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By kilax, March 30, 2015 12:49 pm

Does 60 miles seem too far?

Not to us, apparently!

Ha ha, keep in mind, I am searching for vegan donuts. Which, according to the power of Google (which I am not quite sure I trust) means heading to Chicago or Milwaukee. And I will almost always choose driving to Milwaukee. Same distance, less stressful drive*, easier parking, work hasn’t ruined it for me, etc.

So our Sunday morning included a jaunt to Milwaukee for donuts (both of us) and coffee (Steven).

Holey Moley is the lobby of an office building (in the Third Ward district) and doesn’t have seating for one (or two) to consume a box of donuts, so we took them over to the the public market.

Hmm, I feel like one visit to the public market seems to… suffice for awhile? We were there in October, and the shops seemed to be offering the same things as then (and just like during my October trip, I picked up some beer soap (this time for my Grandma with her wash cloths) and had some delicious Egyptian rice again). So we didn’t stay for long but decided we should do something in Milwaukee since we were “all the way up there.” Ha ha.

So! Let’s go on a brewery tour!

Never mind that neither of us hardly drink beer! Ha!

The Lakefront Brewery Tour had awesome reviews on TripAdvisor and costs $8 a person for a 45-minute tour (which included four 6 oz drinks per person, and a complimentary glass at the end). Sounds like a good deal to me!

I went on my first brewery tour last June, to Boulevard Brewing Co, in Kansas City. And yes, even though I rarely drink alcohol (and not typically beer), I thought it was really interesting to learn how beer is made. But… I pretty much forgot most of what I learned then, so this tour was a good refresher. A kind of off-color, dirty-joke filled, refresher (which I liked, ha!). These brewery tour guides seem to really love their jobs (surprise, surprise). Which I think is awesome!

Probably not so awesome… that Steven had to finish almost all of my beer for me. (Wait. Why would that not be awesome?)

Double fisting like a trooper!

Err, at least I tried it? And kind of liked it? What can I say, I am a slooooooow beer drinker.

We both thought Lakefront had decent beer, which, since we don’t drink beer that often, probably means it’s not good at all (but correct me if I’m wrong!).

After our tour we had to fill our bellies with more food so we headed over to the Palomino Bar, which happens to have a few vegan things on the menu. After having chicken fried steak, vegan “eggs,” and vegan fried pie, we called our gastronomic tour of Milwaukee a day… and headed home. Where we made our own version of Egyptian rice for dinner.

Carbs, carbs and more carbs. This is going to be my new pre-long run/race meal!

Would you believe me if I said we both went to bed with a belly ache? Ha ha, well worth it, though!

*minus the oddity of the slow left-lane cruisers on the tri-state in Wisconsin.

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By kilax, February 17, 2015 6:23 am

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine. I received ten Sunwarrior products to try (including a shaker bottle). This post contains UTM links but my only compensation was the ten products.

Hey! How can the word “choice” and phrase “sponsored post” be in the same title? Because I have been using Sunwarrior protein powder since a friend introduced me to the brand in March of 2011! At the time, I had tried several vegan protein powders and didn’t care for any of them. I kind of had my doubts when she made me a smoothie with Sunwarrior in it, but lo and behold, it had a good flavor and blended well!

Steven and I have been using Sunwarrior ever since, and we always buy the Classic Protein Powder in vanilla. I’ve been using it a lot lately. I’m working on toning up a bit, and one thing I’ve done is replace one carb-y snack a day with a protein shake.

Working at it! A ways to go!

In fact, I was actually drinking a smoothie with Sunwarrior protein powder in it when I got the email about reviewing Sunwarrior products! Ha ha!

Yeah, I don’t typically do product reviews (see here), but I wanted to try some of the other protein powder flavors, without making a huge investment in a big bag of it just to discover I didn’t care for it! Of course, this was before I saw that the sample pack I received is available for purchase on their website, too (along with a few other sample packs)! <— Good to keep in mind if you want to check it out.

I’m not sure why I hadn’t heard of Sunwarrior before my friend introduced it to me four years ago. Maybe because they were a bit overshadowed by another vegan protein powder company whose products I did not like and will remain nameless? Ha ha.

Sunwarrior has exactly what I want – vegan, plant-based protein powders THAT TASTE GOOD. But they have a lot of other credentials too – raw, gluten free, non-GMO, and their products are (from here) “clean and completely free of solvents, radiation, artificial flavors, artificial preservatives, artificial colors, soy, yeast, wheat, or added sugars.”

I didn’t realize this until I got my sample packet (see below), but they have a lot more products than I knew about (more than just protein powder!).  Entire lines focused on recovery, endurance, and immunity.

I was mostly in it for the protein powders (CHOCOLATE!!!) but it was a treat to try the other products, as well. My full review is in the images below, but my overall conclusion is that I definitely enjoyed the chocolate protein powder and will be buying some. The other stuff was decent, but I can’t see myself using it on a regular basis.

I enjoyed the taste of the Warrior Blend protein powders, but not as much as the Classic, hence, less stars, and the “maybe.”

Supplements aren’t my thing, so I don’t see myself buying any of these. If I were though, I would definitely pick peppermint Ormus over the natural one. And NO, no way to the Liquid Light. I almost threw that back up.

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine. I received ten Sunwarrior products to try (including a shaker bottle). This post contains UTM links but my only compensation was the ten products.

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By kilax, January 9, 2015 8:27 am

One day in February last year, I woke up with a dark spot on the back of my tongue, and when I brushed my teeth, I was spitting up something dark, too!

I actually took a photo of my tongue, because I was worried something was wrong with it (ha, I won’t force you to look at that photo). But then I noticed the more and more I brushed my tongue. The more the spot went away.

Then I remembered I ate about a zillion of these the night before:

Ha ha. So. Apparently, if you eat a bunch of truffles and don’t brush your tongue very well, you will think you have some crazy disease when you wake up in the morning.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

I was thinking about that incident yesterday as I cleaned out our “junk” shelf in our pantry (some stuff went to the trash, some will go toward the “office dump,” some was kept), because I didn’t realize how much chocolate I had. I keep it all in a box and forget about it. There were four dark chocolate candy bars, a new box of truffles, half a box from before, and all of Steven’s milk chocolate. Geesh! No one needs that much chocolate in their house! If I were to eat it, I would definitely think I had some tongue disease again, ha ha.

Did you see the “report” (pdf here) this week that people start to amp up their purchasing of junk food toward the holidays, and continue to a bit in the new year? And that, yeah, that would make it harder to lose weight if that was a “resolution” of yours, because you are still in some sort of junk food purchasing auto-pilot.

We actually did fairly well not buying a lot of junk for the holidays this year, but mostly because we were traveling. If we were hosting, I would have had a few candy items around the house, and baked something. The only items I purchased were for Steven’s family’s stockings (And I forgot to get my snister her favorite treat! Sorry, snis!), and of course, I received a few things. Apparently enough to make me do a purge of the “junk” shelf!

Mostly… I am happy to have the holidays behind me and get back to my typical eating plan! It’s fun to eat treats around the holidays, but my body can only tolerate a little bit, ha ha!

Are you back to your normal eating plan after the holidays? Or do you feel like you are still buying some “junky” items, like that article suggests?

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By kilax, October 6, 2014 6:20 am

Gosh, for how close Milwaukee is to my home, I really haven’t explored it much. My experiences there are limited to the airport (LOVE using that airport), a Spartan race at Miller Park (but still haven’t seen the Brewers play there in person), lunch in the Third Ward, and various times running the South Shore Half (then eating at the Palomino Bar after). Oh… and driving through it. Yeah. 

So Steven and I decided to stay over in Milwaukee the night before the marathon, and do a teeny bit of exploring. The marathon expo was in the Third Ward, so we started there. 

/ HUGE TANGENT ALERT /

I do have to share something nutso that happened to me at the expo! I ran in to someone I know from my hometown in Iowa, that I haven’t seen since middle school! That’s about… sixteen years ago, folks! Due to the Facebook stalker side bar (you know, the mini feed in the desktop version), I had seen that this friend posted something about a run from Fleet Feet in Milwaukee earlier this week, but last I knew, she lived in Ohio. It turns out that she and her husband took over the Fleet Feet in Milwaukee and moved there four months ago! 

Even more odd, a couple of years ago, when I was doing Fake Meats orders, I noticed someone with this friend’s name ordered some items, so I contacted her to ask if it was her. It was! So when I said hi at the expo, her husband was like “Oh! The Fake Meats people!” Hee hee! We didn’t get too much of a chance to catch up (the Fleet Feet booth was hoppin’!), but I’d really like to go back to visit, because, spoiler-alert, we really enjoyed what little exploring we did in Milwaukee!

And since we are talking about the expo, I will mention that I bought this hoodie (and a few other things), which I plan to wear every work from home day this week. Ha ha. 

/ HUGE TANGET OVER /

We picked up a map of the Third Ward at the expo, and got a recommendation to check out the Milwaukee Public Market, which is an indoor food and gift market. 

It was hard to walk by so many yummy food vendors and NOT get a million things to try. Normally I would, but I knew I shouldn’t get too crazy the night before a marathon (you’ll question that when you see what I had for dinner). We settled on falafel, an amazing rice/lentil/noodle/onion dish (ALL THE CARBS!!!) and a somosa. I also picked up a few gifts. 

This WILL be recreated at home – all we need to do is add noodles to the lentils & rice dish Steven already makes

The market has seating around some of the vendors, and upstairs dining, too! It was neat to look out over the shops!

What is funny about this concept (dining above the shops) is that I had a project when I was in architectural school that was like this, and my professor told me “that would never work.” Ha ha. 

After leaving the market we walked around the Third Ward, and did some window shopping (a lot of the shops were already closed for the night). We also must have seen at least four wedding parties! The area has a lot of neat opportunities for photos, even on a dreary, windy day!

I chose what I thought looked like a fun place to try out for our hotel – Aloft in the downtown area. I was intrigued by how hip and modern it looked. Unfortunately, our stay was not so great. The room was fine, and comfortable. But we had lots of noise issues with surrounding guests. It felt just like being at home* – where we can’t sleep because our neighbors are so loud and disrespectful (and cheap construction). Sigh. 

The location ended up being just right, though**! Steven looked on HappyCow for restaurants with vegan options for dinner and found a ton of stuff. We decided to go to Ian’s pizza which was only two blocks from our hotel and had a ton of vegan pizza toppings!

You guys. I ordered the most ridic vegan pizza and it was DELICIOUS! Vegan cream sauce, vegan chicken, broccoli, TATER TOTS, and vegan ranch on top. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. We will be eating there again!

And that was the extent of Saturday’s exploration! We did as much as we could, while still trying to be responsible with the race the next day!

During Steven’s HappyCow research, he did find a vegan donut shop (Holey Moley Doughnuts) and made his way there while I was running (he planned to see me at mile 7.5 and 20, so he went between then). Steven loved their coffee and I REALLY loved having a vegan donut to eat with dinner last night! And probably dinner tonight too, ha ha. 

It was a mini stay and we didn’t have a TON of time, but we made the most of it and are both excited to go back soon!

*Steven actually did a sound-proofing project in our bedroom this summer to try to help with the noise levels. It’s pretty bad.
**And it was only four blocks from a hotel where I picked up a shuttle to race start! 

Comments (27)

By kilax, August 22, 2013 12:20 pm

That’s my kitchen M.O.

How I frost a cake:

Heh heh heh. 

How Steven frosts a cake:

Hmm, that’s a lot easier to clean up. 

And this is why Steven should be in charge of all culinary adventures!

I dislike cooking and baking so much,* that my method in the kitchen is to get in and out as efficiently as possible.** Get all the ingredients out at once, loosely measure everything, throw it together, cook/bake/saute/whatever, clean up and get the hell out of there. 

Hence, “act now, think later.” I was in such a rush to frost this cake that I didn’t think about the fact that it may look nicer and be easier to clean up, if I put it on a cooling rack while I pour on the frosting/glaze.

What’s your kitchen M.O.? 

*but I like eating, obviously
**TWSS

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By kilax, March 27, 2013 11:45 am

Today I am guilty of the office dump.

Wow. That sounds really bad, doesn’t it? Ha ha ha! I will let you decide how bad it really is… once I explain what the heck I am talking about.  

Don’t worry! I am not talking about anything that involves a visit to the bathroom. But I am talking about food. Again.

I hauled this big-arse (heavy!) bag of food to the office today. But it wasn’t full of things to fill up my snack drawer.

Sigh. It actually had my lunch and it, and a bunch of snacky stuff from our pantry (snacky stuff in bag below on left, lunch on right).

My food hoarding got the best of me this month. I might write more later about my tendency to stock up on not-so-healthy treats then not eat (all of) them, as an exercise in self control… but we’ve already had enough disordered food talk this week. So I’ll save that topic for another day.

But anyway, I eventually sabotage myself by having so many not-so-healthy treats around, because when I want to binge, there they all are. So! I took a lot of them* out of the pantry, and brought them in to work. Hence – the office dump – dumping my snacky food off in the office pantry. GUILTY!

Are you ever guilty of the office dump?

I sure am. I work in a huge office, and food goes fast. When I used to bake more, I would bring in the extra stuff. Sometimes I feel bad about it, like I am encouraging other people to eat junk. But whatever. I see what some people eat on their own… if I wasn’t providing it, they would be!

And that huge bag was mostly gone by 9:00 am.

*Not all. I don’t follow  the “don’t have any not-so-healthy snacks in the house” policy as a way to stay on track with my eating. I believe in small indulgences each day. We just had WAY too much stuff, because I was food hoarding.

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By kilax, March 25, 2013 6:13 am

WARNING! This post may be very triggering as it talks about purposefully trying to reconnect with the feeling of hunger. Please skip this post if you need to!

I’ve been wanting to write a post about my strange fear of hunger, and how it makes me act, for awhile. I swore I started a draft of this a long time ago. Instead, I found an actual published post – “The first time I discovered hunger” (from November 12, 2008). Geesh. That was raw. And… it pretty much all still applies. Damn. Don’t you love it when you go back in your blog archives and realize you are still struggling with the same damn crap?!*

I did find a draft post (from July 23, 2009) about how I was trying intuitive eating. That never got published, because it didn’t work for me. But there was a cute picture of me in the post, to which I had said “the only time I am not eating is when I am sleeping.” Ha ha ha.

Anyway. I’ve felt hesitant writing about this, as I have never experienced real starvation or hunger, and don’t want to offend anyone who has. But I feel like I need to get this out there, because maybe someone can relate!

So, are you the type of person who packs snacks for work, road trips, flights, etc. –  the type of person who always has a snack in their bag or in the car? OR! Do you fly by the seat your pants and just pick up things as you go… or maybe wait to eat when you get home?

Just as I am an over planner, I am over prepared. I always have a snack on me, or near me. My thought logic is that I don’t want to become hungry and be caught with something “unhealthy” or not have any vegan options.

But you know what happens? When I get the tiniest tingling of hunger (and usually it’s mental, not even something I feel in my stomach), I consume all the snacks. Then, I am left with no snacks. So I go buy the unhealthy things anyway. And nom nom nom away.

Examples:

• I pack homemade trail mix for a flight. It’s all I can think about on the flight, so the moment I feel any hunger, I dig in.
• I have a “just in case” LUNA bar in the car. I get a slight hunger on a longish drive and eat it.
• I have a snack drawer at work. Sigh – who else has the snack drawer? When I feel anxious at work, I dig in (after telling myself I am hungry).
• I go to the city to hangout and pack a bunch of things to eat throughout the day… and find myself eating them to prevent hunger.

So in all cases, I justify my snacking by telling myself I am preventing hunger. But… I never got hungry. So what is with the need to constantly feel satiated? What kind of weird, messed up privilege is that?!

Mica and I have been talking about this, and I think she summed it up well:

It’s such a weird thing. It’s not like I’m afraid in the way that I’m afraid of plane crashes, but I definitely feel a strong compulsion to avoid hunger. And then when I work through my hunger or manage to make it to dinner without snacking a lot, I think, “Hmm, that wasn’t so bad.” But in the moment, I feel SO DESPERATE.

So why is hunger so bad? Why are we so desperate NOT to feel it?

And not to be disordered about that. We should NOT starve ourselves. But, there have been months where I have gone without EVER feeling hungry. Because I am constantly putting food in my mouth. What am I so afraid of? A slight hunger headache? Would it be bad to feel that?

Earlier this year I tried to quit overeating so much, and ended up feeling hunger. I would get to the end of a run and feel famished. I did need that LUNA bar in the car. I did need those snacks then.

I’ve started feeling hungry for lunch and dinner again (my stomach actually makes noises!). I started enjoying food more. It was weird, what a little true hunger could do. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still struggle not to eat ALL THE SNACKS to prevent hunger, still!

See, it feels so odd writing this, because a lot of people struggle with under-eating and not purposefully being hungry all the time. And I don’t mean to be insensitive to that either. I guess wanted to share this weird thing I am trying to stop.

*I felt bad about that for a minute. Then stopped. I am pretty easy going on myself.

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By kilax, March 11, 2013 6:27 am

… that I probably already should have known about / been trying, but didn’t / wasn’t. Oops. 

One of the schweet perks of the multisport club I am in is that there are free seminars from time to time. Saturday’s seminar was on sports nutrition, and it was given by Monique Ryan, a local nutritionist who is the author of “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes.”

The seminar focused on fueling before and after exercise, and briefly on body composition (trying to build muscle or lose weight). It was really interesting for me to sit in on the seminar since I have been doing a lot of studying around these topics in my ACE manuals and in my own personal research! 

Ryan went over carbohydrates as the body’s main fuel source, what to eat and drink before and during exercise (specific amounts), fueling for doubles, sweat loss, use of caffeine  etc. But what really stuck out to me were two basic concepts that I have really not tried. On purpose anyway. 

1. Consume a light to large meal 3-4 hours before an endurance training session or event, then top off carbohydrate stores two and one hours prior to the session/event.

So this was discussed a lot. Basically, “So I have to get up and eat at 4:00 am if I want to do a long workout starting at 8:00 am?” Ryan said yes, some people do that. I was kind of chuckling to myself, because that morning, I ate half a bagel with PB2 at 4:20 am, and was out the door at 4:35 am for an 18 mile run. 

Oops. Guess I was doing that wrong? Ha ha. The thing is, that works well for me. And I didn’t have any GI issues until mile 15.5, and I think that was due to the fact that I was eating candy as fuel during the run. <— me so smart

I really only eat two+ hours or more before exercise when I am eating at home then driving somewhere to meet someone, or for a race (which usually means I am driving somewhere as well). 

How far in advance do you have to eat prior to working out?

I do know some of you have told me it takes at least an hour, if not more, for your stomach to settle after eating. I generally know what things I can pop in my mouth and head out the door with… sometimes still chewing. 

2. Carbo-load two days before the endurance event, then eat “normal” the day before the event so you wake up hungry on event day. 

Okay, so this stupidly blew my mind. I think it’s because I have been focusing so much lately on what I eat and how much of it affects how I feel, and I am realizing the power I have over feeling awesome during workouts. So, yeah, it would be great to wake up race day feeling hungry with a nice flat stomach! Ha ha! I usually do eat a somewhat bigger (although not that much) meal the night before a race. So I may try this. Ryan also went in to how many days to carbo-load depending on the event. 

Do you usually carbo-load for an endurance event? How many days prior?

So, funny story, the first 5K Steven and I ever did together, was the NYC5K in Chicago in 2007. My parents and snis came out for it, and I made this HUGE whole wheat pasta dish the night before, like I needed all that. Sigh. I knew nothing. But was so wonderfully supported by my family. Ha ha. I still laugh about that. 

Anyway. 

Ryan seemed super knowledgeable (she’s been doing this for 24 years?) and on top of her game. There was an article in the most recent issue of Competitor Magazine about how not to “bonk” a marathon, that was called “The New Rules of Marathon Nutrition” (written by Matt Fitzgerald). I read the article (because I would REALLY like to figure out how not to bonk) and thought some of the advice seemed off. And Ryan kind of talked about how some of it was!

So anyway. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a personal nutritionist?

Wait! What am I talking about?! I hate having people tell me what to eat. Ha ha ha. 

Psst, I am not a nutritionist, so I tried to water this post down to basic concepts!

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By kilax, March 7, 2013 5:03 am

• Steven figured out a schweet camera modification to get Data to look at the camera – with the high-end wadded up paper towel attachment. Ha ha ha. 

 Aww, Datums, you so cute!

• I realized this week that our holiday wreath is still on the front door. FAIL!!! Or is it okay, since there is still snow on the ground?!

• My sister did pick out a wedding dress last Saturday! Here is a sneak peek!

• Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend! Are you looking forward to it? I’m a little nervous about how having extra light at the end of the day will affect my mood. I won’t mind it being darker again in the mornings, ha ha. 

Link Love
I’ve read so many great posts this week (click “continue reading” below)! I had to link up to a few! Have you read anything awesome this week that you gotta share? Continue reading 'Random Thoughts Thursday XXXV'»

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By kilax, March 6, 2013 6:29 am

I finally broke down. I bought a book to read that is not study material. Hey! It’s kind of about nutrition, which is the chapter I am reading about now in my ACE manual! That counts for something… right?!

Photo from Amazon

After reading this (pdf here) review of Michael Moss’s “Salt Sugar Fat” yesterday, I had to get it. Even though I am not sure when I will allow myself to read it… but seriously. Read that review, if you have time. The book sounds super interesting, basically going over how food is engineered to make us addicted to it. I wonder if it will make me stop eating oreos? Probably… NOT!

My love for oreos is just too high. Shh. I actually really like the ALDI brand “oreos” too!

Anyway! In celebration of me buying a book (ha ha) I want to giveaway a $20 amazon giftcard, so a reader can get a book too (or whatever they want on Amazon)! 

$20 Amazon Giftcard Giveaway Rules

1. One reader will receive a $20 giftcard to Amazon.com.
2. Required to enter the giveaway: leave a comment telling me your favorite genre of books to read.
3. For a bonus entry: like my Facebook page and let me know you have. 
4. For a bonus entry: post this contest on Facebook, and let me know in a comment that you did. 
5. You can leave all entry comments in ONE comment if you’d like.
6. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Friday March 8. I will announce the winner on Saturday March 9.
7. This giveaway is open to all readers.