Food Find: Olympus Greek Yogurt

Much as I’ve tried to avoid getting sucked back in, Whole Foods has become a regular stop once again on my weekly grocery shopping circuit. As I browsed around looking for items on sale and items for which I had coupons, I came across Olympus Greek Yogurt, on sale 10 for $10 (reg. $1.99 each).

Source: Olympus Dairy website

 After looking at some of the flavors, I ended up buying 8 of the nonfat plain cups. (I prefer to dress my yogurt up myself.) Not only was this a great deal (50% off the regular pirce!), but the nutritional stats are out of this world! Each 6 oz cup is just 88 calories, with only 7 g carbs and a whopping 15 g of protein! Score!

So the stats are great, but how did it taste??

I tasted a bit of the yogurt on it’s own and found it to be much less tangy than other plain Greek yogurts I’ve tried (and believe me, I’ve tried a lot of them!). Then I dressed it up in typical HFM fashion: chocolate-mousse style.

Mixed with 1 Tbs cocoa powder, 1 packet of stevia, and some sliced banana

This was sooo incredibly creamy! It reminded me a lot of Oikos in it’s texture, but Oikos is much more tangy. I can’t wait to use this in overnight oats! It’s taking a lot of willpower not to go grab another one out of the fridge right now! This was by far my best food find in a while. It’s a shame that it is regularly $1.99 per cup. Much like Oikos and Voskos, it just doesn’t fit into my budget. I’m still at the point in my life where I’m a slave to prices… Thus, I will have to stick with my Chobani, which is just $1.25 per cup. At least the Olympus yogurt is on sale until Oct. 5 at WF! 🙂

What’s your favorite unexpected recent food find?

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Stay tuned tomorrow as I review the Attune Probiotic Chocolate Bars I received in the mail. (Thanks Annelies!!)

So Much to Do, So Little Time!

Is tomorrow really already Wednesday?! I am in the midst of an extremely busy week, and it is flying by! Unfortunately, in all the craziness, I’ve been neglecting my little blog here. 😦

I went to Virginia overnight for work over the weekend. Because I flew out so early on Saturday, I had to shift my half marathon training schedule. I pushed out my long run to Sunday. I ran a very painful 10 miles in 1:33:18 – a good pace, but it truly was an ugly run. I was gritting my teeth the whole way. My right knee started screaming at me around mile 2!

I wanted to get back to my regular training schedule this week, but that would have meant running on Monday, the day after my long run. I woke up at 4:30 am and my knee was sending me a very clear message – no running. I ended up waiting until the evening to any exercise. I replaced my scheduled 4-mile run with a 45 minute ride on my Spinning bike. I had a great ride, and my knee felt good since cycling is so low-impact on your joints.

Flash forward to today… I attended day one of a two-day social media marketing workshop in Boston. I wasn’t sure what the food situation was going to be at the conference center, so I made sure to eat a hearty breakfast before I left.

• 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• 1 mashed banana
• raisins
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• 1 Tbs ground flaxseed
• 2 Tbs vanilla rice protein powder
• 1 Tbs TJ’s PB, which was later mixed into the oats

This held me over until lunchtime, when I had a delicious grilled veggie pita at the conference center.

Dinner tonight involved a new to me product – Trader Joe’s Meatless Meatballs.

These are vegan and have great nutritional stats – 140 calories, 8 g carbs, 16 g protein. I was a little nervous to try these because my only other experience with meatless meatballs was not good. I don’t remember what brand those were though…

I simmered these “meatballs” in TJ’s marinara for about 10 minutes and served mine up over a bed of fresh spinach with a sprinkle of parmesan (to de-veganize the meal!).

My thoughts: Delicious! These were soooo yummy. Not too many spices. The flavor was just right and the texture was great too. Even my little girl ate them! I will definitely be buying these again.

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One more chance to enter my giveaway! I’ll announce the winner in my next post!

Injury Update & Product Review

It’s Wednesday – half to the weekend! Woohoo! We are headed to DC on Saturday for the Virginia Wine Festival. Can’t wait! It’s going to be a whirlwind. We’re only going for one night. But it will be fun.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?! You have until Friday!

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I’ve been getting pretty much the same advice from everyone on my knee injury – rest is the best medicine. Now, if I could only follow that advice… I’ve been doing plenty of icing and I bought a compression sleeve, but I can’t say I’ve cut back on my running. I am shuffling things around a bit this week though, partly for time constraints, but mostly to avoid running 2 days in a row.

This morning I woke up VERY sleepy eyed at 4:30 am and contemplated skipping my run. For a brief second, I convinced myself that I should stay in bed “to rest my knee.” But then I popped out of bed, threw on my gear, and headed out the door – but not before grabbing a small scoop of PB and some raisins, my go-to pre-run snack.

Do you eat before running?

I ran 6.2 miles in 58:08, ~9:21/mile. I felt great for the first 4 miles – no knee pain. And then BAM. Just like that, the pain set in. At one point I was literally gritting my teeth. There’s no stopping and walking in the dark at 5:30 am when you’re 2 miles from home, though!

When I got home, I took a quick shower then simultaneously iced my knee, put on my makeup, and ate this glorious bowl of overnight oats.

This horrendous photo doesn't do this bowl justice!

• 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• ~3/4 cup of plain Chobani
• 1 small mashed banana
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• raisins
• walnuts

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Ok folks – time for a brief product review!

Back in early July, I received a sample of the new Clif Crunch bars in the mail. It was the Chocolate Chip flavor, and I split the 2-bar serving with my hubby during our 4th of July road trip to PA. Upon first bite, I believe I said something along the lines of, “Oh my God – I have to find these and buy some!” It was crunchy (hence the name), sweet without being too sweet, and very satisfying. The 2-bar serving makes you feel like you’re eating more than a typical bar. And a serving is just 180 calories – perfect snack amount.

I hadn’t been into Whole Foods in quite some time, but I had a bunch of coupons so I went in there a couple weeks ago. (Side note: since that trip, I have been into WF every week. It has sucked me back in! Damn you, Whole Paycheck, er, Whole Foods!) To my delight, I discovered that Clif Crunch bars were on sale for $3.00 a box, a special that was STILL going on even last weekend. So I stocked up.

I’ve tried 3 of the 4 flavors and I’ve enjoyed each one. I definitely favor the Chocolate Chip though! Have you tried these yet?!

Next Up: 12 Miles

Well, once again I let the week get away from me! It’s been busy at work, but busy in a good way. I’ve finally found a job that is both challenging and enjoyable. How refreshing! I just wish I lived a little closer. 100 miles roundtrip is tough! Maybe in the near future…

I’ve been battling some pretty serious knee soreness this week, so I took today completely off from exercising. I haven’t done that in quite a while. Even though I didn’t exercise today, I made sure I fueled up with some good quality carbs and protein. I’ve got a 12-mile run on the agenda for tomorrow. Eeeek! Hopefully my knee holds up. My training plan actually calls for 11 miles tomorrow and 12 miles next Saturday, but I’ll be out of town next Saturday and I’m not sure I’ll have time for that long of a run before my flight in the morning.

Per my usual MO, I only captured breakfast (my favorite meal of the day) on camera.

A deliciously perfect combination of carbs, protein, and fat:

• 1/3 cup of oat bran
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 Tbs of ground flaxseed
• ~1Tbs of raisins
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• 2 Tbs vanilla rice protein powder
• 1 Tbs of drizzly PB

So yummy, and so filling! This kept my hunger at bay for several hours.

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Off to map out my 12-miler on MapMyRun.com. I’ll recap my run later in the weekend. Wish me luck!

Running question of the day: How many miles or months do you use your running shoes? How do you know when it’s time to replace them? I’m still new at this…

Oh-oh-overnight Oats!

Just popping in quickly to share my overnight oats success! 🙂

Over the past couple months, I’ve dabbled with overnight oats. I first tried them out of taste and texture curiosity. But now, when I make them, it’s more for time-saving reasons. The other few times that I’ve made overnight oats, I’ve used regular plain yogurt. While the oats weren’t horrible, they weren’t fabulous. It left me wondering what all the hype was about. They were just ok.

Well – I think I’ve found the secret. You must, must, must use Greek yogurt!!

Knowing I was getting up early this morning for a workout, I prepped my breakfast last night. Into the bowl went:

• 1 mashed banana
• 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• 1 container of plain Oikos [I typically buy Chobani, but I had a store coupon for Oikos. I forgot how amazingly creamy Oikos is! It’s a shame it’s so much more expensive…]
• 1 tbs of raisins
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• 1 packet of stevia
• 2 tbs of walnuts (added in the morning)

It may not look very pretty, but it tasted phenomenal!

 This was so creamy and delicious! I didn’t heat it up at all; just ate it right out of the fridge. I was trying my hardest not to inhale the whole bowl all at once! I highly recommend this combo, if you haven’t tried it.

I do have a little confession though – I ate my breakfast in the bathroom, by the sink, while I put on my makeup! Always multi-tasking!

What’s the “craziest” thing you’ve done recently in the name of multi-tasking? (Hopefully you don’t say something that was unsafe… ;-))

10 Things I Learned on My 10-Mile Run

Hey all! Sorry for my absence. I have been enjoying the holiday weekend, as I hope you all have, too!

Saturday morning, I ran 10 miles for the first time ever! Here are some things I learned along the way…

1. I must be a morning person… because I got up at 4:45 a.m. on a Saturday raring to go! I used to be a morning person way back when, before there was baby. Maybe setting a goal and training to reach that goal is motivating me to get out of bed!
2. It takes me about 2-3 miles to get warmed up. I wasn’t uncomfortable running, per se, but it really wasn’t until about 3 miles that I felt like I hit my stride.
3. There are a lot of skunks in my neighborhood! Ok – not run-related, but damn! I must’ve passed a dead skunk or a skunky smell every 2 miles.
4. My knees can only withstand about 7 miles. That’s about when they start hurting – the right one in particular. In fact, all of the joints on my right leg were killing me. Hip, knee, ankle…
5. I’m much more “hardcore” than I thought! For better or worse, I pushed through the pain and completed my run!
6. Having a time-goal in mind pushes me to run harder. I left the house with a goal of running 10 miles in 1:35:00 – a 9:30/mile pace. Once I passed the 1-hour mark, I was worried I wasn’t going to make my goal time. I wasn’t sure how far I had run (no Garmin here – yet), so I started to pick up the pace. Low and behold, I got back to my front door in 1:33:03 – roughly a 9:18/mile pace! Woohoo!
7. The girl who couldn’t run a mile in the allotted 10 minutes in gym class (aka ME) is looooong gone! ‘Nuff said.
8. I have made amazing progress since I decided to start running back in May. Just 4 short months ago, I was running a 12:30/mile pace. I have shaved 3+ minutes off that time. Go me!
9. I can run 10 miles! Despite the fact that I prove to myself week in and week out that I can push myself farther and farther, I was still a bit doubtful that I could run 10 miles without stopping. But I did it! Watch out half marathon – I’m coming for you! 🙂
10. Breakfast tastes even more delicious after burning nearly 1000 calories! When I got home, I refueled with this glorious mix of carbs, protein, and fat.

Proving time and time again that I am no photographer!

• 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats
• 1 mashed ripe-beyond-belief banana
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• raisins
• 1/2 cup of almond milk (+ 1/2 cup of water)
• 1 Tbs ground flaxseed
• 2 Tbs vanilla brown rice protein powder
• 1 Tbs peanut butter (which I later mixed in)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

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I continue to learn more and more about myself the farther and farther I run.

What are some things you’ve learned about yourself through exercise?

The Breakfast Diaries…?

So I’m considering changing the name of my blog to The Breakfast Diaries because I seem to only manage to photograph breakfast each day! [Could it be the makings of a spin-off blog?!] Perhaps it’s because it’s my favorite meal of the day. Or maybe because 6 a.m. (just before hubby and baby get up) is the only time of the day that I’m not running around like a crazy woman. Hmmm…mixture of both I think!

Monday’s breakfast:

Poorly photographed French Toast!

French toast made with 2 slices of Martin’s whole wheat potato bread, topped with Smart Balance Light and ~1/2 a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s maple/agave syrup blend. (I also ate a banana with some almond butter while this was cooking….) This whole wheat potato bread is one of my new foodie favorites! It’s delicious and has phenomenal nutritional states: 70 calories, 1 gram of fat, 14 carbs, 4 grams of fiber, and 6 grams of protein per slice. Low cal, low carb, high fiber, high protein. Does it get any better than that?!

Tuesday breakfast:

Oat bran with banana, raisins, flax, a little bit of yogurt, and some honey almond butter drizzled on top. The 2 tablespoons of yogurt I stirred in added just a touch of creaminess. To pump up the protein, I also had some scrambled egg whites on the side.

Monday Fitness:

I had planned to go for a run in the morning before work, but I screwed up my alarm clock and overslept a bit. So I headed out at 8 p.m for a 3.5-miler. Running in the dark at night is scary…and dangerous. But it kept me running quickly!

Side note: I registered for another half marathon on Monday! So I’ll be running my first on October 10 and my second 4 weeks later on November 7! So excited.

Tuesday Fitness:

Today was an off day from running, so I had strength training on my agenda. Unfortunately it is ungodly hot today. I still worked out in my living room, but not for very long. The heat is making me ill!

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So in all seriousness, now that I’m getting back to blogging, I feel like my blog may be taking a slightly different direction. When I first started it, I was a brand new mommy, working at home, and then later unemployed. [Read: I had a lot more time on my hands.] The goals behind my blog still hold true, but I feel that, given my new time constraints (exciting career with a long commute) and my new interests (running and fueling before and after my runs), my posts are going to be focused on other things…

Thoughts???

Ch-ch-ch-changes (and a winner!)

Hey everyone! Well, looks like I have some work to do building my readership back up… Not too many entries for the giveaway. Good news for those who entered though!

And the winner is…Leianna! Congrats! E-mail me your address and I’ll make sure your prize gets sent out ASAP: healthyfitmama@yahoo.com.

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So, when I posted yesterday I forgot one of the most interesting parts of my day (second only to my 8-mile run!). I chopped my hair off! I had about 8 inches in total length taken off. I decided that with all the other changes I’ve been through recently (new job, etc.) it was time to make a change to my appearance. Plus, I was looking back at photos from high school and I realized I looked exactly the same – same long hair. So, without further ado, here’s the new hairdo:

Thoughts?

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Food:

I only photographed one meal today – breakfast, of course. My favorite meal of the day! Today, I tried something new-to-me. Chobani on top of my oatmeal! I believe I first saw the idea of “yoatgurt” on Janetha’s blog.

• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1 mashed banana
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• a few raisins
• 1 Tbs of vanilla rice protein powder
• 1 Tbs of PB mixed in
• ~4 oz of vanilla Chobani Greek yogurt

It was good! Didn’t rock my world, but I did kind of like having something cold on top to counteract the hot oatmeal. It sure was filling too!

Let me just take a moment to profess my love for Chobani! I definitely think I should be their “spokesmommy.” The people in the grocery store look at me like I have a serious problem when I’m at the checkout every Saturday with a large tub of Chobani, several individual cups, and a pack of Chobani Champions for the little one. I’ve tried several Greek yogurts out there, and Chobani is by far my favorite! So thick and creamy, packed with protein, and oh so filling. I may or may not have eaten two servings today… 🙂

Chobani – If you ever need a mommy & daughter pair to hawk your yogurt, give me a call. You can pay me in yogurt!

Fitness:

My workout was pretty lame today. It was about 90 degrees today, so it was well over 90 in our shoebox of an apartment. I tried to get a workout in without over exerting myself. I did an at-home weight routine from the newest issue of Self.

The hotter-than-usual temps this summer have defintely affected my workouts. I’ve definitely not worked out as hard. It’s supposed to be back up in the 90s here all week, so I plan to do all my half marathon training in the morning before work. Getting up at 5 a.m. will be worth it so I can work out in bearable temperatures!

How do you adjust your workout schedule/routine in the heat?

My First Maranatha…and Time-Saving Tips

It’s Thursday! You know what that means? Tomorrow’s Friday! 😀

Today was not a good day for me at all, so I’m just going to focus on a product review and a time-saving tip or two.

Have you entered my giveaway yet???? You have until Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET. And if you win, you’ll get (among other things) a jar of this:

I have read rave reviews on many a food blog about Maranatha No Stir Creamy Peanut Butter, so I was pretty pumped to try this.

I typically eat regular, all natural peanut butter made with nothing but peanuts and salt. This peanut butter has added palm oil and cane juice. After an intial stir and some time in the fridge, the consistency is much like that of shelf-stabel peanut butters, like Skippy and Jif.

Being the classy lady that I am, I taste-tested this with my right index finger. My reaction? Eh, it’s ok. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll eat it all, eventually. But after eating peanut butter with nothing added other than salt for so long, this didn’t even really taste like peanuts to me. If you grew up on Skippy and still miss the taste of it, then you will love this. I wouldn’t buy it for myself, personally, though.

I’ll review the final few products in the giveaway tomorrow and Saturday. Check back in!

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Now that I’m training for a half marathon, I have to save time however I can. Training takes up a lot of time! My training schedule called for 5 miles on Wednesday. I had been doing my runs in the evening after my baby girl went to bed, but it’s starting to get dark earlier and earlier. So I decided on Tuesday night that I would get up at 4:45 a.m. and run before work. I’d rather run when it’s dark, but getting lighter instead of when it’s light, but getting darker!

Getting up that early to run took some planning ahead. Here are a few things that helped me save time in the morning (and make sure I had no excuses NOT to run!):

1. Packed my lunch the night before. I typically do this anyway, but I can’t stress enough how much time this saves me in the morning. I hem and haw sor far too long about what I want to pack for lunch. I would spend my whole morning trying to decide!
2. Laid out my workout clothes. This eliminated any fumbling around in the dark. I laid out my gear, including shoes and iPod, right next to the bed. That way they were staring me in the face when my alarm went off at the ungodly time of 4:45! No excuses.
   

   Look what just came in the mail!!!

3. Prepped my breakfast the night before. Until I discovered the world of food blogs, I never would have thought to do this. What a time-saver! I tend to eat a pretty extravagant breakfast, spending about 15-20 minutes making it in the morning. Tuesday night, I made Overnight Protein Oats.

This bowl contained:

• 1/2 cup of old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup of plain, nonfat yogurt
• 1 mashed banana
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• 2 Tbs of Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder

In the morning, I popped it in the micro for 1 minute (I have eaten it cold before though). I topped it with a few raisins, some walnuts, and a drizzle of TJ’s maple/agave blend.

This bowl didn’t satisfy as much as a piping hot bowl of protein oats, but it did the trick – and saved me a ton of time in the morning.

What’s your best time-saving tip??

Rainy Days and Mondays

Anyone up on their ’70s music? Did you catch the Carpenters reference in my title?? [I actually despise ’70s music, but I have a soft spot for the Carpenters…] 

Moving on. 

Today was both a rainy day and a Monday. Blah. It definitely called for a pancake! Perfect comfort food. I have finally perfected my protein pancake recipe. These are the 2 stars of the show: 

 

Here’s my recipe: 

• 2 heaping Tbs of Instabake
• 2 heaping Tbs of Nutribiotic vanilla rice protein powder
• cinnamon to taste
• 1/2 cup of egg whites
• 1 Tbs of wheat germ
• 2 Tbs of nonfat plain yogurt
• splash of almond milk (or soy milk)

Here’s the end result, topped with some Smart Balance Light and 1/2 Tbs of Trader Joe’s maple syrup/agave blend: 

 

Deeeeeelish! I like to pour all my batter into one pan, but this makes enough that you could make 2-3 smaller pancakes. I do one pan because I’m too impatient and too busy to wait for several pancakes to cook! No griddle here; just a skillet. 

I forgot to snap a pic of my lunch before I headed out to work today. I brought a La Tortilla Factory whole wheat wrap with Trader Joe’s raw almond butter, sliced banana, and raisins, along with a plain Chobani. Mmmmmm. 

Time-saving tip: I always pack my lunch the night before. Saves me time in the morning and keeps me from buying something instead of packing something! 

Dinner was unspectacular and definitely not photogenic, so I will skip ahead! 

It was hubby’s turn to put baby to bed tonight. (By the way, my little girl is now 17 months. Growing up so fast!) We still alternate putting her to bed, which works out great with my half marathon training plan. I headed out at 7:40 p.m. for a dark and rainy 3.4 mile run. I killed it! I ran a 9:08 min. mile pace. My fastest yet! 😀 

And now, a couple product reviews: 

Earth’s Best Sesame Street® Organic Snackin’ Fruit Hearts 

There they are - front and center.

 

I’m a huge fan of Earth’s Best Organic snacks. I buy them for my daughter all the time and she loves them. So I knew these wouldn’t last long! I was right, too! She gobbled these up in no time flat. She did share a few with me though. They were really yummy – great blueberry flavor. And what I love most is that they are made with whole grains and don’t have much sugar – just 5g in one serving. I would definitely buy these! 

Garden of Eatin’® Popped Tortillas 

Clearly I opened these long before taking a picture!

I’m not a big chip eater, but I love to try new things. These chips were very light and airy. I immediately loved that you can see the whole flaxseeds in the chips. 

 

These were a bit salty for me when I ate them by themselves. But when dipped in hummus – heaven! Not sure I would buy these,  but they are a nice treat. I especially love that there are 20 chips to a serving, for only 110 calories. And one serving delivers 3g of fiber. 

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Stay tuned… I will review the rest of the products as the week goes on. 

Want to try these products for yourself? Don’t forget to enter my giveaway! You have until Saturday night! Be sure to visit www.TakeAHealthyBite.com too and register for the Family Fitness Fun Challenge!