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Save at Starbucks Today

Dec 8

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Hi friends!

Just a quick hello to let you know that if you are a fan of Starbucks VIA coffee, they are having a great sale today for their “12 Days of Christmas“.  One 12-pack normally costs $11.95.  Today you can get that 12-pack for $7.95 OR you can get TWO for $11.95 (BOGO).

I ran out to Starbucks right after I finished my morning clients to grab some.  I love to have these with me when I travel because I never know if I’ll be able to get decent coffee in different locations.

I also love to make 40 Calorie Lattes with them at home and save calories AND cash at the same time.

Mmmm coffee – I think I’ll have one now!

– Shari B. =)

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False Starts and Fresh Starts

Dec 7

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Hi friends!

WOW, my office is cold this morning – 64 degrees!

Oscar (the little guy on the weather station) thinks he needs that hat and scarf for OUTSIDE.  I’m thinking I need them inside just to write my blog post!  My office faces north and is at the end of the vent system so it doesn’t get a whole lot of heat on chilly days.  :)

So this is on full blast this morning:

And I’m chugging on my post-workout green smoothie, which doesn’t do much to warm me up.

Scoop of brown rice protein, 1/2 cucumber, 1 celery stalk, sprinkle of freshly ground flaxseeds, spoon of pepitas, handful of spinach, a clementine (Joan, I picked up some clementines – thanks for the reminder!) and 8 oz of water.

Yes, I did say POST-WORKOUT!  I got up and did a workout this morning for the first time in a number of days because of being sick (more on the workout in a minute).  For this being a FIT LIVING blog, I certainly haven’t been fitting in much FIT recently, have I?  I was thinking the other day how I’m looking forward to the fresh start of the upcoming new year and hoping it’s a better one overall.  2011 has been a great year in many ways, but between school finals in the early part of the year, getting a new business set up and going, catching pertussis (which had me out of the game for 2 months), then rhabdomyolysis (with a hospital stay and doc-imposed exercise restrictions after that fact) and now this cold, I feel like this has been one of my least “fit” years.  It seems like every time I climb back on my healthy wagon, I hit a bump and get bounced off!  :)   As I told someone recently about their same issues, we need to install some seatbelts on these wagons! Early 2012 will bring my 39th birthday so I really want my last year in my thirties to be super-fit!  “Fit & Fine at 39″ will be my slogan.

Since it’s like I’m starting from square one, today’s workout was a little on the light side but it was a blast!

Circuit Workout:

Waterski Lunges (reverse lunge while holding a cable row at your belly)

Ball Knee-Ins

Single Leg Deadlifts

Tubing Crossover Lat Pulldowns

Frankenstein Squats (with broomstick)

Ball Crunches

Cardio Dance Interval to Rihanna “We Found Love“

Sip some water

Waterski Lunges (reverse lunge while holding a cable row at your belly)

Crossover Planks

Single Leg Deadlifts

Tubing Crossover Lat Pulldowns

Frankenstein Squats (low half of movement only to bump up intensity)

Hanging Knee Raises

Cardio Dance Interval to Ne-Yo “Closer”

Cool down and stretch

Ahhh I feel better already!  Now it’s just a matter of stringing a number of these good days together to rebuild my consistency.

Anyone else looking forward to a “clean slate” of 2012?  What are you looking forward to putting behind you?

Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

 

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Halloween Hike

Oct 31

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

Hi friends!  Happy Halloween!  Hey, if it has to be Monday, at least it can be a holiday right?

Any big plans for the evening?  Do you stay home and watch scary movies?  Pass out candy to trick-or-treaters?  Go to a costume party?  Skip it altogether?  Tonight we’ll be heading to the “Haunted Forest” being put on by our community after it gets dark.  One of the places I recently blogged about as a favorite hiking spot is being transformed into something that I imagine will be like a haunted house without walls.  I’m excited!  And a little scared…  :)

Today is a major recipe test day.  I have a ton of work to do in the kitchen.  (While I’m in there, one of the recipes finally on my list is some sort of Brussels sprout slaw, like the one in the Recipes to Inspire post.  I’ll let you know how it goes!) So I’ve got my clogs on, my iPod loaded and it’s time to get busy.

In the meantime, I had two internet items that I thought you might enjoy:

- Check out these ADORABLE ghost cupcakes at Let Them Eat Cake and Ice Cream.  I happened to see a photo of them on Foodgawker – makes me wish I was having a party so I could serve them tonight!  If only I’d seen them before a dinner I went to on Saturday, where I was to bring the dessert.  I brought almond butter blondies instead, but these would have been so MUCH more fun!

- I read this article yesterday about a chef who had to have his stomach removed, yet has continued on in the food world and is writing cookbooks!  What a great story!

Have a MARVELOUS Monday blog buds and a fun Halloween!

– Shari B. =)

 

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No Better Way to Start the Day

Oct 12

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Good morning friends!

I’ve been in that phase again where all I want to do is be outside for my workouts:  walking, hiking, running, intervals.   Once winter is full swing, I don’t get out as much with the shorter days and cold temps.  So I feel like I want to take in as much as I can right now.  Plus fall in Colorado is wonderful.  I think October sunrises are some of the prettiest of the year.  I flew through a speedy upper body workout yesterday so that I could hurry up and get outside.

  • DB Chest Press x 5 sets
  • Bent Row with Oly Bar x 4 sets
  • Shari-style Crazy 8s x 3 sets
  • DB Bicep Curls x 3 sets
  • Skullcrushers x 3 sets

My iPhone doesn’t do this scene justice at all – you have to look closely for the mountain range (pictured below). I love when the clouds and mountain tops are pink and the low mountains are violet.

I had some company on the path:

Even the moonrise was gorgeous yesterday – the full moon looked like the sun!

Seeing beautiful scenery and wildlife starts my day off perfectly.  It’s peaceful and just puts me in a fantastic mood.

On that note, I’m on my way out right now!  I wonder what I’ll see this morning!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

 

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It’s All Good

Sep 16

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Hi FitPeeps!  It’s FRIDAY!  Wahooo!

It won’t be a ‘relaxing’ weekend on this end at all – for me, it will be ALL ABOARD the BUSY TOWN EXPRESS.  Lots going on!

How about some recap on eats and feats?  When I left off yesterday, I’d just had some Sunrise Juice.  And the rest of the day was just as good!  A bit later for my real breakfast I had some buckwheat groat cereal (previously sprouted and dehydrated) in a mug with almond milk.  You don’t need a lot of these – they are very filling.

Mid-morning I munched on the spicy kale chips I’d made in the dehydrator.  I might have to make more today because that batch is already GONE!  For the record – kale chips in a dehydrator just seem to taste better than those I make in my regular oven.

For lunch I had some leftover Autumn Ragu.

Mid-afternoon I had the simplest, but oh-so-good smoothie:  1 scoop chocolate egg protein powder, 4 oz water, 4 oz almond milk, 1/2 frozen banana and a small squeeze of chocolate syrup.  Blend that baby up and try not to suck it all down in 5 seconds flat.

For dinner I had an inside-out egg sandwich, where the eggs become the ‘bread’ and the ‘bread’ is the filling.  My bread this time was the one I made earlier in the day in my dehydrator, using the pulp from my morning juice.

I’m still up in the air on whether I love the bread or not.

I think I need to try it in something else to decide for sure.

After dinner we ran a few errands and then settled in to watch Jersey Shore.  And I had a few Milk Duds. :D

I took yesterday off from working out.  It just felt like it should be a rest day.  I’ll have one more recap for you to wrap up our cleaner eating challenge!

Hope you are having a FANTASTIC day!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Out of Practice

Sep 15

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Adventures in Home Gardening, Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Hey blog buds!  Happy “JERSDAY”! (New Jersey Shore episode tonight, woot woot!)

I am happily feeling yesterday’s workout.  I did a quick but effective Tabata workout consisting of:

I love the effect that the windmills have on my shoulders.  It’s a total body move that utilizes a lot of core and stabilization, but the light soreness I get after doing them is mostly in my shoulders and upper back.  LOVE that move!  It’s a “new to me” exercise in the last month, so I’m starting with light weights when I do it.  Currently using just a 5 lb DB and STILL feel it!

I took a very chilly 30 minute power walk right after my workout too.

I had 1/2 of a Larabar before my workout.

I hit up Target to look for a travel iron and while I was there I had a decaf soy caffe misto.  I always forget about the misto, which is less expensive (and less caloric) than a latte.  My tall misto was 70 calories and $2.20 or so.  It’s basically equal parts coffee and steamed milk (or in my case, soy milk… still awaiting the arrival of almond milk at local SBUX stores).  So in Italy this concoction is called Caffe Misto while in France it’s Cafe au Lait.

I realized yesterday as I was driving away from Target how out of practice I am at snapping a pic of EVERY thing that crosses my lips, like I did when I first started logging my food on the blog.  It just doesn’t occur to me sometimes like it used to!  So I don’t have a picture of my misto to share!

I also don’t have a picture of my soup and salad lunch that I had at the Whole Foods.  I met a good friend there to grab a bit at noon and I had a kale salad with olive oil, pepitas, dried cranberries and grape tomatoes with a cup of their vegan savory quinoa soup.  It was delicious!

Dinner was completely out of character and not the cleanest…  I think my mind is already in vacation mode, because all I wanted was pizza.  And rather than make a pita pizza at home, I went out to pick up a single slice from a local pizza joint that I’d never tried called Big Bill’s NY Pizza.  Topped with eggplant and mushrooms.

I had intended to add a bunch of stuff to it when I got home, like sliced black olives, spinach, tomatoes – but I was FULL ON lazy last night.  I’m so not loving the dreary weather!  I feel like I need to eat “hibernation” foods!  :D

I do appreciate that I can go somewhere to purchase just a single slice.  This is all strategy on my part.  If I were to order a full pizza, I’d eat too much of it.  It’s not a food I can easily stop eating when I’m full and because I know this I find a workaround.  If I just get a slice and bring it home, that’s all there is.  (I use this strategy with desserts as well, which is why you don’t see me write much about making desserts at home.  It’s better for me to go pick up a single mini-cupcake or cookie than make a whole batch at home.)

Other than lunch, the rest of my day yesterday was pretty lacking in greens and fresh food so I’m making up for it today.

“Sunrise”  juice with carrots, broccoli stem, kale, cucumber, celery and a bit of lemon:

Then I mixed up the pulp and am attempting a raw bread in the dehydrator.  If it works out, I’ll put a recipe out here for it.

And I also have a batch of kale chips in the dehydrator.

This is kale from my garden.  And I refer to it as BABY KALE because the leaves are pretty tiny.  And it’s getting cold so fast here now that I feel like I need to keep harvesting because I think the growth might slow WAY down soon.  It’s getting into the 40s at night and right now as I type this at 9:32 AM it’s still only 52 degrees.  Record breaking heat at the beginning of the month and now I’m digging out mittens for my walks and runs.  WOW.

***

CHECK IT OUT

Now, for something fun if you like giveaways, head over to the Brooklyn Fit Chick blog where she is giving away a copy of Bethenny Frankel’s latest yoga workout DVD.  Of course I entered!  And you should too!  (Who doesn’t love to win a blog giveaway AND get a new workout to do in the process?)  I really enjoy the BFC blog, especially her “What Have We Learned This Month” posts which recap what you’ll find in magazines each month, like SELF, Prevention, More, Oxygen, etc.

Have a great day friends!  I’ll see you tomorrow for the FINAL day of our 3 weeks of cleaner eating!  I’m going to have a STRONG FINISH today and tomorrow!  How ’bout you?

– Shari B. =)

 

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Grill Fajitas

Sep 13

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

Hi friends!

Well we’re in the remaining days of the *3 weeks of cleaner eating* challenge.  How have you been doing?  Overall I’ve done well during the weekdays, but still have allowed some sneaky refined foods into my weekend eats.

Yesterday’s breakfast was 2 pieces of sprouted grain toast with almond butter, miso and drizzle of honey.  I had a “carb strong” meal because I was going on a cleaning frenzy the first half of the day so I needed some energy.  (I’m even SORE today from the cleaning if you can believe it!)  I moved around furniture to do some deep cleaning, did some hand scrubbing on hardwood floors then polished with the BONA mop, vacuumed our main level, our upstairs and our basement, cleaned all the mirrors in my training studio, pulled a ton of weeds in our front yard landscaping, ran the trimmer and the lawnmower in the front yard, etc. etc. etc.  I was beat!  And at the end of it I decided I miss having a 700 sq ft apartment.  The cleaning process was so much quicker!  :D

It was about 3 1/2 hours in all.  And you can bet I counted it as my exercise for the day!

Late morning I had a scoop of greens powder mixed in water:

For lunch I made some egg salad with two hard boiled eggs, chopped celery, Vegenaise and mustard, pepper and Hungarian sweet paprika.

I ate it along with a handful of baked pita chips.

Mid-afternoon I had half of a coconut cream pie Larabar and then got busy getting dinner prepped so that it could marinate for a few hours.

I was planning some fajitas on the grill, so I mixed up some lime juice, grapeseed oil, cumin, coriander, chipotle powder, a pinch of cayenne, black pepper, ground garlic and some Alderwood smoked sea salt:

It was veggies for me and chicken for Cory.  I used half of that crazy large zucchini, along with some onion, and a trio of sweet bell peppers.

I ate my ‘fajita’ without a tortilla since I was having a side of rice.

I’ve been using my cast iron pan on the grill here and there, along with my dutch oven.  It’s such a nice way to use high heat outside and not overheat the whole kitchen.  But I definitely need more practice out there, because I’m so used to being able to really control the heat on my stovetop.  It’s not quite as easy on the grill.  But it turned out OK and we had a nice little dinner and a LOT of leftovers!

Are you a GRILL MASTER?  Do you prefer using your grill to your stovetop or oven?  What’s your favorite grilled food (or just ‘cooked outdoors’ food)?  I know Cindy has been doing a lot of outdoor cooking this year (check out her solar oven!) so I bet she has some tips to share!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Moonshadows

Sep 12

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Hi blog buds!

How was your Sunday?  Did any of you try making your workouts a little tougher by balancing on a rolled up yoga mat?  Our morning started with a refreshing 4 mile run.  It’s been a while since we’ve done a steady pace run.  Mostly I’ve been doing shorter, hilly, interval-type runs weekly with a client, but that’s been the extent of my running career as of late.  But on this particular day, something about the cooler morning made me want to get outside all of a sudden because I just KNOW that winter is right around the corner.  Some of the leaves on the lower levels of our trees are already starting to yellow.  Two years ago, we had crazy chilly temps in September and snow flurries.  You just never know in Colorado.  It could snow tomorrow!

It was a great run but I admit it wasn’t ‘easy’.  It’s amazing how quickly I get out of mental running shape when I’m not doing it regularly.  What’s funny is that prior to this outing, I’d been thinking to myself I should find an event like a 10 miler that maybe Cory and I could train for together (IF I could talk him into it, that is!) but then DURING the run I found myself thinking, “nope, I’m still not itching to get back to distance runs yet.”  I ruined myself back when I thought I wanted to do a marathon.  Running hasn’t been the same for me since. :)

Other than my morning coffee, I ran on an empty stomach.  Then when we got home I did some stretching and foam rolling.  My post-workout breakfast was a shake made with the last of my Vega Chocolate Whole Food Health Optimizer and a couple of frozen banana chunks.

Lunch was a big salad at Sweet Tomatoes (where I had neither my camera nor my iPhone).  We had pita chips and hummus for our afternoon snack along with GREAT intentions for a grilled dinner.  But when dinnertime rolled around, we were zapped.  We’d watched a few 9/11 documentaries as well as Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s “Terror in the Dust” on CNN.  At which point, we didn’t feel in the mood to be jovial on the back patio.  I shed a number of tears yesterday, as I do every year on 9/11.  I spend a lot of time each year on that day talking about it and watching coverage of it.  I think the new memorial at Ground Zero with the water features in the footprints of the buildings is beautiful and hope to make it there someday to pay my respects to those who lost their lives.

As it turned out, we ended up on the patio after dark to check out the beautiful full moon.  It was so bright out there that there were SHADOWS from it!  So gorgeous.  I tried to get a good picture, but you know how well my camera works in the dark. :)   These were the best two, and they don’t do justice to the beauty of the evening.  The crickets were chirping, the weather was mild – it was the perfect ending to the weekend.

See you next time friends!

–Shari B. =)

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Who Needs a Garden Anyway

Sep 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

…when you can find this kind of loot at the farmer’s market?  (Shhh… don’t tell my garden that I was cheating on it today!)  Check out this size of this zucchini:

It’s been a fun day so far!   We got up this morning and did a Tabata workout.  Cory did his regular Tabata leg workout (smith squats, leg extensions, deadlifts, machine curls, lunges and abs).  I of course had to tweak my workout (just like I do with recipes, because I get bored so easily I guess!) so I did my Tabata routine with these:

  • standing kickbacks with banding
  • smith squats with a narrow stance
  • kettlebell windmills (alternating sides each set)
  • single straight leg deadlifts – balanced on a yoga mat**
  • hamstring curls on fitball
  • plank mashup (some straight, some with hip twist, side planks)

** I don’t have a cool balancing disk or a Bosu so when I want to ramp up the intensity of an exercise a bit, I add a bit of balance to it by folding up a yoga mat.  Looks simple, but it really does throw your body just a bit off kilter when you are doing single leg exercises.  Like this:

After our workout, I had a big green juice with kale, a green apple, a little lemon, some ginger, celery, cucumber, and broccoli stalks.

Then we took the crazy beasts out for a walk.  They got their greens with breakfast too (my dogs go nuts for kale stalks) – look closely and you’ll see him licking his lips!  His little tongue is poking out:

When it was time for some real breakfast food, I made buckwheat pancakes (with some extra protein powder and greek yogurt mixed into the batter) topped with some blueberry goat cheese and a little organic maple syrup:

I can’t tell you the last time I made pancakes – it’s been a long time!  Granted when you are using buckwheat they aren’t the same “cake-y” delightful ones you might get at IHOP, but these sure are better for you!

For lunch I made a spinach and pesto quesadilla.  Don’t mind the bite out of the tortilla.  ;) I was trying a new sprouted grain tortilla and wanted to make sure I liked it first before I actually made my lunch.

A good trick when you are using cheese is to grate it with a super fine microplane.  You get the “visual effect” of a good amount of cheese, but by weight you hardly have any because it’s so light.  Here I’m using my favorite Mt. Sterling raw goat cheese.

Pile on a bunch of baby spinach, fold in half and cook on your Foreman grill for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and sizzling.

I was planning to have these baby carrots on the side:

But unfortunately they were frozen solid.  On to plan B:

Who doesn’t love the Pampered Chef crinkle cutter?  :)

My afternoon snack was a SUPERGREEN smoothie (and this one even tasted a little greener than usual).  Frozen mango, kale, spinach, greens powder and egg protein.

I’ve definitely had my fair share of greens today!

How about you?  Did you get a lot of greens in?  Or do you need to include a leafy green salad with your dinner?  :)

Before I go I have two more pics to share.  One I took on the way to meet my client for our run yesterday.  Look at how dark it is now in the morning!  This was at 6:15 AM.

I don’t mind cooler days, but I already miss the extra daylight!

And this other pic I took when Rascal saw a squirrel from our window – this was too cute NOT to get a snapshot…

My two *men*  :)

Hope you are having a GREAT weekend so far!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

 

 

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Garden Bust

Sep 9

Posted by Shari B. in Food Rants, Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat friends!

It’s going to be a gorgeous weekend here.  The high heat of summer is gone and in its place we have nice cool mornings and mild days with blue skies.  Perfect Colorado weather.

The downside to summer being on its way out is that my garden is WAY behind.  For those of you who might be new to FitFeat, this is a first attempt at gardening in our house.  My ability with house plants SHOULD have clued me in to the fact that I have no business trying to grow FOOD.  :)

The plants themselves have grown, so that’s promising.

This is what it looked like in May when we planted:

Here it is today:

But outside of a thriving MINT plant (which from my understanding you can’t kill a mint plant if you tried!) and a few scallions, not much else is going on.

I have kale, but they aren’t the darker green I’m accustomed to seeing and the leaves are pretty small.

We have the beginnings of cucumbers…

…so we were hopeful that they’d grow into something, but they seem permanently stuck at this size.

And just last week we were so excited to see our very first zucchini just starting to grow (at a time when we are hearing how most gardens are overflowing with zucchini already) but today when I went out to see how much its grown, it looks like a bird beat us to the table:

I’ve had two teeny tiny peppers and one miniscule heirloom tomato.

I am holding out hope for the Brussels sprouts since I’ve read they are a fall harvest and actually like the cooler weather.  If not, then I’m going to pluck all the leaves and just juice them!

I’m not sure how we could have gone SO wrong on ALL of the plants.  I’m more than a little bummed about it and feeling like it’s all been a waste of money, water and definitely time.  I told Cory that next year I’d rather just do herbs and kale and leave it at that.  I think it might be best to leave the veggies to the pros and just continue picking up my produce at the market!

How has your veggie garden done this year?  Let me live vicariously through your bountiful harvest!  Please share!

***

Feats & Eats recap:

After 2 days of an ‘on and off’ headache, feeling zapped of energy, and not finding my regular food to be remotely appetizing (no I am NOT pregnant!!), today I feel brand new!  I had the hilly trail run this morning with my early client and it was a BRISK 49 degrees out at 6:10 AM.  Brrrr!  But it was a very nice start to the day.  After I got back, Cory and I went to Panera and I got a post-run bagel, since it’s FRIDAY!  Not something I eat very often, but a fun way to kick off the day.  But due to its pretty dense caloric value, there won’t be a mid-morning snack.  This will hold me over until lunchtime for sure!

I’ve got some work to do and some recipe testing on tap for this afternoon!  Hope you have a FANTASTIC Friday!

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

 

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