Life

The Green’s Go Green | Day 1

July 18, 2016 by Zucchini Runner in Food, Life | 4 Comments

Yes I’m coming to your inbox on a Monday night, instead of Wednesday! I’m a pretty spontaneous gal when it comes to certain things, like my blog. Mr. Zucchini Runner and I just got home from a quick trip to Washington state visiting family. It was beautiful and wonderful, and we ate just about whatever we felt like eating.

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We had quite a long wait for a ferry on a Friday afternoon.

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There is no shortage of water — it was so beautiful and cool — a nice change from Phoenix.

In our opinions, not stressing about food is part of what you do on vacations. But we also always like to get back on track right away, so those high calorie/high sugar choices don’t suddenly start to become the norm. One way to do that, is to focus on really clean eating for about a week. (We also have a wedding to attend at the end of August, and of course we want to look extra svelte in our formal attire.)

In the past, I’ve tracked my journey during similar weeks (or months). Like when I focused on tracking my plant-based eating in Feb. 2013, and then again in July 2013. Then July 2015 I tracked my “no refined sugar, no white flour” or #nrsnwf on Instagram for a month. (You can search the hashtag on Instagram if you are interested in seeing more.) So, I thought why not share my experience again. (Apparently I have a pattern of sharing like this in July!)

So my goal for the next 5-7 days is to:

  • focus on GREENS FIRST. PLANTS FIRST in every meal
  • zero to very little anything processed; just the simple food from mother earth
  • no eggs (because I do still eat eggs, even though my blog is completely vegan)
  • minimal oil, if any at all
  • no wheat; bread
  • basically, get back to my basics of plant-based eating and where I ideally like to be

I will share my food daily through blog posts and keep track of macros for those of you that are curious. (I often hear that it’s hard to get enough protein on a vegan diet, or how people wish they could eat the portions I do.) Let me know if you have any questions, but most of the meals should be straight forward!

DAY 1 Food

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Throughout the day I had 3 cups of white tea.

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Veggies for juicing!

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Started the morning off with 2 cups of green juice, with some maca powder, turmeric powder and 1 cup of frozen mixed organic berries, blended into a smoothie.

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BREAKFAST: 240 calories, 48 g carbs, 5 g protein, 31 g sugar (I found a cool nutritional info, juice calculator. That’s when I found out my juice was also JAM PACKED with Vitamins A, C and K, Thiamin, Folate, Magnesium and Potassium.)

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Salad toppings!

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LUNCH: 300 calories, 25 g carbs, 21 g fat (from olive oil dressing, homemade), 5 g protein, 12 g sugar

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Had some more berry blend…

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SNACK: This was simply the berry blend and a tiny bit of frozen banana, blended in my Vitamix. I then topped it with almonds and a little bit of unsweetened coconut oil. 188 calories, 27 carbs, 8 g fat, 4 g protein, 14 g sugar

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SNACK 2: Quick little snack before dinner; Chocolate Vegan Shakeology mixed with ice and water in the blender. 170 calories, 22 g carbs, 3 g fat, 16 g protein, 9 g sugar. I made the exception for “processed foods” with my Shakeology, because I’ve taken it for about 3 years now and it has only ever helped me feel BETTER. Never worse. I feel very nourished after drinking a shake.

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DINNER: 2 cups of steamed broccoli, 1 c. wild rice, 1/2 c. black beans, 2 tbsp. salsa and 1/4 of an avocado (which I added after I took the picture). 444 calories, 79 g carbs, 8 g fat, 20 g protein, 6 g sugar

I feel good about day 1. Although, I didn’t want to eat that big of a dinner, that was how the day went. At least it was at 7 pm, so I’ll have plenty of time to digest before my 11:30 pm bedtime. 🙂 We also have plans to head out on a nice and leisurely bike ride. As before, I use My Fitness Pal to track my calories and macros.

Final numbers for today:

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Macro breakdown for today:

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So what do you think? Do whatever it takes to stay on track on vacation, or don’t stress and go with the food-flow?

The Social Media Trap

June 15, 2016 by Zucchini Runner in Life | 15 Comments

Wow! Let me first start out by saying, THANK YOU! I have some awesome friends and have met some awesome people through the internet. I’m glad I renewed my blog hosting, because I was a click away from deactivating my account earlier this week. Then after a chat with Mr. Zucchini Runner I decided to give it — and myself — another 12 months. I have more to share, and apparently some people still want to listen! #winning

So, for starters, I think I’m going to share a bit about social media. Specifically why I no longer felt compelled to blog (until now), why I closed my Twitter account, why I stopped stopped using my ZR Facebook page, started using Snapchat and just some overall thoughts about social media that have been on my mind.

Why I felt compelled to quit half my social media accounts

It. Was. Too. Much. 

Simply put; trying to manage too many social media accounts became a CHORE; not something that was a fun pastime or a way to connect.

  • I don’t particularly like Twitter. I just don’t. Its not for me. I’m more of a picture person, less of a reading person. (Yes, I’m 7 years old.)
  • Facebook ALWAYS annoyed the crap out of me with its algorithms and how it would hide my posts unless it was done a particular way — and then always changing what “that way” was.
  • And I stopped blogging because, well, see my comment about Twitter. I don’t REALLY like to read that much. There; I said it. I’m weird. I have a short attention span — which existed LONG before the internet. So WHY would anyone else want to read MY stuff?! That was my logic anyway.

I even got to the point where Instagram, my true love of social media, began to make me cringe. Even though I’ve met SO many amazing individuals (both in real life and just on my iPhone screen), and learned about so many cool products/companies, there was just something about it that no longer seemed relevant to me.

Enter SNAPCHAT.

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The allure of Snapchat came about because my nieces “forced” me to get an account in December of 2015. I tried to resist the urge of yet ANOTHER social media platform, but they wore me down… and I’m so glad they did! Social media was suddenly real again. Why? Because photos on Snapchat cannot be staged. Every photo is posted in REAL TIME. You can’t upload an over-edited photo taken a week ago. You have to take the photo right then and post it immediately, or the magical moment is lost in the depths of your brain. In short, low tech, low maintenance and not a time sucker… at least for me anyway.

But really, the #1 bonus? For SOME UNKNOWN REASON, my nieces all communicate with me more than ever, since we’ve connected on Snapchat. (Apparently text messaging is too old school.) So now I have a beautiful, tiny window into what each of them does on a daily basis. LOVE. Not to mention, *I* was able to post whatever I felt like, because I was posting to family.

And let’s not forget about the amazing face filters Snapchat allows, for endless laughter and fun.

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So, I guess you could say I swapped my ZR Facebook Page and Twitter account, for Snapchat. 😉

 

Some thoughts on social media, that keep swirling in my head… 

Thought #1

I was kind of getting sick of being inundated with personal ads and self-marketing.

Let me explain… it seems like every other post is someone trying to sell something; a service, a product, etc. But what do I expect? What does anyone who complains about that expect? We live in a day and age where each and every one of us has the ability — on some level — to have our voice heard, to market ourselves to people around the globe. That really is a remarkable thing and I really just need to unfollow some people and clean up my list. haha

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Thought #2

Nobody knows what other people are going through.

You cannot judge a person’s life by what you see in person, let alone by the snippets you see through social media. It’s an OLD saying, but it’s so true, unless you walk a day in someone else’s shoes, you have no idea what their life is. Social media CAN BE like a coffee table photo album. If someone chooses to, they could just be highlighting all the positive aspects of their life. But the bottom line is, don’t assume that just because everything they post is sunshine and rainbows means their life is all sunshine and rainbows. It is their choice to post the way they want; don’t become resentful if all you see is the happy stuff. You have no idea what struggles they have. Never assume.

Hey look! I cleaned my office! Next week I’ll be posting a recipe for quick and easy date energy balls!

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I love knowing WHO is out there! It’s wonderful to ENGAGE, read and “listen” to what readers are doing. Comments on a blog post are GOLD. So please continue to share your thoughts below.

What are your thoughts on social media? Do you have a favorite platform?

 

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