FitFeat

Archive for February, 2010

13 Weeks Till 26.2

Feb 15

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 9 Comments

Hi blog buds!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend whether or not you were celebrating Valentine’s Day.  And a happy Presidents Day to you today, especially those of you who get the day off of work!  Guess what else it is?

It’s Marathon Monday!

We are 13 weeks away from the marathon.  Our planned long run for this weekend was 12 miles.

It occurred to me as I was getting ready Saturday morning that I’m a little neurotic when it comes to getting out the door for a run.   As you may or may not know, I’m a bit of an overplanner (remember when I was packing for my Michigan RV trip?)  I would love to be that person that just decides to take off running willy nilly when I feel like it.  But I’m not.  I have to plan for it.

You’ve read previously in my blog that a 90 minute rule works best for me before a run.  Which means that I have to eat any pre-run food no later than 90 minutes before.  Any closer and I get a crazy cramp in my lower left abdominal area that hurts so bad I can barely walk let alone jog.   Our start time this Saturday was 8:00 AM, so at 6:30 on the dot, I ate.  This time an Ezekial english muffin rather than Ezekial toast:

After getting dressed in my gear, it’s time to pack!  I have a little post-it note ‘checklist‘ that I keep because inevitably I will walk out the door without something, especially that early in the morning.  This week, without my handy note, I would have actually left without my Camelbak of all things!

Here’s the pile of stuff:

Crazy, huh? Questions for my running readers:   Do you do that when you have a long run planned?  Or are you a “roll-out of bed and hit the pavement” kind of runner?

When deciding what jacket(s) to wear, I checked the indoor/outdoor thermometer.  I can’t remember the last time I was so EXCITED to see 30+ degrees outside!  All of our training runs so far have been started in weather around 17 degrees!  This meant I wouldn’t have to worry about my water freezing in my hydration pack.

After last week’s unhappy knees, I made a few adjustments for this run:

1.) I wore a different pair of shoes.

After learning more about barefoot running and the importance of LESS support for your feet, I chose to wear my beat-up old trail runners that don’t have much tread left on the bottom in hopes that this would force me more onto the balls of my feet much like I am in my VFFs.

2.) I brought back an old technique that I sometimes used when I trained for my first half-marathon in 2004:  run a mile, walk a minute.

This strategy allows you to still build conditioning for the distance, but eliminates some of the fatigue your leg muscles will experience.  I’ve always liked this training method because it makes a long run more of an ‘interval’ workout for me when I know it’s broken into mile segments, so mentally I find it easier.  From a speed standpoint, we’ve been averaging 10 minute miles on our long training runs.  You would think adding these walk breaks in would slow us down to 11 minute miles, but it didn’t.  We averaged a 10:20 pace this week!  So when we were running, we were running FASTER.

3.) I iced my knees in the car on the way home from the run.

I didn’t have frozen peas, so frozen EDAMAME had to do the trick.  :)   And I had to pack them in a thermal lunchbox with an icepack to keep them frozen!

4.) I kept moving as the day went on.

Last week I was exhausted and just wanted to stay off my feet, so I caught up on some reading.  Unfortunately I think this allowed my legs to really tighten up.  So this time while I was pretty beat, I made sure that I kept busy and kept my legs moving.  We ran errands, went to Costco, and did some chores around the house.

***

Fuel during the run: 2/3 of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar at the 5.55 mile mark.

Immediately following the run, while stretching: coconut water, glutamine recovery drink and a banana, plus a ginger root capsule for inflammation

Post-workout meal: vegetarian chili with red quinoa, spinach and nutritional yeast.

The outcome of the adjustments this week: My knees were a little sore directly following the run, then more sore later in the day, but almost back to normal on Sunday.  Whereas last week, I was still hobbled on Sunday.  So that’s a huge plus.  I also didn’t feel extremely sleepy as I had the previous week.   The bottoms of my feet didn’t feel ‘raw’ and I didn’t have any blisters.  So all in all I’m very pleased with how this long run went.

What’s a little daunting from here on out is knowing that all of our long runs will be more distance than a half-marathon.  Yikes.  I’m looking forward to 14 miles, because up until now I’ve only run half-marathons, so 13.1 has been the cap on my distance.  It will be fun to surpass that.  (I say “fun” now – let’s see what I say when I’m actually RUNNING it that day!) ;) This is where you dig a little deeper and remind yourself that you chose this goal for a reason and get EXCITED!

***

Don’t forget that we have FLEX-IT FRIDAY coming up this week, so get your ab shots in to my by Thursday afternoon!

Have a MAGNIFICENT Monday!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Feb 14

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Hi friends!  Just wanted to hop on to the blog this morning to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Even Starbucks is in on the Valentine action!  Look what my soy latte came in:

FitFEATure:  be sure to get some cardio in this weekend to show your HEART some V-day love!

***

I’m spending the day away from the computer with MSP and we’re watching ‘relationship’ movies (The Time Travelers Wife [good] and Couples Retreat [terrible]) since it’s snowing like crazy here in the ‘burbs of Denver.  I’ll be back tomorrow with the next installment of MARATHON MONDAY to talk about the 12-miler we did yesterday!

Make it a GREAT day!

– Shari B. =)

Review: Physique 57

Feb 12

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 12 Comments

Yes, I’ve been talking about this forever and now it’s finally been long enough that I feel I can fairly review the Physique 57 DVD.  They currently offer 3 DVDs.  The one I have is the “Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout”.

First let me share what I like about this workout.

  • It accomplishes a lot in 57 minutes: an efficient use of time including warm-up and cool-down with stretching here and there throughout.
  • It uses muscles you might not hit with traditional strength training: a big part of why this DVD held my interest for as long as it has.  The first time I tried to do “The Pretzel” I realized a definite imbalance between the strength on my left side vs. right side. This move looks so simple and yet I found it to be incredibly difficult.  Here’s a quick video of Tanya instructing this move.

  • It’s well-organized into segments: You get a fast upper body workout right at the start, move on to thighs, then glutes, then core.  So if you feel one day like you want to give your upper body a rest, you can skip over that and go right into thighs.  Personally, I find that I don’t like to work core every day or every other day, so I would often do the upper and lower portion and then add the core segment once or twice during the week.

***

Next I’ll share the few things I didn’t like as much:

  • Typical cheesy ‘fitness DVD’ moments: they actually use the line “you got a license for those guns?” in the video.  That alone was enough to make me want to hit mute.  Also a lot of “uh-huhs” and sing-songy “Cell-u-lite, Bye-Bye”.  Yowza.
  • Form: as a personal trainer we get it beaten into our brains that knees should never go beyond the toes (if you were to draw a line straight up from the toes).  There are a lot of ballet-style squatting movements that have your heels together and your knees way past your toes.  I’m fine with this if you’ve never had knee problems but would be a little worried otherwise.  You also heard me complain a few times in January about my toes hurting from being ON them so much in this workout.
  • Big promises: The instructor says during the DVD that this workout WILL change your body, and quickly.  I have to be honest and say I don’t SEE a difference.  While I know I’ve strengthened some core and stabilizer muscles, this workout alone won’t change your shape so don’t order it for that reason.  I know Kelly Ripa credits this program to her fit figure, but you know she is also eating right and she runs.  If you’ve never lifted a weight or performed a squat in your life, yes you may see a difference.  But first and foremost if you want to change your physique, you have to eat well to do it AND exercise.

***

Conclusion:  I would definitely recommend incorporating Physique 57 into your routine.  I think it is a quality workout with a strong focus on muscular endurance and some focus on muscular strength (like pushups and dips).  I’d still recommend some heavier strength days and cardio to supplement this program.  The upper body portion of the DVD uses dumbbells which allows progression to harder (heavier) movements, but you don’t get that option for the legs.

Whenever I’d take a few days away from the DVD to do something else, I always looked forward to the next workout (the sign of a good video to me!)  It’s definitely fun and challenging.  If it’s a program you’ve been thinking about trying, go for it! It’s worth $24.95.

– Shari B. =)

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Root Down Had Me Before Hello

Feb 11

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Welcome to Friday-EVE friends!  I’m especially excited about this weekend because not only it is Valentine’s Day but it’s also President’s Day weekend which means Monday off!  LOVE that!

I wanted to get back out here again yesterday with restaurant news, but boy yesterday did not go as planned.  I didn’t even workout!  I had my green smoothie and then about 45 minutes later, I was looking a little green!  To the point where I had to keep sneaking into an empty office at work to lie down every few minutes because when I would sit up my stomach was ON FIRE but when I was lying flat it was fine.

What’s funny about that is I opened a new container of spinach in the morning and was in a rush so I didn’t wash it in my salad spinner.  As I did this I was thinking to myself, “well geez apparently that article didn’t jolt me as much as I thought it would if I’m not washing my greens right now!”  Fast forward to me sitting at my desk at work doubled over and I was almost laughing, thinking what are the chances of  me now giving myself E. coli or something!  Wouldn’t that be just like karma to give me a little hello?    Luckily after about 2 hours of office hide-and-seek, I forced myself to eat my Ezekial toast and that seemed to do the trick.

The question is:  will I wash my spinach TODAY? Like a Magic 8 Ball might say, “Signs point to no”.  Terrible, I know!

***

So about this restaurant… It’s called Root Down in the Denver Highlands area.  I drove forever in rush hour traffic to get there, and I’m telling you it was SO worth it.  So much so that I might bug MSP to go with me this weekend for brunch because there are so many more items I want to try.

I first heard of this restaurant from a client who thought I’d like it because of my style of eating.  Then I heard about it again from my friend and running buddy, Scott. When I went to their website to learn more, this sentence caught my attention:

Following a “field to fork” mentality, Root Down prefers to stay as organic, natural and local as possible.  We want our food to be colorful, passionate, improvisational and simplistically sophisticated.

Well of course I’m all for ORGANIC and LOCAL.  And their menu is very vegan-friendly which I also appreciate.

First, I loved that their water was served without ice.  I don’t like ice in my water for digestive reasons and I almost always forget to say “no ice”.

We started with two apps to share:  the Edamame Hummus and the Sweet Potato Falafel.  I was also eyeing the Veggie Burger Sliders, but figured I better save room for dinner.

Both items were DELICIOUS.  We ate those things so fast I didn’t even have time to take a picture!  That, and the fact that Marissa was trying to get my attention with this new rock on her finger.  She kept putting her hand in front of her face and I just WASN’T CATCHING ON.  Sorry friend!  So we were busy chatting and squealing about her engagement, and my camera was forgotten for a few minutes.  Congrats Marissa and Jerry!

For dinner she had the Red Miso Barley soup and I had the Organic 3-Way Beets salad.

I seriously ate EVERY morsel on that plate.  It was perfection.

We did peruse the dessert menu and I told the waitress that I was going to pass because all of their items contained dairy of some variety.  To which she replied, “Oh we also have vegan ice cream!”  OK, they officially are the best ever.  I still passed on the dessert because I was plenty full.  But I am just really thrilled to find a restaurant where I don’t have to make a bunch of ‘special requests’ in order to accommodate my nutrition style (and fear getting an evil eye from my waitperson!)

And because I just love QUIRKY things, check out how your check arrives:

If you live anywhere in the Denver area you MUST try this place.  It’s got a really fun and unique atmosphere and the food was amazing.  Let’s give some support to restaurants aiming to make a difference using local and organic items.

Do you have a restaurant local to you that follows the same principles? Have you been to it? Let’s share restaurants we know that are GOOD for us!  Maybe another FitFeat reader lives near you and has no idea that the restaurant you know of is even there.  I don’t think I’d have heard about Root Down if someone hadn’t mentioned it to me.

Have a terrific Thursday!

– Shari B. =)

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Calling All Abs!

Feb 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Yesterday in closing I mentioned an upcoming Flex-it Friday.  We had a little fun with this back in November for our first Flex-it Friday, showcasing our biceps.   We had a lot of laughs, so when Cindy announced her 30 Day Core Challenge in January I figured the end of that challenge called for another round of Flex-it Friday to let everyone show off their hard work! And the rest of us who did not do the challenge (like me) have a reason to eat super-clean for the next week and maybe slap on some sunless tanner to get our abs ready for photo time!  ;)   If anything it will help us keep our mitts out of the Valentine’s Day chocolate, right?

Here’s how it works:  take a pic of your best ab-flexin’ shot with something to let us know it’s YOU (and not Dana Torres) ;) and email to me at shari at fitfeat dot com.  (Had to write that out to keep those darn spammers from grabbing my email.)  Serious AND silly pics will both be accepted so have some fun!  If you are also a blogger, I will mention (and link) your blog with your photo, so if you are a new blogger it’s a fun way to get a little extra traffic!  I’ll accept pics through Thursday Feb 18 at 4:00 PM MST and then the blog post will be up on Friday the 19th.

***

Giveaways in the blogosphere:

  • Christy at Fit in the City is hosting her first giveaway with an autographed copy of The Blue Zones through tonight.  I’ve not had the opportunity to read this one but I did see it featured on Oprah and it’s REALLY interesting!
  • Gena at Choosing Raw is giving away a Tribest portable blender, which looks awesome and would be a GREAT way to make green smoothies at WORK!

You can bet I’ll be entering both of these and thought you might be interested too!  Who wouldn’t love to win something fun?

***

I had dinner last night at one of the coolest restaurants, so I’ll be showing you some pictures and telling you all about it!  I’m hoping to do this yet today, depending on how the day goes.

***

And because this is also a FITNESS blog, I better get yesterday’s workout on record:  52 minutes of Iron Yoga (wearing my VFFs, which ROCK for yoga) followed by 20 minutes of speedwork on the treadmill (also in the VFFs).  I am LOVING my bday unshoes.

Make it a GREAT day everyone!  See you back here soon!

– Shari B. =)

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My Basil Is A Bully

Feb 9

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 8 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!  Hope your Tuesday is off to a terrific start!

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Marathon Monday feature.  Sounds like you guys like it, so I’ll definitely keep it up throughout my training.  I’ll be sure to include all the ups AND the downs so that you guys can learn from my mistakes as well as my wins… since this is my first full marathon, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of “whoops, bad call” moments!

I feel a RANDOM post coming on so I’ll just give you fair warning now.  :) It’s probably going to be all over the place!  Lots to catch you up on!

Lets start with some EATS, shall we? A few food highlights to share from the last few days.

Here’s my portobella ‘burger’ that I grilled on the George Foreman using Ezekial ‘heels’ as the bun.  Toppings include broccoli sprouts, avocado, Tofutti, salsa and some spinach.  On the side I have steamed cauliflower sprinkled with nutritional yeast.  That was a tasty dinner right there!

Yesterday’s packed lunch was SO GOOD!  I’ve really been missing my large salads that I used to eat every day for lunch when I was home at lunchtime.  So I packed up a good ol’ Shari-Salad of the past (spinach, dulse, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, nutritional yeast and Annie’s Goddess dressing.)  I also warmed up some leftover steamed veggies from the weekend and put them on top of the salad.  Then I shook the whole thing up and darn near licked the last few drops of salad dressing out of the bowl when I was done.  I ate an ENTIRE CONTAINER of spinach yesterday between my green smoothie at breakfast, my salad at lunch and my dinner.

Dinner was a mushroom and spinach quesadilla.  This pic is before I put on the top tortilla:

The ‘innards included mushrooms, spiralized zucchini, spinach, small sprinkle of raw goat cheddar, a spoon of 505 gluten-free vegetarian green chile and some nutritional yeast.  While it TASTED FANTASTIC, I have a new “note to self” which is this:  Do NOT use just-steamed veggies  for the innards of a quesadilla – you end up with a SOGGY-dilla instead.  Next time I will use leftovers because they’ve had time to drain.

***

OK switching gears on ya!

A FitFeat reader and good friend of mine is also on a mission toward her first marathon.  Unlike yours truly who is running a marathon because I can’t seem to say no when presented with a challenge, Beth is actually doing her marathon for an amazing cause.  I’m sure many of you have heard of Team In Training, that raises money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Beth has signed up to run her first marathon in June in honor of her friend Diane who is a 15 year Leukemia survivor.  If this is a cause near and dear to your heart (or you just did your 2009 taxes and realize you could use more charitable write-offs for 2010!) head on over to Beth’s TNT Page for more info on the TNT cause and info on how to donate.   Beth has been a running machine the last few years, competing in tons of half-marathons and she’s very excited to be aiming for her first full marathon.  I’m sure she’s gonna kick that course right in the shin(splints)! ;)

I’ll be getting a link set up in the sidebar too so that if you think of people to whom you’d like to spread the word for donations, you can send them right to FitFeat and there will be a banner to click on.

***

OK this will be the last gear-change, I promise.  I thought I’d give you a little update on how my AeroGarden is doing.  The basil is going CRAZY and growing beautifully.  I even harvested my first few leaves on Sunday for a Lemon Basil White Bean dip that I made for a SuperBowl party.

However the chives and the thyme are not looking quite so happy!  In fact, they’re looking downright PATHETIC.

I think the basil is a big bully, stealing all of the UV light and shading the other two in its huge leaves.  And probably using up all of the root space in the bowl!

***

Time is flying by and I have lots to get done on the ‘catch-up’ day so I better get cracking!

Near-future blog topics you’ll want to come back for:

  • Thoughts on Physique 57 (finally, I know)
  • Thoughts on Born to Run
  • Calling all ABS for our next Flex-It Friday feature

Make it a FIT day!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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14 Weeks Till 26.2

Feb 8

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 8 Comments

Good Monday morning to you all!  It’s a snowy one here in Colorado.

Was anyone else disappointed with the commercials during the SuperBowl?  I always look forward to hilarious commercials during the game.  Yesterday – not so much! Thank goodness for the E*Trade babies – it seems they were the only ones with a hint of comedy!

Welcome to “Marathon Monday“!  As I mentioned in last Monday’s post, I’ll be making a weekly feature now through mid-May where I’ll keep you up to speed on what I’m doing to train for the Colfax Marathon.

The plan for this weekend was 10 miles.  I realized Saturday afternoon that I could only count on 2 hands the number of times I’d run 10 miles in the past, at least from what I remember.  One hand for the 5 half-marathons I’ve completed, and the other hand for the 5 ten-mile training runs I completed leading up to each of those half-marathons.

I was up before the alarm clock at a little after 4:00 and had a cup of half-caff coffee.  I had my usual pre-run fuel at 5:30:  one slice of Ezekial toast with raw organic almond butter, organic unsweetened coconut flakes and a drizzle of raw local honey.

We were meeting at 7:15 and I wanted to be there a little early to get in a good warm-up.  I’ve found that when I really take the time for a proper warm-up my heart rate throughout the entire run stays a little lower which makes the run feel less exhausting.

It was a BITTER start to the day again:  foggy and damp, 18 degrees with windchill.  We did an out-and-back route on a dirt trail, which ended up being frozen ruts with a lot of ice on it.

This time I was smarter and kept water OUT of the tube for my hydation pack so it wouldn’t freeze.  So I didn’t drink as early as I would have liked, but I was holding off until I really needed it because I knew once I suctioned the water into the tube there was a good chance it would freeze quickly.

At the five mile turnaround, I ate my homemade exercise fuel, a date stuffed with coconut oil.

I had a second one with me but didn’t feel that I needed it.  However, at mile 8 I was really starting to feel beat, so maybe I misread my need for energy.

Right at the 10 mile mark, we took off in a sprint for a tenth of a mile to wrap it up.

I did a few stretches before getting in the car to head home, and  I drank my glutamine drink.  Once at home I went through a longer stretching session and ate a post-run meal of 1/2 sweet potato with a sprinkle of goat cheddar, and a side of hummus with crackers.  I knew a green smoothie would be a better choice, but I was SO COLD that I just didn’t want anything that would make me feel more chilled than I already was.

Next it was time to soak!  I put a wetsuit on my Kindle:

And added some Epsom salt to the water:

The best part of any run is the stretching and soaking afterward!

Last week I felt GREAT after our 9 miler.  This week, I felt totally DRAINED and ACHY.  My knees were really unhappy the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday (and I’d even taken my ginger root caps!)  I tried to determine what I had done differently:

  1. The terrain was much more bumpy (so maybe that affected my gait/cadence enough to irritate my knees?)
  2. I didn’t have two dates and a Starbucks decaf soy latte, like I had last week

Those were the only differences between the weeks.

I won’t lie – it was disappointing because it affected my level of productivity for the remainder of the weekend.  So I’m toying with the idea of doing next week’s long run on Sunday instead so that I can still have a very productive Saturday (including getting the dogs out for their walk), with Monday being an upper body strength day to let the legs recover while I’m sitting at my desk at work (as opposed to letting them recover while being a bump on a log on Sunday).   The downside is that means I’ll most likely be without my running buddies.

Other adjustments I’ll keep in mind for next week’s 12 mile run are:

  • bump up the size of my pre-run meal (two pieces of Ezekial)
  • ice my knees directly following the run to combat the inflammation

Well friends, it’s going to be a LONG drive to work this morning thanks to the snow so I better scoot!  Have a marvelous MONDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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Being Flexible with Healthy Eating

Feb 6

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 10 Comments

Happy Saturday!  I hope your weekend is SWELL so far!

Before I get to the recap of last night’s pig-out fondue, I want t give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to BERNI who will be running her first Half-Marathon tomorrow!  Berni, you will love it! Savor it, the scenery flies by so fast sometimes! Try to take little snapshots in your mind as you go!  Can’t wait to read your recap of the race!

So about last night…

We had such an amazing time at The Melting Pot.  If you have one anywhere near to wherever you live, you definitely need to go there for a special occasion sometime.  We haven’t been there in a few years and as such, it felt like a “new” experience all over again.   The service is stellar.  For example, they had a hospitality manager who came around with a camera, took our picture, printed it into a card and wrote “Thank you for celebrating your birthday with us.”   Of course the first thing I think when someone is at an establishment with a camera is “Oh geez, they’re going to try to SELL me a photo.”  So I was pleasantly surprised that this was FREE!  Their valet parking is FREE too!

The Littleton location is housed in an old building that used to be a library.  It has beautiful architecture inside and out.

The second pic is the view from our corner booth looking through the archway to a water feature.  My camera doesn’t do it justice.  Kind of how it doesn’t do justice for the water feature in the next shot either:

That’s looking up toward the second story from our booth.

MSP called ahead and had birthday balloons at the table.  See why I call him MSP?  (My Sweetie Pie)  He earns that moniker every day.  LOVE HIM!

Now it’s time to decide on the eats!  (And the drinks!)

Here’s where I choose to be FLEXIBLE about my healthy eating habits.  This was a special occasion so I knew I’d be bending some of the rules I typically follow, but not all of them.  In the interest of meal-sharing, I did NOT want to be a pain. Fondue is a TEAM game.   So yes, I did consume some cow’s dairy (but you KNOW I checked the menu for goat cheese – had they offered that for the appetizer fondue, I’d have been all over it.)   We choose a Gruyere/wine mix and it was delicious.  I ate all of the cauliflower, some of the bread pieces and a few bites of apple.

For the second course, a spinach and mushroom salad:

Apparently, the more wine I drank the more blurry my pictures became…!  :)

The entree I selected was… you guessed it… the VEGETARIAN.  It had asparagus, mushrooms, marinated tofu, 3 pieces of ravioli, broccoli, potato, etc.  Our cooking liquid for this was a simple wine with herbs – no oil for us.  It was FABULOUS.  I didn’t even need the dipping sauces, because the veggies came out of the liquid with an amazing flavor.  (But I still tried them all anyway!)

By this time I was feeling pretty full.  But you can’t go to The Melting Pot and NOT share a dessert fondue.  MSP and I immediately agreed on The S’mores selection:  chocolate and marshmallow melted together then crushed graham crackers added to the mix.  The dippers included bananas, strawberries, brownies, marshmallows, a sliver of cheesecake, rice krispy treats and more graham crackers.  I went for the strawberries and marshmallows and left the denser items for MSP.  He loves rice krispy treats and cheesecake.

It was worth every calorie.  I am a proponent of STOPPING eating as soon as you begin to feel lightly full.  Obviously that was one of the bent rules of the night.  But I focused the majority of my attention on the vegetables and fruit throughout the meal and ultimately felt really good about the food choices I made.  Unfortunately that didn’t stop me from pretty much going into a FOOD COMA the minute I was in the car!  :)

The moral of my Melting Pot post is that you need to take care of yourself and be healthy AND you need to live a little here and there along the way! I made decent food choices while still having a DELIGHTFUL time.  I know that I eat a VERY CLEAN diet the other 95% of the time so letting loose here and there is important to me.  And I feel very strongly about that in my clients’ programs as well.

Do you have a favorite restaurant that is your GO-TO place for special occasions?

Have a WONDERFUL Sunday – enjoy the SuperBowl (or at least the commercials if you aren’t a sports fan).  I’ll be back for MARATHON MONDAY with the recap of this morning’s 10 mile training run!

– Shari B. =)

Well Hello Vibrams, We Meet Again

Feb 5

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 10 Comments

Oh yes, it’s Friday!  I’m so excited for the weekend!  It’s packed with plans: MSP is taking me out tonight for Birthday Fondue, I have an e-a-r-l-y 10 mile run planned for tomorrow morning, and a SuperBowl party on Sunday.  The weekend will be a blast and will probably FLY BY!

Lookie lookie what showed up yesterday!

My Vibrams are here! Weeeeeeee!  Aren’t they funny?  This pair fit PERFECTLY!  I wore them to the grocery store and Goodwill.  I didn’t notice anyone looking at me like I’m some kind of fool yet, but I may have been keeping my head bent low under my hat.  :)

I’ve been torturing my dogs with them. Riley can’t get enough sniffing:

And Rascal thinks they are some sort of strange playmate and keeps slapping his front paws down and wiggling his tail in an effort to engage this new friend in a game:

So far I’m LOVING them.  I wore them around for about 4 hours yesterday.  Some of that time included running 2.25 miles.  We’ll see how the calves feel later today – I hope I haven’t made them insanely sore for tomorrow’s long run!  :) (Which will be done in my regular running shoes, NOT these.  You are supposed to wear these for 1-2 hours a day while your muscles, tendons and ligaments get used to them.  Obviously I’m already bending the rules, but I’m not crazy enough to try 10 in them – yet.)

I will say that running in them on the treadmill was a vast improvement over running in my socks or even sockless.  I’m DYING to get outside with them to see what it’s like on the trails.  Maybe Sunday if my legs aren’t fried from tomorrow’s run.

A definite plus:  if you are feeling bored with running, this gives you a whole new reason to be excited about it!

I’m off to get in an upper body workout before the work day starts.

Which team are you rooting for this weekend in the SuperBowl? Since neither the Broncos nor the Steelers made it far enough, I don’t really have a favorite.  But I at least try to root for an AFC team, so I guess I’ll be cheering on Colts.  What I WON’T be cheering about is the halftime show.  The WHO?  Really?  Damn you Janet and Justin for forever messing up fun and edgy halftime shows!  That was the last good one!

Have a FABULOUS Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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A Very Veggie Bday

Feb 4

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

HiFitFeat peeps!

It was a WONDERFUL birthday yesterday! I don’t even think I can express how lucky I know I truly am.

First, I got up at my usual crazy hour and a sweet birthday card from MSP was waiting for me on my java-maker!  As if surprising my with my very own pair of Vibram FiveFingers wasn’t enough, now I have a gift card to order a couple of books for my Kindle!  Wahoo!  I don’t know how I got in so good with the matchmaking gods, but when I met him, it sure was my lucky day.  I love you sweetie pie, thank you for making my birthday (and EVERY day) so special!

So after reading my card while making coffee, I flew upstairs to get changed for a leg workout.

Lower Body Workout:

  • TM warmup 5 min
  • Wall Ball Squat – Tabata, 4 min
  • Smith Machine Squat – Tabata, 4 min
  • Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls – Tabata, 4 min (this one STILL kills me)
  • Straight Leg Deadlift – Tabata, 4 min
  • ValSlide Rear Lunges (alt. legs) – Tabata, 4 min

Then I ran a barefoot mile on the treadmill.  Hello again calves – it’s been a few days!

Afterward, I made a set of NOW and LATER green smoothies.

The NOW:

The LATER:

When I logged on to email in the morning I had an adorable card waiting for me from Joan (thank you!) with dancing chocolates that totally made me laugh out loud.

On my way to work I noticed I had a voice my from my older brother, where he and his 4 kids all sang me Happy Birthday.  Too fun!

Then I got a voicemail a bit later from my little brother, where he had my baby niece (not quite three) say “Happy bird-day, Shaa-wee, wub you!” which almost brought me to tears right at my desk.  Tatum, I freaking LOVE you and Aunt Sha-wee is gonna hug and squeeze you like crazy when I see you next.

I had a great gift and hilarious card waiting for me at my desk from two fabulous ladies I work with.  (They know me so well!  Organic dark chocolate, movie gift card and gluten-free, dairy free chocolate chip cookies!!!  So thoughtful!)  I held off on eating those for the time being and instead drank green smoothie #2:

At work they ordered in Jason’s Deli for my birthday (the fun stuff just keeps comin’) so I picked a Mediterranean Veggie Wrap with a side of steamed veggies.  It was DEE-LISH!!  Hummus, kalamata olives, TONS of greens, a few red onions for flavor, cucumbers.  All the good stuff I love.

I did break into the dark chocolate in the afternoon – I can tell you that much!  :)

Throughout the afternoon, my email was piling up with wonderful messages from friends, my Facebook page was overflowing with greetings, text messages were coming at my phone.  Cindy and I had a wonderful email exchange, where we think we may actually get to meet IN PERSON in the near future! Talk about making a birthday FUN!

I opened two beautiful gifts from my mom who knows how to pick things that fit me perfectly every time!!  (Thanks so much mom – I’ll send you pics!)

To top the day off, MSP went to Sweet Tomatoes where I continued my veggie-licious day.  Mmmmm …  SALAD!

It was an all-around PERFECT birthday!  I am so thankful for wonderful family, friends and blog buds who all had a hand in making me feel SO LOVED, SO BLESSED and so VERY VERY LUCKY.   In fact it was such a great day, I didn’t even think twice about the fact that I’m actually getting OLD!!!  ;)

Hope you are having a TERRIFIC Thursday (Friday EVE!)

– Shari B. =)

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