230 Million? Are you Serious?

Hi Guys! How was everyone's Thursday?!

Mine, was awesome, thanks for asking.

I got to spend the majority of my day at the Standard Process "home base" in Westerville this afternoon, listening and learning about all things clinical nutrition. I always leave these type of lectures and classes re-thinking my small handful of dark chocolate I grab from my freezer after dinner. Especially when you hear things like...

Over the past 20 years the total number of people with diabetes worldwide has risen from 30 million to 230 million.

Yep. Can you believe that? Insane. 

I got home this evening and had about 46 different back and forth arguments in my mind about whether to get some exercise in or not. The above figure and my impending struggle of fitting into two different bridesmaid dresses over the next month heavily influenced my final decision. And while my healing ankle and my recent bike swipe prevented me from doing a tough workout... a good 3 mile walk/run did the trick, for now at least. 

I came home and decided to use up some locally grown summer squash and zucchini for dinner. Alls I did was cut them length ways, rubbed a bit of EVOO on them, sprinkled some pepper and plopped them on the trusty George Foreman:

 Who says grilled summer veggies can't be done without a grill!

These summer veggies are good for vitamin C, vitamin B6 and manganese. 

Additionally, they should be given silver medals for their antioxidants, anti-inflammatory benefits and coincidentally, their abilities to balance blood sugar levels. The nutrients contained in the summer squash variety shown above have been shown to keep insulin metabolism in balance and most importantly, prevent Type II Diabetes. 

So eat YO squash! 

Stay Healthy and Go USA, 

A Morning in the Life of Erin

Hello! 

Ever since I retired from my '08 Capital University Flip Cup team and traded in nati light cans for 8 cups of water a day, I've always wanted to be a full time food blogger and get a bunch of free t-shirts and gear from companies like Larabar and Oikos. But since that desire of mine belongs in the same category as my desire to marry Ryan Lochte, I decided to play pretend and try out the whole full-time food blogger gig part time for a day. 

So here we go... my Friday morning...

After watching Ryan Seacrest takeover the Today Show, I filled up my belly with a wholesome breakfast of peanut butter banana oatmeal and a cup two cups of coffee:

Yes, that coffee mug does say Mrs. Jacob Black. 

I made my oatmeal with half a banana and topped my oatmeal with some Uncle Sam cereal for a little added bonus crunch. I've seen this cereal on blogs everywhere, but finally found it at my Kroger (and on sale!)

 I love it because it has good flavor and an easy and short ingredient list:

I followed up breakfast with some water and my current supplements of the day:

Ligaplex for the ankle and Catalyn for my multivitamin.

I later headed out for my Day 1 of the Walk to Run program. Technically, since I just started it today, I should be only be walking for 30 minutes.... but I think I'm past that, actually, I know I'm past that, so I started my Day 1 with the Day 1 of Week 2. Confused yet?!
On schedule this morning was a 5.5. minute walk followed by a 30 second run, repeated 5 times.
This turned out to be exactly 30 minutes of activity and 2 miles covered.

It was hard to stop running only after 30 seconds. Very hard.

Since my 2 mile "workout" just wasn't quite doing it for me, I decided to take the bike for a spin - if I'm going to be serious about this whole triathlon business, I better get into the habit of handling a bike NOT bolted to the ground. My mode of transportation was this bad boy:

My mom's Murray All-Terrain Street Cycle. Oh yeah. Big Leagues.  

I'm pretty confident this bike used to have a baby seat on the back....which makes it..... old.

I got home and threw together a smoothie in a bowl for lunch. (Again, topped with some crunch that I apparently need in all my meals). This smoothie had spinach, greek yogurt, SP Complete powder, blubes, other half of my banana from breakfast and a few rogue strawberries.

There were also some behind the scene carrots and hummus. Whoops. Full-time food blogger fail already.

Stay tuned for my dinner post! It should be interesting.... 

Stay Healthy, 

God's Gift to His Injured Ones

G'Afternoon!

Things have been going really well with physical therapy and my ankle (I know ya'll were just dying to know). So good in fact that they only want to see my pretty face twice a week - I'm balancing on it, doing squats, lunges, stepping up stairs.... big stuff I tell ya! 

So why after only 10 weeks of intense, major surgery (direct from the horse's mouth) am I able to do so much with such little inflammation? 

Well, besides the fact that I'm awesome (How I Met Your Mother, anyone?) I owe lots and lots of credit to my new best friend:

Now I'm not one to shove a bunch of supplements and products down peoples' throats, but, BUY THIS!

Haha, kidding, but seriously, I honestly believe that taking this supplement post surgery has really helped the healing process and is why I'm in such good shape - speaking in terms of getting my foot back to working  running  mobile condition - not my fitness, ha!

This particular supplement is for acute conditions (ie sprains, strains, tears) of the ligaments, tendons and muscles. 

It does things like...

• supports the body's normal connective-tissue repair and synthesis process
• supports healthy joints and muscles
• supports bone growth and the synthesis of cartilage
• contains buckwheat, which supports the body's natural anti-inflammatory response
• contains others fun stuff like manganese and Vitamins A, E and C (all good for connective tissue)

There is a second product called, surprise, surprise - Ligaplex II. This one is for more long term support. 

As soon as I'm back to running marathons half marathons 10k's (ha, right) you bet I'll be taking it. 

So all my athletes....something to think about... especially if you find yourself injured a lot or if you're coming to see Dr. Alexander for soft tissue torture sessions. 

Stay Healthy,