Comments (8)

By Liz, December 4, 2009 12:33 pm

Hey y’all! How’s life?? In Liz world, I am sooo happy it’s Friday. School has really been ka-razy lately! Let’s see, Monday night was full of essay writing, Tuesday was more essay writing and school, Wednesday was spent writing a speech all darn day and Thursday was school all day and into the night aaannnd working on a group project after school. I got home at 9, ate and passed out. But now, I just have a weekend full of work and homework. Wait, did I say I was happy it was Friday?? Scratch that! I’m just happy I’m one week closer to the end of the semester.

Anyways, even with the hectic schedule this week, I still found time to exercise and make yummy food. You know…the things that keep me sane!

First off, I received a bunch of comments for the recipe of the super amazing, fluffy biscuits I made on Monday….well look no further:

Diner-Style Whole Wheat Biscuits

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• dash of salt
• 5 tbsp butter, cut into piece and very cold
• 1 cup fat free milk

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender. Stir in the milk until dough is moist. Flour a dry surface, place dough on surface and knead with floured hands a few times (for a minute or two). Add more flour to dough while kneading if necessary. You don’t want the dough to be sticky, but smooth and supple. Once done kneading, roll the dough out with a rolling pin. Roll dough to about 3/4″ thick, so you want it pretty thick so they get all fluffy and big. Use a biscuit cutter, or anything circular to cut the shapes and place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Makes about 8-10 biscuits. (Recipe from Liz @ Thereforeieat.com, adapted from Joy of Cooking)

I hope you guys like the recipe! Biscuits are one of mine and Jacob’s favorite breakfast foods. His birthday is on Sunday, so I’m pretty sure I will be making these for him again very soon.

Okay, next on my agenda is another recipe! I was adventurous on Tuesday night and tried out a new kind of food…homemade Thai curry! I get stuck in a rut making the same dishes over and over…mexican this, italian that, chili, stews, salads. I don’t venture far from these types of dishes, so it was very exciting to make an ethnic dish I had never tried. I actually came up with this idea on my own and with a little advice from the lady at the Asian Market near my work.

Turkey and Veggie Green Curry

• 2 tbsp. green curry paste
• small pat of butter
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 regular sized bad of frozen stir fry veggies
• leftover turkey or any cooked meat, tofu, etc.

Melt butter over medium heat in a large pan. Stir in the paste with the butter until smooth. Add 1/2 the can of coconut milk to the pan and completely incorporate it in with the curry. Add in the whole bag of veggies and the rest of the coconut milk. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add in the meat, simmer some more until veggies are completely cooked. Serve with brown rice, whole wheat couscous or noodles. (Recipe by Liz @ Thereforeieat.com)

This meal was delish! It was also another great way to use up leftover turkey.  Just a word of warning…this dish is pretty darn spicy, so if you’re not very tolerant of spice, I’d cut the curry down to 1 tbsp. Also, coconut milk is very rich (ie. lots of fat) so go light on the portion size. Jacob was only able to eat about 1/2 of what is shown above. This dish was suuuuper easy, yummy and fun!

Next up, I feel I have finally worn my Vibram Five Finger around enough, and done a good amount of running in them, that I can do a full fledged review….

Vibram Five Fingers Review

A few weeks ago, I decided to purchase the Vibram Five Finger shoes. A couple girls on my Cross Country team have them and I had read about them on Marks Daily Apple and other sites a while back. I was very curious the first time I heard about these shoes, or “unshoes.” The idea of running barefoot, or as close to barefoot at possible, is very intriguing. The idea behind these shoes is that running in modern running shoes is actually hurting our natural biomechanics. Modern running running shoes have built up heels that force us to heel strike, which is unnatural and the posting in the arches disables our feet’s natural strengthening systems, which weakens our feet and more. This all seems to make sense. However, I work at a running shoe store, and sell people shoes with posting and built up heels and whatnot. This puts me in a quandary. I think running shoes do have their place…heavier runners, beginning runners, people recovering from injuries, or people with severe biomechanical problems may not be suited for these shoes…but they might receive some benefit from them, even if it’s just walking around in them. I don’t see myself tossing out my running shoes in the near future either, but we’ll see how I adjust to the Vibrams in the long term. Who knows, I may eventually never wear anything but Vibrams. We shall see.

I bought my Vibrams for two reasons: 1) I really don’t like wearing shoes and 2) I wanted to see if running barefoot really is all it’s cracked up to be. And, after wearing these shoes for about 3 weeks now, I have to say that it’s great to wear these all the time. They’re even better than flip-flops! And yes, I think barefoot running is the real deal.

Here is my experiences with the Vibrams. The first few days, I just simply wore them around to school, doing errands, to work…just everyday kinda stuff. Then, I wore them to warm up and cooldown at practice. Running in the Vibrams is really amazing. I feel so free, so natural and just darn amazing running in these. It really is a whole new experience. They didn’t take much getting used to, for me at least. I naturally land mid-foot, so I didn’t have to adjust from heel striking to mid-foot striking. And, dare I say, that running seems funner in these?!

Okay, so I totally love these, but there were some downsides.

• My feet are a little sore after running on a hard surface or spending all day in them. However, I think this may subside after getting used to them more
• I have gotten blisters. I got two blood blisters on both my big toes. They hurt real bad the day they formed, but the pain subsided after that. Also, I only got the blisters on the days I ran 4 or 5 miles in them…so maybe that was a factor. However, as a runner, I’m kinda used to the occasional blister so this didn’t bug me too bad
• 

• The shoes rubbed my foot raw in one spot. I actually didn’t know this happened until after I took the shoes off. This kinda sucks, because I think I will have to put a bandage on this spot from now on.
• The last down side to these is the price. They are 90 bucks with tax, which is pretty darn expensive to pay on top of regular running shoes. I didn’t mind spending the money, but some people might.

I have come to the conclusion, that you do not have to break these shoes in…you have to break your feet into the shoes. Pretty much, you have to get some blisters and stuff to get calluses and toughen up your feet to break your feet into the shoes. So, if you’re big on keeping your feet pretty, these may not be the shoes for you. Even with the cons of the Vibrams, I still love my unshoes. They are pretty darn comfy. You really feel like you are barefoot. They are machine washable, so they are easy to clean. And, the biggest reason for loving them, is the fact I feel so good running in them. They do take some getting used to, and you really shouldn’t go out and bust out 6 miles in em without adjusting to them….but all in all…these rock!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

So I hope ya’ll found my review interesting! Like I said, I really like my Vibrams, I highly recommend them.

I will leave y’all with a picture of my yummy Chunky Strawberry that I had had this morning. I switched it up and served it in a mug instead of a glass. Gotta keep things interesting!

Have a Happy Friday! See ya’ll later!

Comments (4)

By Liz, November 16, 2009 8:58 pm

Good evening guys. As the title implies, today was actually a pretty good day.

I got lotsa good sleep and woke up super refreshed.

Ate a yummilicious breakfast.

It was a bit chilly for a Chunky Strawberry, but it was just what I was craving.

Work was chill.

Lunch was bomb!

Oh leftovers, I love thee.

I remembered why I don’t eat oranges very often.

They’re tasty, but a pain in the arse to peel!

Cross country practice was kick butt: 400m fast untimed to loosen up, 2×200 (41 sec each), 600 (2:15), 400 (1:28), 200 (41 sec).  We’ve been doing a lot of quick tune-up work to prepare for STATE!!

Snackage was a granola bar (unpictured) and carrots and almond butter.

Always a good combo!

I tried one of my fun New Frontier’s buys…

This coconut water was pretty good. I’ve never had coconut water before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I”ve heard good things, and the fact that it is like a natural sports drink really appeals to me. It had a subtle coconut flavor and a slight thickness to it. It almost tasted like plain water! It was kind of expensive and only tasted okay, so I probably won’t be buying this on a regular basis. I always love trying new things though, so I did enjoy sipping on it with my almond butter and carrots.

Dinner was fab-u-lous. My roommate Justin cooked up burritos for all the roomies and his girlfriend and brother came over, too. So it was kind of a festive night. There were a few shots of tequila had, but I refrained. Tequila is just really not my thing. Here’s the version of burrito night I had…

A salad the size of my head: spring mix, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, radish, steak, refried beans, cheddar cheese, 1/4 avocado, salsa and blue corn chips. I will admit, I was a tad bit too full after cleaning my plate…but it was oh so delicious!

Instead of a margarita with my dinner, I had a beer.

Probably not the best flavor combo, but it tasted fine.

I wasn’t too full for dessert…but when am I ever

Just some Green and Black’s Hazelnut and Currant chocolate. Heaven in bar form my friends!

So yes, Monday has been a good day and will be a good evening…as there is no imminent homework to do.

I will leave y’all with a Vibram update: I ran a 2 mile warm-up and 2 mile cool-down in them today. I think I may have overdone it a bit. These shoes do require a serious break-in period! Here’s the blister I got (probably was the Vibrams but could have been something else).

Ya, kinda gnarly. Also, my other foot was extremely sore. Tomorrow I am going to take a complete break from wearing them and go a bit easier on the miles that I run into them for now. Looking forward to when my feet are completely used to them though. And, yes, they are still very comfortable and I still love them…I just need to work up to spending more time in them.

Okay, time to veg out! Night!

Comments (6)

By Liz, November 4, 2009 11:19 pm

Hey guys! I have been really slammed with life in general lately, so I apologize for my lack of posts. However, I am here to chronicle my past few busy days. There are some interesting tidbits to discuss!

Okay so Monday!

I ate one of these….

Have I mentioned that I am in absolute love with Chunky Strawberries? Haha, I am truly obsessed!

I did some Trader Joe’s shopping and got some crazy cool stuff…like Sprouted Wheat Bagels (yum!), Pumpkin Butter (yummier!) and Peanut butter filled pretzels (the yummiest of yum!). I got other things too (like 5 jars of peanut butter-what addiction?) but those 3 items are definitely the standouts of the bunch.

So, the real excitement on Monday began after I got home from work and TJs. This was the day that I was finally able to get some new running shoes. My old shoes are kinda…what’s the word?…GROSS! They smell like dirty gym socks and are covered in dirt…not to mention that the cushioning is completely worn out and I have put almost 700 miles on those babies. Yep, it was time for a new pair. So, Jacob and I ventured down SLO to get me a new pair. Sadly, the only stores that sell my shoe are 45 minutes away and my work (running shoe store) doesn’t carry my brand. Okay, so I get to the first store…don’t have my size. I get to the second store….don’t have my size. At the second store though I got a new pair of racing flats that were only 20 bucks!! I couldn’t pass that up, especially because there are holes in my old ones. But, I still didn’t have the prize in hand. I went to a third store…and they didn’t have my size! I was kinda pissed. We had just spent precious time and gasoline to go down to SLO to buy me some running shoes that I was in desperate need of, and we came out fruitless! However, we made the best of the situation and decided to go out to eat for a dinner date. We ended up going to get Indian food, because Jacob has never had it before. Oh, that boy needed to be enlightened. Now, I’m a bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera with me. I wasn’t planning on needing it, as I thought my shoe expedition would be a quick one. But let me just tell you, the food was amazing. I definitely ate my fair share…plus a pint of beer. Hey, you gotta live a little! We don’t go out to eat very often, so I thoroughly enjoyed our night out. Only drawback, we got home kinda late from out unexpectedly long outing that I had to stay up late and do homework. Boo!

Tuesday was pretty run of the mill. School, school, school. The most notable part was my speed workout at cross country practice. I did 2×200m then 4×800m then 2×200m. It was a very fast workout. The first 200s weren’t timed. My 800s were supposed to be at 3:24. My actual splits were 3:21, 3:18, 3:16 and 3:13. My last 200s were :45 and :40. I was a speed demon! Again, I exceeded my coach’s and my own expectations regarding my abilities. I’m very proud of myself. Total, including warm-up and cool-down, I ran 4 miles. SoCals here I come!

And now we have arrived at Wednesday, good ole Humpday!

My day started off with a swim. I created a good little workout for myself: 2oom warmup, 6×300m. Between each 300 I would alternate either 10 pushups or a 1 min plank. I did 30 pushups altogether (a few of them were girl pushups) and 3x 1 minute planks. Total, the swim was 2000m. It took about 45 minutes.

Okay, so I gotta throw this out there….I have a new addiction. Lately, I have just been craving coffee! Yesterday and today I stopped at Starbucks and got a tall black coffee with 2 pumps pumpkin spice and a splash of half and half. Boy of boy, this is good! I need to refrain from making this a habit though, as my bank account will slowly get drained if I do.

Next order of business…breakfast…

Featuring 2 of my TJs foods: Sprouted Wheat Bagels and pumpkin butter. The other half my bagel is smeared with peanut butter. And if you didn’t realize, that yellow blob in front of the bagel is eggs.

Work work work…uninteresting leftover soup was consumed with a pear and my other super cool TJ find:

Whoever thought to put peanut butter inside of a pretzel was a genius!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home!

My new pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 12s! Since no stores had my shoe, I resorted to buying them off the Internet and I got 2 day shipping, because I needed these guys bad! The Wave Rider is my all time favorite shoe ever. They were my first shoe when I began cross country in high school, and I haven’t gotten sick of them yet. Yay for new shoes!

Check out my old pair:

Can you say “well worn”? These were subsequently thrown in the trash. The stench was so bad on these guys, I couldn’t even keep them or kick-a-round shoes. But first, I had to get a side by side picture, so y’all could see the striking difference.

Go Mizuno!

I also bought two nifty items at my work today.

1) a new pair of Superfeet for my insoles.

These were recommended to me by my podiatrist when I broke my foot two summers ago. I’ve been wearing them in my running shoes ever since. They add a bit of arch support and really cup the whole foot so it feels comfortable and locked in place. These are great and I highly recommend them. It’s cool also, because they sell them at my work, so I get a discount…yay!

2) My second item was a pair of Skins compression tights

I have been wanting a pair of these for forever! However, I didn’t want to spend all the money (they retail for 100 bucks!). I just found out about a program that the Skins company offers to store employees (not Skins store employees, but employees of stores that carry their products) that gives them 30% off wholesale, which brings the price down to 40 bucks. That’s a big difference! So, I bite the bullet, and decided today was the day to get me some Skins. Check out the website on the link and read about them. This product may be expensive, but I can already tell that these work! My legs feel fresher and less sore. These will especially come in handy when I’m riding in a van for 5 hours down to LA for SoCals tomorrow. I’ve been hanging out in these all day.

Pretty darn comfy. My legs feel awesome. I’ll give a full review on these at a later time when I can test them out a bit more.

I spent most of the afternoon today baking my Superpowerfood muffins for the team tomorrow. Sadly, they turned out a little burnt, but they taste okay. I also made homemade Larabars for the first time. I used this recipe. They look just like a Larabar!

I took a little nibble and they taste just like a Larabar, too! I made PB & J Larabars, although I have ‘t had the real version yet. I used dates, dried cranberries and peanuts. Simple and delicious. I made these because one of the girls on my team is hypoglycemic and can’t eat flour or refined sugar. So, I wanted to make something that she could eat, too. I hope she likes em!

The rest of the afternoon included some of this…

and this…

(Barbara’s Shredded Oats in fat-free milk)

plus I did some homework. This evening I had a work meeting where I was served chili, salad, rice and bread for dinner. No pics though, it didn’t seem appropriate. More homework after that…and now I am here, typing away.

I’m pretty exhausted. I’ve had a busy busy day. Tomorrow I am leaving for SoCals at around 10am. I still need to pack and stuff…but I’ll do that in the morning. I’m racing Friday morning at 10:30 (send those vibes my way!) and getting back Friday evening. So, till then…tata for now!

Gotta catch some Z’s. Night guys!

Comments (7)

By Liz, October 26, 2009 8:19 pm

How’s the Monday treating y’all? Or maybe I shouldn’t remind you guys that it’s the beginning of the week? However, there are two  awesome things to look forward to this weekend! 1 being the fact that Saturday is Halloween…which is just fun! 2 being the fact that the day after Halloween is when we fall back…aka the end of Daylight Savings Time (for all US peeps not in Arizona). So that means early mornings will be much much easier!

So, I didn’t post yesterday because I didn’t really do or eat anything spectacular. Although I did indulge a cheesy cracker craving that I’ve been having for a couple weeks. So, I went out and got cheez-ts. Totally not a healthy food at all, but since cheesy crackers have been on my mind for weeks, I thought it best to just get the craving out of the way. Also, I have discovered Hulu. Am I like way behind on technology or what? But ya, it’s amazing. I literally spent my whole afternoon and evening watching online tv! I watched Greek, The Office (re-watched the wedding episode!) and have officially become obsessed with Glee! Haha, I was sooo productive yesterday.

It was back to reality today. I actually had to do stuff…imagine that!? Due to the fact I had a few too many cheesy crackers yesterday, I decided on a light and super healthy breakfast.

My breakfast included 2 scrambled eggs seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with a little bit of grated parmesan, 1 slice of ezekiel bread smeared with about a tablespoon of peanut butter and 1/2 a banana sliced. Totally hit the spot.

Work was work. Nothing to special to say there! Lunch was more soup, 2 granola bars and a pear.

That was the last of my soup. It’s good soup, but I was starting to get a bit tired of it. I’ve had soup for lunch for the past 4 days! Ya, I’m over it.

Practice today was an easy peasy 4 miler in 38 minutes. I did some core work for around 5 minutes afterwards. Tomorrow I have a super important big race! If y’all wanna send good vibes my way at 3pm Pacific time it would be appreciated The race tomorrow is WSC finals, which is our regional meet. This meet will determine if we go onto so-cals. I really need to get my game face on and rock it! So, I’m a tad nervous…okay I’m really nervous…but I’m going to try and channel all this nervousness into positive energy and determination to kick butt (my butt that is!).

Anywho, I had a yummy snack when I got home after practice.

I made a mini Chunky Strawberry. Just the perfect amount for a snack. I used a 4 frozen strawberries, 1/2  banana, about a 1/3 cup of whole milk yogurt and 1 tablespoon peanut butter. Topped it with 4 banana slices and a few walnuts (I’m out of granola and cereal). I thought it looked soo cute in that little cup. Cute food is just yummier!

Homework ensued but then hunger took over my mind and I had to make dinner. Actually, I assembled dinner.

Haven’t been getting my quota of leafy greens lately, so I made a salad. Just some spring mix, radish, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, cuke, homemade hummus, 1/4 avocado, a serving (2tbsp) goddess dressing, grated parm and a high fiber whole wheat tortilla with butter on the side. This salad was especially divine tonight. I think I got the proportions of all the ingredients just right.

Dessert was extra special tonight.

That is a coconut popsicle! These are amazing…like mouth watering, dreamy, creamy amazing! Check out the package:

There’s nothing too scary or bad for you in these. Only 130 cals is pretty awesome for a treat that tastes so decadent. The sugar is high, but hey…it is dessert. The thing I like most about these bars is that there are pieces of shredded coconut surrounded by the coconut cream. Totally yummy texture sensation. I found these in the Hispanic foods section of the frozen food section…there is a large Hispanic population in my area, so they were pretty easy for me to get my hands on…but not sure about your area. Keep and eye out though…these are so delicious!

Definitely going to get my rest tonight. I still have to go to all my classes and stuff tomorrow before my race (it’s a home meet). I even have a class afterwards! I for sure need to be rested up.

Goodnight guys!

Comments (4)

By Liz, October 23, 2009 8:05 pm

Happy Friday to all you Monday thru Friday workers/students. I sadly have work Saturday and Sunday. No rest for the wicked? Haha, anyways…

Today has been extremely run of the mill. I started my day with a Chunky Strawberry. Havn’t had one of these in a while!

I didn’t have any granola or cereal, so I used a Nature Valley Peanut Butter granola plank. It turned out perfect!

Next event of the day was work, which was slow. I had some leftovers for lunch.

That’s leftover spaghetti squash and meat sauce, a hunk of multi-grain bread and a super crispy apple.

At XC practice today we did a super speedy workout to fine tune our fast twitch muscles, preparing for regionals on Tuesday. Warm-up was 2 miles, workout was 14×200m and cooldown was 1 mile. All our splits for the 200’s were 47 sec even. Total today I ran 4.5 miles. I refueled with some Fluid brand recovery drink.

When I got home, I munched on celery and peanut butter.

Later I had another hunk of bread with some butter.

I’m feeling pretty munchy tonight, so no dinner, just snacks.

Eh, like I said, not much goin on. Probably will go to bed pretty soon so I can wake up early and workout then work.

Nighty night!