Author Archives: Alison Spath

40 Days of Yoga, Teacher Training and Noticing Jealousy

October 25th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (Comments Off on 40 Days of Yoga, Teacher Training and Noticing Jealousy)

Today marks 28 days into my personal 40 Days of Yoga challenge and things are going well. Most days I try to get anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes of practice in at home, either as self guided practice (that means making it up as I go) or a class from yogadownload.com.  I’ve been getting to the studio once or twice a week for a 75 minute class, and then other days, like last Friday, it was a couple downward dogs and forward bends in my pajamas right before bed because the entire day slipped away before I had a chance to roll out my mat.

Shrimp Ceviche on Salad

October 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (4 Comments)

“Ceviche” is a relatively new word to me.  Wikipedia says ceviche is a seafood dish marinaded in citrus juices – and I’m with ya so far.

But Google Chrome and it’s squiggly red line under the word Ceviche is suggesting I use the word “Crevice”, which is not especially helpful because until just a few moments ago, I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce “ceviche”.  Now I’m going to go to a fancy party some day and say “May I please have the Shrimp Crevice?” and people are going choke on their caviar and/or snort Cristal out their nose.  Thanks for nothing, Google Chrome.

Make Your Own Kimchi

October 17th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (11 Comments)

We discovered kimchi about 3 years ago, thanks in part to The 4 Hour Body (a gimmicky book but some aspects were informative and entertaining nonetheless.)  Kimchi is an Asian dish – it’s a spicy, sour fermented cabbage. Fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, real pickles (and kimchi!) are an important part of your diet (have I convinced you read Deep Nutrition yet?  Come on people!)

With that, store bought kimchi (or kim chee) seems to fall under one of two categories:

Category 1: Not that good.

Category 2: Not that cheap.

Cholesterol Clarity

October 15th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Good Reads - (1 Comments)

Cholesterol Clarity was written by Jimmy Moore of Livin’ La Vida Low Carb (nice!) and was co-authored by Dr. Eric Westman, MD at Duke University, as well as a long list of contributing experts.

Cholesterol Clarity by Jimmy Moore

Let me start by saying that I don’t have concerns about my cholesterol, but I have a couple of family members who do and are on statin medications to bring their cholesterol levels down.  One of those family members would be my loving father who I cherish and adore.  He and I talk about nutrition a lot and I’m very grateful that he’s open minded and is willing to listen to his Bossy Pants Nutrition Nut daughter who will happily rattle on and on about what I’m currently reading, how I’m eating and what I think he should be eating too.

Caveman Fajitas

October 10th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (5 Comments)

Even though I’m not participating in a 40 Day Paleo Challenge, I’m still cooking for someone who is – so for the time being, I’m making dinner like any good cave woman would.

Namely, low-carb/grain free chicken fajitas.  Just call me Wilma Flintstone.

Paleo Chicken Fajitas

Lettuce as a our tortilla was the only thing I did differently to make these chicken fajitas Paleo friendly.  You could obviously use a regular flour tortilla here in place of lettuce if that’s what floats your boat.  (And if you can float a boat with flour tortillas, you must tell me and we will alert the National Academy of Physics!  Or whoever is in charge of gravity, momentum, centrifugal force, etc, etc.)

A 40 Day Challenge: Paleo, Yoga or Whatever You Want

October 6th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Motivation - (9 Comments)

Zak’s been talking about doing a “40 Day Paleo Challenge” for a couple of weeks now and he’s invited all of his (Facebook) friends to join him.  He asked me to write up a brief guide to Paleo for anyone who wants to play along, and when I was putting it together I decided to extend the invite here to you too.  It’s not a contest or competition, just an opportunity to try the Paleo lifestyle for 40 days, to give it a fair shot and to see if it might make a difference for you.

Chewy Pumpkin Granola

September 29th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (Comments Off on Chewy Pumpkin Granola)

I’ve got another pumpkin recipe today, but please don’t be annoyed.  I promise that I’m about to lay off the orange stuff for a while to ensure my hands stay on the paler side of normal this season.

I’ve had a hankering for granola, but every time I look at the ingredient list on the packages in the store and then look at the price, I sigh dramatically, throw my head back with my forearm over my brow and cry “Why, Granola?  WHY?”  (and then I look around the granola aisle and say “who said that?  people in this store are crazy!”)

Pumpkin Muffins (Version 2.0)

September 25th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet - (4 Comments)

Here we go.  The season of Everything Pumpkin has arrived.  Are you ready?  Do you have your pumpkin game face on?  Pumpkin pie!  Pumpkin spice lattes!  Pumpkin lasagna!  (Pumpkin lasagna?)  I’m even ready to declare September “National Pester Your Mother to Make Pumpkin Muffins Month” because that’s exactly what my kids have been doing: pestering me to make pumpkin muffins.

OK gang, I’m ready.  Let’s do this.

Practice Practicing

September 21st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (2 Comments)

You learn to cook so that you don’t have to be a slave to recipes. You get what’s in season and you know what to do with it.

-Julia Child

I got a recipe from a friend earlier this week that called for sausage and kale, among other ingredients.  The only two items I had on hand were the Italian sausage and kale, but those two items sounded like the answer to my What’s For Dinner Tonight prayers.

I decided to improvise and soon heard myself shouting “Hallelujah!” as a delicious sausage and vegetable medley of kale, tomato, carrot and pepper was born unto thee:

Maxine’s Minecraft Birthday Party

September 18th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Party Time - (10 Comments)

Please allow me to veer off course for a post to share Maxine’s Minecraft themed 7th birthday party. There was lots of running, and watermelon too – so you might be able to say it had a healthy living theme.  Sort of.  Except for the blue jello.  Blue jello that was probably not made from Organic, Locally Grown Smurfs.  I’m trying not to think about it.

Do your kids play Minecraft?  Mine sure do.  I might even call them “Minecraft Addicts”.  This is why it came as little surprise when Maxine requested a Minecraft birthday party this year.