One of the goals that my study group is holding me accountable to is doing one fun exercise activity each week. This can be something new – a spin class, rock climbing, walking to some crazy new destination, etc. For this week, I chose a local bay area hike – the Dipsea – 679 steps + a 6 or so mile hike out from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach. I recruited my friend Sondy, a Bay Area native, and friend from college to lead the way.

The trail is outrageously beautiful, and includes sections through woods, out in the open, around big hills, and up and down them. Not for the totally out of shape hiker, but not particularly challenging for someone in shape.

I wore my Vibram Five Fingers, odd looking shoes certainly, but supremely fun to wear. And to meet people with – I must have been asked about them five times by hikers on the trail. Sondy, the amazing woman she is, did about 6 of the 7 miles *actually barefoot*.

As for food on the trip:

Before the hike: Oats in a jar – steel cut oatmeal, in the bottom of an (almost empty) Barney Butter jar with a tablespoon of Nutella. Portable and easy for my commute to Mill Valley. (MUNI and Golden Gate Transit).
During the hike: Dried dates – you know, the little date pieces that look like worms. (About 1/2 a cup, total). Water. A piece of dried mango, offered up by another hiker.
Post hike: Meal at the Sand Dollar – a (small) hamburger with cheese and no bun, fries, a pickle, and lettuce.

After lunch, we wandered around Stinson Beach until the Stagecoach came and picked us up to head back to Mill Valley. When we arrived, we walked the mile and a half back to our car. Yeehaw!

Technorati Tags: Exercise, Healthy Living, Hiking, Oatmeal

So : Candlelight Yoga round two this morning!

But not before checking in at Ritual Coffee Roasters. My stomach was just slightly uneasy, so I opted to go to yoga without breakfast (I rarely do this). But I did have a mug of earl grey tea with a tiny side of steamed soy. They got these adorable new tea contraptions at Ritual that I really enjoyed!

Normally I like a cup of their drip coffee that they make in this great copper contraption, but too much coffee before yoga is no good!

Me – post yoga! I felt really, really good! Nothing like an hour and twenty minutes to totally kickstart all of your systems. I’m always pleasantly surprised at how many people are around in the morning for yoga! Maybe one day I’ll do the 40 day practice…

After yoga, I had three hard boiled eggs. Normally this is pretty excessive, but I was starving, and craving eggs, so I went for it. These are farm fresh eggs from real chickens that have more growing space than I’ll ever have. And you can certainly taste it in the egg! They are the best eggs I’ve ever eaten.

Finally, lunch: I actually stole some of Devon’s spaghetti with turkey bolognese that he made in bulk to take to work. It was tasty and filling.

I also had a really delicious lemon bar that the most lovely Kristin made, from the recipe in the Tartine cookbook. (Tartine is one of my favorite bakeries in the city, and the cookbook is pretty spectacular.) These lemon bars burst in your mouth with flavor. I was a very happy camper!

Time for some work, and maybe some dinner planning!

Technorati Tags: Healthy Living, Lunch

This is one of my favorite snacks or light lunches.

First I grilled the tortilla on the stove.

I top it with a poached egg (made in 50 seconds in my microwave egg cooker).

Top that with salsa, wrap it up, and eat! For more of a meal, I might add some melted cheese, sliced turkey, or turkey bacon, avocado, or extra vegetables, but usually I just eat it plain like this.

Then I headed over to work out on the treadmill. On my drive over I was listening to a particularly interesting NPR story about taking an eighth grade class on a field trip to a mosque as part of their world religions class. My drive to the gym is just eight minutes, about enough to listen to a good story on NPR, and get inspired to work out. I used to be a member at a gym within walking distance, but this new gym is only $20 a month, with a myriad of machines, and I actually am more motivated to work out if I have the short drive to pep me up for it, rather than walking and having to walk home post workout.

I hopped on this guy, and plugged in my headphone to watch some TV. It happened to be Discovery’s ’650 lb. Virgin’ a reality show about a man who lost over 400 pounds naturally, and is now learning how to date. If that isn’t good enough inspiration to work out, I’m not sure what is.

Now, given that I haven’t been into the gym in a while, I did a lighter workout:

My Workout:

At an incline of 1.0:

• 5 minutes at 3.8
• 5 minutes at 5.0
• Alternating 30 seconds between 5.0 and 5.5 (5 times)
• 15 minutes at 4.0
• 10 minutes at 3.8
• 15 more minutes at 4.0
• 5 minutes at 5.0
• and a 5 minute cooldown.

For a total of 60 minutes and roughly 4 miles.

This is me in my sweaty glory, trying to cool down:

When I came home I was HUNGRY. I put together an easy meal made out of pantry staples, and ready in about fifteen minutes.

I’ve been on a general Asian food kick, so I decided on some Sesame Soba Noodles, and some quickly braised celery. First, I boiled the water, made each sauce, and put them in bowls while I prepped the celery and soba. I roughly chopped up the celery, and steamed them for a just a few minutes in a covered pan with some soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and a dash of chili oil. (The idea was another one from ‘Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys’)

I then cooked up the two bundles of soba noodles in about 7 minutes, and then rinsed them well in cold water until they were cool. Soba noodles, made of buckwheat, pack a great nutritional punch, and are quite filling.

The sauce for the soba noodles was made with tahini, rice vinegar, almond butter, maple syrup, sesame oil, and ground coriander – a recipe from ‘Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods‘ a simple cookbook that I love to flip through for recipes and inspiration to keep myself on track with healthy eating.

I added in some chopped scallions to the noodles, and then topped it with the sauce, and gave it a good toss. I put mine in my favorite tenmoku glazed bowl that my best friend Sara made for me when she was working at Kitt Cornell Pottery in Exeter, New Hampshire. There is something incredibly mindful when you eat out of a dish or bowl that you really love.

Then I added in some of the celery. It’s a great new way to cook celery and eat it as a vegetable – particularly when you have a lot of leftover celery from making a soup, etc. without having to eat it raw.

After dinner, I treated myself to sliced pear and mango, and a melted piece of bittersweet chocolate. A perfect ending. While watching……..

PREDATOR!!!



Another 80′s movie that somehow I had missed out on.
Now for a little bit of reading, and then bed!!!
‘Night Everyone!

Technorati Tags: Dinner, Healthy Living

I’m going to a wine tasting with some food friends tonight at Solano Cellars in Berkeley, so I made a light lunch to balance things out.

Let me introduce you to this useful product: pre-peeled organic garlic cloves from Christopher Ranch. I hate to admit it, but I’m a sucker for pre-peeled garlic. I use a lot of garlic, and saving even five minutes that it takes peeling five cloves makes quick meals a lot easier. I also have whole garlic heads in my kitchen, but this stuff is great in a pinch.

In a pan, I put a teaspoon of olive oil, some minced garlic (about four small cloves worth), and three large cups of baby spinach. I grated in some fresh pepper, and gave it a good stir.

I let it wilt just slightly, and then added in two farm eggs, from pastured free-range chickens. A good quality egg is really important – the flavor is incomparable to the stuff you pick up in the supermarket. Even more than a week old, these eggs are about 20 times better because of the grass, bugs, and other goodies that the chickens get to feast on.

Once the eggs are just set, I added an ounce of grated Cabot pepperjack, covered the lid, and turned down off the heat until the cheese just melted.

Once it melted, I gently transfered it to a plate, and then topped it with some fresh salsa!

On a hungrier day, I might eat it with toast, or a tortilla. Just look at that yolk!!

A few more errands, and then I’m off to BART, taking as roundabout way as I can to get in my 10,000 steps, and maybe even a few more for good measure.

There are rumors that we are going to have a stop at Gordo taqueria for a pre-wine snack, and maybe to the Xocolate Bar for some chocolate zen experience. It’s going to be fun!!

Technorati Tags: Healthy Living, healthy lunch ideas, Lunch Recipes

After watching all of the recorded Dr. Oz episodes on my tv, I decided quickly that I should get off my backside and get in some exercise before I turned into a couch potato. So I immediately signed up online for an afternoon class at Yoga Tree in the Castro so I couldn’t make any excuses. It was misty, so I took the bus, getting me there a little early so I could chat with people, and take some photos of the studio.

I hadn’t taken a yoga class in more than a couple of months, so I was a little bit nervous as to what I was getting myself into.

Despite several encouraging recommendations, I had never been to Yoga Tree, and I was a little apprehensive as I walked up the stairs. When I got into the warm and peaceful studio I was immediately assured that I was in the right place. The studio is a large room, with beautifully lit (unscented) candles around the perimeter. I’ve never actually seen candles studio, but I thought it was a nice touch. There is a raised platform which does double duty as both a little shrine, and an elevated space for the instructor to demonstrate poses.

There was also a good music selection, including some light Cat Stevens and music that might be on my indie/folk playlists! I can’t stress how refreshing this was – a big problem I’ve had in other studios has been when I can’t zone out or focus because I’m angry at what I like to refer to as “generic zen-elevator music”.

My class was a community vinyasa class, taught by Erika, who was actually a sub, and doesn’t normally teach at the studio. She was great, and I’d love to take another class from her! The levels were mixed, and I definitely felt out of shape and creaky! A little bit extra downward dog and child pose time than normal!

I got in a great workout, and left there a bit of a sweat-ball. Always a good thing! I decided I’d snap a post-workout photo to document that I actually got through it! And, I signed up for their $20-three class trial. I have to use it in the next two weeks, so hopefully it will motivate me to actually get in there and start a little yoga streak.

After class, it was still misty, but not actually raining, so I took my chances and walked over the really big hill to 24th street, to stop for a drink and head to the market. I went to Starbucks and got my new favorite – a Tazo Refresh Tea bag, steeped in steamed soy. Usually I just get a large tea with a splash of soy, but a soy steamer is a nice post-workout treat.

I like watching people study and work in this particular Starbucks. Everyone is so focused.

I had a cookbook in my bag, so I whipped it out to join the fun. I took this book – ‘5 Spices, 50 Dishes‘ by Ruta Kahate – home a few months ago, but haven’t actually cooked anything from it, even though several of my friends have recommended it. I thought that this would be a good book to review, so I’m going to be cooking through it for the next week or so. I made my little shopping list, finished my tea, and then headed to the store.

Ultimately, my first dish was an outstanding success. I made the Indian Beef Stew, with some grass fed beef stew meat I picked up. The dish is slow cooked, but largely unattended, and the result is this really unctuous meal, with really tender meat and potatoes, with classic Indian spices including coriander, ginger, and garlic.

I served mine over a heaping pile of baby spinach, because I was feeling the need for some greens, and a Trader Joe’s Tandoori Naan bread. There are a couple of good looking bread recipes in the cookbook, but they will have to wait for another day.

All in all, a pretty great day. I took a new class, got in 6000 steps, and made a completely new dish that got two thumbs up from both myself and Devon.

And now, winding down time with the Celtics vs. Lakers! We are a mixed household – I’m for the Celtics, he is for the Lakers – it makes for an interesting time watching the two teams play head to head. We are being mostly polite, and nobody is doing any rude cheering. At least he isn’t a Yankees fan, I wouldn’t be able to deal with that one.

Good night everyone!

Technorati Tags: Dinner, Exercise, Healthy Living, Indian, Yoga

Today I woke up and it was one of those days which reminds me of why I live in California. There was blue sky, the sun was shining, and you didn’t need to be wearing a coat… in the middle of February. I had the day planned out – get to farmers’ market, eat some brunch, take a nice long walk, and head in to Omnivore Books to see Christie Matheson talk about her new book Salty Sweets which has been tantalizing me in the shop for weeks.

Oh, it all started out well enough. We were up and about early, so we decided to head over the bridge to Berkeley Farmers’ Market and pick up some Cheeseboard pizza and salad.

At the market I got myself a cup of drip coffee from Blue Bottle , and then purchased a 1/2 pound of Bella Donovan blend to go. Being able to get your choice of freshly roasted coffee is certainly a treat here in The Bay Area. I’m not a coffee guzzler, but I certainly like to have my one morning cup as part of my waking rituals.

We also tasted a bit of homemade chocolate peanut butter ice cream, but somehow that evaded my camera (ie: we ate it too quickly.) I’m not sure how we ended leaving there with only coffee, but somehow nothing was calling out to me today. The persimmons were beautiful (although I’m not a big persimmon fan…) so I took a glamour shot and didn’t buy any (it was kind of an embarrassing blogger moment).

We were heading to our late brunch, having parked the car two blocks away from Cheeseboard, when I happened to notice a Red Cross Blood Clinic sign at the Latter-Day Saints church. Being the day before Valentines day, I decided that it was as good a time as any to donate – I try to give blood as much as possible – and I hadn’t in some time since moving to San Francisco. (I tried donating at St. Lukes on Cesar Chavez a few months ago, but they informed me that they don’t take blood donations. I thought that was standard practice at hospitals??)

I was pretty excited to do my part. I even took a pre-blood giving picture of myself.

Because I hadn’t eaten yet (BAD, I know.) I took some of their Unsalted Trail Mix to ensure that I didn’t pass out. This was the first time giving blood that the staff actually encouraged us to eat before hand, which seems like it should be a standard practice. At about 240 calories for two ounces of nuts, raisins, and seeds, the trail mix was the best nutritional choice I could find, and I really wished that they had just had some fruit on hand. That leads to my pet peeve of the day: Why is it that the standard blood giving snacks are cookies, muffins, Oreos, and Cheez-its??? Aren’t we trying to save lives?

And this is when my day went downhill.

I’ll spare you the gory details (and photos of needles in my arm…) but somehow, my 10 minute good samaritan act turned into a three hour ordeal, including an hour and ten minutes with needles in my arm, 25 with a tech actually wiggling a needle in my arm (if this had bothered me more, I would have asked them to stop, but with 3/4 of the bag filled I wasn’t going to let it go to waste..) and then holes in both arms because of some “equipment failure”.

Now, please don’t let this scare you from giving – this was completely a flukey situation, and I definitely plan on donating again, but man, it was unfortunate. The only saving grace was the ridiculously nice lab tech who sat with me kindly trying to get my mind off things by discussing the possibilities of fusion food including a filipino Kaldereta (meat in tomato stew) that he was planning on making tonight with some pozole, and his love of masala spice mixes.

When everything was over, I was shaky, and not pictured were the Oreos I ended up giving in to. At this point I wasn’t too upset to cram in some junk, despite Michael Pollan’s recommendations of not eating anything that your third grader can’t pronounce.

I got out of there with an ice pack to go and an extra one just in case.

Cheeseboard is closed from 3 to 4:30, and at this point after already missing work, we decided to stick around and wait for them to re-open. I had some jasmine tea at Peet’s with a splash of soy milk to calm me down.

It was 4:15 and I was starving, so I gave in to a cheesy roll from the Cheeseboard cheese market. I ate about half of it before the pizza shop opened.

Tonight’s pizza was topped with Roma tomatoes, onions, mozzarella and Fontina cheeses, garlic olive oil, fresh herbs. Yet another satisfying mostly healthy vegetarian pie. I had about half of what was pictured here (it amounts to 2.5 slices), and then ate Devon’s crust. Usually I also get a small salad, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling up to greens.

The good thing is that technically I’m not above my calorie allotment for the day (I had been eating 1200 to 1500 during initial weightloss, and now I’m up to about 1500-1900 calories a day as I get closer to my goal). But, the clear nutrition deficit is going to bother me until I can get in a good fix of kale and collards.

Despite my strong desire to get in some extra exercise tonight, I’m going to be sensible and rest, sit down and watch Julie and Julia, which finally arrived in my netflix queue, and get to bed early.

Technorati Tags: Healthy Living

I’m writing this after running up and down the stairs in my apartment about 10 times. Ah, the woes of a pedometer owner trying to get to my daily 10,000 steps. After hearing my doctors recommend it, and then having my daily dose of Dr. Oz’s fitness advice on TIVO, I’ve finally started adopting 10k-a-day. I won’t lie and say it’s easy – it amounts to about an hour and a half of walking – a little more challenging when your day job is a relatively sedentary one. But I know that it’s good for me so I’m going to try to stick with it!

* * *

Tonight I needed a light dinner, to balance my lunchtime food fail:

[ Mint tea, a green chile tamale, sauteed spinach, a large spoonful of Barney Butter, a quarter of a string cheese, a few pistachios and a quarter cup of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream - all of which are delicious on their own, but in combination gave me a tummy ache. ]

In honor of the Olympics I decided to dig from my Greek roots – a large Greek Salad and some Baked Sole in a Mediterranean Tomato Sauce.

Convenience Step One: I cook the majority of our meals from scratch, but sometimes convenience wins out. One of my favorite new products is this frozen Organic Brown from Whole Foods. While I usually make a big pot of my own brown rice at the beginning of the week, and keep 1/2 cup servings in the freezer ready to go, occasionally I run out, and this stuff is great in a pinch. It also costs less than $3 a bag, which is doable, even on a budget.

Convenience Step Two: My second convenience food was the Reduced Fat Greek Salad from Trader Joe’s. I keep homemade salad dressing, fresh farm lettuce, and chopped and washed veg in my fridge, but sometimes TJ’s wins out. Frankly, it’s because this salad is so darn tasty – feta, tomatoes, cukes, onions and dressing on some crispy romaine. And the whole box is easily split for two good sized salads, clocking in at only 70 calories each, and costing under $3.

This meal was easy peasy, and done from start to finish in less than half an hour. I adapted this recipe pretty loosely from a recipe in the Every Day Food: Great Fast Food cookbook. It happens to be a pretty cookbook to think up quick weeknight meals, but I usually end up using it just as a starting point. The one caveat – while I usually try to make dinners that I can easily reheat for lunch the next day, fish is one food that doesn’t do so well the next day. We ate all the fish tonight, but there are still leftovers – brown rice and tomato shallot goodness! I use a lot of shallots at home – they are an onion relative that cooks sweetly.

Easy Fish with Shallots and Tomatoes

(Prep time: 10 minutes – Total Time: 35 minutes)

serves 2 generously or 4 as part of a complete meal

Ingredients:

5 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped (or 2 small onions, or 2 leeks – whatever you have)

1/2 of a lemon, sliced thinly (or the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon, for less pronounced lemony taste)*

1 tablespoon olive oil

A handful fresh herbs, such as basil, thyme, parsley, and dill, reserving some fresh dill for serving.

Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

1 can (14.5 or 15 oz) diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen Fire Roasted No Salt Added diced tomatoes)

1 pound sole fillets, (cod or other light white fish would work)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Farenheit. In a Le Creuset Pot, or a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, toss together the shallots, lemon slices, oil, fresh herbs, pinch of salt and pepper. Cover with foil, and bake until the shallots begin to soften, 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Add the tomatoes, and toss to combine. Season both sides of the cod fillets with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; place on top of the vegetables. If you don’t have space to lay the fish flat over the vegetables, roll each fillet up (like I do, in the picture.)

3. Cover the dish and bake until the fish is opaque throughout, 15 to 20 minutes. Top with fresh dill, and serve immediately.

Serve, if desired, over brown rice – 1/2 to 1 cup per person is more than enough, with a nice lemony or greek salad, and some fresh crusty bread if desired.

*Note: Now, I like my fish lemony, so I just go ahead and slice in the lemon. It imparts a slightly bitter taste if the slices are eaten whole, but for those finicky about bitter tastes, feel free to remove the lemon slices before serving, or cook with just the lemon zest and juice.

Technorati Tags: Fish, Healthy Living

(Photo: Alexandrea, operationbeautiful.com)

Just a few words can make a drastic positive impact on someone’s day.

“You’re Pretttttttty.”

“No YOU are pretty!!!”

Its an exchange that happens routinely between my group of friends. It’s silly, but those two words can be so powerful and immediately make my day take a turn for the better. And with this happiness, it’s easier to continue to make positive choices such as making the extra effort to exercise or choosing a more nutritious food option. Those two words can make all the difference. And the greatest part is, it doesn’t matter if you are the person giving positive words, or receiving them – everyone ends up sharing the happy fuzzy feelings.

Enter a great website with the mission of spreading happiness: Operationbeatiful.com

Operation Beautiful was started by a woman named Caitlin with the mission of reducing “Fat Talk” and other negative thoughts that can be so toxic to health. When you remind people that they are indeed beautiful, you help build positive self-esteem and brighten someone’s day so that they too might be inclined to make more healthy choices throughout the day. You also are brightening your own day. It’s amazing how writing someone else a simple note can be a joyful act in itself.

If you want to participate in Operation Beautiful – it’s simple: take a piece of paper and a pen, and post an anonymous note in a public place for someone else to find. (writing operationbeautiful.com on the bottom is optional, but will help people spread the love.) If you want to go public, take a picture of your note and send it to seebriderun@gmail.com so Caitlin can post it on the site.  

(Photo: April, operationbeautiful.com)

More ideas to spread happiness:

:: At my high school there was a group called “Random Acts of Kindness” that would routinely get together and perform random acts of kindness on the campus body. Sometimes they would be in the halls handing out flowers, other times you would open your campus mailbox and find a collection of goodies that they had randomly sent you. This is a great thing to start at home, your office, or at your school.

:: Spend a few dollars on a sheet of ladybug or heart stickers, and walk through your neighborhood offering them to strangers. This can be particularly difficult for those who aren’t natural social butterflies, but the initial nervousness about approaching strangers will immediately go away when you see their surprise and they break into a huge smile.

:: Color Me Katie – Katie Sokoler of colormekatie.blogspot.com is an amazing freelance photographer and street artist who makes easily re-creatable projects to make people happy. Some of my favorite endeavors featured on her blog include these footprints drawn on her sidewalk in chalk, sticking mini hearts all over her neighborhood, and placing paper eyes on inanimate objects to “immediately give them personality”. You can’t help but smile!

(Photos: Katie Sokoler, colormekatie.blogspot.com)

Technorati Tags: Healthy Living