Early Edition... New Faves and Raves

I have been floating through August…. since we came back from our vacation to Portland last week, I have been all over the place with my fitness and my eats.  I was so pleased to have made it home without gaining any weight, in spite of eating and drinking things I normally don’t.

And now we are getting ready to leave for Colorado already.  I have done some Metabolic Aftershock workouts, some 21 Day Fix yoga sessions, a shortish run, LOTS of walking, and lots of stretching… but I am overeating. I am excited, and stress eating.  And yet not really too upset about it all because I know that when I get home at the end of the month, that I am going to spend the month of September really focussing on both my fitness and cleaning up my diet.  I have a plan!

I picked up a jar of PB2 and a jar of Chocolate PB2 when we were in Portland… I have been reading about these products for so long now and just couldn’t resist when I saw them on a shelf in Target.  When I first did a Whole30 (strict Paleo) in January of 2013, I gave up peanut butter in favor of almond butter… and just started eating peanut butter again a couple of months ago. I don’t feel any ill effects from it and do love the taste.

So this PB2 is peanut butter with most of the fat content removed.  It is a flour of sorts.  I have had it several different ways and really like it.  I have reconstituted it with water and used it as peanut butter mixed with mashed banana; I have mixed it directly into Greek yogurt; I have mixed it into whey protein powder.  I love it.  And I will be purchasing more if I find some on this next trip to the U.S. I bought the Chocolate PB2 as well, but am not quite as taken with it.  Okay.... little update to that last sentence... I just made some up with water and spread it on a banana.  Yowzers!  Delicious.

Another thing I found in the U.S. that I am really enjoying is canned sauerkraut. This one from Wal-mart is made only from cabbage and salt and water.  It tastes great.  Most of the sauerkrauts I find here where I live contain a lot of additives.  I like it cold with ham (and sweet potatoes) or pulled pork. I understand that fermented foods are good for us so I am trying to eat more of the ones I do like.

I also found these canned Dolmas at Trader Joe’s. Now, I could give you a list as long as my arm of things I love that I can only purchase at TJ’s… but I won’t. I just wanted to share these ‘cause they are a new find for me.

The Captain mixed his into the pulled pork.

Normally I only eat rice when I have sushi.  But this looked too good to pass up… and they are fabulous.  We enjoyed them right out of the can with some pulled pork.  Mmmmm.  A couple of years ago I spent a great deal of time and effort making dolmas from scratch.  I plan to stock up on these, too, when we are in the U.S. over the next couple of weeks.  Grapeleaf sushi?

Some of my favorite posts and articles from the week:

• Building Muscle Requires Eating a Hearty Diet, Not Dieting at Workout Nirvana
  • you need to eat to build muscle… great information here.  And important.
• The Ultimate Guide on How to Not Care About What Other People Think of You and Live the Life You Want at Nia Shanks
  • This is the philosophy I live by, stated so very eloquently here. Read this.
• 11 Foods Nutritionists Always Keep in Their Refrigerators at Women’s Health Mag
  • I don’t care for the layout of this article because I find these slide shows slow and annoying… but I do eat these foods!  Do you?
• What is the Importance of L-Glutamine? at The Journal of Nutrition
  • This is a supplement I swear by so this was a good read for me.
• 6 Exercises to Improve Balance at Ace Fitness
  • these moves are going to become part of my regular routine. How’s your balance?

And a pod cast about running marathons:

And a quote I found on Twitter:

What are you loving this week?

Is there a TJ's where you live?