FitFeat

where daily feats & eats can be adventures in themselves

Posts Tagged thrive diet

Windburn

Apr 13

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit, thrive diet | 2 Comments

Hey FitFriends!  How’s your Tuesday treatin’ ya?

I had a very fun run this morning at my favorite hilly trail with two of my favorite running buddies and when I got home at first glance in the mirror I thought, “hmm, weird, my sunscreen didn’t work very well today” because my cheeks were really red.  Then I realized it must have been from the WIND!  It was CRAZY WINDY on the run today!  The hill at the beginning of the trail is a great warmup walk and we were leaning into the wind to stay upright.

But it wasn’t raining or snowing.  So that’s a big plus.  And the sun was shining, which was an even bigger plus!

So another 5.4 miles logged in the ol’ Vibram FiveFingers.  I think my calves may not have been QUITE ready after all the Vibram love they got over the weekend (leg workout Friday morning, 5 miles Friday evening, 15 sets of sprints Saturday, yoga Saturday, 7.6 miles Sunday afternoon).  They are pretty tight & tender today, even after all the stretching.  I might have to make tomorrow a yoga morning – lots of downward dogs should do the trick!

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Welcome to “Random Topic Day” here at the FitFeat Blog.  :D

Run Carrot Run

My NO MEAT ATHLETE shirt arrived!  I’ve been a regular reader of Matt’s two blogs (No Meat Athlete and Health Blog Helper) ever since the inception of my own blog.  I happened upon NMA by accident after I starting eating along the lines of a mostly vegetarian, sometimes pescatarian diet and had done some Googling of vegan and vegetarian athletes.  Matt is an ultra-marathoner, vegetarian, soon-to-be-new-dad, animal lover, awesome blogger, and I’m sure a ton of other things.  I’ve always gotten a kick out of his logo (the carrot wearing a headband and sweating) and tagline (“Runs on Plants“).  So I finally had to treat myself to one of his running shirts.

Now, you all know I’m a stickler for customer service – let me just tell you that I am beyond impressed.  Matt wrote after I’d placed my order to say that the size small  shirts he received weren’t up to his standards and gave me a couple of options (refund?  wait for new printer? switch sizes?)   I went the route of going up to the medium size.  Well when he mailed my shirt he also included the small one that he wasn’t pleased with the printing of.  So now I am the lucky owner of not one but TWO No Meat Athlete shirts.  (Thank you Matt!)  And his standards must be higher than mine, because MSP and I both thought the small shirt was just fine!

If you haven’t checked out No Meat Athlete yet, go give it a look.   You won’t be disappointed.  Not only is he hosting a giveaway today of some compression socks, but he’s also donating all revenues from his Foodbuzz ad FOR ALL OF 2010 to help animals.

Run Drink Run

To know me is to know that I am a big believer in Brendan Brazier (professional VEGAN Ironman Triathlete), and his books.  I regularly drink Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer.   So I was excited when our local Whole Foods started carrying sample sized packets of the Vega Sport.  I tried the Lemon Lime flavor on Sunday afternoon just before heading out to run with my friend Amanda.

The taste is interesting.  Definitely not something you’d crave or have too  much of, that’s for sure!  :)   And I was a little nervous to have something that is considered an “energy” drink at 4:00 in the afternoon, for fear that I’d never get to sleep that night.  I ended up only drinking about 1/2 of what I made because I ran out of time and didn’t want to chug it.   I had a steady flow of energy during the run without ever feeling jittery and I had no trouble getting to sleep that night.  Typically I’m beat when it comes to exercising in the afternoons, so I’d like to think that I felt good thanks to this drink.  For the high cost though, I think I’ll stick to single-serve packets and only use it when absolutely necessary, like for long runs.

Delicious Dressing

One of my phone coaching/mentoring clients turned me onto this Annie’s dressing, Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette. It’s awesome!  I’m so glad she told me about this because I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise.  Only 35 calories per tablespoon, all natural, vegan.  No SOYBEAN oil either.  :)   It’s kind of a sweet smoky flavor.  I liked it so much I knew I had to share it with you too.  And by the way, this certain client is kicking some serious “you-know-what”.  I’m so proud of her!  Not only has she met her goals and continued to set new ones, she’s stayed the course while also kicking her smoking habit recently.  Maybe someday soon she’ll let me write a profile about her.   ;)

Already on Vacation (in my head anyway…)

I am getting SO excited for my upcoming vacation.  (I’m being vague on specific dates right now for a reason, even if I do have someone watching the house for us.  Safety first!!)   I’m especially looking forward to seeing my cousin Kevin and his new ‘crib’, dinner and maybe a run with reader Carrie (also my cousin), going for a run with Cindy from A Sparkle a Day, and hopefully Berni (According to Berni) will get to join us.  And I think it’s supposed to rain in Denver the day I leave, so that’s good.  Because it’s always nice to be heading TO nice weather rather than having it be gorgeous out at home as you drive to the airport.  :)

Thanks to a comment from Carrie when I went on that RV trip, I’ll be doing a lot of “sight-running“.  I’d been a little sketched out to run in strange places all by myself.  But Carrie told me about one of her best runs while she was on a trip, so I took off my ‘scaredy cat’ suit and went out at all the cities we stopped in on during the RV journey.  And LOVED it.  So I hope to post some more ‘digital postcards’ for you while I’m gone.

I’m sure I’ll do some blogging while I’m there, but not to the extent that I did while I was on the RV trip with my mom and grandma last fall.  The one lesson I learned on that trip was that I can get a little TOO caught up in technology.  (Who..me??)  And I think I missed out on some good quality time with my family because I was constantly in a mad dash to track down some Wi-Fi so that I could get my posts uploaded.  I don’t want to make that same mistake on this trip.  So there may be a few “Best of FitFeat” posts along the way.  ;)   I figure if the DJs at my favorite radio station can replay their shows while they go on vacay, I can re-post some of my favorites!

Speaking of, I better continue with the packing extravaganza!  I’m a week-long packer!  The suitcase is out of the closet, the packing LIST-writing has commenced, and we’ll have to see if I can squeeze it all into one bag or not!

Have a TERRIFIC Tuesday!  I’ll see you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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15 Weeks Till 26.2

Feb 1

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 12 Comments

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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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!

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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!)

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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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You Are My Sunshine (Burger), My Only Sunshine (Burger)…

Nov 10

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 7 Comments

“This blog is being brought to you live from …

under my heating blanket…!!!”

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I’m FUH-REE-ZING this morning.  It’s not even that cold outside.  I got chilled first thing during a client session and have not been able to warm up since.  So I undocked the laptop and now the puppies have turned it into a slumber party while I blog.

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Riley’s head is blurry because as I was taking the picture she was trying to worm her head under MY blanket.

What I’m craving right now is some Bikram’s Yoga.   Mostly just the 100 degree room… :)

A little SUNSHINE will do the trick!

Half of an Original-flavored Sunshine burger in a pita with hummus, avocado, leftover roasted mushrooms/tomatoes, cucumber with carrot sticks and a few roasted taters on the side.

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Here is why I prefer the Sunshine brand of vegetarian burgers (well besides the fact that they are named for my favorite thing ever, sunshine!):

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Look at the healthy stuff in that ingredient list!!  It is simply brown rice, sunflower seeds, carrots, herbs and sea salt.  That’s IT!!  Nothing in there that you can’t pronounce or that can’t be readily found in nature.

Compared to another brand of veggie burger (who shall remain nameless in the interest of being nice) whose ingredient list reads:

ORGANIC TEXTURED SOY PROTEIN WITH WATER, ORGANIC WHEAT GLUTEN WITH WATER, EGG WHITES, EXPELLER PRESSED SUNFLOWER OIL, CORNSTARCH, NATURAL FLAVORS FROM VEGETABLE SOURCES, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF ONION POWDER, MINCED ONION (DRIED), MALT POWDER, SEA SALT, KONJAC FLOUR, SPICES, NATIVE TAPIOCA STARCH, GARLIC POWDER, GUM ARABIC, YEAST, EVAPORATED CANE JUICE, TORULA YEAST, YEAST EXTRACT, EXPELLER PRESSED CANOLA OIL, LACTIC ACID, NONFAT DRY MILK.

That’s a lot of extra stuff that I just don’t need.  Malt powder?  In my burger?  No thanks!
That’s why Sunshine burgers rock!
It’s always nice to find food we can feel good about and companies willing to make healthy food extra-convenient!
Alrighty friends, it’s time for me to scoot!  Have a TERRIFIC day!
–Shari B. =)

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Flex-It Friday: Show Me the Gunney

Nov 6

Posted by Shari B. in Flex-It Friday, Keeping Fit | 11 Comments

Hey everyone!  Welcome to the second-best day of the week!

Since Friday’s are made for “Happy Hour” I’m having a little fun with my chocolate Vega shake this morning:

The Swamptini

The Swamptini

deet deet dit  diddit dit deeet (that’s my newswire sound, for breaking news…!)

We interrupt this usually semi-serious blog for some breaking comedy.  This just in… FitFeat’s first Flex-it Friday…


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OK, if you’re just joining us, you may think I’m crazy.  (It’s OK, you’re not the first.  Definitely won’t be the last.  :) )

Tray challenged me to a little “flex-off” so to speak :)   and since my readers are all fun-loving peeps, I thought I’d open it up to whomever would like to join in for a little Friday fun (not to mention motivation for a few pushups, as Cindy noted!)

Now if I was doing an ARMPIT FLEX OFF this may be the money shot (or maybe a sterno-cleido-mastoid flex-off, that crazy thing you see on my neck!!):

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I have a long way to go before I can “Kiss my Guns” with the big boys…  I would need a Stretch Armstrong neck or much longer lips:

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Cindy from A Sparkle A Day sent in some fun ones.  She keeps fit on her Mas (short for Maserati, aka treadmill) and bendy yoga moves!  Not to mention super healthy eating.   She is an amazing knitter too!  Where she finds the time to work, knit, run, do yoga, keep up with her kids, AND blog is beyond me.  Makes me tired just reading about all she does in a day.  Here is my favorite of the pics she sent me – hey, is she cheating??? I see a helping hand back there… ;)

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This is what she does to cheaters so play fair, yo or she’ll give you the smackdown:

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Tray from Trayn Harder has a superhuman forearm in addition to her bodacious bicep!  I’ve seen the workouts she does and would NOT want to meet her in a dark alley.  She likes hard stuff, like Crossfit!  (Ouchie mama!)  Tray is the inspiration for today’s Flex-It Friday – thanks Tray for keeping me smiling!

tray flex

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Alison from Mama’s Weeds is a Brendan Brazier (Thrive Diet) fan(atic) like me.   She’s so dedicated that you will often find her riding her bike in the DARK!  She’s an avid runner as well.  I’m not sure which is quicker:  her feet or her wit!  Her posts always keep me laughing.  She’s also a co-blogger at Health Blog Helper, where they are kind enough to share their lessons in blogging with the rest of us.  She’s got guns AND obliques:

bicep_for_shari

Better put in a pic of Brendan’s biceps for Alison‘s sake (Brendan is her boyfriend – he just doesn’t know it yet!!  ;) )  He also doesn’t know that he’s a competitor in our little flex-off.  :)   This is proof that you can build muscle AND be a vegan.  You do not need animal protein to build a banging bod:

brendan bicep

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And last but not least, yours truly, with the best bicep flex I could muster.  My right bicep got quite the workout yesterday!!  I better go do some curls today with the left side, or I might be typing in circles later.

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I’d just like to give a HUGE thanks to my “Flex-It Friday” Contestants for being good sports, supportive blog buds, and just all around FUN PEOPLE!  I appreciate you guys having a little Friday fun with me.  Readers, show them some luv by checking out their blogs!  It’s Friday, and your boss will think you’re hard at work from the intense stare pointed at your computer monitor.  ;)

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Speaking of blog luv, did you guys notice the cool new plug-in “CommentLuv” I added?  If you are a blogger, it shows your most recent post with your comment when you leave one (hmmm good incentive to comment often!)   Pretty cool huh?  (Thanks to Health Blog Helper where I first saw the plug-in.)

And because this blog is supposed to be about FITNESS :)   I should note for the sake of accurate journaling that yesterday I had an AMAZING 5K run with my client in the gorgeous weather.  (Colorado broke a weather record now in the HEAT direction, rather than freezing direction.  What a kooky weather year it has been.  79 is on tap for today – you know where I’ll be!)

Today’s question:  what muscle group would you like to show off in a future Flex-it Friday??   Let’s celebrate the effort we put into keeping our bodies fit!

Friends have a FABULOUS Friday!

See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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