MSP:

A microplane superfine zester!  It rocks!!  I’ve been using a teeny tiny thing that only takes off one piece of zest at a time, so I was SO excited to find this inside some gift wrap under the tree!!  (Isn’t MSP the best??  I’m certainly a lucky girl!)

***

I’ve been reflecting on what an interesting year 2009 has been.  It started off a bit on the rough side and is ending beautifully.  Isn’t it fun to rewind the year and consider all of the changes that you never would have expected?  If you’d asked me last December 31 if I thought I’d:

  • walk away from my job with the really NICE salary and benefits during an economic recession
  • stop eating chicken, beef, pork and cow’s dairy and finally be someone who eats veggies because she WANTS to
  • eliminate soda, artificial sweeteners and a list of other ‘health thieves’
  • go back to personal training
  • start a fit living blog (and actually STICK WITH IT for more than 2 days!)
  • make new & wonderful friends all over the country from that blog (I love you guys!)
  • be able to go off ALL medications (and it was quite the laundry list)
  • recover from chronic insomnia
  • go on an RV adventure with my mom and grandma
  • and much, much more

I would have said you were talking crazy talk.

But lo and behold, that is what this year has included.  How about you?  What’s the most ‘surprising’ thing that’s happened this year that you would never have expected when you started 2009?

It has been an absolutely ENLIGHTENING year.  And I can’t WAIT to see what 2010 brings!

Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR celebration tonight!  I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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Fun with Zucchini

Dec 30

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Hi friends!  It’s Wednesday!

Are you excited for New Year’s Eve tomorrow?  I am!  Not that I’ll see midnight (I rarely do anymore!)

This morning’s post has to be a QUICK one.  Thanks to some technical difficulties (you know me and my electric force field that seems to freak out all the stuff I use) I wasn’t able to get online to work on the post this morning as I usually do.  Now I’m crunched for time!  Can’t we add about 3 more hours of TIME to each day?

On the exercise front, our new Wii game arrived last night, “Just Dance” and I had a hilarious time trying to follow the dance to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” (I have video but it will take a lot of money to get me to post it!)  ;) This game is crazy fun.  I love it.  Next time I’ll have to wear my heart rate monitor to see how it fares as ‘exercise’.  It FELT like I was working hard.  Somehow in the video, my “hip hop dancing” looks more like a Jane Fonda aerobics video!!

Basic eats yesterday to be sure.  Oatmeal in the morning with some raisins, coconut, raw honey and cinnamon:

Mid-morning I had two mandarin oranges.  Lunch was another Black Bean burger with a side of leftover tomato soup from Chipotle… gotta love my dark and blurry iPhone pics at my desk!

That’s a “Veggie Slice” soy cheese on there along with some zucchini hummus, romaine, cucumber and roma tomato.

Dinner was odd, but fun.  I took two Wasa crackers, smeared them with zucchini hummus, added pepitas, sun dried tomatoes, half of a small avocado, then covered the whole thing with spiralized zucchini.  Mmmm.  Funny looking, but GOOD!

Yes, Santa brought me a spiralizer!  And I swore I took a picture of it, but I can’t find it so I’ll have to take another one.  I’ve added this spiralizer to my FitFeat Faves Store, so you can take a gander at it there for now if you’d like.  I used the medium blade on this one so that I ended up with zucchini ‘noodles’ the thickness of spaghetti!  This is the best way to have fun eating your veggies!  Thank you, Santa!!  I’ll be talking a lot more about this fun tool in future posts.

My apologies for the Speedy Gonzales post but I have to head to work or I’ll be late!  :)   I still have to pack my lunch and I need to be on the road in 8 minutes!  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday friends!  See you soon!

– Shari B. =)

Product Review: LifeTime Vegan Protein Powder

Dec 29

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 4 Comments

Hi FitFeat peeps!

Thanks for all the kind comments about my hobbled bod – it’s SO much better now.  Not 100% but darn close.  Ahh, bubble baths are the best! :)

Previously I’d mentioned that I’d soon be offering up a review on a new protein powder so without further ado, here it is!

I’ve been on the hunt for new PLANT-based protein powders recently.  I am almost out of my current brand of rice protein (Nutribiotic) and want to broaden my vegan protein horizons a bit.  There’s another popular brand of brown rice protein out there that I have read about in other blogs and gets good reviews but it seemed a  pretty costly.  Upon reading reviews on Amazon of that particular protein powder I ran across someone talking about this brand, which I hadn’t heard of before:

Lifetime “Life’s Basics Plant Protein”

I was immediately interested in trying this protein because it was made from a variety of protein sources (yellow pea, hemp, rice and chia) rather than JUST from rice or JUST from hemp.  I contacted the company to see if they would be willing to provide a sample so that I may try it out and in turn review it here for you on FitFeat.  Their response was that they did not offer samples or coupons at this time, but that I could purchase a trial size at my local health food store.   Well, the only local store that I found to carry their products was Sunflower Market.  But they didn’t carry the sample size.  So I had to buy the big container.

(I include that info so that you know this is not a paid endorsement of any kind.  I do not at this time have any affiliation with Lifetime products and do not profit from this review.  Maybe someday in the future companies will send things to my doorstep to review, as I read about on other blogs, but for now I purchase the items you see reviewed and recommended on FitFeat! :) )

But I digress…

I wanted to try this protein a few different ways before giving thumbs up or down.

  1. I mixed the powder with just almond milk to gauge its mixability in a shaker cup and not in a blender
  2. I mixed the powder with almond milk and a banana in a blender to gauge its overall flavor as a smoothie component
  3. I added the powder to my oatmeal (after cooking)
  4. I mixed the powder into my chia seed pudding.

My thoughts:

I’m very impressed with this protein.  ;)   This powder will get used often in my meals and smoothies.

  • It has great ‘mixability’ in just a shaker cup so that I can easily pack it to go and not need any sort of blender.  No weird ‘chunkage’ you sometimes see with protein powders.
  • I like the macronutrient ratio (1 scoop is 129 calories, 22g protein, 5g carb, 2.67g sugar, 2g fiber, 1g fat)
  • Its flavor goes well with everything into I’ve tried it in so far
  • It made my chia pudding SO MUCH more palatable  (since I’d been struggling to LIKE chia pudding).
  • According to their website, this protein powder “does not contain yeast, corn, soy, gluten, wheat, milk, egg, whey or any artificial ingredients or preservatives.”
  • A competitive price at $24 for just over 18 oz (15 large scoops, which for me will probably end up being 30 half-size servings).  Since I’m not ‘bodybuilding’ anymore, I’m not interested in getting 20-30 grams of protein with each meal.  Half a scoop with 11 grams of protein will work just fine for my needs.

The only negative (and this is really a minor one) is that it’s almost TOO sweet.  I see that there is an unsweetened version available at Amazon but I don’t see it actually on their website.  I purchased Vanilla because that was the only flavor offered at Sunflower Market.  Luckily I like sweet flavors in my smoothies and oats so it’ll be fine.  But next time around I’d like to try the unsweetened one and compare.  The plus to the Vanilla being so sweet (for those of you watching sugar and/or fruit intake) is that you can sweeten your GREEN SMOOTHIES without adding as much (or any) fruit.

Verdict:  Definitely RECOMMENDED  :)

***

A few highlights from my Monday eats for you:
I thought I’d try combining my dried greens in my oatmeal in the morning (since I knew I wouldn’t be making a green smoothie).  Hmm, probably won’t be doing that again anytime soon.  The first few bites were icky then I got used to it and ate the rest with no trouble.

An apple and an apple pie Larabar packed for while at work…

And for dinner I made homemade Black Bean Burgers, using a cutout from an Ezekial pita as the “bun” along with a pepper jack Veggie Slice (‘cheez’), romaine, roma tomato and spicy mustard:

Fast, easy and FLAVORFUL!  Just how I like my food to be…

OK kids, make your TUESDAY tip-top!  :)   I’ll see you again very soon!

– Shari B. =)


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Cuts Like Buttah

Dec 28

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools | 5 Comments

Noooooo…. I’m not ready for the long holiday weekend to be over!!!  This is always my favorite weekend of the year!  Do we HAVE to go back to work?  :)

If I was the type of person who called in sick (but I’m not), today would be the day for it because somehow I managed to hobble myself yesterday.  During a workout, of all things.  I’m not even sure what movement did it, but it has something to do with my hip flexors.  I stretched off and on all day yesterday, did some yoga, all to no avail.  I have yet to pop an ibuprofen though.  That is the absolute last resort.  I know, I’m weird.  But once you get all that garbage out of your system, it’s a tough choice to put it back in.  Since April 1, I’ve had two Advil and that’s IT.

It’s a little better this morning so I’ll take the morning off of working out, and soak in the tub instead to see if that loosens anything up.  I exercised all 4 days of my long holiday weekend.  Tomorrow is my planned ‘rest day’ so I’ll just flip-flop my days.  This is my cue that I NEED more core strengthening work if a few days of core DVDs cripples me!  Ha!

Yesterday was a nice, normal veggie-filled food day.  A 30 oz. green smoothie in the morning:

A Banana Bread Larabar during the 10:00 a.m. showing of “Sherlock Holmes”:

A super-sized Shari salad in the 11″ bowl (I’ve missed my big bowl…) with spinach, dulse, roma tomatoes, spiralized zucchini, nutritional yeast, chia seeds and topped with 1 tbsp of Annie’s Goddess dressing.

With a side of baked kale (that looks burnt, but it’s not).  It’s red kale so it has a deep purple/red color:

An easy, early “dinner” of Ezekial toast with almond butter and raw honey drizzle, with a side of decaf  (the Broncos game was still on and I didn’t want to miss anything making a meal):

And an evening snack of two Wasa light rye crackers smeared with Tofutti (the ‘un-cream cheese’) and sprinkled with cumin and Mrs. Dash:

It was a fiber-licious day to be sure! :)

Riley got a dose of fiber too (of the synthetic variety) thanks to ripping her Christmas gift to shreds.  Poor stuffed squirrel.  Riley was too tired to even flee from the crime scene:

I, on the other hand, take much better care of MY Christmas gifts.  :)

As mentioned I have a bunch of them to tell you about (because I am incredibly blessed to have received so many great gifts from my family).  One of which is a new set of AWESOME knives from my mom. When I was visiting her back in September, I was crazy for her RADA knives and utensils.  I had two small RADA knives that I’d received as gifts back in 1991 and they LOOK like they’ve been used a TON.  My mom had the cool extras like a tomato knife, a peeler, and all sorts of other neat knives.  So I was thrilled when I opened a wrapped gift containing a whole SET of these cool tools.  It’s hard to see through the curtain of hair here but there’s a silly grin on my face (and apparently Riley and Rascal are just as excited about my gift):

They are SHARP!!!  I guess all of my other knives must need sharpening, because I forgot how nice it is to slice through food like it’s “BUTTAH”  :)

The potato peeler worked like a charm peeling this mango:

If you have a foodie in your life, I highly recommend gifting them with something from RADA.  I’m so impressed.  And I can tell you that these will be used every single day in this house!  I even rearranged my knife drawer so that I can keep them in their gift box and have easy access to them as I’m prepping veggies every day.  And I just noticed that they are available through Amazon.com so you can bet I’ll be adding these to the FitFeat “Favorite Things” Store!

Thanks for the GREAT gift, Mom!  PERFECT!

Today’s question:  Do you have a favorite brand of knife or prep utensil that you use daily? Drop a comment to share with us!

Have yourself a MARVELOUS Monday, friends!  I’m off to hit the tub and then to work!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Spicy Basil StirFry

Dec 27

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 3 Comments

Hi friends!  Yes, it’s Sunday and I’m putting out a blog post.  I figured since I used Christmas Day as my ‘blog maintenance day’ I’d write today and share a “build-a-meal” creation with you.

MSP and I made a Christmas Eve dinner in an attempt to recreate one of his favorite dishes at a local asian restaurant, Basil Chicken.  For FitFeat it will be Spicy Basil Stir-Fry, since we also made a meatless batch.

As usual there will be future tweaks I’ll make to this recipe the next time around (because I don’t think I ever do a recipe the same way twice!)  For instance, I may try this in a crock pot with rice already in it to see if the flavors infuse MSP’s chicken version better or maybe marinate the chicken beforehand.

Spicy Basil Stir-Fry:

For the Stir-In ‘Sauce’ (mix before you start your stirfry pan):

  • 3 TBSP water
  • 1/2 TBSP white wine
  • 1/2 TBSP agave nectar
  • 1/2 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce
  • black pepper (a few good shakes)

Remaining Ingredients:

  • 1 TBSP oil of your choice for stir-frying (I used macadamia nut oil, but you could use coconut oil or another oil that has a high smoke point)
  • minced fresh garlic (I used a rounded 1/2 tsp – add more or less based on how much garlic flavor you like)
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • Sliced jalapeno peppers (I used pre-sliced jarred, about 3 TBSP.  Again to taste – if you like spice, go to town!)
  • 1 large handful of fresh basil leaves
  • Stir-fry veggies and/or meat of choice (approx 1 lb if you are using just chicken, less if you are mixing chicken AND veggies.  For my pan I used one HUGE portabella mushroom, green pepper, and broccoli)

Make your sauce first.  I made two batches of the ‘sauce’ because we had two pans going.  One for MSP with chicken and NO veggies.   One for me with ALL veggies and no chicken.

Slice your veggies and/or meat into thin strips.

Heat oil in stir-fry pan and sautee the minced garlic until golden brown.  (We started with high heat and I burnt my garlic to a crisp and had to start over, so I recommend medium heat for the garlic.)

Add the veggies or meat to the pan and NOW turn the heat up!  :)   Stir constantly while cooking, about 4 minutes or until your chicken or veggies are looking done.

Add the jalapenos and the ‘sauce’.  Continue stirring and cooking to coat well and cook down some of the liquid, maybe another minute or two.  Then splash with the lime juice (no more than 2 TBSP) and throw in the basil leaves.  Cook just until the basil is wilted.

Serve over brown rice if you like or just enjoy as is!

Here is a pic of MSP’s Basil Chicken:

And here is a pic of my Basil Veggies:

And the leftovers are GREAT with this dish.   I had some leftover tofu and udon noodles, so I topped that with my leftover Basil Veggies, added a splash of soy sauce and a dollop of tahini and it was AWESOME:

MSP’s review was that he would like MORE basil in his the next time, which is why I think I’ll marinate his chicken prior to stir-frying.  However, my veggie dish turned out very flavorful because I think the mushroom soaked up all the spice from the jalapeno and alot of the lime.

Give this dish a try and play with the flavors as YOU like them – then come back to FitFeat and share your thoughts!

Have a great day FitFeat friends!

– Shari B. =)

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My Mug Runneth Over

Dec 26

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, Product Review | 7 Comments

Good morning blog friends!

I hope that each of you had a fabulous day yesterday, whether you were celebrating Christmas or celebrating that it was Friday.  Ours was another fun-filled day.  I spent a lot of time working on the blog, trying to get a particular plug-in to work (no luck yet).  I also did some rearranging of the widgets in the sidebars and footers.  I finally took the time to set up my affiliate link with JustHost, where FitFeat is hosted.  So if you have a blog that is not currently self-hosted, and you decide to go that route, feel free to click on JustHost from the banner in the sidebar and if you sign up, they’ll know I sent ya!

I have so many things to share that I don’t even know where to start!

I suppose since I’m writing this post at 6:38 in the morning that I’ll start the post in much the same fashion as I start every single day:  with coffee.

Early readers of my blog know that I have a thing for coffee mugs, especially Starbucks coffee mugs.  My mom included two new SBUX mugs for my collection this Christmas (thanks Mom!)  I used the “Ohio” mug right away.

You know it’s a long holiday weekend with lots of spare time when one arranges their mugs for photos:

Those are just my mugs from Starbucks.  I have another group of fun mugs NOT from the BUX.

MSP also surprised me with mugs for Christmas.  He found two really unique ones.  A “Dunk Mug”  that has a slot on the bottom to hold your cookies:

Is that genius or what??  Now I have a place to store my Newman O’s while they are awaiting their dunk into almond milk!  :)   The second mug was just as fun:

There has been a lot of coffee and cocoa drinking going on at my house in the last few days, playing with my new mugs!  (Apparently I’m easily entertained!)

It was definitely a ‘kitchen’ theme for my gifts this year and I feel so incredibly blessed to have received such loving and thoughtful gifts.  I’ll be detailing them in the days to come.  One of the gifts Santa brought was a SPIRALIZER!!  Wahooo, happy dance!  You’ll be sure to see some zucchini pasta pics very soon!

***

Because we’ve had more snow, I’m exercising indoors and dreaming of a warmer day soon to get out for another run.  In the meantime, to keep any exercise boredom at bay I’ve done a few days of DVD fitness, one of which was Cathe Friedrich’s CORE MAX.  (FitTV shows edited versions of her videos daily, calling them Cardio Blast, if you ever want to check out her training.)  YOWZA – it’s been a long time since I’ve focused on abs for a solid 30 minutes.  My abs were burning so bad I thought for sure that the next day I’d be curled up in the fetal position, unable to get out of bed.  As it turned out, my core was the right amount of sore.

However, where I DID feel it the next day …  was in my neck muscles!  I guess that means I need to spend some more time holding my head up in different angles besides just standing.  It felt like I’d been doing this:

The 30 minutes went by quickly, my abs were crying at the end, and as usual she worked me HARD.  I pretty much give anything Cathe produces “two thumbs up”. Her “Legs & Glutes” video is my favorite of DVD fitness.   I mix it in from time to time (I’ve had it for YEARS) and it never fails to absolutely fry the lower half of my body.

Today’s discussion topic:  Do you ever workout to DVDs or audio fitness?  What’s your favorite and why? Drop a comment and let us know!

Have a SPLENDID Saturday friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Merry Fit-mas

Dec 24

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Hi blog buds!  Happy Christmas EVE!  (Or if you live in my house, it’s the day AFTER xmas!!)

Our tree last night:

Our tree now:

And Mother Nature is providing Colorado with a beautiful white Christmas this year (plus a 10 degree morning… brrrr):

We had an absolutely perfect holiday evening last night.  I have plenty to share with you and TONS of new material for the blog thanks to all the great gifts!  But today, in honor of the holiday, there is another topic that I want to write about.   Because FitFeat is first and foremost a healthy living blog, after all.

***   Give your BODY the gift of LOVE   ***

Let us all stop and consider today what an amazing instrument the human body is and be thankful for it.  In our current society where our eyes are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images of what some may consider a ‘beautiful body’, I know it is hard not to compare oneself or feel flawed.  I fall into this unfortunate pattern myself sometimes.

But you know what?  Being healthy means so much more than that.  Wellness is so much more than a ‘flawless physique’.

I GET to exercise.  It’s a choice.  There are many, many people who don’t  have the luxury of exercise ‘just because’.  I GET to drive to the local market and select delicious fresh produce.    Now THAT’S a blessing. Think of the people all the world over who do not have that choice or ability.

This holiday, think about all the things you CAN do by having your health.  And thank your body for it.

  • Give your body some movement today BECAUSE YOU CAN.
  • Make healthful nutrition choices for your body today BECAUSE YOU CAN.
  • Choose to reduce foods that wreak havoc on the inside.  Enjoy foods that give you health and nutrients first, and save the less healthful foods for when you are starting to feel a little full so that you don’t overdo it.
  • Give thanks now and every day for the temple that is your body.  It works hard for you.  Show it some love.

May your day be FIT, MERRY and BRIGHT…  ;)

– Shari B. =)

Green Smoothie Grinch

Dec 23

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Good morning!  It’s my FRIDAY!  Wahooo!  Love it when you get to have Friday on a Wednesday!

Let’s cover the FEATS today before the EATS, since I glossed over them in a hurry yesterday.

To further expand on my Tabata workout from Monday:

Weight Training – Tabata Upper Body:

  • TM Warm-up – 5 minutes, followed by arm circles and muscle-specific warm-ups
  • Incline DB Chest Press – 4 minutes
  • Bent 2-Arm DB Row – 4 minutes
  • Rear Delt & Back Extension Static Holds – 4 minutes
  • Overhead Shoulder Press (seated on FitBall) – 3 minutes (by this time my arms were already toast and holding them above my head became problematic!!)
  • Bicep Curls with ExerBand – 4 minutes
  • Tricep Overhead Extensionwith KB – 4 minutes

With warm up, this workout was only 30 minutes total.  And I felt it!  I am hopelessly crazy about Tabata for my weight training it seems – I really LOVE getting in an effective workout in a short amount of time.  However, I ordered something online that I’ll be discussing in a future post – after it arrives and I’ve had a chance to try it out long enough to give a review.  We’ll see if it changes the way I work out or not!  :)

Then for my Tuesday exercise, I did another round of “See Shari Dance“.  I warmed up to Run This Town by Jay-Z.  Then got busy with the wildly jumping around dancing to get my heart rate good and high.

The playlist also included:

  • Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
  • Make Me – Janet Jackson’s latest (GREAT song for cardio BTW – click here to check it out)
  • Damaged - Danity Kane
  • 3 - Britney Spears
  • Single Ladies – Beyoncé
  • Calabria 2008 – Enur
  • Get Back – Britney Spears
  • Ring the Alarm – Beyoncé

With cool-down, it was a little over 40 minutes – truly an incredible way to start the day.  It’s not possible to be in a bad mood when you start your day with a little boogie-ing!  Between dancing for cardio and Tabata for weights, I may be in a bit of a workout RUT but I’m having a blast!  I suppose if one gets stuck in a rut, a WORKOUT rut would be a good one to get stuck in!

Afterward, I went upstairs to make a post-workout smoothie.  And there was a little cutie waiting in the kitchen with his question-mark ears.  Apparently I’ve created a monster (of the green smoothie variety).

“Puppy mommy, I’m ready for my greens please..!”

Unfortunately I had to tell him that I was using my new protein powder so there’d be no greens for him this time.

So then he threw me his “Whatchu talkin’ bout, Willis?” face, complete with sideways eyes:

I’m the Grinch of Green Smoothies in Rascal’s eyes. :(

I had a BEIGE Smoothie instead, using aforementioned protein powder (almost ready to provide a review)…

Then I packed up my lunch for later:

A green smoothie was consumed at my desk (leftover from the previous day):

A veggie sandwich for dinner (toasted Ezekial with fat free Nasoya Soy Mayo, sea salt, pepper, pepitas, roma tomatoes, sprouts):

***

Today is essentially our Christmas.  MSP and I are like little 5-yr olds when it comes to Christmas.  Or maybe it’s just me and he plays along.  It used to be that our tradition was we open our presents on Christmas Eve, after driving around to view holiday lights.  We’d come home, put on a fire and turn on our tree, then start opening.  We liked the ambiance of an evening Christmas as opposed to the first-thing-out-bed in the morning.   Then we tried  opening ONE gift on the evening of the start of our long weekend and last year we lost control after opening one and ended up opening everything! :)   So tonight when we both get off of work it will be the start of our 4 day weekend and we anticipate that we will likely open our gifts tonight.  This way we have all weekend to play with our new toys!

MAYBE we’ll be able to hold off until tomorrow night, but I doubt it!

I’m really hoping that Santa brought me a veggie spiralizer!  It was at the top of my list!

Then on the actual Christmas day we always go eat at a Chinese restaurant and see a movie.  This year the movie will be “Sherlock Holmes”.

How about you?  Do you have any fun, NON-traditional traditions?  Got any fitness- or health-related items on your list for Santa?

Speaking of fitness items, it’s time to go get my workout in!  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Adios Santa, Hola Healthy Popcorn

Dec 22

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, Recipes | 4 Comments

Santa has left the building. Or at least the FitFeat blog.  That super cute Santa pop-up I had on here Sunday and yesterday was not playing nicely with my blog and I was forced to deactivate the plug-in.  I love plug-ins – they are fun and some do GREAT stuff.  But boy they can sure do some wacky things to blogs.  You may have noticed if you were commenting that the buttons for REPLY or EDIT where nowhere to be found!  (That was Santa’s fault!) So I’ll be experimenting with a different ‘greeting message’ in the near future.

My Monday was great and insanely busy.  I’m finding that my time at the office means most of my meals need to be sippable through a straw because I just don’t have a lot of time to chew! So I made a set of “Now & Later” smoothies:

The “NOW” smoothie had rice protein, chia seeds, banana, cucumber, sprouts, spinach, celery, and pepitas.

The “LATER” smoothie had a pear, hemp protein, spinach, cucumber, celery, sprouts, and pepitas.

I am telling you what, I got a LOT of greens in yesterday!  I bought a couple of new protein powders on Sunday, both of which I’ll be reviewing soon here on FitFeat.  I want to try each of them out in different types of drinks first.

I also had a favorite Larabar:  Tropical Fruit Tart!

***

Back in the early spring our popcorn air popper decided its time was done and went to small appliance heaven.  Smack in the middle of a home movie.  The internet saved the day because there were a BUNCH of sites that talked about making homemade microwave popcorn without all the chemicals and fake flavors that come in the pre-packaged stuff.

Now I know for some of you this is old news – any follower of health food blogs will have seen this info.  But I also have some readers who do NOT follow other food & fitness blogs (Hi Mom!!) so I’m going to put this info out there for their benefit.

I’m a snacker.  I get the munchies.  Sometimes when that hits, I go for things like baked kale.  Other times I’m in a hurry for a snack.  So I turn to this instead:

Healthy Microwave “Airpopped” Popcorn:

  • One paper lunch bag
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup popcorn kernels of your liking
  • Microwave

Measure 1/4 to 1/3 cup kernels and put them in the paper lunch sack.

Fold the top of the sack twice, like so:

Place in microwave standing upright and microwave on full power for approximately 2 minutes (depending on the strength of your microwave).

Listen for the popping.  As it nears two minutes it should start to slow down.  When there are a few seconds between pops, stop the microwave.  Take out the popcorn and open the top carefully (keeping your face away from the top as kernels may continue to pop.)  Place the popcorn in your favorite bowl and top with healthy toppings (if you smother it in butter, you’ve just defeated the whole purpose of HEALTHY popcorn!)

I like to put nutritional yeast and sea salt on mine (the yeast gives it a cheesy flavor.)  Sometimes I’ll use garlic salt or Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic sprinkles.  Or chili powder.  I especially like my popcorn with a side of Kombucha tea!  :)

Now you have a snack of about 150 calories that is fiber-rich and VERY filling.

Well blog buds, as usual I have MORE to say but not enough time!  Exercise is calling followed by work!  I didn’t cover yesterday’s exercise in depth but I bet you can guess what it was!!  Yes, TABATA!!  :)   For upper body.   It was awesome!

See you soon friends!

– Shari B.  =)

It’s a Wonderful Life

Dec 21

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Happy holiday week!  Did the Santa pop up to greet you as you came to the site today? (If you are reading on Google Reader, via email, etc., come out to the actual site to see it.)  I found that cute little plug-in yesterday and had to install it, at least for this week! 

For those of you who visit the blog on Sundays and wonder why I’m being a lazy bum not putting out a post, I often use my ‘blogging time’ on Sundays for the administrative side of owning a self-hosted blog:  running backups, installing WordPress upgrades, learning, etc.   So I’m still working on the blog on Sundays just not in a way that you can necessarily see!  :)

I hope that each of you had a weekend as awesome as mine was!  It was a fantastic weekend!  We had been holding this weekend open because some family members were coming into town from California and Ohio (well, to a town 90 minutes away, that is).  We wanted to be free to meet them up in the mountains during their visit.  Sadly it didn’t pan out for us to get to meet up with them, but the good news is my cousin will be coming again in early 2010 so hopefully I’ll get to see her then. 

As a result we had a rare weekend free of plans!  And we took full advantage.

Saturday morning, I’d hoped to run outside.  Thanks to the 19 degree weather, I chose to keep it INSIDE after all.  I hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes (the maximum amount of time my attention span seems to allow on there) and then I did 35 minutes more of  “See Shari Dance” cardio, with my heart rate in the high 160s.  It was a SUPER workout.  I had a blast. :)

Afterward, I had a mini-green-smoothie.

Followed by an egg and veggie breakfast sandwich (Ezekial english muffin, roma tomatoes, 1 whole egg + 1 white, zucchini ribbons).

Mid-day I met up with a good friend at Garbanzo Meditteranean Grill for some (unpictured) falafel, pickled eggplant and hummus (I skipped the pita this time to focus on the extra veggies).

And in the afternoon I had some Wasa Light Rye crackers with Tofutti un-cream cheese and a side of organic, sulfite-free red wine.

I didn’t really have a dinner per se Saturday night since I snacked pretty late on the wine and crackers.  I had a handful of Newman Organic wheat-free dairy-free Os (basically organic Oreos) before bed. 

I’d received an invite via Facebook from a friend for a 5-mile run on Sunday morning, so MSP and I accepted.  We were meeting at 8:00 so I had a cup of coffee and a pre-run snack (toasted Ezekial with raw almond butter, a drizzle of raw honey and coconut) at 6:30.

And I packed up my favorite running fuel “to go” (half a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar - which I didn’t end up nibbling on until I was home from the run):

We conveniently met for the run in a Starbucks parking lot (hmmm wonder who planned that meeting spot??), so we had to swing in afterward for a post-run soy latte.  Pictured below are two of my favorite things!  Starbucks and running gear!   Isn’t this the best running shirt?  My mom got it for me a few years ago for Christmas and I absolutely LOVE it.
 

Speaking of loving it, the run was FABULOUS!!!  It was 26 degrees at the start and it definitely felt VERY cold.  But we warmed up quickly and got busy chatting, so the chill was fast forgotten.  The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day in Colorado.  We got in the 5 miles of running with an extra 0.9 mile of warm-up and cool-down.  A decaf soy latte tastes SO…CRAZY… GOOD after a cold run!   

Later for lunch I had veggie ‘spaghetti’ (zucchini ribbons topped with marinara, steamed green beans & baby bella mushrooms, an artichoke heart, olives and nutritional yeast.

During the extremely exciting Broncos/Raiders game, I had some healthy homemade popcorn and a side of BUBBLY!  (Did you SEE that game???  WOW!  Even though the Broncos lost, it was a ‘perch on the edge of your seat’ game.) 

I tried a new BUBBLY flavor this time:  SuperFruits.  It did not disappoint – it was definitely super! :)   I don’t think I’ve met a Synergy Kombucha that I didn’t like.

This bottle had a LOT of the live culture strands in it!  Mmmm probiotics!  And was the appropriately colored drink for watching a Broncos game.

And to top off the end of the weekend, 3/4 of VEGGIE (Boca) Burger from FatBurger with a small portion of fries. 

It was a terrific weekend filled with healthy food, visits with great friends, invigorating exercise each day, and even some time built in to catch up on some reading and some Whole Foods browsing.  Not to mention our “Avatar” 3D adventure on Friday night. 

And knowing that I have a 3-day workweek this week makes it even that much better!  

Do you have extra days off around the holiday or do you have to work?  I feel fortunate that my new boss suggested that I work extra hours last week to make up the day for Christmas Eve, so I get a 4-day weekend that begins when I clock out at the end of the day Wednesday! 

Speaking of working, I better scoot on out the door!  Have a MERRY Monday everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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