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5 Things That Can Undermine Your Health When Flying (and tips to avoid them)

Jul 9

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation, FitFeature, Keeping Fit | 6 Comments

Welcome to the weekend blog buds!

I have a fair amount of air travel coming up between now and October for business and fun.  I don’t know about you but flying really can work a number on my body.  I thought I’d share a FitFeature with five things to keep in mind when you travel by plane and some of the tips I use to stay healthy and keep my body feeling good.

1. Flying is very dehydrating to the body thanks to the recycled air and reduced oxygen

Focus on getting plenty of hydrating liquids before, during and after your flight.  It’s tempting to not want to drink up so that you don’t have to use the plane’s lavatory, but please don’t make this mistake.  It won’t be worth it in the long run.  Good choices are plain filtered water, coconut water, water with lemon, kombucha tea.  Unfortunately since you can’t bring your own liquids through security you end up needing to buy some bottled water once you are at your gate. I know it’s expensive, but your body will thank you.

Avoid dehydrating drinks like coffee and alcohol. (If you need a coffee, at the very least choose decaf.  Or better yet have herbal tea.)  And unless there is a fresh juice bar in the airport, skip the juice as well.  If it’s bottled it has been pasteurized with high heat so all the goodness of fresh juice is no longer in the bottled juice.  Further, if it’s not organic juice, you could be getting an extra-concentrated dose of pesticide chemicals.

Another thing you can do is bring some prepared water-rich fruits and vegetables along (fortunately food is allowed through security):  cucumber slices, watermelon chunks, grapefruit segments, oranges, salad with plenty of tomato, lemon segments (great for adding to your water once you are on the plane and for squeezing onto your salad as well).

2. The decreased air pressure can cause gas and bloating

Oh boy.  This one gets me every time.  I can FEEL that pressure on my insides and it’s so uncomfortable.  The day before and the day of a flight I really focus on eating foods that are easy to digest:  green smoothies, fresh green juice, green salads, lightly steamed vegetables, water-rich fruits, maybe a little fish and eggs (easier proteins to digest), Greek yogurt if you don’t have any dairy issues.

Things you may want to minimize:  beans, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, heavy/rich foods, meats (harder to digest and stay in your system longer), nuts that haven’t been soaked (they are harder to digest as well).  Pay attention to things in everyday life that cause you to feel bloated or a little ‘gassy’ – these are the things you don’t want to eat the day you fly.  They might be a little different for everyone.

3. Being cooped up with a lot of germs blowing around

I never used to be a germaphobe. Then about 5 years ago when we took a cruise, there was an outbreak of norovirus on our ship.  Thank goodness we didn’t contract it (about 500 unlucky other people did) and the entire staff were walking around in surgical masks, wearing plastic gloves, spraying disinfectant everywhere.  You would have thought it was the plague.   I started pushing the elevator buttons with my elbow (and only if it was covered in clothing!).  It’s shocking to me now when I pay attention in public places how many people are  coughing, sniffling, hacking and I swear they all somehow end up on your plane sitting near you.  One time I wore a bandana around my neck like scarf so that I could cover my face just in case.  True story.  Sounds ridiculous and extreme, but I didn’t get sick!  I rarely use hand antibacterial lotion in everyday life but I definitely do when I fly.  And this year, that’s exactly where I caught that nasty pertussis virus (whooping cough) that took me down for a while.

This is another reason that adding a lot of vegetables and fruits to your diet is helpful.  Increase your intake of all colors of produce to help boost your immune system daily.  If you aren’t a fan of eating all of your fruits/veggies, consider green smoothies, fresh organic green juices(and wheatgrass juice) or even dried greens powders.

I increase my intake of probiotics even more around travel times:  kombucha tea, probiotic tablets (50 billion), kefir, fermented foods like sauerkraut and tempeh.

4. Radiation exposure

There’s not much you can do to minimize your exposure here except for maybe ask for the pat-down in lieu of going through the new big X-ray machines.  However, you can choose some foods wisely to help cleanse some of that radiation.  Best choice?  Seaweed!  I eat seaweed a few times a week anyway, but before and after flying I try to incorporate some extra seaweed into my salads.  Soak arame and then turn it into a marinated seaweed salad.  Or add dulse flakes to more meals (it hides well in most anything cooked).  Look for a Japanese restaurant the next time you travel and order a seaweed salad and some miso soup.

Chlorophyll-rich foods are also helpful in cleansing – which if you are eating lots of dark veggies you’ll be covered.  This is where your fresh green juices, green smoothies, salads and greens powders are helpful.  I also keep a bottle of chlorophyll tablets around for high-travel times as well.

5. Flying really restricts movement

I am not one to get up and walk around much on a plane.  If my flights were longer than 2-3 hours each, I definitely would make an effort walk the aisleways to keep my leg muscles moving (this is especially important for minimizing the risk of DVT, deep vein thrombosis). 

While I know some folks like to be productive when hanging out at the gate waiting for a flight, this is the time to get your body moving.  I won’t ask you to do something crazy like wall squats or lunges in public (although you can do some hover squats in the privacy of a restroom stall if you’d like!) but definitely WALK AROUND.  Don’t take the escalator/elevator if there is an option for stairs, and don’t take those moving sidewalks.  Move as much as you can before/after the flight.  And walk on over to the restroom right before boarding!

Move around while you are waiting for your bags to arrive at baggage claim.  This is also a great time to do some stretching – reach down and touch your toes, do a few side bends, put your arms overhead and stretch up onto your toes like you just got out of bed.  And if you feel like people are watching you, don’t worry – there are plenty of odder things going on at the airport for people to look at!

***

The bottom line for minimizing the physical impact of air travel:  hydrate, load up on fruits/veggies, increase your sea vegetable and probiotic intake, and move your bod! Avoid the tempting prepackaged foods and fast food restaurants because all those things will do is weigh you down further, make you more dehydrated, zap your energy, and increase the toxic load on your body.  That’s no way to start your trip – especially if it’s for something fun! 

(Hmmm… that sounds a lot like what you hear me spouting for daily living here at FitFeat!) 

Do you have any favorite tips/tricks/home remedies for keeping the body happy and healthy when traveling?  Please share with us!

– Shari B. =)


 

 

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No Longer a Sardine Scaredy-Cat

Mar 18

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Pescatarian | 2 Comments

Hi friends!

Happy Friday!  I hope that you all had a FUN St. Patty’s day yesterday!  We celebrated the birthday of my lovely friend Keri, from Om of the Rockies, last night.  And at a Thai restaurant thankfully!  So we were able to miss the crazy crowds.  :)

I didn’t cook any special meal for the holiday this time, like I did for Mardi Gras.  I’ve been cooking a ton of OTHER stuff during the week, so I think by the time yesterday rolled around I wasn’t feeling inspired by anything in particularly related to the holiday.  (Would you believe I didn’t even have a GREEN smoothie on St. Patrick’s Day??  If ANY day calls for a green smoothie, March 17 would certainly be it, right?)

I did welcome back an old friend though – one that hasn’t been in my food rotation for a while.   A PITA PIZZA!!!  My favorite!

mmm this one had roasted veggies (mushrooms, red peppers and zucchini) with some green olives, fresh garlic, olive oil, sundried tomatoes, a few bits of goat cheese and after cooking I topped it with fresh basil.  I’ve had two this week already and I’m thinking I’ll be having a third today for lunch!

I also picked up a copy of Eating Well magazine over the weekend and have been trying out a few of their recipes.

I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand for their Smoky Artichoke-Sardine Salad, which I thought sounded really unique and interesting.  I bought a can of sardines a LONG time ago because of all the wonderful health benefits that sardines provide (excellent source of Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, omega 3 fatty acids and selenium).  Then the poor little guys just sat in my pantry.  I was always scared to open the can!  But I finally got up the nerve and they taste great!

If you’re in the mood for a change of pace in your salads, go check out the recipe at Eating Well.  :)

Are you a sardine lover?  Or you still staring at a can of them like I did, wondering what do with them? Sardine fans, share your favorite ways to eat them so that FitFeat readers who are hesitant to try them can get their vitamin D fix this weekend!

Speaking of Vitamin D – SPRING arrives this weekend!

Have a FABULOUS FRIDAY, blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

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Why You Might Want to ADD a Pound

Jul 8

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

And then put the rest into a rocking smoothie:

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

It was so refreshing post-run.

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

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

Ready for seconds!

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I added 1/2 cup of navy beans.

And called it lunch!

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

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B. =)

***

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

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

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The BEET of My Own Drum

May 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Hi friends!  It’s Friday-EVE!  Wahoo!

Ahhh I feel so relaxed at the moment.  I just got done with an hour-long yoga session and let me tell you … I have MISSED yoga.  (Gosh, a year ago I don’t think those words would have ever crossed my lips.)  I haven’t had a yoga sesh since before we left on vacation because when we got back we started into the Insanity routine (that I was lucky enough to borrow from a friend).  It’s definitely fun and different, and I sweat more doing this than I do in 100-degree Bikram studio.  However, 2 weeks in and I’m already a little bored.  Although you are changing DVDs daily, there is so much of each day’s routine that is just like the previous day, and the day before that, and the day before that, so all of a sudden I find myself not looking forward to the workouts.

So like everything else in my ‘fitness’ life, it will be mixed in when I need a good sweaty cardio/plyo routine or want to change things up. But it will no longer be a 6-day Insanity week.

This is one of the biggest reasons I think personal trainers can be a HUGE benefit (OK yes being a trainer, you may think I’m a bit biased ;) ) Because most of them will listen to your likes and dislikes.  I strive to find out what my clients really enjoy and incorporate it.  If you tell your trainer there are certain exercises you REALLY don’t like to do, they should adjust the program.  Because otherwise you may start to DREAD the session.  And that’s the fastest way to see your client list dropping like the stock market of 5-6-10!

This is also why you see on the blog that I’m always reading new fitness/nutrition books and trying new DVD workout programs.  Gotta keep it fresh for both MY workouts and my CLIENTS’ workouts!  I don’t like to be bored with exercise.  And I never give clients an exercise that I haven’t done myself so I am always trying my programs first, as I design them.  I want to know how much weight feels right, how sore it might make me afterward, if anything feels “off’ about a new movement.

One thing that I find myself NOT bored with still, after all this time is TABATA!!!  So quick, so intense, and then it’s done.  LOVE THAT!  Monday I did the following routine using my Tabata timer:

  • Straight-Arm Planks
  • Seated Row
  • Overhead Shoulder Presses (standing on one leg for increased balance work, alternate legs each set)
  • Tricep Kickback + Straight Arm Tricep Pulses
  • DB Bicep Curls
  • Boat Pose for Abs

I felt it for the 2 days following.  I really don’t think I will ever get bored with this style of training. It speaks to my short attention span. :D

On the food front, beets have also been speaking to me this week.  I roasted three of them on Sunday and have been adding them to a lot of my salads.  If you missed it, I talked about my salmon, beet and goat cheese salad earlier in the week.  This time I made a “deconstructed” salad with beets along one side, sauteed kale and a bit of herbed goat cheese in the middle and sliced pears on the other.  This was another flavor winner.  The sweetness of the pear and beets meshed perfectly with the lightly salted kale and goat cheese.

Beets are an amazing veggie health-wise.  Beets are very high in folate, manganese, potassium and rich in compounds that are found to help reduce inflammation, fight heart disease, and colon cancer.  While higher in natural sugars than other vegetables, they are still only 74 calories per cup, plus very high in fiber.

During a kitchen session with a client this week, she asked if I put beets in my smoothies.  I haven’t tried that yet.  But I’m considering it.  So I’ll keep you posted.  :)

Drop a comment on any one of the topics above!  Got any favorite ways to eat BEETS? Have you had a personal trainer that made you do exercises you hated?  Any workouts that you’ve been CRAVING lately, but just haven’t gotten to?

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday friends!

– Shari B. =)

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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 | 13 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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