Health and Wellness

Safeway is Heading Back to Nature

By admin  |  2011/02/18 08:33 Posted in Environmentally Focused, Health and Wellness, Products  |  Comments (1)

Fortunately I live in an urban area that borders on the suburban so I have tons of access to healthy, natural foods. However, many are not so lucky. As an example, when I go to visit my father who lives in a more rural area, it’s much more challenging to find vegan/vegetarian meat alternatives or healhty organic foods at the grocery store. Even in my daily life, while I do have access to Wegman’s and Whole Foods, they are considerably more expensive than my local Safeway, so I have to be far more selective with my food purchases than I would like. Luckily, Safeway wants your business and is looking to appease those of us who want healthy, natural foods, but don’t want to spend our whole paycheck. They have several brands including their own store label “O” which focuses on organic food products. These have been available for many years, but now Safeway appears to be adding a new natural foods brand called “Open Nature“. According to the website, “Open Nature” is “Food thoughtfully prepared and shared with care“. I love, love, love this concept. So many times I have wanted to be able to pick up a quick, inexpensive meal to go for my family and have left with just a salad or veggies to grill. Even more often when we’ve had friends over for a cookout, party or pot-luck I’ve been saddled with making a tough choice between buying inexpensive foods that run against my moral grain (I’m strictly opposed to factory farming and the heavy handed use of unhealthy preservatives, sweeteners and far too much fat in most prepared foods). While I may not choose to eat meat myself, I can still purchase and make good food for my friends and family and now I have even more options. The new Open Nature product line boasts that it is minimally processed, with no artificial ingredients and it’s 100% natural. How exciting!  Read about the new products, including natural meat and poulty products, their plans to expand to other product offerings like bread, pasta, yogurt and more. Finally, you can read more about why Safeway is moving to natural ingredients and humanely raised animals.

From the website FAQ:

What is OPEN NATURE™ Beef?

Under the OPEN NATURE™ brand, you will find premium quality beef that is graded USDA Choice. Additional product claims include:

  • 100% Natural
  • 100% Angus Cattle
  • Raised without Antibiotics
  • No Added Hormones
  • All-Vegetarian Fed
  • Guaranteed Tender
  • Product of U.S.A.
  • Certified Humane

What are the benefits of barnraised hogs?

The key benefits are animal health and meat quality. Because they are raised in a barn, the animals are not exposed to the extreme temperatures of the Midwest. It also allows our farmers to monitor their diet. Our hogs eat a controlled, 100% vegetarian diet and drink clean water that hasn’t been exposed to pesticides and herbicides. A healthy animal is a happy animal, and provides the best product quality for you and your family.

What types of feed are chickens fed and what is a vegetable diet?

We strongly believe that the flavor of the chickens comes from the feed that they eat. Our feed is made from high quality, nutritionally balanced ingredients. It is composed of approximately 70% corn and corn gluten meal and 15-18% soybean meal, with the balance of the diet made up of salt, vitamins, and minerals. The diet is called a vegetable diet because the protein and energy sources, corn and soybean meal, are all vegetable in origin. NO animal by-products or animal fat are used in the chicken feed.

While, personally I would rather everyone eat less meat so that we can raise cage-free, free range, healthy animals everywhere, I feel like this is still a step in the right direction. While I may choose not to eat meat for personal reason, I have many friends and family members who still enjoy a good meatatarian cookout and this will help me feed them responsibly. Thanks to Safeway for continuing to offer new varieties of healthier foods.

The Verdict is In: The ‘Buch is Good!

By admin  |  2011/02/04 18:36 Posted in DIY, Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Supplements, Product, Recipe, Tutorial  |  Comments (1)

If you have been kind enough to read my blog prior to this entry, you may know that I love kombucha. I enjoy the flavor and the wonderful health benefits, but purchasing ready made can be pretty pricey. So, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and brew my own batch. I bottled it on Sunday and then allowed it to complete a second ferment. My little SCOBY friend was fed a bit of peach puree to feast on during this week. I grabbed my bottles and took them to share with my friends at work and my temple and sent a bottle home with my parents too. So far, everyone seems to really enjoy it. It turned out a bit sweet as you can imagine with peach puree and while it did get that pungent vinegar flavor that I’ve grown to love, it did not get very bubbly. All in all though I’m very happy with my results. It was easy to make and it’s already paid for itself. My next batch is brewing now and I’m hoping to enjoy it soon. I’ll have to figure out how to start brewing more than one gallon at a time though. I’m blessed with many friends and family and I want to ensure that I have enough for everyone so I think that I’ll start up a second fermenting jar with the baby SCOBY growing now. So now that peach is out of the way, what flavor should I try next?

The ‘Buch is in the Bottle!

By admin  |  2011/01/31 14:07 Posted in DIY, Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Supplements, Product, Recipe  |  Comments (0)

Good news! As a follow-up to my previous post “The ‘Buch is On!” I can say that it appears to have been a successful experiment. I finally had a thin, white, filmy pancake looking SCOBY grow on top of my tea brew. It looked like kombucha, it smelled like kombucha, so I called it done. I removed the new SCOBY that grew on top and placed it into a glass jar with a cup of the kombucha to sit while I brewed, sweetened and cooled a new gallon tea. Once the tea cooled to room temperature, I plopped in the SCOBY and juice and recovered my jar with cheesecloth, a rubber band and returned it to it’s special place to await another fermentation cycle. The completed batch I bottled in four growler’s that I had set aside after my last visit to the Pub Dog.  The to-go bottles from Pub Dog are the perfect size if you want to make mutliple flavors or share your batch with friends. To each bottle I added a bit of pureed peaches and lightly capped. I’ve left them out to complete a second fermentation over the next few days to allow the flavors to marry and to make my sweet nectar a bit fizzy. I’ll post the results of the taste test once I crack it open for drinking this weekend.

Of Meditation and Melatonin

By admin  |  2011/01/24 08:19 Posted in Health and Wellness  |  Comments (0)

In my recent post about Post-Concussive Syndrome I talked about some of the symptoms which included nausea, dizziness, headaches and more. What I would later discover is that one of the worst issues that I would experience would be the effect on my sleep. Normally, I sleep like a baby. My ability to fall asleep instantly is notorious. I believe this to be a result of the years that I worked full-time, went to college full-time and raised a small child as a single mother. My daughter was only three when I started college, which added an additional layer of challenge. In order to combat my sleep deprivation I would frequently take short breaks in the restroom at my work, where I would stand up in the bathroom stall and take a quick nap with my head leaned against the stall partitions. Luckily I worked on the night shift, so I wasn’t likely to be disturbed. I learned to get by on a few of these 15 minute rests, or sneak in a quick nap while I waited for reports to run at 2-3 am.  I was also known to use my lunch hour to go and take a nap in an unused office. In fact, my husband jokes that I am often asleep before my head hits the pillow, which annoys a light sleeper who has trouble nodding off. I even fell asleep on the back of his sport bike, which needless to say, he did not find amusing. In my defense, I’m very small so I can only see the back of his jacket, it was warm and the bike was vibrating me to sleep….but I digress.  After my concussion, the first thing that I noticed was that I simply couldn’t sleep. I would like in bed from 11pm to 1:30ish in the morning before I’d finally fall asleep, only to nap briefly before popping awake again around 2:30am. Oh, the misery. I would lay there in the dark, miserable, meditating and praying that I could go back to sleep. Finally around 4:30 am I would drag myself downstairs to the basement and lift weights for an hour before showering and heading out to work. As if it wasn’t bad enough that my head was throbbing and I wanted to barf all day from the concussion, but now I was a sleep deprived zombie too! I went back to see my doctor immediately to find out what I could do. I suspected that my symptoms were being exacberated by the lack of sleep and he agreed. He prescribed a non-narcotic pain reliever (which I didn’t fill, because that’s just how I roll) and over-the-counter melatonin to help me sleep. He also cautioned that until my brain could tell the difference between night and day and learn to recognize my old sleep patterns, that I couldn’t do anything in my room. No reading, no crochet, no watching t.v., just total darkness. I headed to my local Safeway and snapped up a buy one get one free special on 5mg fast acting gel tabs of melatonin. I wanted to actually reset my sleep times to get me to go to bed sooner and up sooner. I figured, hey now’s a good time to reset the old circadian clock, no?  So, around 9pm I started to relax. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and changed into my jammies. I headed to my meditation area and did a nice, peaceful guided meditation for relaxation. Finally, as it neared 11pm I went to bed. I warned my husband not to shine any light on me when he finally came to bed, to be very quiet and help me to get a good night’s sleep. After all, he was suffering from my lack of sleep as much as I was. (it’s terribly difficult not to disturb someone when you are tossing and turning all night). Finally, I dabbed a little lavender essential oil on my eye mask, just above my nose, dropped my pill and turned out the light. I did notice that I went to sleep very quickly, but did wake up in the middle of the night for a bit. However, I returned to slumber within 15 minutes or so and slept for the remainder of the night. I didn’t exactly feel bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next day, but at least I wasn’t miserable. The next night I practiced the same. A little yoga to stretch before bed, 15 minutes of meditation, a little lavender oil on my eye pillow and my melatonin. I turned off my light, my head hit the pillow and….out like a light. Amazing! I slept like a log, or maybe more like a brick. I never even moved. I awoke at 6:30 am feeling pretty freaking fantastic. No grogginess at all. I went straight downstairs and worked out. Glorious! I can happily say that I managed to repeat this sequence nightly now for over a week. My doctor indicated that I could continue my melatonin for 2-3 weeks. I’ll continue taking it through the weekend and then see how it goes next week. I’ll take one every other night to taper off and then fly free again. Hopefully my internal clock will have recalibrated properly and I can continue my uninterrupted blisful sleep. I can say that I definately recommend taking melationin if you are experiencing insomnia or other sleep issues. Unlike prescription sleep-aids, there is not risk of addiction, no hangover the next morning and it’s a natural hormone that your body produces each night anyway, so it really works iwth your sleep cycle.

The ‘Buch is On!

By admin  |  2011/01/12 15:40 Posted in DIY, Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Supplements, Product, Recipe, Review  |  Comments (0)

I love, love, love kombucha. In particular I like GT’s Kombucha because it’s tart, fizzy and a healthy alternative to diet soda (which I also love, but doesn’t love me back). Unfortunately I can only buy it at my local Whole Foods and the convenience store on the bottom floor of my office building. While I am ever grateful that they offer it, I don’t enjoy dropping 5 bucks on it every time I have a hankering for tea.  I recall my grandmother and mother making mushroom team when I grew up and decided to sort out how to start doing it myself. Then I found this, the home brew kit offered by Kombucha Brooklyn. Boy, was I stoked; it’s only $30.  That means that even if I totally screw this up, and I might, if I only get 6 bottles of kombucha out of this, then it’s still an amazing deal. Even better, if I actually figure out how to make this work without killing it, think of the savings! I could even share my SCOBY (that’s the gooey, live bacteria that makes this tasty tea) with friends and family. While you can purchase just the scoby and use your own containers and tea mixture I was really interested in the kit because I wanted to make it just like they do at least once to get a good feel for the tea. Well, today was my lucky day because my USPS lady dropped it off on my front porch and I went straight to work. I opened the kit and it included 1 large glass container, in which to ferment my kombucha, 1 glass jar with a SCOBY inside, 6 tea bags, and organic cane sugar. The handy instructions were clear and easy to follow, so I brewed up a 1/4 gallon of tea, added the sugar, filled the fermentation jar and dumped in my SCOBY. It says to begin tasting my tea every 4 days and then it should be ready for bottling in 2-3 weeks, then on to the next batch.  I’ll post updates as I go, and give my comparison to the commercially bottled versions out there. My first batch is going to be plain, but after that I’m going to start experimenting with additives of dried fruit and seasonings, so wish me luck.  I’m off to ‘buch!

Thanks to Kombucha Brookly, here’s more information about kombucha tea and it’s benefits:

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that is both delicious AND health-supportive. Today, it is known around the world for its detoxifying and energizing effects. This elixir contains:

  • Probiotics
  • Polyphenols
  • B Vitamins
  • Vitamin C
  • Organic enzymes
  • Vital amino acids
  • Organic acids

Arnica: The Downhill Mountain Biker’s Friend

By admin  |  2010/09/29 12:02 Posted in DIY, Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Supplements, Product  |  Comments (2)

Downhill mountain biking is not safe, probably not a good idea, but always a good time. I’ve been riding for about 2 years now and started racing this year. I don’t have any biking experience really and tried cross-c0untry riding a handfull of times before making the switch. At first I was terrified and hated it, but now I’m totally addicted. I ride as often and as long as possible, often until my hands bleed and well beyond exhaustion. Unfortunately, as a direct result, I am nearly always nursing at least one injury. While I do wear loads of safety equipment (full-face carbon fiber helmet, flak jacket that covers my chest, back, and arms and shin guards that cover me from knee to ankles) unfortunately you just can’t protect everything. *As a side note I learned the hard way this past weekend that wearing a mouth guard is also essential to prevent tooth and mouth injury and reduce the chances of a concussion.  The steep rocky terrain combined with skinnies, jumps and speed all end in injury at some point.  Fortunately my acupuncturist recommended arnica a few years ago and my mother, a massage therapist, also recommended it and began incorporating it in my monthly treatments. She also purchased me the essential oil to use at home after injury because of the frequency with which I am acquiring new hematoma. I now swear by this stuff as it does seem to help me heal more quickly than my husband, who doesn’t belive in natural treatments.  Arnica is a flower native to EurAsia and cultivated by Native Americans. It has been used topically to ease inflammation and promote healing for bruises, sore muscles and injury caused by overuse or trauma. The essential oil can be married into a lotion or applied directly to the skin and is an ingredient used in many organic or all-natural healing balms. After a long weekend of hard riding and rolling around over rocks and under a 40 lb. bike I am very, very thankful for this all-natural remedy. So if you find yourself sore, overworked or bruised whether its from downhilling or whacking your knee on the coffee table, consider grabbing yourself some arnica online or at your local health food store to help ease the pain naturally.

Learning to Run

By admin  |  2010/09/07 08:31 Posted in Health and Wellness  |  Comments (1)

I was once a track star. Not really. I was on the track team, but I was not the fastest and rarely won any races. I ran sprints and hurdles, namely 300M high hurdles, 110 hurdles, 200M, 400M and 800M relay. It turns out that being short is not an advantage when it comes to running fast; who knew. I did love to run though and despite my lack of speed I did win the award for prettiest over the hurdles, so there’s that.  Anyway, I flirted with running about 2 years ago when my husband decided that he was going to get up early and run in the morning. Unfortunately I am not a morning person. I’ve worked on adjusting my schedule over time to allow me to get out of bed at a decent hour to avoid making my poor daughter late for school and thus subject to detention for my slackerness, but I still don’t like it. I definitely wasn’t about to continue to drag myself out of bed to suffer, just getting up and ready was torture enough as it was. Fast forward to last month… My work is again sending out tons of emails about the Komen Race for the Cure. They are even giving away prizes; and that is a mighty nice looking Under Armour shirt. All I have to do is run a 5k you say? Sold! So, I registered to race. It was a timely announcement anyway as my Step-father’s sister passed away only weeks before from breast cancer in her early 30′s and my Mother-in-Law just survived breast cancer surgery and following radiation treatments. My best friend’s mother also has survived breast cancer and she is now a high risk for developing it herself. So, I decided to run. What the hay, everyone was born to run right? This is what our ancestors did for food for heaven’s sake. Surely an athletic, trim and healthy (ha ha!) 30 something like myself could run a measly 3+ miles. HA! Despite my athleticism I found that running is still a miserable, slogging, painful experience for me and I have only a few weeks before I run my race for the cure. (BTW, click the link and donate to my suffering for a good cause please). My first attempt at running again ended in painful shin splints, side stitches and general misery, so I decided to look for help. I read that the new school thought on running shoes is that too much cushion is bad for you. My $20 shoes from the local warehouse club with marshmallows for soles probably weren’t going to cut it. I switched over to my Gola classics which seemed to help me. I was able to run without feeling like I had been beaten with a baseball bat the next day, so that was good. Next, I needed to train to run the full 5k. My girlfriend indicated that anyone could do it, even my untrained self. I however beg to differ; clearly she has not seen me dragging my sorry self around the block looking like I may puke or pass out at any moment. As a quick back story, I recently upgraded my old 2004 cell phone to the new iPhone 4 and love the apps. Naturally I looked for a good running application and found the perfect one. It’s called Couch to 5k. It can take anyone, even those who have never run, or still hate it and make you a 5k racer. I love it! It lets you listen to your own music and even tweets your peeps that you’ve finished a new stage each time you run it. (This helps if you have motivator friends who track your progress but can’t actually run with you). The Couch to 5k program or C25K takes 9 weeks to get you in 5k form. It will teach you to increase your running gradually to the point that you can run 5k or 30 minutes straight. Ambitious? Yes, but it works. As an example, week 1 day 1 (each week is broken into 3 running sessions) has you do a 5 minute warm-up, followed by alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes. Even I can do that! Today I will move on to week 5 session 2 (5.2) and I have in store for me today a 5 min. warm-up followed by an 8 min jog, then a 5 min walk and finishing up with an 8 min jog. Crazy right? The best part is that I’ll do it easily and still have energy to run more. I love this app!  I’ve been running regularly for a few weeks now and I really love it. It feels good, its a great stress reliever and I’ve already lost 5 lbs that I wasn’t expecting. It’s certainly slimming down my physique, which in my case is a good thing. I tend to have a stocky, muscle-bound appearance because of the action sports and weight lifting that I do, so this adds a nice balance. I’ll post some regular updates as I move closer to my race date and share my experiences as I grow into a real live runner. The best part about running I think is that I can do it anywhere at any time. I don’t really need a of special equipment and I don’t have to drive anywhere; it’s beautiful. So, if I can run, so can you. So get out there and pound the pavement!

Of ACV and POD

By admin  |  2010/08/31 11:33 Posted in DIY, Health and Wellness, Product  |  Comments (1)

Where to begin, well…first, this is not an article about that band from the 90′s, it’s about Perioral Dermatitis (POD) and the homemade remedy that finally worked, Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). Next, you may find yourself asking, “What is Perioral Dermatits“? Well, to summarize, dermatologists don’t know exactly what causes it, although they do have a few theories. They do know that it occurs mostly in adult women, looks like acne, but acts more like eczema, and is linked to steroids. (no, I haven’t been juicing, they mean corticosteroids, ie. prednisone and other prescription medications). Where it gets tricky, it that many Dermatologists indicate that it isn’t serious, its akin to acne and it’s just us women being oversensitive and vain. I can tell you however, that it hurts! It burns, it itches, it stings, it hurts. I found it to be so disruptive to my personal and work life that I started to look for my own cure. It’s notoriously difficult to treat, but hat’s just because Dermatologists can’t agree on what it is, or how to treat it. I’ve heard everything from stop using fluoride toothpaste, to take oral antibiotics for a few months. They did all agree that I must immediately stop using any creams, lotions, face wash or makeup.  That’s right, just at the time when my face was covered all around my nose, mouth and chin, with painful, inflamed red bumps that were itchy, flaky shiny and generally awful looking, my Dermatologist basically said, just stop acting like a girl and being so sensitive. In my day job, I actually have to go out into public and talk to people. Most of my friends sympathized, but strangers stared at my face with mild disgust and concern. It wasn’t just uncomfortable, but it affected by ability to be effective at my job because people were freaked out.  I did find out that during an abdominal surgery that I had in October of 2009, I had an allergic reaction to the paper tape that they used to cover my eyes. (Yes, I know that it’s completely ridiculous that I’m allergic to paper tape, but none of my friends were really all surprised. They just sort of rolled their eyes and said, of course you are….). Anyway, my eyes swelled so large while I was under anesthesia that they gave me prednisone, yep they gave me steroids. Apparently, this was enough to get the perioral dermatitis ball rolling unfortunately. What started with a few small red bumps on my chin, that looked like any other pimple, began to ooze, itch and spread. Egads! Within a month or two my face was raw, red, angry and I was miserable. I used hydrocortizone cream, which made it temporarily better and helped to quell the itching, but then it came back x3! I kept covering it with lotion and cream to try to keep the flaking, itching and dry skin from looking so creepy, but it didn’t improve. Finally, after talking with a dermatologist and realizing that they have not a lot of information, but recommend tossing you on oral antibiotics for a few months anyway, (oh and by the way, it could come back at any time once you stop the antibiotics) I started doing some research… it’s very similar to seborrhoeic dermatitis, which I have in two small patches on my scalp. I learned that it is suspected that it is caused by a yeast that normally grows on your skin, but in some people can get out of control and the toxins that it releases cause irritation. Sounds reasonable, right? Especially in someone like me who is over the top allergic to everything and has incredibly sensitive skin. I thought, what could help re-balance my skin and kill yeast and increase the healthy bacteria that are supposed to be taking care of this stuff? Well, I came up with probiotics and apple cider vinegar. I already eat probiotics (greek yogurt, kombucha, good belly, etc) so I just bumped up my intake a notch to help get things in order. I then, started thinking about how I could kill off the yeast and get rid of the awful dermatitis. I decided to reduce my face washing and stick to only the most mild natural products to stop any further irritation. I used an astringent made with chamomile and cucumber to cool and help relieve the itch. (I never stopped wearing my make-up, btw…that will never happen). I did cut down on my make-up products to include just mineral powder foundation and blush and mascara. I stopped wearing lipstick, gloss and chapstick. Finally, I mixed up a batch of apple cider vinegar, diluted with a bit of water. I started using the ACV as an astringent 2x a day. I noticed immediately that it burned anywhere that the dermatitis was on my face, but caused no discomfort on the normal skin. I did try to skip wearing make up on the weekends and started swiping my face with the ACV 3x a day. After about a week I noted immediate improvement. In two weeks it was barely noticeable. After a month my skin was clear again. As my face healed the ACV burned less and less. (the weeping did increase for the first week, but improved as my skin cleared). I stopped the ACV and it did come back, so I continued using the ACV once a day. After two months my skin remained clear and I began to taper down the ACV to every other day. After 3 months I decreased it to 2x a week. I now wipe my face using the ACV once a week or so, but the POD hasn’t returned and my skin is great. I still get an occasional pimple once in a blue moon, but no clogged pores, and no POD. ACV astringent is inexpensive and all natural and make a great astringent. My only complaint, is that when used in the strength that I have been using it your face does often smell like boardwalk fries, which can be occasionally unpleasant. I notice it most often if I’ve been sweating, usually during and after a workout. However, it absolutely cleared by POD and cost only pennies and had no ill effects on my body or skin, which I can’t say the same about using oral antibiotics (I’ve had some pretty nasty experiences mixing antibiotics and my delicate digestive system). So, for me, ACV worked better than anything my Dermatologist prescribed and I didn’t have to suppress my vanity, risk cavities or gastrointestinal distress. In my humble opinion, apple cider vinegar is the best treatment for perioral dermatitis that money can buy. However, it still took months of discomfort before I looked and felt like myself again, so if your Doctor recommends steroids, consider the possibility that you could develop POD and ask your Dr. about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that option because I was unconscious when it was administered, so if that happens to you, just remember to start using the ACV before things have a chance to get out of control; it won’t hurt anything to proactively wash with vinegar. Hey, if nothing else you can reuse the olive oil that I recommend as an eye makeup remover and the apple cider vinegar that I recommend as an astringent and make yourself a nice salad ;)

What’s So Great About This Greek Yogurt Anyway?

By admin  |  2010/04/20 09:22 Posted in Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Supplements  |  Comments (2)

My first exposure to eating Greek yogurt for breakfast came from my friend and coworker who swears by the stuff.  As a person with a laundry list of gastrointestinal issues I’m no stranger to yogurt due to the probiotic content. I’ve used plain fat-free yogurt in sauces for some time, but I’ve never really learned to love the taste of yogurt. Yogurt became just one of those healthy foods that I knew I had to eat from time to time like celery or seitan. I mean, it’s ok, but I wasn’t going to my list of favorite foods or anyting. So finally, I started poking around and asked, “So what’s so great about this Greek yogurt anyway”? Is it made from goats? Does it taste different? What’s going on here?  Rebecca answered that it was higher in protein. Now my interest was really piqued and I began to do a little online research. She was absolutely right, it is higher in protein. According to Healthy Cooking, Greek yogurt is made by straining out the whey (liquid) which makes a thicker, creamier yogurt. Even more fantastic is that unlike regular yogurt, you can actually cook with it and it won’t curdle or separate. This means that you can make healthier, lower-fat versions of some of your favorite creamy dishes!

“Plain yogurt can also easily be substituted for buttermilk or cream when stirring the wet-dry ingredients together, giving the recipe the needed tartness that buttermilk brings and richness that whole cream brings.Plain yogurt can also easily be substituted for buttermilk or cream when stirring the wet-dry ingredients together, giving the recipe the needed tartness that buttermilk brings and richness that whole cream brings.” Read more at Suite101: The Differences Between Regular and Greek Yogurt: How to Best Use Both in Recipes and as Ingredient Substitutions http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_differences_between_regular_and_greek_yogurt#ixzz0lepaIBMn

I decided to pick some up on a recent trip to Safeway and I purchased the fat-free, peach flavored version made by Chobani. Where has this yogurt been all of my life? This yogurt was so creamy and sweet and wonderful that it tasted like dessert, yet it had no fat and few calories (140), but lots of protein (14 grams). This is an excellent distribution of protein to carbs 41% to 59%; Amazing!  All of that protein means that you feel full longer and it is an excellent recovery breakfast on strength training days. So, Thanks Rebecca! As for the rest of you, check it out. It tastes good and it’s good for you, and that really is a rare treat.

Getting Fit

By admin  |  2010/04/19 07:27 Posted in Health and Wellness  |  Comments (1)

If you know me personally or follow my tweets, then you likely know that I’m an active gal. I enjoy snowboarding, downhill mountain biking, yoga, gardening, cooking and a variety of other activities (too many to name). Unfortunately now that I am over 30 (sssh, don’t tell anyone) my metabolism seems to have begun its expected slow down. In addition, I had abdominal surgery in October, then tore my meniscus in February. I also quit smoking and changed my diet to being primarily plant-based. Unfortunately I have gained weight (fat) and have now been working it off for the last several weeks. While I haven’t seen a significant difference in my appearance yet, I am beginning to feel more fit, which is great. I am currently continuing with my normal activities, but adding videos to my routine as well. The gym costs more than I am willing to spend right now, and honestly I could buy a new video every week and still save money. I purchased the following videos:
Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred
Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones
10 Minute Solution – Kickbox Bootcamp
Weight Loss Cardio Kick

I am loving all of them so far. The 30 day shred is my daily standby and features 3 levels of exercise. It’s a 20 minute workout that features Jillian’s 3-2-1 system: 3 minutes strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs for 3 Circuits. You can start with level 1 and work your way up to level 3. She does have low and high impact versions of most exercise to allow you to really work your way up. I’ve hit level 3 now and I am still loving this video.

Jillian’s “trouble zones” video is tough! It goes straight to a level three as compared to “the shred”. It hurts every time I do this, but in a good way. I’m definately building muscle and getting some great definition as a result, but I can really only do it once a week or once every two weeks right now.

Both cardio kickboxing videos offer a variety of workouts that you can select and are high energy and fun. I enjoy these the most because they don’t feel like working out quite so much. I usually do one of these each week, usually on low energy days when I don’t feel like I can deal with Jillian.

Finally, I’ve signed up for FitDay.com’s free calorie and activity tracker. This system allows me to calculate my caloric burn by logging my daily activities and enter the foods that I eat to estimate my caloric intake. This will help me understand my nutrition in terms of carb/protein/fat balancing as well as ensuring that I continue to burn more calories than I eat. It also tracks my weight and gives me a graph so that I can measure my progress (or lack thereof).  So wish me luck on my journey to lose a few inches, maybe a few pounds and to get into race shape before the season is over. If you are interested, you can track my progress here.

 
Practice day 2 at Pro GRT about to begin. Practice broken into 2 sessions for my cat. Challenging course for me. We'll see how I do today.14 hours ago