Posts Tagged holidays

Vacation Dance

Good morning FitFeat friends!

Happy Saturday!  It’s especially happy because I am officially on a 2 week break from school.  So last night I did the Vacation Happy Dance when I got home.

It looks a little like this:

Then I had a glass of wine and ate a Kraut Wrap with my homemade sauerkraut.

Spelt tortilla, red cabbage sauerkraut, sprouts, romaine and a drizzle of ginger vinaigrette.  Quick, easy, GONE!

This morning I got an early start on homework.  Then did a Tabata workout for my DDSD.

  • Static Ball Wall Squats with Side Lateral Holds – 4 minutes
  • Speedy Light Stiff-Legged Deadlifts – 4 minutes
  • Surrenders – 4 minutes
  • Planks and Side Planks – 4 minutes
  • Calf Raises – 4 minutes (oh the burn)
  • Combo Set – Eagle pose left, Eagle pose right, jump lunges, chair pose hold, repeat – 4 minutes

My right ear is still feeling achey but not as severely as yesterday.  It seems to come and go.  While I didn’t go as high intensity as I typically would, I feel good that I got in a workout.  I have an extra one to add in this weekend to make up for yesterday (unless 8 blocks of walking counts!) so I’ll keep ya posted.

In an effort to keep my immune system happy and strong while I’m fighting this weird bug, I’ve been eating lots of probiotic and healthful foods:

Probiotic pills, fermented miso, fresh fruit, kombucha tea, and fresh squeezed wheatgrass juice.

I’ve also been grating fresh ginger and steeping it in hot water with a squeeze of lemon juice and a squeeze of raw honey (this REALLY helps!).  And Thursday night I even resorted to eating 3 cloves of raw garlic smeared on some Ezekial toast.  While healthful and helpful, don’t do that if you live with other people. :D I slept in the guest room with my stinky breath – that no amount of tooth brushing and Listerine gargling could seem to conquer.  And I could STILL taste it the next morning. And when MSP opened the door to the guest room he said he could smell garlic.  Yikes.

After my workout I had a great chat with my mom, then ate a Christmas present from one of my classmates.  A “Satsuma” tangerine.  It was almost too pretty to eat.

Today I’ll be continuing on with my homework assignment (I’m making progress!) and when it gets dark, I might have to break down and watch one of my favorite holiday movies.  My two favorites are comedies.

I adore “Elf” – here’s a fun clip reel someone put together on YouTube:

“Christmas Vacation” with Chevy Chase – it’s not Christmas for me until I watch this movie (every year!).  I can’t believe it came out 21 years ago!

I also love “Bad Santa”, “A Christmas Story” and “Four Christmases”.  Yet I’ve never seen “Miracle on 34th Street”.  And I’ve never watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” all the way through.  Do you love holiday movies?  Funny ones or sentimental ones? What are your favorites?

Have a great weekend friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Tree Tour and Two Fun Must-See Videos

Happy Friday-Eve blog buds!

First things first:  my DDSD challenge update for yesterday!  (How are you all doing on your challenge?  Are you hanging in there?)  MSP and I did 45 minutes of legs/glutes, Cathe Friedrich style.   Squats, lunges and step-ups of every imaginable variation.  We draw the line at the lying  leg lifts though.  I FF right on over that part – maybe if I were wearing leg warmers it’d be allowed.  :D   Today’s movement will be YOGA because I will be amongst crazy holiday shoppers and KNOW I will need to go to my “happy place” after all the madness.

I really can’t believe that *OMG* Christmas is only 16 days away!  Now that my homework assignment is done and turned in, today is all about tackling my xmas list!  90% of the gifts we give have to be shipped out of state so I’m behind this year, BIGTIME.

We did end up getting our tree put up on Thanksgiving weekend, thank goodness.  So at least I’ve been able to FEEL in the holiday spirit!

Rascal is such a little poser. :D

I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite ornaments with you. I love this little ballerina because her “tutu” sways whenever you walk past.  Just so pretty.  Plus I have a niece who is into dance now, and it just reminds me of her.

All of my Starbucks ornaments are favorites (MSP puts one in my stocking every year).  I love the coffee mug topiary.

And the Starbucks cup snowglobe:

This one makes me smile each year too, because it’s SO true – I’m a lucky gal and I know it:

And this next one is my absolute favorite because not only does it commemorate our first Christmas together, but it opens up and inside there is a tiny scroll that we write on each year: how much snow we had, what we did that holiday, what gifts we gave each other.  Each year when we put up our tree, we open up the scroll and kind of relive the previous years.  I love it!

Do you have favorite ornaments or little holiday traditions that mean a lot to you? I’d love to hear them, drop a comment!

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On a completely unrelated note, here two great things to watch while you are bored at your desk at work today and reading blogs.  ;)   (it’s ok, I won’t tell!)

First, this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen.  It’s animated beef stew and it’s just genius!  It was an entry in the Project FoodBlog contest being held by Foodbuzz.  One of their challenges was to create a video blog post (vlog).  I’ve watched this video a few times and it never gets old!

When I imagine how much time it had to take to make that, and how much thought went into it, it just boggles my mind.  I got a kick out of it and thought you would enjoy it as well!  I think my favorite part is how the carrot tops look like they are taking a bow before they “walk” off the cutting board.  So cute!

Another great video is one that our instructor played for us in class yesterday of this 11 year old boy speaking about problems with our food system and it’s not only ADORABLE, it’s also educational.  Watch, laugh and learn in the process, then pass it on because THESE are the types of kids we want in charge of our future!

Isn’t that awesome?   Did you hear any tidbits that you didn’t know before you watched it?

Have a TERRIFIC day friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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The Sugar Express to Moodyville

Don’t you just hate it when you are just starting to type a draft post and you INTEND to click on “Save Draft” but your mouse flies over to the  ”Publish” button like some out-of-control Ouija board pointer???  Then in a nanosecond you’ve published a ridiculous blog post, but it seemed like it happened in slow motion. You saw the publish button and it half-registered in your brain as “yeah, I know that button” and then, POOF!  You’ve sent said post out into the world for all to see!  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 soup 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Shari B. =)

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