If you are reading this post then some of the propagation changes have occurred or your subscription is working.  (woohooo! and thanks for finding me!) At our house, the blog change hasn’t hit our ISP provider server yet so I’m having to use a workaround to put out this post.

Who’d have thought moving a simple little blog/website from one WordPress platform to another would be such an involved process?  I won’t go into details because then a full-on venting session may ensue…  I guess I take a while to ‘embrace’ change.

I spent a good part of yesterday working on setting up a new theme so that FitFeat would have a neat new look for you when you got here today.  Being that I’m not someone versed in CSS or PHP coding, it was a slow process.  I did learn a lot and had the whole thing pretty much set up but there was one thing that I just could NOT customize and it drove me nuts.  So I ultimately decided to revert to the ‘theme’ that you are used to seeing.  Maybe in the near future when banging my head against a wall for a few hours won’t hurt so bad, I’ll give it another shot.  I’m going to set up a test environment first and play with it.

So all that said, this is of those days where yesterday morning feels like FOREVER ago!  Lots to catch you up on.

My Friday started out with my beloved energy elixir (aka java).  I think the selection of my “drama queen” mug may have set the karma for the day.  I certainly became one by the time 7:30 PM rolled around when I was hungry and ready to STOP being in front of the computer.  I may or may not have thrown a temper tantrum in poor MSP’s direction.  

After my jolt of coffee, it was time to head downstairs to the gym for some upper body weight training.  Immediately following I had this pretty little pluot to put a smile on my face.  VIBRANT is all I can say about this little cutie:

Changed and ready to start the ‘workday’, it was time for my real breakfast, an EXTRA-green smoothie. Holy-tastes-like-grass-clippings Batman!  It was cucumber, avocado, sprouts, spinach, celery and only 1/4 of an apple (because I seriously sliced the rest and FORGOT to add it to the blender… didn’t notice till I went to put everything away and then took a sip of my smoothie!)  It tasted green, that’s for sure!  I did love the texture the avocado gave it, though.

I realized when I posted about having all those avos, I didn’t explain that normally I buy one or two at a time.  I happened to be at Costco last weekend and they had bags of 5 for a bargain.  So I bought a bag, and they all ripened together.  I didn’t want to waste any of them so I was frantically trying to find a way to use them all and not get sick of the flavor!

Thank you for all of your comments and suggestions about things to do with avocados!  Did any of you happen to read about the dryer lint smoothie in Cindy’s comment?  I’m linking you to her site so that you can see it… it DOES look like dryer lint!  Too fun!

One of the things I decided to make since I happened to have all the ingredients was a Mango-Avocado Salsa from allrecipes.com.  I made a few adjustments:  used agave in lieu of white sugar, and rice vinegar in lieu of white (because I didn’t have any white!). I don’t think it made any difference which vinegar was used in it.  Got all my prep stuff lined up:

All made and ready to rest in the fridge so the flavors can “mingle”:

I also still had some leftover kale that I wanted to use.  I was going to try the great recipe Alexandra wrote about in the comments section recently… only I realized too late that I didn’t have any cashews!  So I improvised and mixed up about 1/4 cup of roasted red pepper hummus, some olive oil, little squeeze of lemon juice and nutritional yeast, put it all in a gallon ziploc bag, then added the kale and shook it all around.  Then baked.  Here’s the end result:

Wow, it was GOOD!  I ate the entire batch for lunch. SO good!  Thank you Alexandra for being the inspiration.  When I get some cashews, I’ll be trying yours next! I also want to try the sauteed kale that Joan mentioned in her comment too.

From there it was all PC work the rest of the day.  A Gingersnap Larabar mid afternoon…

That was it until I was done with the blog move.  At that point, it was out of my hands.  I’d done everything on my end.  As I’d mentioned, I was SO ready for a glass of wine.  I chose a little organic table red called “Our Daily Red” which MSP so kindly picked up for me on the way home.  (When he offered to help me earlier in the day, my response was BUY ME SOME ALCOHOL ON YOUR WAY HOME FROM WORK! That’s the kind of help I need right now!)  No I do not turn to alcohol to relieve my stress.    Just this time, I swear!

I munched on a couple of pieces of raw goat cheddar with my glass of vino.  Then this:

I just felt the need for some ‘naughty’ food.  And believe it when I say I did read the ingredients and selected this because it did NOT have any partially hydrogenated gunk in it.  It had other gunk, but at least it was semi-real gunk.     It was time to park it in front of the TV for a bit in order to let my brain stop clicking… so I turned on the episode of “The Office” that I’d missed most of Thursday night and what happens?  I FELL ASLEEP AGAIN!!  Twice I’d missed this episode!  Guess if I ever have a bout of insomnia again, the trick is to watch a little Michael Scott and Dwight! 

Well my friends, it is a BEAUTIFUL Saturday here.  Not a cloud in the blue sky, and WARM!  You know what that means!  Shari needs her vitamin D fix!!  Have a SUPERB Saturday and thanks so much for sticking it out with me during the blog move!

Stay tuned this week for the first FitFeat Contest Giveaway!!

–Shari B.  =)

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• Look Ma, No Hands!
• The Case of the Rogue Kombucha?
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So I thought I’d take some time today to talk about another one of my favorite “tools” - but this one is not related to the kitchen.  It’s for our feet. 

Back when I was running half-marathons more often and putting a lot of miles on my feet, I was getting blisters left and right. 

Two friends / running buddies each recommended that I try a particular brand of sock called the Wrightsock Coolmesh.   What’s special about these socks is that they are made of two thin layers.  Instead of your sock and foot rubbing together, the two layers of material rub together and the friction stays within the layers as opposed to on your skin.  

I wasn't kidding when I said I have SMALL FEET...!

These socks were lifesavers (well, OK that might be an overstatment at the very least they were sole-savers!)  They are a small investment early on, but worth every penny.  I now own about 8 pair and I wear them every day:  running, hiking, walking.  Anytime my sneakers go on, so do these socks.

If you’re a runner, walker, hiker or just someone who is prone to blistered feet, you should look into trying out these socks.

I am grateful to have learned about these socks at a time when I really needed them (thanks Scott!  thanks Lori!) and wanted to pay it forward, so to speak.

In light of the recent FTC ruling about product reviews and blogs, I thought I’d make a note for the record that all of the products I have reviewed and/or recommended to date on this blog are offered up solely because I use and like the products, not because I am being paid to do so or offered any sort of kickback.

On to Monday’s eats:

After the nice Back/Trap workout I detailed in yesterday’s post, I wanted a quick influx of carbs.  So I opted for a bowl of mango-licious.  This one should have been given over to the green smoothie gods though, because it wasn’t as ripe as it should have been.  That’s what I get for being impatient and dying to eat my yummy mango taunting me from the fruit basket on my counter!
 

Shortly thereafter it was time for my real breakfast so I had a bowl of OATSMILE:

Lunch was yet another leftover serving of Veggie Enchilasagna with a side of spanish rice.  There’s one more sliver of this still in the fridge, but I’m pretty sure at this point that I’ve had my FILL of this particular food for awhile.

I also had a side salad with lunch (spinach, tomato, dulse,  pepitas, hemp oil, balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast):

Followed by a little dessert!  Endangered Species brand 72% dark chocolate… mmmm chocolate!

Afternoon snack time came up FAST!  I was busy on blog hosting study… I decided to forego the standard Larabar for some hummus, Wasa, raw goat cheddar and baby carrots.  Tasty and fiber-rich!

When MSP got home, we still had some daylight and it wasn’t completely freezing outside, so we decided to take the dogs out for their wog:  a quick 2-miler to work up a little appetite before dinner: another set of leftovers that I tried to make into something different.  I had some of Friday night’s “Warm Asian Thai-Fry” left, so I warmed it up, then wrapped it into red chard leaves.  The ‘dipping sauce’ is just a generic version of Annie’s “Gingerly Vinaigrette” from a bottle. 

It wasn’t bad at all for a meal that only took about 90 seconds to build!  But I was still a little hungry after so I had a few Mary’s Gone Crackers with some slivers of the raw goat cheddar. 

OK, friends, I’m off to get Tuesday started!  Have a fantastic Tuesday!  If you’re located in the Colorado are, KEEP WARM!  If you’re located someplace outside of Colorado that is warm, please send some heat our direction!

For today’s discussion, do you have any tips/tricks/tools that have helped any of your outdoor activities, in the way that the Wrightsocks have helped with my blisters?  You FitFeat readers are very FIT-SAVVY, and have lots of great info to share!  Thanks for doing so and keep it coming!  We are ALL learning and benefiting from each other!

See you tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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While I was out on yesterday’s 3 mile dog wog, I was listening to a Tony Robbins recording on my iPod. 

Right off the bat I’ll confess that there is something about Tony Robbins that just gets me going!  Sadly I don’t do the written exercises that he suggests.  And I rarely get past day 1 or 2 in a 7-, 10-, or 30-day set.  But just hearing him speak lights a fire under my tail like nobody’s business.  Yes, I am a self-help junkie. 

One question I’ve noticed he poses in most of his programs is: 
What is your “camera lens” focused on?

This is something I think about often in terms of personal training clients looking to improve their fitness and/or their body composition, so I thought I’d touch on it today for a FitFeature.

In your own fitness journey, are you focusing on negative or self-defeating points like “I’m on a diet”, “I have to work out”, or “I can’t believe I can’t eat such-and-such”? 

Sometimes the best path to getting fit is more about making the mental shift than it is about what program you choose to follow.  Wouldn’t you rather focus on the positive things like “I feel so energized after working out”, “The foods I’m eating are making me healthier by the day”, or “I choose not to eat [insert fave junk food here] because it makes me sluggish and I’d rather feel vibrant.”  Once you do, you will be amazed at how easy your journey becomes.  Focusing on the negative wastes a lot of energy.

I’ve stated this before but in my early “dieting” days if someone had recommended to me that I follow a nutrition plan similar to the way I eat now, I think I may have felt it REALLY restrictive.  Mentally it would have been a huge jump for me.  (What? No chicken?  Minimal dairy?  How will I survive if I can’t mix cottage cheese into everything?)  But now?  I feel such a sense of freedom from dieting because one, I don’t consider what I do ‘dieting’ now, and two, that’s not what my “lens is focused on”.  Now I am focused on all the great things I DO eat, all the energy those foods provide me, how I no longer have digestive issues.   The fact that I’ve lost body fat is just icing on the cake.

About 6 years ago I participated in a fat loss program where one of the requirements was to eat 4 cups of veggies every day.  As I hadn’t yet made the shift, getting ‘those veggies in’ was a huge struggle for me.  Which is funny because these days, I pretty much meet that ‘requirement’ in one green smoothie, and that’s just the start of my day!  Add in one of my crazy big salads, and that’s probably another three cups more!

How hard or easy something feels is simply a matter of where you choose to aim your focus. 

***

Speaking of all that healthy food…   Tuesday started with a Vega chocolate whole food health optimizer, with some added vanilla rice protein powder, shaken violently with some almond milk!  Greens, probiotics and maca, oh my!

Someone (known on the comment board as MSP Buddy) gave MSP a BABY LARABAR to give to me!  Thanks MSP Buddy!  That was so sweet… and my little pecan pie snacky is so cute!

At lunchtime I tweaked another recipe, this time for a tuna burger.  But my tweaking actually made it worse, so I won’t be adding it to the “Build A Meal” section!  I made it into an open-faced sammy, with the “top lid” as a piece of lettuce.

Oh my afternoon snack was total bliss …. I am hopelessly addicted to mango.  Do you think I could make a mango tree survive in the Colorado climate??  I kid you not, when I finished cutting this thing, I gnawed all the extra ‘mango meat’ from the core.  I did not want to miss one bite…

Tuesday is Hell’s Kitchen night (w/Gordon Ramsay) so I felt all “chef-like” setting out my ingredients to prep for dinner. 

 And voila!  Pesto Gnocchi with Zucchini, Asparagus & Sun-dried Tomatoes (with an unpictured side salad)

Well folks, I’m off to stock up on enough sunshine to get me through the next few days! 

Keep your ’camera lens’ in mind today and look for areas where you can ‘adjust your focus’!  Make it a great day!

– Shari B. =)

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First thing Saturday morning directly following coffee, we took the dogs out for a 4-mile WOG (that would be walking/jogging for any new readers, because my dogs cannot keep from stopping to smell every single thing there is to smell along the way.  It’s a very herky-jerky form of running, for sure!) 

I’m thinking that Riley being all tired on the 2.5 mile wog earlier this week was all an act because she treated this 4-miler like it was nothing!  I’m on to her now… 

So Saturday turned out to be a B-A-N-A-N-A-S kind of day so it was fitting that it started out with this for breakfast:  

MSP made me French Ezekial Toast!  Isn’t that sweet (pun intended)?  I topped it with a smear of raw almond butter, half of a banana, and some Michigan pure maple syrup that I brought back for him from my trip.  It was a DEE-LISH-USH breakfast. 

We rushed around after that because we had to be out the door at 10:00 AM to get our day of BIZ-EEE-NESS started and didn’t get a chance to stop for a snack or lunch.  The french toast sure did the trick because normally if I’d had to wait from 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM before eating, I’d be about ready to start gnawing on my own fingers.  But I made it until we got home, and then I made a plate of leftover Garbanzo!  I used some of the leftover pita, smeared it with hummus, added a slice of heirloom tomato and a skinny slice of raw goat cheese.  Then I cut the leftover falafel in half and topped it with the tahini sauce, with the rice on the side.  It was mmm-mmm-good.  Now if only we could tell Garbanzo to stop OVER-COOKING their falafel, we’d be golden.  I don’t think falafel are meant to be charbroiled.  Correct me if I’m wrong, because I’m no falafel expert.    Next time we’re craving some, I think we’ll make our homemade version that we bake instead.

Later in the afternoon, I was craving something sweet so I decided on some fruit.  In my quest for “new-to-me” produce this week, I’d picked up a PLUOT.  I’ve never had one before. 

Is it the prettiest red when it’s cut open or what?

I’ll definitely be buying pluots again.  (I’m guessing pluot is supposed to be a mix of plum and apricot??)

It didn’t fill me up, so I went back for even MORE fruit, this time my beloved MANGO.  I just can’t bring myself to mask this delicious fruit in any form of smoothie.  I am so in love with mangoes.  

More errand running later and it was getting pretty chilly, so a tall soy chai latte seemed in order (with a petite vanilla scone to keep the latte company – love that they make bite-sized scones!)

At 7:45, we were on our way out the door to a huge birthday bash for a good friend, and I must have been in a SMIRKY mood… not sure what this face was for!

We didn’t eat a dinner Saturday night – it was just an “off-schedule” day all around.  At the party I had a glass of white wine and a handful of tortilla chips.  But being that today is FOOTBALL SUNDAY, I have a feeling I’ll make up for any lost calories.    Anyone up for joining me in some football-watching exercise?  Drop me a comment and let me know if I have any takers!!  Today would normally be my ‘rest day’ but if I have some peeps willing to do this with me, it’d be much more fun knowing that somewhere out there you might be doing some pushups or squats during the commercials too!

I have a couple of FitFeatures I want to blog about but I’m going to save it for the weekdays, as my blog stats tell me that Sundays are pretty slow and I don’t want you to miss them!  In the meantime, if you have any specific topics you’d like to hear about, please don’t hesitate to let me know! 

Have a SUPERB SUNDAY! 

– Shari B. =)

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