A little over a year ago Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point spawned a little side project blog she called Operation Beautiful. It all started with a post-it note that she left on a bathroom mirror – a note that said “You Are Beautiful” after having a not-so-great day feeling pretty crummy about herself.

She blogged about it and suddenly women all around the world started doing the same thing. Many of these women started sending Caitlin pictures of their post-it notes in places like the gym, the grocery store, the library – any place a woman (or man!) might see it and be reminded that they are awesome.

A short while later Caitlin was offered the opportunity to turn her inspirational idea into book! And just last week, Caitlin’s book appeared on store shelves across the country.

Having fallen out of the healthy living blog world for a while there, I’d sort of forgotten about Operation Beautiful – not to mention the book. The message is of course very sweet but very important as well. We need to stop picking ourselves apart and remember that despite any flaws you may have (and we all do!) – you are still an amazing, incredible, beautiful person, flaws and all.

You are not what you own. You are not what you wear. You are not a wide waist or short legs or the couple of stray gray hairs you can no longer hide by plucking them out of the top of your head.

So after watching Caitlin on the Today show last week

and following along with book release happenings through cyberspace, I added “Buy Operational Beautiful” to my to-do list. It just so happens that one of my post-it notes is featured in the book! Squeal! I mean, this could be the closest I ever get to writing my own book – damn straight I’m gonna go buy a copy!

But then something crazy happened. After getting reacquainted with Operation Beautiful at the end of last week, I suddenly started to catch myself having all these negative thoughts about myself! At any given time on any given day – in the shower, on a bike ride, a run, looking in the mirror, driving in the car… those stinkin’ negative thoughts would creep in without even realizing it! Holy crap I do this too! And that’s when it hit me – maybe I should actually read this book.

So off I went to Border’s this weekend to fetch myself a new book – armed with post-it notes and a sharpie, of course.

And just to prove a point, I’ll have you know I’m not exactly fond of this picture of myself. I wasn’t even going to post it until I realized that I’m an idiot. Unwashed hair! (The hair wrap is a dead giveaway.) Unflattering lighting! Why is the post-it over my mouth like that? Why did I even take this picture?

Geez woman, how about you completely miss the point here.

Anyways.

Four copies on the shelf,

I pulled one out and left a note on it. (That’s right, a breastfeeding post-it – killing two birds with one stone here.)

(And this would be where a store person stopped to asked me if I need any help. Nooooo, I’m fine! Just wheelin’ a permanent marker around here near all these brand new books on your shelves… why do you ask?)

I put the post-it loaded book back on the shelf and then snagged my own post-it-less copy, thinking about the fact that I am just as guilty as so many other women in this world with the negative self talk and thoughts. Dammit!

And then I thought you know what, someone else probably needs to read this too.

Someone like you.

So I snagged one more, and yup I’m giving it away! All you have to do for a chance at winning a copy of Operational Beautiful: Transforming the Way You See Yourself One Post-It Note at a Time is to leave a comment on this post telling me that you could use a good kick in the pants to be reminded to knock off the negative self talk too. I’ll choose a winner by random by the end of the week.

Now leave a comment and then go think something nice about yourself, would ya?

• Operation Beautiful

This week I finished reading a book that has earned itself the well-deserved honor as my new favorite book:

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  

Born to Run is one of those books that has left me feeling sad that it’s over. It’s also one of those books that is going to prevent me from picking up any new book for quite some time here. I am going to need a little time to recover from it’s awesomeness and allow a little space between now and whatever I pick up to read next. Any new book right now is quite simply going to suck in comparison.

So instead of writing about what this book is, I’m going to write about what it is not.

This is not a book that is going to leave you feeling like running is something you can’t do or might ever truly enjoy.

It is not going to make you throw confetti in the air when you read about the study that says the more expensive your running shoe, the more likely you are to get injured.

It is not going to make you shriek toe curling, joyous laughter when you think back on all the hundreds of dollars you’ve spent on running sneakers over the last five years.

Born to Run is not going to leave you feeling unmotivated, unmoved or believing that running is just for those with lots of natural talent and grace.

This is not a book you are going to look forward to putting down when you’re forced to break up a fight between your children who probably wouldn’t have even been fighting in the first place if you’d been paying attention to them instead of sneaking off to read.

If I might now impress upon you what this book is and has done for me in recent weeks here, I suppose now is the time to do it.

I’ll start by saying that I have found myself appreciating running even more than I already did.

Born to Run has left me feeling inspired to get out there and improve my form, to work on running lighter, longer and easier.

I have now found myself looking forward to and embracing the fatigue that rears it’s head during a hard work out.

I have started to involuntarily cradle my chin in the space between my pointer finger and thumb as I stare off thoughtfully and ponder the idea that the way to conquer something is to love it.

I am also enjoying the challenge of trying to balance attempts at sneaking in some barefoot runs along side long runs… long runs that at this point my barefoot career require shoes. Yes, those same long runs that I had initially planned to skip this summer! A plan I was forced to abandon when I realized Born to Run had other motivational plans for me.

The concepts found among these 282 pages not only have me paying closer to attention to my own running form, but the form of other runners too. I look on with new eyes as I notice what my fellow runners are out there doing. I find myself resisting the urge to holler out “Dude! Shorten your stride!” or “Girlfriend! Bend your knees! Stand up straight!” or “Way to rock out old man! Nice pace! You’re doing something right!” or “Oooo girl I am loving those shorts but hey, stop landing on your heel!”

Woven between a great story are smaller stories and tidbits about well known and lesser known athletes, amazing coaches, scientists and researches. It was an entertaining and funny read. It had me nodding my head in agreement, scooping my jaw up off the floor in disbelief, laughing out loud and snorting grapefruit seltzer out my nose.

In short, it’s easy to say that Born to Run has most definitely had a positive impact on my running life and a book I would recommend to runners and non-runners alike. It has unfortunately has put a damper on my reading life for a next couple of weeks here, but no big deal – I’ve got some running to do anyway.

• Foot Notes
• So Happy Together
• Pushing Up Pansies

Last year right around this time I found The Raw Foods Detox Diet by Natalia Rose.  I was so excited and convinced by all the rawesome stuff in her book that I did a bunch of things she said to do, as well as the one big thing she said not to do; that is, “don’t dive head first into the raw food deep end.”  Bah!  I’ve been eating raw food since I was a baby!  How hard can it be?

*jump*

*SPLASH*

*smash head*

*drown*

So OK yeah, you don’t become a high raw foodist overnight. Check.  After a couple weeks of attempting a largely raw diet I pretty much bailed completely and went back to eating cooked food again.  It did lead me to juicing though for which I am eternally grateful. I also came away with a new found respect for food that didn’t require quite so much damn chewing, so I appreciated that too.

With spring and summer produce raining down on us like, well – rain, I’ve been thinking about the Raw Food Detox Diet again and have been brushing up on my food combining skillz and raw recipes too.  As the case usually is with me, thoughts turn to action and suddenly I’ve found myself on a raw rampage.  The table and fridge have been filled with more raw meals than usual and for the time being, I’m treading water in the raw food deep end.

Raw Deal #1: Marinated Portobello Mushrooms

Here lies four unsuspecting portobello mushroom caps, which I promptly scalped and sliced after snapping this picture.  I made up a quick and easy marinade of an unmeasured amount of olive oil (probably half a cup), balsamic vinegar (maybe 3/4 c), 1 clove of garlic (minced) and a dash of salt.  Shrooms into the bowl of marinade and then into fridge for a few hours, stirring (and sampling) occasionally when I thought of it.

Marinated mushrooms were then delicately plopped onto a bed of mixed greens and then drizzled with remaining marinade.

And then those perfectly marinated mushrooms met their maker.

Raw Deal #2: Curried Coleslaw

I originally stole got the idea for this recipe from my mother, but it can also be found here.

My version of this recipe went a little something like this (I doubled it):

1 bag of shredded cabbage (have you ever tried to cut up a head of cabbage?  Yeah, once was enough for me too.)
1/4 c shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/3 c Braggs Amino Acid (soy sauce would work too)
1/3 c apple cider vingear
1/3 c olive oil
2 Tablespoons agave nectar
1 clove garlic, minced
2 or so inches of ginger, grated
Juice from 1 lemon
Curry powder, cumin, salt to taste

My favorite little ginger grater flounder doesn’t get nearly enough blog time. Please allow me to present you with your gratuitous porcelain nubbed flounder shot:

(Totally worth it.)

Curried Coleslaw for lunch anyone?

Raw Deal #3, a deal that can’t be beet! (har har har)

Beet and Apple Slaw

3 smallish beets, trimmed and scrubbed and grated (in that order)
2 mediumish apples, grated
1 smallish red onion, diced
Juice from 1 lemon
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1 clove garlic, minced
dash of salt, pepper

Shred, mince, etc all fruits and vegetables, add other ingredients. Stir. Place on bed of greens. Eat.

I made this today and it’s already gone. No shame! Lunch and dinner, done and done. It was that good. Even the Potato Head macked on this beet slaw. Your purple lips don’t lie Monsieur P to the H! Let’s just say it’s a good thing raw potato isn’t that great, otherwise Raw Deal #4 would have been Raw Potato Salad.

• Strawberry Shortcuts
• It’s Not Even December
• Broccamoli

I’m officially stocked up on things to blog about!

First things first! On Sunday I took my camera along with me on an overcast and very-mild-for-January morning run.

I took a punk along with me too.

Who wants to come along on a 5 mile run through my new neighborhood? Well, you don’t have a choice. Get your sneakers on. It’s time to go.

Our first landmark would be what is currently my most favorite thing to run over in the whole wide world. A pedestrian bridge that crosses the river that divides the city in half.

Why I take so much pleasure from running over a pedestrian bridge I’ll never know – but I love it, I do!

(Pictures are more fun with people in them so expect to see my running friend Shawn a lot during this post.)

Over the river.

To the river path that also happens to run along a college campus.

A glimpse of downtown from the path.

Getting closer…

I should let you in on a secret goal I have in life: to be able to do a cartwheel even when I’m 100 years old.

30 years and going strong! 70 years to go.

After the river path, it’s time to break into the cemetery though a broken spot in the wrought iron fence.

Dude, you ran right by it!

The only problem with taking my camera with me on this run was that Shawn would run up ahead while I stopped for my mid-run photo shoots, and then I would have to bust ass to catch up with him. Ah well, probably a good thing really, especially given I haven’t done speed work in ages.

Spooky!

Don’t just lay there, get up and run with us!

Through the cemetery. (And figuring out to just take pictures while I’m running.)

Back across the river.

To stop and admire some graffiti.

Why does this come as no surprise that this very cryptic message was spray painted on by men? I certainly can’t imagine a group of women spray painting “BALLS” under a bridge. “KITTENS”? Probably not. “DIAMONDS”? Maybe. “CHOCOLATE”? Getting closer now.

There! 5 miles! Done! That wasn’t so bad now was it? We were only gone about 45 minutes, and it seemed to go by like the scroll of a mouse wheel, didn’t it?

Next on today’s bloggy agenda would the awesome care package that arrived via United States Postal Service from my boyfriend Brendan Brazier yesterday!

OK, maybe not from BB himself, but a girl can still dream.

I need to give a big shout out and thank you to my girl Kelly at Sequel Naturals for offering to hook me up with Brendan’s latest book, Thrive Fitness. I’m so excited to read and review this book!

In case you missed it, I happened to love Brendan’s book Thrive. The changes I made in my diet thanks to everything I learned in his first book have made such a difference in my life. Thrive gave me the information I needed to make adjustments in my approach to eating which in turn has given me more energy in general, has allowed me to sleep better, and made my runs and workouts feel positively amazing – I can’t wait to see what Brendan’s training program and book dedicated to fitness has to offer!

This happens to the perfect segue into Blog Worthy Item #3:

I realized this weekend that the half marathon I plan to run in April is now less than 12 weeks away! Considering the training program I used last time is 12 weeks long, I guess that means it’s time to start thinking about training? Ugh. I’m not ready yet. The Sunday long runs don’t start getting longer for another 5 weeks, but still. If I hope to beat my previous half marathon time of 1:47, I’ve got to get back to doing long runs and speed work too. Speed work is so much easier in the summer! Or at the very least, on a treadmill.

Well, it’s not anywhere near summer and I don’t have a treadmill or even a gym membership, so I’m going to have to figure something out. I’m probably going to have suck it up and run fast outside. In the cold. Joy to the world.

Runners! Do you do speed work outside in the winter? (And if you live in a warm climate, your comment doesn’t count!) Does it suck as much as I imagine it’s going to? Maybe I’ll be surprised and sucking in cold, frozen air fast and hard will be petting a kitten? Putting on a diamond necklace? Eating chocolate? No?

• Half Marathon Race Recap
• Turn It Up
• Secret Goals

It’s been a while since I’ve written on and on about Brendan Brazier, hasn’t it? Well, my boyfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble.

I’m not sure how I feel about referring to Brendan as my boyfriend in one sentence followed by a photo of a knife pointed in his general direction a moment later. Someone cue the Psycho music.

Today I put together another Thrive inspired breakfast based on Brendan’s Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal recipe.

I pre-heated the oven to 250 and then proceeded to dice up one apple and tossed it into a bowl with a cup of oats, a half cup each of sliced almonds, ground flax seed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and hemp seeds. I added a little cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and stirred until well combined.

In a separate bowl I combined 1/4 c of canola oil and a 1/4 c of agave nectar. My version varies slightly from Brendan’s because I made due with what I had on hand. (His calls for hemp oil and molasses.)

Wet and dry ingredients mixed well, onto a coconut oiled cookie sheet it went!

Baked for one hour, makes 5 servings and keeps in the refrigerator for two weeks.

Speaking of Brendan, he sent me a care package yesterday! Well, it wasn’t from Brendan himself, but I like to pretend it was.

Kelly from Sequel Naturals contacted me about reviewing some of his products from the Vega product line. How could I possibly say no? Well – I couldn’t.

Oh! There’s the oven timer! Breakfast is served!

Ava was standing next to me when I took this picture and she said “wow mom, that looks like real cereal!”

I LOVED this! Especially fresh out of the oven. The apples were warm and soft, all the oats and seeds gave it the perfect crunch.

It may look like “real cereal”, but it tastes even better! And I wasn’t left wanting to dive back onto the cookie sheet for more – more – MORE. I call this cereal success!

• No related posts.

Over the summer I was sent Thrive to read and review on the blog. I read it over the course of a few weeks and have written previously about how I’ve incorporated the concepts from Thrive into my life and with regards to training for the half marathon this summer.

Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life was written by Brendan Brazier, a professional Ironman triathlete. In Thrive, Brendan describes how a vegan and largely raw diet can help you lose weight, reduce your biological age, improve sleep, increase energy and eliminate food cravings.

Thrive is one of those books that has altered the course of my life. In May I read The Raw Foods Detox Diet by Natalia Rose. Her book was my introduction to a raw foods diet and why eating living, uncooked foods is so beneficial to your health.

When I heard about Thrive and realized it was written by a professional athlete who eats a high raw and vegan diet, I was absolutely intrigued. Thrive filled in a lot of the gaps left from The Raw Food Detox Diet for me. It was easy to see that yes, this approach to eating works not only for athletes, but for anyone looking to simply achieve optimal health. With Brendan, the proof is in the Energy Pudding. He has been able to train harder, recover faster and perform better all thanks to a plant based diet.

The book begins discussing the effects of stress on the body, and that there is stress that is helpful and stress that is harmful. He calls them complimentary and uncomplimentary stress, respectively. The first form of stress being something like exercise. This sort of stress can be helpful as it allows the body to adapt and become more efficient. Uncomplimentary stress would be stress that does us no favors. Uncomplimentary stress can come from work, the environment, eating processed, refined foods that are a huge drain on our bodies and are very taxing to our systems. Nutritional stress from processed foods makes up the largest percentage of uncomplimentary stress in most Americans.

When you are burdened with a lot of uncomplimentary stress, you feel tired and drained. You have no energy and your immune function is lowered. You can reduce the stress load you put on your body by eating a diet full of whole foods, especially a diet comprised largely of plants.

I have to say that after reading Thrive and The Raw Foods Detox Diet, my idea of “whole foods” has changed. I use to feel I was still eating whole foods when I ate whole grain crackers and organic boxed cereals. These items are what Brendan refers to as stimulating foods. Coffee, or caffeine in any form really, falls into the stimulating food category as well, as does junk food, refined sugar, transfats and high fructose corn syrup. When you have a diet full of stimulating foods, your body craves that stimulation and you find your self longing for stimulationg by food again and again. This is what we of course more commonly know as food cravings.

I’ve struggled with food cravings a lot this past year as I’ve worked to maintain my healthy weight. I’ve gone through periods where it’s not an issue and times when all I can think about is sweets and comfort foods and wanting to turn to food as a form of entertainment.

Brendan explains that when you remove these stimulating foods from your diet, food cravings diminish and can eventually disappear all together. When you get started, it takes a few days to recalibrate your system, to adjust and rid your body of the need for stimulation. There will be a couple days where it feels like it’s a struggle to stay away from these stimulating foods. You’ll eventually come out of it though and “recalibrate”, seeing that light at the end of tunnel if you can hang in there.

In my case these foods would be crackers, cereals and other processed grains. Chocolate and coffee too. When I eat only fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and dried fruit and avoid these processed foods – even processed organic foods – my food cravings disappear. It becomes easy and effortless to eat a plant based diet. I can eat when I feel hungry, without worrying about how long it’s been since my last meal or snack. I eat until I’m comfortably satisfied without worrying about calories or portion control. It makes eating a normal part of life instead of the center of my life. I now feel like I eat to live, rather than live to eat. It’s as though I’ve been relieved of a huge burden, and this is what I mean when I say that Thrive has changed the course of my life – I feel like I can move forward now having made peace with food.

I’m not swearing off coffee, crackers, dark chocolate and boxed cereals or even junk food forever. I’m sure I will have these foods again but I no longer crave them or long for a day when I can splurge. I now understand what eating these foods regularly will do to me, and that they are the source of food cravings for me.

I know that there are people who will read this or read Thrive and think “oh, I could NEVER give up X”. That’s fine. You’re just not ready. Whenever someone finds out I’m vegetarian, without even asking or prompting I’m almost always told what they could never live without. Chicken wings. Turkey at Thanksgiving. Cheeseburgers. Meatballs. Even vegetarians when confronted with the idea of veganism say they could never live without yogurt, cheese, ice cream. I have to laugh because I remember saying these things myself. For me the vegetarian silver bullet was always a turkey sub. I thought I could never be a vegetarian because I just loved turkey subs too much. I wasn’t ready yet. While I don’t consider myself a vegan at this time, I do feel as though I’m moving in that direction.

When you’re ready, this comes easily. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes baby steps to move toward a diet that is best for your body and your health. It’s taken me years to get here.

I started following the principles in the Thrive diet more closely at the beginning of September. The fact that I was already vegetarian and had already begun eating more raw foods made it easier for me to move forward with his concepts and stay on track. It’s been a month and I can say without a doubt that I’ve had more energy, slept better and needed less sleep these last few weeks than ever before. My runs have felt fantastic and I’m not completely dragging at the end of the day like I use to.

In summary, I would recommend Thrive to anyone without a doubt. Depending on where you are in your life the ideas in his book might seem too radical, but it can still be a starting point and can get you moving in the right direction. I not only recommend it, I highly encourage you to read it if you are at all intrigued like I was. There are no gimmicks, this is not a fad diet, I believe this is the way we were meant to eat and live and I’m excited to move forward and stick with it.

Brendan encourages you to start slowly and ease into what he suggests. The more gradually you make changes the more likely they are to stick. He discusses how a plant based diet is perfect not only for athletes but for everyone. He also talks about exercise for life long health, and that it doesn’t mean hours and hours of daily exercise to be healthy. If you’ve struggled like me with food cravings, your weight, lack of energy, fatigue despite getting enough sleep – do yourself a favor and check out Thrive. It could be a large piece of the puzzle that’s been missing for you. It certainly was for me.

I’ve written about Thrive in many posts, if you’re curious to read more about my take on this book and how I’ve incorporating these ideas into my life:

The Fountain of Youth (Reducing biological age)
No Rest for the Weary (Making changes thanks to Thrive)
Thrive Inspired (Fueling for a long run based on Brendan’s advice)
Make Your Own Cereal, Take 2 (Fruit cereal!)
Intuitive Eating Refresher (Giving up coffee and chocolate on a regular basis)
Re-Runs (Thrive inspired thoughts on fueling before the half)
Half Marathon Race Recap (Half marathon day prep based on Brendan’s approach)
Let’s Play Brendan Says (Needing less sleep)

He also discusses the environmental impact on eating meat and processed foods, and how a vegan diet is not only good for us, but good for the environment too. The end of the book is full of Brendan’s recipes and a 12 week meal to follow if you are looking for some guidance.

My buddy Matt at No Meat Athlete also read and reviewed Thrive this summer, you can read his review here if you’re curious about someone else’s perspective.

I want to express my gratitude to the folks at Da Capo Press / Da Capo Lifelong Books for the opportunity to read Thrive, and especially to Brendan himself for putting this information out there. I’m excited to see what following this way of eating on the long term can do for my training and racing in the future as well!

If you’ve read or decide to read Thrive in the future, report back! I’d be thrilled to hear what you think.

• Turn It Up
• The Fountain of Youth
• Not January Yet

Yesterday a fun package came in the mail.

Oooo I love packages! So what’s inside, what’s inside!?

Why it’s a book!

Have you read Intuitive Eating? It quite literally saved my sanity early this year when I was having a tough time with food.

I’ve never really had a difficult relationship with food. I’ve never been a “dietier” per se, and have always known that it’s better to just live an active lifestyle with a regular diet full of the whole foods – instead of eating diet foods, avoiding treats and junk food for a short period of time while you’re “on a diet” to lose weight. Once I figured out the math behind losing weight (calories in < calories out) weight loss came pretty easily. I counted calories to lose weight but what it boiled down to was smaller portions, not going back for seconds and cutting out mindless eating combined with regular exercise. What you don’t find out until after you’ve lost a significant amount of weight (35 lbs qualifies as significant for me) is that maintaining your weight can almost be harder than losing it in the first place.

Last year at this time I’d reached the weight I’d dreamed of for almost 15 years. I'd run my marathon. Awesome! But now what? I was out of goals to work toward and felt like I had nothing exciting to look forward to anymore. I found myself turning to food for excitement and fun. I would restrict and "be good" during the week and then overeat – and as horribly embarrassed as I am to write it: binge on the weekends. Seriously, I want to backspace that last sentence right out but I'm leaving it in because I know now that I'm not alone. I sure felt alone back then though. "Back then" being only 9 short months ago.

I honestly thought I was losing my mind and that I was heading for an eating disorder. I felt like it was almost completely out of my control. Unable to stop eating treats once I finally let myself have even one. I would get caught in that “well, I’ve blown it, might as well go nuts now” mentality. I would feel so guilty come Monday that I would restrict calories all week long to feel like I was making up for what I did over the weekend. I would continue restricting calories for the second half of the week to save up calories so I could splurge the following weekend. But an innocent splurge would almost always turn into eating so much of some otherwise forbidden food that I would reach the point where I felt sick – both physically and mentally. This restricting and binging cycle allowed me to maintain my weight but it did a real number on me from a psychological stand point.

It was nasty cycle. I realized soon that this was not the way I wanted to live. I had to get to the bottom of what was going on, I'd never experienced anything like this before. I knew it had to be possible to have a healthy relationship with food and also maintain my happy, healthy weight. These things couldn't be mutually exclusive!

Enter: Intuitive Eating. I wasn't blogging when I read this book but I have to give it a shout out because it truly turned things around for me. It pulled from me from the vicious cycle I'd gotten myself into. I read this book feeling like it was written just for me! The book describes 10 principles toward eating intuitively and while I found value in all 10 principles the big ones for me we’re honoring my hunger and making peace with food.

I got Intuitive Eating from library earlier this year and didn’t buy it because I got everything I needed from it while I had it on loan. It showed up in mailbox yesterday through thanks to this awesome website called Bookmooch! It’s a site that allows you to mooch books for free from other people – provided you list some books you have and are willing to allow people to mooch from you. All you have to do is pay for shipping your own books to other people and they pay to ship to you. I love Bookmooch and it’s a great way to swap out books I’m done with and get new books I want without having to pay for them OR pay late fees at the library! SCORE! I’ve mooched a bunch of great books and have emptied my book shelves of books I’m done with too.

I’d had Intuitive Eating on my “wish list” for a while and I got an email just recently when someone listed it in their inventory. I logged in and snagged it immediately and it came yesterday. The arrival of it prompted some reflection and lead to this post today. I’m very glad I own it now, and I’m even more glad I didn’t have to pay for it! I want to be able to refer to it if I ever need a refresher and I want to be able to loan it out to my friends and family if they’d like to read it.

Today was supposed to be a juice day but I dawdled too long at the computer this morning and before I knew it I was really hungry. I decided to honor my hunger and eat a bowl of cereal NOW rather than spend a half hour start to finish on juicing.

I was excited to bust out the cacao nibs from yesterday!

Yesterday Averie left a comment saying that she found cacao nibs to be bitter, and I thought the same thing when I sampled them straight up.

Sprinkled on fruit cereal this morning though the sweetness from the fruit easily masked any bitterness and they gave the cereal a subtle chocolaty flavor with a very nice crunch! Plus I love that they made the cereal completely raw. (Unsweetened cocoa powder is not.)

This morning’s fruit cereal combo was a diced banana, the last beat up pear and three chopped medjool dates all coated in ground flax. Sprinkled with some hand crushed walnuts and some cacao nibs and topped with unsweetened vanilla hemp milk.

Medjool dates in fruit cereal? Bliss. PURE. BLISS! I expected the cacao nibs to be the star but those chewy sweet dates stole the show!

Later this morning I had a couple of almond butter stuffed dates before I headed out for a nice leisurely Sunday long run. Yes. More dates. I’m making up for lost time apparently.

I was going to run 7 miles but felt so good at the 3+ mile mark that I opted to go the long way and do 8 instead. I was back in just over an hour.

Lunch today was a no brainer! We’ve got salad leftover from last night’s birthday dinner making lunch easy peasy.

Red leaf, carrots, orange cherry tomatoes, green pepper, cukes, alfalfa sprouts and a sprinkle of raw hemp seeds too. Heather told me this morning that she sprinkles hemp seeds on salad, so that’s what I did with the ones I bought yesterday. You can see them in their untidy glory around the edges of the plate. Honestly I couldn’t even taste them. I sampled a small handful before I put them on the salad though and they had a nice nutty flavor.

We’re off now to a picnic with friends to say good-bye to summer and welcome the official arrival of the new season. Autumn is near!

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I left my alarm set to 5:15 from yesterday and got up at the same time today. I got a ton done in just a short period of time. Amazing what happens when you will yourself to stay off your computer immediately upon rising. As soon as the sun came up I got dressed and headed out on my bike for a short ride.

I didn’t want to go too far or too long today given I ran for well over an hour yesterday. My official ride ended after 35 minutes but then I stopped at home to grab my back pack and wallet and rode a mile to the corner store to pick up a few things for another Thrive inspired breakfast this morning.

When I got home I whipped up a couple of juices for myself and the man.

Like two peas in a pod! Or more accurately, six fruits and vegetables in a glass. But who’s counting?

Romaine, a beet, cucumber, lemon, apple and ginger.

So I believe I’ve established I like cereal? I know, like that’s something special and extraordinary… who doesn’t?? Brenden Brazier has a couple of great sounding cereal recipes in Thrive. I used his Banana Ginger Pear Cereal recipe as inspiration to come up with my own based on what I was in the mood for and the ingredients I had on hand.

Well, what I had on hand + what I rode to the store for this morning too.

I diced up a perfectly ripe pear and a small banana into bite sized pieces. I dragged out a package of prunes from the very last of the Newman’s Own Organics stash we were sent a couple months back.

That’s right. PRUNES. I remember some food blogger (can’t remember who! – I’m thinking Lynn from The Actor’s Diet?) recently saying that they didn’t know why prunes got such a bad rap, they really aren’t that bad. After sampling one upon opening this bag I have to agree. I can’t even remember the last time I had a prune. Probably as a child? It has a mildly sweet, interesting flavor. And their stickiness suited my cereal recipe well this morning. I predict prunes will be spotted with more regularity around these parts. Interesting choice of the word regularity, no?

I chopped up the prunes and threw all fruit, both fresh and dried, into a small mixing bowl.

I was then reminded of something I use to do for Ava as an infant. I would crush cheerios and cut fruit into small pieces and then “bread” the fruit with the crushed cheerios. The cheerios would stick automatically making it easier for small fingers to pick up and shovel in.

But instead of crusted cheerios, Mama’s breading of choice was ground flax! I crushed up some walnuts in my hand and added them to the mix. Stirred it all around until everything was coated and well mixed.  All the fruit was perfectly wet and sticky and the flax stuck easily.

Topped with hemp milk and eaten with a spoon like a bowl of cereal.

Holy goodness in a bowl this was fantastic! I loved every bite!  Perfectly sweet, filling and satisfying too!

I remembered that Justine from The Confessions of a SAHM made some fresh fruit cereal this summer and I thought it was such a good idea, I never tried it though. I’m so glad I finally did. Fruit cereal, what a concept. I smell a new breakfast staple.

I’m going to be offline for the long weekend – take it easy! And eat a salad, ok?

Peace out!

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I was able to make some progress with Thrive while the girls played in the water and the sand yesterday afternoon. I was excited to put a lot of his principals into practice today with a long run planned for this morning.

My friend Shawn has decided to run the half marathon (13.1 miles) with me next weekend and we made plans to run long together this morning. I set the alarm for 5:15 so I would be ready to go when he arrived at 6.

About 20 minutes before heading out I had a very Thrive inspired pre-run snack. Brendan talks about the protein, fat and carb content of pre-run fuel based on what kind of training you’ll be doing. From a walk, a bike ride, hiking, running, swimming to tennis, basketball, golf, whatever – based on how long you’ll be out and at what intensity, he describes the ratio of carb, fat and protein you want to eat before your chosen form of exercise. Based on his descriptions I felt like a long run at a decent pace fell into the “moderate intensity” category since we were going long for endurance and not so much focusing on speed. The other categories would be low intensity and high intensity.

Based on his approach, I was aiming my pre-run snack to be 60% carbohydrate, 35% fat and 5% protein. Of course I didn’t want anything too heavy so I chose a handful of dried apples, raisins and raw almonds. It took the edge off my ever so slight hunger and hopefully was close to the right proportion of macro nutrients that I was aiming for.

We set out just as the dawn was breaking and watched the sun rise. The air was cool and crisp, it was a fabulous run. The time flew by and I felt great for the entire run. We’d planned to go 9 miles but we were both feeling so great at the end we agreed to go 10. Shawn has the Garmin 305 so it was easy to keep running and know how much farther we needed to go to hit 10 miles.

We finished 10 miles in 1:24:49 making our average pace 8:27. If we can maintain that pace for the entire half marathon we’ll come in under 2 hours, which is my only time goal at this point. This is the longest run I’ll do between now and the half marathon. I’m unofficially tapering my mileage now and will keep all runs from here and through next week around 4 to 6 miles.

Back home and with Thrive still on the brain, I cracked open a young coconut I’ve had in the fridge for a few days and drank the young coconut water for a “snack consisting primarily of simple carbohydrate”.

I thought coconut water would be a good choice but looking at the nutritional stats now coconut water really doesn’t have that many carbs! Oh well, now I know.

When I felt hungry about an hour later I was ready to make a recovery breakfast consisting of “high-quality, easily digestible raw protein” from “natural whole food sources”. Brendan really likes using hemp as a plant based protein source but I don’t have any yet. Flax seeds are another option he recommends. Can do – Flax Seeds R’Us!

I’d stuck a couple of bananas in the freezer yesterday for banana whip whenever the mood struck – and the mood struck this morning. I put the scooped out young coconut meat in the freezer an hour earlier when I had my young coconut water, so it was slightly frozen but not rock solid either. Coconut meat and banana into the food processor to make coconut banana whip!

I after the coconut and banana were whipped up and smooth, I added a healthy helping of ground flax and a scoop of almond butter to make the recovery breakfast to beat all recovery breakfasts.

Totally creamy and yummy, a perfect post run breakfast for me!

I’m totally psyched about all the concepts in this book, I can’t wait to finish it up and write my full review. I’m convinced and I definitely feel that this is worth a read by anyone, whether you’re an athlete or just want to be fit and healthy and naturally reach your ideal weight.

In other news, a couple of you asked about my hummus recipe, I plan to make hummus today and will post  about it tonight! I know you’ll all be biting your nails and sitting on the edge of your seats until then!

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I think the best thing about days where I only drink green juice and eat fruit until lunch (a la Natalia Rose and The Raw Food Detox Diet) might possibly be banana whip as part of this complete breakfast.

And watermelon. But you knew that.

For lunch I was figuring out what to have with my salsa and carrots. I whipped up some garlic hummus and did my open faced sandwich thing.

But first let me say that we love, love, love this brand of salsa.

No, no one is paying me to say that. No one sent me a sample of this salsa. I just really love it and want to spread the love. (And spread the salsa on my sandwich.) I’ve only seen it at Wegmans, and it’s found in the cooler section with the cheeses and lunch meats.

It’s the only salsa I buy, it always tastes SO fresh and they’ve got a bunch of fun “flavors” too. Artichoke Garlic? Why that’s my middle and maiden name. Mrs. Alison Artichoke Garlic. Oh great, now you’re going to go open a credit card account with my name and charge a bunch jars of almond butter aren’t you?

I was also contemplating my recent love of open facedness today and realized that it’s a trail of an explanation. Walk with me now.

I like sprouted grains for nutritional reasons, therefore I buy Ezekiel bread.  I only like Ezekiel bread if it’s toasted. Toasted bread is not very forgiving in a sandwich with soft fillings. Hummus is soft. If I put as much hummus as I would like on a sandwich, I’d end up with a big mess on my hands. Open faced solves this problem AND it’s like I get to eat two sandwiches. It’s win-win.

During lunch, I watched the UPS truck back into my driveway. I met him at the door to be hand delivered a new book I get to review!

Thrive, by Brendan Braiser.

After reading The Raw Food Detox Diet in July, I was totally intrigued at the idea of moving toward a raw food diet and proper food combining – and how it could make a difference in my health (making peace with food and food cravings in particular), but I wondered how it might effect running and fitness in general too. Was it “safe”? Would I have enough energy? (Yes and yes. If anything, I’ve found that it’s done nothing but wondrous things for my runs and energy levels.)

I can’t wait to hear what a professional athlete has to say on a plant based diet. Based on the reviews I read at No Meat Athlete and Hangry Pants, I’m pretty sure Brendan’s book is going to be right up my alley.

But I digress.

Out of dark chocolate and totally needing my Vitamin C(hoc) – I was forced to scrounge the bottom of the box sent by Newman’s Own Organic a while ago.

I was not uber excited about these mint cups, thus they have remained uneaten until desperate times. I was expecting them to be all York Peppermint Patt-ery (not my fav) but was pleasantly surprised that they reminded me of those Andes mint chocolates. The mint part is firm, not mushy. I could insert an obvious joke in here about my ass or thighs but I think I’ll pass, thanks.

Notice who’s eyeing my prize?

This is Zak and his best mint zombie.

Yeah, that’s good. But I think my date and almond butter zombie was better. But whatever, it’s not like there’s a zombie contest. Yet.

And someone tell him that even though he’s on vacation doesn’t mean his brush is on vacation too.

Speaking of hair, I played playdoh barber shop and cut Ava’s hair today.

It was looking sort of ratty and don’t even get me started on the hair brushing battles day in and day out.

My reason for cutting her hair was three fold.

1. Short hair is easy to brush.
2. I enjoy the challenge of cutting the hair of something that doesn’t stop moving.
3. I find I’m more patient with her when her hair is neat. Same thing with a clean face. Don’t ask me, I’m just raising these beasts.

And speaking of beasts, I had a beast of a salad for dinner.

Red leaf, diced apple, tofu, feta, cashews tossed in miso dressing.

+ unphotographed 70% Green and Black that I stocked up on today. Phew. That was a close one.

That’s it from me. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.

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