Rad

Rad's Smoothie for Liz

2009-10-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, I tried to send this to Liz, via email and it "bounced" back to me. So, I'll post it here and and maybe other's will find it useful too.

Hi, Liz,

I hope I have the right person! We sat on the couch Saturday morning at talked food stuff related to the BTWG program. I promised to send my recipe for my smoothie that serves as breakfast and dessert. Here you go:

1/2 low fat cup yogurt (70 cal)
1/2 scoop whey protein mix (30 cal)
1 cup strawberries (50 cal)
1/2 tbls peanut butter (55 cal)
1/2 cup oj (55 cal)

I use low fat yogurt, a whey protein mix, and "good" peanut butter that I get from Trader Joes. The OJ is Tropicana, Lots of Pulp. I throw in my glucosomine powder and I'm good to go for breakfast. For desert, I poor this mixture over a cup of frozen wild blueberries. If I have some room in my calorie budget for the day, I'll add a few walnuts or almonds. Delicious and nutritious!

I use a Silver Bullet blender that I bought at Costco for $45. I love it. It's the perfect size for one person and I use it at least twice every day. It's awesome.

Good luck!

I'll be out of town next Saturday (New Orleans!!), but I'll be back the following week. See you then.

Best,

Rad

Don't get the "fat pants" out of moth balls yet

2009-03-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

Okay. I haven’t posted in forever, and so, here I am again at Chris’ urging to be engaged with the communication. I do like this blogging, but I get weary of doing it when I come home after spending most of my day writing at the computer!

Okay, so I’ve had a good run with the project, but I still have this fear that I’m going to “fall off the wagon” and go back to my old ways. Those fears came to life these past two days, when, for the first time since the project started I chose to skip two workouts. I’ve had a sinus infection and have felt so bad that I chose not to work out. I might have chosen differently, but I’m flying to Denver to visit my son this weekend and I didn’t want to exhaust myself, get sicker and be unwell for my trip. So, I chose to take it easy. Tuesday I actually went to the gym with good intentions, looked at the weights, then turned around and went back to the locker room. That day I worked only on my Triathlon Conditioning: equal time in the dry sauna, steam room and whirlpool!

So I was feeling guilty about not working out and feeling really bad from the sinus infection, and then I didn’t pack a lunch that day either. Typically when I don’t pack a lunch, which I usually do, I eat a really good salad at work, but on this day, a friend invited me to one of the cafeterias in our complex that was serving GT South’s Southern Style Barbecue. I took one whiff and I caved. I had a delicious pulled pork sandwich (with only half the bun!) and coleslaw (which I’m sure was loaded with some sugary dressing). (Another first for me since beginning the project; I’ve been pretty good about what I’ve been eating.) It was FANTASTIC. I enjoyed it immensely. So now I’m thinking… This is it. I’ve fallen off the wagon. I didn’t work out and now I’m eating barbecued pork for lunch! I better get my “fat pants” out again.

I know all that’s ridiculous and I know that it’s okay to miss a day or two, especially when you’re sick, but this is where my mind went. I still feel like it would be sooo easy for me to fall back into old habits of laziness and poor food choices. I won’t, but I fear I will and am aware of the call of things like pulled pork barbecue. Fact is, I enjoyed lunch, and then compensated at dinner so that my total calories for the day were still very reasonable. Still, the fear nags.

I’m very eager to learn more about options for the future and continuing in some capacity with Chris and community for a longer period. I’d like to get to the point where I no longer live with this fear of taking that next “drink,” or in this case, that next tasty barbecue or whatever it is that calls my name.

Sprouted Grains...

2009-02-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, I told Chris about sprouting my own grains and he asked that I share my experience in a post. (Apologies to Terri who recently wrote about sprouts that they looked like "...a pile of bleached pubic hair with tiny green lice clinging onto the ends." By the way, Terri, it only took a few weeks after reading your post before I got back to enjoying sprouts fully. :o))

So, I find that I eat them so often that the expense was killing me. I seemed to recall from my hippie years that we used to grow our own sprouts in jars on the kitchen counter, and so, I set out to reacquaint myself with this practice.

It's very simple. All you need is a jar or cloth bag, seeds and water. Good Earth has jars with screen lids ($4.50) and just lids ($1.50) to use with your own fruit jar, and they have a hemp bag that is very portable and works well, too. They also sell seeds in bulk. They have a variety from brocolli, to alfalfa, to I don't even remember what all. They have some fancier contraptions, too, that cost more, but I haven't found them necessary. You can get instructions from Good Earth or on line.

It's this simple:

put about 2 tablespoons of seeds in a jar

Cover in water and soak for at least 5 hours

Rinse with luke warm water and drain the water off.

Put the jar on its side on the counter out of direct sunlight. (Some say a dark place, but I've found they do just fine on the counter)

Rinse the seeds once or twice each day to keep them from drying out. Be sure to drain them well so you don't have too much water in the jar or they can spoil

Depending on the type of seed, you should start to see sprouting activity in two to 4 days. Let them grow until they look like what you've been buying at the grocery store . Take them out of the jar, rinse and dry them off, and they are ready to eat. They'll keep in the fridge for at least a week. I've eaten mine by then, so I don't know how long they'll last.

They taste great and the jars and seeds I've purchased have paid for themselves several times, given what sprouts cost in stores. This site is a good one for telling about the different seeds and their nutritional value: http://www.isga-sprouts.org/history.htm

Happy sprouting...

Read the fine print, running shoes, Kapalbhati breathing, and vegetarians have better sex

2009-01-29T16:05:00.000-08:00

Hi... I hope everyone is hanging in there and continuing to make progress. I haven't taken time to read blog posts this week, but will over the weekend.

I had another great run this week, this one on Wednesday morning in a foot of snow! It was awesome.

While working through the last of the strength work out today-- crunches, sit ups, and other favorites, I happened to read the fine print: "... repeat circuit for a second round." How had I missed that before?!

Also wanted to say, per Chris' Tip of the Day on running shoes, that I had a great experience at the Running Company in Broad Ripple. It' s in the strip mall next to BRHS a few doors down from the Thai Cafe (I had to fight the urge to stop in for pad Thai!). The guys at the Running Company were very knowledgeable and they video-taped me running so I could see how I was pronating in my worn out shoes. I bought a pair that corrected the problem. They had a great selection in a variety of brands all in the $85 to $120 price range. These, just like the Red Ball Jets and the Keds sneakers I so longed for as a kid, will surely allow me to run faster and jump higher. Any one remember Red Ball Jets? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huax9MFj-Z0 Or Keds for Kids? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op3uz24dqXw

One last thing I wanted to share. Two years ago I went to the Satchidananda Ashram, Yogaville, VA, and spent about a month there working, meditating, and doing yoga. One of the things I learned there was the Kapalbhati breathing technique. It was taught to me as a prelude to each meditation session. I would do anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes of this breathing before each of three meditation sessions during the day. I found that doing this breathing exercise relaxed me and put me very quickly in a state that felt conducive to meditation.

I've recently started doing it again for just a minute or so before each meditation session and I love it. The other thing about it is that it is very easy to learn and do. I found this YouTube video that shows how it's done. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2v-9LmU7IE).

Okay, one last thing... Really. Did you hear about the PETA commercial promoting vegetarianism that was banned from the Superbowl by NBC for being too explicit for prime time? The sexy ad shows hot models enjoying their vegetables and claims “Studies show vegetarians have better sex.” Check out the ad and, the best, Whoopi Goldberg's reenactment of it on the View. http://superadda.com/web/peta-commercial-banned/

Okay. Dinner time. I'm famished! See y'all Saturday.

Rad

Truckin' Again

2009-01-23T05:18:00.000-08:00

Hi, everyone.

Please indulge me while I share this. I apologize if it sounds like I'm boasting, because that is not my intent. It's just that this is so absolutely amazing to me that I want to share. I'm also probably still a little buzzed on endorphins, too, which accounts for some of the enthusiasm with which I post this entry!

I just came in from a 40 minute run at a 7-8 RPE for me. No world land speed records were set but I was at 7-8 RPE for the duration of the run, and this is, for me, tantamount to running a sub-4 minute mile!

In November, when I first began this journey back to wellness, I did a fitness assessment at NIFS and I had to walk the mile test because my body couldn't take running. My lungs couldn't take it and my heart felt like it would pound it's way right out of my body, and my knees were groaning under the extra weight I was carrying at the time (16 pounds extra to be precise).

So, for me today, to run like this is beyond anything I would have expected even a month ago. And it's all been done in a way that is at my body's own pace. I feel absolutely fantastic. I'm happy that I've been able to do this work and tremendously grateful to Chris for this well-rounded approach that has enabled me to get to this point so quickly and without injury.

I'm sure glad to be truckin' again.

Thank you all for listening and for all your support.

Best,

Rad

Week One

2009-01-22T03:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, Guys. I'm doing the Blog Thang. More to follow, but wanted to get this up.

In my confusion I started the program on the 12th instead of the 19th and so, this is week two for me. I'm past most of the soreness, but I did have let's just say "thoughts" for Chris during the first strength workout last week. I mean damn! (And I thought I'd been working out before. Ha!)

In these first two weeks I've managed to haul my coffee maker to the basement and have successfully substituted green tea for coffee; I've given up Splenda for Stevia; I'm not drinking alcohol (no big sacrifice there) and I've dropped my caloric intake to what I estimate was about 2500 to 3500 calories per day (yes, it's true) to between 1500-1600. And I'm seeing the results. I'm running again for the first time in years, I'm loosing weight and getting stronger, and I'm now through the painful part of being hungry -- that first week was a bitch! -- and am now actually enjoying how I'm eating.

Okay, I really do need to get to my strength workout. This blogging can gobble up the time! If only typing burned calories the way squats and crunches do -- we'd all be svelte specimens!

Later ... Rad