FitFeat

Posts Tagged Green Smoothie

Bouquet of Greens

Jan 11

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 6 Comments

Good morning FitFeat friends!

It’s another cold and snowy morning in Denver today.

Oh summer sunshine, how I miss you so.  Please hurry back!

Since greens remind me of warmer days, I thought I’d share another kitchen tip with you today.  Treat your greens like freshly cut flowers and they will last longer.  I do this with kale, parsley and cilantro regularly.

Grab a heavy glass jar (this is where my leftover almond butter jars come in handy) and fill with enough filtered water that the cut end of the stems sit are just dipped in.

Cover very lightly with a plastic bag to create its own little greenhouse.

Place in your refrigerator.

Change the water every few days as you would with a bouquet of flowers.

Fresh herbs elevate the flavor of just about every dish and they can be pretty pricey!  So making sure they last longer is important to me because I really hate to throw money into my garbage disposal.

Organic kale is no bargain either at $3 a bunch.  If your kale does start to get ‘wilty’ before you get a chance to use it all, make some kale chips with it, juice it or toss some into a green smoothie.

Have a super day and if you have sunshine where you live, please send a little to Colorado!  :D

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , ,

Bringing Back the No Slacker Tracker

Dec 31

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 5 Comments

Happy New Year’s Eve friends!

I just finished an AWESOME lower body workout and am sipping on a green post-workout smoothie.  We attempted a hike this morning so we got really bundled up and strapped on our Yak Trax. We knew it was windy when we drove to the trailhead, but we literally got out of the car, took three steps, looked at each other and said, “Indoor workout instead??”  Holy hurricane winds, Batman!  You could hardly stand up straight.  So we came home, took the dogs out for Riley’s vet-ordered mini-walk (which really looks more like a drunken sailor wobble for Riley) while we were still bundled up tight and then I did 50 minutes of walking lunges, squats, wall squats, deadlifts, wide/straight leg deadlifts, calf raises, step ups, pulsing lunges, etc.  You get the idea.  I will be feeling it tomorrow!

No sense waiting until tomorrow to work on those 2012 intentions!  I feel a productive day coming on!

I have printed out my January No Slacker Tracker – if you are new to FitFeat, here is a post I wrote on it before.  And here is a link to a free January 2012 printable for you if you want your own.

This will give me a quick visual of when I’m moving my bod (I’ll mark that with one color and plan to also use another color to mark the days I feel I’m being nutritionally supportive of it as well).  All these little head colds are definitely my body’s way of telling me I haven’t been feeding it properly lately.

Really minimizing sugars (outside of fruit) will be on my list.  Good thing these arrived for Christmas ;) and have already been gobbled up:

Huge thanks to my super friend Allison of The Sunday Flog for sending these delicious (and GORGEOUS) cookies.  What a fun treat!  Cory knows that when something is going to arrive in the mail from her, it’ll be delightful so he made trip after trip to the mailbox in anticipation.  (Last year her caramels were amazing and so were the FitFeat cookies!).   My photos don’t do her cookies justice, so go check out her post where she shows all the hard work and love that went into making these.  Allison, we devoured them that night and saved a couple to have with our coffee the next morning – thank you so much for the wonderful gift!

On that note friends, have an amazing celebration to ring in 2012 tonight!  I’m gonna go hit the list of things to get done and then I need to get ready to head out for our evening!

See you *next year*!  :D

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

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. =)

 

»crosslinked«

Tags: ,

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. =)

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , ,

If You Live In Swelterville…

Jul 28

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Hi friends!

So are you in a heat wave where you live?  We are looking at the 13th or 14th day of 90+ temps today.  I don’t mind ONE bit.  Why?  Because I see the temps down in Arizona (thanks iPhone for that cool feature) everyday and I can’t tell you the last time I’ve seen them below 100 for their daily highs.  When I look at their forecast, I see this:  104, 107, 107, 105, 106, 105, 108.

Holy hot pants, Batman!  That’s crazy hot!  So 90+ in Denver – it’s like the north pole up here!

You know what cools the soul on a super hot day?  Green smoothies!  Especially if you put cucumber in it!  (Cucumbers are very cooling and very hydrating.)

Right now as I type this I am drinking the ugliest of green smoothies. Thanks to a couple of frozen cherries AND some greens powder in addition to my 1/2 cucumber, 4 kale leaves (oh darn I just realized I forgot my celery), 1 scoop of Amazing Meal and a banana.  Well,  it’s not a your typical bright green.  :)

Hello UGLY SMOOTHIE!

Thank you banana for being able to hide plenty of green flavor and make this ugly thing taste SO MUCH BETTER than it looks!

I was in dire need of getting back to my usual eating habits.  After our road tripping weekend plus MSP’s birthday and the free stuff I ate at the IKEA grand opening yesterday (that is a whole other post…) I have taken in what feels like a mountain of sugar.  And my tummy has been vocal in letting me know that it wanted the healthy stuff back!

After a morning run at my favorite hilly trail, I made a green juice (much prettier green!)

My mid-morning snack was a slice of toasted Ezekial with miso, almond butter and cinnamon (with a side of coconut water and some B12)

For lunch, I had a leftover hummus plate from Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill that I reworked into a wrap (2 pcs falafel, pickled cabbage, hummus, tomato/cucumber dicers and a bit of tabbouleh)

Dinner is yet TBD.  I have no clue what I’m making for dinner and the day is flying by.  Too much to do, too little time!  I need to continue recipe testing “freezer” recipes, so if you have ideas for me send them my way!  I could use some inspiration!  :)

***

Speaking of MSP’s birthday, as a gift to him, I’m going to return his real name to him on the blog.  I don’t think he’s ever been a fan of the “MSP” moniker (which actually was just my shortened way to say My Sweetie Pie) — maybe it has something to do with being too close to PMS?  I can’t be sure. ;)   Either way, Happy Happy Birthday to my sweetie pie, Cory.   (Well, happy bday yesterday that is, since I’m just writing today!)  In one of my next posts, I’ll fill you in on how we spent most of his birthday at IKEA.  Weird way to spend a birthday, you might think, but we had a blast!  I’ll show you why!

Have a great day blog buds!  If you are sweltering wherever you live I will send cooling thoughts your way!

– Shari B. =)

 

 

Tags: , ,

5 Things That Can Undermine Your Health When Flying (and tips to avoid them)

Jul 9

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

Welcome to the weekend blog buds!

I have a fair amount of air travel coming up between now and October for business and fun.  I don’t know about you but flying really can work a number on my body.  I thought I’d share a FitFeature with five things to keep in mind when you travel by plane and some of the tips I use to stay healthy and keep my body feeling good.

1. Flying is very dehydrating to the body thanks to the recycled air and reduced oxygen

Focus on getting plenty of hydrating liquids before, during and after your flight.  It’s tempting to not want to drink up so that you don’t have to use the plane’s lavatory, but please don’t make this mistake.  It won’t be worth it in the long run.  Good choices are plain filtered water, coconut water, water with lemon, kombucha tea.  Unfortunately since you can’t bring your own liquids through security you end up needing to buy some bottled water once you are at your gate. I know it’s expensive, but your body will thank you.

Avoid dehydrating drinks like coffee and alcohol. (If you need a coffee, at the very least choose decaf.  Or better yet have herbal tea.)  And unless there is a fresh juice bar in the airport, skip the juice as well.  If it’s bottled it has been pasteurized with high heat so all the goodness of fresh juice is no longer in the bottled juice.  Further, if it’s not organic juice, you could be getting an extra-concentrated dose of pesticide chemicals.

Another thing you can do is bring some prepared water-rich fruits and vegetables along (fortunately food is allowed through security):  cucumber slices, watermelon chunks, grapefruit segments, oranges, salad with plenty of tomato, lemon segments (great for adding to your water once you are on the plane and for squeezing onto your salad as well).

2. The decreased air pressure can cause gas and bloating

Oh boy.  This one gets me every time.  I can FEEL that pressure on my insides and it’s so uncomfortable.  The day before and the day of a flight I really focus on eating foods that are easy to digest:  green smoothies, fresh green juice, green salads, lightly steamed vegetables, water-rich fruits, maybe a little fish and eggs (easier proteins to digest), Greek yogurt if you don’t have any dairy issues.

Things you may want to minimize:  beans, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, heavy/rich foods, meats (harder to digest and stay in your system longer), nuts that haven’t been soaked (they are harder to digest as well).  Pay attention to things in everyday life that cause you to feel bloated or a little ‘gassy’ – these are the things you don’t want to eat the day you fly.  They might be a little different for everyone.

3. Being cooped up with a lot of germs blowing around

I never used to be a germaphobe. Then about 5 years ago when we took a cruise, there was an outbreak of norovirus on our ship.  Thank goodness we didn’t contract it (about 500 unlucky other people did) and the entire staff were walking around in surgical masks, wearing plastic gloves, spraying disinfectant everywhere.  You would have thought it was the plague.   I started pushing the elevator buttons with my elbow (and only if it was covered in clothing!).  It’s shocking to me now when I pay attention in public places how many people are  coughing, sniffling, hacking and I swear they all somehow end up on your plane sitting near you.  One time I wore a bandana around my neck like scarf so that I could cover my face just in case.  True story.  Sounds ridiculous and extreme, but I didn’t get sick!  I rarely use hand antibacterial lotion in everyday life but I definitely do when I fly.  And this year, that’s exactly where I caught that nasty pertussis virus (whooping cough) that took me down for a while.

This is another reason that adding a lot of vegetables and fruits to your diet is helpful.  Increase your intake of all colors of produce to help boost your immune system daily.  If you aren’t a fan of eating all of your fruits/veggies, consider green smoothies, fresh organic green juices(and wheatgrass juice) or even dried greens powders.

I increase my intake of probiotics even more around travel times:  kombucha tea, probiotic tablets (50 billion), kefir, fermented foods like sauerkraut and tempeh.

4. Radiation exposure

There’s not much you can do to minimize your exposure here except for maybe ask for the pat-down in lieu of going through the new big X-ray machines.  However, you can choose some foods wisely to help cleanse some of that radiation.  Best choice?  Seaweed!  I eat seaweed a few times a week anyway, but before and after flying I try to incorporate some extra seaweed into my salads.  Soak arame and then turn it into a marinated seaweed salad.  Or add dulse flakes to more meals (it hides well in most anything cooked).  Look for a Japanese restaurant the next time you travel and order a seaweed salad and some miso soup.

Chlorophyll-rich foods are also helpful in cleansing – which if you are eating lots of dark veggies you’ll be covered.  This is where your fresh green juices, green smoothies, salads and greens powders are helpful.  I also keep a bottle of chlorophyll tablets around for high-travel times as well.

5. Flying really restricts movement

I am not one to get up and walk around much on a plane.  If my flights were longer than 2-3 hours each, I definitely would make an effort walk the aisleways to keep my leg muscles moving (this is especially important for minimizing the risk of DVT, deep vein thrombosis). 

While I know some folks like to be productive when hanging out at the gate waiting for a flight, this is the time to get your body moving.  I won’t ask you to do something crazy like wall squats or lunges in public (although you can do some hover squats in the privacy of a restroom stall if you’d like!) but definitely WALK AROUND.  Don’t take the escalator/elevator if there is an option for stairs, and don’t take those moving sidewalks.  Move as much as you can before/after the flight.  And walk on over to the restroom right before boarding!

Move around while you are waiting for your bags to arrive at baggage claim.  This is also a great time to do some stretching – reach down and touch your toes, do a few side bends, put your arms overhead and stretch up onto your toes like you just got out of bed.  And if you feel like people are watching you, don’t worry – there are plenty of odder things going on at the airport for people to look at!

***

The bottom line for minimizing the physical impact of air travel:  hydrate, load up on fruits/veggies, increase your sea vegetable and probiotic intake, and move your bod! Avoid the tempting prepackaged foods and fast food restaurants because all those things will do is weigh you down further, make you more dehydrated, zap your energy, and increase the toxic load on your body.  That’s no way to start your trip – especially if it’s for something fun! 

(Hmmm… that sounds a lot like what you hear me spouting for daily living here at FitFeat!) 

Do you have any favorite tips/tricks/home remedies for keeping the body happy and healthy when traveling?  Please share with us!

– Shari B. =)


 

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Independence: Free Yourself from Bad Habits

Jul 1

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Happy Friday FitFeat Friends!  Welcome to the long holiday weekend (in a few hours anyway!).

I’m drinking a refreshingly tart green smoothie this morning. It includes:

  • 1/2 lemon (peeled)
  • 1/3 grapefruit (peeled)
  • handful red grapes
  • 2 kale leaves
  • handful spinach
  • drizzle of hemp oil
  • 1/3 frozen banana
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 1 scoop vanilla “Raw Protein” sprouted grain powder (Garden of Life)

You can definitely taste the grapefruit!

This is following a leg-shaking lower body Tabata workout today.  (I’m officially cleared for exercise again!  Wahoo!)

  • BW Speed Squat Taps
  • Barstool Swings + Squat (place a tall stool in front of you.  Swing one leg up and over it then squat down, repeat other side.)
  • Straight Leg Deadlifts
  • Clam (for glutes)
  • Yoga cycle:  Twisting Chair Prayer left and right, Reverse Warrior left and right, Plank, Eagle Pose left and right, regular Chair Pose
  • Core cycle: supermans, boat pose

As I type it out, it looks easy but it was surprisingly challenging.  I think Tabata timing makes any exercise movement more challenging.

***

Seeing how we are coming up on the 4th of July, I wanted to repost one of my FitFeat favorites (from July 2010).  I still love its message.  Plus, today being July 1, we are now officially in the second half of the year.  Spend some time today revisiting resolutions or goals made back on January 1 – anything you still want to work on?  Or maybe you’ve accomplished them all and you are ready to make some new ones!

Something New to Celebrate This Independence Day

I always love the start of a new month – it’s like a mini-New Year celebration every 30 days or so!  Feels like a fresh start.  Each July to me often feels like an especially clean slate – we’re starting the second half of the year.  I like to remind clients to celebrate an additional kind of independence over this holiday weekend (and throughout the month).

Become independent and free yourself:

  • from toxic foods/additives – eliminate them as much as you can to get things back to balance – this is a great time to just cleanse the system with plant foods.  Drink a green smoothie, eat some fresh berries, have a cool salad for dinner.
  • from addictive sugar cravings – this is a tough one, I know! I struggle with this off and on.  Stop consuming refined sugar for a few days in a row and then it becomes a piece of (sugarless) cake.  The first days are the hardest but if you get past the ‘hump’ you’ll thank yourself for it.  ;)
  • from being bound by restrictive diets – pick some healthy habits and live by those rather than feeling that you have to follow strict rules that will ultimately make you binge or backslide later on.
  • from being a slave to body image – hey we all have something we personally think is a ‘flaw’ but how about this month, let’s pick something about our bodies to LOVE when we look in the mirror.

These are just a few examples to get you thinking!

What not-so-great habit will you break free of this Independence Day and replace with a new healthy one?

Tags: , , , ,

A Post Chock Full of Veggies

May 18

Posted by Shari B. in Adventures in Dehydrating, Cooking | 6 Comments

Hi blog buds!  What’s new?  I hope that you are having a wonderful week so far!  As usual when a week goes by between posts I have more to share with you than you probably have time to read!  I’ll try to keep it from being TOO long and then come back and post again sooner this time!

I have been spending a decent amount of time in the kitchen recently (pictures to follow later in the post). Today when I was testing a new recipe adaptation for a vegetarian Adzuki Bean Shepherd’s Pie (with spicy mashed yams on top… mmmm!) I was realizing that if I were ever to have a cooking show it would most likely be featured on Comedy Central as opposed to the Food Network.  And not so much because of my silly sense of humor but because of the string of crazy things that seem to happen when I step into my own kitchen.

Like when I was trying to pour from a new container of vegetable stock and it decided to “glug” WAAAAY past the measuring cup and splash all over my arm and shirt.

Or when I was stirring a mixture of adzuki beans and vegetables sauteeing on the stovetop and my spatula took on a life of its own, made some sort of slingshot maneuver and flung bean mixture EVERYWHERE.  (Seriously – I’m going to have to move my stove out from the wall to clean this one up.)

I feel fortunate that when I used both my blender and my food processor today, the lids were firmly in place.  It could have been disastrous – it has just been one of those days!

The good news?  The shepherd’s pie was delicious!  (I’m not really sure what to call it – it’s obviously not shepherd’s pie if there’s no lamb in it.  “Farmer’s Pie” maybe?)

It’s not very pretty in the casserole dish pictured below.  When I make this for the intended client, it will be in single serving baking dishes and I’ll fancy up the yam topper (maybe with a pastry bag) but when I’m just checking to see how it tastes and how it will freeze/thaw/reheat, I’m not worried about the looks yet.  :)

However, some of the other things I’ve made lately are much easier on the eyes:

Raw “Fruit Truffles”
with dates, carob, orange zest/juice, dried cranberries and rolled in raw sesame seeds

Orange Chia Seed MiniCakes with Dark Chocolate Coconut Ganache
and White Chocolate abstracts (all vegan except for the white chocolate)
(I was sharing with the neighbors, so I put their initials on them)

I also made some quick-bread muffins with the pulp leftover from my juicer…

… but then I forgot to take a picture when they were done!

(I’m putting together an alternative ingredient dessert class that will be hosted in the near future by a wonderful gal I know!  Just so you don’t think all I’m eating these days is sweets!  ;) )

I also tried Gena’s raw juice pulp crackers in the dehydrator and I tossed some green olives, garlic, capers and artichoke hearts into the food processor to make a quick ‘tapenade’:

***

I’ve gotten back into the swing of eating again like I used to:  aiming for a minimum of a pound of raw veggies a day via green smoothie and large salad, plus some cooked veggies.  And on top of that I’m also adding in some fresh green juice as well – it feels GREAT to be getting back to that.  I have so much food testing to do now as a part of my job that I’d really gotten away from getting in all my raw veggies.  Granted, most of the test food I make has TONS of veggies in it (even just today’s recipe alone had onion, mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, celery and yam) – but RAW veggies are very important for us as well for the enzymes and vitamins that can be diminished or destroyed by cooking.

I weighed my smoothie veggies for fun:

13.6 oz of GREEN just in my smoothie!  Wahoo!

Rascal… every morning he just EYEBALLS my smoothies.

Juice with fun things like broccoli stalks, parsley, cucumber, celery, kale and a green apple:

Kale salad (massaged in hemp oil) and topped with a very-veggie-egg salad (green onions, celery, kale stalks, carrots, beans and sprouts):

Chard Boats filled with navy beans, sprouts, carrots, leftover Pesto Tilapia mixed with a little Vegenaise:

***

Speaking of healthy eating (and JUICING specifically), MSP and I watched a wonderful documentary this past weekend called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead“.  (I wanted to embed the trailer here but it’s not playing nice with me today so click HERE for the link to watch it on YouTube.)

Long story short:  the man in the film got up to 309 lbs and also suffered from an autoimmune disease.  He went on a physician-monitored green juice fast … for SIXTY DAYS!!  (Incidentally that doc was Dr. Joel Fuhrman – whose books I love and who first turned me on to the idea of getting at least 1 lb of raw veggies per day).  Can you imagine ONLY drinking juice for 60 days straight?  WOW!  that makes EATING green veggies seem so much easier by comparison, don’t you think?  He then went on to help another man who was 428 lbs (and suffering from the same autoimmune disorder) on his juice fast journey.  There is more to the film – you can “rent” it at Amazon.com and stream it right to your computer.   Check it out!

“Forks Over Knives” (meaning ‘choose nutrition first instead of later having to resort to meds/surgery’), another nutrition documentary, opens in Denver this weekend and I can’t wait to see that one too!

Have you seen either of these movies?  Have you ever done an extended juice fast?

Have a great day friends!  I’ll be back again (sooner this time, I promise) so I can tell you about the start of YARDIO season and also about WATER KEFIR that a friend clued me in on!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Juicehead

Apr 16

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools, vegan | 8 Comments

High-Dee-Hoe friends!  Any Jersey Shore fans out there?  If so, let me assure you the title of this post is not “juicehead” in the same meaning used on the show, LOL!  ;) (But I must admit my Thursday TV line-up feels a little blah now that Season 3 is over!)

Anyhoooo – I think I may actually have (partially) rejoined the land of the living.  This “cold” or whatever it is has really wreaked a little havoc on things around here.  Primarily my SCHEDULE!!  Oh yeah, and any thoughts of wanting to exercise.

I feel like my poor liver is going to be a toxic wasteland after all this, because I’ve resorted taking Advil, Nyquil, Mucinex, Jack Daniels, Ambien, you name it, if it might make me feel better, I was ready to pop it (and just to be clear, I am not taking these at the same time.  Well, except for the one night that I did have Nyquil and a cup of hot toddy which does have whiskey in it ;D ).

This bug is very stealth.  It likes to trick you into thinking you are getting better because during the daytime you feel physically OK for the most part.  But then evening hits, and BAM, it takes you DOWN in a hurry (and steals your sleep with it)!  Hence trying anything each day to see if I could get a few zzzzzzz’s.

I feel the need to do a little “cleansing” because of all this so I actually caved and got a juicer.

I’ve always been a bit “anti-juice”.  I think this comes from way back in my “Zone Diet days”.  Juice was the devil because you were getting all of the sugar and none of the fiber, which would in turn cause your blood sugar to spike.  This is partly why I prefer “blended” juices (like green smoothies) where the fiber remains for consumption.

Let me state for the record that I still feel this way about most fruit juices.

However, I think I’ve been sold on green juice.  On a recent trip, I had the good fortune of being treated to an organic, fresh, all-green juice.  It was fabulous and I literally felt a sense of ‘energetics’ in my body shortly after drinking it, almost like a caffeine buzz.

So I searched high and low for a place around where I live that makes fresh ORGANIC green juice.  I found two places about 15 miles away, but neither is using organic veggies.  Which just wigs me out when it comes to juice.  I do not want a glass of concentrated pesticides, thankyouverymuch.

The next nearest place was 30 miles – but a 60 mile round trip for juice is just a little silly.

Enter the “20% off” coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond and I’m now the new owner of a Breville JuiceFountain.

For my first few batches I used celery, cucumber, parsley, ginger, and a little lemon.

Then this morning I got a little more brave.  This combo sounds like it should be gross but it was so good! Don’t let the red fool you though, this juice was mostly from greens.

  • 1/2 raw beet
  • 2 large stalks from heads of broccoli
  • about 1 head of romaine
  • large handful of parsley
  • about 2″ of ginger root
  • 1/4 fuji apple
  • 1 english cucumber
  • juice from half a lemon (which I just squeezed in at the end)

It made about a glass and a half of the one pictured above.  I forced encouraged MSP to take a sip, which he finally did.  Let’s just say he’ll be sticking to carrot apple juice for now.  :)

I’ll never replace my green smoothies, that’s for sure.  But I like having the option to add even a little more “green” to my day, especially while I clean all the ‘junk’ from my system over the next few weeks.

Are you a fan or foe of juicing?  If you juice, do you have a favorite veggie? My great friend Keri (owner of Om of the Rockies yoga) shared with me that she likes to include daikon radish in hers.  I thought that was genius and I can’t wait to give it a try!

Have a SPLENDID Saturday!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Getting Back to Normal

Mar 3

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Natural Chef Culinary School | 6 Comments

Wow, you know you’ve missed a couple of days on your blog when you log in to your dashboard and see that you have 827 SPAM comments!  Yikes!

So since I’ve been gone a few days – how are you?

I’m…. breathing normally again!  By that I mean that I don’t have any homework assignments due, business plans due, final presentations to practice for, final papers to write.

I’ve officially completed holistic culinary school!  I’m also OFFICIALLY a Certified Natural Chef.  Woot woot!  So what does a natural chef do after their closing ceremony?  Go out to eat and let someone else cook!  ha ha!  I kind of meant that as a joke at first, but really that’s what we did!   The students met up as a group the evening after our last (and very emotional) day at an Ethiopian restaurant in Denver.  I’d never eaten Ethiopian food so it was a real treat! Of course all my pictures turned out crazy from the dim lighting – this blurry picture below was the best of the bunch and it still hurts my eyes to look at it!  This was the deliciously sweet honey wine I tried:

And it’s served in something that resembles a bud vase!  I’m wondering if that is meant to force you to sip it slowly and savor it.

The style of Ethiopian dining was really neat – we sat around a tiny table that’s somewhat like a small circular coffee table.  So you don’t scoot under it at all.  And you use these great rolls of Injera to scoop up the food off the main tray.  The Injera was so soft and light, like airy pancakes only thin like a crepe (click HERE for more info on it and to see a picture).  It comes rolled up tight in individual servings and you tear a piece off your roll.  No forks or spoons.

It was really neat, very tasty and inexpensive.  Lots of vegetarian choices as well.  A perfect way to wrap up our schooling.

Leading up to the end I was getting so excited for school to be done – during that last month I was just mentally OVER it all.  I was tired, stressed, feeling behind on everthing.  And then at the end of our last day, our instructors had us sit in a circle on floor cushions.  We wrote something on little pieces of paper about each of our classmates, then placed the notes in front of the corresponding person.  Then we read aloud all of the things people wrote about us.  I absolutely lost it.  I could hardly get the WORDS out when I was reading mine.  I was so touched by all the things my classmates said.  We all really became very close and I know we’ll all keep in touch.  It’s amazing how you can become really attached to people or situations without consciously realizing it.

So now the real work begins – building up my personal chef business.  Currently I’m working on the website (trying to release myself from the perfectionist grasp and ALLOWING it to just be a simple site to start)   Then design/print flyers and business cards.  Then literally hitting the pavement – the scary part!  Acckkk! Sales!  Marketing!  Can’t I just skip right to having a full schedule of clients and get down to the cooking part?  :)

In between that though, I’m thoroughly enjoying “play time” in the kitchen again!  Oh my gosh it feels good to just whip stuff up, not because I’m doing recipe homework or testing a technique.  Just creating a typical ‘throw it together Shari-style build-a-meal’. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Here are some pictures of the fun I’ve had in my kitchen this week-

Seedy Softie Cookies
(almond pulp from homemade nut milk turned into cookie squares)

***
Italian Favorites on a Plate
(there actually IS whole wheat spaghetti down there at the bottom, topped with massaged kale, spaghetti sauce, crumbled Garlic Herb Sunshine Burger, butter beans, basil)

***
Wrap with tempeh, green apple, goat cheese, celery

***

Pureed Lentil Soup with Kale, Homemade Croutons (and Chicken Italian Sausage in MSP’s bowl!)

***

Tempeh, Spinach and Kelp Noodle StirFry
with tahini, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and mirin

***

And the one constant in my diet…

(You knew it wouldn’t be a complete FitFeat post without a Green Smoothie right??)  ;)

Hmmm my food pics look an awful lot like they did BEFORE I went to school, don’t they?  That doesn’t seem right!

Today the weather is in the 60′s and I’m hoping the incoming rain holds off until after 7:00 tonight because I’m going to my FAVORITE HILLY TRAIL today with a friend for some SOCIALCIZING! I can’t remember the last time I went there – I think it was OCTOBER!  And I used to go there at least once a week!

Have you done any socialcizing lately??? What was your outing?

See you soon, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , ,

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes