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carrots

So Close, Banish the Bloat

by eatingbirdfood on August 4, 2009

With my planned vacation to the Cayman Islands!!! drawing near (I’m leaving on a jet plane Friday AM) my to-do list seems to get longer and longer each day. I’m not complaining though because I’m super excited, in case you couldn’t tell. I haven’t decided if I’m going to blog while away. On one hand I would like to be totally disconnected for a few days, but on the other I want to bring my laptop and share my experience with you guys. I’m not certain there will be wireless where I am staying, so I guess that will be a big factor. Plus, I could always do a re-cap post when I get back. So we shall see. If I’m not here for a few days, don’t fret, I will return – hopefully with a nice tan!

So when not daydreaming of white sandy beaches I did actually get some work done today.

Flash back to before work though. Olive and I were early birds this morning. We woke up around 6:15 and went for a long walk (about 3 miles). I think that is the longest walk she has ever been on. She did great, but was totally pooped afterwards. I was starving and sweaty. After showering I whipped up a cold smoothie. I’m all out of almond milk (or any other milk for that matter) so I just used 1 cup of water. It turned out rather liquified, but still had a ample amount of flavor and it made more. I got 1 pint glass and 1/2 out of this concoction:

The liquified purple smoothie.

1 cup water
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 tablespoon chia seeds
3 pieces of ice
Amazing Grass Chocolate GREEN SuperFood

I also packed a little raw mix for a snack once at work. Navitas Naturals goji berries and raw almonds and cashews.

I love these goji berries- they’re the perfect addition to any nut mixture, alone, or in salad (see my dinner)!

Speaking of salad, I had an awesome one for lunch. I used the left over oven “fried” tofu from Ellwood’s that I had bought for my soba noodle fiasco. Thank heavens, this lunch turned out much better than that little mishap. I used baby romaine, tomato, 1/4 of an avocado, the tofu, and Annie’s Honey Mustard dressing. Quite the salad.

I am offically in love with Ellwood’s tofu. I have to figure out the recipe. I’ve said I was going to figure it out before and didn’t but this time, I ‘m determined.

I brought back some snacks to work with me for the afternoon. One snack was the remaining couple bites of a small container of Oikos plain yogurt that I didn’t finish last night with some fresh black berries.

The other snack was 3 carrots. I ate those AND a mini bag of popcorn. I was a regular snack machine this afternoon, per the usual. I’m always so snacky at work in the afternoon. And I feel a lot of it is just from boredom, rather than actual hunger.

Anyone else with a desk job feel this way? Do you all have any good tips you would like to share for beating afternoon boredom snacking?

After snacking the afternoon away, I wanted something fresh and light for dinner. I made another huge salad, only I didn’t have any tofu left. :/ But I did add some goji berries. The berries were such a nice addition to the salad, I love the texture they added, and of course the flava flav.

So since I’m going to be living in a bathing suit for a few days come Friday I started thinking of ways to make sure I’m looking my best. No I didn’t head straight to the gym and do 5 hours of abs. It’s a little too late for that, but I decided to make sure I’m doing everything in my power to avoid any bloating.

If anyone else is interested, these are the tips I would recommend to beat the bloat:

Drink lots of water
Avoid salty foods (including pre-packed sodium laden ones)
Avoid sugary white flour carbs
Eat plenty of fresh veggies, fruits and fiber
Avoid chewing gum (especially those with artificial sweeteners) -I find that SF gum makes me really bloated
Avoid carbonated drinks – I rarely drink soda, but I do like my carbonated water which isn’t good when trying to stop bloating
Avoid gassy foods (beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.)
Avoid alcohol, especially beer
Drink hot herbal teas- my favorite tummy soothers include ginger, peppermint, and Yogi Detox teas
Keep moving – walking, exercising, cleaning, shopping

Hopefully I’ll stick to my guns and have a flat tummy come time to suit up.

If you have any bloat free tips to add, please feel free to do so below!!

{ 13 comments }

Thinking Cap

by eatingbirdfood on July 5, 2009

Today was a lazy Sunday, minus the sun. We went to bed quite late, but I still woke up early- I got the whole internal clock thing going on and even on weekends when I go to bed later than normal I still wake up early. It was rainy out- no morning run in sight and I didn’t want to make a lot of noise so I postponed eating breakfast and got started on some school work. Once the house was bustling and it was safe to run the juicer I juiced a chunk of beet, 4 carrots, 1 fuji apple, and some cucumber.

Here’s the magic potion…

I shared a wee bit with Isaac and enjoyed the rest. I definitely dig this combo. With the juice I had a banana with some AB and thought that would be my full breakfast, but then Isaac got out the Kashi Go Lean waffles. I took a bite of his and decided I wanted one for myself. So I had one. With syrup.

My friend headed back north mid-morning and Isaac and I settled into school work. I broke for lunch around 12:30.

A salad of spring mix, corn off the cob, carrots, avocado, bell peppers, broccoli, grape tomatoes, cucumber and TJ’s Goddess dressing… since I’m a goddess and all (totally kidding).

Post lunch I ran out to do some errands and to workout. After a unsuccessful shopping trip and a successful workout I came home showered and started making dinner, which strangely resembled dessert. I’d seen this recipe featured by both the G’s- Gena and Gina and had been wanting to try it.

Natalia Rose’s Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl

Oh man this chilly soup lived up to it’s name and each bite was filled with pure deliciousness. It’s amazing how much it tasted like pumpkin pie without having a speck of actual pumpkin in it. Besides the fact that my juicer got a little clogged from the boat load of carrot pulp, the recipe was really easy and fast. Unfortunately I can’t post the recipe because it is published and I followed it exactly. But I will let you in a little secret, some folks don’t seem to care about copyright so you can easily find it with a little goggling.

With the soup I had a salad, which was very much similar to the salad I had for lunch. I’m loving sweet corn right now- especially in salads!

So dinner was amazing, and it was pretty much love at first bite with the soup. That is until my stomach almost instantly started to feel really bloated and painful. OUCH! I’ve had stomach issues before and at one point thought that it was caused from eating the skin of a baked sweet potato. There was sweet potato in the soup, but no skin so now I don’t know. Maybe I ate the soup too fast or maybe I’m actually allergic to sweet potatoes. It would be rare because it’s not something people are often allergic to, however definitely still possible and it’s the only thing in dinner that I can link to the pain – especially after having the same problem occur before with sweet potatoes. Now I’m scared to even eat the leftovers tomorrow. :/

Plus, I’m sad because I simply LOVE sweet potatoes. The good news is that the soup can be made with a sub for the sweet potato. I’m actually certain that Gena subs the sweet potato with b-nut squash. I didn’t even think about it because my stomach hasn’t acted up in a long while, but had I been using my thinking cap I would have just used Gena’s sub from the get-go. Oh well, ya live, ya learn. I’m off to lay down, as that’s the only thing that makes my stomach feel semi-better.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend! I know I surely did.

{ 16 comments }

Red, White, Blue

July 5, 2009

Last fourth of July Isaac and I spent the whole day moving into our new apt. The year before last I did a heritage 5 mile race. This year I decided to combine the two. I woke up early, got moving, and did my own independence day run 5 mile run without having to pay [...]

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Confetti Quinoa

June 6, 2009

I was a brave lady this morning. Two reasons: Number 1- I was up with the sun at 6:30AM, and number 2, I made the key decision to bust out the beets for another go with juicing. Of course, there were some other delicious veggies/fruits involved. Last time I had juice for b-fast I used [...]

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Tossing Cookies?

May 21, 2009

Today has been blah. I woke up this morning and was instantly put in a bad mood because my stomach hurt REALLY bad, my knee was still swollen, and on top of it all, I thought I had gotten poison ivy from Isaac. Later I found out that despite what I’ve believed all my life [...]

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Size Does Matter

August 29, 2008

I like to use small utensils because I feel the big spoons and forks are too large for my mouth. Same goes for dishes – normally I don’t use our large plates and bowls when I make myself a meal, that way I keep my portions in control and feel as though there isn’t empty [...]