It’s a great Tuesday morning – the sun is shining and the sky is blue!  Chilly, but pretty to look at while tucked inside my toasty home office!  Yesterday, I was able to get my dogs out for about 3 miles which they REALLY appreciated.  They just don’t get out much when it’s cold outside!  And of course, one of them came home bloody.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m getting closer and closer to not wanting to let them outside the confines of our yard because one of them always gets hurt!  If you started reading the blog after October, we had quite the fun time with Riley poking her eye on a bush during a hike.

This time it was Rascal.  He’s fine though, can’t you tell?  Happy as can be, snoozin’ in the sunshine!  (He takes after me in his love for sunshine!)

So today I want to share a few YAYS and NAYS with you.  As in “found this new food that I love – YAY!”

A big YAY for a new (to me) flavor of Amy’s Organic Soups.  This one is the Southwestern Black Bean Chili.  It’s the first time I’ve tried it and I am in LOVE.  I don’t know that I will ever take a bunch of time to make homemade vegetarian chili again when this one is so delicious.

In the bowl with some nutritional yeast on it:

The sodium is a bit high, but most soups that taste good have a higher sodium content.  The plus is that the sodium comes from organic sea salt, so I’m not terribly concerned.  I have crazy low blood pressure so I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about my personal sodium intake unless I’m trying to make weight for something. 

***

Unfortunately in the same line of products, I’m giving a NAY to her No Chicken Noodle.  This should almost be called onion soup, as the onion flavor is incredibly overpowering.  This one won’t make back into my pantry again.  Unless I’m suffering from a really bad flu or cold and in desperate need of a vegetarian ‘chicken’ noodle soup.  If you love onions, you may love this.

***

I found a new corn chip to which I think I am addicted.  The name of the company?  Food Should Taste Good.  Hmm what a concept!  These chips have amazing flavors (Cinnamon, Lime, Buffalo, CHOCOLATE even!)  So far I have tried Olive, Sweet Potato and Lime.  All three were AMAZING!

They also have a great website that tells what dips go great with which flavors of chips, and they have a lot of recipes too!  The only downside to this amazing chip is that they taste SO good, I had a tough time keeping my mitts out of the bag.  So I will have to purchase them for special occasions until I can control myself around them!  I think I will try the chocolate next.  I’m so curious what a chocolate corn chip tastes like! 

***

The last item on today’s list is a big fat NAY.  I had very high hopes for this item, as I’d read about the founders and read good things about the products.  It was Gardein’s Santa Fe Good Stuff. I don’t know if it’s that I’m so far removed from wanting to eat chicken that the TEXTURE threw me off or what.

I plated it up nicely:

But I just couldn’t finish it.  I took about two small bites and just couldn’t hack it and it had to be tossed.  Probably just as well that I didn’t care for this, because I don’t like to eat a lot of processed products made from soy anyway.  But I’d thought maybe it would be a good thing to throw in my lunchbox when I’m in a huge hurry.  Nope, this one’s not for me.

***

I’d love to hear from you if you have a favorite healthy (and maybe vegetarian) product to share. You all know I love my LARABARS and my SUNSHINE ‘burgers’ (made from sunflower seeds.)  Not to mention Ezekial sprouted grain products (bread, pita, cereal, English muffins!)   What are some of yours?

Have a terrific Tuesday!  And don’t leave me hanging on Flex-It Friday:  Abs!  Pics are due to shari at fitfeat dot com by Thursday evening! Yes, it’s a tough time of year to uncover our WINTER ABS but then we can do a SUMMER version to compare our progress too!  Think of it as good motivation!

– Shari B. =)

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A note about items/books/food I review here on the site: To date, I do not receive any compensation from the companies who make any of the products I review on this blog.  (And if I could get companies to send me FREE stuff to review and/or giveaway that’d be GREAT but so far, not having a lot of luck with that!)  I just want to reiterate that I mention products that I purchase and that I try on my own.  If I love them I want to let you know.  If they are terrible, I want to let you know that too.  If I love them and I find that they are available on Amazon, then I might add them to the FitFeat Favorites store.  Items purchased directly from the FitFeat store can result in a small commission.

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If you got your RSS or Google Reader feed titled “Dulse” with only one sentence in it, that would be why.  I was just making a draft note to myself for a future post and clicked on the wrong button.  Aaaaccck!  I did not see it hit either of my feeds so hopefully I deleted it in time!

Note to self:  do not start working on the blog when you are within 45 minutes of bedtime.  Or after a day filled with refined sugar for that matter.  It apparently makes the mouse hand FLINCHY!

Yes, I had a day filled with sugar.  O Fitness Lord, forgive me for I have sinned! 

I have been dragging hiney all week.  I am pretty sure I know why, but rather than combat it with super healthy foods as I know I should, I’ve  perpetuated it with the completely WRONG choices – today especially.  I’m putting this out here for a few reasons.  One, because health food bloggers tend to get lambasted for setting standards that supposedly others “can’t meet” or that set incorrect food expectations (I guess meaning they think we only show the good stuff?)  Two, because I want my readers to see that I am not a perfect eater and that I have days where my hormones or emotions get the best of me just like every other woman I know and I put stuff in my face that is going to store itself squarely on my hips.   

It started with a venti half-caff soy no-foam latte.  In and of itself not TOO terrible.  Except that Starbucks uses the sweetened vanilla soy milk (23 g sugar) so when you combine that with how caffeine can also elevate your blood sugar I gave myself a double whammy that set me up for the rest of the day. 

I also took the lazy route on my greens and bought a Naked Juice green drink in lieu of my homemade smoothie.  Which adds another 66 grams of sugar (or thereabouts.  That’a a LOT of sugar!) You will find that I don’t often drink juices, because while I agree they are full of nutrients, personally I feel that the lack of fiber causes spike in your blood sugar if you drink it alone.  I know this and I still bought the juice anyway.  Granted it has some great stuff in it, like chlorophyll and barley grass and other green goodness.  It just wasn’t what I needed on top of how I’d already started my day.  I’d just added insult to injury.

Then I proceeded to munch on homemade peppermint bark and caramels that a coworker’s wife sent in with him to our office.  They were so darn tasty – but even MORE sugar (couldn’t tell you the grams but I’d bet I ingested three times what that Naked Juice had in it!)

When I finally did eat a very late lunch it was 2/3 can of Amy’s Soup in Curried Lentil flavor – my first fiber of the day. But the damage was done.

I was a blood sugar rollercoaster and my mood was along for the ride. 

I know this about myself.  When I eat too much sugar, my mood takes a nosedive simultaneously with the sugar crash.  And once it gets started, it’s a tough to normalize.  I tried to have some ‘protein’ (raw goat cheddar) and ‘fiber’ (air popped plain popcorn) when I got home. 

But by the time poor MSP got home, let’s just say I was a MEAN MOODY mess with a few tears thrown in and leave it at that.  If I were him I would have locked Miss CrankyPants in a closet with a protein shake until she got a grip.  He puts up with SO much more than he should.  I know Cindy can relate, per her post from last night!

I did end up having some egg salad on an Ezekial pita for dinner.  Easy peasy:  two HB eggs with some light mayo and some spinach.  Quick.  Simple.  DEVOURED!

This morning, I FEEL the sugar.  Ladies when you wake up in the morning and your knuckles feel tight, your face is puffy (especially under the eyes) and you can feel the bloat under your skin all over, that’s from overdosing on refined sugar and/or carbs the previous day.  Just in case you didn’t know what was causing those symptoms. 

Am I going to mentally beat myself up for the day of food sins?  Nah.  I don’t do it that often.  This week has been a weird one with scheduling, not much exercise, holiday stuff and some PMS thrown in.  I chalk this up to life in the female body and move on.  Because I know it’s not my regular habit. 

Will I restrict my calories today to make up for the ‘bad food choices’?  Nope, because that will just lead to more poor choices.  I’ll get right back to my ‘regular’ eating.  What I WILL do is maybe add in MORE of my nutrient-rich powerhouses to make up for the nutritional stress I put my system through.  One of those nutritional powerhouses is DULSE, which reader Joan asked me to elaborate on.  So stay tuned – my next post will include delightful dulse info!  (Thanks Joan for the question!)

I’ll also be sure that I drink adequate water today and get back to being ‘nice Shari’ so that MSP feels like seeing my face this weekend!    

Today’s discussion topic is all about going off the hormonal deep end with food – does it happen to you?  Do you go for sweet or salty, or both?  Do you notice any affect on your mood or body? 

The good news?  It’s FRIDAY!  Can I get a WOOT WOOT?  And it’s Friday before a SHORT WEEK next week!  YAY! 

Have a FABULOUS Friday friends!  See you next time to talk about DULSE!!

– Shari B. =)

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Whew, what a busy bee kind of morning it’s been so far, and it’s only 8:47 as I begin to type this.  I’ve had a lot of blog-related catch up to do this morning, emails to reply to, made a pancake b-fast for MSP today, am still in my PJs and have yet to finish my post!  What’s weird is my coffee this morning seemed to be UBER-caffeinated! I used the same single-serve pod brand that I’ve used every day for years, and today it hit me like a truck for some reason.  I am having a hard time sitting still, my fingers are going faster than my brain and I feel almost shaky!  Crazy java!  Maybe the dogs slipped a”wog ruffie” into my mug, in hopes that I’d take them out to burn off this extra energy

Speaking of dogs… yesterday’s exercise included a 30 minute WOG for the pups.  Poor Riley hadn’t been out for a real wog since her cone-inducing incident.  And you could sure tell.  She was a maniac!  I spent most of that 30 minutes snapping her leash, shouting “Riley, BACK”.  I think she has stubborn mule syndrome short term memory problems because she only follows commands now for about a millisecond and then goes right back to whatever she was doing before I corrected her.   She thinks she can get away with anything now that she’s OLD, but I’m on to her little scheme. 

Since the wog was more for them than for me, I then hopped on the treadmill afterward, while watching an episode of “Eastwick” on Hulu.  It was 40 minutes of interval fun!  Speedwork this time:  I focused on including intervals of 9+ mph.  It was definitely a sweat-maker!  I might have to do it again today! 

Yesterday’s eats included a quick bite before my a.m. client, Ezekial toast (which looks to be drowing in vegan ‘non-butter’ but really it just doesn’t melt well!)

Later a PUMPKINY green smoothie…

This one had:

• 1/2 cucumber
• sweet clover sprouts
• 1/2 banana
• about 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• palmful of raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• BIG fist o’spinach
• 1/2 cantaloupe

I felt like NOT having a salad for lunch, so how ’bout a salad in a can?  Amy’s Organic Minestrone, mmm warm and veggie-ful.

Late afternoon while I was prepping dinner stuff, I made a little batch of kale chips, this time with a good dash of nutritional yeast… and ate the whole batch.

We’ve been craving a visit to Garbanzo’s lately and just haven’t made it up there, so I decided we’d make our own homemade version.  I finally tried this box of Falafel mix I had in my pantry.  I wanted to see if it was easier better than the ones I’d made from scratch.  The answer:  NO WAY.  Not that the ones I made at home were all that and a bag of kale chips, but these were SO flipping dry you felt like you needed to load them up on some sort of sauce, which we did not have.

In their defense, I did follow their “broiling” instructions rather than frying them in oil.  They obviously wouldn’t be so dry if they were sopping around in a pan of olive oil before eating.  But that would defeat the purpose of them being a bit healthier than the charred deepfried version we get when eating at Garbanzo.  Sorry “Fantastic World Foods”, this one won’t make it into my grocery basket again anytime soon.

Here’s how my plate turned out:  smeared with my  homemade hummus, topped with a little rice pilaf, some roasted zucchini & baby bellas,  a rooster tail of romaine and 1/4 whole wheat pita.  Oddly, the broiled falafel look like GINGER COOKIES!!

And MSP made his into a pita pocket (sadly lacking any veggie action)

I need to make a good cucumber dill sauce to put on our leftovers to combat the dryness, so I’ll be on the hunt for a good (read:  EASY) recipe that I can use MimicCreme in.    If you  have one, please feel free to share in the comments section!  Or if you  have a homemade healthy falafel recipe that you love, please share that too!

OK, fit peeps, I need to get this party started moving on my Wednesday.  Don’t forget to email me a pic of your awesome bicep flexing for FLEX IT FRIDAY before midnight Thursday!  If you have a blog, be sure to include your blog address in the email so that I can mention it!

Have a brilliant day and I’ll see ya next time!

– Shari B. =)

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It’s the last day to enter the contest giveaway if you haven’t done so yet.  Today is the day for LURKERS to come out of the shadows   (you know who you are!)  The stats info in my admin area tells me that there are way more readers than there are contest entries!  Swing by to leave a comment and say hello – you might get a GIFT out of it!

Are you willing to DE-lurk for food?  Mary’s Gone Crackers, Chocolate Fudge Gluten-Free Cookies, Larabars, Tea, a fun coffee mug, Organic Dark Chocolate… mmmm treats!

Well it snowed like crazy here yesterday.  ALL DAY LONG.  According to the news we got 4″ to 5″ of accumulation. Luckily the ground was warm enough that some of it turned to water before it started to pile up otherwise I think it would have added up to a lot more.  Here’s what it looks like today.  My cousins are coming to visit this weekend (one from California and one from Ohio) so I’m praying this stuff melts before they arrive.   I’m always gushing about how great the weather is here… they won’t believe me if they see this when they get here: 

And you all know that I run on solar power… and there was NO sun to be seen which meant PJs ALL DAY!  Lazy bones day!  Wahoo!  Yep, that’s right.  I was a complete bum all day.  I didn’t even break out the blender for a green smoothie or the cutting board for a salad.  (…GASP…)  Yeah, I know.  Hard to believe! 

Every once in awhile you just need to treat your soul to a day like that.  I can’t remember the last time I did it and it felt great. 

As such, food was random and not my healthiest example for you. 

Breakfast was a piece of toasted Ezekial with raw almond butter, raw honey and a date on the side.

Breakfast #2 later in the morning was an unpictured waffle (with sweet potato puree and 1/2 a banana in the batter).  I will be adding sweet potato puree to waffles again.  They were SO fluffy!

Lunch (I use that term loosely) was a crazy navy bean dip creation that I threw together.  It actually didn’t turn out half bad!!  I was craving hummus but thought I’d try a different bean.  Served with some raw goat cheddar and Mary’s Gone Crackers.  I am out of baby carrots or they would have been dipped in there too!

Afternoon popcorn with a BUBBLY (mmmy bubbly I love you!)

Dinner was leftover Amy’s Organic Black Bean Soup for me and leftover sneaky turkey tacos for MSP.  And Halloween TWIX – um, kind of a lot.  It was a pretty “acid-forming” kind of day, as opposed to the more alkaline side I prefer to be on, but it was fun and I had a great time so there will be no guilt from me!  Unhappy tummy maybe, but no guilt!

***

So I’m going to commit here and now to you all that TODAY I WILL DO SOME YOGA.  I keep meaning to do it and then doing cardio or weights instead.  We gravitate toward things we like and are good at… yoga is something I find incredibly challenging.  Mostly from a ‘being still of mind’ standpoint because I’m kind of a spaz!  So if I put it out here on the blog, I will be accountable to myself and to you!

I have a couple of yoga options from which to select my torture session:

• P90X Yoga X DVD
• Iron Yoga DVD
• Rodney Yee Yoga for Athletes DVD
• Bikram Yoga via iTunes

I’m leaning toward checking out the Iron Yoga because it’s been so long since I’ve seen the DVD that I don’t remember what it”s like.

I know a few of you readers that practice yoga regularly.  Today’s discussion questions:  If you practice yoga, what is your favorite type?  Hot Yoga?  Ashtanga? Power?  How long have you been practicing?  What benefits have you personally experienced?  Drop a comment so we can all learn from you!

Have a peaceful Thursday!  Namaste…! 

I’ll be back tonight shortly after 8:00 PM MST to announce the CONTEST winner! 

– Shari B. =)

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I’m very excited to tell you about yesterday’s feats!  They had to do with getting MSP to consume some veggies!  I hereby dedicate this post to those of you who have written saying that you are having a hard time getting someone in your household to eat their veggies.    

To begin, I made MSP what I’ll call a “First Step Green Smoothie“.  Normally for every breakfast during the week he makes a chocolate protein shake.  I asked if I could make him a special shake this time to see if I could camouflage some veggies in it, starting small in hopes that he’ll like it, get used to the flavor and then progress in to further greens.  (I did tell him I’d be putting veggies in and he agreed to give it a shot.)

First Step Green Smoothie Ingredients:  

• Ice cubes
• 10 oz water
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• stalk of celery
• 1/3 cucumber
• small fist o’ spinach
• 1 banana
• 1 clementine
• 12 green grapes

Wow, I thought this shake turned out GREAT!  If I still ate whey protein, I’d have guzzled this one myself!  It had such a delicate light green color and sweet flavor.  He did drink it (with only a few funny expressions so progress is being made), but he apparently HATES celery and that was the flavor he zeroed in on.  Note to self:  no celery in future MSP smoothies. 

For his dinner I’d planned on making him one of his favorites:  Turkey Tacos.  While getting ready to start cooking, I had a thought: I had a can of organic sweet potato puree in the pantry.  Surely sweet potato could be hidden amongst taco seasoning!  I consulted Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious (which I had conveniently checked out of the library on Sunday) to see if maybe she had a taco recipe in there and sure enough she hides purees in tacos in the book (meant for KIDS, I might add!)  I didn’t follow her recipe, but it confirmed that it could be done — without my ruining a pound of pricey ground turkey to find out!

Sneaky Taco Meat Ingredients:

• 1 lb extra lean ground turkey 
• 1/4 cup dry taco seasoning 
• 1/2 cup tomato puree
• 1/2 cup sweet potato puree
• water if needed

Brown the turkey, then add the purees and the seasonings to the pan, mix really well.  If it seems too dry add a little water at a time to desired consistency (I only added about 3 TBSP water) and simmer for 15 minutes or until the family is ready to sit down to dinner.  I served MSP’s on small corn tortillas and he only tops his with cheese. 

Voila!

In keeping with the southwest dinner theme, I made a myself a small veggie quesadilla (smeared avo, zucchini ribbons, tomato slices and a very light sprinkle of shredded raw goat cheddar.)  The avocado and warmed zucchini ribbons definitely gave it the texture of a creamy, melty quesadilla without much cheese to speak of.  ¡Bueno!

Topped with some Tabasco sauce:

And served with a side of Amy’s Organic Black Bean Soup (with nutritional yeast):

***

Veggie day was a SUCCESS!  MSP ate cucumbers, spinach, celery, a clementine, a banana, tomatoes and sweet potatoes ALL IN ONE DAY!  I can almost see the nutrients making him glow already!   

My Tuesday exercise was 45 minutes of incline intervals on the treadmill, while suffering through yet another episode of the new Melrose Place. (I keep thinking, “Next week it will get better…”  It doesn’t.)

As for my own ‘hidden veggies’  I hid some sweet potato in my oatmeal (oh and I hid a few raisins in there too…):

I also hid some veggies inside of two toasted Ezekial slices:

Now go hide some veggies in the food at YOUR house (I double dog dare you)… but not until you enter the FitFeat Free Giveaway Contest if you haven’t done so yet.  You can enter until Thursday night at 8:00 PM MST! 

Have a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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Good morning FitFeat friends!  Are you so excited that the weekend is upon us once more?  I am ESPECIALLY excited because this weekend they are forecasting some 70+ degree weather and sunshine!  More chances for me to get some Vitamin D action! 

What a week it has been.  Have you noticed what’s been missing this week?  WOGGING!  My poor dogs.  They haven’t been out on a walk since Monday evening.  I’m a bad puppy-mommy this week!  I’ve had daily “social-cizing” plans and the rest of the time I’ve been glued to my PC in preparation for the upcoming blog move. 

Maybe yet today I’ll be able to get them out.   

Check out my new breakfast creation:

Now I know what you’re thinking:  “OMG what IS that?  It looks disgusting!”  But let me tell you this was one delicious little pre-workout fuel!  It is toasted Ezekial smeared with coconut oil (in lieu of vegan butter) and then smeared again with a MEDJOOL DATE!  Mmmm coconutty-datey sweetness!  Brendan Brazier (professional Ironman triathlete) says that coconut oil and dates are great exercise fuel:  the coconut oil has MCTs (medium chain triglycerides) that are more easily converted to energy by the body, not to mention easily-digested simple carbs in the form of the date. 

I often will eat half of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar for pre-running fuel thanks to Brendan’s info.  That particular Larabar contains dates, coconut and coconut oil. 

I met up with my friend (and fellow personal trainer) at The Bluffs yesterday morning for a hilly run.  Wendy is a serious running pro, let me tell you.  She’s a multi-time marathoner (including the BOSTON which one must qualify to enter).  The only reason I’m able to run with her currently is because she is nursing a foot injury.  Notice I’m not saying “keep up with her currently” — because she still could have TOTALLY left me in the dust yesterday, I know it.   

We got in 3.62 miles of hills and dales.  It was a BEAUTY of a morning!  And I felt fantastic afterward.  Wendy, thanks for a great time – I’m looking forward to going again soon!

After that I hit up Starbucks to catch up with another friend and her adorable son, where I had a grande SOY STEAMER.  (Essentially that means I have Starbucks heat me up a nice cup of soy milk, with no coffee or flavoring, and then pay them probably 3 times what a whole container of soy milk would cost!)  Ahhh gotta love th SBUX.  (Thank you Magen for treating — that was very sweet of you!)

Riley never gets any photo love since Rascal is the ham of the family, so I had to get her in the shot.  See what she’s saying with her eyes?  It’s “why haven’t you walked me today, ya big jerk!” 

Lunchtime meant it was time for me to get my major veggie fix.  I still don’t think photos do this salad bowl justice.  It is HUGE.  I measured yesterday and it is 11″ in diameter.    This one was chock full of spinach, heirloom tomatoes, yellow pepper, dulse, avocado, zucchini ribbons, kalamata olives, nutritional yeast, and pepper.  Dressed with extra virgin olive oil.  I ate every last bite and had a few baked potato chips on the side. 

A little Pecan Pie snack in the afternoon: 

And leftover “Lazy Girl Dinner“ from the other night whenI had Amy’s Organic Southwestern Vegetable soup.  I had it in a mug with a  little raw goat cheddar and Mary’s Gone Crackers on the side.  Right back to the PC I went…  MSP had his last softball game of the season, so I was right back to the PC to get some more blog work done.

I did need an evening snack since my soup didn’t keep me full very long, so I made a bag of homemade microwave popcorn (1/4 cup of plain popcorn kernels in a brown lunch bag, fold up the top, microwave for up to two-and-a-half minutes or until the popping sounds are far apart).  No fake butter flavor, no crazy chemicals, no fumes that allegedly cause lung cancer.  Sprinkle with some sea salt and/or nutritional yeast, and munch away!  

I fell asleep while watching “The Office”.  Lame.  All the social activity of the day combined with a whole lot of sitting at the computer made Shari very sleepy…

***

So for today’s discussion, I’d love to hear how you fuel your workouts. 
Are you an “empty stomach exerciser” or a “fully fueled exerciser“? 

I definitely vary, depending on the situation.  For running, ideally I get it done first thing in the morning after just a cup of coffee (and maybe a bite or two of Larabar at the most).  I feel lighter on my feet and don’t experience ‘side stitches’ when I don’t have food in the system. 

But sometimes when I meet up with running buddies, it’s usually a little later in the day and I don’t like to go that long without food.  So I’ll try to eat something about 90 minutes prior to the outing (usually anything sooner and I get severe side cramps during the run).  Yesterday’s toast with the coconut oil and date worked perfectly.  I had some simple carbs, some complex carbs and the coconut oil.  The date gave me some quick energy and the sprouted grain toast gave me some sustained energy.  It was plenty for my run and held me over for about 3 hours until it was time for SBUX. 

Other forms of exercise (like my weight training and hiking) don’t cause me to have to overthink the food situation as much.  Weight training is usually first thing on an empty stomach.  For hiking I eat about 90 minutes for hitting the trail, then bring a Larabar in case I need it on the trail.

There are a lot of schools of thought as to whether you should work out on an empty stomach vs. being ‘properly’ fueled.  Some say that if you exercise on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, you’ll burn more fat (still burning the same number of calories, but because your glycogen stores will be lower first thing in the a.m. you potentially dig into fat stores sooner.)  On the other hand, there are those that say if you exercise without properly fueling for it, you will be causing a bit of catabolism of the precious muscle tissue we all work so hard to keep.

My opinion is this is highly individualized from one person to the next.   Feeling crampy or nauseous during a workout from a belly full of food isn’t something that will keep you coming back for more.  But feeling lightheaded or dizzy from not eating enough and hence lacking energy isn’t good either.   Base it off of how long or how intense the workout will be.  Common sense applies here.  Listen to your body and take note of how you feel so that next time you can make the right ‘tweaks’ to feel FANTASTIC during your workouts. 

Isn’t that really what it’s all about anyway?    I’d rather feel great during my workouts (which means I’ll be more inclined to do it again tomorrow, and the day after that, etc.) than be too focused on what percentage of the calories burned are from fat.  (Been there, done that…!)   Overall if you are moving your body regularly and eating nutritious foods, you’ll get where you want to go.

Let us know which side of the fence you’re on — drop a comment!

Alrighty friends, I’ve got a LOT on the plate today so I’m gonna get cracking!  Have a FAB FRIDAY! 

If all goes as planned today I may be back later on with the last notice before the blog moves.  If not, you’ll know I hit an speed bump…   

See ya next time! 

– Shari B. =)

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• Why I Pulled the Plug on Soda

Thank you so much to those who shared their own sprouting experiences – I appreciate hearing from all of you! 

Upon reading some of the comments as well as websites discussing the toxins and bacteria potentially in sprouts, I will confess I’m torn. On one hand I hear experts touting sprouts as being the king of nutrients and digestability.  Then at the other end of the spectrum you have experts telling you to pretty much avoid them (especially alfalfa).  And I’ve been eating alfalfa sprouts EVERY day for months now, in smoothies, sandwiches, wraps. 

I feel at this point I’ll continue to eat sprouts in moderation.  I think, at least for me personally, the benefits outweigh the risks.  That may change as I continue to read up on the topic.

Therefore, my sprouting (ad)venture has commenced… but I think this first attempt isn’t going to go all that well.  We’ll see.  Not that I’m trying to send negative vibes out into the universe or anything  I am starting with millet because that is what I happened to have on hand.  Reading into the instructions of sprouting millet, I learned that tray-style works better for this particular grain using 100% cotton cloth above and below it, as I’ve done here.

The issue I think I will run into is the rinsing and draining.  Once you get little shoots they say to be very careful because they can break easily.  Not sure how I’m going to manage rinsing and draining from this pie plate without moving the little buggers around!  I also read that some of the millet might ferment rather than sprout.  Plus I’m not even sure if what I have is hulled or unhulled millet.  And I’m quickly realizing in this dry climate that my cloth dries out CRAZY-FAST so I think I need something thicker like a washcloth. (Overthink things much, Shari??) 

Time will tell!

What I DO know is that the sprouts I PURCHASE cost me about $1.99… so if I spend too much time on this experiment, I’ll be sticking with store-bought! 

On the subject of millet, I did cook up a big batch of it to keep in the fridge.  So for breakfast yesterday I had a bowl of warm millet with almond milk, some raw honey and raisins.  It was a nice change from oatmeal.

It made for a perfect post-run meal after a chilly and VERY dark outdoor run.  MSP and I went out for three miles at about 6:20 and it was still pitch black out when we left.  I can be wide awake when I leave the house and then get out into that darkness and it’s like my body floods my system with melatonin because I get really sleepy again until the sun comes up.  Thank goodness for electricity or I’d be sleeping 16 hours a day during winters!

Midmorning I had half of a Cashew Cookie Larabar.  

I’ve had a small box of Sunshine Falafel ‘burgers’ in my freezer waiting for me to try.  Since I bought a huge tub of roasted red pepper hummus, I decided I’d break out the falafel burger for lunch before the hummus is gone!  (It doesn’t last long in this house!)  I used half of a sandwich thin as the base, with a schmear of hummus topped by a slice of heirloom tomato.   The Sunshine burger acted as the bun lid.  For some reason this picture makes it look like an Egg McMuffin, doesn’t it? 

It was definitely tasty.  A little drier than I imagined but that worked perfectly for a TOPLESS sandwich! 

And of course, my large salad to go with my meal!

I spent most of Tuesday glued to the computer, working on and reading about taking my blog self-hosted this weekend.  I needed a snack that would allow me to still type, so just a quick handful of Mary’s Gone Crackers and the rest of the morning’s Larabar.

I made a hamburger potato casserole for MSP’s dinner which did require a little kitchen time, so when it came time to decide what to make for moi, I wasn’t feeling in the mood to cook anything.  Lazy Girl Dinner would have to suffice.  A can of Amy’s Organic soup.  Folks, let me tell you that these soups are pretty much the reason I have yet to actively seek out recipes for soup.  Amy make’s a kick-a$$ soup!!  Look at how chunky this soup is!  This one was Southwest Vegetable.  Even the little pieces of corn had grill markings on them.  I will definitely be stocking up on cans of this particular ‘flavor’.  I almost ate both servings, but decided to save some for another meal.  On the side was a piece of toasted Ezekial, with Earth Balance vegan butter and a sprinkle of garlic salt.

Sometimes cooking is just overrated when you can heat up an insanely quick dinner like this. 

And last, my evening dessert:  in concept I thought this would be such a cute photo.  It SO did not turn out that way.  In my mind I was thinking “banana sushi rolls” with almond butter as my ‘wasabi’.  It didn’t plate up that well though and I got quite a laugh out of it.  For any South Park fans out there, I’ll just say that this picture brought to mind Mr. Hanky and leave it at that!

It did TASTE great though, with cinnamon, raw honey drizzle and the almond butter. 

If you are in the mood for a giveaway, hop on over to The Fitnessista’s blog where you can enter to win free VEGA Sport items.  She will announce the winner on Thursday morning so you have all day today to get your entries in.  You know I love my Vega products, so I’ve used up all of my three ways to enter that contest! 

OK, blog buds I have plenty more to say today but feel like I’ve borrowed enough of your time as it is so I’ll save it for another post!  I’m heading out to get my HIKE ON. 

****

Just another reminder for those who may not get to read daily:  FitFeat will be going self-hosted over this coming weekend (provided all goes well when it comes time to ‘flip the switch’!)  If everything goes as planned you should be able to find me at the same address I can be found at now which is www.fitfeat.com.  Currently that redirects you to this wordpress dot com blog location.  Over the weekend it should redirect you to the new location.  If you have any trouble finding the blog or notice something that doesn’t seem right, please email me at shari@fitfeat.com.

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Look Ma, No Hands!
• Coyote Snacks & Twilight Running
• All That and a Bag of (Kale) Chips

The countdown is on!  A week from today I’ll be on a plane heading back home to see my family.  Woot woot!! :) I can’t wait! 

The FitFeature for today is about ol’ soda pop!  During my earlier dieting days, I would use a daily diet soda (or two or three) as a way to thwart cravings for sweets (or so I thought) while I was trying to keep my calories down.  As I began down the path toward more holistic and healing nutrition along with acid/alkaline balance in the body, I started to pay closer attention to the ill effects of pop (both diet and regular).  I’d read the bad things before, but sometimes we make changes when we’re ready to make them and not a second sooner.

I had drastically reduced my soda intake after the initial meeting with my acupuncturist.  But I later read “The Ultimate pH Solution” by Michelle Schoffro Cook and one statement in her book stopped my soda habit in its tracks:

“…you need to drink 32 cups of water (and expend tremendous amounts of energy that would be better used elsewhere in your body) just to neutralize the acidity of one glass of soda.”

32 cups of water?  Yikes! 

So that did it for me.  I may drink the very rare occasional mixed cocktail that will contain some soda in it.  But I certainly don’t want all this care and effort I’m putting into alkalinizing my body to be ruined by ONE CAN of pop!

You’d think that hearing how the phosphoric acid can lead to weakened bones would have convinced me first.  Or how the aspartame allegedly converts to formaldehyde in the body.  There is enough weight on the cons of soda to really consider switching it out for something better for us. 

Will you accept the challenge today to replace at least one soda with water or herbal tea.?  Give it a try.  Then maybe tomorrow, you might want to do it again! 

One day maybe I’ll also give up my single daily cup of coffee as well, but I’m desperately holding on to the hope that there are still a few good reasons to drink it (like the antioxidants, reduced effect of lactic acid buildup during exercise.) 

Now on to yesterday’s feats & eats!

Weight Training (Legs / Shoulders)

• TM warmup for 5 minutes followed by 3 sets of 20 rep ball squats for a muscle specific warmup. 
• Straight-Leg Deadlifts 4 sets of 15, 15, 12, 12
• Deep DB Squats 4 sets of 15 reps
• Explosive Lunges 4 sets of 20
• Overhead Shoulder Press  4 sets of 15, 11, 11, 8
• DB Rear Delt Flyes 3 sets of 15, 11, 12
• Ball Crunches with KB 3 sets of 15 reps

Today my hamstrings and traps are telling me they apparently had a good workout!

My morning started with my antioxidant-rich cuppa JOE    hahaha

Post-workout BLENDED GREEN GOODNESS (banana, 2 clementines, spinach, sprouts, 2 celery stalks, 1/2 cucumber, scoop of rice protein powder, 8 oz water):

I had a friend over for lunch so we had soup and salad under the umbrella on the back patio.  It was gorgeous out!  We had a very relaxing time catching up.  The salad had spinach, arugula, romaine, zucchini ribbons, sundried tomatoes, red pepper and cucumber.  I topped mine off with Greek vinaigrette. 

My afternoon snack had a lemon theme going on!  Larabar “Lemon Bar” flavor (OMG a new fave Larabar, it was AWESOME!!!!  I thought I was eating lemon loaf!) and a Ginger Lemongrass herbal tea to go:

I had a handful of raisins around 5:00 to hold me over till dinner because we took the dogs for their quick 2 mile WOG in the evening.  We had some errands to run for our living room project so we picked up some falafel on our way to Home Depot.  Mmm, hummus!  Tabbouleh!  Falafel!  Something pickled (not sure what it is but it tastes really good!)

I don’t think they gave me enough falafel!  (6!)  I ate 2.5 of them.  MSP took one, and the rest came home.  Not sure how they’ll reheat, guess I’ll find out today!  

OK friends, off to get this Thursday started!  Have a fantastic day and I’ll see you next time!

–Shari B.  =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Look Ma, No Hands!
• The Lunge: Love to Hate It
• The Great Debate: Pre-Workout Fuel