Hi friends!

I hope your week is off to a fantastic start!  Mine is going great!   It’s been a “rain sandwich” kind of day.  Meaning that we started off with sunshine this morning, then thunderstorms and now sunshine again!  I’m hoping the sunshine lasts into the evening so that we can get the crazies out this evening for a walk.  And the dogs too… ha ha!

Did you try putting BEETS or some other fun veggie into your smoothie yet?

It was a perfect morning for an outdoor run with one of my clients – we did 3.61 miles of hills and valleys including 8 sets of hill repeats at the end (and I got to take my Vibram FiveFingers for a good spin too).  Yesterday I did a good old fashioned upper body strength workout:  no Tabata timer, no Insanity.

• Smith Machine Bench Press – 5 sets
• BB Bent Row – 5 sets
• Pike Shoulder Presses – 2 sets
• Overhead 1-Arm DB Presses – 2 sets
• KB Side Lateral Swings – 1 set

It felt FAN-TAS-TIC!

***

So today was DENTAL DAY in the FitFeat household.  Rascal and I both had our teeth cleaned (fortunately mine was at the dentist!)    I take our dogs to an anesthesia-free practitioner so that they don’t have to be put under.  I know how terrible I feel after anesthesia so I don’t like the idea of the dogs having to do that unless it is for some sort of life-saving surgery.

You know your dogs need their teeth cleaned when they are riding in the back of an SUV and when they have a barking fit you can smell their breath all the way up in the front seat!

Now Rascal has fresh breath and is once again eligible to receive mommy-kisses.

While trying to snap a pic of these kisses, Rascal turned his head and I was left looking as if I am howling at the moon!

This was a little better…

Riley has her turn on the 27th.  I learned early on not to take them both at the same time.  If you want to see a visual representation of mass mayhem, that would be it.

And the great news of the day is NO CAVITIES for me!  Wahoo!

Back in 2005 in the middle of my high protein and competing days, I went from having great healthy teeth to a dental visit where I was told I had 5 cavities.  Three of which each took a downhill turn one at a time shortly after the fillings, resulting in 2 abscesses, 3 root canals and 3 (crazy expensive) crowns.   I truly believe that the high intake of protein (and low intake of fruits/veggies) leeched minerals from my teeth, resulting in their disintegration.  For a lot of my ‘dieting’ years I ate between 40% and 55% protein which came solely from animal sources.  Since switching to a primarily plant-based diet, I have had no cavities.

If you’ve followed FitFeat for any length of time,  you know I feel strongly about health from the INSIDE out.  Getting a “good grade” from the dentist deepens my resolve that I’ve been doing a good job of taking care of the inside of me!

How about you?  Have you found any changes to your diet that affect your teeth? Did you start/stop soda and see a difference?  Switch to more raw foods?  Cut back on sweets?

Also, does your dentist take your blood pressure before your cleaning?  This is something new at my dentist over the course of the last year.  I love that they do this, because I geek out on knowing my numbers like resting heart rate, blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol, TSH, etc.   I was tickled today to see my blood pressure at 93/67.  Excellent!

Have a FIT and HEALTHY day, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Barefoot Sunday
• Meat Mallet Muscles
• The 10 Commandments of FitFeat

Hey there blog buds!  Happy Saturday!  I hope that you are having an wonderful weekend so far.  Mine has been delightful!  You know that Saturdays are my favorite day of the week!

I especially love when they start with a 4+ mile run outside in the sunshine.  It feels like FOREVER since I’ve gone for a sunny run!

Yesterday morning we were indoors doing an Insanity session, which left me red-faced and panting.

A little like this:

(Image Source)

I’d like to say I was kidding about that, but that’s pretty much how I look and feel during those workouts! 

***

In my previous blog post, The BEET of My Own Drum, I mentioned that one of my clients asked me if I had ever tried putting beets in my smoothies.  Which I hadn’t.  But I told you all that I would consider it.

Consider it done!

Into the blender went the following items:

• 8 oz water + 4 small ice cubes
• 2 cutie clementines
• 3/4 roasted beet (without skin)
• 1/2 small banana
• large handful of spinach
• 1 large kale leaf (stalk removed)
• 1/2 cucumber
• small handful of alfalfa sprouts
• a squeeze of flaxseed oil (approx 1/2 TBS)

You just can’t BEET the color of this beautiful veggie!  Ha ha!  (Sorry, that was bad.  Couldn’t resist!)

Into the glass for taste testing (I must admit, I was a little nervous that it would taste like dirt and I’d have wasted all those veggies):

The verdict:  Actually quite good!  I could definitely taste the ‘earthiness’ of the beet from it being a root vegetable, but I get that same effect sometimes from the celery and sprouts in my regular green smoothies.

Probably the only downside to beet smoothies?  Teeth like Angela’s….

(Image Source)

I’m just kidding, it didn’t stain my teeth!  But if you didn’t catch The Office this week, click HERE and scroll to the 4:58 mark.  I thought it was funny that I’d just been talking about beets in smoothies earlier that day!

So your challenge is to throw something new into your next smoothie!  I dare you!   Then come back and let me know how it was!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

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Hi Fit Friends!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend – Monday came quickly, didn’t it?  We had a warmer springlike day on Sunday finally so it was great to get out and enjoy it a bit.  And extra bonus: it’s a short week, since we have Good Friday off at my office!  (Wahooo!)

In case you were out enjoying the spring weather this weekend and weren’t online, check out my post about the crazy Cadbury DREAM eggs!  As well as updates to the Spring Slimdown.

Sunday morning was amazing.  We finally got to get outside for a wonderful run in our FiveFinger unshoes.

It was 35 degrees and very sunny.  35 with no snow right now feels like a tropical vacation! 

And things were melting down on the dirt trail.  Our “bare feet” were pretty dirty by the end.

We ran 6 miles at just over a 10 min mile pace and the slow-down I’ve been doing over the previous weeks seems to be working  – my average heart rate for the full run was only 161 this time.   It felt great.  I had ZERO KNEE PAIN.  I felt energized at the end and ready to tackle the day.  Which is exactly how I want to feel after a run, rather than completely spent.  I am LOVING these Vibram FiveFingers and very excited about continuing to add distance in them.  If I can keep adding distance without knee pain, then maybe I can get back on track with some race goals!

My calves are lightly sore today but nothing like they’ve been on past VFF runs, so I’m hoping that my lower legs are finally conditioned for barefoot running.

The best part is you can hose these shoes off and then pop them in the washing machine!  Now they are clean and ready for the next run.

Off to start Monday at the office!  Have a wonderful day everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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Hi friends!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Mother Nature is giving us plenty of green to look at this week for the holiday!  We’re having a little burst of spring!  It was over 60 degrees out and we get two more days of this!  Wahoo!

So you know what that meant for yesterday’s exercise right?  OUTDOOR RUN!  4.88 miles. It was glorious.  Then in the evening before dinner we took the dogs out for a walk which came to about 2.7 miles.  If Riley didn’t need to stop THREE times for No. 2 every time we walk her we’d be able to get more mileage in!  (I’m promise I’m not exaggerating about that!) Between Rascal’s one stop and Riley’s three stops, not only do we use a lot of pick-up bags (biodegradable, of course!) but it takes forever to complete a loop of less than 3 miles.  This is why I stopped running with them!

The best part of walking them is this:

Love it when they are tuckered out in the house and CALM!

So in honor of the GREEN holiday, I challenge you to drink a GREEN SMOOTHIE today in addition to wearing green (or I might have to pinch you!) 

If you need a recipe, check out the Build-A-Meal tab to pick one and get started!

I am adding Sweet Clover sprouts to my smoothies (and wraps) this week, since they had them at the store, which is a fun change from my usual alfalfa sprouts and quite fitting for St. Patty’s Day!

What is your favorite GREEN food to add to smoothies or sandwiches? I think mine is probably avocado.  I get pretty excited when I slice open an avocado and it is perfectly green with no brown spots.  I love it smeared on things (in place of mayo or butter), I love it chopped and added into a salad, and I especially LOVE the creamy texture that avocado adds to my green smoothies!

Off to get the crazy day of the week started!  Wednesdays are bananas!

Have a FUN & SAFE St. Patty’s Day everyone!  Let me know if you had a green smoothie today!

– Shari B. =)

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Happy Saturday fit friends!  I started a post Thursday night to put out here on Friday and then when Friday actually arrived the day took off like Seabiscuit and flew by so fast that I never had a chance to get back out here.

Have you been picking a few of the 10 Commandments of FitFeat to try on for size?  (not the religious ones.. see Thursday’s post!)

Commandment #2 is an easy one for me… this girl loves her greens and this smoothie was PERFECT.  Red grapes, 1/2 banana, 2 clementines, spinach, cucumber, celery, sprouts, hemp protein powder and flaxseed oil.  I could feel this silly cold dissipating as I sipped on my smoothie!

A BEET salad for lunch:

A raw and natural afternoon snack – a banana-phone! 

We made an old favorite for dinner this week that we “spiffed up” a bit, CINDY style.  Whole wheat and sweet potato gnocchi, that was lightly pan fried in coconut oil before serving to give it a slight crunch.  Oh Cindy, MSP and I BOTH loved this…!  The pan frying made an AMAZING difference!  Thanks for the great idea!  We also added some of our homegrown basil to the saute pan.  I served mine over sauteed mushrooms and spiralized zucchini topped with Muir Glen organic marinara and nutritional yeast.  It was delicious!

Since I’m getting back to my basics in the food area, I figured why not do the same with some of my training.  So yesterday’s workout was a more traditional weight-lifting session, as opposed to doing something like Tabata or Physique 57.   All I can say is OUCH.  But this is the “good ouch” — I really love to feel a little muscle soreness after a good strength workout.

Friday Chest, Back, Shoulder Workout

• Upper Body warmup with arm circles, light stretching, moving light weights around
• DB Bench Press 2 warm-up sets + 4 working sets of 12
• DB Incline Chest Flyes 1 warm-up set + 4 working sets of 12
• Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns 1 warm-up set + 4 working sets of 12
• One-Arm DB Rows 4 working sets of 12
• Seated Overhead DB Press 1 warm-up set + 4 working sets of 12
• Side Lateral Raises 4 working sets of 12

Today, my chest muscles feel like someone took a meat mallet to them – I’m talking Tender with a capital T.    The change back to my usual style of training felt good.  I wonder how long it will take me to get bored and switch it up again!

Then this morning I did a 10-mile jog, which I’ll be recapping in the next Marathon Monday post.  No hints as to how it went! 

Anyone have big plans for the weekend? I’d LOVE to go see the new Alice in Wonderland, in 3-D!  However, the sun is shining and it’s around 60 degrees, so I don’t want to waste any of it holed away in a movie theater so I’ll either save it for a late show or wait for the next rainy day.

I hope you are having a FIT and HAPPY weekend!

– Shari B. =)

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Hi Fit Peeps!  It’s Friday-EVE!

The sun is shining and supposedly it’s going to hit 60 degrees today.  I can’t even describe how happy that makes me!  Spring is just around the corner! You all know I run on solar power, right? 

I took the day off from working out yesterday.  I want to get past this mini-bug as quickly as possible, so I’m saving my body’s energy for immunity rather than for recovering from exercise.  I’ll have to take a trip to Whole Foods today and pick up some Kombucha tea and maybe some of the other cool supplement ideas you all suggested for me this week!  (Thank you for all the great ideas!)

As I mentioned in the last post, since I started training for the marathon a little over 6 weeks ago, my appetite has been a bear and I’ve also allowed more sugary items to creep back in.  Part of that is thanks to the season of Cadbury Caramel Cream Eggs which I love, love, love!  Part of it is the increased expenditure of energy from the long runs, yes, but not nearly as much as you may think.  (The rest of my week has LESS exercise in it than it used to because I spend a day or two ‘recovering’ from the long runs and then minimize leg work as I gear up for the next run.)  So my weekly calorie expenditure isn’t that much more than it was when I wasn’t training for this event.

I’ve been working at such a high heart rate in every run that I’ve been burning mostly sugar as fuel and not much fat.  This leads to a cycle of craving carbs, burning carbs, craving carbs, etc.   When our bodies feel wiped, we crave foods that will give us instant bursts of energy.  And unless you are planning to be running sprints in the next couple of hours, you know right where that sugar’s gonna go:  to your trouble spots!

I eat for weight maintenance.  Over the course of a lot of trials and many errors, I found what works best for me to feel healthy and satisfied, with the added bonus of fitting into my skinny jeans!   Enter an endurance sport, and my ‘natural rhythm’ gets thrown a bit off balance.

From a speed perspective I have a target weight in mind that I would like to race at on May 16.  For every 5% of weight you lose, you gain about 5% in speed.  If I want to increase my speed by 30 seconds per mile, I’ll need to get a bit lower than what my ‘summer maintenance weight’ is.

Here’s what I’m NOT going to do:  be obsessive or restrictive about it.  If I make it, great.  If not, I’ll just be 14 minutes slower over the 26 miles.

Here’s what I AM going to do:  get back to the basics of what I know works for me, both from a nutrition standpoint and an exercise standpoint.

With that said I thought I’d share the basics I follow (and coach my clients on) for losing (or maintaining weight) and healthy living in general:

10 Commandments of FitFeat

1.) Eat when hungry, stop when full. Never walk away from a meal feeling stuffed.

2.) Eat a green smoothie every day.

3.) If hungry between meals, choose natural (and preferrably raw) snacks.

4.) Eat a HUGE salad every day, chock full of veggies and fun things like dulse, nutritional yeast and healthy fats.

5.) Chew every bite until it’s practically liquefied – good digestion starts in the mouth!

6.) Eliminate (or greatly reduce) foods that cause nutritional stress (primarily refined flours, refined sugars, trans-fatty acids, artificial chemical additives).

7.) Plan, plan and plan some more.  If you don’t have the right foods within your reach, it’s much to easy to grab the WRONG ones.

8.) Save and Savor: SAVE the once-in-a-blue-moon foods for special occasions (like birthday cake and wedding cake) and when you do treat yourself to these indulgences, SAVOR it. And maybe have some fun with it.    For the not-so-special occasions where you need a treat, pick those that have some nutritional value like red wine and dairy-free dark chocolate.

9.) Choose exercise that energizes you and that you enjoy doing.  Let each workout leave you wanting to come back again the next time.

10.) Love yourself and your body.  Appreciate what it does for you and treat it with respect.  When you put that thought first, the choices you make will come naturally.

***

Today’s discussion:  how many of these 10 commandments do you already ‘obey’?  If there are some you don’t, which will you implement first?

– Shari B. =)

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Hi blog buds!

Thank you all for the wonderful comments to yesterday’s Marathon Monday post.  I loved reading all of your encouraging words!  I hope you know how much more enjoyable (not to mention accountable) this marathon process is, knowing that you are all cheering me on.

I already know what I’ll be doing differently on my next run.  Something that I’ve been figuring to be the issue, but that I have neglected to implement.  (Partly due to pride, I think.)  I’m treating myself as I would a client so I’m going to take my own advice.  So stay tuned for the next Marathon Monday and I’ll share my “tweaks” and let you know how it goes!

I rested the ol’ knees on Sunday by not doing any exercise.  Then on Monday when I woke up my knees were feeling bueno!  So I’m thankful that they are recovering quickly, that’s a good sign!  I treated them to some Iron Yoga in the morning before scooting off to work.

While the knees are back to normal, that weird sneezing fit seems to be a touch of a head cold.  So I’m giving it the BOOM-BOOM-POW of green smoothies, Emergen-C drinks and green tea.  Hopefully I’ll get this thing nipped in the bud!  I feel fine, but my nose deciding to keep on running well past that 14 mile mark! 

Anyone else this messy while making green smoothies?

I have covered the entire island!

***

I was fortunate to start this morning with a delightful run at my favorite hilly trail with one of my clients.  Look at the moon as I pulled into the parking lot!

It was just getting light out and the moon was SO bright!  I love pretty runs like this!  While my little friend OSCAR told me it was 28 outside, we did freeze our hineys off a bit because it was WINDY!  (I’ve been going to this trail for about 9 years now – you’d think I’d learn that it’s ALWAYS windy there and dress accordingly!) 

I wore my VFFs for the 3.7 miles we did.  Ohhh boy do you feel every little rock on a gravel trail in them, especially when your feet are frozen!  But I loved it! They thawed out after about 15 minutes, once the blood started pumping and then it was like skipping along like a kid!  These things are a hoot!

I so wish that my calves were ready to wear these ‘unshoes’ for longer distances because the impact on my knees is almost nil.  I’m getting there!  I’ve added another mile to my longest run in them… progressing slowly but safely.

Today’s discussion:  what’s your “tried and true” remedy when you have a cold? As I mentioned, I like to try to knock it out with high nutrient foods, like what I add to my green smoothies.  This is the first I’ve had in almost a year – I didn’t even catch one when I flew to Michigan in the fall (and I was that person who would catch something every time I stepped on a plane.)  I have attributed this good immunity to all the fruits and veggies I’ve been eating since last April.  But recently I’ve let some refined carbs and sugars creep back into my diet so I know that’s partly to blame.  Time to get back to basics! 

Enjoy the rest of your day!

– Shari B. =)

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Hey friends!  Hope you had a WONDERFUL weekend!

First thank you to everyone who has already voted for Dyson to help her win $10,000 for Freedom Service Dogs.  I really appreciate the support.  If you missed that post over the weekend, it’s not too late to check it out and cast your vote!

Weekend 2 of marathon training is behind me (maybe a new FitFeature:  Marathon Mondays?)  I was a little nervous about this one because the speed of progression from my 5.48 mi run 2 weeks ago, to 7.6 last weekend to 9.14 this past Saturday had me a little worried that my knees were really going to make me pay.  But I took a lot of care post-run and the day afterward ended up being completely pain free.  Here’s how the day went down:

We were meeting at 7:00 AM and I had a 30 minute drive.  I ate my pre-run food at 5:30 (you know me and my 90 minute rule!)  It was a morning in need of some EXTRA BOLD coffee:

And this time I only did ONE piece of Ezekial toast (last time I did two and it felt to ‘heavy’ in my system even 90 minutes later).  A light schmear of almond butter, a drizzle of raw honey and some coconut flakes:

At 6:30 I was out the door.  Check out the MOON!  (Horribly blurry I know, but my camera does NOT take dark pictures well at all…)

When we started the run at 7:00 it was 19 degrees and breezy.  I was sorry that I hadn’t brought along my scarf to wrap around my face.  And it turned out to be cold enough to freeze the water in the tube from my hydration pack completely SOLID – no water for the entire run!  I started feeling the lack of water around mile 7 -  a little sluggish and really thirsty from breathing the cold air.  That was the only downside.  The run itself was fantastic.  It was a clear morning, the company and conversations were great, and the time flew by, making it seem almost easier than the 7.6 the week before.

Taking Brendan Brazier’s advice, I did want to fuel during the run with coconut oil and dates.  But I didn’t take the time to make his Direct Fuel Bites recipe – instead I cut the pits out of two dates and where the pits had been I stuffed coconut oil.  They worked great during the run – I ate them at the halfway point when we turned around.  Easy to chew and digest.

Directly after the run I was meeting up with a friend at Starbucks so on the way, I drank a glutamine recovery drink and ate two dried PLUMS.

At Starbucks I had an unpictured grande decaf soy latte.

I was limping around pretty good by this point – both of my knees were getting incredibly tight and achy.  So when I did make it home I went straight to the floor for some stretching.  I spent about 20 minutes really focusing on calves, hamstrings, glutes, quads, piriformis and hip flexors.

I took two Ginger Root caps to fight off some inevitable inflammation (many many thanks to Joan for the ginger tip back when my hip was stiff!)  Then I ran a hot bath and steeped myself in some TEA:

All of these little tricks worked because I felt great the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday.  MSP even commented on how well I was moving around compared to last week’s run.

Bring on the TEN next week – I’m ready!

Speaking of long runs, Berni will be running her first half-marathon next weekend, so let’s all put some FAST FitFeat vibes out there for her!  And Carrie starts her training next week for her next half-marathon as well!  And reader Beth will be deciding whether to take the plunge into full marathons or not by week’s end.  She’s been a half-marathon pro recently, traveling around the country to race in a lot of fun events!  Sammi signed up for a half in September!  Cindy wants to run her first 5K this year (which I KNOW she’s already completed on the treadmill, so I think she means in a race format…) 

Lots of running goals goin’ on!  I LOVE THAT!! What’s yours?  Share your running or fitness goal here! We love giving out good luck vibes!

Have a MARVELOUS Monday friends!  Make it a great day and a FIT week!

– Shari B. =)

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Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY friends!  Wahoo!  TGITW (Thank goodness it’s the weekend!)

Sorry to disappear on you yesterday.  Tues/Thurs are my BIZ-EEEE days and I had two additional pieces of fun in my Thursday that kept me away from the computer.

One was a visit from one of my all time best buds after she got off of work, where we polished off about 3/4 bottle of our favorite Riesling and jibber-jabbered non-stop for two and a half hours.  It was such a wonderful time.

The other exciting thing on Thursday was my little brother and his wife welcomed their second baby into the world!  Unfortunately I live 1300 miles from them, so I won’t be seeing Baby #2 anytime soon.  Thank goodness for webcams!    I was really hoping the new baby would wait until next Wednesday so that we could share a birthday, but she must have been in a hurry to meet her big sister sooner!

Speaking of birthday, MSP wanted to share with me what my gift would be a little early because it would require some ‘trying on for size’ before he could order the actual gift.  That got me curious!

In addition to reading “Born to Run“ currently, Matt from No Meat Athlete has inspired me to want to give barefoot running a go.

MSP heard that and decided to gift me with some VIbram Five Fingers!  SO EXCITED!!!

Image from Vibram FiveFingers

In anticipation of the arrival of my new fitness ‘gadgets’ I decided to get a head start on Wednesday.  Barefoot running is something you must start SLOWLY because all that running around in my fancy Nike SHOX will have changed my gait and most likely weakened some of the supportive structure of my lower legs and feet.

I did intervals of a different sort on the treadmill this time:  shoes on, shoes off, socks on, socks off, shoes and socks back on, shoes off, etc.

I did 3 miles, about two of which were ‘shoeless’.

OK, first:  holy calves of fire, Batman!  Not so much DURING as much as the days following.  I have some DOMS going on in my calves the way I figure I would if I did 1000 sets of heavy calf raises.  You should see me trying to walk DOWN a set of stairs.  Comical.

Second, it was so FUN!  You feel so much ‘lighter’ on your feet, almost springy because it truly forces you into a completely different gait.  Apparently I’m a heavy ‘heel-slapper’ in shoes and that just won’t work barefoot.  You need to be more onto the balls of your feet, while still letting your heels come down lightly.

Afterward, I did about 15 minutes of deep yoga stretching because I knew my legs were going to need it.

Then yesterday I did another 30 minutes of yoga, including a LOT of downward dogs to hit those calves a bit.

I won’t be using my new “unshoes” during the marathon, because I don’t think there’s enough time to safely transition to that distance.  But I definitely plan to use them as much as my calves will allow during my shorter training runs.  Maybe the marathon after this one…

And I have to give props to our good friend Bo, because he had FiveFingers YEARS ago before they were trendy.  And I think I remember teasing him about his crazy looking shoes.   Bo, I’m eating my words now and you can tease me all you want to get me back! 

Today’s question:  Any barefoot running ‘aficionados’ out there? Read “Born to Run”?

Friends, have a FANTASTIC Friday!  I’ll be back tomorrow sometime after my 9 MILE training run.  I really hope my calves stop crying before I head out or it will be a L-O-N-G 9 miles…

– Shari B. =)

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Good morning blog buds!

As seems to be the case lately, Tuesdays are complete madness and as such, no exercise was to be had.  So this morning I’m hoping to do some cardio AND some yoga because I’m feeling the need for both.  A little calorie burnin’ plus some Gumby-inducing moves. 

***

I tried a new-to me raw (mostly) bar that I wanted to share with you.  (As you can tell it was eaten at work, due to the horrible iPhone shot…)

Coconut Acai flavor ingredients: Organic Almond Butter, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Date Paste, Organic Dried Coconut, Organic Almonds, Organic Raisins, Organic Puffed Amaranth, Organic Acai Dry Powder, Sea Salt

This was sensational!  I loved it.  I will definitely be trying other flavors of PranaBar.  You all know I LOVE my Larabars so don’t think they’ve been knocked out of my daily food plan.  From a price point perspective Larabars can’t be beat, because I buy them when they are on sale for $1 at my local grocery store.  The Prana bars are more in the $2 range, so it will be an occasional treat.  But if you are in the mood for something different, give PranaBar a try.

***

I pulled up a saved link today to an MSN slide show that I wanted to share with you about food additives to avoid. Some of the items on this list are common sense (like avoiding refined white sugar and excess salt) but learning that potential carcinogens BHA/BHT could be in your breakfast cereal (or your kids’ cereal) may not be so common.  Click this link to view:  12 Food Additives to Avoid

Today’s Discussion Question: Do you have any particular additives or foods that you specifically avoid in addition to this list? Please share with us in the comments section. In addition to the additives and artificial sweeteners listed in the article, I try to avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, and made the move to Stevia instead of Splenda for my coffee back in April.  I also ended my love affair with diet soda (and ALL sodas now for that matter).

Make it a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY friends!

– Shari B. =)

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