Fit for Free

There are so many things I want to post about, but I don’t have my camera with me!  I’ll catch up tomorrow

A) WW—this doesn’t really require a whole post—I was up .2 at the mtg. last night which, given the time of the month, doesn’t surprise me . . .

B) I love Quaker’s new oatmeal pancake mix!  I made pumpkin/banana/trail mix pancakes for dinner a couple nights ago and they were wonderful!

C) I am donating Superfood Granola (crunchy, vegan-friendly granola packed with dried blueberries, dark chocolate pieces, almonds, and walnuts) to Meghann’s marathon bake sale, which will be starting next Monday at 11 AM. Bid on it! I promise it’s tasty, and for a good cause!

D) Create a date recipe (you don’t need to have a blog to do it!) and submit it to Sarah at Tales of Expansion. It’s a fun little challenge and you can win a prize!

E) I’m going to Bikram Yoga (4th class of 30 days for $30) tonight—I really missed it the last couple days! I need that heart-pounding workout. Thankfully the sun is staying out a little bit longer these days (and the air isn’t QUITE so chilly) so I hope to resume regular (free!) outdoor jogging soon enough

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!! The weekend’s just a few hours away…

Class 2 (which I attended on Sunday afternoon) was AWESOME. seriously. I felt “cleaner,” somehow. Does that sound weird? Maybe my body sweated out the bad stuff at the first class? Who knows! I felt more confident in all the poses (although still not as confident as when I was practicing weekly) and enjoyed nearly every moment of the class (chair and warrior still kill me). Afterwords, I went home, showered, dried my hair, and read in bed and everything just felt right in the world. It felt like the inside of my body had been power-washed. Such a funny feeling! I’m going to class tonight, and I can’t wait for that feeling again

I was lucky enough to see Greg Mortenson, the author of Three Cups of Tea, speak at Barnes&Noble last Thursday, and I’ve been wanting to mention him here ever since. He’s my hero. I hope to (someday!) pursue a career in international education, and his book reinforced all the reasons I want to do it. Check out his nonprofit Web site here. I will mail my copy of the book to anyone who wants to read it (as soon as my friend returns it!!)

Also, my monkey peeler got so much love that I thought I’d offer one up! I know where to get them, and I want to send one to you!  Who wants to do a trade? (I have a soft spot for fun kitchenware and healthy vegan baked goods!) First person to leave a comment with a trade idea wins!

P.S. Roni over at Roni’s Weigh is giving away a food scale!

Disclaimer: the datestamp on my pictures is NOT showing up on my camera, so I’m not sure why it shows up when I load my pics to the computer!! I swear it’s turned off!!! I promise it will be GONE by the next round of photos!

Okay. First thing’s first: I’m sitting on a new chair!

This is an isometric exercise ball seat (the manufacturer’s words, not mine). Sonny and I saw one for the first time while recording an album in Chapel Hill, NC, with a band we used to play with. The engineer (an amazing guy named Brian Paulsen) used one of these chairs to get through all-night recording sessions. He swears it helps his back. And I agree! Check it out:

It’s literally impossible to slouch in this chair. You’d fall on your face! It’s comfy, keeps your back straight, and forces you to keep your abs engaged. I dig it.

Okay, on to the food. My second-favorite kitchen appliance (the monkey vegetable peeler being the first):

Is my vegetable spiralizer, which I purchased online for $30 nearly 5 years ago:

This thing is the shiat. I was introduced to it for the first time while working in the cafe section of the Boulder co-op market with a raw vegan chef. You can make angel-hair pasta like strands of veggies, terra-chip thin pieces of sweet potato, carrot garnishes . . . things that somehow make vegetables more exciting. I swear, zucchini tastes different when you spiralize it in this thing and eat it raw.

Sunflower Tofu with Zucchini Pasta

Ingredients
1 medium zucchini, 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp toasted sunflower seeds, 1/2 block extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes

One of my favorite Chinese restaurant picks is tofu with peanuts and broccoli, so I decided to create a lighter version that only takes 10 minutes to make.

Step 1: spiralize zucchini into thin strands (as pictured above). Set aside.

Step 2: sautee tofu in the sesame oil and rice wine vinegar over medium heat

Step 3: wait 5 minutes or so, then toss in the sunflower seeds.

Step 4: after a few more minutes, when the tofu starts to brown, remove heat and add zucchini.

Step 6: stir so the zucchini soaks up the sesame flavor. Serve!

Step 7: wake the monkey peeler from his nap under the kitchen towel:

Step 7: clean kitchen! (Most of this mess is from the cookies I baked earlier and the lunch I made for my friend, which involved roasted eggplant and mushrooms, black beans and rice, and vegan chicken patties . . .) Ah, how easily my cleaning efforts are thwarted. Look how clean it was earlier!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Saturday!

Class last night was awesome. The teacher wasn’t amazing, the room was pretty humid, but I FELT 100x better after the class was over. My neck felt longer and straighter, my back felt limber, my legs felt shaky (in that good way, when you know you’ve worked them!) My balance and strength (especially upper body!) have definitely suffered in the past 6 weeks or so, when I haven’t been on a real exercise schedule, but I was happy to find that my back is still quite flexible. And it felt WONDERFUL to sweat so much. I felt about 10 lbs. lighter when I left the class. When I got home I had a wonderful dinner of spinach salad with woodstock dressing, a spinach/tofu/hummus wrap, and pumpkin yogurt with museli and agave — rather big but I felt like a bottomless pit!!

What made me really happy about the class was that I realized that my whole approach to yoga has changed in the last few years, and it really improved my experience in the class. When I used to go to Bikram (or any yoga, really), I pushed myself way beyond my comfort zone and figured my body would catch up eventually. And it did—but I didn’t enjoy the PROCESS of discovering a new pose at all! Yesterday I took it easy getting in and out of the poses and made sure to back off if anything felt “wrong” or out of alignment. I guess it’s just a process of becoming kinder to yourself? I’m like that with running now, too; I’m not afraid to take walk breaks, and don’t feel like a failure if I need to stop and stretch. Before, it wouldn’t count as a 4-mile run if I didn’t RUN the whole thing and push through the discomfort.

Bottom line: Bikram is not my favorite type of yoga (I really miss the vinyasas/flows) but every once in awhile, it’s a great way to re-align my body and feel like I’ve “re-set” my system! I’m actually really looking forward to class on Sunday or Monday (haven’t decided when I’ll go back next, but I’m definitely taking today off )

Happy weekend!

First thing’s first, this made my day.  Even though Dick Cheney is about to move to my hometown, I think it’d be worse off growing up in Titty Ho.

Last night I went back to my meeting, promising myself that even if I went up again, I wouldn’t have the reaction that I had last week. And thankfully, I wasn’t tested, because I was down around a pound and a half (almost as much as I gained last week). Excellent!

Everyone I know who’s done WW says they only succeeded when they figured out how to work the program in a way that fits their schedule and temperment. For me, I think this means thinking FOOD first, not points first, and basically eating what I want and then tracking it afterwords. When I track first then eat, I tend to obsess too much. If I eat first, the points feedback helps me modify my behavior (rather than obsess about numbers).

Tonight I’m going to my first Bikram class in over a year. I’ve been chugging water and trying ot psych myself up. Bikram can either be wonderful or excruciating depending on the class/temperature/humidity/instructor, and I’m in dire need of a good class tonight! I’m really happy to be going, though, and committing to this month of classes. Today it’s 40 degrees outside and it feels like Spring to me—all I can think about is HOW GOOD it will feel to wear a t-shirt . . . and how much better it will feel if I’ve been active through the doldrums