How is your morning going so far? I hope it’s off to a fantastic start. Mine began early as usual with a run and a tough leg/butt workout that I’m very confident I’ll be feeling tomorrow! Is it just me, or is it just impossible to get good at walking lunges? I swear, I could do them every week and still be sore after! I’ve got a hot date tonight… with my foam roller.

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s check-in post, I’m getting back into my usual routine of setting 5 goals for each month. If you’re a newer reader, you can see all of the goals I set throughout 2011 by checking out my Top Posts page, and scrolling down to the Monthly Goal Check-Ins section. As always, I also want to know about how YOU are doing on reaching yours, so be sure to tell me in the comments section!

Without further delay, here are my 5 for February:

1. Eat out at restaurants no more than 6 times.

I’ll start this one by saying that I am not the type that eats out a whole lot. I adore cooking for myself and for other people, and often would rather make dinner for/with friends than go out (and risk being disappointed). Well except if the restaurant is Fresh, Thrive, or another one of my faves. But over the past month, I’ve spent waaay too much on restaurants, sushi in particular!!

Since my Australia trip is only a few short months away, my plan is to save up some extra $$$ to spend while I’m there. I already have a few lunch dates scheduled that I absolutely will not be missing, but I’ve decided to put the brakes on excess restaurant spending this month. This also brings me to my next goal….

2. Reduce my monthly grocery bill by 15%.

This isn’t the first time I’ve set this as one of my monthly goals, and to be fair, the grocery outings I’ve done recently haven’t been anywhere near as costly as they were about a year ago. Since food is tied with car payments as my largest monthly expense, I’m targeting it as an area for savings in February. It’ll take a lot of self control at the grocery store, but I am planning to achieve this by making some simple protein swaps. I already buy zero red meat, and have greatly reduced my chicken intake – seafood is my love and that’s where most of my protein usually comes from. There will still be some fresh fish in my house (because fresh looks about a squillion times better in blog photos than frozen), but there will be more of these things:

• Lentils – Just in case you wanted to know, after I took this photo I proceeded to spill that entire bowl of beluga lentils on the kitchen floor. 3 days later, I’m still getting them stuck between my toes. Depending on the type of lentil, 1 cup cooked = 13-15g of protein.
• Quinoa – The only whole grain with all essential amino acids (making it a complete form of protein). 1 cup = 18 grams of protein.

• Beans – My favourites are chickpeas and adzuki beans, but I’ve also fallen in love with weird ones like anasazi and pink beans. I’ve been buying the dry kind and cooking them myself to avoid the sodium in the canned versions, and this is a cheaper option too. 1 cup provides 13-15g of protein, depending on type of bean.
• Eggs – A whopping 6 grams of protein per egg!

• Edamame – I know, technically also a bean. Whenever I’m at Whole Foods I buy a few bags of the organic 365 branded ones. They’re cheaper than the bags available at my usual spot (Sobeys) and are so easy to scatter on top of salads, in stir fried veggies, or snack on by themselves. 1 cup = 14g protein.
• Frozen seafood – Mainly salmon, haddock, and cod, as well as shrimp. 100g of your average fillet = 22g protein.
• Canned fish – Light tuna and salmon. For the record, I would happily eat tuna every single day if it wasn’t for the whole mercury problem. A 40-oz can of tuna = 40g protein.
• … and finally, tofu. Not pictured above, but I have a killer tofu recipe coming up for you next week!! 1/2 cup = 10g protein.

Wish me luck!

3. Listen to 3 focus classes for my Institute for Integrative Nutrition course.

Focus classes are sort of like extra online classes that aren’t required for me to graduate, but are available in case students are interested in learning more about a particular aspect of nutrition. There is a big list of focus classes available and ideally I’d like to get them all, but for now I’m committing myself to 3 this month. These are the topics I’ve got my eye on:

• Superfoods – Here I’ll be learning about a whole bunch of superfoods from around the world. These include those that you’re probably already familiar with, like cacao, goji berries, maca powder, and wheatgrass juice, as well as those that are a little less common like inca berries and phytoplankton. I’ll also be learning about what makes them ‘super’, and things to be cautious of when purchasing. If you’ve been to your local health food store lately, you’ll know that a lot of superfoods aren’t cheap, so this class provides advice about things to watch out for like types of non-raw additives and fillers.
• Yoga of Eating - The description for this one is vague, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be all around the issue of intuitive eating and being in tune with our bodies. I talked a whole bunch about this last year (and read 2 books on the topic – Eating Mindfully and Savor), but it never hurts to learn more.
• What’s Wrong with What We Eat- This session is with Mark Bittman and it’s the one I’m most excited about. In case you’re not familiar, he’s written the books How to Cook Everything and Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating. He’s got a regular column in the New York Times and speaks about the implications of issues like having too much meat in our diets, obesity, and the effect of our diets on the planet. Mark is one of my favourite thought leaders in the nutrition world and I can’t wait to hear about what he has to say!

4. Develop all website content for my health coaching service.

This is something that I just began working on last weekend and the pages are looking good so far. Once published, they’ll talk about my training, what health coaching can do for you, and what you can expect to get from my health coaching sessions. I hope to have this part of the blog up and running in a couple of months, so stay tuned! And if you already thing you might be interested in these services, feel free to email me at eatspinrunrepeat (at) gmail (dot) com.

5. Tackle a baking adventure that scares me.

I won’t reveal exactly what it is just yet, but I will leave you with this hint:

Ok, that was a huuuuuge hint. This could turn out to be brilliant or a complete kitchen fail, but I promise to post about it regardless!

So tell me…

• What’s one of your main focuses for February, and what are you going to do to get there?
• What’s one thing you’re most looking forward to this month?
  

How are you today? I hope your week has been lovely so far. I’ve got a busy day ahead helping out with a recruitment event at work and teaching 2 spin classes, but before all of that happens, let’s get to the recap of all new things tried this Tuesday!

1. Recipe of the Week. Even though the weather isn’t getting any warmer, I’ve been finding myself eating more raw fruits and veggies lately. Winter usually has me craving warm, cooked foods, but last week I made a delicious quinoa creation that I’ve made twice since.

You’re looking at Pack-It-In Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, a combo of quinoa, veggies, and edamame in a blood orange vinaigrette. In addition to being delicious, this dish on its own provides over 100% of your recommended vitamin A and C intake. Perfect if you’re suffering from a winter cold!

Although these peppers contain 2 protein sources (edamame and quinoa), I understand that there are many men who won’t eat a meal without meat. If this is the case in your household, I’d recommend adding in cooked shredded chicken before adding the dressing to the mix. But really, they’re just fine without chicken too!

2. A mangosteen. I’ve found another piece of exotic produce! This time, it’s a mangosteen, and I’ll admit I had to look at the sign in Whole Foods to figure out what it was. After googling it, I learned that this fruit is in no way related to a mango in taste, texture, or appearance. It originated in Malaysia, and other warm countries like India, Thailand and Indonesia also grow this fruit. In the western hemisphere, they come mainly from Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

They also have a really cute butt!

I read that in order to eat it, all you need to do is crush the outer shell with your hand and you’ll find a white piece of fruit inside. Its supposed to look like a piece of garlic that separates in segments. Sounded easy enough…..

How the heck is my palm supposed to crack into that??? As you may have guessed, I broke out a knife for this job.

When I finally managed to chip away enough of the rind (which seemed kind of waxy), I found this:

The fruit did come apart in segments, and just like I’d read, there was one significantly larger segment that contained a bitter seed that is normally discarded. Interestingly, the number of points on the flowery-looking bit under the fruit (the butt shot above) is supposed to indicate the number of segments inside. If this is true, I should have found 6, but I only found 5. Maybe it was under-ripe?

As for taste, I read a number of people’s descriptions which ranged from various fruits like (like strawberries and peaches), and even vanilla ice cream. I had my fingers crossed for the latter, but sadly I was disappointed. It had a creaminess to it, but really didn’t taste much like anything spectacular. I’m going to go with the assumption that I might have had a bad one since the inside didn’t look much like the images of mangosteens that I found prior to testing.

(Source)

Can any experts weigh in on this?

3. A super environmentally friendly water bottle. A little while ago I was contacted by a representative from the Bamboo Bottle Company who kindly asked if I’d like to try one of their new water bottles. I checked out their website and learned that these bottles have some pretty cool features, including…

• They’re made from natural materials
• They contain absolutely zero BPA, so you don’t have to worry about chemicals leaching into your bevvies
• The interior is glass, dishwasher safe, and keeps hot and cold drinks insulated
• The exterior is made of bamboo, a sustainable material that decreases CO2 emissions

When the box arrived, I pulled out this:

The bottle comes apart so that its dishwasher safe bits (the glass, lid, bottom, and green ‘nut’ that screws on around the top of the glass bottle) can be separated and cleaned.

The only non-dishwasher safe part is the bamboo sleeve, which slides off once you take the green nut off of the glass.

I’ve only used the bottle for holding water and steeped iced tea at work, but this what I think so far:

Great because:

• The bottle is glass, and therefore doesn’t make my water taste like plastic, metal, or any beverage that was in it before.
• It’s dishwasher safe (although I’ve just rinsed it out a couple of times – no need for the machine yet!)
• The design is different and attractive.
• The materials are environmentally friendly, as is the company that produces it.

Not so great because:

• It’s quite heavy for a water bottle, even when there’s no liquid inside of it.
• It’s a little hard to grip. Don’t get me wrong – I do love the look of the bamboo layer, but by the time you put that on over the glass bit, you’ve got a pretty big circumference! My hands are by no means small but if I were to bring this to the gym, I worry that I might drop it.
• The green nut that screws on the glass top is a little hard to get on.
• The actual bottle capacity is only just over 2 cups.

As the company’s website points out, their production process isn’t perfectly ‘green’ yet, but I do think it’s great that they’re working towards creating products with more sustainable materials. The weight of the bottle was the main downfall for me, but the fact that the interior is glass and that it can be easily cleaned were 2 huge advantages over other water bottles I own.

Alrighty, that’s all I’ve got for you today! I hope you have an awesome Wednesday, and before you go, tell me…

• What’s your preference for water bottles: glass, stainless steel/metal, or plastic?
• Ever tried a mangosteen? If so, do you have any idea what was wrong with mine?
• I’m taking Recipe of the Week suggestions, so if you have any, let me know!

If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know that I always do a monthly check-in on the goals I’ve set out to achieve for the month. (They look a bit like this and this.) January was a little difference, since I only declared my 2012 goals, rather than a set of 5 monthly ones. I’ll be going back to the usual routine for February, but today I want to talk about two of the changes I’ve made since the beginning of the month, and the amazing results I’m seeing already.

1. A massive reduction in artificial sweeteners.

This is the biggest change by far that I’ve made, and it was long overdue. I’ve talked a bit in the past about my major addiction to gum, and even blogged through several attempts to give it up. Although I eat pretty clean the majority of the time, I’ve got my nasty habits just like anyone else. As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I used to easily go through 3 of the 60-piece canisters per week. That quantity would probably get a “normal” person through an entire month! I realized that my main trigger situations were when I was bored or anxious at work, and at night when I knew I shouldn’t be snacking any more but wanted something to keep my mouth busy. I’d let myself chew endless amounts of gum, but it definitely took its toll on me. My digestion was terrible, and I was constantly bloated to the point that it seemed like I was never going to “deflate”! Since the beginning of January, I’ve severely cut back my gum chewing habit. Sometimes I’ll pop 2 pieces in after a meal to freshen my breath if I don’t have a toothbrush nearby, but I’ve stopped taking it to work. Out of sight, out of mind!

Gum wasn’t the only culprit of all this discomfort. Last year I was buying fruit-flavoured single-serving yogurts and eating a couple of them per day.  Being fat-free and low in calories, you might think they’d be good for helping to maintain a healthy diet, but we all know that there’s more to nutrition than fat and calories. Flip over the container and you’ll discover a couple of scary ingredients that definitely are not whole foods. Have I stopped eating yogurt? Nope, of course not! But I’ve swapped it for this:

Plain Greek yogurt, and cottage cheese. These have been staples in my fridge for a year or two now, but I was also buying the individual artificially-sweetened yogurts because they were easier to take to work. One day I decided that really, it takes all of about 2 minutes to scoop some real yogurt from a big container into a portable one, and hence, I have not purchased the single-serving ones since.

The third big culprit was drink crystals, and as I mentioned in this post, I’ve never been one to loooove drinking plain water, except for in the gym. Since January, I haven’t touched a single packet of drink crystals and instead have been flavouring my water with citrus fruits and fruity teas which I steep in a large pitcher with water, then chill in the fridge. One of my favourites is Pom Power, a white tea with just a little caffeine and a whole lot of flavour. As a result I think my taste buds have become much more accustomed to lower levels of sweetness, and I almost never experience sugar cravings. I’m drinking more water now, and not surprisingly, my skin is looking better than it did when it was being fed liquid chemicals.

By targeting these 3 ‘fake foods’ and almost eliminating them from my diet, my digestion has improved remarkably. Before this month, I thought that maybe I needed to get tested for gluten or dairy sensitivities. (Dairy is still a bit of a tricky area – milk and hard cheeses don’t sit so well but yogurt and eggs seem to be fine.) But what I really needed was to give myself a good swift kick in the butt and stop eating foods that my body wasn’t made to digest in the first place. The result? Not surprisingly, eating real foods make me feel about a bazillion times better, and my stomach doesn’t stick out like a woman who is 6 months pregnant!!

2. Stress relief

We all know that stress is bad for us and that we should try to reduce it as much as possible. I don’t consider my life or my job overly stressful, but it didn’t occur to me until I was away in Italy this past Christmas how much stress reduction can improve the way that I feel. For the 5 short days that I was there with my dad and sister, we walked around, toured buildings, took heaps of photos, laughed a lot, ate very fresh food, slept in, and I really didn’t give much thought to my regular responsibilities. I didn’t even go to the gym, which is a HUGE change from my usual routine!

I don’t know if this has ever occurred to you when you’ve been away on holiday in the past, but when I took a minute to think about it, my body was so much more relaxed. My shoulders were down and my neck was relaxed, not all tensed up like it is after a day in the office. I felt more calm, moved around a little slower, and noticed my surroundings more. And my digestion? Great. I’ve never even noticed much of a connection between stress levels and digestion in myself before, but now that I’m so much more conscious of it.

It’s obviously not practical to be on holiday for our entire lives, so there are a few things that I’ve started doing to keep my stress levels down during my every-day life:

• Deep breathing. Sounds crazy, right? We breathe in and out all day, every day, so what could be so magical about this? Just try it. I usually practice when I’m in my car driving to and from work. I try to fill my lungs with as much air as I possibly can, then push all of it out as if I’m trying to compress my lungs as much as possible. Almost immediately, the tension in the rest of my body is gone, my heart rate slows down, and I feel better.
• Journaling. Again, I talked more about this last week, but I’m a total believer that it works in helping to reduce stress. When I was losing weight, I’d write down all of my food intake for the day. (I stopped doing this years ago, but still think it’s a very effective weight loss tool.) I write about a ton of different things now, including things that frustrate me, things that happened in the day that were great and amazing, and things I want to do in the future. In terms of diet, I also write about things that didn’t make me feel so great (again, cheese is a nasty culprit!) so that I can identify patterns and avoid trigger foods. On the flipside, if I’m feeling absolutely fantastic and awesome, I’ll write about the things I ate, activities I did, the people I talked to, and all of the other things that helped to make me feel so great. Done first thing in the morning, journaling has been a good way for me to set intentions for the day. Done at night, it serves as a way to collect all of my thoughts and clear my mind before bed.

You may be thinking “OK, this is all great and good but it’s only January. Surely her motivation to maintain these changes will drop off over the next couple of months.” I actually don’t think that will be the case. You know when you see and feel changes that are so positive that nothing could ever make you want to turn back to your old ways? I think that’s what has happened here!

Alright, that’s enough about me for today! Today I want to know…

• Is there an area of your life that you know you would like to change but are having trouble doing so? What’s holding you back?
• Have you made any changes over the past month that you’ve already seen amazing results from? Tell me about them!

• Part 1: Why I moved to the Middle East and Tabbouleh
• Part 2: All about shawarmas, and my favourite, Chicken Shawarmas

One of the most common questions I get asked about living in Bahrain is “What was your school like?” I attended a British International School called St. Christophers, which is one of two British schools on the island. We chose to go there over the American one because 1) it was closer to our house, and 2) my dad is Scottish.

St. Chris offers schooling for students aged 3 all the way up to 18. When we arrived in Bahrain, I was 13 and my sister was 10. That put me in the senior school, and my sister in the junior school, and at the time they were both on the same site. (The school has grown a lot since so the junior school is about 15 minutes away now.) Currently there are over 2000 students representing over 60 different nationalities, and the curriculum is based on the British school system.

Even though the work was hard, I loved St. Chris. I made friends there from all over the world, and still keep in touch with a lot of them regularly. (In fact, this was where I met my friend Cynthia, whose bridesmaid I’ll be in April when I go to Australia.) Outside of classes, I swam competitively, played soccer, basketball, and was the captain of our golf team (yes I know it sounds nerdy, but golf happens to be considered a lot cooler over there than it does here in North America). We also had houses (yes, just like in Harry Potter), and I was the girl’s house captain for mine. Like almost every other school on the island, we were uniform-wearing students. In my opinion, they couldn’t have made us look more like nurses if they’d tried.

In addition to the classrooms, our school had a drama hall, a sports hall (or a gym as you’d call it here), a swimming pool, and courts for tennis, basketball, and netball. If you’re from the UK you’ll be very familiar with netball, but for those that aren’t, it’s basically basketball but you’re not allowed to dribble or run with the ball. I could never understand the point.

We also had plenty of greenspace and shaded areas to hang around in during breaks, as well as a tuck shop (also known as a cafeteria) where we could buy food for lunch.

Tuck shop food included a number of things including drinks, fruit, sandwiches, yogurt, and crisps (chips). There was also a steady rotation of hot dishes, including various types of curry, chicken fingers, and biryani.

Biryani is a word that describes a rice-based dish seasoned with lots of spices like cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, pepper, and nutmeg. It supposedly originated in Iran and has spread all throughout the Middle East and Asia over time. Technically, it is a dish where rice is cooked separately from any meats or other ingredients and then mixed together, but many recipes that you’ll find (especially for vegetable biryani) cook everything at once. You’ll find tons of different varieties depending on the countries that you visit, with places like Sri Lanka serving spicy versions and with Middle Eastern countries like Iraq and Iran serving more mild dishes.

For the most part, biryani is pretty good for you. It’s traditionally made from basmati rice, and gets its flavour from warm spices. However, there was just something about mass-produced tuck shop vegetable biryani that didn’t appeal to me (sort of like scrambled eggs on a cheap hotel buffet… eww.) Some restaurants make it with a lot of oil, which really isn’t necessary and was one of my big pet peeves. My re-created version uses only 1 tsp of oil, as well as the following simple ingredients:

It all magically comes together in one gorgeous, wholesome dish, and here’s how you make it:

So, so much better than mass-produced biryani rice! The serving size above (6 people) applies if this is used as a side dish, but if you’re looking to increase the size of each serving but keep the calories close to the same, you could easily add in another cup of diced veggies. If they’re firm, throw them in when you’re cooking the carrots and onions, and if they’re softer add them when you toss in the peas. Oh, and one final word: Please, please, don’t forget to toast the almonds! It’s amazing how much toasting can bring out their flavour and all you need to do is put them in a frying pan on the stove until they turn golden brown. It’s that easy!

Stay tuned…. part 4 is coming up next week!!

I hope your day is off to a fabulous start so far. The weekend is so so close and I can’t wait! It’ll be a fairly relaxed one for me, but I’m perfectly content with a lazy weekend right now. What will you be getting up to?

Over to today’s usual topic, here’s your weekly dose of Fit Bit Friday!

Work it Out

A while back, I featured a StepMill workout for Fit Bit Friday 17 that got a lot of positive responses. I adore the StepMill for its ability to make me sweat like crazy, so that’s the featured piece of equipment for this week’s workout. If the StepMill scares you, I strongly encourage you to just try hopping on and giving it a go, even if only for a few minutes. I’ll admit that I looked like a total loon when I tried the first time because 1) my feet are bigger than the steps and 2) I kept tripping so I had to constantly look down at them. But don’t worry! It won’t be long before you get the hang of it, and when you do, it’s a lovely, sweaty feeling. This routine is only 25 minutes, but they’re not easy ones!

(Source)

The 3-Peak StepMill Workout

***Disclaimer: As is the case with all workouts posted on Eat Spin Run Repeat, please check with a medical professional before beginning any exercise program. I am not a certified personal trainer and all workouts on my blog are based only on my own experience.***

In this routine, you’ll climb 3 hills, increasing your pace (steps/floors per minute) in order to build intensity. While it will take you a shorter amount of time to climb each successive hill, that doesn’t mean that they get any easier. The first one will take you 10 minutes, the second halves to 5 minutes, and the third halves again to only 2.5 minutes. However, you’ve got to keep increasing your stepping speed to get your heart rate in the target range indicated in the right column for each hill. Therefore, you’ll likely be making greater incremental changes for the 2nd and 3rd hills than you did in the first. The 3 peaks are back to back, with a lovely well-deserved cool-down at the end.

Click here to print the PDF.

The cool-down here is short – only 2 1/2 minutes – but if your heart rate is still high, be sure to take a few extra minutes to step at a slower speed. When you’re all done, be sure to stretch out those legs, especially the hip flexors, hamstrings, quads and calves.

Turn It Up

This week’s tune was inspired by the first time I heard Body Pump 80 a couple of weeks ago. The warm-up is called Resuscitate Me by September, and although the video I’ve posted below isn’t the same remix as on the new release, the original is still great – nice and cruisy, good for a steady run or a spin on a flat road…. or just a good workout in general!

Have A Read

In light of my recent race announcement, I’ve got some running-focused reads for you this week:

•  How many extra calories does the treadmill incline actually add? via FitSugar
• 25 ways to run faster now via Greatist
• Running watch reviews and things to watch out for when you’re buying one – via Runners World

Questions for today:

• What’s on your agenda this weekend?
• Have you done any of the Les Mills new releases yet? What did you think? PS If you’re a local and want in to my RPM new release on Monday morning at 6:15am, shoot me an email!

I can’t seem to get enough cottage cheese. I absolutely hated cottage cheese as a kid. Well actually, to be honest, I don’t think I ever tried it. This was because I was so repulsed by the fact that something thin like milk had clumps in it that looked nothing like cheese I was used to eating, which was cheddar and only cheddar. Therefore, it looked like gone-off milk to me, and I couldn’t understand why my mum thought eating it with her grapes and watermelon was even palatable, let alone desirable. But now….. it’s a different story.

I might even go as far as to say I like it more than Greek yogurt. My favourite combo:

Cottage cheese with blueberries (or any other frozen fruit), a heavy smattering of cinnamon, and a quick squirt of vanilla extract mixed in. An absolute winner no matter what time of day. And an added bonus: This particular Nordica cottage cheese is about $1-$1.50 cheaper than many Greek yogurts out there, for the same amount. That’s right – bargain hunter is my middle name.

Lately…

I’ve discovered that I still have some of this left in my freezer:

I wrapped up half of my Pumpkin-Spiced High Protein Breakfast Cake back when I made the first one in October, and that has proven to be a fantastic decision. When I set it in the fridge to defrost and cut a piece (or maybe two, but just a sliver of course) to eat the next day, it was just as moist and flavourful as it was when I first made it. Is pumpkin season over? Not in my books it’s not.

Lately…

I’ve been doing really well at working on my 2012 goal of journaling at least 3 times per week. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but you could even say I’m rocking it because for the past 2 weeks I’ve done it every day.

My journal (which may have been an impulse buy in the Heathrow airport when I decided this was going to be a new goal of mine) contains ramblings of whatever I fancy writing about each day, and I am amazed at how much it’s helped me, particularly with relieving stress. I’ve got a post coming up about some recent changes I’ve noticed since adding some new habits to my life this month, and journaling is definitely one that is creating some positive change!

Lately…

I’ve received a few questions inquiring about some recent pins of mine, like this one:

(Source)

Don’t worry friends, I’m not keeping any secrets from you. There is no wedding of my own in the near future. Rather, the reason for the wedding hair pins is because one of my besties, Cynthia (the same one whose wedding is coming up in Australia in April) asked if I’d like my hair done up or down for the event. Sooooo naturally I turned to Pinterest for hair ideas. I keep changing my mind as to whether I want mine up or down, but for now I’m leaning more towards a loose updo.

Lately…

I’ve been having lots of fun playing with my iPad. This arrived pre-loaded with some of my course materials for my Institute of Integrative Nutrition program, after which I’ll be a certified Health Coach. It’s a super convenient way to learn – I usually bring it down to the kitchen and listen to my lectures as I chef up my recipe creations on the weekends.

I’ve also added a few apps to it just for fun, but I need some suggestions from all of you iPad users out there. Which apps do I need?

Lately…

I’ve been buying a ton of citrus fruits. Specifically, limes and lemons.

Am I eating them on their own? Nope. I’ve been squeezing them into my a pitcher every other day or so to add a little excitement to my water. As you may remember if you’ve been reading for a while, there once was a time not too long ago (like all throughout last year and prior) where I was pretty much addicted to drink crystals. It got to the point where the only time I was actually drinking pure water was in the gym – everything else was artificially sweetened, and that is definitely not a healthy way to hydrate!  Another new favourite water add-in are these little gems:

Blood oranges! One of my university roommates introduced me to them and I can’t get enough. I don’t eat a lot of regular oranges, purely because I hate getting the pulp stuck under my fingernails. But these… I can do pulpy fingernails for these. In fact, I’ve got an absolute stunner of a recipe for you that involves blood oranges coming up next week, so run (don’t walk!) to your grocery store this weekend and buy a few!

And lastly, the exciting news:

Lately…

I’ve been researching races to do this year. My initial plan was to compete in the Oakville Half Marathon on September 25th, but the other day something caught my eye and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Yep, I’m off to Vancouver in August!!! I’ll be running the Sea Wheeze Half Marathon, hosted by Lululemon, on August 11th with one of my long-time besties, Lauren. If you can’t already tell, I’m superduperduperduper excited about it!!!! Lauren lives in Alberta (where I was born) and our mums have been best friends for years. We’ve both got August birthdays, so I can’t wait to run this race with her, then celebrate our 24th birthdays in style. Watch out for my training plan coming up in the spring!!

 Your turn!

• Tell me about one new thing you’ve been doing recently that is making a positive change in your life.
• If you’ve been a bride or bridesmaid in the past, do you prefer your hair up or down?
• What’s one thing you can’t get enough of right now?

I hope you’re having a wonderful day so far. Thanks for all of your great comments on yesterday’s Food from Home post. It’s so interesting to hear about the cultural dishes you and your families enjoy. I’ve got a great lineup of new things to tell you about from this week’s Try Something New Tuesday, so let’s hop to it, shall we?

1. Recipe of the Week: Lately I’ve been experimenting with salads that meet the following criteria:

• Quick and easy to make
• High in protein
• Contains healthy fats
• Reasonably cheap
• Can be made in large batches for weekday lunches
• …and of course, delicious!

Today’s recipe of the week meets all 5 of those criteria.

That would be Edamame Salmon Salad on rice cakes, one of my recent lunchbox favourites. The salmon is canned, making it a much cheaper option than using fresh fish or another protein source like chicken which I seem to be eating less and less of these days. Salmon (fresh or canned) also provides a good dose of omega-3 healthy fats, and when paired with a some veggies and edamame makes a great topping for greens or rice cakes, or a tasty sandwich filling. I actually happen to have this packed in my lunch bag for work today!

2. Tamarillo. Just when I thought I was running out of exotic produce to try, I found a few new items on the shelves of Whole Foods. Up first is this fruit which comes from Central and South America. Not to be confused with a tomatillo, tamarillos grow on trees and are related (don’t ask me how) to the potato, tomato, bell pepper, and eggplant.

Tamarillos are grown in Colombia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Australia, California, Africa and Asia. There are 3 main varieties – red, gold (larger, medium sweetness), and amber (sweetest, smaller).

Nutritionally speaking, this fruit is low in calories (only about 20 per fruit) and fat, but high in vitamins A, B6, and C. They’re incredibly versatile too, and can be used in everything from smoothies and desserts to toppings on pizza (yes, this sounds strange to me too… but this source confirms it. Tamarillos can be eaten raw just like you would a kiwi or other fruit, or baked, grilled, poached, or fried.

After checking out a bunch of ideas on Tamarillo.com (yes, the fruit has its own website), I decided that peeling and cutting up the tamarillo, then mixing it in with cottage cheese would make a good snack.

Check out those colours!! I was so excited to bite into this fruit, and tried my hardest to cut away as little of the skin as possible because I didn’t want to waste any of the flesh. The inky dark purple bits in the middle are little seeds, but from what I’ve read, they’re totally ok to eat (and I’m not dead yet, so that must be true.)

Oh my goodness… this thing was fantastic! It was bursting with juice and flavour – quite tart with just the right amount of sweetness. if I had to compare it to other fruits, I’d say it was a bit like a cross between a pineapple and a mango, both taste and texture-wise. Absolutely unreal, and now I really wish I’d purchased some more of them because I devoured this one in about 2 minutes!

3. Gin-gins Ginger Hard Candies from The Ginger People. Since the beginning of this month, I’ve been doing some experimenting with foods to figure out which ones leave me feeling great afterwards, and which ones seem to have a bit of trouble digesting. This was a decision I made after spending a long long time last year feeling uncomfortable and bloated. (There is an entire post coming up on this soon!) I don’t even want to begin to think about how many Tums and Rolaids I consumed. After a month of experimentation, I’ve identified a few things that still make my stomach feel a little off and have been avoiding them as best as I can. However, there are still those times when my stomach just doesn’t feel right, and my new approach (which does not involve Tums) is to consume foods that promote easy digestion. These include peppermint, cinnamon, camomile, herbal and pu’reh teas, and ginger.

That’s where these little candies by The Ginger People come in. I found them recently at a local health food store and although I was skeptical at first (the thought of sucking on ginger…. hmmm), they gave me a very pleasant surprise.

They’re not just for indigestion though – these sweeties are multi-taskers. They settle stomachs (including during long travel journeys like on airplanes and boats), freshen breath, and soothe throats. Although I felt fine digestion-wise yesterday, I tried one after lunch as a breath freshener and really enjoyed it.

Since Gin-gins (or ginger sweets in general) are supposed to help with travel sickness, I figure I’ll bring a box of these on my flight to Australia in April. If no motion sickness occurs, at least I’ll have fresh breath!

So tell me…

• Have you ever tried a tamarillo? What sort of dish was it in?
• What are your go-to cures for an upset stomach?

Today I’ve got a recipe for a dish that you’re probably already very familiar with. Shawarmas and their variations are common throughout the Middle East, and they were one of my favourite quick dinners when I lived in Bahrain. Shawarma shops have popped up a lot here in Canada – well, in my city anyway – but I’ve yet to come across one that tastes the same as they did at home.

In Bahrain, there are tons of street vendors and little shawarma restaurants in the villages, as well as downtown. The food is cheap, but unlike a lot of fast food options (and yes, a lot of folk over there absolutely love their McD’s!) it’s actually really fresh and healthy. Obesity is a problem in the Middle East just like it is here in North America, but as you’re about to see, there’s nothing really “unhealthy” about the ingredients in a shawarma.

The guys that own these little shops have their meat cooking down to a science. They know how much they can expect to sell in one day, and they pile the meats onto these giant spikes accordingly:

Clearly, this particular restaurant is a very popular one!! When the meat is on the spike (usually chicken, beef, or lamb), it cooks slowly to perfection, with all of the excess fat dripping off the bottom.

Once the meat is ready, it gets shaved off and roughly chopped into strips. Then it gets piled onto pitas or Lebanese flatbread. (Sometimes the meat is eaten without the pita, along with other things like tabbouleh and salads, but today I’m referring to the rolled up sandwich kind.)

There are various other fillings for the pitas, including mixed veggies, pickles, parsley, hummus, and a creamy sauce. The sauce tastes very strongly of garlic and tahini, and so far I haven’t found a shawarma place locally that makes it quite the same as home. However, I’ve been experimenting for a while and finally came up with a version that is pretty close.

Now, you might be asking: That looks an awful lot like a Turkish kebab, or a Greek/Mediterranean gyro, or a donair, or whatever… Well, yes, it’s pretty much the same thing. Shawarma is an Arabic word, but there are variations of the dish and its name all over the world. Within Bahrain alone (which remember, is a country but is only the size of a large city), there are Lebanese, Turkish and Saudi-style shawarmas.

So now that you know about the process, here’s the recipe!

Breaking it down for the visual learners:

Making the sauce with smooth, creamy yogurt…

The grilled chicken, deliciously golden and spiced…

Choppity chop chop…

Loaded inside…

and piled high…

Smothered in sauce…

…. rolled up, and ready to eat!

So tell me…

• Are you a shawarma/gyro/kebab/donair fan?
• What is your heritage? Do you have a favourite cultural dish? I have Scottish roots, but haggis is by no means a favourite of mine. Scottish salmon, Scottish oats, and Scottish shortbread on the other hand – now that is the fine cuisine that I’m proud of!

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I have to say, mine was exactly what I was looking for. After a busy couple of days, I went into total weekend mode by passing out crazy early on Friday night (cough*8:00*cough), then heading to the gym on Saturday morning for a run and a bootcamp-style class. (You’ll hear more about this class in an upcoming post.) The evening involved driving to Burlington to celebrate the birthday of one of my besties, Sara, and Sunday morning was spent just as any Sunday morning should be – in bed, lazy, and relaxed. I know “they” (being the health professionals of the world) say that you can’t just catch up on sleep on the weekends, and that we’re better off getting around the same number of hours of sleep each night. While I believe that this is probably true, I couldn’t believe how amazingly fresh I felt waking up yesterday morning. What a difference 2 nights makes!

Sunday in general was full of greatness. I mentioned a while ago that our local temporary Lululemon pop-up store had been sponsoring some classes at Moksha, my favourite hot yoga studio. Sadly these classes are now over, but in order to celebrate the studios and people in the community that have been supporting Lululemon over the past couple of months, they hosted an appreciation party. There was a great lineup of classes to attend, and my friend Nina and I headed over to see what it was all about.

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for the entire day, but we did hang around for the first three yoga classes by Blue Skies Yoga, Moksha, and Fearless Heart. I’ve been to the latter two studios, but am hoping to check out Blue Skies soon too.

The turn out was really good, and although it felt odd to be savasana-ing on the floor of a shopping mall, it was strangely calming at the same time!

A little downward dog practicing going on while we waited for another class… and now that I look at myself, I really do need to get my heels down and flatten my lower back! My excuse will be that I wasn’t warmed up yet.

When the yoga classes were finished, there were other half-hour segments of Pilates, Zumba, CrossFit, etc. There was also skating in the square with free beverages from David’s Tea, which you all know by now that I’m crazy about! After chatting with some of the lovely Lulu ladies, I learned that even though the store isn’t here to stay right now, there are high hopes for a local one in the future. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will happen soon! It was so great of Lululemon to host this event and it would be great to do it again some day. The experience kind of felt like being in a yoga flash mob!

Post-yoga, I came home for lunch. This wasn’t intended to be a recipe for the blog – in fact, I’m not sure I’d really classify it as a recipe at all! It was more of a lets-grab-a-ton-of-veggies-and-throw-them-together sort of lunch, and the result was so delicious that I’ve decided to share it with you today. Quantities have been doubled in he recipe below so that you can share the goodness with someone else.

Enjoyed with some fruit and Greek yogurt for dessert, it was the perfect, light post-yoga lunch.

Alrighty, that’s all for now! Today I want to know…

• What was one thing you did to nourish yourself this weekend? And by that I don’t just mean food, it could be physical, spiritual, emotional, social… anything!
• What is one of your main goals/focuses for this week? Mine is finally booking my flight for Australia in April!

How are you feeling today? This morning started off a little slow for me – bed was feeling like a much better idea than the gym, especially with the big dump of snow we got yesterday! But after a little mental kick in the butt, I was on dressed and on the treadmill, prancing along to some of my favourite tunes-of-the-moment. Lately I’ve been learning my new Les Mills RPM release (launching next week!) and I know I’ve said it before, but the music on RPM 53 is fantastic!

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Work It Out

On Wednesday, I sent out the following tweet:

I knew that the rows and lat pull-downs I’d done in the gym the previous day were the cause of the muscle pain in my back, but I was really surprised that the core workout I created for myself hit as hard as it did!! As one of my spin participants put it, “You must have done something right!” If you love that hurts-so-good feeling the day after your workout in your core, this one is for you!

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The Washboard Abs Workout

For this routine you’ll need a few pieces of equipment in the gym: An adjustable cable machine, an exercise ball, 2 kettlebells, and a mat (for comfort). You’ll complete the exercises in supersets, doing one immediately after the next, then resting for a minute before doing your next set. Once you’ve completed 3 rounds of the first pair, move on to superset 2.

The chart below provides the names of each exercise, but for the details on how to do them, click here to see the full PDF.

Click here for the PDF.

To get a good stretch through your abs, try exercises like the upward dog, as well as the stability ball stretch shown below.

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Turn It Up

Before  I get to this week’s featured song, I thought I’d announce that I’ve finally updated the Tunes Page, and it now includes a list of (almost) all of the songs from Fit Bit Fridays until #26. The update was long overdue!! This week’s tune is DJ Tiesto’s remix of Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. It’s from the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack, and makes a great running or spin song. The beat picks up in a couple of spots – perfect for busting out a few quick sprints!

Have a Read

I came across this article recently about the Miss America 2012 contestants. It talks about their approaches to health and fitness, and contrary to what you might assume, the girls are certainly not the stereotypical rail-thin women of pageants in earlier years. Take a look at the slideshow, then tell me what you think – are pageants taking a turn for the better, or do you think they’re still a showcase of unrealistic bodies?

And finally, my questions for today:

• What is one of the healthy choices you’ll be making this weekend?
• Favourite ab exercises: Let’s hear ‘em!