June- somehow I am still sane!

I know that it seems like I may have fallen off the face of the earth...

and, I sure feel that I have been tight-rope walking through life the past few weeks with all that is going on. But, let's just say, this month has been very, very busy!

Got my daughter's trunk for camp packed and shipped.

Went out to our beach club and opened the cabana (poor me!) I truly think that this is one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the world! Here is a picture of the golf course and stream on the walk up to the beach.

And, here is a pic of the beach from our cabana.

Here is our cabana where you can see our crew takes refuge...

If we look up and smile, will you please leave us alone to read in peace?

The only downer is that the clubhouse is being renovated- well, downer in the short-term because see that tent right there? This is where they are serving "lunch"- for a vegan my only fare was a green salad. That just doesn't cut it for me so I will know to bring my own food next time until they are serving a proper lunch! I won't even tell you what kids had!

Had my daughter's Girl Scout end of year Field Day party- so cute! They did sack races, the egg race, and a relay race. Pure joy!

The next day, I had my son's Sports Day.

Planned our June trip to London where our son is celebrating his birthday and having a school interview. Booked flights, planned itineraries, made  restaurant reservations, booked train tickets out to school... won't bore you with the rest.

Oh, this is a biggie- realized our son, Oliver's, passport, was expired! "It's Easy Passport" service may be great at expediting passports, but there is nothing easy about the amount of paperwork you have to fill out prior to sending it to them or the wait at the post office to have the paperwork approved. UGH!

Planned son's Paintball birthday party. I have heard that everyone leaves smelling like fish and am frightened of having a pack of smelly, paintball covered boys in my car Wednesday!

Packed for North Carolina (trip to drop off daughter at camp) and flew to North Carolina to drop off Caroline at camp.

So, how have I been keeping sane? Well first of all, as you can see by my "frequent" posts the last few weeks, I have made a list of priorities.

Priority #1    Get everything done

Priority #2    Make sure I am working out and eating healthily. This mainly translates to my running since it only takes an hour!

Priority #3    Ditch anything but the essentials (alas, this means no frequent blog posts and I have cancelled some writing assignments due in a few weeks)

Priority #4   Spend time with the children and don't fill up day with little things.

And, what am I eating to keep my energy up and going?

Well, lots of these-

Green Smoothie
(Almond Milk, Sun Warrior Powder, Locinato Kale, Greens Powder, Maca, Frozen Banana)

Mixed Berry Smoothie
(Almond Milk, Frozen Strawberries, Blueberries & Raspberries, Hemp Protein, Coconut Butter)

Chocolate Banana Smoothie
(Almond Milk, Chocolate Sun Warrior Powder, Greens Powder, Frozen Banana)

Here is what I put into my smoothies...

And, of course, my beloved granola :)

Laughing Giraffe Raw Cranberry Orange Cacoa Granola (Yum!)



Earthling Organics Vanilla Rawnola

And, for lunch, plenty of these healthy salads!

As well as a little help from my Brain On E3 Live...

My Innate Probiotics...

Dulse flakes that I have been putting on everything- salads, you name it! And, my Pure Synergy Greens powder that I put in smoothies and sauces...

And, I can't foget my good Vita Synergy multi-vitamin...

And, of course, lots of this...

And, plenty of this...

How do you stay sane when you get busy?

Is your June as busy as mine?

How do you prioritize, and what do you let slide when things get crazy?

My Girl Scout Lecture and Granola Bar

I am a Girl  Scout troup leader for my daughter's troup and this week we focused on hunger and nutrition. Super mom Maria gave a lecture and led activities relating to hunger , and I gave the girls a lecture on nutrition. I showed the kids how to reach food labels, we discussed trying to "eat the colors of the rainbow" (ie. making sure your whole plate isn't white and has lots of fresh fruit and veggies on it,) and also touching upon the issue of emotional eating and how we shouldn't eat because we are bored, stressed or sad.

 Here, one of the girls, is reading a food label and reading how much sugar a common cereal has in it!

Here is my "color of the rainbow" chart, which my daughter helped me make!

And, here was one of the girl's favorite part! Do you know what this is? It represents approximately 11 pounds of sugar- the amount the average American consumes in a month! "But, I don't eat sugar or desserts," you say. Well, next time you are eating a boxed or bottled item, look at the label. It may surprise you!



So, after the girls had listenned oh, so nicely, we got to the fun part...making granola!

I set up a granola bar with mason jars to for the girls to fill up, colorful bowls, and lots of healthy ingredients- oatmeal, Go Lean Crunch cereal (no nuts,) sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried raisons, dried apricots, dried bananas, dried cherries and the girls favorite topping dark chocolate chips!  

Here are the girls going down the assembly line.

And, adding toppings in their mason jars.

One girl proudly shows her creation.

The girls all had fun and learned a lot about nutrition and how eating healthily can be fun!

Chocolate coconut yogurt with lots of toppings!

I have a confession to make. Until the last few years when I have truly become a vegan, I used to be absolutely addicted to frozen yogurt. You would think that a health-minded person like me would think, no, frozen yogurt is NOT a substitute for a meal but line up out the door to get a cup I did!

But, when New York City gets hot and sunny as it did today, my cravings for something sweet and creamy emerge.

Luckily, a few days ago I made vanilla and chocolate coconut-based yogurts. Of course, you can buy coconut yogurt's such as the ones by So Delicious but the homemade ones are so easy to make and so much better tasting!

So, today I had a Chocolate yogurt with vanilla cream, shaved coconut and lots of chocolate chips!!! Dairy-free, sugar-free, packed with nutrients and antioxidants and bursting with healthy probiotics, I felt light as a feather and so energetic afterwards...

Here are the two yogurts I made a few days ago:

Ingredients:
4 cups coconut meat (you can open fresh or buy prefrozen from Exotic Superfoods)
Coconut water (or regular filtered water)
4 capsules of probiotics (I used Innate probiotics- by FAR my favorite brand)

For the chocolate yogurt:
3-4 tbsp unsweetened chocolate powder (I used raw cacoa powder)
3-4 tbsp agave nectar

For the vanilla yogurt:
2 tsp vanilla bean
1 tbsp agave nectar

Directions

1) I always believe in doing things in the easiest way possible, so blend all of the coconut meat first. You will need to add water very slowly just to get enough water in there so that the mixture blends smoothly. The less water you put in the thicker the yogurt and I personally love my yogurt thick!

2) Blend in the powder from the probiotic capsules

3) Take 1/2 of the mixture out and set aside.

4) In the blender with 1/2 of the coconut meat mixture, blend the vanilla beans and agave nectar. Place this mixture in a mason jar and cover and put in your dehydrator or a very warm place overnight.

5) With the remaining 1/2, place it back in the blender (hint: if you do the vanilla first, you don't have to clean the blender!) then add the chocolate powder and agave nectar. Add this mixture to another mason jar. This is your chocolate yogurt. Place this mason jar in your dehydrator or a warm place overnight with the other jar.

6) In the morning, refrigerator the jars and THAT'S IT!

A few months ago, I my Easy Peasy Vanilla Yogurt and topped it with shaved coconut, blueberries and Oh Alaska chocolate syrup- yum! The choices are endless and limited only by your imagination!

PB and Who Needs the J?

One of my favorite foods growing up- ok, I'll admit it, I am still obsessed now- were Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches otherwise known as PB&J's!

Everyone is always asking me for healthy snacks for their children or for pre- or post-workout snacks and my son and I just adore these! We have made a special twist and have used almond butter instead of peanut butter and have sliced the bananas to use as the "bread." So easy to make and kids have fun making AND eating them!

Another option is almond or peanut butter on apple slices or even celery! Yesterday Oliver had the PB's (top picture) and this afternoon after his lacrosse game he had a special treat- Chocolate hazelnut spread (from Le Pain Quotidien) on apple slices.

Nutritious, satisfied his sweet tooth and definitely a better option than other sweet stuff he might have reached for!

Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Diet Tracking System: My New Obsession!

I have a new obsession. NO, it's not for my Cheesy Kale Chips...

or my Avocado Fries...

Or, my Chocolate Pudding...

No, my new obsession is Lance Armstrong's new diet tracking system at Livestrong! Yes, this tracking system is by the same biking stud who has conquered cancer and has won the Tour de France 7 times!!!

Who would this be good for?

If you are having problems losing weight, are an athete wanting to make sure you are fueling properly, are a vegan and want to make sure you are getting enough protein, calcium or other nutrient in your diet or just feel run down and feel that you are perhaps just not feeding your body right then this is the site for you!!!  

Is it hard to set up or expensive?

No, it is sooooo simple and takes about 5 minutes to set up an account- which, by the way, is free!

When you set up your account, it will ask you to input your age, height and activity level, and whether you want to lose, gain or maintain your wait and it will calculate you daily calorie as well as nutritional needs. So cool!!! Then, all you do is enter all the foods that you have eaten for you day and Livestrong will calculate all of your caloric and nutritional information.

So, while I am doing it because as a vegan I want to make sure I am getting all of the nutrition I need, my husband has become obsessed and is doing it to lose weight. Oh, did I mention... you can download an app for the iphone, ipdad or blackberry?!?! Ok, for my phone-text-blackberry addicted husband this is almost like crack! Sorry for the blurry photo so this is basically what the app on the iphone would look like (and, hopefully, you are not searching for glazed donuts for your food log!)

What was I told?

I was told that I needed:

          1683 calories

55g  fat

252mg cholesterol

2020mg sodium

252g carbs

21g fiber

42g protein

Because I am a runner and a vegan, I thought for sure that I would be low in protein and perhaps some other nutrients but I was amazed that I was getting all of the protein I needed but that my fat and even sugar intake was high. Never would have guessed that in a million years and it made me feel so much better to know that I was getting enough in nutritionally. Helpful information!

So, how does it work? What does a breakdown look like?

Ok, again, it is so easy. You just type in what you have eaten and it locates the food and you just press enter (much like a google search!) The program then does a nutritonal breakdown of the food.

Here is what the breakdown looks like:

Here is what my breakdown for breakfast actually looked like:

BREAKFAST

Food                   Servings  Cals      Fat      Chol      Sodium      Carbs      Fiber      Protein     Sugars

Raw Cacao Granola   1     498         15           0                9            80            7              14          15

Vanilla Almond Milk  1    67.5        1.9           0            105            12            0              0.8        10.5

Banana                        1    60           0.4           0             1.2            15          3.1             1.3        14.4

Blueberries              0.5    42            0             0             0.5            10.5          2             0.5          7.5

E3 Live shot                6     0            0              0               0              0              0              6             0

Breakfast Totals                 667.5    17.27          0           115.7       117.5        12.1        22.54     47.43

So, I won't bore you with the rest of my day but in that the end of the day, you are given daily intake totals and your percentage of daily allowances (ie. how you have done.) Mine looked like this:

Daily Intake Totals
  Cals 1895 Fat 88g Cholesterol 0 mg Sodium 1134 mg Carbs 293g Fiber 60g Protein 49g Sugars 122g

Customized Nutrient Goals
  Cals 1970  Fat 64g Cholesterol 296 mg Sodium 2364mg Carbs 296g Fiber 25g Protein 49g

Percent of Your Daily Allowance (based upon a 2,000 calorie diet scaled to your calorie goal)
  Cals 96%  Fat 137% Cholesterol 0%    Sodium 48%      Carbs 99%  Fiber 244% Protein 99%
   
So, basically I met my caloric, carbohydrate and protein needs almost perfectly, was low in sodium and cholesterol (a good thing,) was high in fiber (another good thing,) but way high in fat (not a good thing!) Probably, I am having way too much olive oil on my salads and more than usual added fats in my nuts, avocados, tahini etc... While I am consuming good fats, my overall fat intake is too high so now I know this is something I will work on.

Livestrong also gives you a Calorie countdown chart, Weekly Intake Totals, a Daily Intake Nutrition Chart, and so much more. I just started Monday and am still learning about it but I am impressed!!!

Why do I think this program is effective and will recommend it to my clients?

- Holds a mirror up to your patterns of eating

- Makes you more concious of what you are putting into your body

- Gives you unbiased, scientific breakdown of what you are really eating

I am going to learn more about this and have more fun with it so there will be many more posts to come! Enjoy your weekend!!!