Author Archives: doubledogyoga

Tomato Salad + Brown Rice Crispy Treats

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I love long weekends!!

Run

I had a lovely evening run tonight to my friend Kat’s house and back. It was great to be able to drop in for a few minutes and get a drink of water!

Distance: 7.42 miles
Time: 1 hour, 3 minutes
Pace: 8.49 minute mile

Eats

I made my 9-A-Day today! WOO HOO! Here’s the breakdown:

  • 1 banana in my morning smoothie
  • 1 serving spinach in said smoothie
  • 1 serving of veggies in my tofu scramble at lunch
  • 1 serving of cooked zucchini at lunch
  • 3 servings of tomato salad for dinner
  • 1 apple at dinner
  • 1 serving of Banana Soft Serve for dessert

That’s 9, baby! :)

The tomato salad idea was given to me by Kat. It’s super easy and super yummy.

Tomato Salad

  • 3 pints cherry tomatoes – I used an assortment of yellow and red that I got at the farmer’s market
  • 1/2 cup chopped basil
  • 4 cloves fresh garlic, diced
  • salt
  • pepper

Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters. Toss with the basil and garlic – add salt and pepper to taste.
Put the salad into a colander over a bowl to catch the liquid.
Kat also recommended using the liquid to make salad dressing – how cool is that?!

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For dessert (a second dessert!) I had a homemade Peanut Butter Crispie Treat!

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Peanut Butter Crispy Treat

Prepare an 8X8 glass cake pan by spraying it lightly with canola oil.
Melt the marshmallows, Earth Balance, and brown rice syrup in small saucepan.
Add in the peanut butter and blend all together until smooth.
Combine the peanut butter mixture and the cereal in a bowl. Combine well – you may get to have to use your hands.  :)
Press the cereal into the prepared pan, and place in the refrigerator until set.
YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!

Have a super awesome Labor Day and eat your fruits and veggies!!

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9-A-Day Check In and Vegan Myth: Perfect

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Hey!

Just a quick note today as I am on my way out the door to Pangea! Two things:

1. How is the 9-A-Day Challenge going for you?? Here is my tally from yesterday:

  • 1 banana in my morning smoothie (some of you have asked for smoothie recipes – I’ll do a post on this soon!)
  • 1/2 serving swiss chard in my smoothie
  • 2 cups of salad for lunch
  • 1 smallish tomato in my sandwich
  • 1 apple snack
  • 2 serving veggies in my Lotus dinner

So that’s 7 1/2 servings – I didn’t make it!!

IRREGARDLESS (heh heh don’t worry I KNOW that is incorrect I just think it’s funny :)   ), I think I did pretty well. It’s too bad the two homemade peanut butter cookies I inhaled after dinner don’t count as veggies! Anywho, today is a new day. I’m off to a good start with four servings under my belt (literally) before noon.

2. There’s a vegan myth I’d like to dispel, and that is that VEGANS ARE PERFECT.
It’s just not true.
While it might seem that way because often times you’ll hear vegans ranting about the injustices that are happening to animals,
it might SOUND like we are on the high horse, so to speak.
Or like vegans are saying “your food isn’t good enough for me!”

The myth that vegans are perfect – or THINK they are perfect – couldn’t be further from the truth.
Heck, I just realized yesterday that my Morningstar Farms veggie bacon and sausage contains egg whites!
I’ve been railing against the egg industry and here I am eating eggs! Am I a hypocrite? Or just lame because I didn’t read the ingredients?
And YES I have leather shoes that I bought when I wasn’t thinking about what happens to cows in order to make those shoes.
Should I get rid of them? I haven’t. Is that “bad?” I don’t know.

So my point is, we’re not perfect.
And trying to “catch” a vegan being imperfect really doesn’t change anything anyway – the animals are still suffering. The environment is still being damaged. Our meat, dairy, and eggs are still killing us.

As Collen Patrick-Goudreau says,

Just because you can’t do everything, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything.
DO SOMETHING.

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The 9-A-Day Challenge: Are You In?

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Légumes
Image via Wikipedia

Ok so lately my diet hasn’t been so hot. Have you noticed I haven’t been posting much about what I’ve been eating?

So I’ve decided that it’s time.
It’s time to shape up.
Shape up or ship out, isn’t that what they say? :)

So…I’m officially challenging myself to eat at least 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day for one week.

I know, the “recommendation” is less than 9.
But I like to be an overachiever.
So I’m challenging myself to eat 9 servings of fruits and veggies every day.

But I’m not doing this alone.
Oh no – I’m taking you with me!!

Do you think we can do it?
I do :)

So what does 9 servings of fruits and vegetables  look like?
Well, each of these would be considered “a serving:”

  • 1 cup of salad / raw greens
  • 1/2 cup of cooked greens
  • 1/2 cup of cooked or raw veggies other than greens
  • 1 medium apple, pear, orange, banana
  • 1/2 cup fruit
  • 1/4 cup dried fruit

I talked with Kate of Bountiful Living Wellness. We agreed that juice shouldn’t be part of this. Just cuz we like the fiber you get from whole fruits and veggies!

So here’s how this will work.
Every day we’ll make an effort to eat 9 servings of fruits and vegetables using the guidelines for “what is a serving?” above.
At the end of the day – or the next morning – write a comment on this blog about how you met your 9 servings and list what you ate.
What’s cool is that by sharing how me met our 9 a day F&Vs, we’ll give each other ideas on how to do this!

I have a head start – since I thought of this early this morning I already began tallying up the F&Vs:

  • 1 banana + 1/2 serving raw spinach  in my morning smoothie  (total 1.5 servings)
  • “2 fresh figs (I think that’s two servings) smooshed into peanut butter” sandwich + 2 cups of salad for lunch (4 servings)
  • 1 apple snack (1 serving)

So I need just 2 1/2 more servings at dinner – stir fry here we come!
I think I’ll have at least one cup of stir fried veggies + a frozen banana “soft serve” for dessert. That’s 3 more servings – I’ll actually EXCEED my 9 today!
See it’s not that difficult when you really put your mind to it.

So are you with me? I definitely need your support!

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Reality. Warning It Is Not Pleasant.

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How timely, given my recent posts, that I just came across this as I was going through Facebook.

While the video may be new, these practices have been going on for YEARS.

This is the reality of what our dollars support every time we buy eggs.
And this is not just about large factory farms.
Many “free range” farms employ the same practices of painfully de-beaking baby chicks and subjecting male chicks to live mutilation.
You can read more about that here.

Somehow many of us (myself included) grow up with this false idea that these chickens are just willingly giving up their reproductive secretions and bodies for to enjoy. I’m posting this so that you will know exactly where your food is coming from so that when you are deciding what to eat you can make truly informed decisions. Personally when I see things like this I feel obligated to shout out loud about it.

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Some of My Favorite Yoga Music

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yoga

I love practicing yoga to music. Here are a few of my favorite yoga tunes:Whitney+Houston+002

  • Sringara by Illumine
  • This Player’s Hands (Instrumental) by John de Kadt
  • 1739 by Brent Lewis
  • Om Namah Shivaya by Wade Morissette
  • Dub Version CD Krishna by Wah!
  • Bore the Righteous by Arjun and Guardians
  • Breathe Me by Sia
  • Love is My Religion (Acoustic) by Bob Marley
  • Fly Away (Acounstic) by Lenny Kravitz
  • Chandini Chowk by Midival Punditz
  • I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston ( I know…just try it)
  • Space Weaver by Lisa Gerrard
  • Ubartu to Ubud by David Parsons
  • Tjampuhan by David Parsons

I have more but that’s it for now :)   Enjoy!

Run

Today I ran 7.25 miles at a 8:13 mph pace. I was bookin’! I ran part of it outside and part of it on the treadmill at my gym. We don’t have good running paths with bathrooms and water fountains around here (grrrr!) so I like to go to the gym so I have access to those things.

The “Runner in Training” is now up to run 3 minutes, walk 1 minute for about 2.25 miles. We’re going to sign up for a 5k this fall! I cannot wait! OH…and RIT has started to write about her running journey on her blog, so check it out! Her name is KATE by the way, so we can stop calling her RIT :)

Marty Update

I mentioned in a previous post that I found a lump on Marty my black lab. Well on Monday she had the lump surgically removed and it is being biopsied. She came out of the surgery fine but she has to wear a white t-shirt and an Elizabethan collar for TWO WEEKS! Poor girl. Anyway I’ll hopefully learn the results of the biopsy soon. Please continue to send your positive energy our way :) 0625092024

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If We Want to Save Them We Must Eat Them

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I’m outraged.

As I’ve mentioned before, lately I’ve been listening to Colleen Patrick-Gudreau’s Vegetarian Food for Thought podcasts. I really love her clarity and thoroughness in her efforts to educate about food choices and debunk myths about vegetarianism.

In one of her podcasts, Colleen mentions Heritage Foods, USA, an organization that serves as the sales and marketing arms of the Slow Food Movement. In the podcast she read a piece of their “About Us” page and it was so…insane… I just had to look for myself.
Here it is:

The farms and foods that once sustained our forefathers as they settled this great land are now endangered. Farms are going belly up every day and the foods small farms raise are being lost forever because they are ignored by industrial agriculture. Just as the Bald Eagle and Panda Bear are on the brink of extinction in the wild, so are numerous varieties of livestock like Bourbon Red turkeys, Red Wattle pigs, Tunis sheep, Barred-Plymouth Rock chickens and Iroquois corn flour. If we want to save them, we must eat them! And Heritage Foods USA exists to help accomplish this goal by selling foods from small farms to consumers and wholesale accounts.

Huh? If we want to save them, we must eat them???

Ok…if we eat the animals then we increase demand for them and so small farms will continue to manufacture them.
I get it.
But…

  1. Is continuing to torture and slaughter the Bourbon Red turnkeys, Red Wattle pigs, Tunis sheep, and Barred-Plymouth Rock chickens really helping them?
  2. We’ve manipulated domestic animals to the point that they are no longer natural. Should we really continue to treat these living beings as products to be harvested and manufactured?
  3. Does this mean we should start eating Bald Eagles and Panda Bears to help support the efforts to save them from the brink of extinction?
  4. Heritage Foods says they promote “humane production.” How is sitting down to eat the corpse of a defenseless victim “humane?”
  5. Isn’t this just propaganda to sell more “product?”
Ringing the necks of turkeys is considered "acceptable" by the industry

Ringing the necks of turkeys is considered "acceptable" by the industry

We need a paradigm shift.
We need to stop treating animals like commodities.
Animals are living, breathing, feeling, sentient beings.
If you have or have ever had a pet you know this to be true.

Ok. Rant over. I’d love to open up a dialogue about this. I’ve stated my opinion…what’s yours?

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Yay for Being Home!

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We arrived home last night after 10 days on the road. During our vacation we:

  • Explored Door County – walked around the cute towns, shopped, got massages at the Lavender Spa in Egg Harbor, and loved the Greens and Grains health food store, also in Egg Harbor.
  • Visited our friends Sam and Tessa in Neenah, Wi – went out with several of my friends from high school and had a blast seeing everyone!
  • Hung out in Madison with Kiljoong and Christina – walked on State Street, watched the boats and students from the Union Terrace, had a vegan breakfast at Monty’s Blue Plate Diner, and enjoyed Nepalese dinner at veg-friendly Himul Chuli.
  • Went to Lambeau Field in Green Bay (aka “Mecca)!
  • Visited Gary and Tiffany in Fort Collins and got an in-depth tour of the city and surrounding area – thanks Gary and Tiffany!! xoxo  :)
  • Ate at Watercourse in Denver. A lot.
  • Explored the city of Denver by foot. Fell in love with Denver.
  • Spent lots of time with Jonathan and Lisa, who showed us parts of Denver we hadn’t even thought to explore!
  • Spent time with D’s friends from college and had a great time at Benji’s wedding in Keystone, CO.DSCN0023

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Wow what a trip, huh?

Run

During our trip I managed to run 6-8 miles nearly every other day. I skipped the last day because we were in Keystone and honestly I was having trouble breathing at times! We also walked a lot in Denver and in Keystone so I’m pretty happy with how I exercised during our trip.

Eats

Ok well my eating is another story. As always I struggled with food on the trip. We were able to find vegan food everywhere we went, and once I found it I ate a lot of it! This was especially at WaterCourse, which is definitely my favorite restaurant. It’s so unusual to walk into a restaurant and be able to eat anything that’s on the menu – sandwiches, soups, breakfast scrambles, biscuits, desserts. I loved it and literally ate it up!  We ate a lot of food – and then walked most of it off afterwards.

When I go on vacation, I tend to teeter between “hey I’m on vacation and I’m gonna eat whatever I want!” and “just eat when you’re hungry.” I think I did a better job than usual of not beating myself up for eating so much – in the past I probably would have felt really bad about it. This time I figured I’ll get “back on track” when I get home. So I jumped on the scale this morning and see that I only gained two pounds while on our trip. Ok – I can handle that!  :)

How do you approach food and exercise while you are on vacation? Do you indulge (Hey you’re on vacation!) or do you try to maintain good habits (stay the course!)??

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I Heart Colorado

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I’m having the BEST time in Colorado. Here’s what we’ve done so far:

Sunflower field outside of Denver

Sunflower field outside of Denver

  • Yesterday we drove to Fort Collins and visited our friends Gary and Tiffany and their beautiful kids. They took the afternoon off to show us their hometown and wow did we love it! We ate at Avogadro’s Number where I had a delicious homemade tempeh sandwich.
  • When we got back to Denver we ate dinner at WaterCourse – our favorite veggie restaurant of all time. We ordered a Buffalo Tofu Sandwich with sauteed greens and broccoli (amazing!), a bowl of green chili soup (D. loved it but too spicy for me. since when am I a spice wimp? Is this a sign of old age?), and the “Frings” – a basket of 1/2 french fries and 1/2 onion rings (thumbs down on the fries but the rings rocked!).
  • This morning I went for a run through Cheesman Park and City Park. The weather was perfect and surprisingly I was not winded from the higher altitude. I ran 6.6 miles in 60 minutes – a little slower than usual but I felt great.
  • After I showered and dressed, D. and I hiked all over Denver. We went to “Lo-Do” (lower downtown Denver) and ate breakfast at Organixx where we got delicious scrambled tofu with fresh (really fresh!) fruit.
  • From Organixx we walked to a cute neighborhood called “Hi-Lo” (between The Highlands and Lo-Do). We stopped at the Savory Spice Shop and loaded up on vanilla sugar, dutch cocoa, berbere Ethiopian seasoning, chat masala, vietnamese saigon cassia cinnamon, freeze dried shallots, and Italian herbs. I loved this store and cannot wait to cook and bake with my new spices!
  • We then hiked up to The Highlands. I wasn’t too impressed with The Highlands. Maybe my expectations were too high?
  • Then…back to WaterCourse! Tonight we ordered the blackened tofu with coconut cream, rice, broccoli, and avocado, and the  Po Boy sandwich – a crispy cornmeal crusted portobella with coleslaw and garlic ailoi. We topped it off with a Ho Ho Cupcake and a slice of chocolate pie. All vegan of course! I can’t believe I forgot to take a single picture…it was all so good.

We walked a total of 10.8 miles and that was after my 6.6 mile run! I think I might sleep for a very long time :)

Have you been to Colorado? What do you love most about it? What do you love about Denver? Fort Collins?

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Vegan Myths: B12

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I’ve been eating a vegetarian diet for about 8 years now. I originally stopped eating meat (yes that includes fish and chicken!), eggs, and dairy after I learned about the inhumane treatment of animals. These books were hugely influential on my decision:

Diet for a New America by John Robbins
The Food Revolution by John Robbins
The Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman
Unhappycows.com (a website – check it out)

I ate a vegan diet for several years and then added back in cheese, eggs, and fish. I added these foods into my diet because I thought that I needed them.

Well, I am now making the transition back to a vegan diet. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons:

  • I don’t believe that eating animal flesh, secretions, or reproductive products, contributes to making me a healthier person. I no longer believe that I “need” them.
  • I do not want to participate in the needless torture and slaughter of billions of animals.

OUCH! Harsh, huh? Let me begin to explain. This will take several posts so bear with me ;)

First, you can get everything you need from a balanced and thoughtful vegan diet. Usually the nutrients that people worry about the most are b12, iron, protein, and calcium. Let’s focus on B12 first.

Needed for cell division and blood formation, we actually don’t need very much B12. However a deficiency of B12 can cause nerve damage and anemia, so it’s important to make sure you have adequate amounts of B12 in your diet.

B12 does not occur naturally in plants or animals (although it did occur in plants at one time). Farm animals contain B12 because they eat plants contaminated with the microorganisms that produce B12. Since vegans do not eat animals, we need to get our B12 elsewhere.

Some good vegan sources of B12 include:

  • B12 vitamin supplements. Look for a sublingual Methylcobalamin form of B12.
  • Red Star nutritional yeast, which also happens to impart a yummy cheesy flavor that works great in tofu, “cheeze” sauce, popcorn, bread dough, salads, soups, gravy, stews, etc.
  • Fortified cereals – Nature’s Path Optimum Power, which I love, Corn Flakes, Special K, Kashi Heart to Heart (may contain honey).
  • Fortified soy milk

What are your thoughts about eating a vegan diet? What are your concerns about it?

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