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Archive for April, 2010

Easy Italian 3, 2, 1

Apr 29

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 3 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends!

How goes your week so far?  How did Thursday get here so quickly?  My week has been a little out of whack.  I went to work on Monday and then got hit in the afternoon with some sort of tummy bug that kept me from even being able to drive home!  I had to call MSP to come and get me.  Needless to say, I was mortified because it was my first day back to work after vacation and it made me feel like some sort of slacker/drama queen.  So I went in on Tuesday to make up some of the lost time, and I feel like my routine has been goofed up since!  And I keep mixing up the days.  Yesterday morning I thought it was Tuesday.  Last night, I fully expected to watch “Survivor” until MSP reminded me that it wasn’t Thursday night yet.  Yikes, my brain seems to be stuck in vacation mode!

Since returning from our Vegas trip and eating all that amazing Italian food and spending so much time in “Venice”, I’ve been stuck in an Italian rut with this week’s eats!  (There are worse ruts to be stuck in, wouldn’t you say?)  ;)

1.) With this dish that seemed kind of ‘country Italian’ I heated a bit of coconut oil and minced garlic in a pan, then sauteed asparagus and mushrooms. Once both were tender I spiralized half of a zucchini into the pan, added about 1/3 small can of diced tomatoes (with only a bit of liquid) and some cannelini beans.  I let that heat through until the beans and tomatoes were hot, then topped with some of my homegrown basil.  It was SOOOOO good!!

2.) Then for a lunch a made an open-faced pizza sandwich but smearing some basil pesto onto a slice of Ezekial.  Topped it with thin slices of roma tomato, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes.  FAST, SIMPLE and (as my cousin Kevin would say) “Gosh Darn Delicious!”  :)

3.) I had such a good time with dish number 1 above that I decided to expand on that idea for another night’s dinner.  Again I started with coconut oil, adding asparagus and mushrooms.  This time I thinly sliced the zucchini into rounds in lieu of spiralizing.  I added diced tomatoes (with all the liquid this time), cannelini beans, artichoke hearts, and two spoons of basil pesto and let it heat through.  Toward the end I threw in a big handful of spinach and continued to heat until the spinach wilted.

Then I plated it and topped it with just a dollop of herbed goat cheese.  The pesto and the goat cheese totally made this dish!  MAGNIFICO!!!

Just goes to show you don’t have to be a good cook (or follow a recipe) to throw together healthy, quick meals.  Start with vegetables so that you are getting lots of “good-for-you” nutrients (and lower calories) and add in a few extra things you LOVE – and you can’t go wrong!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday, blog buds!

Ciao!

– Shari B. =)

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Vegas Recap – Part III

Apr 26

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 5 Comments

Hey there FitFeat friends!

After the Vegas Recap Part II post yesterday, I started looking online for recipes for that delicious vegan minestrone I had at Canaletto, and realized that I was looking for the wrong recipe!  The “alla Genovese” apparently means soup “from Genoa” and has linguine and lots of basil in it.  Now I know that I had a glass of wine (or two) with my meal but I’m SURE there was no basil in it (or noodles for that matter.)  :)   Upon closer inspection of the Canaletto menu, I realized I actually had Minestrone di Verdura.

If you enter Minestrone di Verdura into Google Translate, it translates it to “vegetable soup”.  HA!  Isn’t it funny how foreign words make foods sound so much more fancy and special?! (Or at least it does for goofballs like me!)

That gave me a chuckle – because if I were at an American-food restaurant and I saw “Vegetable Soup” on the menu, I probably would have thought “how boring” and kept right on scanning down the menu!  And I’d have missed out on the best soup ever!

***

To finish off my Vegas trip recap, I wanted to share a couple of really cool attractions we were fortunate enough to see while we were there.  Now for any new readers who have happened upon FitFeat in the last week, I promise you this blog is NOT a travelogue!  :D   It really is a fit living blog!  But luckily these two attractions tie in nicely with fitness and health.

BODIES: The Exhibition

I have always been absolutely fascinated by the human body.  I think it all started back in high school Physiology.  The Bodies exhibit came to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science a few years back and I went through it at the time.  And it was AWESOME!  But because it was a ‘traveling & temporary exhibit’ it was jam packed full of people.  So many people were crammed around each display that it was tough to thoroughly look things over without feeling like you were holding up the line.

When I saw that it was on PERMANENT display at the Luxor in Las Vegas, I knew I HAD to go through it again.  And this time, there were just a few people wandering through at the same time.  I was in ANATOMY heaven!

(image source)

You could get up close and personal with these displays.  This visit was so much better than the first time around.  It is AMAZING to be able to take such a detailed look inside the human body (and without having to elbow my way to the front to get a better look).  We were actually really surprised that they didn’t have them roped off or SOMETHING to keep them from accidentally getting touched or knocked over.   In one of the rooms, a mom had a toddler who wanted to push his own stroller and he took off running straight at one of the full body displays.   I thought for SURE there was going to be a collision!  Fortunately he stopped just short of impact!  Phew!  Crisis averted!

If you ever have an opportunity to see one of these exhibits in your own town or in Vegas, DO IT!  They show things like healthy lungs next to a smoker’s lungs, a whole body’s worth of veins and arteries without the rest of the body (!!!) and much much more.  This exhibit had 9 rooms, each with a different topic.

I spent most of my time looking at muscles and their attachments.  (They showed a lot of the bodies ‘locked’ in motion, like a sports movement.) And then a LOT of time on the digestive tract, since as you know, digestion is a topic of high interest to me!

I could have stayed there all day.

But then I would have missed the next fun thing…

Cirque du Soleil:  Mystère

MSP and I have been to many Cirque shows over the 10+ years we’ve been together.  Dralion, Zumanity, Ka, O, Kooza, Allegria… I’m sure I’m missing a few.   And we figured since Mystère might go away someday we better see it while we can – it’s been running in Vegas since ’93 I think.  And you know hotels don’t last that long in Vegas – Treasure Islands days have to be numbered.

Every time I go to a Cirque show, I feel the need to go home and do pushups or handstands or something.  All of the cast of these shows take the word “athletic” to a whole other level.  Like this:

(image source)

I always feel like I could be doing SO MUCH MORE with my own body when I watch the sheer STRENGTH displayed in any Cirque show.  :)   There just aren’t any words to express how truly incredible and awe-inspiring Cirque du Soleil attractions are.  And Mystère did not disappoint.

You can find Cirque on YouTube so if you’ve never seen one of their shows, take a look online.  Then RUN (or walk on your hands) to the nearest ticket counter so you can see it for yourself.  The tickets are worth every penny!

Have you ever been to see Cirque du Soleil?  If so which one is your favorite? I’d have to say that I have a tie for my two favorites:  Kooza and O.  I loved O because it was done IN WATER! 

How about BODIES? Have you ever seen one of their exhibits?  How do you feel about the displays? I know there is a lot of controversy over them.

Hope you’ve had a MAGNIFICENT Monday friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Vegas Recap – Part II

Apr 25

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 6 Comments

Happy Sunday FitFeat friends!

Welcome to the continuation of my Vegas trip recap – Part II will cover the remainder of the food highlights.

We had breakfast in one of the restaurants I was most excited to visit on our trip:  The Canyon Ranch Grill, located in our hotel.  I was happy to know that there was at least one place I could count on getting fresh and healthy foods in a pinch.  I especially appreciated how their menu listed calorie counts, fat grams and fiber for each selection.

I chose the organic omelet chock full of tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, peppers and artichoke hearts, with a side of fruit and potatoes.  It was the perfect start to the day.

Another restaurant in our hotel that we wanted to try was First Food & Bar.  I ordered what I thought looked like a somewhat healthy appetizer as my lunch because it listed the ingredients as raw tuna, plaintain chips and pineapple mango salsa.

However when it was placed in front of me, here’s what it looked like:

Not sure what the spicy sauce was so I tried to eat around and under it as best I could.  I can’t give this dish any thumbs up, unfortunately.  But the Riesling I drank with it was light and fresh!

There was yet another place located in our hotel that I had to try while we were there: Espressamente Illy which was an Italian coffee shop with gelato and crêpes.   We actually ate crêpes for dinner one night.  Mine were apple cinnamon and then I had this decadent espresso with chocolate in it:

I think this is the first real espresso I’ve had where it’s in a little shot glass (excluding all the shots that go into my lattes at Starbucks!)  It was VERY rich but worth every little sip.

Another night for dinner we visited Canaletto along the Canal in the Venetian.


(Image source)

It was probably one of my favorite meals during our trip even though I only had a bowl of soup and an appetizer salad, but I think it was more because of the ambiance.  You sit “outdoors” on a patio along the Venetian’s St. Marks Square, and there’s none of the loud hustle & bustle that you typically feel while you are in Vegas.  I had the Minestrone Alla Genovese which had tons of chopped vegetables in a very light broth.  It was PERFECTO!  And somehow I have to track down a recipe that was similar to try at home.  Loved it!

Last but not least one more meal along the Canal, at the Taquiera Canonita (I wasn’t kidding when I told you the Canal is my favorite place!  We truly spent most of our time in the Venetian/Palazzo complex.)  This is where I had those fabulous PEPITA CRUSTED Crab Cakes:

And a lip-smackin’-good margarita:

So now you see why it was necessary for me to do the Spring Slimdown prior to heading on our CA and LV trip – because I literally ate my way through both cities!  :D But it was worth every bite and I walked around SO much in Vegas, that I know at least SOME of it burned back off.  It’s hard NOT to walk a lot when  you are in Vegas, because all of the hotels are so sprawling and big, that it feels like half a mile just to get out of your OWN hotel and out onto the Strip!

I’ll have one more recap segment for the Vegas trip coming at ya!

If you’ve been to Vegas, what is your favorite hotel and/or restaurant?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

– Shari B. =)

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Vegas Recap – Part I

Apr 24

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 2 Comments

Hi blog buds!

How is your Saturday going?  I can’t believe my vacation is over already.  I’m always shocked by how fast time flies.  That said, it’s also great to be home (although I could have done without the SNOW!)

Thought I’d recap some of the highlights from the Vegas portion of our trip for you!

First off let me just say the hotel rocked.  MSP was attending a conference there for work, and the hotel was part of the conference package (otherwise, we’d not have the opportunity to stay in such a swanky place.)

The pillowtop mattress was SO comfy and I LOVED the velvet settees at the foot of each bed:

The bathroom had a seated vanity area:

A separate room for the “water closet”  :)

A sunken living room with a sectional, coffee table, TV unit, desk and dining table:

This room had THREE flat screen TVs in it.  One in the bathroom, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.  I was in TV heaven!  They make the rooms so snazzy, you don’t want to leave to see anything else in Vegas!

After we settled into the room, we hit up a great open air restaurant on the strip called El Segundo Sol for a late lunch/early dinner.  MSP and I shared fajitas:  he ate the chicken, rice and cheese off the platter, while I ate the grilled veggies, beans and guac.  If only all meals had the meats and veggies separated like that – we’d save a fortune whenever we eat out!  :D

Tuesday was our only WARM day in Vegas because the forecast was calling for cold and rain the rest of our visit.  (I TOLD you cold follows me wherever I go!)  I made sure to take full advantage of that sunshine while I could.  MSP’s conference started at 8:30 AM so we were up and at ‘em early to get some walking/sightseeing in while the Vegas Strip was quiet.  We put on our tennis shoes, walked to a nearby Starbucks, and sipped all the way down the strip toward the Stratosphere.  That morning on the news, we saw that they were broadcasting from a new ‘attraction’ opening that very day called “Sky Jump“ where you literally free fall 855′ from the top of the Stratosphere to the bottom (attached to some cables, of course!) so we thought we’d see if we could see anyone jumping.  If you’ve never been to Vegas, this is the Stratosphere:

I may have given it a shot, if it wasn’t $100 per person!  Too steep for my checkbook… It looked pretty darn fun though!  I’m typically very scared of heights, but for some reason don’t mind some things where I’m attached to cables and harnesses.

We got back to the hotel at 7:30 AM.  After MSP left to hit up his conference, I decided to go for a run down to the other end of the Strip.  I got in a fun 4 miles, running from The Palazzo down to the MGM Grand, crossing over and then back.  It was so GORGEOUS out!  By that time there were a zillion people out on the Strip, so trying to run was a bit of an obstacle course, which made it even more fun.

When I got back to the room, I enjoyed a perfect post-run orange (that was hand picked from the tree in my cousin’s backyard in El Cajon, CA while we were there.) Kevin, those oranges are perfect!

I met MSP during his lunch break at another open air place called “Stripburger” where I had the world’s tiniest mixed greens salad:

And a delicious brown rice veggie burger that made up for the small salad.  Hidden under the burger are lettuce and tomato, and I told them to hold the bun since I wouldn’t eat it anyway.

MSP was off to the afternoon sessions and I did some more wandering around through Treasure Island and through the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian.  To this day after MANY trips to Vegas, the Canal in the Venetian is still my favorite.

I hit up a coffee shop for a soy chai and a Godiva for my chocolate fix:

Later that night we went to a Dueling Piano bar located in the Palazzo, had some cocktails, and sang along with the crowd.  We liked it so much we went back there a second time.

This lounge is located right next to the entrance to the Jersey Boys theater in the Palazzo hotel, in case you are ever there!  So much stuff in Vegas costs a fortune and/or has a cover charge.  This didn’t cost you anything, unless you wanted to have a drink.  I had a BLAST and swear I still have Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” stuck in my head…

***

Well, I feel like I’ve taken a lot of your time with the size of this one, PLUS I’m aiming to make a dent in the MOUNTAIN of laundry that came back with us from the trip so I’ll leave you with this PART ONE recap and be back again soon with PART TWO.

See you soon!

– Shari B. =)

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Looking Forward to a Green Smoothie

Apr 23

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Good morning blog buds! 

I hope that you are having a great week – welcome to Friday!  I’m at the Las Vegas airport as I write this.  We’re definitely looking forward to getting home this afternoon.  It’s been a fun week, but we miss our dogs and our own bed.  :)  

I’m also ready to get back to my usual routine of exercise and healthy eating!  I miss my green smoothies!

Because we’ve indulged in a little of this:

 And absolutely enjoyed lots of things like this:

(Those were mini crab cakes crusted in … PEPITAS!!!  You know when I saw that on the menu it had SHARI written all over it!)

I’ll be back on my regular posting schedule soon, but in the meantime thought I’d leave you with a link to a previous post I did on my LAST vacation (you know, that one where I ate much healthier than I did this week and certainly got a LOT more exercise!) This post was about getting a strength workout in when you are on the road:

 The Guest Room Workout

Have a FANTASTIC Friday friends!  See you soon with more pics from our trip!

– Shari B. =)

Blogger Meet-Ups and Beachside Running

Apr 20

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 5 Comments

Hi blog buds! 

Wow, do I ever feel like I have been neglecting you guys!  I have lots of blog reading AND writing to catch up on.  I’m trying to be a little more “present to the moment” on this vacation, because I’m usually pretty bad at that.  I’ve apparently done well so far as I’ve just NOT been online at all.

So to rewind a bit, we got into San Diego Saturday afternoon around lunchtime and hung out with my cousin Kevin at his oceanside condo for the weekend.  And do I mean OCEANSIDE. 

Look to the left:

 

And look to the right:

All you see is sandy beaches.  It was absolutely gorgeous. 

Saturday evening we met up with another cousin that you all know as reader Carrie D. in downtown SD for dinner.  Carrie’s the gorgeous blonde on the left.  :)  

We’ve only had a chance to see each other twice in the 20 years since I moved to Denver, so it was so fun to get to see her and hang out!  We loved seeing her and meeting her boyfriend, and I look forward to hopefully having them come to Denver someday for a visit.  Carrie and Dan are the kind of people who just fit in wherever they go and always have great stories to tell.  I could have chatted with them for hours, and the night went by way too fast!

Then on Sunday morning it was up and at ‘em bright and early for my first ever blogger meet-up.  Cindy and her hubs drove from an hour away at the crack of dawn so that Cindy and I could meet and run together.  I don’t know if I have the right words to express how great this experience was for me.  I feel that she and I are kindred spirits, like ‘sistas from anotha mister’.  ;)   I loved her!  And I loved her hubs just as much. 

First of all, let me just tell you Cindy is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, inside and out.  She’s very photogenic but even her pics don’t do her justice to how pretty she is in person.  And as sweet and kind as she comes across on her blog, getting to know her face to face now I am blown away by what a great person she is.  And generous – she made me a jar of HOMEMADE crystallized ginger, which is probably one of my FAVORITE treats ever!  It was so delicious and it’s almost gone already.  She even brought a can of coconut water for me to drink after our run. 

Second, a HUGE congrats to her for running her first 5 mile route!  Wahooo!  She did it!  Way to go, girl!  Truly we had so much to chat about I think we hardly noticed that our feet were moving.  I think we could have run another 5 without even noticing.

After the run, the three of us hit up Starbucks and continued chatting.  The conversation was varied and deep – and I loved EVERY minute! 

I could have stayed all day hanging out with them both.  I feel that I’ve made some lifelong friends.  I was so touched by these two and in such a great mood after they dropped me off that when I got back to the condo, I was on cloud 9 and talking a mile a minute to MSP about how much fun I had.

Cindy and Mr. Cindy… ;)   Thank you SO much for taking so much time out of your weekend to come down and spend some time!  I had a fantastic time and can’t wait till the next time! 

She has a good recap and more photos over at her blog too if you’d like to read more:  A Sparkle a Day. Go check it out!

***

Alright friends, I better get back into vacation mode.  Today is going to be my only chance to get out in some warm weather in Vegas, because a storm is moving in that will bring rain and a HIGH temp of 59 degrees tomorrow and Thursday.  (I told you that cold weather follows me wherever I go!)

I hope that your week is off to a great start!  Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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A Very Brief Hello

Apr 19

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Hi friends! 

Just a quick post to 1.) move the calves off the front page as they are freaking people out ;)  and 2.) tell you that I haven’t forgotten to post the remaining 2 days of the Spring Slimdown, I promise!  I had hoped to Friday night before we left for San Diego, but other priorities won out.  While at the airport on Saturday, my ‘loaner’ laptop wouldn’t hold a wi-fi connection long enough for me to upload any photos.  And once I landed it San Diego, it’s been go go go with no time for getting online!

So my apologies to those of you following the Spring Slimdown that the remaining days of food aren’t there yet – they will be.  The weight updates are though, including the final weigh-in! 

It’s been a great weekend here in sunny California and I’ll have a recap coming (including my amazing blogger meet up/run with Cindy from A Sparkle a Day) but we’re off to the airport again this morning on our way to the next stop so it will have to wait just a bit longer. 

I hope that you all had a fantastic weekend! I have to say that Mondays can be great when you wake up oceanside and aren’t rushing off to get to work! 

– Shari B. =)

Eggspensive

Apr 16

Posted by Shari B. in Product Review | 7 Comments

Hi friends!  Happy Friday!

Oh and happy day it is.  Vacation is SO close now I can almost smell it!  :) (Actually I think Cindy’s been sending me scratch-n-sniff stickers of seaside air…)  ;) I am SO excited to meet her and go for our run!  It’s been in the works for so long, I can’t believe it’s finally almost here!

Random observation:  So I  log in this morning to WordPress to start this post and just since yesterday I already have 12 spam comments.  Thank goodness for the Akismet plug-in.  I am always shocked at the amount of spam that comes through the blog.  Do you bloggers get that?  I can’t even imagine what it must be like for someone who has a lot more traffic than I do.

Another (not-so-random) observation:  My calves are BEAT!  They have been working very hard this week, in the final week of the Spring Slimdown.

They feel like they should look like this:

(image source)

Maybe someday!  ;)

I ran 4.5 miles yesterday with my friend Sue at a local reservoir in the foothills.  One word:  HILLS!  I sound like a broken record on this blog – I’m forever looking for flat trails on which to run, but they are hard to come by when you live a mile above sea level!

***

I found the best eggs at Whole Foods last weekend and finally tried them for the first time yesterday.  These are the most “eggspensive” eggs I’ve ever purchased.  I hope my mom isn’t reading this post or she’ll think I’m crazy.  (Hi mom!)  I know that sometimes generic eggs are on sale for like 88 cents a dozen.  But because I don’t want to think that the poor hen who laid my eggs was shoved in a cage to live ONLY for laying this egg, pumped full of who-knows-what kind of antibiotics and meds, and had her beak seared off to keep her from pecking the hen smashed right next to her, I am willing to spend a lot more for eggs.  (These were $5.99.)

Enter VITAL FARMS.

Their package says “Antibiotic Free, Hand Collected, Free Range, Grass Eating, Pasture Raised” and organic.  I hope it’s true because this is really the only way I can feel good about eating eggs any more.  :)   Notice the little newsletter that came in the package:  “Vital Farms News”.

I will say what I know to be true is that they TASTE AMAZING!  They really did have ‘darker richer yolks’ and the flavor was just better.

Three delicious eggs, scrambled for my dinner last night with a side of Ezekial toast. They were DEFINITELY worth the extra money, both in taste and in their kindness to their hens.

If you’re new to the blog since November, check out my post about why I eat the WHOLE egg:  Are You Yolking?

***

Well blog buds, if I want to get a workout in before I have to go to work, I better get crackin’.  Today is the LAST day of the Spring Slimdown (wahoo!) so I’ll get the last few days’ worth of food pics & my final weigh-in posted hopefully tonight after work!

Enjoy your Friday and I’ll see you back here soon!  Make it a FANTASTIC day!

– Shari B. =)

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Windburn

Apr 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, thrive diet | 2 Comments

Hey FitFriends!  How’s your Tuesday treatin’ ya?

I had a very fun run this morning at my favorite hilly trail with two of my favorite running buddies and when I got home at first glance in the mirror I thought, “hmm, weird, my sunscreen didn’t work very well today” because my cheeks were really red.  Then I realized it must have been from the WIND!  It was CRAZY WINDY on the run today!  The hill at the beginning of the trail is a great warmup walk and we were leaning into the wind to stay upright.

But it wasn’t raining or snowing.  So that’s a big plus.  And the sun was shining, which was an even bigger plus!

So another 5.4 miles logged in the ol’ Vibram FiveFingers.  I think my calves may not have been QUITE ready after all the Vibram love they got over the weekend (leg workout Friday morning, 5 miles Friday evening, 15 sets of sprints Saturday, yoga Saturday, 7.6 miles Sunday afternoon).  They are pretty tight & tender today, even after all the stretching.  I might have to make tomorrow a yoga morning – lots of downward dogs should do the trick!

***

Welcome to “Random Topic Day” here at the FitFeat Blog.  :D

Run Carrot Run

My NO MEAT ATHLETE shirt arrived!  I’ve been a regular reader of Matt’s two blogs (No Meat Athlete and Health Blog Helper) ever since the inception of my own blog.  I happened upon NMA by accident after I starting eating along the lines of a mostly vegetarian, sometimes pescatarian diet and had done some Googling of vegan and vegetarian athletes.  Matt is an ultra-marathoner, vegetarian, soon-to-be-new-dad, animal lover, awesome blogger, and I’m sure a ton of other things.  I’ve always gotten a kick out of his logo (the carrot wearing a headband and sweating) and tagline (“Runs on Plants“).  So I finally had to treat myself to one of his running shirts.

Now, you all know I’m a stickler for customer service – let me just tell you that I am beyond impressed.  Matt wrote after I’d placed my order to say that the size small  shirts he received weren’t up to his standards and gave me a couple of options (refund?  wait for new printer? switch sizes?)   I went the route of going up to the medium size.  Well when he mailed my shirt he also included the small one that he wasn’t pleased with the printing of.  So now I am the lucky owner of not one but TWO No Meat Athlete shirts.  (Thank you Matt!)  And his standards must be higher than mine, because MSP and I both thought the small shirt was just fine!

If you haven’t checked out No Meat Athlete yet, go give it a look.   You won’t be disappointed.  Not only is he hosting a giveaway today of some compression socks, but he’s also donating all revenues from his Foodbuzz ad FOR ALL OF 2010 to help animals.

Run Drink Run

To know me is to know that I am a big believer in Brendan Brazier (professional VEGAN Ironman Triathlete), and his books.  I regularly drink Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer.   So I was excited when our local Whole Foods started carrying sample sized packets of the Vega Sport.  I tried the Lemon Lime flavor on Sunday afternoon just before heading out to run with my friend Amanda.

The taste is interesting.  Definitely not something you’d crave or have too  much of, that’s for sure!  :)   And I was a little nervous to have something that is considered an “energy” drink at 4:00 in the afternoon, for fear that I’d never get to sleep that night.  I ended up only drinking about 1/2 of what I made because I ran out of time and didn’t want to chug it.   I had a steady flow of energy during the run without ever feeling jittery and I had no trouble getting to sleep that night.  Typically I’m beat when it comes to exercising in the afternoons, so I’d like to think that I felt good thanks to this drink.  For the high cost though, I think I’ll stick to single-serve packets and only use it when absolutely necessary, like for long runs.

Delicious Dressing

One of my phone coaching/mentoring clients turned me onto this Annie’s dressing, Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette. It’s awesome!  I’m so glad she told me about this because I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise.  Only 35 calories per tablespoon, all natural, vegan.  No SOYBEAN oil either.  :)   It’s kind of a sweet smoky flavor.  I liked it so much I knew I had to share it with you too.  And by the way, this certain client is kicking some serious “you-know-what”.  I’m so proud of her!  Not only has she met her goals and continued to set new ones, she’s stayed the course while also kicking her smoking habit recently.  Maybe someday soon she’ll let me write a profile about her.   ;)

Already on Vacation (in my head anyway…)

I am getting SO excited for my upcoming vacation.  (I’m being vague on specific dates right now for a reason, even if I do have someone watching the house for us.  Safety first!!)   I’m especially looking forward to seeing my cousin Kevin and his new ‘crib’, dinner and maybe a run with reader Carrie (also my cousin), going for a run with Cindy from A Sparkle a Day, and hopefully Berni (According to Berni) will get to join us.  And I think it’s supposed to rain in Denver the day I leave, so that’s good.  Because it’s always nice to be heading TO nice weather rather than having it be gorgeous out at home as you drive to the airport.  :)

Thanks to a comment from Carrie when I went on that RV trip, I’ll be doing a lot of “sight-running“.  I’d been a little sketched out to run in strange places all by myself.  But Carrie told me about one of her best runs while she was on a trip, so I took off my ‘scaredy cat’ suit and went out at all the cities we stopped in on during the RV journey.  And LOVED it.  So I hope to post some more ‘digital postcards’ for you while I’m gone.

I’m sure I’ll do some blogging while I’m there, but not to the extent that I did while I was on the RV trip with my mom and grandma last fall.  The one lesson I learned on that trip was that I can get a little TOO caught up in technology.  (Who..me??)  And I think I missed out on some good quality time with my family because I was constantly in a mad dash to track down some Wi-Fi so that I could get my posts uploaded.  I don’t want to make that same mistake on this trip.  So there may be a few “Best of FitFeat” posts along the way.  ;)   I figure if the DJs at my favorite radio station can replay their shows while they go on vacay, I can re-post some of my favorites!

Speaking of, I better continue with the packing extravaganza!  I’m a week-long packer!  The suitcase is out of the closet, the packing LIST-writing has commenced, and we’ll have to see if I can squeeze it all into one bag or not!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday!  I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Too Many Topics, Too Little Time!

Apr 12

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Blog buds, I miss you!  It’s been such a crazy start to the week (OMG is it only Monday??)  It’s WAY past my bedtime as I am typing this, but I feel so bad about not getting a post out for the day yet! And I didn’t even watch DWTS tonight!  Can you believe it?  That tells you I MUST be busy!

Tomorrow promises to be another crazy one and I have a feeling it’s going to be like this until I get back from vacation!  However, I hope to carve some time out to sit down tomorrow (Tuesday) and update you on the recent FitFeat fun.

Like trying Vega Sport for the first time.  And getting my No Meat Athlete “Runs On Plants” shirt in the mail.  And the crazy (yet awesome) pain of sprinting one day and then running the next in the FiveFinger unshoes.   And a delicious (and light) salad dressing one of my clients turned me on to.

See?  Too many topics and just NOT enough time in the day!  If only I could be a full-time blogger and not try to squeeze it in between jobs.  (Ahh flashbacks of last summer – it was so fun being a full time blogger!)

So I’ll be back at some point tomorrow to tell you all about some (or all) of those things.  And after that I’ll be starting my packing extravaganza!  (Remember last time I packed to go on a trip??)  I’m going to TRY not to be that obnoxious this time.)  :)   I think this time I might accept the challenge of trying to eat “on the go” and still see what fits into my style of nutrition.

I better hit the hay if I want to have any energy in the morning for my training clients, not to mention a run at the Bluffs!  Hope you are having a great night (or great morning if you are reading this on Tuesday!)  See you back here tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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