FitFeat

where daily feats & eats can be adventures in themselves

Posts Tagged salad

Meat Mallet Muscles

Mar 6

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 11 Comments

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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The 10 Commandments of FitFeat

Mar 4

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

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 Vibrams, Bye Vibrams

Feb 3

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 10 Comments

Good morning friends!

Yesterday my Vibram FiveFingers arrived… pretty huh?

And then they went right back in the box and are headed back to the online store from whence they came.  Waaaaahhhhhhhh!

Even though we followed the sizing directions to a tee and even though here they look like they would be a PERFECT fit they were just a tad too small:

I tried the “Sprints” on last week and needed a 36.  Their sizing chart says if you are 36 in Sprint, you’ll want a 35 in KSO.  Uh, not so much it seems.  I so wish I’d had the video rolling of me AND MSP both trying to get this ‘unshoe’ on my foot.  Yes my feet are small, but apparently not small enough to fit well into a 2″ diameter opening on top!  Eventually (with some sweat actually worked up and I am NOT exaggerating) I got ONE shoe on.  And it made my big toe feel super jammed.

So back they go.  And now a size 36 pair is on the way.  Should have them on Thursday or Friday.

I’d hoped to give you some fun update on trying them outside, as I ran a hilly 4 miles yesterday evening with Beth.  (Thanks Beth – that was a great run!)

***

A rundown of yesterday’s eats:

Ezekial Sprouted grain cereal (this is a food I definitely measure – it’s VERY dense and adds up in carbs crazy fast.  I do the equivalen to 1/4 cup).

Then I add almond milk, heat it up and add some sliced banana.

Mid-morning I had my first ever BLOOD ORANGE!  So pretty!  It looks like  an Arizona sunset.

Lunch was an open-faced ‘wich: piece of Ezekial, smear of hummus, avocado slices, raw goat cheddar, spinach and cucumber with a side of cold ’stir-fry salad’ from Monday night and a few Baked Lays chips.

My standard pre-run food:  Ezekial toast, this time with a smear of Earth Balance Vegan ‘butter’ and a drizzle of raw honey.

Dinner of 1/2 mashed sweet potato with nutritional yeast and a sprinkle of goat cheddar, with a side of leftover stir-fry.

I need a lesson on the difference between a YAM and a SWEET POTATO – anyone want to edu-ma-cate me? Pictured on the left is MSP’s white potato.  On the right, my “sweet potato”.  I’m used to seeing my sweet potatoes be more orange.  I did pluck this one from a bin that said “Sweet Potatoes” which was next to a bin of “Yams”.  Prior to this I had thought they were one and the same.

And speaking of sweet potatoes, here is what happens when you ask your dear hubby to check on your ‘chips’ while you are on the phone with your client.

Dear client, thank you for being patient with me while I was momentarily distracted, thinking my kitchen was on fire. And MSP, you know I only tease you because I have done the same thing with HOW MANY pots of hard boiled eggs?  Next time I’ll pin the timer to your shirt.  ;)

***

I might as well keep the RANDOM TRAIN chugging along and share this article with you that I happened upon yesterday – we’ll just call them “Dirty Greens“.  I would almost rather NOT know about these things.  As I was reading along, I was waiting for the line that said if I was choosing organic bagged greens, I was all good.

And then I was hit with this instead:

“Whether the greens came in a clamshell or bag, included ‘baby’ greens, or were organic made no difference in bacteria levels.”

NOOOOOOOOO!

OK, I’ll definitely be using the Salad Spinner from here on out, even with my organic pre-washed greens.  Comments on the article? I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Do you wash your greens when they are bagged and say pre-washed?  If not, will you now?

Have a WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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16 Weeks Till 26.2

Jan 24

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Yes, it’s Sunday and I’m blogging!  :) I’ll use a weekday for ‘blog maintenance day’ sometime this week instead.  I think my list of maintenance/admin items is getting so long that I’m avoiding it somewhat.  Still want to design a custom banner, a logo, a BETTER tagline, a new profile picture, add a few more ‘pages’ and I really want to buy the Headway theme so I can drag and drop things to move them around on the blog.  Ah well.  When I get to it, I get to it!

***

Last night for dinner I broke out my HUMONGOUS salad bowl again.  I used to eat out of this every day for lunch over the summer when I was home during ‘business hours’.  I miss my monster salads!  It takes a long time to chew through an 11″ diameter salad so I don’t eat them as often at the moment.

This one had half a box of spinach, some leftover tofu, spiralized carrots, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, nutritional yeast, dulse, pepitas and a drizzle of Goddess dressing.  Mmmmm.  Brendan would be proud.

And on the topic of veggies, I found something today that I have been looking for since summer and am SOOO excited to have found it:

Pre-cut organic kale! Now I can make kale chips even faster than before!  Wahooo!  So you know I immediately got busy baking all kinds of veggies.  Eggplant chips, kale chips and a batch of roasted red peppers, mushrooms and zucchini (for use maybe on a pita pizza later!)  My eggplant chips got a little more done than I meant them too, but they were still great and I ate them ALL!


Looks a little weird, but tastes great!  (Much like a green smoothie!)

***

So reader Beth has keen eyes, :) noticing immediately that yesterday’s post was categorized under “Marathon Training” and inquired as to whether I had decided to run another half-marathon.   Yes and no.  :)   A couple of my favorite people to hang out with (and run with) are aiming to run a full marathon in May.  So being the sucker I am for a new challenge here and there, I’ve decided to join them in the training and see where it takes me.

I’ve chosen not to register for the race until after I’ve surpassed about the 15 mile mark in our training.  I’ve done five half-marathons previously so I know I can tackle the 13.1 mile distance.  But I want to see how I feel physically after going beyond that.  If at any time it ceases being somewhat enjoyable  or determine that the rest of my exercise is suffering (or knees aching, etc.), then I’ll know now is not the time.  And since the registration fee isn’t cheap, I don’t want to spend that money and then have to drop out only to have wasted that money.

This will also give me an opportunity to put some of the Thrive Diet principles to good use.  My goal is to do this marathon injury-free and recover as quickly as possible from my long runs so that I can continue with my regular training during the work week.  I love my Physique 57 and Tabata training and yoga enough that I don’t want to miss out on those sessions.

So I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!  The countdown is on:  16 weeks till 26.2.  (eeek!)

– Shari B. =)

P.S. if any of you like to read Runner’s World magazine, I noticed on their website that they are offering their subscription for A DOLLAR an issue, which is 80% off the newsstand price (and a great deal), so thought I’d mention it.

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Cuts Like Buttah

Dec 28

Posted by Shari B. in Handy Kitchen Tools | 5 Comments

Noooooo…. I’m not ready for the long holiday weekend to be over!!!  This is always my favorite weekend of the year!  Do we HAVE to go back to work?  :)

If I was the type of person who called in sick (but I’m not), today would be the day for it because somehow I managed to hobble myself yesterday.  During a workout, of all things.  I’m not even sure what movement did it, but it has something to do with my hip flexors.  I stretched off and on all day yesterday, did some yoga, all to no avail.  I have yet to pop an ibuprofen though.  That is the absolute last resort.  I know, I’m weird.  But once you get all that garbage out of your system, it’s a tough choice to put it back in.  Since April 1, I’ve had two Advil and that’s IT.

It’s a little better this morning so I’ll take the morning off of working out, and soak in the tub instead to see if that loosens anything up.  I exercised all 4 days of my long holiday weekend.  Tomorrow is my planned ‘rest day’ so I’ll just flip-flop my days.  This is my cue that I NEED more core strengthening work if a few days of core DVDs cripples me!  Ha!

Yesterday was a nice, normal veggie-filled food day.  A 30 oz. green smoothie in the morning:

A Banana Bread Larabar during the 10:00 a.m. showing of “Sherlock Holmes”:

A super-sized Shari salad in the 11″ bowl (I’ve missed my big bowl…) with spinach, dulse, roma tomatoes, spiralized zucchini, nutritional yeast, chia seeds and topped with 1 tbsp of Annie’s Goddess dressing.

With a side of baked kale (that looks burnt, but it’s not).  It’s red kale so it has a deep purple/red color:

An easy, early “dinner” of Ezekial toast with almond butter and raw honey drizzle, with a side of decaf  (the Broncos game was still on and I didn’t want to miss anything making a meal):

And an evening snack of two Wasa light rye crackers smeared with Tofutti (the ‘un-cream cheese’) and sprinkled with cumin and Mrs. Dash:

It was a fiber-licious day to be sure! :)

Riley got a dose of fiber too (of the synthetic variety) thanks to ripping her Christmas gift to shreds.  Poor stuffed squirrel.  Riley was too tired to even flee from the crime scene:

I, on the other hand, take much better care of MY Christmas gifts.  :)

As mentioned I have a bunch of them to tell you about (because I am incredibly blessed to have received so many great gifts from my family).  One of which is a new set of AWESOME knives from my mom. When I was visiting her back in September, I was crazy for her RADA knives and utensils.  I had two small RADA knives that I’d received as gifts back in 1991 and they LOOK like they’ve been used a TON.  My mom had the cool extras like a tomato knife, a peeler, and all sorts of other neat knives.  So I was thrilled when I opened a wrapped gift containing a whole SET of these cool tools.  It’s hard to see through the curtain of hair here but there’s a silly grin on my face (and apparently Riley and Rascal are just as excited about my gift):

They are SHARP!!!  I guess all of my other knives must need sharpening, because I forgot how nice it is to slice through food like it’s “BUTTAH”  :)

The potato peeler worked like a charm peeling this mango:

If you have a foodie in your life, I highly recommend gifting them with something from RADA.  I’m so impressed.  And I can tell you that these will be used every single day in this house!  I even rearranged my knife drawer so that I can keep them in their gift box and have easy access to them as I’m prepping veggies every day.  And I just noticed that they are available through Amazon.com so you can bet I’ll be adding these to the FitFeat “Favorite Things” Store!

Thanks for the GREAT gift, Mom!  PERFECT!

Today’s question:  Do you have a favorite brand of knife or prep utensil that you use daily? Drop a comment to share with us!

Have yourself a MARVELOUS Monday, friends!  I’m off to hit the tub and then to work!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Flipping Dogs and Snowy Oats

Dec 16

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hola WEDNESDAY!  My crazy overscheduled Monday and Tuesday are over!  Ahhh, I can take a deep breath!  Good thing I got that yoga in on Monday to give me some extra zen to get through!  :)   Thank you to everyone who commented with their favorite yoga poses yesterday!  And if you haven’t yet, please feel free to still comment on that one!  Fallon taught me what “Flipping the dog” was – and apparently it’s nothing like “Flipping the bird“!  (Good thing!)

Tasty, healthful EATS help too when schedules are crazy!  Keep the nutritional stress to a minimum, especially when the mental/physical stress is elevated!

Yesterday just before my early morning client training session, I had half of a Coconut Cream Pie Lärabar.  Have I told you today how much I love thee, Coconut Cream Pie?  You sure go great with coffee, with oatmeal, with exercise!

Then post-session I had a bowl of old fashioned oats (1/3 cup measured dry), topped with a tablespoon of rice protein powder, cinnamon, almond milk, a few raisins, and a dusting of unsweetened coconut.   It looks like it snowed on my breakfast! 

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One of my clients has been making her green smoothies the night before and then taking them to work the next day.  I never let mine sit.  They always get slurped through a straw immediately.  But I’m trying to get a better routine down for my hectic schedule at the moment so I thought I’d take a cue from her and make my smoothie “to-go”.  This one had 8 oz water, one banana, big fist o’ spinach, sprouts, 1/2 peeled cucumber, and 2 celery stalks.  I packed it in a Rubbermaid jug to be shaken up in later.  I “ate” it around 10:45, about 3 hours after blending and it was still quite tasty!  :)   (It was refrigerated in my lunchbox that whole time in case you were wondering!) ;)  

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Also packed up my lunch to be assembled later in the day.  A large spinach salad with HB egg, sundried tomatoes, dulse, and nutritional yeast.  1/4 of the avocado and half the roma tomato were added at 1:00 when I ate it, along with two spoonfuls of the marinated mushrooms. 

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And for dessert, an EXTREMELY dark chocolate, which almost tastes like you are eating right out of the unsweetened cocoa powder tin.  Yowza!

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We had our holiday party at the office from 3:30 on, so my afternoon snack and dinner consisted of pita chips with hummus and two glasses of pinot grigio.  When I got home, I had three crackers with some raw goat cheddar.  That was it on the eats for the day.  I can tell you that I am already hungry for breakfast!!  I didn’t eat enough yesterday!

Yesterdays exercise FEAT was not organized exercise per se, but was heavy duty nonetheless.  We received two PALLETS of marketing materials that we will be stuffing at work today.  In my nice dress and heels, I was moving HEAVY boxes around, getting them sorted and ready to go for today.  It was quite a workout!  I definitely feel it this morning.  And I’m still feeling Monday’s YOGA as well!  (And I made sure to NOT wear heels today!)

Well friends, it’s time for breakfast and then out the door!  Hope your week is going well so far! 

Make it a GREAT day!  Did you fit your FIT in yet??  ;)

– Shari B. =)

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Make Your Old Year(end) Resolution Today!

Dec 1

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

What’s new FitFeat friends?  Happy December 1st!  Hope your Monday after the long holiday weekend is off to a great start!  I think weeks after a long holiday always tend to go very slowly.

I figured what better way to get back into the full swing of things than to start with a TABATA upper body workout!  

Weight Training:  Tabata Upper Body

  • 5 Minute WarmUp on TM, followed by arm circles and light upper movements
  • DB Bench Press 4 min 
  • Bent DB Row 4 min
  • Side Lateral Raise 4 min
  • Triceps Pushdown 4 min
  • DB Bicep Curl 4 min

This style of workout never fails to do the trick – I end up getting in 80-96 reps of each exercise.  It was a fast and effective and this morning my upper body is feeling the pain love. 

Monday Eats

Post-workout was a green smoothie.  And I do mean GREEN.  I used two fists of spinach this time, so it was extra bright.  I forgot to add my rice protein to this one, but I did remember chia seeds.  ;)   Along with 2 stalks of celery, sprouts, a pear, and a clementine.

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A piece of Ezekial toast with almond butter served as my mid-morning snack.  When one wakes up at 4:00 AM, “mid-morning” is 8:00 AM.  :)  

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I packed my lunch and afternoon snack since I was headed in to work.  In the white container is my leftover Tokyo Joe’s brown rice with tofu and steamed veggies.  I ate the Larabar for an afternoon snack (Tropical Fruit Tart, be still my heart!!)  The apple was neglected unfortunately, so he may become smoothie food later today. 

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Dinner was a colorful salad of spinach, red cabbage, zucchini disks, sun dried tomatoes, and home-roasted seeds (from the acorn squash you see on the side there.)  This was my first acorn squash… WOW!  Love it!  It has a wonderful nutty flavor.  The serving shown here is about 1/4 acorn squash.

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Evening snack was a cup of decaf coffee and a Nana’s NO’s cookie bite:

nana

And then I was having trouble keeping my eyes open during “House” which airs here from 7:00 to 8:00.  Again, waking at 4:00 AM means “bedtime” often wants to come at 7:30 PM!

***

As mentioned above, yep, it’s DECEMBER!  Can you believe it?  I’ve been blogging since August!  Time flies when you are having fun! 

Today’s challenge is to make your “Old Year(end) Resolutions“.  If you are someone who starts resolutions on January 1, why not move it up a month to December 1 and get a head-start?  Just think of what you can accomplish in 30 days when you put your mind to it.  If weight loss is your goal, you can easily be 5 pounds down in the next 30 days, rather than 5 pounds UP like many will experience over the holidays.  If you want to quit smoking, DO IT NOW!  Why wait?  (And if you DO smoke, please please quit.  You know how bad it is for you!) 

The time is now!  Drop me a comment and let me know what your “Old Year(end) Resolution” will be for the next 30 days!

new year clock

One of my resolutions for the next 30 days is to get some of the exercise instruction posts put out here, as Cindy had suggested back when I asked for reader input.  Cindy, I haven’t forgotten you!  I actually have had one in the works since then, just have had other topics taking over it seems!  :)

Enjoy your Tuesday friends!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

***

If you know someone embarking on their own fitness journey for the new year, please feel free to send them my way. I offer fitness consulting by phone nationwide.  Visit my Coaching/Training and About Shari pages for more info.

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Plenty of Green on Black Friday

Nov 28

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Where is the long weekend going?  It’s FLYING by way too fast!  So much to accomplish this weekend, so little time left…

We did get this done yesterday:

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And the outside lights are done too, along with the wreath and lighted door swag.   Wahooo for the 68 degree weather in which to hang outdoor decorations – Mother Nature if you could do that again on January 2 I’d be ever so grateful! 

We attempted to hit up Kohl’s at about 11:00 AM thinking some of the crowds would be gone (ha!! not so much!)  Getting in and around was the easy part.  But once we saw the LINES for the checkout … LITERALLY WRAPPED AROUND the inside of the store … I told MSP there was no amount of money we could save that would make it worth standing in THAT line for the next hour or more.   Someone else can get 50% off the $10 Barbie, thank you very much.

Apparently I am more motivated by FREE TIME than I am by MONEY!  :)

In which case, let’s go waste some at Starbucks:

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I was craving some green other than money so post-workout I had a big green smoothie:

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And for dinner a big green salad: 
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Salad ‘fixins’ included spinach, dulse, yellow corn, nutritional yeast, one cooked egg, tomato, chia seeds, a drizzle of Annie’s Goddess dressing, and half an avocado. 

I also attempted taking Rascal out with me for a run but (much like the Kohl’s visit) I turned around shortly into it because he was all over the place and messing with my running mojo!  He got a short 1.5 miles – then I went back out to finish an additional 2.5 miles ALONE (and in a nice, neat straight line).   Riley was NONE too happy to be left home – but knowing her, she’ll cause us to end up at the emergency vet and that would put a serious dent into my already limited xmas shopping budget.  Her exercise will have to be limited to chasing her ball around the back yard until she can find a way to pay for her own healthcare!  ;)

Have a SUPER Saturday!  I’m considering another Kohl’s attempt… if I don’t put up a new blog post for the next 3 days you’ll know I’m stuck in the neverending checkout line! 

– Shari B. =)

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Nifty Ninety

Nov 18

Posted by Shari B. in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Well what do you know??  I didn’t crash my blog while doing the Wordpress upgrade!  I saw a tweet from a blogger yesterday that mentioned someone had tried to hack into her site and had failed, luckily!  Which lit a bit of a fire under my you-know-what to get cracking on getting my upgrade completed.  Reading through the 14 step process had kept me a bit intimidated, because I was petrified something would end up ‘breaking’ on the blog.  And my IT department for the blog is … ME!  (OK, and sometimes MSP – but I try not to bother him with blog stuff since this is MY baby.)

And so here I am with the 90th FitFeat blog post!  This feels important to me because a few years back, I started a personal blog and just didn’t follow through.  Truly I think I made it to about the third blog post (if that) and fell off the wagon. 

When I first started the FitFeat blog, I did so on the free platform of Wordpress.com.  I wanted to see how dedicated I’d be before moving to the self-hosted platform.  One, because self-hosting costs MONEY and two, because self-hosting requires a lot more administrative work.  You are in charge of your own backups, spam blocking, upgrades, etc.  The effort I put into blogging during my RV trip with mom and g-ma was what allowed me to realize that I would be blogging long-term.  Not only was I thoroughly enjoying it, but I was actually a bit obsessed.  (Who?  ME?  Obsessed?  … never!)  ;)

Thank you to everyone who has been following along, and a special thanks to those who have been here from the beginning!  I appreciate you all so much!  It would be very discouraging to put “pen to paper” (so to speak) if it seemed like no one was reading.  

Today’s question:  Since this blog is FOR YOU, are there any topics you would you like to see covered in a future blog post?  I’d love your input!  Drop me a comment!

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On to the Tuesday recap… Tuesday was a ‘feat-less’ day (meaning no exercise) unless you count the effort expended in keeping my eyelids open.  I’m not sure what’s going on with our dogs lately, but they have been really active at night which has been interrupting MSP’s and my sleep.   We were out cold Monday night by 9:30 and at 9:50 Rascal was standing in the upstairs hallway barking his head off like he was facing off with the BoogeyMan.  We went from dead sleep to being doused in adrenaline in about 5 milliseconds.

After finally getting back to sleep again, Riley was up around 2:00 trotting laps on the hardwood floor downstairs, clickety-click-click-clickety.  She’s put on a bit of weight recently, and as a result is now eating ’lean’ food.  So she scavenges in the middle of the night around and around and around the kitchen island hoping we forgot to put away our dinner, I guess.  (You’d think she’d figure out in one lap that there is NO food to be found.  Why she keeps going around is beyond me.  Unless maybe she’s trying to work off some of that flab so that she can get back to eating real food again!)

I think she covets my gigantic salads.

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If you look closely you will see my homegrown sprouts in the salad!  They were interesting because they were all different seeds and some still had the seed attached, so they had a great crunch!  SO FUN! 

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The other items in my salad were:

  • HB egg
  • spinach
  • nutritional yeast
  • sundried tomatoes
  • spiralized zucchini
  • sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 avocado
  • 1/2 tbsp Annie’s Goddess dressing
  • dulse

And I ate it at 10:30 am.  That was lunch.  I was hungry!!  :)  

We had a wonderful time at our friends’ house last night!  (Thank you Lynn and Jim!  Sorry we caused you to miss DWTS!)  I ate steamed veggies with garlic sauce and some perfect edamame.  With a little white wine tasting.  It was a GREAT time! 

Well friends, off get busy with the Wednesday list.  AND get in some exercise.  Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday!  And don’t forget to leave a comment about topics you’d like to see on FitFeat! 

– Shari B.  =)

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Tabata Time!

Nov 3

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 11 Comments

Hi friends!

Happy Tuesday…!  I hope your week is getting off to a lovely start.

In case you didn’t see it, there was a comment made to yesterday’s post by reader Tray about a FLEX IT FRIDAY this week – saying that if I post a flex shot (biceps) she’ll post one to her blog too.  This totally put a smile on my face (mostly because I have pretty tiny ‘guns’) and I thought it might be a fun way for you all to join in too!  Send me an email with your best BICEP flex shot shari@fitfeat.com by midnight Thursday and I’ll add it to Friday’s post with mine.  Don’t leave me hanging, now!

Monday was a great day for feeling on track again.  After the morning joe, it started with some Tabata-style weight training, which really becomes more a game of muscular endurance than strength.  Originally designed for sprint intervals to increase VO2 max, you see it used for many other types of training now.  You alternate 20 seconds of high intensity with 10 seconds of low intensity and repeat for 4 minutes.   When you do this for sprints, the goal is that your high intensity segments are so tough that truly by the end of the 4 minutes you are wiped.  Full-body exercises are a great use of this training style as well.

Well you know I love any exercise that alternates intensity with rest so when I first read about Tabata last year I was excited to try it out.  I later downloaded a Tabata timer on my iPhone and use it to turn pretty much any exercise into an interval session.  And of course, I like to make up my own rules, so instead of things like pushups and pullups, I like to do a full Tabata round for each muscle group.  Here’s how Monday’s workout went down.

Tabata Full Body

  • TM Warmup 5 minutes
  • Chest: DB Bench Press 4 minutes
  • Back: Seated Rows 4 minutes
  • Shoulders: Side Lateral Raises 4 minutes
  • Biceps: Seated DB Curls 4 minutes (2 min palms up, 2 min palms in)
  • Triceps: Tricep Pushdowns 4 minutes
  • Core: Planks 4 minutes
  • Legs: Static Ball Squats 4 minutes
  • Legs: VS Rear Lunges 4 min (alt legs every interval)

This is a quick and efficient training method, less than 40 minutes.  My bis, tris, and shoulders are definitely ‘vocal’ today!

By then, my bod was ready for a post-workout shake:  chocolate Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer with 1/2 banana.

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Then a mid-morning Lemon Larabar while working at the computer:

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At lunchtime I wanted to use up a couple of veggies that were looking a little wilty, so I cut up an orange pepper, roma tomato, baby bellas, and zucchini, tossed them with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt and roasted them in my toaster oven for about 25 minutes.

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During the last few minutes I sprinkled nutritional yeast on them to give them a ‘cheesy’ feel and made an avocado/sprout sandwich for the side:

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Veggie-licious!

Midafternoon called for another Larabar, this time Cashew Cookie flavor.  And a cup of herbal tea.  Mmmm, tea and “cookies”.  I feel so PROPER!  ;)

Dinner was a special treat because MSP’s brother happened to be passing through town and we hadn’t seen him since June.  So we went to one of our local favorites, Via Baci, where I would normally order a pizza (oh do they ever have great pizza!!) but since I have been making so many pita pizzas at home, I opted for the seared tuna salad with lemon vinaigrette on the side.  It was SCRUMPTIOUS and I even have a little leftover for today.  (Caution:  fuzzy iPhone pic ahead, view at your own risk!)  :)

via baci

A few pieces of candy corn for dessert at home while chatting with family – it was a great end to a fabulous day.

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Today’s questions:  Do you prefer intervals or steady-state exercise?  Have you tried Tabata for your cardio or weights?  How did you like it? Drop a comment to let me know your thoughts.

And then drop me an email with your BICEP FLEX!!!  We’ll all have a reason to pump up our biceps with some exercise beforehand ;)   and I know some of you are jokesters so it could be comical!

Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!

– Shari B. =)

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