Greetings!
I just about froze in bed this morning. Oh my gosh, where did my summer go??? I was an icicle all morning. I kept pressing up against Eric for warmth. He hates when I put my icy feet near him. hahaha!!! My feet are always cold even in the summer. I guess I have OSGmom to thank for my poor circulation! ;)
I am currently writing this post from the car as we are on our way to visit the in-laws. Sketchie absolutely loves the car and he gets a huge amount of separation anxiety when he sees our bags being packed. This morning he sat in his bag by the door and meowed all morning!
Eric agreed to go on a run/bike with me this afternoon and I thought that was a great idea because where the in laws live is so beautiful and will be great for running. So I got to have a lazy morning for a change! We are going to do 6 hilly miles today and that will round out my weekly mileage at 24.5 miles. Next week, I am shooting for a taper week at around 10 miles.
I started off my morning with a shot of Broccoli Sprout juice. My new morning routine is to do a shot of this juice (or wheatgrass) on an empty stomach. Then as that digests, I steep my Sencha green tea and have that afterward. About a half hour later I have my green monster. There is no better way to start the day!!!
Let me tell you, if I thought the wheatgrass juice tasted bad the Broccoli Sprout juice was absolutely horrible!!! I almost gagged. Luckily it is over very quickly.
Hubby brought home some larger than life dandelion last night. :) I love dandelion in my green monsters!
I also have been having something new in my green monsters! I picked up this powder at the natural food co-op (where I also got the wheatgrass/broccoli juice).
Pure Maca Powder:
(Sorry for the blurry pic!)
Maca is a superfood from Peru that increases energy, stamina, regulates hormones, increases mental and physical vitality, and boosts libido.
Maca provides the body with many nutrients, including potassium and calcium (it actually has higher levels than milk).
The powder doesn’t taste great so a little goes a long way. I am really enjoying it so far. I have have oodles of energy in the mornings! The combo I made this morning was 1 tsp Maca, 1 T chia seeds, 1 cup almond breeze, dandelion + kale, and 1/2 a banana. So delicious and energizing.
After breakfast, I packed up some food to bring with us to the in-laws.
Can you guys tell that this picture wasn’t taken with my SLR? I can notice a huge difference now.
- 4 apples
- 1 cuke
- 2 peppers
- 1 tub hummus
- 1 bag high protein pitas
- water bottles (for exercise)
- Teaopia Sencha green tea (Kristi sent me a huge box of Teaopia last week as a surprise!!!)
- Amazing Grass wheatgrass powder (green monster to go!)
- Mary’s crackers (not shown)
I’m often asked how I deal with visiting others and being a vegan. It can be very difficult to simply eat healthy let alone adhering to a vegan diet when traveling. That is why I bring some emergency foods with me to my in laws. I like being prepared.
They also encourage me to bring things and ask if there is anything I need (I always say no, lol). Because they are now family and we have known each other for 9 years, I feel comfortable bringing food when I visit. However, I can’t say that I would bring this if I was visiting someone I didn’t know very well. I wouldn’t want to come across as rude. It is a tough situation at times!
How do you deal with visiting others and trying to eat healthy? Does it depend on who you are visiting? Do you pack any foods with you or do you just wing it?
Don’t forget about the amazing Whole Foods giveaway going on until Sunday! Bree tells me that she hasn’t had many entries so the contest is pretty much free for the taking at this point. Just think, you might be able to win a gift card by referring as few as 10 people to the facebook group! You never know…!
Usually I just wing it. Most of the time if I’m visiting people for extended periods of time they’re family, and they’re pretty understanding of my vegetarian ways, and are honestly pretty helpful.
How healthy I am/ try to be when visiting people really depends on how long I’m visiting for. The part of healthy eating I find hard is the rude factor. I don’t like refusing foods, or bringing up the fact that I don’t feel it’s healthy. I mean for a couple days I’ll eat junk food it’s ok, but after that I just want to be able to eat my “healthy” normal everyday food. Does anyone have a good way of refusing food offered without being rude?
My in-laws eat very differently than I do so as soon as we land there I go to Whole foods and stock up on my essentials. It wasn’t always like this, I used to just suffer in silence and would wind up feeling so unsatisfied with food I would overeat on desserts and bread. Taking responsibility for my food has made a huge difference in how I feel about the visits. I don’t think it is rude at all to come prepared no matter who you are staying with. It is all about planning ahead of time. If I was hosting someone I would be mortified to find out a guest didn’t have food they liked to eat.
I don’t think it is rude to refuse foods you don’t want to eat. I just don’t make a big issue out of it and say “no thanks I have enough here” and be done with it. If someone insists on putting something on your plate just take a bite and smile and then ignore it.
I always pack snacks, and when are headed out of town for the weekend we pack a cooler full of fruits, veggies and beverages.
I definitely pack foods now. In fact I just went on a run and was thinking about what I can bring to a conference I’m going to on Monday. I’ll be at the hotel for 3 1/2 days with pre determined meals. And when I was at my in laws a couple weeks ago, I brought and then went and bought lots of food.
Oooh this is a tough one … I would be a little scared to bring food to a person’s house I was staying at (I think). It hasn’t really come up yet, so I am not sure. Luckily my in-laws live in my city, so we don’t have to worry about this when visiting them.
hmm, I like wheatgrass juice, but based on your review, I may hold off on the broccoli sprout juice! That may be pushing it.
I have horrible circlation (hands go white in the winter – literally no circulation!). I have done cardio my whole life (running, soccer, etc.), but the circulation issue didn’t change. This year I added more of a weight routine (3 times per week), and my circulation has improved dramatically. It isn’t fantastic, but greatly improved. Just thought I would pass that on in case it helps someone :)
ohh thats interesting RE: weight training improving circulation.
that’s really interesting about weight training…I have terrible circulation and thought it was just something I had to live with!
I usually try to wing it and just make the best choices. I’m fortunate, though, that most of my family and friends have pretty similar eating tastes and priorities to mine
I never leave it to chance! I always pack food and most of the time that amount to a couple bags and a small cooler. I have learned to be prepared. ;)
I always bring things but it can be a bit awkward if I don’t know the people that well. I feel a little rude rejecting their food! And even weirder when I bust out my camera!
Oh, well, it is what it is, right?
LOL @ camera comment ;)
Great foods to take along with you! I bet it does get difficult being a vegan at times.
I usually just take things like Lara Bars to snack on in case I get hungry when no one else is.
Girl, I’m a high raw, all vegan person myself. And I am gluten and soy free b/c I am intolerant/allergic. So, yeah, I must travel with my own stash of food or die :) Tons of fresh fruit pre-chopped in baggies, Sun Warrior protein powder, some raw snacky bar type things like Laras or whatever I have, and believe it or not, my next trip I will be gone for a month and I am going to bring my Vitamix….with me out of the country. I cant live without it for a day let alone a month at this point!
I’ve gone through lots of periods in my life where I’ve travelled to literally the back of beyond… many times finding the food options lacking… undesirable… or just plain un-consumable. The life of a rock doctor. :) I just plan ahead, assume the worst, pack what I can (ranging anywhere from fruit for the plane to supplements for weeks in advance) and eventually submit when and if the going gets rough. I recently discovered I’m lactose intolerant, but haven’t had to travel since. I’m sure all the tips on here will come in handy!
I have been a wheatgrass enthusiast for years. While visiting a health food store I discovered an organic wheatgrass that combines the roots with the blades.
It is the only wheatgrass powder in the world, using this technique. It is Aeroponically grown, soil free, fungus free, pollution free; grown in 100% purified oxygen.
The roots contain cancer fighting nutrients not found in the blades. One of the nutrients, P4D1, has also been shown in laboratory tests to eat the protein sheath off a cancer cell so that the white blood cells can attack and destroy them.
Another plus is by combining the roots with the blades the taste is more like a “green tea” and is not strong and nauseous as fresh wheatgrass is. You can drink this straight, no need to mix with anything else to hide the taste, just enjoy wheatgrass! Even kids love it!
Try a free sample, simply go to http://www.BestOrganicWheatgrass.com and fill out the form on the home page. Let me know what you think!
Hey sweetie! Hope you have a fabulous weekend.
I *usually* just wing it, however, I always keep a few bars and pieces of fruit tucked away in my suitcase :)
Whenever I go to visit my mom or brother, they know how I am. So they ALWAYS stock up on healthy foods. They are pretty healthy themselves, so it usually isn’t too difficult.
I understand that feeling of wanting to bring food but not quite feeling comfortable. Its a rough line, but most people are okay with it once they understand that its not an insult to them. Have fun with the 6 miles!
It depends on where I am going, but I always try to have some bars, Adora disks, and Amazing Grass on my while traveling. When we visit my in laws in Ireland, we go grocery shopping. Partially so I have what I like to eat, but also to help out with groceries and to not assume they will feed us for a week or 2!
This is a very tricky issue for me. My in-laws live far enough away that we have to fly to visit and usually stay for a week. It is hard to bring much food on the plane. Plus my husband’s mother seems to enjoy cooking (she generally cooks all the meals for us when we are there) and I would not be comfortable getting in her way. But they are a big meat and potatoes kind of family and his mother has no idea what to do with my vegan ways. I am not really comfortable making special requests, as I try to blend in with my eating. So I just eat what I can and end up losing a few pounds. I don’t know what else to do? I would love to hear any suggestions from others who have dealt with this!!
I always have some sort of emergency snack with me, which helps for short visits.
For long visits, it’s usually someone I know, so I bring stuff with me, and go to local grocery stores while I’m there.
I do make sure to eat stuff the host/hostess cooks/has available too though. I think it would be rude to show up and basically say, ‘everything you make is too unhealthy for me’. (Not that you are doing that! It’s just not the impression I want to leave :))
If it’s family or someone I’m comfortable with, I don’t have a problem saying something (nicely) or turning something down. If it’s someone else, who doesn’t my habits, I’ll usually take just a small amount to be polite. I don’t usually have a problem with it though. I figure that I usually eat pretty healthy at my place, so eating something unhealthy occassionally as someone else’s house doesn’t really bother me. My concerns come from eating a vegan diet. I’ve been vegetarian for years, but have been slowly transitioning to veganism for the past 4 months. There is some form of dairy in most traditional recipes, so it makes it kinda tricky when I get invited over for dinner at someone else’s house. I think it would be rude to point out that I’m vegan and expect them to cater to my diet. I decided that from now on I’ll volunteer to bring a dish to share, so I’ll know there’s at least one vegan option.
On a related note, would you be willing to do a post on why you choose a vegan diet? (Or if you’ve already written one, direct me to it?) I love hearing other people’s stories – why they eat vegan, how they made the transition, if there’s any non-vegan foods they miss, etc.
I second the request on a vegan topic post! I read your blog every day and I don’t remember a post about your decision to go vegan. I think it would be so interesting and helpful!