holidaze

I seriously have no idea where time is going right now. For the past week, at least, I have felt somewhat disconnected and a little scatter brained. Perhaps it's the holidays rushing to meet me, maybe it's the seasons changing here, could be some kind of breast feeding hormonal thing, I really don't know but it's starting to annoy me.

So what to do? Tomorrow I am going to calendar the next month, get things back on track or at least make myself feel that they are. I think I will be really happy when the month long holiday break kicks in for The Son. A full reset will do the body/mind good.

Regardless of my molasses brain this week I have been working pretty hard at keeping up the workout schedule/physical activities. This past week was a little slow but all in all it's become a regular part of life. I run almost everyday, on off days I totally miss it and look forward to it. 

As part of my calendar I'm going to update my workout schedule. I am feeling a bit plateaued and think I need to mix it up. I also need to get more yoga happening again. 

Okay so I'm rambling a bit but here are some links to articles about SUPER FOODS:

Super Healing Foods Index

What Makes Super Foods, Super?

Veggies A-Z

All for now, let's hope that after my little mental pring cleaning tomorrow I can get things back on track.
xoxo
martha

beef and booze and presents! oh my!

I've been thinking about food a lot lately because of Thanksgiving and Christmas being so close. In reflecting on the holidays I have been trying to strategize how to make it thorough this season without:

1. gaining back all the weight I've lost, and never getting rid of it

2. having a heart attack

3. setting myself up for cancer,  or cancer,  or cancer

Yes, I know this sounds dramatic but seriously, how totally bad for you is meat. I don't eat meat anymore, I have fish and seafood pretty regularly. I don't dislike meat, or at least I used to like meat, now, honestly, the idea of it makes me a bit queazy. 

My family, who I will be spending Christmas dinner with, eats meat, to me they eat a lot of meat. For Christmas we have a giant beef roast with Yorkshire Pudding and gravy and all sorts of creamed vegetables, it's a veritable feast of butter and cream and it's all super yummy and super bad for you. 

This year I am bringing 2 veggie dishes to share and even though it's cooked in the smoking hot beef fat from the pan I WILL eat some Yorkshire pudding because it is heavenly.

However, as it is perpetually winter where they live and they aren't gym goers I have been, as I said earlier, strategizing. 

How to get the best and avoid the worst at the Christmas feast without going off the deep end?

1. Make a plan, think about your schedule for the holidays. Establish times when you can get in some exercise, even if it's just for a few minutes.

2. Eat before you go to a party or dinner, even a small snack like an apple can keep you from going overboard with the rich foods.

3. At holiday functions look for the healthy snacks first. I know in my family there is always a tray of celery and carrots hiding somewhere behind a cheese ball and dips.

4. Remember that alcoholic drinks usually have a lot of calories, 2 or 3 drinks can equal a meal so go slow on the booze.

5. If traveling to a different town for the holidays, find out what gyms are around your destination and what there holiday schedule is. All gyms will sell you a day or weekly rate. 

6. If staying at a hotel make sure to book one with a gym, most hotels have some kind f fitness center or discounts at gyms nearby. Call ahead and ask.

7. Make sure you get enough sleep. Lack of sleep encourages poor metabolism, get 8 hours whenever possible.

8. Register on any of the fitness websites that have downloadable, printable or streaming workout videos on their websites. Self, Fitness and Women's Health all do. These are great because you can take the workouts with you. There are plenty that don't require equipment so you can get in some activity without too much effort.

9. Don't stress. When feeling taxed by all the running around, shopping, eating, drinking, whatever, just take a deep breath and relax.

10. Enjoy yourself! The holidays don't last very long, so have some fun. It's as good for you as working out.

xoxo

martha

true love

I love chocolate! There I said it, I admit it freely. If there is one food on the planet that I never tire of it's chocolate. I don't really like candy, cookies or cakes, they are okay but chocolate, I truly enjoy. 

So how bad is chocolate really. I remember hearing as a teenager that chocolate gave you zits, which is either untrue or I am now immune to this side-effect because I eat chocolate as often as possible and don't have acne.

It often has a lot of calories for the size of the enjoyment. The bag of Hershey chocolate chips I have in the freezer says that a smidgen 1 Tbsp of chips has 70 calories. It doesn't sound like much until you think about how many chocolate chips are in a tablespoon. I checked, there are about 20. Not a lot when you get a nagging craving for chocolate.

The truth is that chocolate is good for you. Cocoa contains flavonoids which have been shown to prevent heart disease and cancer. However, many of the chocolate products

like candy bars or hot chocolate have been adulterated with alkali (Dutch chocolate) or toms of fats and sugars to boost the flavor and richness. To really get the antioxidant benefits of chocolate you need to choose dark chocolate with a higher cocoa level. And forget about Milk or white chocolate, these don't have the same effect on the body and they are much higher in fat and calories.

Here are a few links to articles that discuss the benefits of dark chocolate:

Is Chocolate Good For You?

Dark Chocolate is Healthy Chocolate

Chocolate Can Do Good Things for Your Heart, Skin and Brains

Remember, even though chocolate has some pretty great health benefit, everything in moderation, especially during the upcoming holidays which always seem to involve a lot of chocolate.

enjoy!

martha

new annex addition

I've posted an update to the Snack Pack Annex   (CLICK HERE) that I started last month. This month has information about stretching, focusing on Self Myofascial Release (SMR). 

If you aren't familiar with SMR then I recommend that you definitely check it out. It is an aspect of flexibility training which can really take you help you in your fitness training or general exercise.

It is a form of soft tissue therapy that incorporates self massage using a foam roller. The process involves a gentle application of pressure to adhesions or "knots" and applying the pressure for a minimum of 20 to 30 seconds. This will stimulate neural activity which will help restore the body to optimum functioning.

SMR can be used pre-warm up or as part of your cool-down.

more later...

martha

weekend round up and recipe

I had a nice run this morning, managed to fit in the Warriors and Goddesses workout and played some basketball with my son. 

This week should be pretty hectic, it's getting closer to the holidays so there is a lot happening of course. This also means lots of eating yummy foods which are totally NOT on the regular diet list and this brings us to today's recipe. 

I will tell you right now this is not a healthy treat if by healthy you mean low in fat. It is made with whole ingredients and by whole I mean BUTTER! No margarine or oil here, I guess you could try to make substitutions but really who wants to do that. 

So here it is, a delicious holiday cookie from Vegetarian Times.

Pistachio-Cherry Sandwich Cookie

1.5 cups shelled pistachios

2 sticks butter, unsalted, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tbs. lemon juice

3 cups al purpose flour

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

.5 tsp. baking powder

.25 tsp. salt

1.25 cups cherry preserves

1. Process pistachios in food processor until finely ground, about 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar in food processor until fluffy. add egg, lemon juice and pulse until combined. Scrape down sides. Add pistachios, flour, lemon zest, baking powder and salt. Pulse until dough clumps together, about 15 seconds. Divide dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic and put in refrigerator for an hour or until firm.

3. Preheat oven to 350. Roll out 1 disk on lightly floured parchment until about 1/8 of an inch think. **Transfer parchment with dough to a cookie sheet and place into freezer for about 5 minutes to firm up.

4. Cut out cookies with a 2 inch cutter and place onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Place cookies 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

5. Spread ***1 tsp. preserves on to half of cookies and top with remaining cookies.

NOTES

** I skipped the step of putting the dough in the freezer, my freezer simply isn't big enough. I chilled the dough as disks for about 1.5 hours and worked quickly to roll it and cut it, so it's really up to you if you want to skip this step.

*** I used less than an entire teaspoon of preserves per cookie. I also used just a tiny bit of water to thin the preserves before I filled the cookies.

enjoy!

martha

p.s. Camille, you should be getting some of these tomorrow so watch out!

i've been a bad blogger

Yes I have, I haven't been posting lately and it's for no other reason than forgetting. I got all caught up in the election !!Woohoo Obama!! and with my 1.5 week internet outage I got out of the habit. 

Which is just what can happen when you take a break from exercising. You skip a few days because you get side tracked or have to travel or any other reason/excuse we put on there and BOOM! the next thing you know it's been a month and 5-10-maybe even 15 lbs. have just appeared on your hips and you're left standing there asking yourself what happened. 

Well if you have lived this sort of scenario you know what comes next, hard work to get caught up and back on track, so that's what's happening here. I have a few posts I'm working on, a couple of SUPER yummy recipes, some fun free workouts, a DVD review, and pictures. 

I keep saying it, I know, but really I have pictures!

So hang in there with me, I will be swinging through again to post again later today, tell your friends, your co-workers, yell it from the rooftops!

THE SNACK PACK IS BACK!

xoxo

martha

expanded snack pack

Click HERE for a new annex of The Snack Pack. 

This will be updated regularly if there is interest.

Let me know your thoughts.

xoxo

martha