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Wild West Weather (and a Giveaway!)

Feb 23

Posted by Shari B. in Giveaway Contest | 11 Comments

Well, never a dull moment in Colorado weather.

Yesterday, 61 degrees and 80+ MPH wind gusts. Forecast called for a ‘light dusting’ of snow overnight.  Now?  At our end of town we have easily close to 10″ to a foot of snow and it’s still coming down.

This was the sneakiest storm I think I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve lived here.  It was dry at 3:00 AM.  The wind woke us up so we looked out the window to see if our fence and trees were still in place.  Completely dry out.  We stayed up after that and next thing you know, we were in a full-on blizzard.

One of our local neighbors (or even someone in Kansas with this wind) is likely the new owner of a nice beige cover for patio chairs/table.   Ours seems to have blown away.  I’m hoping that it’s hiding under the snow somewhere in our yard.

So after all this complaining about cold and snow, there was a super bright spot in my day!

My new Eating Well issue arrived.  I love this magazine.  I find a lot of fun recipes in it and love looking at the beautiful food photos.


Especially this particular cover because it just reminds me of SUMMER when our patio and backyard look a little more ready for lemonade drinking:


I want someone else to get the same enjoyment I do from seeing this show up in their mailbox, so I’m going to giveaway a one-year subscription.  I know it’s no KitchenAid Mixer like PW (hey, when I’m up to 15,000 comments on a post, I promise I’ll giveaway something SUPER cool too!) and this is sponsored by my own wallet.  It’s the thought that counts, right?  ;)   But 6 times over the next year, the winner will go “YAY!  The new EW is here!  Let’s get cooking!”

To enter**, all you have to do to is leave comment below.  You don’t even have to tell me what your favorite food magazine is (but I’d still love to know if you want to share!)  If you also tweet and/or Facebook the link to the giveaway, come on back and leave another comment for extra credit!

I’ll select a winner Saturday morning (Feb 25) at 9:00 AM MST using random.org.  Good luck!

– Shari B. =)

**The winner has to have a U.S. mailing address.  So if you live outside the U.S. hopefully you know someone with an address in the states.  ;)

 

 

 

 

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Giveaway: Win A Fun New Cooking App

Sep 19

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Giveaway Contest | 2 Comments

Hi friends!

Earlier this year, I was invited to participate in something really fun that I’m excited to share with you today.  I was asked to select a recipe to test and write about for a project that was in development at the time.  I have strong admiration for the person who was putting this project together.  She is Deborah Chud, MD.  And her project is called Trufflehead, a new healthy cooking app for iPhone, iPad and iTouch.

I just recently installed the app on my own iPhone now that it’s been released and can’t wait to try some of the recipes from it when I’m back in my own kitchen after I’m home again from “travel mode”.   It is a SUPER SLICK cooking app.  What I especially love about it is the inclusion of video guidance for certain steps IF you need it.  For example, if you are making the artichoke appetizer, but have never worked with a fresh artichoke before and are unsure of how to prep it for use, all you do is click the video arrow inside the recipe and it walks you through the steps.

When I tried the Sesame Slaw with Pea Pods recipe as a contributing blogger, I was provided with the video for destringing the pods, something that I’d never done before.  You can read about my experience with this recipe and the video on the Trufflehead site at this link: Shari Becht’s Sesame Slaw with Pea Pods.

I also love that every recipe has a photograph.  I will almost always pick a recipe with a pic over one that doesn’t when I’m looking in cookbooks.  In this app, I don’t have to choose because EVERY recipe has one.

There’s something here for everyone:  omnivores, vegetarians, pescetarians, vegans.  I saw a recipe in the app for vegan Pumpkin Blondies that I definitely want to try.   Some of the recipes do call for Splenda OR sugar, and I can’t judge because I used to use Splenda myself (but I no longer do).  Deborah addresses the sweetener issue both in the app and on the website, and I appreciate the way the topic is handled.

To learn more about Trufflehead and the cool features included in the app, take a look at this video clip:

Here’s the best part!  Deborah has kindly offered to GIVE a free download of this awesome app to TWO FitFeat readers!

The first two people email talk@trufflehead.com with FitFeat in the subject line will receive a free download.

Let me know if you are one of the winners!

Now, if you DON’T win, you can still purchase this app at a 50% discount for a limited time from the iTunes store.  When I went to check it out at iTunes, the iPhone version was only $1.99 during this sale.  Think about how expensive cookbooks are to purchase and this app only costs $1.99?  That is a steal – and I really mean that because I know that Deborah put a LOT of work into bringing this to fruition.

Have a MAGNIFICENT MONDAY FitFeat friends!  See you soon!

– Shari B. =)

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Tech Break

Sep 17

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

Hi friends!  Welcome to the weekend!

Many thanks to those of you that spent the last three work weeks focusing on cleaner eating, whatever your own version of clean eating entails.  For some maybe it’s less sugar, for others maybe it’s more protein and less starch.  Everyone has their own food journey.  Either way, I sure appreciated the company!  And I hope your body is thanking you for it!  FitFeat will return to normal (read: more random & topic based) posting now so I hope I didn’t plug up your Google readers or inboxes during this challenge.

Today’s questions:  Do you enjoy reading/seeing the food & exercise recaps regularly?  Does it help you come up with ideas for things to do with foods in your fridge and pantry?  I’m a pretty simple eater. I don’t like to take the time for things that are overly complicated or require a bunch of ingredients.  The advantage there (besides a savings of time) is improved digestion.  When you put too many types of food in your system at one time that don’t necessarily combine well, you create internal stress.  Therefore, I feel that the way I eat makes for a relatively boring food blog most days!  :)

A Break from Technology:  I’ve got a lot going on in the coming days which means I won’t have access to my laptop or be on my phone much.  But I’m hoping that I’m able to capture some fun stuff to share with you at the end of it.  I’ve already written a few posts for next week though so I hope you’ll still stop by!   And if you have an iPhone, iPad or iTouch, be sure to check back 1st thing Monday morning for a little giveaway!  (Watch, now I’ve jinxed myself and my “auto-post function” won’t work!  Cross your fingers for me!)

Have a SUPER Saturday and good luck on Monday with the giveaway!

– Shari B. =)

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More Reasons to “Do Something Daily” – A Giveaway!

Dec 2

Posted by Shari B. in Do Something Daily, Giveaway Contest | 10 Comments

Hi friends!

WOW, we have a great group for the December Do Something Daily challenge!  Cindy, Joan, Julie, Carrie, Allison, Ashley!  Excellent!  So excited to have us all keeping each other motivated to keep moving this month!

It’s only Day 2 so there’s still time to join the fun if you worked out yesterday!

Spread the word:  Tweet it, Facebook it, email it.  Let’s get everyone moving!

To sweeten the deal a little bit, everyone who completes the challenge by working out / moving their bods all 31 days of December AND posting about it here at FitFeat in the comments section will be entered into a drawing to win a FREE Eating for Health book written by Ed Bauman, Ph.D. (the founder of the culinary school I’m attending):

*** AND… ***

a FREE 45-minute phone coaching session with yours truly.  You can use that 45 minutes to pick my brain on fit living – we can talk about exercise, healthy eating, healthy cooking during the call*, similar to the calls I conduct with my clients.  So start thinking about what you would do with that time!

Keep me up to date on your progress by posting in the comments sections at FitFeat and after December 31 I’ll assign each completing participant a number (using first names in alphabetical order) and then I’ll use a random number generator to draw the winner.

So now that we know what you’re all playing for, the question is:  What was your movement today?

The first part of my exercise today came courtesy of Margo, the Brooklyn Fit Chick.  Margo recently hosted a fitness DVD giveaway and I was lucky enough to be one of the winners!  The DVDs arrived last night (perfect timing!!) and so this morning I did a 20-minute endurance workout with Marta Montenegro.

It definitely got my heart pumping!  Bodyweight squats, pushups, burpees, knee tucks, etc.  I’ll give a better review of it after I’ve spent more time with the DVDs.  Thanks again Margo for the wonderful gift!  I LOVE to try out new fitness DVDs and mix things up with my workouts.  And I can’t tell you how fun it is to await the arrival of a prize coming in the mail!

After that, even though it was only 38 degrees, I knew I had to get outdoors.  The sky was blue and the sun was shining, so I couldn’t resist (Mother Nature is still smiling on Colorado – it will be 58 later today and 60 tomorrow).  I spent 40 minutes doing intervals of running “downs” and walking “ups” on a hilly loop in our neighborhood.

I had a pink face and cold hands when I got back.

So I warmed up with a Shari favorite of toasted Ezekial with raw almond butter and raw honey.  To spice it up a bit, I sprinkled on cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.  Oh. Emm. Gee.  I wanted to eat the whole loaf like this.  Try it – you’ll love it!

And a side of organic green jasmine tea:

Alright blog buds:  I better stop yappin’ so you have time to go get your workout done!  Make it a FIT and HEALTHY day!  Don’t forget to post what you did so you can stay in the running for the giveaway!

– Shari B. =)

* Currently the giveaway contests hosted at FitFeat are open to US residents only.

***

Shari Becht is a Fit Living Coach and ACE Certified Personal Trainer.  She is extremely passionate about teaching people how they can take steps to fit healthy living into their busy lives.  She has decided to take her love of nutrition one step further by enrolling in the Natural Chef Culinary Program at Bauman College and will graduate in Spring 2011.

If you or someone you know could use some help learning how to fit more “FIT” into life, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

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Will De-Lurk for Food

Oct 22

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Hi FitFeat friends! 

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: 

 

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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.

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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!

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

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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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The First FitFeat Giveaway Contest!

Oct 20

Posted by Shari B. in Giveaway Contest | 18 Comments

Hello again FitFeaters!!

As promised, to thank you all for finding me after the blog move and also to thank you for getting the word out about the blog, I’m going to get the first FitFeat GIVEAWAY started! 

The contents of this FitFeat care package include items you’ve seen me use on the blog.

Like this:

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And this: 
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And a little of this:

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With a bit of that:

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Oh, and some of this:

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And a few other things that aren’t pictured.  You get the idea! 

 

You can enter a number of ways:   

1. submit a comment to this post (counts as one entry)

2. got Facebook?  Put out a status update with a link to FitFeat, leave a comment here about it.  (That gives you another entry.)

3. look for FitFeat on Twitter, then Tweet the contest link.  (Another entry)

4. if you are a blogger, you can mention the contest in a post (with the link) and the pingback will give you another entry.

5. for any friends that you send over to enter the contest  … have them post a comment of who sent them and not only will they get their entry but YOU will get 3 MORE entries

Each comment becomes a number, first comment posted by time will be assigned #1 and so-on.  The only posts from ME will be my adding entry placeholders for people who tweeted and those who get extra entries for friend-referrals.

The contest will remain open until Thursday evening (10/22) 8:00 PM MST.   

At that time, I will head over to Random.org and use their generator to pull a number out of the hat, so to speak!  I’ll put out a post to announce the winner and from there we’ll make the arrangements offline for me to get the care-package to the lucky winner!

G O O D   L U C K !

Get busy entering!!

– Shari B. =)

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To Sprout or Not To Sprout?

Oct 14

Posted by in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Good morning blogosphere! 

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.

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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.

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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.  

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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? 

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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. 

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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. =)

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