Summer Salad Frenzy

It's officially the time of year I love the most. I love the summertime for a lot of reasons: longer days, warm nights, beach trips; to name a few reasons. One of the main reasons I love summer is the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. I hate using the word "produce". It jumbles all the delicious, beautiful, colorful and edible plants into something so ordinary and generic sounding.

Recently, my friend Maura sent me a link to the article: "101 Simple Salads for the Season". It has inspired me all over again to approach eating salads on a daily basis. I realized my problem before was that I thought I was quite adventurous with my salads because I added fruits and nuts. Sadly, I was still eating the same salad almost every day. Though I never seem to tire of rice, beans and veggies, I tired quickly from my daily salad. The article "101 Simple Salads for the Season" opened me up to a lot more possibilities. First it reminded me that salads don't have to have greens as a base. Secondly it suggests salads with grains, pasta and beans, all of which help you feel full.

This first salad has been my go-to salad this week. It's baby spinach, radishes, sliced baby carrots, walnuts, craisins, and a bit of crumbled low-fat feta. I've been making a really simple dressing of olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice. I make the dressing in a tiny condiment cup (Thank you Japan.) the night before, and add it just before I'm ready to eat my salad. Other ingredients I've added to this are chickpeas, black beans, raspberries and brown rice.

This salad is from the article. "#18: Roughly chop cooked or canned chickpeas (you can pulse them, carefully, in a food processor) and toss with olive oil, lemon juice, lots of chopped fresh parsley and mint, and a few chopped tomatoes. Call this chickpea tabbouleh." I added the greens, which is another batch of lettuce from my garden. (The mint and parsley I used was also from my garden.) I also added some of the low fat feta, which has been my new favorite thing. Every time I get close to going vegan, I discover a new dairy product that is pretty healthy and delicious!

I've also been working as much fruit into my diet as possible. My cereal standby is to measure out one cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, and slice in a peach, a handful of blueberries, and slice up one banana.





Or I go completely overboard and combine cereal with: 1 peach, 1 banana, handful of raspberries and a handful of blueberries. This was pretty fantastic, the different fruits really complemented one another.





Since the big race I've had "post-race blues". Can't seem to bring myself to work out like before. Saturday I took things easy and really enjoyed the day. Went to the Farmer's Market and got a great bunch of kale for smoothies, and a quart of big local blueberries.

I rode my hybrid for the first time in months. At an easy pace I went down into New Haven, around the green that was setting up for an outdoor concert, and back into East Rock. I rode my bike up East Rock to the summit for the first time since last year (I think). I didn't stand up at all, and passed a couple on my way up. I picked a shady spot and read for awhile. Here is a picture of a few of my favorite things: bikes, ice cream, East Rock and a sunny summer day.

By the way, the picture at the top of this post is of a gigantic fruit salad I made for my coworker's birthday. I used: strawberries, peaches, blueberries, kiwis, grapes and watermelon. In a 1 cup measuring cup I squeezed in some agave nectar, and mixed it with a bit of water, lime juice and shredded mint. My coworkers LOVED this and I will definitely make it again. Don't drown the fruit with this mixture, just make enough to lightly coat the fruit!

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Train, Grains and Gains

Last week I did so much that I think I'm burnt out this week. Last week's totals:
Run: 13.05mi
Bike: 53.93mi
Spin: 1hr 30min
Swim: 6000yards
Strength: 1hr 46min
and I also walked/hiked about 3 miles and did my last kettlebells and kickboxing classes at Aiki. I've been getting a pitiful 6 hours of sleep a night lately. I've been trying to get myself to sleep earlier, but I end up getting sucked into the internet doing nothing in particular. I've been kind of dragging in all my workouts this week. Spin class has been the exception, the teacher made both classes this week Michael Jackson tributes! I was rocking out both classes and it was a lot of fun. My insane teacher at one point screamed, "MJ's lookin' down on you guys, and he's like... meh... PUSH HARDER! DON'T STOP TIL YOU GET ENOUGH!!!" Have I mentioned before that my spin instructor is insane? Well if I haven't, now you know.

I'm so happy I got to bike outside twice last week! Finally! I've been getting a lot better at dealing with the clip pedals, which is great. I'm feeling confident on the bike again and now look forward to riding again. I think going to spin is helping my speed on the bike, so I'm going to continue going at least once a week. When the canal path is empty, I'll hammer away and think back to how much I push myself in spin class. I ask myself, "If you can push yourself so hard in spin class, why are you holding back now?" Usually that will motivate me and I will get up to 20-21mph! Now if only I could get that as my average speed!

Last week I really pushed myself swimming too. I've been using old workouts from Trifitness, and have been trying to do the A or B group workouts. A is advanced, B are moderate, and the C group ones were the newbies/slow swimmers. Last week was the first time I swam over 3000 yards in a workout. My arms were killing me by the end but I was really proud that I'm adding more distance.

This week I went to a Naturopathic doctor. I decided I do not want to treat my stomach with harsh antibiotics and medicines. Speaking with the doctor I felt relieved, finally a doctor that takes my lifestyle into account. You'd think all doctors, especially concerning stomach problems would care about how I was eating. Neither my primary care doctor or my gastroenterologist really asked about my diet. I think they take one look at me and just assume I'm healthy. The naturopath has doubled some of the vitamins I take already, as well as added some more and some herbal remedies. I'm going to get a breath test to see if I do in fact have an H. pylori infection. He says I should avoid dairy for 3 weeks, which I've been okay about. I did cave completely yesterday and had soft serve ice cream, pizza AND chocolates. My hormones have been insane this week, my face broke out and my cravings are out of control. TMI be damned, my PMS some months is ridiculous.

I haven't been very raw this week at all, and I'm okay with that. I think it's best for me to eat raw foods but also get plenty of whole grains. Training as much as I do, I need more substantial carbohydrates, which is very similar to Brendan Brazier's views. Also, I can't bring myself to eat salad! It's like I go on a salad kick and I eat salad every day for a few weeks, and then the sight of greens makes me gag. I've been eating a lot of quinoa! Quinoa is an awesome super food! Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and Swiss chard. It is a recently rediscovered ancient "grain" once considered "the gold of the Incas." - WHfoods.com

I tried quinoa last year, but it was too earthy for me. This year I incorporated my new habit of adding vegetable bouillon (which I do to add flavor to brown rice) and I've found it makes quinoa so much better. Quinoa is a lot faster to make than brown rice, and can be made in around 20 minutes. Compare that to the hour or so it takes to make brown rice! (Unless of course you're using a more instant brand.) Below are the food charts from WHFoods:

As you can see quinoa has iron and other nutrients that brown rice lacks. "Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source." (Wikipedia) I've been making quinoa with beans, frozen spinach and mixed vegetables. I bought Eden Foods brand quinoa, but the best bang for your buck is to go to your local health foods store and buy it in bulk. It's super easy to prepare. Wash the quinoa with cold water in a collander that is mesh metal, and has very tiny holes. I grab the quinoa with one hand and rub it against itself. This cleans off the quinoa's natural coating called saponins. If you ever played with Floam as a kid, you'll have some nostalgic flashbacks when washing the quinoa. It gets bunched together and is just like the foam pellet putty from back in the day. Bring 1-1/4 cups water to a boil and add in a cup of quinoa; simmer, covered for 15min (or until all water evaporates). Remove from heat and cool, covered for 5 minutes. Then fluff with a fork, and it's ready to serve!

I've also been on a HUGE Kashi kick. Kashi Go Lean Crunch has been on sale at Stop and Shop, as well as their TLC bars. I've always been kind of weary of Kashi, being part of a big corporation and all, but I've given them a second chance. The more I look at their nutritional labels, the more I realize how great their products are. All their products are packed with protein, fiber and healthy fats and very little sugar. I have to admit, right here, I work for a company that sells Kashi. Really the only advantage I get, is an employee discount, making it more of an incentive for me to buy their products. The other day I was in a grocery store I never go to, looking for healthy vegetarian options for me, since I was having dinner at my meatatarian friend Dan's place. I was craving an oatmeal raisin cookie. I looked all around but found no healthy options until I went in the granola section. I found a box of Kashi's TLC Oatmeal Flax Cookies. Wow, not only are they a decent size, but they were the healthiest option I could find for an oatmeal cookie.

When I buy instant oatmeal to eat at work, I buy Kashi's Creamy Truly Vanilla oatmeal. I went through a huge search, as only a nutrition nut like me would, for the "perfect" instant oatmeal. So many instant oatmeals, from Quaker to the most organic "healthy" brands out there add SO MUCH SUGAR to their oatmeal. I was eating Quaker's Weight Control Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal for the longest time, but it tastes like aspertame. (Funny side note: My coworker for the longest time would always mention how he loves the smell of my oatmeal until he realized it was the Quaker's Weight Control one and was so disheartened. He's tried it in the past too, and said it was too awful to finish!) Also, the Quaker portion was so small, it never filled me up. Kashi's oatmeal is awesome because you can add more water. You can't just add hot water, you have to microwave it too, to really cook the grains in it. Nuking it makes it fluffy and creamy and a lot more filling.

One last endorsement. Kashi waffles, oh man. I don't get the Kashi waffles on discount, and this is a real bummer. They've been recommended to me by a few people, and I finally decided to try them out. They are a great treat to buy! If I ever see them on sale, I'm stocking up! I've had them with apple spread and with fresh peaches, but they'd be great with any fruit, or none at all. I add a little Earth Balance spread and drizzle on agave nectar. I have to say, I've tried Van's waffles too, and these are great, but comparing their nutritional value, Kashi wins. Kashi's has less fat, less calories, and more protein. If you are vegan though go with Van's, Kashi's uses dairy and eggs, unfortunately.

In summation, adding back the whole grains into my diet has helped a lot. I feel I have more endurance, and feel stronger in general. I still have a smoothie in the morning, and mostly raw fruits and veggies for snacks with the addition of a Kashi bar. Now I just have to work on getting in more sleep, and I should be making even more progress!

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Here Comes the Pain Again

Here in the northeast we've had the wettest, soggiest, most depressing summer ever so far. It seems fitting that my insides have been just as miserable as the outdoors. Last night I had a horrific bout of pain that had me contemplating driving myself to the ER. I was scared and don't know exactly what happened, but it seems my gastritis flared up big time. I made it through the night somehow, and managed to do a quick workout this morning, even though I wasn't 100%. When I got to my desk at work, the pain came in waves throughout the morning and I left work late enough to have it count as a half day.


I'm pretty miserable right now, but it's been nice to rest up and cuddle with my beloved cat Björk. I haven't had much quality time with her with all the training I've been doing. I really don't know how tri-moms do it! I have so much respect for all the moms out there that train, I can hardly take care of myself and my cat let alone myself and tiny humans.

Thanks for the comments on my last entry! I got some great feedback about posting my simple recipes. I hope to do it more often. I have for you today two ridiculously easy ones. One quick and simple meal, and one snack.

Baked Potato with Steamed Broccoli and Carrots. This takes 15 minutes, and for me is my go-to comfort meal. People at work ask me all the time how I bake a potato in a microwave, which always strikes me as odd. My dad's been doing it forever and I never thought twice about it. Stab a potato a few times and wrap it up in a paper towel. Nuke it 4 min on each side. For the broccoli and carrots I use my rice cooker to steam them and it takes 10-12 min. Before I had a rice cooker I'd boil a bit of water, put a colander in the pot, and cover it with a lid. I use about 1Tbsp of Earth Balance margarine to add flavor and moisture to this meal, and sprinkle on salt and pepper, as well as a bit of onion and garlic powder onto the carrots and broccoli. This is one of those warm meals that fills me up without being fattening and leaves me satisfied every time.

Bananas with Almond Butter, Raisins and Agave Nectar. This is a snack I use to satisfy a sweet craving. To me it's like a homemade, healthy candy bar. Cut a banana in half, and then cut the two halves lengthwise. Spreading peanut butter or almond butter on a banana is a pain! I usually have to use my fingers to help spread it out. (By the way, Raw Almond Butter at Trader Joe's is FANTASTIC and cheap, $4 a jar! Thank you Kelly for telling me about this, I'm spreading the word! Haha, I'm so lame!) If you're into raisins, like I am, put a few on top. Over everything I add a drizzle of Agave Nectar. This is also a great post workout snack, I would advise against this as a pre workout snack, as the banana and raisins may upset the stomach when its jostled around.

For the past few weeks I've been using Buckeye Outdoors to really track my nutrition. If I went by the online caloric needs calculators I would need well over 2000 calories a day. It seems this is way too much for me. When I eat around 1800 a day I usually gain weight. So I've been keeping my intake to around 1500 -1800 max. Eating lots of raw fruits and veggies has helped me to reach my goal and feel full/satisfied for longer. Before work (usually the night before) I pack two 2 cup snack containers. One I fill with a fruit salad of pineapple, cherries and blueberries. The other I put in carrot sticks, celery and a little container with hummus. These have been great and I highly recommend putting together fresh veggie/fruit snacks like this for work.

Anyway, back to laying around in bed, watching The Office on Hulu, looking up recipes and snuggling with Ms.Björk.

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Back to (Mostly) Raw

Last year in the summer time, due to the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, and my reading of the Thrive Diet, I was inspired to go raw. I did really well and actually didn't want to eat cookies and junk. I would look at a brownie, and instead of seeing yumminess I only saw a processed fat brick of sugar. Unfortunately I started having gastro-intestinal problems, and I had to go to a specialist. I was convinced I had a parasite. (Don't even bother asking why I thought that.) Anyway, I think all the problems were actually the result of red bell peppers. I was adding them to my daily salads, probably eating one whole pepper a day. As soon as I eliminated them from my diet and upped my probiotic intake, my symptoms vanished. Sadly, I love red bell peppers. It's a lame allergy to have, since they're in everything that seems healthy and yummy. They're in a lot of veggie burgers and mixed vegetable entrees. Since I wasn't sure what was causing it, I also went back to my regular diet and went back to drooling over brownies and cookies.

Last week, in a reverse of last year, I decided to go mostly raw again because of my stomach issues. I've been eating low acid foods for awhile now, and really paying attention to alkalizing and non-alkalizing foods. (Info here, hopefully this link works.) I have been eating more fruits and vegetables and I was finally like, hey I might as well go rawish again. I experienced the good benefits of a raw diet last year too, so it wasn't a complete loss. My skin indeed cleared up, just like they claim. I experienced those weird euphoric bouts of energy. Actually those crazy euphoric states made me realize how healthy eating raw is. If I eat a baked good, I feel the sugar rush, but it's more like my brain going haywire followed by a subsequent crash and feeling like crap. When I ate mostly raw I'd have these surges of energy out of nowhere that would last about 20 minutes and I would feel great. I'd say a sugar rush is a cloudy buzz, my mind doesn't exactly think well and I can hardly focus. During the raw food buzzes I would just feel happy and full of energy. It was weird, and I'm still skeptical of the whole thing, but I can't deny they happened a couple of times.

So what have I been eating? When I wake up I drink 2 - 3 pint glasses of water. I'm always dehydrated in the morning. Then I have my usual smoothie. I make it with either unsweetened soy milk or almond milk with Wyman's Frozen Blueberries, banana, fresh strawberries, Nutribiotic Brown Rice Protein and Acai juice. Lately I've been adding some romaine leaves, since my lettuce finally matured! Aw. Sometimes if I really want to treat myself, I open a can of coconut milk and pour some in. Oh man, it adds fat (good fat) but it is so delicious! To the left is actually a picture of a berry juice concoction. Water or coconut water instead of soy/almond milk. I also added frozen pineapple.


Sometimes I make a green smoothie/juice. Surprisingly I don't find these as enjoyable as the fruit ones. I picked up some kale at the Farmer's Market this weekend. This juice is kale, apple, banana and frozen pineapple. I'll admit it, I totally held my nose when I drank it. But I feel great after drinking it and have lots of energy. (Even though I just decided to skip spin class and continue writing this. Whoops.) I realized now that I probably would have enjoyed it more if I added some agave nectar. Sometimes sweet fruits alone aren't enough for the overpowering green taste. Adding a kale leaf to a fruit smoothie is great because you can't usually taste it.


For lunch I eat a giant salad. I pre-pack a tupperware container with mixed baby greens, walnuts and craisins. I usually bring an apple and strawberries to cut up before I eat my salad. Sometimes I add an avocado, again it adds fat, but it's healthy fat. I can't eat avocados every day like some raw foodists, they make me feel so heavy. Every now and then they are a great treat. My coworkers usually stop into the kitchen if they walk by and see me preparing my lunch. I bought cheap cutting boards from Ikea for work, and the kitchen has a few knives. Every time someone sees my salad they ooh and ahh over it. It's a salad! It's easy! Do it up!


This weekend I discovered the awesomeness of zucchini "pasta". I've seen so many raw recipes for vegetable pasta, and I was always curious to see how it tasted. I finally stopped wondering and did it. Simply peel a zucchini, and then once all the skin is off, continue to peel the zucchini into a bowl. Voila, you have zucchini pasta. For this one I added warmed portobello mushrooms. I fill a skillet with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and add sliced mushrooms. I put the temp on low and add ground pepper and salt, sometimes onion and garlic powder too. This pasta also includes basil and parsley and green beans from my garden! And canned tomato, I hate dealing with tomatoes, so I keep canned unsalted diced tomatoes around.

Yesterday I made pesto from ridiculously aromatic basil from the farmer's market. I made enough for my roommate and I and it was fantastic. He said his mind was blown and he couldn't get over the fact that we were eating zucchini. Try it! You feel less bloated after eating it than pasta, and it's a lot less calories. We decided since pesto is so fattening, the only "healthy" way to eat it was with zucchini pasta.

Portobello roll-ups. I took romaine and basil from my garden, then warmed up some portobello and added a bit of rosemary. These were delicious. Great as an appetizer, or a light meal. If you don't dig wrapping up things with just lettuce, I really love Joseph's Lavash Bread. They're low calorie, soft and delicious. I've been using them to make cucumber wraps too. For those I spread a tablespoon of hummus onto a piece of lavash bread (half of a whole rectangle of lavash bread is one serving), add greens, thinly sliced cucumber, a slice of cheddar cheese and some salt and pepper. I have been eating the cucumber wraps as a break from a daily salad. The cheese isn't that healthy or raw, but it's delicious so whatever.

You know what else is delicious but isn't that healthy or raw? Strawberry shortcake. Hells yea! My roommate baked shortcake and whipped up cream he bought at the farmer's market. For the shortcakes he used strawberry yogurt, and I have to say they came out amazingly well. Like I said, I'm going mostly raw, or rawish. I've been trying to eat at least two raw meals a day and only adding non-raw elements. As long as my meal contains some sort of fruit or vegetable I'm happy.

I've stumbled upon a great blog called Choosing Raw. I love Gena's take on eating raw. She has a great relaxed and realistic approach to eating raw. It's hard to find a raw blog author out there that isn't a bit stuck up when it comes to not eating completely raw. Gena has an encouraging voice and great advice. It's the first raw blog I really enjoy and I've been reading her older entries too. She seems as fascinated as I am by nutrition, and is open to new findings and claims. I love that she's not about following one "raw guru's" advice completely without question. She wants people to find their own path to healthy eating, and I'm all for that too!

Since last year I've found a lot more raw focused sites and blogs out there. It's kind of exploded, and it's great! I'm definitely excited to learn more recipes and read more discussions about raw food, as I find it pretty fascinating. Again, sometimes I think I should have been a nutritionist. I was giving people in my triathlete group some snack ideas the other day. They were really interested in my thoughts on finding natural alternatives to satiate cravings. I was pretty excited by this and was happy to finally be able to give some advice instead of being the newbie always asking for help!

Ohhh. Here's an image if you dare. Friends have been asking me how bad my blisters really were. CLICK HERE but I'm warning you it's pretty gross! (Oh and kind of blurry.)

PS - Hey lurking friends, leave a comment! A lot of people tell me they read my blog but they never comment! You don't have to comment every time, but feel free to leave some love every now and then. It's nice to know I'm not talking to myself on the internets.

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