I just finished an AWESOME lower body workout and am sipping on a green post-workout smoothie.  We attempted a hike this morning so we got really bundled up and strapped on our Yak Trax. We knew it was windy when we drove to the trailhead, but we literally got out of the car, took three steps, looked at each other and said, “Indoor workout instead??”  Holy hurricane winds, Batman!  You could hardly stand up straight.  So we came home, took the dogs out for Riley’s vet-ordered mini-walk (which really looks more like a drunken sailor wobble for Riley) while we were still bundled up tight and then I did 50 minutes of walking lunges, squats, wall squats, deadlifts, wide/straight leg deadlifts, calf raises, step ups, pulsing lunges, etc.  You get the idea.  I will be feeling it tomorrow!

No sense waiting until tomorrow to work on those 2012 intentions!  I feel a productive day coming on!

I have printed out my January No Slacker Tracker – if you are new to FitFeat, here is a post I wrote on it before.  And here is a link to a free January 2012 printable for you if you want your own.

This will give me a quick visual of when I’m moving my bod (I’ll mark that with one color and plan to also use another color to mark the days I feel I’m being nutritionally supportive of it as well).  All these little head colds are definitely my body’s way of telling me I haven’t been feeding it properly lately.

Really minimizing sugars (outside of fruit) will be on my list.  Good thing these arrived for Christmas and have already been gobbled up:

Huge thanks to my super friend Allison of The Sunday Flog for sending these delicious (and GORGEOUS) cookies.  What a fun treat!  Cory knows that when something is going to arrive in the mail from her, it’ll be delightful so he made trip after trip to the mailbox in anticipation.  (Last year her caramels were amazing and so were the FitFeat cookies!).   My photos don’t do her cookies justice, so go check out her post where she shows all the hard work and love that went into making these.  Allison, we devoured them that night and saved a couple to have with our coffee the next morning – thank you so much for the wonderful gift!

On that note friends, have an amazing celebration to ring in 2012 tonight!  I’m gonna go hit the list of things to get done and then I need to get ready to head out for our evening!

See you *next year*! 

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Who Needs a Garden Anyway
• School Shopping & Quick Eats
• Cuts Like Buttah

If you say the words “WOG”, “WALK”, “PARK” or really any phrase that starts with “Do ya wanna go for a _____??”,  Rascal perks right up!  Look at this face!

I LOVE starting my days outside almost as much as the dogs do!

It’s amazing what 5 days of eating and exercising back in my own routine again has done!  I was experiencing a bit of digestive stress during most days of school, and I attributed it to a combination of things:  rushed eating, too many types of foods in one meal, and STRESS!  This week after being back to my more simplified approach to meals, I feel great.  And I’ve been fortunate to get to work out every day.  I am back to using my “no slacker tracker” and so far all 5 days of March are filled in!  I’ve done 250 minutes of exercise in 5 days.  Perfect!   A little strength training, some cardio, some iron yoga (Bob’s yoga yesterday means sore traps and obliques today!).

I did do a little running Thursday night with my friend Jen, but other than that none of my cardio has been running much over the past months.  I thought I might miss running more, but I don’t (yet).  I think when spring fever sets in I might be itching to throw on my five-finger shoes and hit the trails.

Before I switch gears to some food talk, I want to send a big shout out to Sunshine Burger for putting my blog post on their Facebook page and Twitter yesterday.  It’s always such an honor – and I love that it creates conversation with some new folks!

So one of the meals I showed you in my last post was the Tempeh Spinach stirfry with Kelp noodles.  A classmate gave me a package of kelp noodles on her last day here because she was moving back to her home state and she knew I was excited to try them.  I have yet to find them in my local Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage, so I might order them online.  They are by a company called “Sea Tangle“.

OH.  MY.  These things ROCK! It’s like eating zero calorie food!  OK maybe not ZERO.  But SIX, which is practically ZERO!  A full 4 oz serving of these noodles is only 6 calories!  When cooked they remind me a little of rice noodles.  And they are a sea vegetable, which you all know I believe to be a fabulous addition your diets.

These are a great way to get that “noodle” feel into a meal without breaking the carb or calorie bank with regular noodles.  Even gluten-free noodles (while better for us than refined wheat noodles) still add up fast in calories if you aren’t careful with portion size.

I will definitely be experimenting with these more in the future, because I love noodly meals!

Have you ever had kelp noodles? What’s your favorite dish to eat them in?

Hope that you have a SUPER Saturday!

– Shari B.  =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Mochi, the Adult Version of Sea Monkeys!
• Bringing Back the No Slacker Tracker
• Blackberry Spread

So while the rest of the country seems to be in a deep freeze, here in Denver it is currently:

65 degrees!  Woot woot!

Today should have been a strength day (lower body) but when the time came to work out, I just couldn’t resist getting outside.  The iron will be there tomorrow.  The 65 degree weather will not.

I thought about going by myself, but another thing I couldn’t resist was the look from a certain set of puppy eyes.

So the crazy beasts went with me.  At least this way I get a resistance workout at the same time.

Notice the tight grip on the leash (nice pic of my thumb too, huh?)    The dogs always provide a nice bicep workout!

Something is definitely moving into the mountains – we might actually get some snow down here tomorrow night.  Check out our walking path zig-zagging all the way off the distance.  I do love that about where we live!

It was so nice out while I was walking I actually was wearing a T-SHIRT and I listened to xmas music on Pandora so that I could remind myself we are in the middle of December!

While writing this post, I’ve been jamming to a little Rihanna so now I’m pumped up enough to run downstairs to my studio and bust out some cardio.  I’m currently obsessed with her song “What’s My Name?” with Drake.  Can’t help but want to move when I hear that song!

What was your DDSD movement for the day?

Sounds like all of us doing the challenge have been battling a little bit of the holiday bugs that come and go.  Only 17 more days – we can do this!

Have a great afternoon!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Where Did the Weekend Go?
• Chili and Ice
• Wii Wii, Chocomole

Well, the weekend is almost over – between the event Friday night and all the homework I’ve been doing yesterday and today, it FLEW by.

Did you guys think I forgot to GET MOVIN’ today for our challenge?  Heck no!  We just got back from taking the dogs out for a walk (poor Riley hasn’t been on a walk since the Tuesday before Thanksgiving when she injured her hip at the dog park, so they were EXCITED to go on a walk today!)  That’s the extent of today’s ‘body moving’, unless I get in a little Wii boxing tonight after I throw my laptop out the window… er I mean, after I decide to throw in the towel on homework for the night.

Here’s a little glimpse of one of the recipes I created for this assignment (the one with the sauce was my plate, the one without was MSP’s plate):

These were the North African Crepes with Almond Fig Filling and Sweet Balsamic Reduction.  And they are gluten-free & dairy-free.

I’ve never eaten a fresh fig until this week.  Is that weird or is that typical?  Do you eat fresh figs?

Well friends, back to homework!  Just wanted to say hello – and for those of you doing the DDSD challenge, if you are posting exercise info before I get out here with a blog post, feel free to put the comment on a previous post.  They all come to my email regardless so I’ll still see what you did!

Hope your week starts off GREAT tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Chili and Ice
• Wii Wii, Chocomole

Well Monday turned out to be a fun exercise day.  First I did 25 minutes of intervals on the treadmill in the morning.  I really do get bored on the treadmill and have to vary my speed and/or incline constantly just to stay interested.  After a quick warm-up I did 1 minute intervals of 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5 mph running then walk one minute, then increase the incline a notch and do it again.  The time goes by so much faster that way.

Then when I pulled in the driveway after work, our street had been plowed again!  Which is good on one hand because at least they were moving all of the big ice chunks onto the sunny side of the street.  Unfortunately that also meant our ‘ice trench’ was covered up AGAIN!!!  So I put on my grubbies and some waterproof boots and went out there to dig yet another trench.  It was 50 degrees yesterday so things were just starting to melt a bit in the shaded part of our street.

This ice issue in front of our house has become the neighborhood comedy – neighbors sure like to chuckle at me every day as they drive by, thinking “Suckers!  You got stuck with the worst lot on the street!”    I appreciate that it at least provides a neverending workout, that’s for sure.

But THEN the exercise gets better … because it was so nice out, I couldn’t resist getting the dogs out for a some WOGGING!  It’s been so long I think they forgot what WOGGING is (and you readers may have as well!)  I can’t keep a steady pace with my crazy pups because they like to stop every two seconds to sniff something, then run, then sniff.   So we’re walking AND jogging:  WOGGING.  They had a blast and actually didn’t drive me insane this time.  I think it had something to do with the treats I stashed in my pocket.    It was perfect weather for a walk.  Now THIS is the Colorado winter weather I love and miss!

***

Every weekend, usually on Sunday, I sit down to come up with food ideas for the week for his dinners (mine are much easier because I always have veggies on hand and as such always have a salad, wrap, sandwich, soup, etc.)  This time MSP said he wanted me to make my mom’s chili during the week, but make it VEGETARIAN.  I’m sorry, say that again? Did you just tell me to make VEGETARIAN chili?  By George, he did!  He said he’d be fine if I used a meat substitute for the beef so that we could both eat it.  (When I made it last time, I just made two pots side by side, mine without beef, his with.) He’s the best, huh?  No wonder I love him to pieces. 

So I picked up some Gimme Lean “Ground Beef Style Veggie Protein” and used that in place of the beef.  My mom’s chili is awesome.  We love it.  And it’s very easy and we had it last night for dinner.

I always seem to change the recipe around in some way.  Here’s what I did this time:

Brown 1 package Gimme Lean “ground beef” veggie product in the bottom of  a large soup pot.  If you like onions, you can brown it with that.  I just added a little onion powder, since MSP doesn’t like onions.

After browning, add the following to the pot:

• 46 oz can of tomato juice
• 15 oz can organic azuki beans (rinsed & drained)
• 15 oz can organic kidney beans (rinsed & drained)
• 1/4 tsp celery salt
• 1/2 to 1 tsp garlic salt
• 2 Tbsp chili powder

Simmer for a few hours.

I plated my helping over some spiralized zucchini (just for Cindy, since she wants a spiralizer) and then topped it with some nutritional yeast (in place of cheese).  Mmmm my mom’s home cooking, with a twist!

What are your favorite beans to use in chili?  Are you a WHITE BEAN chili lover or a RED BEAN chili lover? I like ALL chili colors!    I don’t think I could pick a favorite.  I just love BEANS, period!

– Shari B.  =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• All That and a Bag of (Kale) Chips
• Mimic Your Favorites with Healthy Substitutions
• The Great Debate: Pre-Workout Fuel

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  I’m checking in with a quick Feats & Eats recap from Friday.

I did a Tabata-style workout for legs.  It was short, burned like FIRE and has me crazy sore today:

Tabata Legs:

• TM Warmup 5 minutes
• Smith Machine Squats 4 minutes
• Leg Extensions 4 minutes
• Lying Leg Curls 4 minutes

Afterward I had intended on doing an Iron Yoga session, but the DVR was acting up and after fighting with it for 15 minutes,  it definitely put me in an anti-zen mood so I threw in the towel.

A dog wogging session would have to suffice.  Just a quick 25 minute outing in the unseasonably warm weather.

One of my snacks during the day was this bite-sized Tropical Fruit Tart Larabar that my friend Beth gave to me  (thanks Beth!)  Mmmm so good:

Lunch was with a great friend at a local asian cafe, so I had steamed veggies with a bowl of miso soup (and the greasy egg roll that came with it).

On the way home I picked up a Gingerade BUBBLY!  Which I am slowly savoring.  I had half and saved the rest for later.  Those darn bubbly drinks make me happy!

MSP and I skipped a ‘regular’ dinner and had cereal instead, mine being Kashi Go Lean.  We had friends coming over at 7:00 for some WII NIGHT fun.  I was in the mood to try some new food to put out for snacks yet still stay on the healthy side.

First off I made some marinated mushrooms.

I started with the inspiration from a recipe at Allrecipes.com but made a few modifications. Here’s how I made them:

• 1/3 cup filled with half rice wine vinegar and half balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 small onion, thinly sliced
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon prepared spicy mustard
• 3/4 tablespoon agave nectar
• 2 cloves minced garlic (from jar)
• 1 pound small fresh button mushrooms

All ingredients except the mushrooms went into a saucepan and brought to a boil.  Add mushrooms, simmer for 12 minutes, stirring often.  Transfer to glass dish for chilling before serving.  Use slotted spoon to drain mushrooms for serving presentation. Don’t forget to set out some toothpicks!

They turned out really tasty and more elegant than my other usual appetizers (which I still served) and included:

Carrots with homemade hummus:

Brown-bag popcorn sprinkled with sea salt and chili powder:

And some unpictured Baked Tostito Scoops with salsa.

Last but not least, I FINALLY tried making Gena’s Chocomole for the evening’s dessert.  I’ve been wanting to try this recipe since the first time I saw it.  And I needed to do it sneakily so that MSP wouldn’t know that it was made of avocados before he actually ate it.

I used 2 avocados, 1/2 smashed banana, 10 pitted dates, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp carob powder, water to drizzle as needed.

This recipe ROCKED!  I loved it.  And I especially loved knowing that it wasn’t chock full of hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup or chemicals. It was SUPER rich and creamy.  Next time I will be sure to soak my dates, as they didn’t come out quite as smoothly in the food processor as I would have liked, (and Gena does mention that dates may need to be soaked prior) but it was still FAB.  Next time I think I will get a tart or pie crust of some sort and use it as a filling.  When I served it to our guests, I topped it with a little all-natural egg nog ice cream.  My serving was sans ice cream but I did add a few sprinkles of coconut.

Heavenly is what that dessert was.  And MSP ate AVOCADO!!! (muah-ha-ha! <insert evil grin>) He liked it, and wasn’t totally horrified when I told him what was in it.  But he did say he’d really have been fine with just NOT knowing that it was avocado.

We love Wii Night with friends!  Thanks J & G for hanging with us!!  It was fun!

Well blog buds, it’s a gorgeous Saturday and none of us should be sitting indoors on a computer, so I’m gonna skeedaddle and get outside!

Make it a SPECTACULAR Saturday!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• 13 Exercises for Friday the 13th
• Tabata Time!
• The Great Debate: Pre-Workout Fuel

Whew, what a busy bee kind of morning it’s been so far, and it’s only 8:47 as I begin to type this.  I’ve had a lot of blog-related catch up to do this morning, emails to reply to, made a pancake b-fast for MSP today, am still in my PJs and have yet to finish my post!  What’s weird is my coffee this morning seemed to be UBER-caffeinated! I used the same single-serve pod brand that I’ve used every day for years, and today it hit me like a truck for some reason.  I am having a hard time sitting still, my fingers are going faster than my brain and I feel almost shaky!  Crazy java!  Maybe the dogs slipped a”wog ruffie” into my mug, in hopes that I’d take them out to burn off this extra energy

Speaking of dogs… yesterday’s exercise included a 30 minute WOG for the pups.  Poor Riley hadn’t been out for a real wog since her cone-inducing incident.  And you could sure tell.  She was a maniac!  I spent most of that 30 minutes snapping her leash, shouting “Riley, BACK”.  I think she has stubborn mule syndrome short term memory problems because she only follows commands now for about a millisecond and then goes right back to whatever she was doing before I corrected her.   She thinks she can get away with anything now that she’s OLD, but I’m on to her little scheme. 

Since the wog was more for them than for me, I then hopped on the treadmill afterward, while watching an episode of “Eastwick” on Hulu.  It was 40 minutes of interval fun!  Speedwork this time:  I focused on including intervals of 9+ mph.  It was definitely a sweat-maker!  I might have to do it again today! 

Yesterday’s eats included a quick bite before my a.m. client, Ezekial toast (which looks to be drowing in vegan ‘non-butter’ but really it just doesn’t melt well!)

Later a PUMPKINY green smoothie…

This one had:

• 1/2 cucumber
• sweet clover sprouts
• 1/2 banana
• about 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
• palmful of raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• BIG fist o’spinach
• 1/2 cantaloupe

I felt like NOT having a salad for lunch, so how ’bout a salad in a can?  Amy’s Organic Minestrone, mmm warm and veggie-ful.

Late afternoon while I was prepping dinner stuff, I made a little batch of kale chips, this time with a good dash of nutritional yeast… and ate the whole batch.

We’ve been craving a visit to Garbanzo’s lately and just haven’t made it up there, so I decided we’d make our own homemade version.  I finally tried this box of Falafel mix I had in my pantry.  I wanted to see if it was easier better than the ones I’d made from scratch.  The answer:  NO WAY.  Not that the ones I made at home were all that and a bag of kale chips, but these were SO flipping dry you felt like you needed to load them up on some sort of sauce, which we did not have.

In their defense, I did follow their “broiling” instructions rather than frying them in oil.  They obviously wouldn’t be so dry if they were sopping around in a pan of olive oil before eating.  But that would defeat the purpose of them being a bit healthier than the charred deepfried version we get when eating at Garbanzo.  Sorry “Fantastic World Foods”, this one won’t make it into my grocery basket again anytime soon.

Here’s how my plate turned out:  smeared with my  homemade hummus, topped with a little rice pilaf, some roasted zucchini & baby bellas,  a rooster tail of romaine and 1/4 whole wheat pita.  Oddly, the broiled falafel look like GINGER COOKIES!!

And MSP made his into a pita pocket (sadly lacking any veggie action)

I need to make a good cucumber dill sauce to put on our leftovers to combat the dryness, so I’ll be on the hunt for a good (read:  EASY) recipe that I can use MimicCreme in.    If you  have one, please feel free to share in the comments section!  Or if you  have a homemade healthy falafel recipe that you love, please share that too!

OK, fit peeps, I need to get this party started moving on my Wednesday.  Don’t forget to email me a pic of your awesome bicep flexing for FLEX IT FRIDAY before midnight Thursday!  If you have a blog, be sure to include your blog address in the email so that I can mention it!

Have a brilliant day and I’ll see ya next time!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Look Ma, No Hands!
• The Great Debate: Pre-Workout Fuel
• Save Our Soles!

Just putting a quick post out to say hello and let you know that we are still waiting for SOME servers to make the switch.  It’s ALMOST there…    Hope that you are all making your way to the site ok!  Still having issues with email routing and the comments area.

This is a result of some of Saturday’s craziness:

(blurry shot… ! )  Let’s just say that taking the dogs out for a long wog turned into Riley needing to hit up the ER Vet last night.

One of the things I learned yesterday after much testing is that the “theme” that I used for FitFeat when it was at WordPress.com is not fully compatible with the version of WordPress running on the self-hosted side.  So after all the back and forth I spent on Friday, it looks like I’m going to be putting out a “new look” after all.  Just wanted to give you a heads up so that when you come back to FitFeat in the near future and it looks TOTALLY different, I don’t want you to think you’re at the wrong place!

Hopefully things will be running NORMALLY again very soon!  I’ll try to get back out later today with a Saturday recap… depends on how much time I have to spend on getting server things ‘fixed’.

I hope that you are all having a WONDERFUL weekend so far!

–Shari B.  =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Where Did the Weekend Go?
• Chili and Ice

Good morning FitFeat friends!  Are you so excited that the weekend is upon us once more?  I am ESPECIALLY excited because this weekend they are forecasting some 70+ degree weather and sunshine!  More chances for me to get some Vitamin D action! 

What a week it has been.  Have you noticed what’s been missing this week?  WOGGING!  My poor dogs.  They haven’t been out on a walk since Monday evening.  I’m a bad puppy-mommy this week!  I’ve had daily “social-cizing” plans and the rest of the time I’ve been glued to my PC in preparation for the upcoming blog move. 

Maybe yet today I’ll be able to get them out.   

Check out my new breakfast creation:

Now I know what you’re thinking:  “OMG what IS that?  It looks disgusting!”  But let me tell you this was one delicious little pre-workout fuel!  It is toasted Ezekial smeared with coconut oil (in lieu of vegan butter) and then smeared again with a MEDJOOL DATE!  Mmmm coconutty-datey sweetness!  Brendan Brazier (professional Ironman triathlete) says that coconut oil and dates are great exercise fuel:  the coconut oil has MCTs (medium chain triglycerides) that are more easily converted to energy by the body, not to mention easily-digested simple carbs in the form of the date. 

I often will eat half of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar for pre-running fuel thanks to Brendan’s info.  That particular Larabar contains dates, coconut and coconut oil. 

I met up with my friend (and fellow personal trainer) at The Bluffs yesterday morning for a hilly run.  Wendy is a serious running pro, let me tell you.  She’s a multi-time marathoner (including the BOSTON which one must qualify to enter).  The only reason I’m able to run with her currently is because she is nursing a foot injury.  Notice I’m not saying “keep up with her currently” — because she still could have TOTALLY left me in the dust yesterday, I know it.   

We got in 3.62 miles of hills and dales.  It was a BEAUTY of a morning!  And I felt fantastic afterward.  Wendy, thanks for a great time – I’m looking forward to going again soon!

After that I hit up Starbucks to catch up with another friend and her adorable son, where I had a grande SOY STEAMER.  (Essentially that means I have Starbucks heat me up a nice cup of soy milk, with no coffee or flavoring, and then pay them probably 3 times what a whole container of soy milk would cost!)  Ahhh gotta love th SBUX.  (Thank you Magen for treating — that was very sweet of you!)

Riley never gets any photo love since Rascal is the ham of the family, so I had to get her in the shot.  See what she’s saying with her eyes?  It’s “why haven’t you walked me today, ya big jerk!” 

Lunchtime meant it was time for me to get my major veggie fix.  I still don’t think photos do this salad bowl justice.  It is HUGE.  I measured yesterday and it is 11″ in diameter.    This one was chock full of spinach, heirloom tomatoes, yellow pepper, dulse, avocado, zucchini ribbons, kalamata olives, nutritional yeast, and pepper.  Dressed with extra virgin olive oil.  I ate every last bite and had a few baked potato chips on the side. 

A little Pecan Pie snack in the afternoon: 

And leftover “Lazy Girl Dinner“ from the other night whenI had Amy’s Organic Southwestern Vegetable soup.  I had it in a mug with a  little raw goat cheddar and Mary’s Gone Crackers on the side.  Right back to the PC I went…  MSP had his last softball game of the season, so I was right back to the PC to get some more blog work done.

I did need an evening snack since my soup didn’t keep me full very long, so I made a bag of homemade microwave popcorn (1/4 cup of plain popcorn kernels in a brown lunch bag, fold up the top, microwave for up to two-and-a-half minutes or until the popping sounds are far apart).  No fake butter flavor, no crazy chemicals, no fumes that allegedly cause lung cancer.  Sprinkle with some sea salt and/or nutritional yeast, and munch away!  

I fell asleep while watching “The Office”.  Lame.  All the social activity of the day combined with a whole lot of sitting at the computer made Shari very sleepy…

***

So for today’s discussion, I’d love to hear how you fuel your workouts. 
Are you an “empty stomach exerciser” or a “fully fueled exerciser“? 

I definitely vary, depending on the situation.  For running, ideally I get it done first thing in the morning after just a cup of coffee (and maybe a bite or two of Larabar at the most).  I feel lighter on my feet and don’t experience ‘side stitches’ when I don’t have food in the system. 

But sometimes when I meet up with running buddies, it’s usually a little later in the day and I don’t like to go that long without food.  So I’ll try to eat something about 90 minutes prior to the outing (usually anything sooner and I get severe side cramps during the run).  Yesterday’s toast with the coconut oil and date worked perfectly.  I had some simple carbs, some complex carbs and the coconut oil.  The date gave me some quick energy and the sprouted grain toast gave me some sustained energy.  It was plenty for my run and held me over for about 3 hours until it was time for SBUX. 

Other forms of exercise (like my weight training and hiking) don’t cause me to have to overthink the food situation as much.  Weight training is usually first thing on an empty stomach.  For hiking I eat about 90 minutes for hitting the trail, then bring a Larabar in case I need it on the trail.

There are a lot of schools of thought as to whether you should work out on an empty stomach vs. being ‘properly’ fueled.  Some say that if you exercise on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, you’ll burn more fat (still burning the same number of calories, but because your glycogen stores will be lower first thing in the a.m. you potentially dig into fat stores sooner.)  On the other hand, there are those that say if you exercise without properly fueling for it, you will be causing a bit of catabolism of the precious muscle tissue we all work so hard to keep.

My opinion is this is highly individualized from one person to the next.   Feeling crampy or nauseous during a workout from a belly full of food isn’t something that will keep you coming back for more.  But feeling lightheaded or dizzy from not eating enough and hence lacking energy isn’t good either.   Base it off of how long or how intense the workout will be.  Common sense applies here.  Listen to your body and take note of how you feel so that next time you can make the right ‘tweaks’ to feel FANTASTIC during your workouts. 

Isn’t that really what it’s all about anyway?    I’d rather feel great during my workouts (which means I’ll be more inclined to do it again tomorrow, and the day after that, etc.) than be too focused on what percentage of the calories burned are from fat.  (Been there, done that…!)   Overall if you are moving your body regularly and eating nutritious foods, you’ll get where you want to go.

Let us know which side of the fence you’re on — drop a comment!

Alrighty friends, I’ve got a LOT on the plate today so I’m gonna get cracking!  Have a FAB FRIDAY! 

If all goes as planned today I may be back later on with the last notice before the blog moves.  If not, you’ll know I hit an speed bump…   

See ya next time! 

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Save Our Soles!
• "His-n-Hers" Lasagna
• Why I Pulled the Plug on Soda

So I thought I’d take some time today to talk about another one of my favorite “tools” - but this one is not related to the kitchen.  It’s for our feet. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On to Monday’s eats:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• The Great Debate: Pre-Workout Fuel
• All That and a Bag of (Kale) Chips
• Look Ma, No Hands!