FitFeat

Archive for January, 2010

The No-Slacker Tracker

Jan 19

Posted by Shari B. in FitFeature | 5 Comments

Hi friends!

Hope you had a great start to your week yesterday.  I have a feeling this one is going to fly by.  I have to show up tomorrow for that jury summons I mentioned a while back and knowing my luck I’ll get picked to sit for a trial.  Not that I mind serving my civic duty, I just think it’s a little lopsided seeing how MSP has never even received a summons.  :)   Actually the real reason I think I’ll get picked is because I’m totally slammed with things to accomplish this week at work and sitting on a jury will totally put me behind on my deadlines.  But I’m sure everyone feels that way when they get a jury summons in the mail, right?

Even though I was off work yesterday for MLK Day I still got up at the usual silly hour to get my workout in and get my day started.  First I did 30 minutes of yoga with Bob from the Biggest Loser (yes, I’m Team Bob.  You don’t even want to get me started on Jillian.  I have started writing many a post to discuss that particular issue of mine, but I figure I’ll get a lot of hate mail if I post it, so I always end up scrapping it! But I digress…)  So the yoga was actually pretty good – not terribly challenging though.  It is broken into different levels and since this was my first time using this particular DVD I decided to stick with level one.  I will need to try levels two and three to see if they are harder or more of the same just longer.

Since I didn’t feel like that was as much of a workout as I would normally do, I then did 20 minutes of the Exhale Core Fusion “Gluteal Toner” that I recorded from FitTV.  Similar to Physique 57, but actually a little too easy.

To wrap it all up, I added a few Tabata sets of thigh and hamstring moves to get a good burn going.

Afterward I had a terrific green smoothie.  I’ve been back to getting these in regularly again, and I can’t say enough how great I feel when I have one of these to start my day.

This beauty had banana, clementine, hemp protein, spinach, cucumber, a scoop of dried green superfoods, and a little bit of white chia seeds.  Lip smacking good!  Riley and Rascal thought so too… since they get a little bit of green smoothie in their bowl whenever I have one.  The pups need their greens too!

For an afternoon snack, I FINALLY ate some of that cute little kabocha squash that I bought recently.  I drizzled just a tiny bit of blackstrap molasses (a little goes a LONG way – it’s a STRONG flavor), and then sprinkled some cinnamon and some dried ginger on it.  (Yes I roasted the squash first!  Figured I bet put that out there, lest someone try this raw!)

I’m not sure what all the fuss is about with these.  Yes, there was a bit of a nuttier flavor than that of butternut squash but not different enough that I’ll drive all over town trying to track one of these down.  I think it was a fluke that I found it in the first place because when I went back to the store where I found it, they didn’t have any on the shelf.

Dinner was quick and easy, a usual requirement for my ‘cooking’.  Step one was opening a jar of 505 Green Chile:

(This one is even gluten-free, made with rice flour – which impressed me for some reason!)

Pour jar of chile into a small soup pan and heat over medium till bubbly.  Add egg(s) and ‘poach’ in the green chile.

I plated my egg on half of a whole wheat tortilla and then topped it with some nutritional yeast for ‘cheesy flavor’.

For extra cheese, eat while watching “The Bachelor” like we did.  ;)

***

As I mentioned yesterday, I thought I’d share with you my very simple method of keeping an eye on my level of exercise.  I have used other methods in the past, including spreadsheets and logging programs (like The Daily Plate).  However I like a very quick visual on whether I’m getting something done most days of the week.  Generally it’s pretty easy to keep track of in my head as well, but by that same token it’s also easy to “forget” some of those missed days here and there.

I print a blank calendar page and keep that page on my bulletin board just for this particular tracking.  This calendar doesn’t have anything else added to it: no appointments, birthdays, etc. For every day that I get in my exercise, I mark a star on that day, sometimes jotting a note about what I did that day.  If I don’t get a workout in, there is no star.

Now keep in mind that NOT having a star is not a bad thing, either.  I like to be sure I’m taking rest days when I need them, or at least active recovery days.  So this isn’t a matter of telling myself  “Uh oh, bad girl, no star for the day!”  This type of ‘dashboard view’ just lets me know at a glance if I’m slacking or if I’m overdoing it.

I took this picture on Friday and have since added my stars for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  So 18 days into the new year, I’ve worked out 16 of the 18, averaging a rest day about every 9 days.

One could take this a step further and color-code their days, such as one color for cardio, one for strength, maybe another for yoga/flexibility.  Or if you are training for a marathon, you could mark one color for your speedwork/hill runs, one color for your tempo runs and a third for your long runs.  Or mark the days off as you do Cindy’s 30 Day Core Challenge. :)

No matter what goal you have or habit you might be trying to change, using this type of tracking can be a good tool to see quickly and easily how you’re doing on that journey.  For example, let’s say you wanted to increase your veggie intake.  You decide you want to eat veggies with at least 3 of your meals/snacks each day.  You could start a calendar with a marking system to show the days you met that goal, and the days you didn’t.  This might also show you some trending, such as not doing as well on Fridays as you do on Mondays, etc.

Are you a “tracker”?  How do you keep track of your workouts?  Or do you skip tracking/logging altogether?

***

OK, friends!  Off to train a client and then on to the other j-o-b.  Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

PS:  There is another Vitamix Giveaway going on in the blogosphere!  That is an AWESOME Giveaway!  Get yourself to Katie’s blog to enter!

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Can’t Every Day Be Sunday?

Jan 18

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hello blog buds!  Happy Monday to you!

I hope that you all had a marvelous weekend.  Ours was absolutely LOVELY.

Saturday MSP and I met up with a friend for a run at our favorite hilly trail where we did a two-loop route for a total of 5.48 miles, which included almost 1000′ of elevation gain.  It rocked. My pre-run fuel of two pieces of Ezekial toast with a light smear of organic raw almond butter and a sprinkle of coconut completely did the trick.  I felt perfectly energized for the run.

After we got back and did some deep stretching, I made a delicious post-run green smoothie.  Something about putting my smoothie in this container makes it look like some sort of chemistry class experiment!

At lunchtime I was in the mood for some of the baby bellas I’d purchased so I lightly sauteed them and added some spinach.

Then I wrapped them up in a whole wheat tortilla with some tomato, hummus, pepitas and very light sprinkle of shredded raw goat cheddar.  And an umeboshi plum on the side with some extra spinach.  I came back for more mushrooms after I finished the wrap and polished off almost the entire batch!

On Sunday we wanted to get outside again and include the dogs, so we mapped out a route to a Starbucks and set out first thing in the morning.  We we able to access it almost directly using the bike trail, but we thought it would be a much longer route than it was.  We ended up only getting in 3.8 miles roundtrip.  But the dogs LOVED it and the trail has hills (because there is no place near us that DOESN’T have hills it seems) so we felt our calves and glutes as the day went on.

Some of the highlights from Sunday’s eats included some brown rice veggie rolls from Whole Foods:

A new vegan burrito (from the frozen section) that wasn’t too shabby for a good “lazy girl meal”…

To which I added my own salsa and avocado after heating:

And for some snackage during the football game, some homemade microwave popcorn with soy-free Earth Balance vegan spread, sea salt and nutritional yeast:

Our weekend felt like a perfect balance of exercise with healthy food, plus some relaxation and snacks.

***

How about you?  Did you have a FIT-filled weekend?

Those of you who are back at your desks today who may have missed the Saturday post, check out this reminder to Stop, Drop and Roll (Your Shoulders) while you are at your desks.

Thank you for all of your comments over the weekend – I’ll be replying to each of them as soon as I click the publish button on this post so don’t think I forgot about ya!  And coming up this week on FitFeat, I’ve got a few FitFeatures relating to prescription meds as well as tracking your exercise.

Have a magnificent Monday!

– Shari B. =)

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Stop, Drop and Roll (Your Shoulders)

Jan 16

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Good morning friends!  Happy Saturday!

Did you all have an exciting Friday night? Mine was SO exciting that I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30!  Haha… I’m so lame!  :)   MSP and I did go out for a fun dinner and then wandered around Bed Bath and Beyond for a bit.

Dinner was at the Grand Lux Cafe, which is owned by The Cheesecake Factory.  Grand Lux used to be one of my favorites and we hadn’t been there in a really long time (over a year, at least).  They have such a huge selection of things to order you feel like you could eat there every week for a year and never have the same thing twice.  That was the case when I was a meat-eater and didn’t pay any attention to the vegetarian selections.

I thought for SURE I’d have tons of amazing veggie dishes from which to choose seeing how they have such a diverse menu.  I was really shocked to see ONE dish under there vegetarian section, which was stir fried veggies with tofu, WHITE rice and orange sauce.  Or your other meal option would be to choose up to 4 of their butter-laden side veggies and have them served on a plate (again with white rice).  This menu option had a very original name “Vegetables as a Meal”.

I can get great veggies and tofu at Tokyo Joe’s any day of the week (for a lot less money) so I ended up choosing from their tapas menu instead.  I went with the Vegetable Tempura (carrots, asparagus, mushrooms, zucchini) with a mustard dipping sauce and a Roasted Beet with Goat Cheese side salad.  Not the healthiest from a ‘waistline’ perspective, but both were very tasty.  Or they were made better by the Pineapple Basil Mojito I was drinking.  ;)   That could be the case!   (BTW, I did snap some pics on my iPhone but it was SO dark in there that you can’t even tell what you’re looking at, so I’m not even going to bother including them here.)

I don’t want to slam Grand Lux too badly because I still like the restaurant and the food is good.  But Grand Lux, you do need to get with the times a bit.  The rest of your menu is so creative, so why the unoriginal tofu/veggie stir-fry?

Regardless of the food, MSP and I had a wonderful time chatting away and relaxing, ran a few errands, then came home to relax some more with our long-lost pals from Grey’s Anatomy.  Grey’s has been gone so long I couldn’t even remember what happened on the last episode (which was in November, I think?)  So glad to have it back now!

***

To rewind a bit to Friday’s FEATS, I started out on the treadmill for 20 minutes of intervals before moving on to some Tabata-style leg work.

  • Penquin Squats heels in toes out (4 min)
  • Wide Plié Squats low half of movement only (4 min)
  • Seated Thigh Raises (I was on FIRE after 2 min so I’ll have to work UP to 4 on this one)
  • Right Glute Work in external rotation (2 min)
  • Left Glute Work in external rotation (2 min)

Ouchie. Mama. But in an “oh so good” way.

***

I think it will soon be time to give in to spending a little extra money and getting some massage done.  I’ve definitely got some tight spots and can feel some of the trigger points in my neck and upper back acting up a bit again.  I used to get a massage every couple of weeks because I truly believe it is a necessary part of keeping our muscles fit and healthy.  It’s just one of those things that quickly gets cut out when I have to “tight the budget belt”.   I have a tendency when I’m at a desk too long to lift my shoulders up toward my ears and hold them there, without realizing I’m doing it.  I catch myself doing it all the time.

I do this:

When I should be looking more like this:

Do you tend to wear your shoulders as “earrings” like I do when you are working at a desk? When I do catch myself, I’ll take a few minutes to do some shoulder rolls (forward and back) to get some blood flow to the traps/shoulders and then perform this trapezius stretch to bring my shoulders back down.  Or I’ll stay seated, grasp one side of my chair and pull away, dropping my head down and to the side until I feel a good stretch.  Hold for up to 30 seconds, then repeat on the other side.  Like this:

I did those pics on the fly with my webcam and I still have all my running gear on, POST RUN.  That’s just PURTY right there, eh?  ;)   Guess I better add SHOWER to my Saturday TO-DO list!  ;)

Have a super Saturday friends!  See you again soon!

– Shari B. =)

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It’s a Heat Wave!

Jan 15

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Oh boy, it’s FRIDAY!  You know that makes for an insanely happy Shari!  :)

Well I took a little break today from my Physique 57 experiment.  I did the workout on Tuesday and my big toe is unhappy (again).  I even modified a lot of the exercises by NOT lifting up on my toes this time around and the big little piggy is still squealing.  I’ll play it by ear and see how the toe feels.  The last thing I want to do is have it affect my ability to get outside and run.   But I do miss P57 a little already – it’s a fun little workout that challenges my body in ways that I don’t often use it.

So in lieu of P57 yesterday, I did a Tabata-style upper body workout and yet again am amazed at how much I LOVE to workout that way.  I am FEELIN’ it today!

Upper Body Tabata Workout

  • Full body warmup on treadmill plus arm/shoulder circles
  • Chest Flyes with heavy exertube (4 minutes)
  • 2-arm DB Rows top half of the movement only (4 minutes)
  • Rear Deltoid Squeeze-n-Holds on bench (4 minutes)
  • Lateral Raises (4 minutes)
  • DB Biceps Curls alternating hand grip (4 minutes)
  • Triceps Kickback top portion of movement only (4 minutes)

If you add up the minutes including the warmup, it’s clocks in at under 30 minutes.  I added on a few minutes of stretching as well.  Quick and effective, just how training should be!

***

Random Review: I finally tried the Peanut Butter Cookie flavor Larabar.  This was the last remaining flavor that I hadn’t tried yet (excluding their other lines, like the Jocalat bars).  If you like peanuts, peanut butter or peanut butter cookies, you will love this bar.  It’s very good.  Personally I’ll probably stick with the ones made from almonds and cashews.  Not that I didn’t love the bar -it’s just that ever since I switched to almond butter over peanut butter, peanut butter flavor just doesn’t do it for me anymore.

***

Today’s questions: What are your FIT plans for the weekend?  Anyone else have Monday off for the holiday? I do and I intend to get outside all three days for some running, hiking, walking, you name it!  We have a beautiful weekend in store for us in Colorado, with highs in the 50s, so I’ve gotta get out there and get my Vitamin D fix!  I’m excited about the mild weather because maybe for a few days I can stop wearing leg warmers on my hands when I’m blogging:

Enjoy your Friday night!

– Shari B. =)

My How You’ve Grown!

Jan 14

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Good mornin’ FitFeat friends!  Happy Thursday!  Check out how well my little AeroGarden is growing!

I wonder how tall they’ll get!  I love having something grow, even if all I had to do was add water and a tablet.  Still makes me feel like my thumb at least has a ‘hint’ of green to it.  Probably lime green, but that’s OK by me!

I really enjoyed the comments on my earlier post about Reducing & Reusing.  Everyone had great comments and ideas.  Joan from I’m In The Garden Today talked about reusing paper from finicky printers.  Cindy from A Sparkle A Day mentioned purchasing things in bulk and then transferring to jars at home.  Which prompted me to do that with mine too!  While my leftover almond butter jars were sitting neatly next to my drinking glasses in the cabinet, my adzuki beans and quinoa where in the plastic bulk bags I’d brought them home in, complete with twist-ties!  My good are movin’ on up like George and Weezy to their new dee-luxe digs:

This is one of the things I absolutely love about having started this blog.  I LOVE that we all trade ideas and share experiences.  Thank you all for the participation in this FitFeat community.  To this day, I still get so excited when I receive an email alert that I’ve got a comment on a blog post.  LOVE getting comments, so please keep ‘em coming!  And if you’re a lurker, that’s ok too.  I still love that you are here reading!

***

Here are a few highlights from yesterday’s healthy eats.  Another jumbo green smoothie to start my day. This one contained the following:

  • 9 oz water
  • 1/2 banana
  • 2 clementines
  • medium handful of clover sprouts
  • 1/2 of a very large cucumber
  • 2 tbsp pepitas (raw pumpkin kernels)
  • 1/2 tbsp white chia seeds
  • 1 stalk celery
  • large handful of baby spinach
  • 1.5 tbsp hemp protein powder

I know a few of you are green smoothie drinkers.  If you’re not, what’s holding you back? Is it how they look?  I know they are scary LOOKING, but they do taste fantastic.  Especially if you start with more fruit than greens, and then work your way to less fruit as you go along.

Lunch was a veggie wrap at my desk (and this time I actually took my camera to work so no BLURRY iPHONE pic here!)

  • Whole wheat tortilla
  • Smear of Tofutti (the UNcheese cream cheese)
  • Shiitake mushrooms
  • Tomato slices
  • Baby spinach
  • Clover sprouts
  • Sprinkle of sea salt

It’s been a while since I’ve made a wrap – that was one of my “go to” lunches over the summer.  I think I’d forgotten how lip-smacking awesome they were, so now I’ll probably be stuck in another wrap rut again.

***

Well friends, I’m off to get my lunch packed and scoot on out the door.  Have a TOTALLY TERRIFIC THURSDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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Über Green Smoothie

Jan 13

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 7 Comments

Hi friends!

An early morning post — surprise!!  ;)   Right after I get off of work today I am meeting up with my brother for our belated xmas gift exchange and then I have dinner plans directly following.  So I’m here bright and early this morning, knowing that I won’t be back in front of the PC again until LATE tonight.  Guess where I’m going for the dinner plans??  I’ll give you a hint:  my plate will most likely have GIGANDE beans on it!!

I made the BIGGEST GREEN smoothie yesterday morning after I finished my Physique 57 workout.  I almost couldn’t fit the lid on the BlendTec.  (Do you think that’s bad for a blender??)  And as I poured this 34 ouncer into a massive cup, it occurred to me that I haven’t been posting the “parts and pieces” that I throw into my smoothies these days.  I guess I figured they might be old hat to some of you who have been reading for a while.  But for the sake of new readers (and in an effort to convince the rest of you to make a green smoothie) I should consider doing that more often.  I’ll start right now!

The Über-Green Smoothie

  • 9 oz water
  • 1 apple (cut into chunks)
  • 2 cuties/clemetines (peel removed)
  • 1/2 very large cucumber (peeled)
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 1/2 avocado
  • large fistful of spinach
  • medium fistful of clover sprouts

Blend away!

Mmm avocado in a green smoothie makes it so thick and creamy!  This smoothie rocked.  It kept me full for almost 3 hours.

While we are on the subject of green smoothies, do you ever make your smoothies ahead of time to drink later? I never used to do that, but have made a few “to go smoothies” to take to work and drink later in the day while I’m there.  The idea of it used to gross me out until one of my training clients told me that she makes hers the night before, then gives it a good shake the next day when she’s ready to drink it and it still tastes great.  So I figured if she can do hers overnight, mine could sit in the fridge for a few hours.

The smoothie still TASTES fine, but I’ve learned that they don’t agree with me after they’ve been blended and held for later consumption.  Folks, I’m gonna get a little “TMI” on ya here:  I end up looking about 5 months pregnant – I’m NOT kidding!  My lower abdomen gets really distended and … uh.. ummm… well, a little gassy if you don’t mind my saying!

DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE?? I have to know if this is just me and my ridiculously sensitive ‘system’ or if others experience this.

It makes me wonder if it has to do with the enzymes, natural sugars or fiber breaking down (or something along those lines.)  There are no protein powders in my to-go shakes (I nixed those early on out of the ones I take to work, in case the protein powder was the culprit).  I can make two identical smoothies, drink one immediately with no tummy trouble, but drink the other one 2 hours later and have it cause a very unhappy belly.   Hmmm, mysterious.

So do tell if you have had this happen (if you don’t want to post that kind of info in the comments section for all to see, feel free to email me directly shari@fitfeat.com)

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Chili and Ice

Jan 12

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 5 Comments

Hi blog buds!  How’s your Tuesday treating ya?  I hope I’m not throwing off your reading schedule by posting in the afternoon the last couple of days.  I thought I’d play with my schedule a bit to see which I like better.  What I’m coming up with is post when it fits, instead on a SCHEDULE! :)   Hopefully it doesn’t matter if it’s morning or afternoon!

Well Monday turned out to be a fun exercise day.  First I did 25 minutes of intervals on the treadmill in the morning.  I really do get bored on the treadmill and have to vary my speed and/or incline constantly just to stay interested.  After a quick warm-up I did 1 minute intervals of 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5 mph running then walk one minute, then increase the incline a notch and do it again.  The time goes by so much faster that way.

Then when I pulled in the driveway after work, our street had been plowed again!  Which is good on one hand because at least they were moving all of the big ice chunks onto the sunny side of the street.  Unfortunately that also meant our ‘ice trench’ was covered up AGAIN!!!  So I put on my grubbies and some waterproof boots and went out there to dig yet another trench.  It was 50 degrees yesterday so things were just starting to melt a bit in the shaded part of our street.

This ice issue in front of our house has become the neighborhood comedy – neighbors sure like to chuckle at me every day as they drive by, thinking “Suckers!  You got stuck with the worst lot on the street!”  :)   I appreciate that it at least provides a neverending workout, that’s for sure.

But THEN the exercise gets better … because it was so nice out, I couldn’t resist getting the dogs out for a some WOGGING!  It’s been so long I think they forgot what WOGGING is (and you readers may have as well!)  I can’t keep a steady pace with my crazy pups because they like to stop every two seconds to sniff something, then run, then sniff.   So we’re walking AND jogging:  WOGGING.  They had a blast and actually didn’t drive me insane this time.  I think it had something to do with the treats I stashed in my pocket.  ;)   It was perfect weather for a walk.  Now THIS is the Colorado winter weather I love and miss!

***

Every weekend, usually on Sunday, I sit down to come up with food ideas for the week for his dinners (mine are much easier because I always have veggies on hand and as such always have a salad, wrap, sandwich, soup, etc.)  This time MSP said he wanted me to make my mom’s chili during the week, but make it VEGETARIAN.  I’m sorry, say that again? Did you just tell me to make VEGETARIAN chili?  By George, he did!  He said he’d be fine if I used a meat substitute for the beef so that we could both eat it.  (When I made it last time, I just made two pots side by side, mine without beef, his with.) He’s the best, huh?  No wonder I love him to pieces.  :)

So I picked up some Gimme Lean “Ground Beef Style Veggie Protein” and used that in place of the beef.  My mom’s chili is awesome.  We love it.  And it’s very easy and we had it last night for dinner.

I always seem to change the recipe around in some way.  Here’s what I did this time:

Brown 1 package Gimme Lean “ground beef” veggie product in the bottom of  a large soup pot.  If you like onions, you can brown it with that.  I just added a little onion powder, since MSP doesn’t like onions.

After browning, add the following to the pot:

  • 46 oz can of tomato juice
  • 15 oz can organic azuki beans (rinsed & drained)
  • 15 oz can organic kidney beans (rinsed & drained)
  • 1/4 tsp celery salt
  • 1/2 to 1 tsp garlic salt
  • 2 Tbsp chili powder

Simmer for a few hours.

I plated my helping over some spiralized zucchini (just for Cindy, since she wants a spiralizer) and then topped it with some nutritional yeast (in place of cheese).  Mmmm my mom’s home cooking, with a twist!

What are your favorite beans to use in chili?  Are you a WHITE BEAN chili lover or a RED BEAN chili lover? I like ALL chili colors!  :)   I don’t think I could pick a favorite.  I just love BEANS, period!

– Shari B.  =)

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Remembering to REDUCE and REUSE

Jan 11

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 13 Comments

Hello there blog buds!

Today is the first day of Cindy’s 30 Day Core Challenge so head on over to her blog today to check it out if you are interested.  I’ll be ‘watching’ this challenge from the sidelines only because I started the Physique 57 ‘program’ to review and as such, have more challenge to my core than I can handle already!  :)

Cindy, I’m thinking I’ll schedule the next Flex It Friday at the end of your challenge (making this one for ABS) so you can show off all of your hard work!  Whaddya think??? Are you game?

I hope you all had a marvelous weekend!  Mine flew by too quickly as usual.  As I mentioned in my Sunday morning post, we were planning an outdoor run since the weather was warming up somewhat.  We did get out for a run at 7:30 a.m. but apparently “Mr. Warm Up” was sleeping in.  It was 28 degrees, but WINDY so it felt bitter cold.  But it was still AMAZING!  I just love running outside.  The sun was shining and the sky was blue.  Idyllic. We just did a leisurely 3.5 miles and then spent a good 15 minutes stretching really well afterward.

It was fan-tabulous!

You know what makes beautiful runs even better?  Getting to have your ‘post-workout’ drink at Starbucks!!  I met up with another of my best friends for some chat time after the run and had a delicious grande decaf soy no-foam latte. And the cutest miniature donut you’ve ever seen!  It was too adorable to resist.  I am a sucker for miniature things. Maybe that explains why Rascal has me wrapped around his paw… he IS a MINIATURE Pinscher!

Could you resist this little face??

Didn’t think so!  ;)

***

Switching gears:  I was thinking over the weekend about another part of The Kind Diet that really resonated with me but that I didn’t include as a part of the review.  It has to do with the phrase “REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE”.

I feel good about the amount of recycling we do in our household (vs. throwing things in the trash).  We are very lucky that our waste management company (Eagle Waste) includes recycling FOR FREE when you use them for your trash pickup.  You just have to have some marked bins.  What Alicia reminded me of after reading her book is that while recycling is great, you still want to focus on REDUCING and REUSING before you even go that next step of recycling.

I’d gotten so used to recycling that I confess I had kind of forgotten about the other two.  When I would rinse a glass jar that maybe had spaghetti sauce in it, I’d have normally placed that right into the recycle bin and felt that I was doing a good thing by recycling it.

Well, sort of.

Yes, it’s 100% better than choosing the trash bin.  But this weekend it occurred to me that there was NO REASON to recycle those glass jars when I could absolutely REUSE them. I can take my lunch in one so that I have something of glass to microwave my food in (since I do NOT like to heat my food anywhere near plastic if I can help it.)  Or I can store leftover veggie broth.  Or drink a cup of coffee out of one (or WINE!)

So yesterday when I did my weekly fridge organizing to make room for the groceries, I kept ALL of the glass containers out of the recycle bin, washed them and put them in my cabinet next to our drinking glasses.  I did the same with my Tokyo Joe’s plastic ‘take-out’ containers.  They are just as good as the GladWare that I have picked up once or twice at the store (the thin kind that is considered ‘disposable’ but that I use just like Tupperware.)

Now I know this is a health & fitness blog, but I feel that the health of the Earth qualifies for inclusion here every once in a while.  :)   Because the healthier Mother Earth is, the healthier WE can be too! And I figured if I needed a nudge to ‘remember’ to REUSE before I recycle, then maybe you might like a nudge too!

Are you a big recycler?  How do you REDUCE and REUSE? Please feel free to share any tips that YOU use for reducing and reusing in the comments section so that we can all learn and be kind to our environment!

Have a beautiful evening friends!

– Shari B. =)

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My Style Miso

Jan 10

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes | 5 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy Sunday!  It’s going to be 50 degrees today and I couldn’t be happier!  MSP and I are going get out for a REAL outdoors run!  Oh yeah!  Then on to meet one of my best friends for some SBUX action.  A great start to the day!

Since I posted the book review yesterday I didn’t recap much from Friday, so I’ll rewind a bit.

Friday’s workout was 30 minutes of intervals on the TM (5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 mph for a minute each then repeat) followed by 20 minutes of shoulder strength (KB overhead presses, KB side raises, rear delt rows, YTI).  Shoulders are truly one of my favorite muscle groups to work on.  I’ve had a heck of a time getting my rear shoulders to grow so I’ve really given them a lot of attention lately.

Saturday’s workout was another round of Physique 57 on DVD.  I’m getting better!  I even increased my weights on some of the moves!

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Friday eats were of the usual sort for me.  I made “Now and Later” smoothies:

One to drink "NOW"

And one to drink "LATER"

The combination of greens, acai and a purple to-go container do not make for pretty food photo ops, that’s for sure.  That’s one UGLY smoothie!

Both smoothies had a couple of clementines in them and I would like to know who has the fun job of having to put one of these on EVERY single one:

I had leftovers again for lunch, so no exciting photos at my desk.  But what WAS exciting when I got home was getting to try my first Umeboshi Plum!

Raw veggies, raw goat cheddar, dollop of hummus and UMEBOSHI!

You know that face you might make when you bite into a lemon?  It was kind of like that at first.  It’s sour and SALTY.  But then you get into the flesh and you can kind of tell it was fruity before being pickled.  Definitely interesting.  They are highly alkalizing, but high in sodium too, so one every few days is plenty.  This is not an item that you pile onto your plate.

After posting my blog Friday I moved on to iTunes to see what I could spend a giftcard on.  My latest favorite cardio song is “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. Yes, I’m still listening to music for teens.  Not sure how I’ll ever break that habit.  Although, her lyrics are definitely NOT appropriate for teens, I quickly found!  But for $6.99 on iTunes I couldn’t resist just getting the whole album.  She has some great high-tempo beats to run with!

It's a party at my PC...!

I made some My Style Miso for dinner, meaning I didn’t follow a recipe I just kind of threw in what I wanted.  Thought I’d share it with you in case you’d like to make some too!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/3 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 1/2 sheet Nori (folded and cut into strips)
  • 1-1/2 tsp barley miso
  • 4-5 shakes nama shoyu
  • handful fresh organic spinach

Bring broth, water and dried mushrooms to a light boil.  Simmer with bubbles for about 7 minutes, letting the mushrooms reconstitute.

Fold the nori and then cut into strips with kitchen shears, add to broth along with the spinach and the nama shoyu to taste (I used about 5 shakes of the bottle) and simmer for 3 minutes to let the seaweed and shoyu do their thing!

Using a measuring cup, take some of the liquid out of the soup pot so that you have something in which to dissolve the miso.  You only want about 1/2 a tsp to each cup of liquid with your miso soups (Thanks for the tip Alicia!) so I mixed 1.5 tsp of the brown barley miso into my liquid, stirring well till dissolved.  Then remove soup from heat (or turn down to LOW) and add the dissolved miso to it.

Stir it through with the rest of the liquid and serve after a minute or so.

The shiitake mushrooms made this dish feel ‘meaty’ and it was actually pretty filling all on it’s own that night.  You can make this so many ways, adding leftover brown rice, changing up your greens, adding tofu, etc.  As mentioned before, light broth soups are a great way to curb your appetite when you are trying to watch your portions.

Enjoy!

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Well friends, I have an outdoor run calling my name right about  now!  See you soon!

Have a SUPERB Sunday!

– Shari B. =)

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Review: The Kind Diet

Jan 9

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 10 Comments

As promised, I have finally finished reading The Kind Diet (Alicia Silverstone) and thought you might enjoy hearing a little about it, in case you are interested in her book or in moving to more plant-based nutrition.

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The PROS:

The book is beautiful

Right off the bat you can tell that she cares how her message is presented.  The paper is thick and sturdy.  It has a very nice, easy-to-read layout with full-color photos throughout.  If you decide that you want to purchase this book, be sure to get the actual book and not the Kindle version.  You’ll really be missing out if you do.


The message comes through in a friendly way

One of my favorite quotes from this book is:

“When you make this journey in your own way, there’s no such thing as failure.”

That seems to sum up her attitude throughout the book.  I was welcomed in by her conversational writing style and felt like a friend was educating me on a topic for which she has a lot of passion.

She offers many facts and informational sidebars, without coming across as overly “preachy” about a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

It is applicable to various levels of eating styles

She divides it into three eating plans of  Flirting, Vegan and Superhero.  People who are Flirting are learning about the lifestyle and aiming to cut down on their animal-product consumption (but not necessarily intending to go veggie) and she gives you a long list of ‘transitional’ foods that will help you switch out some of your favorites with something similar as you are getting started.  Her Vegan section includes rich and flavorful foods to show that you can still have things like cupcakes and tacos while enjoying a vegan lifestyle.  She also takes it one step further into what she calls the Superhero plan, where one learns to let their palate begin to appreciate the natural essence of vegan foods without many added spice or condiments.

I was pleasantly surprised to catch myself going “Huh… I didn’t know that” as I read along.  I learned a few new things, which is I appreciate. For example, I’d already been looking for miso that was NOT powdered and learned she recommends BARLEY miso (aged for at least two years).  Supposedly that has the highest level of “medicinal properties” when compared to other types of miso.  Additionally she taught me that you never want to add miso to the water or broth when it’s boiling or it can kill the enzymes so you want to add it at the end of cooking and simmer it for 2-3 minutes.

Chewing and digestion are important points in this book

And you know that makes me happy, because I am a stickler for wanting peeps to CHEW THEIR FOOD!  Myself included, because it’s easy to forget.  But good digestion starts in the mouth and I was tickled to see that Alicia touched on this a few times.

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The Not-So-PROS
(I didn’t want to call them full-fledged “CONS”)


Many recipes call for Exotic Ingredients

She does have quite a few ingredients listed throughout that won’t be found at a ‘regular’ grocery store, so if you intend to use the book for recipes, hopefully you have a specialty healthfood store nearby.  Our local Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer does now carry Umeboshi Plums (salt plums) and I just found them the other night.

Overuse of Two Obnoxious Words

“Yummy” and “sexy” were used all too often throughout.  I don’t really think of my food as sexy.  And I know foods needs to taste good and be yummy.   But those two words appeared a lot more than they needed to and it started to become distracting to me.

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Recipe Tests:

Azuki Beans with Kabocha Squash:

This recipe was chosen from the Superhero recipe section of the book, so that means not a lot of spice action.  And to be honest you could tell.  As I had not yet found a Kabocha Squash at the time of making this recipe I subbed in Butternut (which the recipe mentioned would be fine.)

I made my beans from SCRATCH instead of relying on canned for probably the first time ever – and even soaked them with some Kombu seaweed as per the recipe:

It made a very hearty dish that provided me with plenty of easily reheatable lunches to-go for the week.  But I did have to add a few pinches of sea salt and nutritional yeast for some flavor each day because apparently I have not yet earned a Superhero’s taste buds.

Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts:

Again, I had to make a substitution because the pine nuts at Whole Foods were ridiculously expensive.  So MSP and I looked at each and said, “Who needs pine nuts??” and decided to use some sunflower seeds that we had on hand instead.  Wow was this dish aromatic.  I LOVE to use fresh basil in recipes – it smells amazing in the kitchen.  Because this was also a Superhero recipe, it too was a little bland so we had so give it some S&P the first night.  But the leftovers were REALLY flavorful because the basil had time to infuse with the rest of the dish.  So my tip would be to make this the day before you want to eat it.

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Overall I have to say I really loved this book.  I want to go have tea with Alicia – she seems very fun to be around!  She is so passionate about animals and health that it’s hard not to get excited along with her.  This will be a book that will have a place in my kitchen, that I will refer to often, and will be all marked up with sticky notes.

Alicia has started a website (The Kind Life) which includes her blog as well.  I noticed yesterday she posted one of her recipes from the book, Radicchio Pizza with Truffle Oil, for you pizza lovers out there.

It retails for $29.99 but Amazon.com sells it for almost half that at $17.54.  I’ve added it to the FitFeat Faves Store, so if you want to check it out you can click HERE.

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Have you read “The Kind Diet”?  If so, what were YOUR thoughts? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

Hope you are having a SUPER Saturday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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