FitFeat

Archive for January, 2010

Your Good Deed for the Day is a Simple VOTE

Jan 30

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Hey friends, happy Saturday!

For a change of pace on the ol’ blog today, I want to share with you a very worthwhile cause.  One that you can easily help to further with a simple VOTE.

I’m a huge animal lover and those of you who follow my blog regularly know that my dogs, Riley and Rascal, are like children to me.  Love them to pieces.

My good friend Jen is also a major animal lover.  Jen never ceases to amaze me with her kind heart and super-woman qualities.  She holds down a very demanding high-level position that includes a lot of travel.  I’d list off all of her accomplishments but I don’t want to embarrass her.  Let’s just suffice to say I don’t know where she finds the time and energy to get through the jam-packed schedule she has every single day … AND THEN she still volunteers on top of it all.  A LOT.

One organization very near and dear to her is Freedom Service Dogs. If you aren’t familiar with them, you should check out their website.  Essentially they rescue unwanted or abandoned dogs, put them through an intensive training program, and then place them with injured veterans as service dogs.  Unlike some similar service dog organizations, they are not breeding dogs for this purpose.  Which means they are helping to not only save dogs from euthanasia but also helping with the overpopulation of pets.

And that’s even beside the point – the real issue here is supporting our troops, especially those who have served our country and then had to come home with debilitating injuries, many of which are permanent.

Here’s where you can help. All you need to do is VOTE!  Jen has entered her adorable dog Dyson into a contest, in hopes of winning the $10,000 grand prize – ALL of which she will then donate to Freedom Service Dogs.

The Bissell contest site does require you to create a login (I keep an old Yahoo email address specifically for times like this.)  Once you enter your email and a password, they’ll email your confirmation and then you can go vote for Dyson  HERE.  You can search for her using Entrant # 0402474 or by name. It’s just a few easy mouse clicks to help Freedom Service Dogs toward the chance of a large donation.  Easy peasy, right?

If you have a blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, email, word-of-mouth, etc., Jen, Dyson and I would all be so grateful if you’d spread the word to help Dyson AND Freedom Service Dogs win.  You can use this link to get them here for the info:  http://wp.me/pFQCz-Gm

Thanks FitFeat friends!  I KNOW I have the best readers!

***

More About Dyson:

Dyson is a rescue dog herself, with her own interesting story (this dog had a tough start in life and I think she was destined to land in Jen’s home where she is given the care and attention she needs).  Dyson also hopes to one day be a therapy dog.  Here she is playing in her first snow storm (as Miss Dyson came from Texas!)

***

More About FSD:

There’s a Fire Up in Here

Jan 29

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 10 Comments

Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY friends!  Wahoo!  TGITW (Thank goodness it’s the weekend!)

Sorry to disappear on you yesterday.  Tues/Thurs are my BIZ-EEEE days and I had two additional pieces of fun in my Thursday that kept me away from the computer.

One was a visit from one of my all time best buds after she got off of work, where we polished off about 3/4 bottle of our favorite Riesling and jibber-jabbered non-stop for two and a half hours.  It was such a wonderful time.

The other exciting thing on Thursday was my little brother and his wife welcomed their second baby into the world!  Unfortunately I live 1300 miles from them, so I won’t be seeing Baby #2 anytime soon.  Thank goodness for webcams!  :)   I was really hoping the new baby would wait until next Wednesday so that we could share a birthday, but she must have been in a hurry to meet her big sister sooner!

Speaking of birthday, MSP wanted to share with me what my gift would be a little early because it would require some ‘trying on for size’ before he could order the actual gift.  That got me curious!

In addition to reading “Born to Run“ currently, Matt from No Meat Athlete has inspired me to want to give barefoot running a go.

MSP heard that and decided to gift me with some VIbram Five Fingers!  SO EXCITED!!!

Image from Vibram FiveFingers

In anticipation of the arrival of my new fitness ‘gadgets’ I decided to get a head start on Wednesday.  Barefoot running is something you must start SLOWLY because all that running around in my fancy Nike SHOX will have changed my gait and most likely weakened some of the supportive structure of my lower legs and feet.

I did intervals of a different sort on the treadmill this time:  shoes on, shoes off, socks on, socks off, shoes and socks back on, shoes off, etc.

I did 3 miles, about two of which were ‘shoeless’.

OK, first:  holy calves of fire, Batman!  Not so much DURING as much as the days following.  I have some DOMS going on in my calves the way I figure I would if I did 1000 sets of heavy calf raises.  You should see me trying to walk DOWN a set of stairs.  Comical.

Second, it was so FUN!  You feel so much ‘lighter’ on your feet, almost springy because it truly forces you into a completely different gait.  Apparently I’m a heavy ‘heel-slapper’ in shoes and that just won’t work barefoot.  You need to be more onto the balls of your feet, while still letting your heels come down lightly.

Afterward, I did about 15 minutes of deep yoga stretching because I knew my legs were going to need it.

Then yesterday I did another 30 minutes of yoga, including a LOT of downward dogs to hit those calves a bit.

I won’t be using my new “unshoes” during the marathon, because I don’t think there’s enough time to safely transition to that distance.  But I definitely plan to use them as much as my calves will allow during my shorter training runs.  Maybe the marathon after this one… ;)

And I have to give props to our good friend Bo, because he had FiveFingers YEARS ago before they were trendy.  And I think I remember teasing him about his crazy looking shoes. :)   Bo, I’m eating my words now and you can tease me all you want to get me back!  ;)

Today’s question:  Any barefoot running ‘aficionados’ out there? Read “Born to Run”?

Friends, have a FANTASTIC Friday!  I’ll be back tomorrow sometime after my 9 MILE training run.  I really hope my calves stop crying before I head out or it will be a L-O-N-G 9 miles…

– Shari B. =)

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In with the Good, Out with the Bad

Jan 27

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Good morning blog buds!

As seems to be the case lately, Tuesdays are complete madness and as such, no exercise was to be had.  So this morning I’m hoping to do some cardio AND some yoga because I’m feeling the need for both.  A little calorie burnin’ plus some Gumby-inducing moves.  :)

***

I tried a new-to me raw (mostly) bar that I wanted to share with you.  (As you can tell it was eaten at work, due to the horrible iPhone shot…)

Coconut Acai flavor ingredients: Organic Almond Butter, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Date Paste, Organic Dried Coconut, Organic Almonds, Organic Raisins, Organic Puffed Amaranth, Organic Acai Dry Powder, Sea Salt

This was sensational!  I loved it.  I will definitely be trying other flavors of PranaBar.  You all know I LOVE my Larabars so don’t think they’ve been knocked out of my daily food plan.  From a price point perspective Larabars can’t be beat, because I buy them when they are on sale for $1 at my local grocery store.  The Prana bars are more in the $2 range, so it will be an occasional treat.  But if you are in the mood for something different, give PranaBar a try.

***

I pulled up a saved link today to an MSN slide show that I wanted to share with you about food additives to avoid. Some of the items on this list are common sense (like avoiding refined white sugar and excess salt) but learning that potential carcinogens BHA/BHT could be in your breakfast cereal (or your kids’ cereal) may not be so common.  Click this link to view:  12 Food Additives to Avoid

Today’s Discussion Question: Do you have any particular additives or foods that you specifically avoid in addition to this list? Please share with us in the comments section. In addition to the additives and artificial sweeteners listed in the article, I try to avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, and made the move to Stevia instead of Splenda for my coffee back in April.  I also ended my love affair with diet soda (and ALL sodas now for that matter).

Make it a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Whole Foods Show and Tell

Jan 26

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

Ahhh, another Monday behind us.  Hope yours was better than mine.  :)

I had the kind of Monday that warranted pouring my Kombucha Tea (aka The Bubbly) into a wine glass… because it would at least SEEM like I was drinking wine!  Am I the only cuckoo bird that likes to put everyday non-alcoholic drinks into glasses traditionally reserved for the hard stuff? ;)   Somehow it makes them feel more “fancy” to me.

I enjoyed a splendid rest day on Sunday (from exercise, that is).  I’d planned to do a little yoga, but errands, laundry, housecleaning, blogging, football and book-reading won out.  And Whole Foods shopping, can’t forget that!  I do have a few more fun treasures to share from my weekly visit to Whole Foods though! (Yesterday I shared my joy in finding prewashed and precut KALE!)

Join me in a little SHOW and TELL, won’t you?

First, is this not one of the prettiest heirloom tomatoes you’ve seen?  I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to cut into it.

Next I stumbled upon some Meyer Lemons!

I was looking for Meyer Lemons around New Years Eve when I made that Sweet Cashew Cheese to take to the dinner party.  It was called for in the recipe, but  I wasn’t able to find them at the time.  I ran across them on this particular visit and brought home a small bag.  Upon reading the back of the package I learned something new:  Did you know that Meyer Lemons are a cross between a LEMON and a MANDARIN ORANGE?  I had no idea!

They do have a slightly sweeter taste.  It’s interesting because you first taste the mandarin and think “oh wow, it kind of tastes like a tart orange” and then all of a sudden the ZIP of lemon hits your taste buds and you think, “Oh that is DEFINITELY a lemon!” That’s a tricky little citrus right there!

And of course I had to make more of the Sweet Cashew Cheese so that I could compare between last time (with regular lemons) and this time with the Meyer version.

So I soaked my cashews for a few hours:

And when the batch was done in the food processor, it was time to schmear a cracker:

Looks like ricotta, doesn’t it?  (And actually I like the cashew cheese just fine with either type of lemon, as it turns out.)

Even the crackers were a new find at WF.  Nita’s Spelt.  I have a new favorite cracker.  Mary, I hate to say it but Nita is giving you a run for you money in the Best Cracker Race (and I don’t feel like I’m going to chip a tooth when biting into one!)

They’re even made here in Colorado!  BONUS!  :) Check me out, buying locally!  (OK, you got me – I’d probably still buy these awesome crackers if they were shipped in from Timbuktu.)

Today’s Question:  What is your favorite healthy cracker?  And what’s your favorite topping to put on that cracker?

***

Monday exercise was the full Physique 57 DVD.  I still cannot get completely through the “Thigh Dancing” section without crying out a string of cuss words and having to stop for a second here and there.  Oh. My. BURN is an understatement.  I thought it might be about time to write the review for it because I’ve had the DVD for about a month now.  But then I added up the number of times per week I’ve actually DONE the DVD and realized I need to give it some more time to do its thing.  :)   In 25 days I’ve P57′d 7 times.  Gosh it feels like I’ve been doing it every other day!  Guess not!  Good thing I had my super simple no-slacker tracker to set me straight!

OK kids, off I go to get ready for some client training!  Make Tuesday TERRIFIC!  See you next time!

–Shari B. =)

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16 Weeks Till 26.2

Jan 24

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Yes, it’s Sunday and I’m blogging!  :) I’ll use a weekday for ‘blog maintenance day’ sometime this week instead.  I think my list of maintenance/admin items is getting so long that I’m avoiding it somewhat.  Still want to design a custom banner, a logo, a BETTER tagline, a new profile picture, add a few more ‘pages’ and I really want to buy the Headway theme so I can drag and drop things to move them around on the blog.  Ah well.  When I get to it, I get to it!

***

Last night for dinner I broke out my HUMONGOUS salad bowl again.  I used to eat out of this every day for lunch over the summer when I was home during ‘business hours’.  I miss my monster salads!  It takes a long time to chew through an 11″ diameter salad so I don’t eat them as often at the moment.

This one had half a box of spinach, some leftover tofu, spiralized carrots, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, dulse, pepitas and a drizzle of Goddess dressing.  Mmmmm.  Brendan would be proud.

And on the topic of veggies, I found something today that I have been looking for since summer and am SOOO excited to have found it:

Pre-cut organic kale! Now I can make kale chips even faster than before!  Wahooo!  So you know I immediately got busy baking all kinds of veggies.  Eggplant chips, kale chips and a batch of roasted red peppers, mushrooms and zucchini (for use maybe on a pita pizza later!)  My eggplant chips got a little more done than I meant them too, but they were still great and I ate them ALL!


Looks a little weird, but tastes great!  (Much like a green smoothie!)

***

So reader Beth has keen eyes, :) noticing immediately that yesterday’s post was categorized under “Marathon Training” and inquired as to whether I had decided to run another half-marathon.   Yes and no.  :)   A couple of my favorite people to hang out with (and run with) are aiming to run a full marathon in May.  So being the sucker I am for a new challenge here and there, I’ve decided to join them in the training and see where it takes me.

I’ve chosen not to register for the race until after I’ve surpassed about the 15 mile mark in our training.  I’ve done five half-marathons previously so I know I can tackle the 13.1 mile distance.  But I want to see how I feel physically after going beyond that.  If at any time it ceases being somewhat enjoyable  or determine that the rest of my exercise is suffering (or knees aching, etc.), then I’ll know now is not the time.  And since the registration fee isn’t cheap, I don’t want to spend that money and then have to drop out only to have wasted that money.

This will also give me an opportunity to put some of the Thrive Diet principles to good use.  My goal is to do this marathon injury-free and recover as quickly as possible from my long runs so that I can continue with my regular training during the work week.  I love my Physique 57 and Tabata training and yoga enough that I don’t want to miss out on those sessions.

So I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!  The countdown is on:  16 weeks till 26.2.  (eeek!)

– Shari B. =)

P.S. if any of you like to read Runner’s World magazine, I noticed on their website that they are offering their subscription for A DOLLAR an issue, which is 80% off the newsstand price (and a great deal), so thought I’d mention it.

»crosslinked«

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Miss Sissy Soles

Jan 23

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 8 Comments

Happy Saturday everyone!

I hope that you are enjoying your day and that your Friday evening was nice.  I rushed out after publishing yesterday’s post because MSP and I had an impromptu ‘date’ at a local wine bar so that we could share a budget-friendly meal during their happy hour.  I like to eat off of appetizer menus because the portions are (usually) more in line with what a normal size should be and the prices are more reasonable.  Especially during happy hour!  I had a $5 glass of pinot grigio, shared some hummus with MSP and then a delicious Mushroom Gnocchi (from which I STILL had leftovers to bring home.)

Did you get some exercise in on Friday?  I had an efficient upper body workout:

Tabata Upper Body

  • Warmup on TM followed by arm circles
  • Straight-arm Planks (4 min)
  • Tricep Dips on floor (4 min)
  • Side Raises for Shoulders (SLOW, no momentum – 4 min)
  • DB Rows top half of movement only (4 min)
  • Biceps Curls with arms out to side (4 min)
  • Rotator Cuff movements (no weight) and stretching

I woke up yesterday morning worried that I had come down with a cold.  My nose was runny, my throat a bit scratchy and I felt the stirrings of a headache.  I made sure to take a double dose of probiotics and followed that with a BUBBLY (Raw Kombucha Tea).

And a super green smoothie.

I felt good as new in NO time flat – pretty much by 10:00 AM.   YAY!  No cold after all.  Or if I had the beginning of one, I gave it a good ol’ probiotic/nutrient power punch and nipped it in the bud!

Then this morning I met up with one of my running partners for a 7.6 mile run through two of Denver’s scenic parks.  He runs faster than I do which is good because it pushes me to be better.  But man alive was my heart rate high in my attempt to keep up.  I saw 186 quite a few times and my Garmin told me that I averaged 175 through the ENTIRE run.

Back when I was running a LOT I had built up some pretty good (not to mention ugly) calluses on the balls of my feet.  Since I backed way off my distance over the past year, I have prettier feet again but no more tough skin.  About 5 miles into today’s run, I felt like the bottoms of my feet had been rubbed raw with sandpaper and now I’m hobbling around trying to keep my weight into my heels.  I have sissy soles at the moment!  A few more long runs and I’ll be well on my way to having feet that have no business being seen by eyes other than mine.  :)   That’s OK – I know those calluses are hard-won so I see them kind of like a little badge of honor.

How about you if you’re a runner?  Do you get calluses on your feet?  Blisters?  Black toenails? What’s your running ‘battle scar’? Fortunately I’ve been blister-free since having discovered the Wrightsock.  And as of yet, no black toenails.  But this could be the year!

Make it a GREAT night!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Nutrition is My Drug of Choice

Jan 22

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

Hey everyone!  I hope that you are having a great Friday!

As promised earlier today in my morning post, I’m back to chat a little about medications.  But before I get to the ‘meat’ of the topic, I need to state that the message contained in this post is not (nor should it be taken as) medical advice.  Always consult with your health care provider before adjusting medications.  What I am recounting here is my personal experience and I am sharing it as food for thought.

So with that said, on to the post…

Hollywood headlines about tragedies like the accidental deaths of Brittany Murphy and Heath Ledger bring to light how easily prescription meds can accidentally be mixed with terrible, and even fatal, consequence.   And after each of these tragedies,  the media talked a lot about all of the medications found in their homes.  When Heath Ledger’s toxicology results came back, detailing the prescription drugs in his system that reacted poorly with one another to cause him to stop breathing, I was a little taken aback because I had a lot of those same prescriptions in my own home and had been taking them as directed but without a lot of thought to what might happen if some of them were taken together.   It also got me thinking about the sheer volume of meds that were in my house and heaven forbid something should happen to MSP and I, people would see all this in our home and maybe get the wrong idea.

Almost a year ago I woke up one day, went for a run, and then out of the blue could hardly breathe.  I went to my regular doc to see if this might have been due to my anemia.  Later that same week I ended up in urgent care because it had gotten so bad that I started to feel like I was going to pass out from not being able to get a full breath.  This went on for weeks as I was passed around from doctor to doctor to specialist and back, with each one running more tests and each one writing prescriptions for “something to try” that might help.  This came at a time when I was also working with a few different health care professionals in an effort to figure out why I had been unable to sleep for the prior 2 years.

I took a picture last weekend of all the prescription meds in my house with just my name on them.  Sleeping pills, antidepressants, anti-anxiety, estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, nasal sprays, syrups.  It’s actually kind of scary when you think about it.  Not to mention EXPENSIVE.  Especially when a doc has you “try” something to see if it works, and that something cost you $40.  I have a lot of those “somethings”!

Now to get to my point: since April 1 of 2009 I have been on NOTHING.  I currently take NO prescription medications of any kind (and as you can see I was on a lot – a large portion of what you see in that shoebox above.)  I haven’t had any over-the-counter products either, like ibuprofen.  And as a weight lifter and runner, Advil used to be an every day thing in my life.  Headache?  No problem, pop an Advil.  Menstrual cramps?  Eh, pop an Advil.

No more.

I won’t get on my soapbox here about how great my experience was with acupuncture and alternative medicine.  But I will say that it propelled me onto a different path, one that included listening to my body signals and not just throwing a pill at them as a band-aid.  I learned how to eat better to care first for my liver, then my digestion, and then for my body as a whole.  This path included educating myself on the power of nutrition to allow my body to heal.

When I get a headache now, I think back a day or two and determine what might have caused it, and adjust my ‘course’.  I think back to see if I might be dehydrated, etc.  What I don’t do is reach for a pill to make it better.

And don’t think that I’m just picking on prescriptions and Advil.  Really learn about the chemicals and additives in the things you are putting in your body.  You’d be surprised the ‘garbage’ you will find in many foods.  Things like the sodium nitrates/nitrites in processed deli meats (in the lean turkey breast I used to eat every day) or the BHT/BHA found in many cereals.  All the high fructose corn syrup, transfatty acids, artificial sweeteners… the list goes on and on.  All that stuff can disrupt the sensitive hormonal balance, your pH levels and much much more.

The body is an AMAZING instrument.  It has an abundant ability to heal itself and get back to balance – if you treat it properly.

As I mentioned above, I’m not saying you should stop taking any meds you might be on (please don’t do that!)  I am saying that you should work with your health care professional to determine what you might be able to do to lessen your need for those things by taking better care of your body. And if your health care professional doesn’t know a lot about nutrition and the power it holds, do some research and find one that does.

I encourage you to delve deeper and learn a little more about just HOW powerful good nutrition can be.

Here are just a couple of books that teach about turning health around with food:

Today’s discussion:  have you had an experience where you’ve been able to stop taking a medication by improving your nutrition and health? I’d LOVE to hear about your experience.

Have a beautiful Friday evening friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Silly Server

Jan 22

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Hi friends!  It’s FRIDAY!  So happy about that!

Well if any of you tried to access FitFeat last night, you probably had no luck.  That is the second time this week that the server on which I’m hosted has been on the fritz.  Not sure what’s going on, but I hope they get it figured out on their end soon.  I’m sure all of my buds with blogs out there know the sick feeling you get when you attempt to access your blog and you get… nothing, nada, zip.  The first thought that crosses my mind is, “Aaaaccccckkkkk, have I been hacked?”

So if you didn’t see yesterday’s post about my mom’s totally rockin’ homemade spinach noodles, check it out by clicking HERE.  It does include fun with my spiralizer!

If the server stays up long enough today :) I’ll plan to be back later this afternoon with the post topic I mentioned earlier this week (prescription meds.)  This morning has been spent looking for a route for tomorrow morning’s 7+ mile run and all of a sudden it’s after 5:00 AM and time to get my workout started!  You’d think you’d have plenty of time in the day when waking at 4:10, right?  Not so much!  Day still flies by!

Enjoy your Friday morning and with luck on my side, I’ll see you back here later today!

– Shari B. =)

PS:  I added a Twitter badge off to the right side of the blog here, so if you want FitFeat updates (like “Aack, server down! Server down!“) click on “FeatTweets” to follow me.

Mimic Your Favorites with Healthy Substitutions

Jan 21

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Handy Kitchen Tools, Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Well hello there blog buds!  Did ya think I disappeared today? It’s been a busy one.  (What’s new, right?  I say that every day!)  ;)

Yesterday after jury duty, blogging, and some work I squeezed in 12 minutes of cardio boogie-ing and then did 42 minutes of my Physique 57 dvd, taking care to keep my toes out of the equation (or at least try).  I only did 42 minutes because I wasn’t in the mood to do abs, so I did all the upper and lower work.

And NOW I just got back from a wonderful 4 mile run outdoors all by myself (no crazies on leashes) as the sun was setting.  It was perfect running weather, around 45 degrees with the little sunshine that was left.  So now I’m enjoying one of these:

Coconut water is ‘Nature’s Gatorade’ as Brendan Brazier would say.  I’ve now definitely worked up an appetite for dinner.  Which will most likely be leftovers from last night’s dinner because it was AWESOME! Doesn’t it look tasty?

Every year my mom and grandma make homemade noodles to include with their Christmas care packages.  This year, my sweet mommy made me a package of spinach noodles because she knows I’m a veggie-holic these days.

So I gathered up some of my ingredients:

Spinach noodles, organic Bertolli spaghetti sauce, and two Sunshine veggie burgers.  While the noodles were cooking, I worked on making the extra “pasta” that I’d be adding to my plate.

One zucchini and one spiralizer with the medium ‘noodle’ blade.  Check.  Check.

Once my mom’s noodles were done, they were drained.  I mixed mine with the zucchini ‘noodles’ to keep the veggies high and the flour intake lower.  Topped with the heated spaghetti sauce, crumbled Sunshine burgers and nutritional yeast.  MSP’s (on the right) was noodles, sauce, parmesan and the ‘burger’ crumbles.

This deserves a review of the close-up again!  :)

Such a fast and delicious meal.  And I totally went back for seconds.  Mom, thanks so much for the thoughtful gift!  Your noodles are the BEST!!  Can’t wait to have them again tonight!

Just goes to show that healthy eating does not require much time or even much thought.  Just pull together lots of veggies and try to ‘mimic’ some of your favorites.

1 cup of zucchini = 18 calories, whereas 1 cup of cooked spinach noodles = 185 calories

You don’t have to deny yourself things you enjoy, like my mom’s homemade noodles.  Make the MAJORITY of your meal out of low-cal, high-fiber veggies.  Then SUPPLEMENT with the ‘richer’ items that add up in calories faster.

I’m so excited that “The Office” is back tonight!  Wahoo!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday night!  See ya next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Narrow Dodging

Jan 20

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 5 Comments

Hey there FitFeat friends!

So I narrowly dodged the jury duty bullet today.   I’m talkin’ by the skin of my teeth and the hair on my chinny-chin-chin kind of narrow!  If one more person ahead of me in the ‘pool’ of people had been stricken (struck?) by one of the attorneys, I’d be going back the rest of this week.  It was definitely interesting to see how this county handled it compared to other counties.  I was impressed to say the least.  And also amazed at the grilling we got while they were deciding who to keep.  I was there for 5 hours!

Thanks for all the great comments yesterday about exercise tracking!  I’m impressed with all the ANTI-slackers who follow FitFeat!  You are awesome!

A couple of highlights from yesterday’s eats:

I tried a new kind of kale in my green smoothie.  I’ll have to also try it OUT of a green smoothie to see how it actually tastes.

Lacinato Kale… Have any of you ever tried this kind in recipes? Feel free to share your thoughts and/or favorite ways to use it.

Last night’s dinner was in honor of Cindy since she likes it when I use my spiralizer.  :) I spiralized a zucchini and lightly sauteed the ‘noodles’ in a pan with a some chopped tomato and garlic.  Then after a few minutes I added just a smidge of tahini and nama shoyu for a makeshift ‘peanut sauce’ and it was DEE-LISH!!  The zucchini cooked right down to nothing so next time I’ll use more.  But luckily I was eating it with a huge slice of butternut squash so I was plenty full afterward.

Well friends, MSP just got home and it’s time to figure out what sort of meal we’ll throw together tonight.  I’m HUNGRY!!!

Enjoy your evening!

– Shari B. =)

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