What do I eat?

This weekend I had the, umm, pleasure (?) of working both concessions at my kids' football game and the Goetta booth at my parish festival. In both places I was selling a bunch of stuff I'd never dream of eating. At the Goetta booth, I mentioned I had never had Goetta because I'm allergic to monosodium glutamate (MSG). A lady answered, "That stinks, MSG in in almost all processed food." And she's right, even "natural" foods have it, though "natural" foods tend to label it "yeast extract." Yup, that's right, MSG is often a hidden ingredient and is in a lot of that stuff you buy at Whole Foods. Trust me, I've learned that the hard way after getting a gut wrenching stomach ache after eating hidden MSG. Here's a list of how it's hidden: Truth in labeling article.

As I was eating one of my favorite foods last night, brussels sprouts cooked in my cast iron skillet in organic bacon grease with organic bacon, I got to thinking .... Am I truly unlucky to not be able to eat much processed food? Let me take another sip of my homemade latte made with organic espresso and non-homogenized whole milk and think on that a bit more .....

Yeah, that's a bit of sarcasm. Sorry, I know it's a cheap form of humor, but it does make a point. What about all the delicious food I do eat? My snack yesterday was a handful of raw macadamia nuts and organic 72% dark chocolate. Is that better than chips or not? I think it is! Or what about my lunch? I hadn't been to the grocery, so I had one of those, "What's in the fridge?" lunches .... an organic chicken/apple sausage and some celery topped with raw almond butter.

Honestly, when I looked around at the festival, there was not any food item I wanted to eat. Even the "healthy" ones were questionable .... like the corn SOAKED in MARGARINE!! Do you know how bad margarine is for you? Here's one article, there are many more out there. Most of the other foods were some sort of combination of bread and sugar, usually fried. Most of it doesn't even look like food.

I often get asked, "If you don't eat processed food, sugar, or grains, what DO you eat?" I'm not qualified to give nutritional advice, but I can answer that question.

I eat fresh, whole foods like meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables, potatoes (all varieties), quinoa, and wild rice. I use fats like butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and for cooking over heat, safflower oil. I've tried coconut oil but my cast iron skillets don't like it as much as safflower oil. I cook on cast iron, which is naturally non-stick. Did you know the fumes from non-stick pans will kill birds? If it's bad enough to kill a bird, what's it putting into your food? I have a whole milk latte in the morning, and once in a while eat full-fat cheese. I also like to drink red wine. If I'm hungry, I eat. I never feel like I'm denying myself like I did when I thought things like, "I really shouldn't eat that, I'll gain weight," when I was eating grains and processed food. Now, I eat when I'm hungry, I don't when I'm not.

Once in a while, on the rare occassion I want ice cream, I'll eat Graeters because it's made from natural things like cream, sugar, etc., but even then I order the child-size scoop. I almost never eat something that has weird ingredients I can't pronounce.

He's holding the photographer's soda, haha

When I was young and I ate healthy (though I ate grains when I was younger), people teased me. Now that I'm almost 50, many of those same people are now asking what I eat. We don't have to diet, botox, and cut out fats to look young. We need to eat real foods, exercise, and lead a healthy lifestyle. It's that radiant health that looks beautiful .... not a lack of wrinkles. It's healthy hair, healthy skin, and a healthy body that we desire. And the nice thing is, it's eating healthy foods that taste great that will give it to you. Once you get off the processed stuff, it no longer even looks good.

I'll try to put more of my recipes on the blog now that we're done with wedding planning so you can see what I mean. You won't miss the processed stuff. But you might have to go to the grocery more often because fresh food rots!

FINISHED!!!

Mat class at The Pilates Club

Great news! We have both finished our Power Pilates comprehensive training!! We went through four weekend trainings totaling 72 hours, plus 600 hours of apprenticeship! We had testing done at 100, 300, 400, and 600 hours. All testing included a practical (teaching in front of our trainer) and a written test.

The 100, 300 and 400 hour practicals were the beginner, intermediate, and advanced systems. Not only were we to understand the system, have all the exercises on various apparatus memorized in order, but we also had to demonstrate that we understood how to instruct a person at each level. A beginner student is not only taught fewer exercises than an advanced student, but they also are taught with a different, more appropriate teaching formula.

It is in this manner that we can appropriately instruct all our clients, big or small, young or old, fit or never exercised before, and teach them to their ability. We don't want anyone to feel that they weren't challenged, yet we also don't want anyone to feel they were being taught  exercises that were unattainable for them. Everyone leaves feeling that they had a good workout, were challenged, yet feel great!

Our 600 hour test-out was the most challenging. First of all, it included a workout of our own. We had to demonstrate our mastery of the advanced work, both mat and reformer. There was a written test that included many special cases (ie - neck problems, senior citizen, etc.). And finally, the most challenging practical ... teaching an intermediate and a beginner two different workouts at the same time.

Why would we need to be able to do this? For those times when you, a seasoned pilates student, bring in your friend or significant other who has never done pilates before! Or for when two friends at differing fitness levels want to take duets together.

Here's Power Pilates education website, take a look for yourself to learn more about what we've been working on the past 9 months: Power Pilates Education

Flashy Exercises

Have you ever been to the ballet? It's unbelievable what those dancers can do! After watching them move with ease, it makes us all wish we could move like that. Then, when we sign up for dance classes, we realize there's a lot of work to be done at the barre. There's a lot of strength and stretch that needs to be developed before we can even look like we're dancing. There are years of practice before we can even wear point shoes. All of us understand this, right?

Snake

Or have you ever been to a baseball game? The pitcher throws the ball at 95 miles per hour then the hitter hits it out of the ballpark. We all want to be able to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but if we had the opportunity, once the 95 MPH ball was thrown, we'd just be trying to stay alive! It also requires years of conditioning!


Or have you ever wanted to run a marathon? All big accomplishments take years of practice!



It's the same with pilates! We see flashy exercises like snake or boomerang pictured below, and we all want to do them, and we get frustrated when we can't.

Boomerang

However, the basics of Pilates is fun, too!! And even as an advanced student, I include the basics in my workout EVERY time!! We don't drop the foundational work from our routines just because we become advanced students. The beginner work, or foundational work, is always important because it is the heart and soul of the method. It is what organizes the body so you can do the flashy exercises. That is why snake and boomerang come toward the end of the routines and aren't introduced until a student is at the advanced level. Think of earning the ability to do the flashy exercises as the equivalent to earning your point shoes or being able to hit a baseball thrown at major league speed!

The more you keep up with working on organizing the body, developing spinal health, integrating muscles, and all that the foundational work sets out to do, the easier it is to incorporate the flashy exercises into your routine. Yes, they're fun! Yes, it's fun being able to do something that a few months ago you thought you'd never be able to do! Yes, it takes work, and the work starts with the basics.

This is why I am choosing to write a series on the basic principles of pilates over the next several posts, so stick around and read about the basics!!


PS Please note that the pictures are pictures of moving exercises at a single point in the motion, they are not poses that are held such as the poses in yoga. Pilates is an exercise of continual movement.

Avocado snack

Once spring hits avocados become a large staple in my diet and lasts through spring and way into summer. That time of the yeat has arrived! Yesterday, after taking my 400 hour practical Pilates test (which I did really good on! Woo!), I made this delicious little snack! It was super easy and let’s admit … pretty darn healthy for snack time!

I got the idea off Pinterest and after seeing a picture I went to the store and bought what I thought was pictured. Avocados. (Duh!) Cheese… I bought cream cheese. And some thin meat… I bought prosciutto. Since I was making it at my Mom’s house, I knew she’d have whatever spices my little heart could desire. When I got home, I looked up the recipe. The cheese was supposed to be goat cheese… Oops! And the lemon I bought to squeeze in my water… Looks like I might need to share it a little with my avocados!

It all worked out and the result was completely delicious! I can’t wait to make them for Kevin and eat them every single day for the next 12 weeks!

Don’t they look delicious?! Here’s what I did!

1. Sliced an avocado into sixths (Ok I meant to cut six… I forgot on the second half and cut it into sevenths…)
2. Sprinkled lemon juice on the slices.
3. Put a little cream cheese in each seed crevice.
4. Sprinkled salt, pepper, and chili powder to liking.
5. Wrapped it in half a prosciutto slice.

And there you have it! Please try it and tell me you love it as much as I do!

Happy Friday!

Morgan

Brussel sprouts

I wasn't going to post this recipe because I know what most people think (or think they think!) about brussel sprouts. I myself never liked them, but for some reason, a few months ago decided to cook some and LOVED them!! I changed my mind about posting the recipe here because when I posted this picture on my Facebook page, I got asked for the recipe!

Here's how:

I prefer to buy the sprouts still on the stem and cut them off. If I can't get those, I buy a bag and freshly cut the bottom.  I peel off the tough, outer leaves and cut the sprouts in half.  In that cast iron skillet are two bags of sprouts, so I used almost a whole stick of butter, which I melted in the pan.  Then I added the sprouts and sauteed just as you see in the picture.  I used the spatula to turn them every so often.  I cooked until about all of them had some brown on them. Mmmmm. They are also good with some Bragg's Liquid Aminos over them, just add the Aminos right at the end of cooking.

That's it!  Simple, no rules!  Enjoy!

Raw taco salad

This was my lunch today!  Mmmmm

It's all raw food!  The chips are Brad's Beet Chips, which I crunched up and put in the bottom of the bowl instead of tortilla chips. I topped them with a salad of chopped green lettuce leaves, mung bean sprouts, and diced jicama. If you haven't tried jicama, you should! It's that funny looking root vegetable at the store. You eat it raw ... it's sweet. I topped the salad with prepared guacamole and pico de gallo from Whole Foods. Watch when you buy guacamole that it's all good ingredients. Whole Foods makes it fresh, so there's nothing bad in it. If you're doesn't turn brown in a short time, there are preservatives you probably don't want to be eating.

I didn't use dressing, but you could. I thought the pico de gallo was adequate.

Enjoy!

Veggie frittata

This is one of our family's favorites!  It's simple, and loaded with veggies. As with most of what I cook, I don't use a recipe, I just judge quantities by how many people I'm serving. I usually figure in three eggs per person and whatever looks like one serving of veggies per person. Some eat more, and others eat less, so it evens out. I also try to pick veggies whose color compliments the yellow of the eggs. Tonight's veggies included red pepper, asparagus, mushrooms and onions. I roughly chopped all of them, small enough that no one needed a knife to eat.

Next I took nine eggs because there were only three of us, added a bit of water, and whisked them.

I love my cast iron skillets. They're less expensive to purchase than fancy cookware and they don't have any chemicals on their surface to make them non-stick. Did you know the chemicals used in Teflon will kill a bird when heated? If the fumes are that bad for a bird, what will they do to us? Remember the canary in the coal mine? Perhaps we need to think about that when thinking about using non-stick cookware! Plus, how much of those toxic chemicals leach into our food? Cast iron is naturally non-stick when used properly. Most of the time I just scrape the food out with the spatula, rinse, then wipe the pan clean. If it looks a bit dry, I just rub some oil onto it with the paper towel I used to dry it, then it's naturally non-stick for next time.

I put a half stick butter into the cast-iron skillet, let it melt, then sauteed the vegetables until they started to soften. Then I added the eggs, let them sit on the burner for a few minutes to let the bottom of them set and brown, then I moved them to the oven so they would cook through, another benefit of cast-iron, it can be moved to the oven. I have an Aga, which is a topic for another story, but suffice it to say, it's always on and the temperatures are approximate. I'd probably set a regular oven to 375. In my Aga, I set it on the bottom of the upper right hand oven (in case you're an Aga owner). Check on it after about ten minutes. It will be puffed up when it's finished, but you can stick a knife in it to test if it's done. Just slice and serve!

Tostadas!!!

I always get asked what I eat, so I thought it would be a good idea to include some recipes on the blog!  I eat a lot of raw fruits and veggies ... here's one of my favorite meals.

These were so good!!!!  My 14 year old son even said, "This is better than taco night!!" and that's saying a lot because taco night is a favorite around here!

Here's how it's made:

First, I made pico de gallo.  Finely chop a couple cloves of garlic ... don't use that jarred stuff!  I used to think that jarred stuff was fine until I got some fresh garlic in my Amish produce box ... jarred loses its bang!  Trust me!  I finely chop two organic heirloom tomatoes, garlic, a vidalia onion, a handful of fresh cilantro, and a pepper (I like jalapeños, but I like it spicy).  Stir and let sit so the flavors mingle.  You could even make this a day in advance.

Then I took Ezekiel Corn Tortillas and fried them in a cast iron skillet.  I put enough high heat safflower oil in the skillet to cover the tortillas.  I heated the oil first.  It must be very hot to keep the tortillas from becoming greasy (I learned this trick in New Orleans where they have great fried, but not greasy beignets!).  Once the oil is hot, I took tongs to place two tortillas at a time into the hot oil.  I let them cook on one side, then flipped them, but they were completely submerged.  Once they were crispy and a little browned, I placed them on a paper towel to cool off.

I heated up some organic refried beans, cut an avocado, and chopped up a spring mix that was also in the box.

I had everyone assemble their own by taking a tortillas, slathering on some refried beans, then topping with the spring mix, avocado, and pico de gallo.  The kids added organic grated cheese to theirs.

Mmmmmmm.  Now THAT is a tostada!!!

Halfway!!

Morgan and I are halfway through our Power Pilates comprehensive training!!  We took our second test at this 300 hour point.  There was a massive written test requiring much memory work.  I didn't realize how much it was stressing me out until I didn't sleep well for two nights before the test.  We also had a practical where we had to teach each other the intermediate system while being evaluated.

We teach this work all the time.  We know it.  We own it.  BUT, call it a test and we get nervous!  Minus a couple mistakes (me more than Morgan!), I think we both did fine on the practical.  We both did great on the written with A+'s!!

We are already trained, so why the additional training?  Let me tell you, this is different from what we had before.  Power Pilates is an awesome organization and Julie is an excellent, thorough teacher.  So far, we have had four training weekends that total 72 hours of training that are in addition to the 300 apprentice hours we've completed.  We meet weekly for two hours to go over what we're learning.  And, we practice, workout, and observe 20-25 hours per week.  How do you become outstanding at doing something?  By practicing, observing and apprenticing for many, many hours.  This training reminds me of what you see in movies set years ago when people are trained for a trade.  It's not just classroom work.  It's getting out there and doing the work supervised by a mentor.  We are so much more equipped to teach than we were before, even having gone through a training program previously and having taught for two years.  We found this training to be so valuable to us personally that we both severely cut back the hours we were teaching for pay in order to free up time to take this program.  It's *that* good.

We have learned how to teach people at their level and help them progress to the next level.  We have learned how to deal with special cases, ie, knee problems, back problems, older clients, younger clients, pregnant clients, etc.  In short, we have learned to tailor the workout for the person rather than a cookie-cutter workout for a group.  It's awesome!  Come try it out.  If you aren't sure it's for you, let's have a mini-session at no charge to you .... we'll spend about 20 minutes showing you the equipment and talking about a workout plan special for you.  Give us a call!

How many days a week should I do a pilates workout?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions!  My short answer is, three or four times per week is ideal.  So you can't afford to come in three or four times per week, is it still worth doing at all?  YES!!!  We have had clients who have only worked out once per week total and still saw results.  Is it ideal?  No.  Did it work for them?  Yes!

What if you're motivated to workout every day but can only afford one or two sessions per week?  Well, we can work with that because that's the most common situation .... we can give you mat exercises that you can do at home daily!  With your one or two sessions per week, you're getting that personalized attention when you come see us, then you can take that understanding into your home workout and continually improve your work at home.

Can you overdo it?  Sure.  You can overdo anything.  What works for me personally is two really hard, working at my full potential workouts per week, and two or three moderate workouts per week.  If I do five full potential workouts in a week, I start getting fatigued outside of my sessions.

Can you do pilates every day?  Sure.  It's a moderate level of strength training so is different from heavy weight lifting which cannot be done every day.

And, last, but not least, my favorite question .... can I take more than one class in a day?  My answer, if you're being worked to your full ability, you won't be able to!!  This is where we're different than reformer classes.  Reformer classes are taught to a group at an average level so that everyone can participate.  In the beginning, a person will find reformer class very difficult because it's above their level.  As time goes on, the reformer class is the perfect workout in every way.  Then later, as the client's ability grows, the reformer class is easy, so the client wants to take more than one class in a day.  What's different about having personalized attention is that you are worked out with exercises appropriate to your own personal level.  You wouldn't dream of needing a second hour.

Schedule your session today!  We're trying to build our business, so we've lowered our prices temporarily.  Come see us and see how we're different!  You'll love it!