The Great Debate: Pre-Workout Fuel

TGIF! TGIF!

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. =)

Save Our Soles!

Holy moly FitFeat Friends… there was an explosion of activity on the blog yesterday!  Wow!  A record number of hits to the FitFeat site.  Whatever you guys are doing to spread the word, THANK YOU!  And please keep it up – you’re AWESOME!

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. =)

The Case of the Rogue Kombucha?

Good Monday morning to you! 

Hope you had a very nice weekend!  Mine was very relaxing due to the chilly weather … there was a lot of indoor lounging going on in my house Saturday and Sunday!  We did get out quite a bit too, but it was so nice each time to come home, get our “comfies” on and relax by the fire with some football on TV.

The 2.7 mile “social-cizing” session yesterday with my good friend Jen was great!  It was definitely cold out, but I bundled up in my down jacket, mittens, earband and new trail runners.  It was like hiking on little pillows.  Perfect! 

Sunday eats were rather random, as they often are.  Mainly because we aren’t on any kind of regular schedule and we are usually running errands or out and about. 

MSP made me a wonderful breakfast of cage-free eggs with Ezekial toast (and Earth Balance vegan ‘butter’).

On the side was a small glass of my BUBBLY but for some reason this one wasn’t!  (bubbly that is)  Which freaked me out a little… kombucha tea is made of live cultures.  If it’s not fizzy, does that mean the seal was broken?  Does that mean bad bacteria gets in with the good bacteria? Or do the good live bacteria go all rogue in there and end up bad for you?  AAAAACCCKKK!  So I had a few sips then just had to dump the rest because I was scared!  Additionally, I don’t think Mystic Mango is a flavor I’ll have again.  Odd, I know – seeing how I’m the MANGO-HOLIC.  I’ll stick with my go-tos:  Gingerberry and Divine Grape

During errands out I had a Lemon Larabar.  And a goodie from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (a dark chocolate dipped Oreo).  MSP had a milk chocolate dipped s’more.    Love our Sunday treats!

After the chilly chat session with Jen I came home to watch the remainder of the Broncos game with this plate of goodies:  kale chips, a big plop of hummus, baby carrots and baked pita chips.  Then I went back for seconds on the kale chips and have used up the whole batch I made Saturday.  I’ll have to make some more today!

When dinnertime rolled around I felt I was really lacking in greens for the day, so I made a supersized green smoothie.  This one had cucumber, kale, green leaf lettuce, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, celery, pepitas, half a banana and half a pear.  Plus about a tablespoon of hemp oil. 

It made two huge glasses … and I couldn’t finish it all!  I got about halfway through the second glass and cried uncle. 

I was apparently quite tired because I was out like a light at 8:30.  Which meant I woke up rested and ready for this morning’s workout:

Weight Training (Back/Traps):

• TM Warmup 5 minutes, followed by arm circles
• DB Rows 4 working sets of 12, 12, 12, 11 reps
• Upright Rows  4 working sets of 15, 11, 11, 11 reps
• DB Shrugs 3 working sets of 16, 15, 15 reps
• Lower Trap Pulls 3 working sets of 20, 15, 15 reps
• Rear Delt Flyes 3 sets of 15 reps
• Tricep Dips 3 sets of 12 reps
• Ball Crunches 3 sets of 20 reps

***

I have another crazy-long list of Monday To-Dos as usual, one of which may be to get started on my “sprouting experiment“.  I bought some cheesecloth yesterday and I have one glass jar set aside and want to try to sprout something.  I happen to have some millet on-hand and have heard that can be sprouted, so that might be my first try. 

Do you do any of your own sprouting?  Have you had success?  Any tips you’d like to share with the FitFeat readers?  Please drop a comment in the comments section!  We’d love to hear from you!

Also just another quick reminder that FitFeat will soon be going self-hosted, so the web address may change a bit.  I hope to ‘flip the switch’ this coming weekend but will plan to put out a post just prior to the move so you’ll know where to find me! 

Thanks again for reading and commenting!  Have a great day and I’ll see ya tomorrow!

— Shari B. =)

Who You Callin’ a Prune?

Hello FitFeat friends!

Well today I have to say I feel like a BONA FIDE runner.   “Why?”, you ask.  Because it was 17 degrees and snowing this morning, and I still went for an outside run!  And dragged poor MSP with me 😉  He’s really a saint, I tell you.  After a couple miles, we did decide that I was a little crazy and turned back.  But I felt fantastic when we got home … so refreshed and actually pretty darn toasty!  Nothing like a good run in the cold to get the internal fire stoked! 

Plus I get to go out in it later in the day. I’ll be meeting up with a girlfriend this afternoon for some SOCIAL-CIZING and we’ll be hitting up my fave trail (The Bluffs!)  They say we’ll be lucky to hit 32 degrees for the day’s high, so at least it will be TWICE as warm this afternoon as what it is now!  😉

In yesterday’s post, I left off after having hit up The Bluffs with another friend and then my umpteenth Starbucks visit of the week … allow me to rewind through my Friday:

Once home, I needed just a tiny bite to carry me through till lunch time.  I had a prune dried plum.  (I can no longer eat these without cracking up, thinking of Sarah over at the Fit Tip Exchange blog, who said this once: 

“…prunes are for old people…I eat dried plums..”

 So now I no longer eat prunes because I refuse to feel old – I too eat dried plums.  😉  Rascal on the other hand could care less what it’s called as long as there is a chance he’ll get a nibble…

When it was time for lunch, I munched on the last of the cold Pesto Gnocchi ‘salad’ while I was waiting for my actual meal to heat. 

Check out my veggie “enchilasagna”  (layered leftovers of the casserladas).  Yet another meal that tastes better the second day…

 And a few squares of dark chocolate for ‘dessert’:

Today’s midafternoon green smoothie was a bit of a departure from my normal recipe.  A few of the recurring characters:  cucumber, spinach and sprouts.  Then the guest stars:  pineapple, FROZEN banana, kiwi, pepitas and hemp oil.  I was low on fresh fruit so was pulling from pantry and freezer to round out this one.  

It was GREEN BLISS 🙂  mmmmm.  I will never tire of these I think.

I was still feeling the need for extra warmth when dinnertime rolled around, so I decided to get creative and make something along the lines of a heated salad.  I started out with an old recipe called “My Thai Chicken Wraps” from allrecipes.com that I used to use when I was still a meat-eater.  Then I did some tweaking to make separate versions: vegetarian and meaty.

First I mixed all the ingredients for the ‘sauce’ — minus the sugar.  Last time we used this recipe we thought it was plenty sweet with the hoisin sauce on its own, so no need for the extra sugar.

Then I divided the sauce into two pans.  One would be mixed with JUST the shredded rotisserie chicken (about 1/3 to 1/2 of the chicken) for MSP’s version.  I did not use the slaw veggies in his.   Heated his through then served on a whole wheat sandwich thin like kind of like a Thai BBQ Sammy.  I also roasted some quartered Yukon Gold potatoes for him to have “fries on the side.”

For my version I mixed the pre-cut ‘broccoli slaw’ with some chopped zucchini, chopped yellow pepper, scallions and mushrooms.  I sauteed all the veggies in coconut oil until soft, then added in the hoisin sauce mixture and simmered for probably another 10 minutes or so.  With SO many veggies diluting the sauce,  it ended up a little bland, so I mixed up a squeeze of agave nectar, a smear of organic peanut butter, low sodium soy sauce and a little thai curry paste for some spice.  That did the trick.

Behold my Warm Slaw Thai-Fry with Roasted Golden Beets:

(Toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on for garnish!)

It was GOOD!  And I even ate it with chopsticks!  So much better than take out and SOOO MUCH HEALTHIER!!

Which leads me to today’s discussion question: 
Do you have a favorite decadent dish (whether take-out or not) that you could tweak at home to make healthier?  If you’ve done so, how did it turn out? 

If you have one that you want to tweak but aren’t sure what might make it healthier, mention that too — I’ll be happy to offer suggestions if I have any and I’m sure the FitFeat readers will chime in with their ideas too!

On a side note… I’m aiming to get FitFeat moved over to a self-hosted site in the very near future (hopefully in the next week), so I want to start giving everyone a heads-up.  Currently if you go to www.fitfeat.com it will automatically route you to www.fitfeat.wordpress.com, which is where the blog is currently housed.  Once I go self-hosted, it should just be www.fitfeat.com.  So if for some reason you follow along via subscripion or via Google reader and DON’T see a daily post after the move, please come looking for me!  I’ll post a notice out here before I make the switch when the time comes. 

Have a SWELL SATURDAY my friends!  Thanks again for reading and for all of your great comments!

See you next time!

–Shari B. =)

 

A Tool to Stretch Your Produce Dollar

The “dreary” is upon us in Colorado today!  I am so grateful that we had a beautiful day yesterday because I really did get outside to enjoy it and store up some extra Vitamin D. 😉 It may be a number of days before I see sunshine again!  33 degrees and rainy out now, no blue to be seen anywhere – only gray!

But the good news is:  It’s FRIDAY-EVE!!  And it will be great weather for ‘must see TV’ night on NBC.  It’s the big wedding on The Office tonight – Jim and Pam!  Think it will actually happen, or will something stand in their way yet again?  🙂

***

Today I wanted to share with you another of my favorite kitchen ‘tools’:  my FridgeSmart Tupperware containers.  (And no I’m not a Tupperware lady – so I’m not trying to sell you anything!)  😉  

These containers have paid for themselves many times over (I’ve had them for about 7 years.)  Since I am essentially the only one in my household that eats a large amount of veggies regularly, I need a way to make my produce last long enough for me to eat it – especially when buying things in bulk saves money.

The containers have ridges on the bottom to keep allow the moisture to collect and keep the produce lifted away from that moisture. 

They also have little air buttons on the front that you can adjust for high/medium/low moisture.

This chart that comes with it shows which produce needs which buttons opened for maximum freshness. 

I don’t think you want to know how long I’ve been able to keep spinach, celery and broccoli ‘alive’ in these containers before.  It might gross you out.  🙂 (Sometimes 3+ weeks!) I realize that the longer I keep my produce, the less nutritional value they have.  But when we are all shopping on tight budgets, I have to make the money I do spend on produce stretch as much as possible.  Having to throw out bad produce on trash day just kills me. 

Do you have any special tricks or tools that you use to prolong your produce?  Please share in the comments section so we can learn from each others’ experiences.

 ***

On to Wednesday feats and eats…

My Wednesday smoothie was extra-green tasting!  I guess I didn’t get as much fruit in there as usual.  Plus I added a new-to-me sprout.  This mix had:  mung bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, celery, spinach, 10 pineapple chunks and half a banana.  It smelled like fresh-cut grass, which was fitting since Wednesday is my YARDIO day!

I’ll be out of my wrap-rut for a bit because I am out of tortillas… so instead I used whole wheat “sandwich thins” (which are kind of like a ‘thin crust hamburger bun’) with Tofutti spread, pepitas, mung bean sprouts, spicy mustard, tomato, cucumber with a sprinkle of pepper:

On the side, I ate leftovers from Tuesday night’s Pesto Gnocchi w/ Veggies.  I ate it cold like a pasta salad and it was even better than it was WARM!  I think I’ve found a new dish!

Shortly after lunch, I decided to go get in a mini-hike.  Just a quick 30 minutes in the area they consider “the backcountry” by my house.  Just look at the sky!  So blue.  It was breezy and around 70.  Perfect! 

And to make it an even MORE perfect afternoon, I added a tall soy chai latte to the mix…

 With a side of Larabar…. the one that tastes like a brownie to me.  Can healthy eating get any yummier?  I think not!  🙂

Dinner was random.  In my continued quest to eat ‘new-to-me’ veggies, I purchased some golden beets.  But I just could not make up my mind what to eat them with.  So I just roasted them and ate them with a side of green beans.  Having only ever had pickled beets before, I must say I do like beets this way too! 

Beets-n-beans alone weren’t enough to fill me for the night, so later I had “dessert” which was a decaf coffee and 1/2 of a Jocalat Larabar (Chocolate Orange flavor).  This bar has some INTENSE orange flavor, like an orange peel or maybe an orange liqueur.  A little of this bar goes a long way.  I cut the half-bar into pieces & put it on a wasabi dish… we eat with our eyes!!  If it looks fancy, it will taste fancy, right?  

Movement for the day was the aforementioned yardio and hiking, along with a Lower Body weight training session full of lunges and squats.  🙂  I think a rest day may be on tap for this cold Thursday – we’ll see!

Have a TERRIFIC Thursday!  See you again soon!

–Shari B. =)

Dude, Where’s My Downhill?

Oh peeps….I’m so tuckered and it’s not even 7:00 yet!  I’m posting before dinner tonight because I don’t know if I’ll even be awake to EAT it!  Here’s why…

When I signed off yesterday I mentioned that we’d be heading toward Colorado Springs for a hike.  We chose Barr Trail which if you follow it all 13 miles you’d end up at the summit of Pikes Peak.  (No, we were NOT planning to tackle that today.)  But we Googled the trail last night and the few bits we read about it said that the first half on the way to the midpoint camp wasn’t too bad, that it gains 1400 feet in altitude across a 4 mile stretch, and a picture showed this fairly flat(ish) tree-covered trail.  Plus people run a marathon on this trail every year (13 up, 13 down) so we thought, “Let’s just do half of it, and go to the Barr Camp – can’t be THAT hard.”  We also thought “If our easy 4 mile run on Tuesdays has 500 feet of ascent, 1400 across 4 miles will be a piece of cake because we won’t even be running.”

Um, let’s just say we were in for a surprise.  🙂

OK, first of all I may need to reread the aforementioned Google blurbs because we hiked 3000 feet UP today (not 1400 as stated in said article) during the first half of our hike which only totaled 7.67 miles roundtrip, so I don’t know what GPS that guy was using!  We only went halfway to the CAMP!  (But hey we can say we hiked over 25% of Pikes Peak today… hahaha!)  It was almost 1000 feet of ascent per mile.  I think we are more used to hikes that go up, hit a ridge, go down a minute, go up again.  This was up, up and more up.  Where were my beloved downhill portions?

This pic shows how far away the top of the 13 miles is (I think we were 3 miles in at this point.)  That is the tip top of Pikes Peak where the summit house is:

This shows me taking a quick water break.  Our car is parked somewhere down in that valley far far away that you see behind me. My expression says it all here:

My heart rate was at a constant 175 and it felt like we weren’t even moving!  Molasses going uphill moves faster than we were moving today.

People actually RUN this!?!?  (Click here for the proof.)  Are they crazy?  Do they carry oxygen tanks on their backs instead of water?  And I’m sorry, but they PAY a registration fee too?  Someone would have to pay ME to run this (and it would have to be a LOT!)  All kidding aside, I give major kudos to people who can do this.

So the moral of the story is:  I was handed my a$$ on a platter by Barr Trail today. 🙂  (But I still had an AWESOME time!)

Do you hike?  If so what kind of terrain?  Where is your fave trail? Drop me a comment!

Here are the EATS for this unusual day:

A fellow blogger I adore, The Fitnessista had her own recipe creation “the breakfast cookie” featured in Glamour’s “Vitamin G” fitness blog yesterday (very exciting!), so I told her I would have to try one.  You make it before you go to bed at night and when you wake up you have breakfast waiting in the fridge – which is great since we left the house super early this morning for the hike.  Ingredients included oats, mashed banana, raw almond butter, bit of rice protein powder, almond milk, and a few raisins.   She signs off her posts as G$ so I tried to use lite chocolate syrup to give her a shout out, but it comes out much faster than frosting and looks like a 2 year old wrote it…

It paired nicely with a cup of Kenyan Roast:

Mid-morning snack was an unpictured Coconut Cream Pie Larabar during the hike.  Coconut Cream Pie flavor is one I often use for energy before or during exercise.

After the hike, we were craving some mexican food for some reason, so we ended up at the 3 Margaritas in Monument, CO.  O..M..G… the Veggie Enchiladas were fanTAStic! I have to admit I was really surprised at how good this was!   I’ll definitely be getting them again.  Corn tortillas filled with chopped veggie mix (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, red pepper) and topped with a carrot puree!  I ate both enchiladas, but just had a few bites of the black beans and rice.

I had a green smoothie for a late afternoon snack around 4:15.

And dinner may or may not happen as I mentioned (I’m betting on NOT!)  If it does it will be a LAZY GIRL meal for sure, like a can of organic soup or something, because this bod is telling me to put it in PARK!  🙂

I hope you all have had a fun-filled day!  Tomorrow’s FRIDAY!  And a holiday weekend!  Enjoy it!  See you next time!

— Shari B. =)