FitFeat

Posts Tagged Green Smoothie

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: , , ,

Ginger Pineapple Acai Smoothie

Feb 26

Posted by Shari B. in Recipes, vegan | 7 Comments

Hey friends!  Happy Saturday!

The sun is shining here which always energizes me!  I got up early, got in a quick but effective strength workout and then played around with a new green smoothie.  It was so refreshing I had to share it with you.  (And yes I promise my two recipes from my final will still be posted this weekend!)

Ginger Pineapple Acai Smoothie

Ingredients:

  • 10-12 oz water
  • 1 Sambazon Açai (pure unsweeened) frozen smoothie pack
  • 1 rounded tsp minced ginger (I love the pre-minced jarred one from The Ginger People)
  • 1/2 peeled cucumber, chunked
  • 1 cup frozen pineapple
  • 1 scoop raw sprouted grain protein powder
  • 1 cup frozen spinach
  • juice of 1/4 lemon (optional)

Place all of your ingredients in your blender (my Blendtec is well worn!):

Blend until everything is smooth!

Pour, garnish and enjoy!

It may not be the most beautiful color, but the flavor was wonderful!

Here are some of the health benefits of this smoothie:

  • GINGER is a warming food, which is handy to add to a very cooling drink like this, especially in winter months.  It is beneficial for good digestion and has strong anti-inflammatory properties.
  • PINEAPPLE is a great food to add to your post-workout smoothies.  One, because it is a high-glycemic fruit which is helpful in getting fuel quickly to your muscles to replenish glycogen stores after a workout but also because it contains BROMELAIN, which is a natural anti-inflammatory to help speed recovery and reduce soreness.
  • The SPINACH and CUCUMBER are green foods which are highly alkalizing and assist in maintaining alkalinity in the blood.  CUCUMBER promotes healthy connective tissue (and isn’t that part of why we exercise our bodies?) and is extremely hydrating.

And for those of you who like to know the calorie/macronutrient breakdown, it’s really balanced:

Are you guys still drinking your green smoothies?  What fun things have you been adding to yours?

***

As I was taking pictures for this post, I also figured this would be a great time to mention that I am a Blendtec affiliate now!  I absolutely LOVE my Blendtec and when I saw that I could apply to become an affiliate, I was psyched because I think they have the best blender.  (For some reason that *other* blender company that starts with a “V” and ends with “MIX” seems to get so much of the publicity.)  I’ve used the other brand in school, and I still far prefer my Blendtec.  They have a new WildSide jar (a five sided blender!) that I’ve had my eye on.  Maybe someday soon I’ll get one.  My smoothies are LARGE and the WildSide holds 3 quarts!  (I could make green smoothies for my whole neighborhood!  :) )  So if you ever decide to check out blenders in the future, I’d be super grateful if you check them out through my link (there’s a banner on the right side of the screen) – this girl’s gotta pay back her culinary school loan somehow and every penny helps, right?  ;)

Have a GREAT day and I’ll be back again soon with my recipes from class.

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , ,

Who Paid Off Mother Nature?

Dec 11

Posted by Shari B. in Do Something Daily, Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hey friends!  Happy Saturday!

It is December 11 and we’ve still had no snow.  I mean, we’ve had a flake or two here and there, but nothing that’s “stuck”.  One of our local news stations posted a graphic showing the snow we’ve had this season compared to last.

  • Last year between September and December we’d already been dumped on a total of OVER 3 FEET of snow.
  • This year, in the same time frame?  An inch and a half.

Trust me, I’m NOT complaining!  ;)   Last Friday we had a record HIGH temp of 69.  Next Monday and Tuesday we are looking at mid-60s AGAIN.  This is the kind of weather that drew me to this state way back in 1991.

Thank you Mother Nature for giving me the mild start to the winter I’d hoped for, seeing how I have to drive 120 miles a day for my commute to and from school.  I owe ya one!

Which leads me to my Saturday DDSD Challenge update:  we just got back from taking the crazy beasts for a good walk, which had the desired outcome of THIS:

Gotta love it when the dogs are tuckered out!

But before we did that, we also did 45 minutes of weights with a chest/back push pull routine.  Lots of pushups, lots of pulldowns, lots of rows.  Oh yeah, I’ll feel it tomorrow!

Then I followed it up with a 20 oz green post-workout smoothie (1 scoop Vega Whole Health Optimizer, 1/2 scoop Sun Warrior rice protein, 3/4 banana, kale leaves and spinach leaves):

How are you doing on your challenge?  Only 20 days left already!  Look how time flies!  Will you get to the end of that 20 days and think, WOW I DID IT?

Have a SUPER Saturday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , ,

December is “Do Something Daily” at FitFeat

Dec 1

Posted by Shari B. in Do Something Daily, Keeping Fit | 21 Comments

Hey blog buds!  Happy December 1st!

I have a little confession to make.  I’ve been struggling here and there to get my workouts in.  When my mind gets “busy” like it has been during the past few weeks (months?), it affects my sleep sometimes, and then feeling tired affects my motivation, and so on and so on.

BUT… I also know that ENERGY CREATES ENERGY.  If I were my own client, I’d be telling me: “Get moving to keep moving.”

So I’m going to CHALLENGE myself and all of you to DO SOMETHING DAILY this month to move your body.  (Yes Cindy, I said “challenge”!)

I know, we’ll all be super busy with the holidays.  Yes, I’ll be busy with school stuff, especially in the next few weeks.  But I am putting my foot down NOW on my excuses.

How ’bout you? Are you with me?

Have you been in a rut or feeling a lack of accountability?  You can be accountable to me by posting a comment here each day with your activity.

I’ll keep you updated on what I’m doing – and I would LOVE to hear from each of you what YOU’RE doing too!  It doesn’t matter if it’s simply a walk with your family or pets, a bike ride or ice skating.  Or whether it’s lifting weights, yoga or running.

The only rule is that if you are working out with high  intensity most days of the week that you allow one day of active recovery each week (like walking or gentle yoga) in place of the high intensity routine.  I don’t want you to overtrain and wear down your immune system, especially around the time of year when the cold/flu bug likes to get busy.

What will you do today??

My workout today was 40 minutes of strength/cardio Tabata:

  • Static Ball Squat w/ Static Shouder Side Raise
  • One-Arm Alternating DB Press on Ball
  • Step Ups with Medicine Ball overhead
  • Seated Machine Rows
  • Planks/Side Planks
  • Wall Ball Squats
  • Explosive Lunges (1 set)
  • Overhead Tricep extension (1 set)

If you feel like doing something but are just plum out of ideas, here are some past posts to get you started:

Now I’m off to have a green smoothie, shower and do some last minute cramming for Day 2 of midterms!

Looking forward to reading your comments on what you’re doing today to get moving!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , ,

MandarinBerry Smoothie & Tabata Yoga

Oct 19

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, Recipes | 8 Comments

Good morning friends!  Happy Tuesday to you!

Lookie what I found this weekend at Whole Foods!  I’m so excited!

My BUBBLY -  in the brand I adore!!!  Wahooo!  And the best news is that it tastes identical to what it did before it was removed from the shelves so long ago!  Now, yes – I am still making my homebrewed version.  In fact last night I bottled yet another batch and started a new one (this new one made with CHAI tea and using a different ratio of tea/water/sugar — can’t wait to try it!).  But I still haven’t mastered that wonderfully fizzy taste that you find in Synergy or Vibranz, so it’s a great treat to have every once in a while.  So if you are a Synergy kombucha fan, hit up your local health food store and see if they have it in stock for you yet!  (And Joan, I think the change to their formula means no “floating mother” – I didn’t see any in this batch so maybe you’d like it!)

***

SITE UPDATE: If you head back over to the Indian Spiced Quinoa post, you’ll see that I’ve added a HEALTH BENEFITS feature for you (located at the bottom of the recipe).  We do that for some of our homework, so I thought you’d like to see what good things you’ll do for your body eating quinoa, dates and sweet bell peppers!

***

And on the topic of recipes, check out this morning’s post-yoga green smoothie:

Postworkout MandarinBerry Green Protein Smoothie:

All ingredients go into your blender – blend until deliciously smooth!  ;) 251 calories, 19g protein (30%), 37g carbs (59%), 3g fat (11%).

Today I did yoga moves with Tabata timing, just because I was feeling like trying something crazy.  It was a fun change of pace!  Chair pose was especially challenging!  Hold your favorite yoga position for 20 seconds, getting as deep as you can, come out of it for 10 seconds, then back in for 20 seconds.  Repeat for 4 minutes straight.

Image Source

Today I used plank, warrior 2, balancing stick, chair pose and eagle pose (after a good warmup of course, like walking on a treadmill for 5-7 minutes, then a light jog for 3 minutes).

After warm-up this is 20 minutes of yoga, and it was a great way to just mix things up a bit!  I’m never bored with workouts when I use Tabata timing.  So much fun!

Have a TERRIFIC day friends!

– Shari B. =)

***

Shari Becht is a Fit Living Coach & 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 as a student 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.

*affiliate link to my OpenSky store – I do receive commission on products purchased through this link.

hari 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 being accepted into 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.

»crosslinked«

Tags: , , , ,

The Salmon Thief

Sep 28

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Hi friends!

How is your autumn starting out?  I thought it was warm here this week where we broke a heat record from the 1800s but then LA hit 113 yesterday!  YIKES!  Hope you SoCal readers are keeping cool!  Green smoothies can help you cool down from the inside out, especially when you include high-water-content veggies like cucumbers – if you haven’t tried one before, today might be the day!

No complaints from me on this end – Mother Nature is giving me that late summer that I’ve been hoping for.  Last year at this time, it was COLD and we were weeks away from our first big snow storm!

In fact, we still have flowers blooming in our back yard.

Today they are forecasting 93 degrees, which will break the record of 89 on this date if we hit it.

So while we have these last few days of wonderful weather, we’ve been trying to enjoy our back patio a bit more.  Saturday after MSP’s softball tournament, we decided to take our dinner outside.  And that’s when the attack of the salmon thief occurred!

This bee (or yellow jacket maybe?) went NUTSO at me and at first I thought it was my scent of coconut oil that I had put on my arms and legs earlier in the day.  But I quickly realized it was after my FOOD!  He absolutely would not leave me alone.  I finally let him flit around my plate to see what it was he was after and it turns out it was salmon.  So I off a big chunk and placed it AWAY from where we were seated to see if he would go for that piece instead of for mine.  And he did!  It was the craziest thing.  He came back time after time after time, pulling with all his might to break off a little piece and then he would fly away with the piece to a nearby tree and then a minute later he’d be back!  This went on for a couple of hours.

And it made me wonder:  Is he eating this salmon or using it for a nest?  Are bees carnivorous?  Do they need Omega 3 fatty acids too?  Maybe our resident bee expert will chime in on this one.  (If you haven’t read of Joan’s beekeeping adventures, head on over to her blog to check it out – so interesting!).

Maybe this little guy realized the importance of his essential fatty acids for reducing inflammation, improving brain health, and lifting his mood!  :)   Especially when it comes from wild salmon with mustard sauce and capers prepared by our school Kitchen Manager!

Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , ,

School Shopping & Quick Eats

Sep 16

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 4 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Can you tell I’m between ‘jobs’ this week?  I’ve been posting a lot!  ;)   Gosh I miss when I could do this every day!

I went to Office Max today to pick up some “school supplies”.  Wow, I used to LOVE this time of year when I was a kid.  I was always a fan of school.  (I still believe that ALL jobs should have summer vacation, just like school did.  We’d be much happier peeps, don’t you think?)  I think it’s probably a good thing that I don’t have kids, otherwise I’d likely go WAY overboard getting them ready to go back to school in the fall.

There’s not much I like more than a brand new notepad:

Except for maybe brand new school books:

Much like Carrie Bradshaw did in the original “SATC” movie, I love to open books and sniff the binding.  LOVE IT.  I have done that with the whole stack of my new school books!

My required school shoes, however, are not very “Carrie” worthy:

No Manolo’s allowed – just the standard non-slip, non-marking, closed toe shoes.  Dansko Professional it is, then.  (Thank you to Ryan at Dardano’s for giving me what he called the “Chef’s Discount”.  I haven’t figured out if that’s for real, or if he was just poking fun.  Either way, I’ll take it because the only other shoes I’d drop this kind of cash on in the past have been Nike SHOX.)

BTW, how did I not know how awesome these shoes are before?  I would have purchased a pair for all those jobs where I was wearing heels and running my legs off.  Ugly? YES.  Super supportive and comfy? YOU BET!

I still have items on the list of materials I need to have, but the rest can be purchased after the first day of school.  Getting excited now!

***

I thought it might be time for another photo journey of some of my recent meals.

An Asian-inspired Pita Pizza (when MSP’s mom was here we were thinking of other variations for the pita pizza).  This one uses sesame oil, a little almond butter and minced ginger as the ‘sauce’ and I topped it with sauteed red cabbage, onion, broccoli, celery, and baby bok choy, and on the top sprinkled with some Chinese Five Spice.  It was a fun twist:

I’d made MSP a dish that included this Sesame Soy Dressing so I used some of it on sliced raw red cabbage and let it marinate overnight into a slaw. Then I topped it with a Salmon Cake that I had coated with ground-up Wasabi Soy Beans (in lieu of breadcrumbs) and lightly pan-fried in  a little almond oil:

A serving of Amy’s Organic Southwest Chili with Beans, that I added some Herdes Salsa to (to boost the veggie content) and topped with sliced avocado.  Truly the speediest meal you can imagine:

A snack of (ugly) baby carrots, hummus with a large flax cracker from my dehydrator and three slim slices of “naked goat” cheese (raw & unpasteurized):

And of course plenty of green smoothies ;) :

On the subject of GREENS:  if you have pets, check out this article on the power of veggies for them.  I often feed both of my dogs green smoothies in addition to their regular dog food (as long as there aren’t things in my smoothies they can’t have, like grapes) because I feel that they can benefit from the nutrients in the veggies.   The article talks about Kale specifically, which is a gold standard of nutrient rich food for humans, so it’s no surprise that it’s helpful for dogs too.  I thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with you!

Have a TERRIFIC day!  Thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , , , ,

Why You Might Want to ADD a Pound

Jul 8

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

Well hello there FitFeat friends!  Happy Friday EVE!  Gotta love short holiday weeks!

This morning started with a fantastic 5 mile client run in some unusually humid weather.  Wow, I thought I’d been transported back to Ohio for a minute with the low cloud cover and muggy air.  I left the house with nice straight hair and when I came home, MSP said I looked like I’d showered and let my hair air dry (which is to say:  NOT a pretty sight!)  Humidity and my hair do not play nicely together.  Crazy waves and cowlicks all over!

I do feel for folks who have to run in humidity ALL the time.  We are lucky here to typically have very dry air.

I wore my VFFs again today – still love running in them and still finding it to be pain free.  My knees are happy these days.  Maybe I’ll get the itch to go longer than 8 or 9 in them, but right now I’m back to just enjoying runs as they come.

After my run, I was so craving something fresh.  I couldn’t decide between a cantaloupe or a green smoothie.  So I did both.  Ate a few bites of the cantaloupe:

And then put the rest into a rocking smoothie:

  • 1/2 Cantaloupe
  • 1 small orange
  • kale
  • spinach
  • flaxseed oil
  • pepitas
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla plant protein powder
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • water

It was so refreshing post-run.

Rascal couldn’t even wait for me to stop pouring some into his bowl.

He kept trying to get his face in there before I was done.  My pups LOVE when I share my green smoothies with them.

Ready for seconds!

***

Have you ever ready any of Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s work?  I own his “Eat to Live” book and have borrowed his “Eat for Health” books from the library a few times.  Dr. Fuhrman uses the term “nutritarian” as opposed to vegetarian, flexitarian, vegan, etc. because he promotes eating foods based on their nutrient value.  For example on a scale of 1 to 1000, KALE scores 1000.  From a nutrient density standpoint, it’s the gold standard.  (Another great reason to make yourself a batch of kale chips!)

In the “Eat for Health” series he suggests to his clients that rather than making huge changes right off the bat when trying to lose weight or get healthier one should just ADD in a pound of raw green veggies a day to what they already eat.  And then over time you will find that because you are eating a pound of filling green food, you won’t need as much of the other less healthy foods you might have been eating. (As the program progresses, one then aims to eat at least 1 pound of raw greens vegetables and 1 pound of cooked veggies and at least 1 cup of legumes.)

I know that when I measure out my greens for my smoothies I typically end up with about 9 oz with the cucumber, celery, sprouts, leafy greens and occasional avocado.  I was curious what one pound of raw greens would look like all in one bowl so that I could gauge whether I was anywhere near the 1 to 2 pound mark.

For the sake of pure volume rather than variety, I just threw some veggies into a bowl to weigh.   One full head of romaine, a large stalk of celery and a medium cucumber fit the bill.

On one hand it didn’t seem like as much as I thought it would.  But then on the other hand, this bowl is way bigger than my head.

Because I’m known to have a pinhead, I’ll show you the bowl next to my iPhone for better sizing reference.  ;)

After weighing out the pound, I took out some of the greens to save for later, and then “prettied up” my salad with some dulse, avocado, red and yellow pepper – and weighed again.  I’m over a pound, wahoo!

Then I added 1/2 cup of navy beans.

And called it lunch!

How about you?  Do you think you are getting 2 pounds of veggies in each day? Are you a fledgling nutritarian or a full-on card carrying member of the club?  I think that between my large lunch salads and my green smoothies, I’m somewhere in the middle!

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

***

Shari Becht is a Fit Living Coach and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer offering online/phone coaching services to people across the U.S.  She is extremely passionate about teaching her clients how to start making small changes every day to their own lives, built around steps customized to fit their needs.

If you or someone you know could benefit from Shari’s coaching, please feel free to email her at shari [at] fitfeat  [dot] com.  For more information, click here.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Like It Was The Summer of 2009

Jun 17

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Holy moly, I spent a few days away from the blog and I come back to find 96 spam messages!  Yowza!  I hope they at least count as page views toward my FoodBuzz account!  Haha!  Thank you Akismet for catching all that spam and keeping it from hitting my comments area!  You are a godsend of a plug-in!

So glad you guys liked the post about the crazy ingredients in our food.  I had a good time writing that one. Garbage in my food gets me all riled up!  :)

Today I’m having flashbacks of last summer.  I started the morning with a run, enjoyed half a cantaloupe when I got home, then got busy doing some ‘doody duty’ and YARDIO and followed it all up with a delicious smoothie.

Love it when the yard is freshly mowed:

And love it when I can enjoy my smoothie on the back patio in the sunshine:

(BTW, this smoothie was a keeper:  small banana, handful of frozen blackberries, vanilla brown rice protein, 1/2 a cucumber, spinach, romaine, flaxseed oil with 8 oz water — SO SO GOOD!)

Ahhh, just like the good ‘ol days of 2009.  ;)   Last year at this time I’d left my high stress no-fun job about 6 weeks prior and was taking the summer ‘off’ to enjoy life a little more and get some projects done around the house that I’d been putting off.  It was fantastic!

Fast forward one year and this summer is definitely on the BUSY BEE side of the coin.  Last year I didn’t have the ops admin job, the fit living business or the blog.  In the battle for where my time is spent sometimes the blog wins, some weeks the training wins, and this week (plus the next two weeks) the admin job will win because we are gearing up to relocate the office.  If FitFeat seems oddly quiet off and on between now and July 4th, you’ll know why!

***

Today’s run was with a client and it was a PERFECT morning.  Warm with blue skies and a light breeze.  We hit up my (and her) favorite hilly trail.  (And she was rockin’ her new pair of Vibram FiveFingers, woot woot!) It was a good thing I had her appointment on the books, because if not I think I may have hit the snooze button a few times.  It was a bit of a rough night of sleep thanks to a certain little dog who likes to howl and bark like mad when his dad comes home from softball late at night.  Picture me sleeping soundly one second, then needing to be peeled off the ceiling in the next. Instant adrenaline rush and impossible to sleep after that.

He looks so innocent doesn’t he?

It’s a good thing he’s so darn cute.

***

You have to check out the delicious dinner than Cindy posted on her blog.  It looks fantastic, and yes I do want to earn a parade (even if my parade would be quite short seeing how it’s only one person) so I might have to make something in a puff pastry for my hubs!  I’m sure he would love it.  I did make him a Bison BBQ Meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes Tuesday night.  I think the parade was postponed due to inclement weather.  ;)

My meals have been a little on the boring side as of late.  Green smoothies, big salads, oatmeal, grilled goat cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, you know the usual SHARI FARE. Nothing exciting enough to share.  But I have a great new apron (five bucks, SCORE!) so I am sure the inspiration will start flowing now.  Isn’t it the apron that makes one a good cook?

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: , , , ,