But not really. There’s this program called One Hundred Pushups that, as the name implies, intends to get you from the state of wimpy human to that of uber human that can do 100 pushups – all in a time span of 6 weeks.

While I wouldn’t mind being uber-human, I’m really just looking for a down and dirty, quick upper body strength routine. (Bonus! Pushups are good for the core, too). I’ve always slacked at upper body strength training. I convince myself that running is plenty, while frowning at my wimpy arms.

So, to complement my return to the gym and running/cycling/ellipticalling (?), I’m going to take a stab at the hundred pushups plan.

Initial test: 17 pushups, girl style. (Will go for the whole enchilada if I manage to get to 100 girlie ones!)

Seems like a depressing start, but the site assures me I’m normal. (Most people start out in level 2 [6-14] or level 3 [15-29]).

With that, Week 1 starts tomorrow! Who wants to join me?

It’s a tangy, toasty dressing that tastes a bit heavier than a standard vinaigrette, but in a good way. My ranch-obsessed brain thinks it would be even better jazzed into a creamy dressing of some sort. I’ll get to work on that.

Green Onion Miso Vinaigrette

Lucky for you, the recipe is available via Google’s book preview:

Appetite for Reduction – page 21 – Green Onion Miso Vinaigrette

Enjoy!

Now, Joe did his initial reboot for 60 days – that’s two months of living on solely juice. Some might say that’s a bit extreme. Me? I love the idea of juice reboots and have personally found them to be very effective, but I stick to a 5-7 day plan with a few allowances beyond Joe’s plans, and recipes from another one of my favorite juicers.

As I started getting into juicing, I came across this modern-day juicing pioneer: Jason Vale, also known as the Juice Master. His story started as he searched for ways to treat his severe psoriasis, a chronic auto-immune skin disease. Through juicing, he saw extreme improvement in his skin condition and lost weight as well. Jason Vale is one of those over-the-top enthusiasts whose energy and zest for life and juicing is contagious. He’s very interactive via videos on his web site, and is a best selling author of a number of books on juicing.

When I find myself too far off the beaten path of healthy eating, I do a 5-7 day juice reboot. I drink 2-3 16oz juices per day, and eat one meal consisting of fruits and vegetables (usually a giant salad), or a homemade veggie soup. Snacks are fruits and veggies. I do allow myself to have dressing on my salads (hey, I’m an imperfect human). This plan works well for me. It’s not as extreme as going juice-only, but seems to me to adhere to the spirit and intention of a reboot. Eating solid fruits and veggies fills that “need to eat!” void without straying from the nutritional goals of the reboot.

Why do I do juice reboots? For me, the effects are very positive.

• They serve a cleansing role to help detox from periods of eating too much processed food.
• They help retrain my brain to crave whole foods.
• They reset my notions of “satisfied” and “full” when I’ve gone overboard with portion sizes.
• They serve as a springboard to reaffirm my self-awareness of healthy eating and fitness habits.

How do juice reboots make me feel? Without fail, after the second day or so, my body feels so amazingly fresh and alert and just plain good. I marvel over it again and again. It makes me kick myself for ignoring proper nutrition in the first place. It’s hard to know how bad you really felt until you come out on the other side feeling spectacular. Even when I think I was feeling OK, I’m shocked at how bad that “OK” really was. Proper nutrition and energy levels seem to go hand in hand for me. I’m reminded all over again at what amazing machines our bodies are, and just how much our bodies can do when we provide the right forms of energy and fuel.

When it comes to juicing, there are definitely pro’s and con’s to the whole practice. Juicing isn’t some miracle cure for diseases or obesity, but it can certainly play a role in improving the conditions of both. Juicing isn’t necessarily “healthier” than actually eating the whole fruits and vegetables, but in my experience, juicing allows me to drink veggies that I rarely eat enough of. In most cases, if I don’t juice those veggies, they don’t get consumed at all. I have a harder time eating enough greens and veggies (cabbage, chard, kale, spinach, etc) but an easy time drinking them. To me, juicing is better than nothing!

On the down side:

• Juicers aren’t cheap. A small, basic one costs around $80, but if you plan to juice daily, you’ll want to consider a more heavy-duty model. In that case, you’re looking at $150 and up. (That said, I’ve got the Breville Juice Fountain Plus and absolutely love it. It runs about $150, and if you’ve got a Bed Bath and Beyond nearby, you can use their 20% off coupon on it).
• Organic produce isn’t cheap. Conventional produce is much less expensive, and if that’s the only way you can manage to afford juicing, go for it – but I prefer organic. I find organic produce to taste much better and be more healthful without chemicals, pesticides, and genetic modification.
• While juicing is nearly as nutritious as eating the whole fruit or veggie, you lose the fiber (which is contained in the pulp).
• As with any instance of “drinking your calories,” even fresh fruit and veggie juices can be high in calories.

On the bright side:

• The body absorbs nutrients from freshly juiced fruits and vegetables more easily and quickly than from the whole fruits and veggies.
• Juicing offers an easy way to sneak in servings of fruits and veggies that you might not enjoy eating in their whole forms.
• Freshly juiced fruits and vegetables contain the same vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients as their whole counterparts.
• Freshly juiced fruits and vegetables offer the same nutritional benefits as whole fruits and veggies – including decreased risk of cancer and other diseases, improved immune system function, decreased inflammation, and detoxification.

While juicing is pretty trendy right now, there’s no shortage of evidence of its benefits from the big names. ABC News did a good intro to juicing a few years back: Juicing Up Your Nutrition, and the Mayo Clinic says that juicing is a fun way to try new fruits and veggies or add ones to your diet that you wouldn’t normally eat. Dr. Oz often touts the benefits of juicing, and has a great juice recipe on his web site – the Anti Aging Green Monster Drink – a concoction of freshly juiced apple, carrot, cucumber, and kale, blended with yogurt. He explains:

It’s loaded with protective phytonutrients, found in fruits and vegetables, known to help boost your body’s defenses against cancer and chronic degenerative diseases. It can help correct diet deficiences – and tastes good, too.

Some people avoid juicing because of the perceived hassle. While it’s best to juice fresh each time you want to have a drink, you can certainly prepare a whole day’s worth of juices for convenience. I’m sure some juicers can be a pain to clean, but my Breville is very easy to manage. It takes me 1:48 to clean my juicer (that’s one minute, 48 seconds). I rinse all of the parts and scrub the filter basket, and let them air dry. Once a week I run the parts through the dishwasher. Done. My daily juicing takes all of 5 minutes, start to finish – prep to juice to cleaning.

My juicer has become a vital addition to my kitchen. It lives on my counter and is in constant use. You can find all of my juice recipes and juicing posts under the Juicing category here on EpicOrganic.

Do you have a favorite juice concoction? I’d love to hear it!

Morning Kickstart in a Glass

This has become my favorite morning juice, sometimes replacing breakfast altogether. Tasty!

When OhSheGlows.com posted this Kitchen Sink Nut Butter recipe, I scanned my mental rolodex of pantry shelves and thought, “Hey! I’ve got all this stuff! It’s about time I took a crack at this!” I decided to try my hand at a small batch of homemade nut butter.

Alas, after changing into my cooking pajamas (yes, I have cooking pajamas), I discovered that actually, I did not have almonds on hand. (Blasphemy!) Too lazy to change back into real clothes, I made do with what I had: walnuts, pecans, cashews, and sunflower seeds.

The result:

Kitchen Sink Nut Butter

I must say, considering my fairly horrendous ingredient substitutions, this actually turned out really tasty! I’ve eaten it smeared on apple chunks, and with a banana, and in this smoothie:

Soymilk, banana, and Kitchen Sink nut butter smoothie

My friends: the smoothie was as delicious as it looks. A swirl of chocolate syrup and I might have died and gone to heaven.

I will definitely be making more nut butters at home. I love knowing exactly what’s in it, with no extra chemicals or junk. But now, I must dig out my sleeping pajamas and hit the hay. Finals week starts early tomorrow….

(Cowboy? What?)

This soup has nothing to do with cowboys. It’s hearty enough for a cowboy, though.

Really. I’m not kidding. Yes, it’s a veggie soup. Yes, it’s hearty. Bonus: it’s vegan! And it is incredibly easy to make.

First up: saute some garlic and leeks and/or onions in a little olive oil.

Next, add broccoli, rolled oats (the original kind, not the instant kind), soy milk, and dill. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste, then puree with an immersion blender. Voila!

So filling. So good.

This recipe works great with asparagus, too. I suspect it would be great with any soup-happy vegetable. If you don’t have an immersion blender, a food processor or blender works too – just let the soup cool a bit before you process it, and make sure to have the steam vent open while blending.

Enjoy a soup-er meal!

Looks aren't everything.

3 apples, a carrot, a bunch of kale – juiced – and 6 small frozen strawberries, blended in.

It was pretty tasty, though!

What can I say? I’ve reached the bottom of my produce stash. Gotta get to the store!

Yesterday ended up being only a half-juice day. I had forgotten about a celebratory dinner that followed my last meeting with the Arboretum Collaborative fellowship group. It was a fully vegetarian, all-local spread that was just amazing.

Local spread

So, for dinner, I had a giant salad made with local arugula and pickled onions with an amazing local apple cider vinaigrette (which I must figure out how to replicate!), an asparagus and smoked gouda quiche made with local Piney River Farm eggs, local potato salad with roasted garlic mayo, and a vanilla bean creme caramel with local peach cider caramel.

I know, right?!

That surely makes up for the ugly (but tasty!) juice I had this morning.

Off to the market to stock up on produce!

I’m currently on what I hope is the tail end of one of stress’s roller coaster rides. Eight months ago, I moved half way across the country (away from family and friends) to an unfamiliar town to take my dream job. At the time, I was training to run my second long race – a half marathon. I ran that race in December 2011 and broke my goal time by a whopping 9 minutes. It was a huge accomplishment, but I knew the facade was starting to crack. The last few weeks of training was brutal. I couldn’t focus and felt overwhelmed. Too much stress.

After the race, I decided to take a break from running – just a few weeks, to recharge and de-stress and find the joy in it again.

That break has lasted 4 months, with a few half-hearted attempts at jump-starting my running shoes along the way.

What happened? Athletic fitness had certainly become more than a habit. In 2010 and 2011, I ran oodles of races – ten 5K’s, one 10K (6.2 miles), one 25K (15.5 miles), a half marathon (13.1 miles), and the insane Warrior Dash obstacle course 5K. Between training and races and recreational running, I pounded out nearly 1,000 miles of pavement and trails. Yet, here I am – 4 months later, still not running.

I heard something on NPR the other night as I drifted to sleep, and it struck me. The guest was talking about exercise, and debunking common myths (such as, the myth that the best time to exercise is in the morning. False: the best time to exercise is whenever you will do it!). The statement that hit me was:

Exercise is stress.

Stress! Gah!

But of course, she was right. Exercise (particularly high intensity exercise) stresses the body. I had become a master at applying such stress and then providing my body with the tools to recover, but I had failed to consider the cumulative effect of exercise stress and work stress and adjustment stress and school stress. In the chaos of having to function on a daily basis, do my work, and complete my studies, all in a completely foreign environment, something had to give – and it did. Fitness went out the window.

What do I do now? I’ve recognized the problem, but how should I address it?

One phenomenon that has plagued me the past few months has been mind games. My brain likes to tell me, “You’re only running a couple miles… if you’re not running 10, what’s the point?” To further that notion, the devil on my shoulder works hard to convince me that by the same logic, walking and biking are worthless as well. Of course, that is all nonsense – and in a way, I must acknowledge that I’m starting a bit from scratch here. I’ve lost most of the strength and stamina I had 4 months ago – but I haven’t lost the knowledge I gained or the accomplishments I achieved.

I’m going to start out with a little Finals Week juice reboot. I’m a fan of Jason Vale and his JuiceMaster lifestyle. I did one of his juice reboots after Christmas, with good results. It was supposed to be a 7 day juice and raw fruits/veggies fast, but I stopped after 3 days. Still, it was a great cleanse and I felt really good afterwards.

This time, let’s shoot for a happy, juicy week that concludes next Friday – May 4. Of course, if things don’t go as planned, no harm and no foul. But Finals Week sounds like a perfect build-up to kick start a healthy, active, and relaxing summer.

Time to break out the juicer! Here are some of my juice and smoothie recipes:

• Super Juice
• Chocolate Cherry Green Smoothie
• Cranapple CC Juice
• School Spirit Juice
• Orange Kiwi Juicy Juice
• Green Lemonade

And for more information on my juicer and how I got into all of this: My Foray Into Juicing.

Here’s to a great week!

I’m currently in the tail end of a mach-2 phase. We just finished up regular classes. Next week is Finals Week. Besides the glare of the looming freight train of final grading, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Until I reach the end of said tunnel, though, dinners will be quick and easy and likely very repetitive.

Cue: scrambled eggs with Field Roast Apple Sage veggie sausage and feta, with a side of toast and cherry jam.

Dinner, sans glamour.

Here’s to breakfast for dinner!

I suppose OK is better than awful.

I was pretty excited to try out this Pesto Veggie Gratin recipe from “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian,” and was even more excited that it called for goat cheese (which I discovered via an appetizer at Mas Tapas in Charlottesville and recreated at home via this Artichoke and Goat Cheese Dip). I think goat cheese is delicious when I’m on the non-vegan bandwagon… sorry, goats. At least I don’t eat you…

The recipe called for couscous, pesto (another obsession of mine… see The Magic of Pesto for my favorite pesto recipe), asparagus, goat cheese, and another vegetable (I chose a yellow squash). Sounds epic, right?

Pesto Veggie Gratin

Looks pretty epic, right?

I must admit one instance of user error in preparing this recipe: I mistook scallions for shallots (I always get those two mixed up). I should’ve used shallots, but instead, I used green onions. So maybe there was a flavor depth thing missing.

The dish wasn’t bad. It was just a little bland… until I dolloped on more pesto! Next time, I’ll just add more pesto to the sauce and I think it’ll cross over into greatness, if not epicness.

Pesto Veggie Gratin plate

So, chins up, people! They can’t all be epic meals… but one can dream!