Nutritional Knits

Thursday's Menu

Back to work, and back to eating healthy!!! I really need to kick this carb kick that I"m on... I've had bagels with (fake) cream cheese all week.  Not to mention sandwiches, candies and all other vacation type foods.  If I have a bagel or bread-type item for breakfast then I eat a LOT all day.  Always happens.

Breakfast:
At home:  Green Juice - I bought a juicer!!!! and a scoop of homemade Brazil nut butter
At work:  Green smoothie (blueberries, kale, hemp milk, cherries, flax, banana, hemp, goji berries).

Lunch:
Leftover salad (pretty large) - and an apple. Unsalted natural peanut butter if I get the munchies (usually around 3:00).

Dinner:
Farm fresh local eggs scrambled with sauteed onion, peppers & kidney beans and avocado, wrapped in a collard (instead of a tortilla).  Side of broccoli (maybe 1/2 recipe of Julie's cheesy broccoli?). More green juice.  Munch on some cherries, too.

Lots of veggies!! Fruit - but not overboard and even a serving of beans.  I'll post all about my new juicer soon.  I love it!! (don't love cleaning it but it's worth it!)

Slacker!

I take three days off from work (mini stay-cation) and don't write any posts!  I spent my July 4th weekend on the beach, warmed by a bonfire, with my husband.  It was wonderful - especially since it also included two days of sunshine! I sat in the sun on the beach and drank a few cold coronas.  V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!  Then I came home and it's been rainy and stormy ever since.  I finally put my peach saplings outside - it's do or die time for them!! So far they look good (although one of them looked pretty dead before I put it out).

Before we headed to the beach we went to our town's firework display.  I love fireworks!! I get all emotional and I clap and try to hold my husband's hand. I watched Boston's fireworks on t.v. and I clapped when they were over.  In the living room.  By myself. Yeah. 

Here are a few more pictures from my town's display:

3-Day Walk Cheering Stations

We never know our exact walking route until the day of the walk - and even then it's usually only that particular day's route.  It's kept quiet for security reasons and probably to keep supporters off the random areas of the route and into the Cheering Station. 

A Cheering Station is a designated area that is set up for families, friends and supporters of the 3-Day walkers to cheer, visit with and give out treats (yay, tootsie rolls!) to those people who are walking.  Unless you have done a walk like this yourself you have no idea how wonderful it is to have so many people cheering you on and providing you with such words of encouragement.  When someone you have never met before looks at you with tears in their eyes and thanks you for walking it really makes what you are doing feel special.  Especially if that person is a breast cancer survivor or family/friend of someone who was lost to the disease. 

The stations are usually full of people, young and old.  Some people have treats, some have Popsicle and spray bottles full of cold water and some people just have kind words.  The kids are always awesome - I love seeing their handmade signs.  It is a wonderful sense of community and caring that really hits home.  Oh, and most important... when you really start to feel beat, like you can't walk another mile, seeing all those wonderful supporters gives you the energy and drive you need to finish that day's miles!

This year's route is particularly intriguing to me.  We are walking from Framingham to Newton, on through to Lexington and Cambridge and then to our final destination: UMass.  I'm especially excited about this route because I grew up in Cambridge, it's my hometown. I am wondering how crowded some of these areas are going to be but I'm still really excited about it!  Here are the full schedule of Cheering Stations for the three days:

Friday, July 24:

9:00 am - 11:30 am
Hunnewell Playground
Parking at Stars Market, 448 Washington Street
Wellesley MA 02482

11:15 am - 3:00 pm
Learning Prep School
1507 Washington Street
Newton, MA 02465

Saturday, July 25:

10:15 am - 3:30 pm
YMCA-Greater Boston Area: North Suburban Family Branch‎
175 Lexington Street
Woburn, MA 01801

11:30 am - 5:45 pm
Friendly’s Restaurant
1111 Waltham Street
Lexington, MA 02421

Sunday, July 26:

8:15 am - 11:15 am
Cambridge City Hall
795 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

If you have an opportunity to be a part of a cheering station (at any walk/race event) I encourage you to do so.  Hopefully I'll see some of your faces along the route!!!

Happy Independence Day!

our town fireworks 7/3/2009

The Long Weekend Has Begun.

cheese-less veggie pizza w/sun-dried tomato

I got the hard work out of the way by hitting the gym at 11:00 (instead of my usual Friday night) then crashed my mum's house and had lunch (pizza) with KB and my two brothers.  My brothers are a riot - both in their twenties they couldn't be more different:  One brother, the youngest, had just returned from a workout at the Y and was getting ready to follow it up with a run.  The other brother was sitting down to a breakfast of three grilled hot dogs and a few Coors Lights.  They crack me up.

My town does their fireworks tonight if the rain holds off -we'll probably skip it anyway and try to catch glimpses of them over the tops of the trees.  My favorite part of the 4th is when Joe and I head to his family's beach house for the bonfire.  Just sitting around with family, having a few beers and watching the kiddos have a blast dancing to the dj in the glow of the bonfire out on the rocks.  It's a great time - hopefully the weather won' t be too cold or rainy.

Have a safe and wonderful 4th Celebration!!!

Lifetime Goal: Smile More.

Last night's post was a touch of me, personally.  I've gone back and forth in my head about how personal I want to get on this blog.  It's supposed to be about nutrition, fitness and my journey into healthy - but I guess that includes mental health as well.  Sometimes, I think this blog is too sterile and could use a touch of personal info to warm it up.  This isn't my first blog - my first blog was actually created as a therapeutic tool in dealing with the anger I was feeling over my baby brother's deployment to Afghanistan, and then later to Iraq.  That was a rough time for me.  It makes me sad when I think back to how much time I wasted on all that hate and anger.  My friends and my husband, god bless them, were the rocks in my life - solid and strong they kept me surrounded with their love an support.  I can't imagine how broken I'd be without them.

Sometimes it's easier to write what I feel than to actually vocalize it.  That is where the blogging came in.  At some of my more angry days my hate was geared toward the war, the Administration and the abundance of ignorance that is created when you mix religion + politics.  It was during these blogs that I met some really wonderful people - supportive people, who to this day I am still in contact with. One piece of advice that my (then new) friend Kerstin told me was to try and use my anger in a positive fashion instead of a hateful one.  Of course, she has an amazing way with words and wrote it in a much more eloquent way but you get the gist.  Take the things in life that bother you and find a way to turn them around with a positive spin.  My baby brother, who celebrated his 21st birthday in Baghdad, returned to us safely.  He's seen things no one should see and has aged in years beyond my own but he is now in a good place, as am I.  This was just one of many experiences that has led me to where I am now.  I am in a good place, yet I feel like I need to smile more.  Smiles, like moods, are contagious too.  I want to smile at a stranger and have them smile back.  And then pass it along.  Sounds silly, I know but if you knew someone with an enigmatic smile then you'd understand.

My Great Aunt Mary was an incredible woman - an grandmother to me, a mother to my mum and a mentor to us both.  Her smile is the epitome of kindness and love.  She smiled at everyone - and they smiled back.  My favorite was the look of surprise on a strangers face when they smiled back.  You just couldn't help it.  It was contagious.  Of course, it was more than just moving her mouth into the shape of a smile - it was the love and kindness and radiated from her.  One year at Christmas Eve mass a woman came over to us afterward just to meet the "woman with such a loving smile" that she could see from across the church. That was my Aunt Mary.

Even as the cancer took over her lungs until she still was a beacon of love. Since her passing my lifetime goal has been to smile more.  Genuine smiles - meaning, find something happy inside, build from that and then share it with the world in a form of a smile. 

I've been thinking about Aunt Mary a lot lately and have used those memories to remind me to smile more.

Just like she used to.

j

Laughter Really is the Best Medicine.

I am an emotional sponge.  I soak up people emotions, good and bad.  I hate it - except when I'm surrounded by someone's good attitude or happy aura... then I'm thrilled to take in all that goodness and hopefully pass it on.  Of course this works two ways and I seem to be much more porous around people who are being nasty, sad or angry.  My body gets tense and my shoulders start to climb up toward my ears.  Sometimes I realize that I'm gritting my teeth together and thinking my own nasty thoughts.

Tonight's small group training at the gym seemed a bit too quiet and tense for my liking.  My trainer was quiet and clearly pre-occupied and the rest of us seemed to follow that lead.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the type who needs to fill the quiet with constant chatter (that drives me crazy, actually) but I wasn't getting a good vibe.  I was finding it hard to concentrate, I started doing exercises wrong and overthinking stuff.   I need to be in a good mood to get my butt kicked like that, ha ha.  Thankfully, Krista and I were told to do walking wheelbarrels (she holding my ankles while I waked on my hands and then switch).  In such a compromised position it was really hard not to laugh.  Especially if you know people are watching you.  I felt the giggles coming and tried to keep them in -- I've got to tell ya, it's hard to keep your abs tight, squeeze your feet together and not laugh at the same time!  As expected, it happend - I couldn't hold in the giggling, and it eventually turned into full-on laughter to the point that I had to cover my mouth to stop.  When I turned around to apologize to the group for the inturruption I saw smiles all around, even a few laughs.  Mission accomplished...apparently I wasn't the only porous one there.

Julie's Cheesy Broccoli Bowl

The yumminess in front is a Sunshine burger wrapped in a just barely blanched collard green, topped with avocado and mango peach salsa.  The yumminess in the back is Julie's Cheesy Broccoli Bowl.  I found Julie via the Vega community website.  That is a great page with lots of nutritional experts, athletes and fun video blogs (vlogs).  I've enjoyed watching Lyzabeth Lopez training vlogs.

Here is the recipe with my modifications. 

INGREDIENTS:
a few shakes of wheat-free tamari
1 Tbsp raw tahini
1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
¼ tsp paprika (I used half-sharp, yum!)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1½ tsp lemon juice
3 cups finely chopped fresh broccoli florets
1 or 2 Tbsp hemp seeds
water, if needed

Mix the nutritional yeast, paprika, and garlic powder together. Stir in the tahini , tamari, lemon juice, and coconut oil and whisk thoroughly with a small fork. If a thinner sauce is desired, add a little water, a tablespoon at a time. This was pretty thick but I thawed out my frozen broccoli by dumping it in the leftover collard water that was still on the stove.  The water wasn't on, but it was still warm and thawed out the broccoli.  Then I drained the broccoli and tossed wih the sauce.  The water in the broccoli helped thin the sauce out a bit.

This supposedly last in the frige a couple of days but I wouldn't know because I ate it in one sitting.  OH! and it also supposedly serves 2.  Again, I ate it all. Good stuff!

Here is the link to her original recipe.  Go check out Julie's site.  She's super cute and has all kinds of great nutritional tips.

I Reached My Goal!

I have so many goals, between finishing my degree to losing weight to working on my house to dropping my cholesterol I'm pretty goal heavy so I am absolutely thrilled to cross one thing off my list:

3-Day 60 Mile Walk Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Last year I raised $4000 so meeting only the minimum requirements means that this year I have raised much less but I'm still thrilled to have such supportive people like YOU in my life!

I'm so excited to be doing the 3-Day walk this year with my Mum.  Over the years my mother and I have taken some seriously fun walks - once through a bear-laden trails in Denali National Park, another time through the stunning Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico.  We haven't taken a hiking vacation together in a few years so this will be our hiking vacation.  It's definitely the most miles we'll ever hike in one day!

Last year I walked on my own (well, me and 2,200 other people) and spent much of the walk focusing on getting my milage in as well as a lot of time in my own head.  I met lots of great people but I wasn't as involved with the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk community as I'd like to have been.  Last year's goals were to get my 20 miles in, eat, pitch the tent - then socialize.  This year I'm more focussed on the community and having this time to bond and catch up with my mother.  We are aiming to get our 20+ miles in each day but our main goal is to make this an incredible experience.  To really live in the moment, stop and smell the roses, chat with other walkers and supporters.  I definitely want to take more photos this time and now that I know what to expect I am looking forward to see all themes at the rest stops, the pink angels and the Men with Heart, among other wonderful Walk aspects. Last year I spent my evenings relaxing and deep in thought and self-reflection.  This year I want to sing-along to the kareoke show on Friday night and dance in the mess hall on Saturday (ok, so maybe I won't dance but who knows??).

This year it's about the sharing the experience with my mum: the community, the story and the laughs - the love.  OH, and some walking too.

Monday's Menu

Today was another 5:00am day so I started the day with two breakfasts: 

 8:00   two slices of Ezekial sesame toast with soy garden
10:00  large kale & fruit smoothie (loving these!!)

11:00  banana w/ 1T peanut butter
12:30  very large salad w/zucc hummus, sprouts and pepitas 

 3:00  apple

 7:00  gym
 8:00  quinoa with carrots, zucch's, sauteed garlic scapes

That sure doesn't look like a lot of food but it is.  I am lacking in protein for dinner.  I need to add some beans back in my diet but my body is fighting me on it.  If you have any suggestions of WHOLE FOODS (not processed) to use as a protein source then I'm all ears. I may start cooking fish again and having that for supper a few times a week.  I think adding a small amount of meat back into my diet may be ok - the bare minimum and only at supper (that way I cook it - and am not tempted by some kind of takeout/fast food junk).

I'll probably have some dried apricots when I get home (5 pieces is one serving).  Good for iron and calcium.  Here are my daily totals, broken down:

Farmers Market haul, and a recipe

click to embiggen

I scored big time at the farmers market on Saturday.  See those collards?? They are huge!!  I brought the bread (in the front) to my MIL's beach house for breakfast toast and the other is for me.  And it's just about gone.  The fruit wasn't as sweet as I would have hoped but it's local and that makes me happy.  Also pictured there is (left to right) arugula, collards, kale, black leaf lettuce, bread, garlic scapes (see them??), cherries, strawberries and bread.

I get so excited when I see garlic scapes! I love the garlicky chive flavor and put them in everything (my apologies in advance to my co-workers and my husband for my breath, haha).  Tonight I sauteed up some garlic scapes, carrots and zucchini in sunflower oil - very lightly -just to take out the garlic punch and then I threw a scoop of cooked quinoa in to soak up all the garlicky goodness.  That will be my post-workout dinner tomorrow night.

Lunch tomorrow will be some really fresh zucchini hummus over arugula and lettuce topped with sprouts.  You can make hummus out of anything but this zucchini hummus is fresh and summery, flavored with basil and lemon.  If you don't have garlic scapes then you can use garlic, scallions, shallots - whatever floats your zucchini boat.

Zucchini Hummus

2 zucc's, chopped up
1 T raw tahini
5 large basil leaves
juice of 1/2 lemon
handful of raw cashews (makes it creamy)
two garlic scapes, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Throw it all in the food processor and let it whirl!  Taste for seasonings, whirl until almost smooth.  It will be a beautiful light green color.  I love to use fresh hummus over my salads instead of salad dressing.

Enjoy!

Sometimes my husband thinks I'm insane.

soaking nuts to use for 'taco meat'

...and I honestly don't blame him. 

ll

My Peach Tree Saplings Want to Know Where the Sun is. And So Do I.

maybe my aloe can talk them back to life??

This picture was taken a week ago.  They now look worse than this BUT they are still alive.  I've propped them up (with plastic forks, because I'm ghetto like that) so they are straight.  The leaves are a bit yellow so I'm waiting for them to dry up a bit before the next watering. 

There hasn't been any sun around here lately so these saplings have been living on my kitchen counter.  I think part of the reason they are turning yellow is due to lack of sunshine.  Oh, and there are three of them because the person who gave them to me knows what I do to plants.  My thumb, it's soooo not green.  I also have a hanging tomato plant that my mother in law gave me which I completely forgot about until this moment.  Gee, I hope it likes rain.

This morning I made another green (kale) smoothie - I didn't have the my own frozen mango or any pineapple so I used Dole frozen mango (never as  good), dates, soymilk and a banana.  It tasted pretty green so I also added some grated ginger and cinnamon.  Then I threw in a scoop of cooked quinoa (I keep a big bowl of it in my fridge all week) for added nutrition.  Then I remembered that I cooked this batch of quinoa with garlic so I added another date and 1/2 C of blueberries and it was good. 

Last night's workout was killer.  Fun as usual and we got to use a new piece of equipment throughout the whole workout - which was awesome! The sun is supposed to make an appearance today. FINALLY!  Like my saplings, I'm feeling mellow with all this rain and cloud cover. 

My Exceptionally Green Smoothie.

this smoothie was both exceptional in taste and in color!

I have a green smoothie about five times a week.  The color varies depending on the greens and fruit I use.  Usually I don't post pictures of the ones that are actually green.  I usually show you the "pretty" ones that are purple and magenta.  Too many people are scared of green - which is ridiculous but they are.  So I usually post the purple ones to try and entice them to try it.  This, however, was one of the best tasting smoothies I've had yet - AND IT'S GREEN PEOPLE - GET OVER IT. ha ha

I had some mangoes that were really ripe but and in danger of spoiling so I chopped them up and froze them.  When I was rooting around my fridge last night I found the farmers market kale, the frozen mango and some dates.  I skipped the berries since I've been eating berries in my breakfast everyday.  Lately I've been trying to keep the fruit in my smoothies to a minimum. If you don't have any mango then banana will also give you great sweetness and texture.

This smoothie had such a mango punch - so delicious!!

Exceptional Green Smoothie

Add the following to your blender (or food processor) in this order:

3 large kale leaves, thick inner stems of the leaves removed
1 C frozen mango/or the amount of one whole mango, frozen
1/2 C cherries (I used fresh)
1/4 C frozen pineapple
1/2 C "milk" (I used soy - alternatives are hemp, almond, coconut)
2 majool dates, pitted  (if you don't have a high-powered blender then chop/soak the dates in your milk to soften them up) or your preferred sweetener (agave, honey)

Blend everything together and thin the smoothie out with a bit of water if necessary.  Makes 1 large glass.  Enjoy!!

Today's Nutritional Data

Every once in while I use Sparkspeople to track my food/nutritional data.  It's a good little reminder for when I'm consuming too little of something (like calcium or iron).  It also helps me see my calorie and fat content for the day.  Now that I'm eating E2L-ish I'm not getting that many calories on just the salads.  Veggies are very low in calories and no fat!

This is today's totals:

click to see it larger

As you can see, I need to get more calcium into my diet.  I switched a 1/2C of hemp milk to Edensoy soy milk and my calcium went from 100% to 84%.  This is one of the reasons I switched to hemp (that plus I'm trying to eat less soy in general).  My protein, however, went up.

Here is the line by line breakdown of what I had for Breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner/evening smoothie:

click to see it larger

I don't normally have two slices of toast with Soy Garden but I smashed my banana in my bag on my way to work this morning (ew!) and my banana is usually part of my 'snack'.  Since it was smashed I added it to my breakfast instead.

My supper may look small but I eat it after I eat my smoothie and it really is filling.  Between the supper and the smoothie I'm consuming 600+ calories, 12 grams of fat, 22 grams of protein.  Perfect.  If I honestly still feel hungry - I will eat more.  There is a good chance I'll have a handful of dried apricots too (love love love them!). Translate "good chance" to "I will be..." ha ha

Oh, and I eat more on the days that I go to the gym.  Today's totals are my minimum calories consumed because it's an easy day - just a bit of walking before work.

I use these totals as guidelines  -- just a visual aide to help me see what I'm consuming.  Where to cut back and where to add.  It also helps me put into perspective how things like how bread & butter add up in calories and fat while veggies do not.   Do I have enough grains?  Fruit?  Nuts and seeds?

It's a great tool that is widely available on a variety of sites (fitday, calorieking, etc.) and I highly recommend it.