Everything in moderation

I read a Runners World article recently, like 5 minutes ago, about how taking positive habits – or any ‘good for you’ behaviors – to the extreme can cause some detriment to your health and well being.  Short snippet below, along with link at end of this post.

Alternative medicine physician Steven Bratman, M.D., himself an orthorexia sufferer, coined the term in 1997 to refer to an extreme fixation on health food. Unlike anorexia, an eating disorder characterized by consuming too few calories, orthorexia is a preoccupation with the quality of food, rather than the quantity, and the condition can have severe mental and physical repercussions.

I am not a doctor nor am I trained in health and wellness – I want to make it very clear that the opinions I express are my own and based on my experiences and the information I have read or heard.  And, I, like all of you have a level of common sense that I apply to any decisions I make.

So in reading this article I wondered how our culture and society has influenced our individual abilities to know the right “stopping” point for how we pursue our goals.  I do my best to eat healthy but even with the best of intentions I fall into my own habit – repetitious eating – meaning I eat the same “healthy meals” over and over again which is not the most ideal eating habit/pattern.  By repeating meals I am omitting other minerals, vitamins, taste, color, smell, etc that my body would benefit from.  So while I’m eating “healthy”…I’m not really eating healthy, you know?

I realize that in balancing Healthy Living and Living Healthy I need to dedicate time, energy and effort around the “why’s” behind all I am doing.  For example, why do I always buy the same veggies that I am used to (zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, etc.) but I roll right on by those that are new and unfamiliar (chayote, collard greens, jicama, etc.).  Is it because I know how to use those veggies, know their health factors, know the smell/taste/texture?  At some point I had to give my usual veggies a first try, right?  Why have I denied chayote a chance to get in my piehole?  😀

My goal, in the pursuit of balancing Healthy Living and Living Healthy with Magnitude & Direction (riding that Vector) is to throw a new veggie, fruit, food item into my shopping cart on my next visit to the grocery store.   Then once I get it home to actually cook with it.  🙂

Just a note

Cathy

http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/08/22/when-does-eating-healthy-become-unhealthy/?cm_mmc=NL-Nutrition-_-1024360-_-08302012-_-Unhealthy-Eating

Work trip (like a road trip but usually with less fun)

This will be a visual post…and a limited “eyeball” into my “there and back again” trip to Westlake Village, CA for a work meeting.  **I need to remember to photo journal now that I’m starting this blogging adventure – so bear with me on this first one.  I’m sure you’ll be fascinated by peeking into what my day was like yesterday.

Let the vicarious viewing begin!

Cathy

What the airport looks like at 5am

Sitting at the gate…so quiet and dark

Sun’s up in LA

Capicola Ham and Provolone sammy (I chowed the first half down before I remembered the picture)

What another airport looks like at 8pm

Good night, Moon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why you gotta mess with Disney

Disney favourites turned into skinny minnies for Barneys campaign – Telegraph.

So I read this heading about how Disney characters have been “skinnified” for a Barneys campaign.  My first thought is “Why?”.  Why mess with icons that are familiar, beloved and influential in a way that is potentially harmful for those that are at an impressionable age?

I understand and appreciate Art.  Maybe not all art, but I can see the beauty and am enthralled by the ability of very talented people to translate emotions and images they see in their head onto paper, plastic, clay or whatever medium they choose.

But really Barneys?

Cathy

What do you think?  Am I overreacting?

Bar Review

In the last couple of days I have had snacks or meals in bar form so I wanted to give a review in case you are looking for some new portable eats.  **Get it…bar review, hee hee hee.  On with the reviewing!

Oskri Apricot Almond Bar = Snack recommended!

Oskri Apricot Almond Bar

This is a Kosher, Vegetarian, Gluten Free bar with 4 listed ingredients : Apricots, Almonds, Dates and Peaches.  The bar is 1.9 oz and is 131 calories with some pretty good protein (1.9g), fiber (5.3g), total fat (1g), sat fat (0g), sugars (26g) and sodium (6mg).

This bar is really tasty with a very nice texture.  Even with a primary base of fruit there is still some “bite” to the bar and requires some “chew” that makes the bar feel really substantial.  Every now and then you hit a piece of almond in your bite and that is a nice texture change.  If you like softer bars that keep their shape (meaning they don’t just flop over when you open the package) this is a good one to try.  You can taste the individual fruit flavors, which is nice and they balance well.  The bar leaves you feeling full and satisfied.

Rating = Recommended snack option

Mrs. Mays Almond Rice Stix = Snack recommended, when you’re not that hungry…

Mrs. May’s Almond Rice Stix

This is an interesting take on a rice crispy bar…except for being ooey gooey from marshmallows it has a dry texture.  I tried the Roasted Seaweed (Nori) flavor and the 12yo and I ate them up over a couple of days.

This is a Gluten Free treat with no saturated fats, no trans fats and low sodium.  The serving size is about 1 oz or 4 pieces (each piece is about 1/2 inch x 2 1/2 inches – I should have taken a photo but we ate them all 😀 ) for 130 calories.  Best bet is to portion these out as you just start dipping your hand in the bag and pretty soon they are all gone.  The listed ingredients are: Rice, Almonds, Raisins, Rice Malt, Cane Sugar, Sesame, Nori, Sea Salt.  Details: Protein (4g), fiber (1g), total fat (5g), sat fat (0g), sugars (5g) and sodium (85mg).

These are really tasty and have an asian flavor with the nori.  They remind me of furi kaki or japanese rice crackers that have a soy and nori flavor.  I recommend these as a snack…but they aren’t really that filling so choose on a day that you’re not that hungry but wanting an asian flavor twist.

Rating = Tasty snack but not that filling

Two Moms in the Raw: Gojiberry Granola= Acquired Taste

Raw bar: Gojiberry Granola

So I grabbed this bar on the way to Back to School night instead of a tried and true Kind Bar.  I wanted to try something different and I liked the sound of a Gojiberry bar since I know how full of antioxidants goji’s are.

This is a Gluten Free, Dairy Free, and Wheat Free with 100% organic ingredients.  The serving size is about 2 oz or the entire bar for 210 calories.  The listed ingredients are: organic oat groats (huh?), organic agave, organic sunflower seeds, organic buckwheat, organic pumpkin seeds, organic gojiberries (yay), organic millet, organic apples, organic sesame seeds, organic flax seeds, organic pecans, organic almonds, organic cinnamon, and sea salt.  Details: Protein (6g), fiber (4g), total fat (7g), sat fat (1g), sugars (18g) and sodium (45mg).

I unwrapped the bar while sitting at the stoplight and took a bite.  Hmmmm.

Let me think on how to describe this bar.  The texture when you bite it almost seems like it’s stale – but I know it’s not.  There isn’t a lot of crunch which you would think it would have because it’s a pretty “hard” compressed bar.  You can tap on it and you hear the taps.  It also falls apart…meaning little bits of the bar fall off like it fell out of the “glue” that bound the bar together.  (Not so great when you are driving and can’t follow where that piece fell.)  The taste is pretty good – it’s sweet enough without being overly sweet and you can taste all the different types of grains that the bar is made of.  Soooooooo, the rating right?  I’d say it’s one I’d have to eat again to have a definite opinion on eatability or not.  I ate the whole thing so it’s not like I was heebed out or anything and I wouldn’t put it past me to eat another one if it was set down in front of me.  It also kept me full for the entire Back to School night (I ate a bowl of Dulce de Leche Cheerios when I got home) which is what you’d expect a bar of this size and calorie count to do for you.  I’d say I’d need to try another Raw bar to decide…it may have been the texture that threw me but I can’t say for sure.

Rating = Need a second taste to decide.

Cathy

What are some of your favorite bars for snacks or meals? 

Have you tried any of the bars I reviewed?  What did you think?

Zippy Lunch…in more ways than one

Zippy Eats!

I needed a super zippy lunch to fit into the 45 minutes window for lunch I have today and I didn’t have my old tofu/slaw stir fry on the brain.  So what to do, what to do?  Aah, wipe out the pan I used to make 12yo his morning eggs and whip me up a veggie scramble pocket with a fruit jar.  😀

The fruit jar’s super easy.  Every Sunday I buy a mini watermelon and a fresh pineapple to cut up.  I put them into 8oz Kerr jars and stick them on the top shelf of the fridge so they are easy to grab AND so I see them and eat them everyday.  Way easy to get your daily fruit counts in and with only one day of messy prep – it’s over and done in a flash.   I had 2 half way empty Kerr’s of watermelon and pineapple, so I poured the pineapple on top of the melon and threw a handful of blueberries on top of that.  Side dish finished!  On to the pocket…

Zippy prep

I took a pita pocket and cut the top off.  Then used coconut oil in my pan to saute some yellow tomatoes and spinach.  After that got nice and wilty I poured about 1/3 cup of Lucerne egg whites on top and gave it a squirt of Sriracha (more like hot cha cha sriracha…I think I gave the bottle a squeeze to many – Zippy!).  I lined my pocket with 1/2 an avocado and about 1/4 cup of feta crumbles.  Then once the eggs were set, slid the whole pan of scrambled goodness right into that pocket.

Colorful = Tasty & Healthy

So now it’s shoving the thing into my piehole…while I remember what my next call is all about.

See ya later!

Cathy

What are you having for lunch today?  Did you have to rush to eat?

Craziness

I guess I really need to work on the “balance” part of my whole blog.  Last night’s Back To School night had me running from one end of the campus to the other – ending with me having more errands to run for more school supplies for the 12yo (12 year old).

Today is a conference call overload – 7 calls from 8am until 2pm.  I think I have 30 minutes for lunch in there somewhere…otherwise I’ll have to remember to mute myself while I cram edibles into my piehole.

Obligatory sweat shot

At least I started the day right.  Got my 3 miles in on the handy treadmill…took the obligatory healthy blog post-workout picture.  I need to work on my self-portrait skills (reminder take that post-it note with my circuit workout off the mirror). Oh, last night I grabbed a Raw bar from Starbucks before I went to the school…I’ll give my review on that in a later post (hopefully today if I can get my act together).  Well…calls starting….  see ya! Cathy

Pages and Posts….so confusing

As its only the second week of blogging I guess I shouldn’t be so huffed about the “construction” going on here at onthevector.  I mean it does take some time to learn all the nuances of an entire new world…but I am so confused!

Pages vs Posts

You know how you know what you want but you find it hard to either communicate it to someone or how to do it yourself?  Well that’s me.  In setting up my blog I created static Pages when I actually wanted dynamic Pages.  So I set that up…I think and now my menu reflects the fact that I’ve only posted in 4 of the areas that I had created static Pages for.  Okay…that tells me I need to spread my content around.  Then I see that I’ll probably need to break my single posts into sections (hopefully there’s a forum on that) so I can post Eats to Eats, Peeps to Peeps, Races to Races, Sweats to Sweats…and now I can’t remember the other static Page I had (CHEESEBALLS! – I have 2 boys, 12 and 10 years old…I need to watch my language around them so have taken to “swearing” through random words merged together; some are still inappropriate for kid ears – so I save those for my gal pals at work).

Anyway…I’ll be reading up on Pages and Posts tonight so I can post to my pages and you can use my pages to read my posts (?!?!?!?) Right?!?

Cathy

 

Morning Joe and the lazy approach

My what a big cup you have

No I don’t know a Joe…hmmm…nope no Joe.  Just a post about my cup’o Joe this morning.  Our darn Keurig is so wishy washy – today it decided to work for me (forget the weekend when we actually want to have a cup’o hot something).

I need to get on the fancy home drink making.  All I do is pour some Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk over a packet of Stevia in the Raw and then have my Keurig do the blending for me (which just means it brews right into the cup of stevia milk.  Der.  I know I know…there are a ton of recipes out there to make home brewed Starbucks copies and I’m pretty sure I’ve pinned a whole bunch of them.  I’m so lazy.

I’ve realized that’s my main thing I need to work on – can we do mid year resolutions?  I need to not take the lazy approach to life.  Not that I am lazy…with my crazy schedule…which is the whole purpose of this blog.  I’m writing so I can start balancing all of these self-imposed/created demands and start living!

My lazy approach really boils down to the fact that I do just enough…but not that little bit more that would take me to the next level.  Meaning I do those 15 reps like the circuit says…when I should actually try to crank a few more out because my muscles aren’t totally fatigued.  Or the fact that I have a ton of diet/lifestyle/eating (whatever you call it) books on my shelf and in my Nook that I’ve read and built into my life in some form or fashion – but then flop back into my repetitive approach to meal planning.  Bleah

Oh well…enough wallowing!  Now that I know what I need to work on – it’s now time to get to working on…it.  😀

Cathy

Me…being lazy

What are you lazy about?  How do you get out of the lazy rut?

Super Sunday!

Happy Super Sunday folks!

Woke up early to join my meetup group Go Far Run in Campbell, CA for a group run.  More like a solo run…but you met the group before you started.  For the first meet up I liked it…but I’m really looking to find a running partner – so we’ll see.  I’ll sign up for the next Go Far Run group event after my race next week.

Starbucks Touchscreen Storefronts (Photo credit: DavidErickson)

On the drive home I stopped at the local Starbucks and picked up a grande coffee for HunBun and a Grande Soy Skinny Vanilla Latte for me.  Yu-um!  I’m sure I could make this at home but our darn Keurig‘s on the fritz again.  Sounds like an old dirt bike is trying to get one last mile out before it starts shooting smoke out its parts.  I wish our local ‘bucks had these cool touchscreens although I’m in and out of there so quick that it’d probably be faster to just order like a normal person.

Signing Papers

We had to go find a Notary to sign more documents for our Disney Vacation Club.  Our first DVC vacation is next February!  I, we I mean, can’t wait.

Lunch

Asian “tacos”

Lunch was Beef Brats for HunBun.  Steamed on the stove then rolled around in the hot pan for some color…the Brats not us (Bwahahaha).  I made “Asian Tacos”.   I called them that when I started making them – but then they morphed out of Asia when I added some feta for flava!   I didn’t take a picture post “taco” build…der.  I’ll have to remember for next time.

 

Asian “Tacos”

2 Handfuls of Broccoli slaw + 4 Cherry Tomatoes + 1/4 block of firm Tofu (squished into the pan).  Squirts of Bragg’s Liquid Amino and Sriracha.  Stir fry then split between 3 Guerrero Corn Tortillas.

Eats!

Off to do more weekend “chores”…

Cathy

Eats!

Prep station

So today for lunch I decided to get back on the wagon, after last night’s kiddie pizza party, and eat a healthy stir fry that is super easy.  I have a ton of cookbooks (more like tens, but you know what I mean) but have not yet mastered the art of cooking.

Like the other day I tried a recipe I got from a bloggedy blog for baked tofu.  So I followed the directions and half way through the baking time I decided to add in some Bragg’s Liquid Amino for flavor.  Thinking nothing of it, I pulled open the oven door and squirted some of that amino right on top of the tofu block.  Super-Der!  Wouldn’t you know that taking room temperature liquid and adding that to a hot glass dish would cause some kind of reaction?  Like a big old cracking sound followed by sizzling as said liquid oozed out of the cracked glass dish and onto the bottom of the hot oven?  Geez!

 So this recipe is super easy!  Just grab whatever veggies you have and stir fry them in a pan.  I use Nutiva Coconut Oil in the pan before dropping all the veggies in. I added some brussel sprouts, organic kale, broccoli slaw, organic grape tomatoes and some squished tofu.   I squirt some liquid amino and Sriracha for taste.  Once the veggies are as wilty as you like, slide it all out of the pan and onto a plate.  Super yum!

So to those of you who haven’t tried brussel sprouts – go ahead and grab 1-2 loose ones.  Those who haven’t tried kale – it’s just greenery.  Those who walk past that bag of broccoli slaw in the refrigerated produce section – think of them as thin green fries.  I won’t say anything about tomatoes since mostly everyone eats those.

Easy Eats!  It’s the only way to balance everything!

Cathy

Eats!