On the Run: fitness made simple

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Did anyone get any spiffy new kitchen equipment? My family’s Vitamix is collecting dust now that I’ve moved out. This is the menu at the cafe in New Leaf Community Market. It looks 10000x better than healthier than Jamba Juice…(minus their Orange Carrot Karma). I’ll order one soon too see how much water, ice, and vegetables they put in and report back!

-Geralds

Pomegranate-Persimmon Holiday Pancakes

Vegan, Gluten-free, sugar-free option, yummy, and look how cute they are! =)

Happy Holidays everyone! I am alive, well, and sleeping A LOT this week. I’m on winter break and planning to do lots of blogging =) First off, here’s a recipe I made for breakfast.

1/2 cup Wholesome Chow all-purpose gluten-free baking mix
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 persimmon
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
Water
Cooking Spray
Brown sugar (sprinkled on top as an optional topping).

Directions: Mix equal amounts of almond milk and baking mix. I used 1/2 cup of each. Then chop and blend the persimmon and 1/2 cup of water in a food processor. Add the persimmon puree to the mix. Heat pan or griddle with cooking spray. Spoon mix onto pan. Sprinkle on pomegranate seeds. Cook each side for about 2 minutes. Use brown sugar or a bit of maple syrup as a topping.

I had a sample of pumpkin pancakes made with Wholesome Chow’s baking mix at New Leaf Grocery stores (alternative Whole Foods in northern California) and thought it was really tasty and handy. All you really need to do is add almond milk to make some pancakes! Also, my new favorite Almond Milk brand is Califia Farms. They use pretty much all the same ingredients and preservatives as Silk, Almond Breeze, and Trader Joes, but it somehow it tastes smoother and fresher. It was on sale one day at Andronico’s (reason why I’m broke) and I decided to try it…needless to say I fell for the gimmick and now I’m hooked. I buy it even when it’s full priced for $4.49! -___-

I love this recipe because the persimmons add natural, understated sweetness and a soft texture. Therefore, you don’t need to add any sugar or butter to make delicious, fluffy pancakes! I haven’t been eating much dairy so I appreciate simple recipes like this that doesn’t use fake butter or margarine (exceptions for dairy & eggs for my friends’ home-made baked goods infused with love and the amazing ice cream I just tried from Bi-Rite Creamery omgodddzz…good thing this place practices moderation through expensive prices and small scoops!).

TIP: Open pomegranates in a big bowl of water. The seeds will sink and the outside bits will float to the top! Learned this from my roomie!

I miss you guys, talk to me! I have lots of ideas and too little time. But, try this recipe out…persimmons and pomegranates are in season! They look festive and I’m sure the whole family will enjoy them.

Merry Christmas my lovely friends. Let me know what’s challenging for you during the holidays and we can write a post about it!

<3 Geralds

Good morning =] can’t have mimosas today (have to studyyy); so just got the fruit at my mosaic viewing party! #food #eatclean

Lunch break with acoustic music, massage, and roasted vegetable sandwiches. #food #relax

food
relax

Fruits I got today! Persimmons are so good, but so expensive right now…can’t wait to go home for Thanksgiving and pick from my neighbors’ tree (we have legitimate permission now! )

Tip: pick pomegrantes that are cracked because that means they absorbed a lot of water while on the tree! Learned this at the farmers’ market today =)

#food #fruit #eatclean #healthy

Hi Everyone! I’ve been talking to Chef Laura, star of ABC’s Recipe Rehab, and with Beachbody. I think what they have going on is good, practical advice for people who do not have many food restrictions and are looking to lose weight. I think this recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes is great because its low-calorie (112 calories per serving) and makes some healthier substitutions! It would be a moderate and yummy dessert after dinner.

The Ingredients include:

Dry: ½ cup unsweetened cocao powder (I’m a BIG fan), 1 ½ all purpose white flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon salt

Wet: 1 egg, ½ applesauce (AWESOME sub), ¼ cup brown sugar, ½ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (makes things takes naturally sweeter), 1 cup plain almond milk (love)

Chef Laura also includes useful tips, i.e. use your ice cream scooper to pour your batter into each cupcake container!

Fall Breakfast on-the-go:

1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup butternut squash
1 banana
sliced almonds
PB2 + cinnamon +almond milk dressing

My goal is to eat vegetables at every meal. I’ve been eating hot meals like oatmeal and grains now that it’s fall. (Remember I was all about those icy-cold green smoothies during the summer?) The most palatable and versatile vegetables for breakfast are spinach and butternut squash which can be added to your hot cereal or grains. After I’m done with my quinoa, I’m going to make teff. Has anyone tried it? I got a bag from Bob’s Red Mill.

Have a great Tuesday! It’s a beautiful day here in San Francisco and we don’t have class ‘til 1pm! BEST DAY EVER <3

Taken with Instagram

Finally, snacks that satisfy!

Hi everyone,

I’ve made an important personal revelation and it may help you too! Up until recently, I’ve been a huge supporter of eating fruits and high protein foods (like Greek yogurt) as snacks. But honestly, I never really feel full and satisfied for long after snacking on those items. I realized that the best snacks for me are high in carbohydrates, low in sugar, low in fat, and low in protein. For example, I’ll eat crispbread crackers, bread, or dry cereal as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack. There is legitimate science to back up this observation too! Eating high carb (low in fat and protein) snacks in between meals is the basis for The Serotonin Power Diet and the take-home message from Columbia’s researchers, Judith J. Wurtman, Ph.D, and Nina T. Frusztajer, M.D.

How do carbs help you stay full and prevent you from overeating? It has to do with the interplay between carbohydrates and the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter which regulates mood, sleep, and appetite. Simply put, eating carbohydrates stimulates the production of serotonin! Are you on a low-carb diet right now and you’re noticing moodiness or depression? Your body may well be lacking it’s natural “feel-good” chemical, serotonin. Although eating carbs starts serotonin production, eating a significant amount of protein along with those carbs stops this process. This is because tryptophan, the precursor of serotonin, is the least abundant amino acid in protein. So when you eat a protein-rich meal, all the different amino acids (protein building blocks) floods into the blood. Tryptophan has to compete with all these other amino acids to get transported to the brain. If you eat a snack with little to no protein, tryptophan does not have to compete as much and will have more access to the brain where it has important effects. Snacks high in fat slow down the absorption of carbohydrates and therefore the production of serotonin. It keeps you feeling hungry for longer! For example, take the infamous chocolate chip cookie. Why is it so hard to have just one? It’s because it’s sweet and fatty at the same time. The fat in the cookie slows down absorption. What do you do in the meantime? You eat more cookies…

You can have carbohydrate-rich snacks and still eat a balanced diet that has a moderate intake of carbs overall. Just keep your snacks around 150 calories. For example, a typical day for me looks like (I’m back to eating vegetarian without dairy (I eat honey though!):

Breakfast: oatmeal (spinach, cinnamon, walnuts, banana)
11am snack: crispbread (160 calories)
Lunch: Salad (greens, beans, vegetables, 1/4 cup whole wheat pasta), fruit
3pm snack: 1 cup cereal (150 calories)
6pm snack: Bread (180 calories)
Dinner: Sauteed vegetables, tofu, starchy vegetables.

You’re sample menu can look like this:

Breakfast: whole grains, fruit, yogurt
3 hours later: 1.5 cups of cereal
Lunch: hearty salad, light dressing, and chicken
3 hours later: 2 slices of whole wheat bread
1 hour before dinner: Wheat thins or crackers
Dinner: Sauteed vegetables, salmon, and small serving of carbohydrates (sweet potatoes or brown rice)

Eating small snacks throughout the day really helps me be productive, stay alert, and not keel over from hunger. I’m usually up by 6:30am and have class, activities, labs, throughout the day. I also exercise and study during free hours and at night . I try to sleep before midnight. Eating small carby snacks keeps me satiated between meals, happy, and motivated. I really do feel a difference in my energy levels and positive emotional state after switching to carb snacks =)!

What you can try (Tips from Dr. Wurtman and Dr. Frusztajer, along with my own) :

Pack snacks with you to school or work
Eat 2-3 snacks a day, about 3 hours after your previous meal.
Keep snacks around 150-200 calories.
Protein and fat grams should be less than 4g per serving.
Opt for cereals with no-added sugar, whole grain bread, oatmeal, or crackers.

Honestly, little high-carb snacks have helped me so much stay focused and full during these first few weeks of medical school and I urge you to try this method too! Please let me know how you are doing and if you feel a difference after a couple days of eating high-carb snacks! Also, I find the Serotonin Power Diet a very balanced way to prevent weight gain.

These are some of my favorite snacks:

Suzie’s Thin Cakes and flatbread
Wasa Crispbread
Cascadian Farm Cinnamon Crunch and Honey Nut O’s Cereal
MestemacherRye and Pumpernickel Bread

<3 Geraldine

References:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077351/

Lunchtime! #food #salad #medschool (Taken with Instagram)

Please appreciate this post. I battled my computer for 2 hours this morning when I need to be reinforcing anatomy/physiology/cell biology/ biochemistry to get this thing up (our first med school test is next week!) It has taken all the patience I’ve gained from practicing Buddhism through my life to not flip out. I haven’t been posting as often because of med school and because my computer’s choking on something and just loves to torture me. wahhhhh help. -___-

That being said…Check out what I had for dinner yesterday!

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich

Ingredients: 1 eggplant, fresh diced tomatoes or salsa, salad greens, salt, pepper, cooking oil, hummus spread, sliced bread (optional if you’re hardcore). Makes 6 mini sandwiches to share (I didn’t eat all of them…)

Directions

Slice your eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds.
Pour oil into a paper towel, and wipe eggplant rounds with the towel. If you have cooking spray or oil-spray, you can use that. This way you are only using a teensy bit of oil necessary for grilling.
Season with salt and pepper.
Heat grilling pan on medium heat.
Grill eggplants 3-4 minutes on each side until brown.
Spread each eggplant round with hummus; top with lettuce and tomatoes!
Sandwich between favorite bread.

So I ate the first one without bread…it was a little daunting, because I don’t particularly LOVE eggplant (like I do butternut squash and tomatoes!). But, I added toasted pumpernickel bread to make a real sandwich and it was delicious, savory, and filling. I could eat eggplant all day if it was sandwiched between rye, sourdough, or any whole grain bread!

But what’s so good about eggplant anyways? Why go through all the trouble to eat it if I don’t like it that much? First off, I always want to try new whole foods, especially vegetables. And, eggplant has so much to offer (with little calories)! 1 cup of cooked eggplant is only about 30 calories! The skin of eggplants contains nasunin, an antioxidant that protects our cells from damage. Studies have shown that nasunin protects the cell membrane of brain cells. Each serving offers 3g of soluble fiber and significant amounts of manganese, calcium, and potassium. Overall, it’s super filling and a great vegetarian substitute for a deli meat or a patty! Also, grilling is a super fast and fresh way to prepare your veggies! My grilling pan looks like this.

So what are you all doing this weekend?

I have lots of materials to cement in my brain, doing a 20-mile run (hopefully it’ll go well enough), seeing my parents, cleaning my room, and going to cook teff for breakfast and eggplant curry for dinner.

Talk to you soon!

Geri

Lunch and snacks for the day! Curry tofu, brown rice, and spring mix in a jar…pumpernickel bread, wasa crispbread, and an orange =] oh and my new lunchbag with a threadless artist design! #food #lunch #medicalschool (Taken with Instagram)

Quinoa with roasted vegetables on top of mixed greens with mango salsa dressing for #lunch #food. Not going to lie…the quinoa mix was prepared from Andronico’s…but I will definitely make my own next time! #vegetarian #eatclean #plantbased #vegan (Taken with Instagram)

Lunch time in between classes! Packed a 3.25 salad to the brim with mixed greens, chickpeas, edamame beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, and brown rice! Hope everyone is doing well! #food #medschool #salad #vegetarian #eatclean (Taken with Instagram)

Hi Everyone! This is what I’m packing for my main lunch entree this week. Making a salad-in-a-jar is so easy and you feel really accomplished for making such a pretty ensemble. There’s only a couple guidelines to follow:

Dressing first.
Add hardest items next.
Top with salad greens.

Glass jars keep your salads fresher for longer so you can make a few of them at the same time and store in the fridge for each day of the week. I used Annie’s fat-free mango dressing, red beans, organic shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, 1/2 orange each, and organic baby kale.

Show me your salad jars and have a great Monday!

~Geraldine

Hello oatmeal with white beans/pear/almond/cinnamon! I was thinking about you all 16 miles this morning <3 #food #love #running #healthy #fitness (Taken with Instagram)

Who here doesn’t like protein powder? I kind of hate it…but still want to add protein to my meals that aren’t so loaded. For example: oatmeal. Oats are like a blank canvas. The possibilities are endless. Try adding chickpeas/garbanzo beans or white beans to morning bowl of oats for more natural, whole protein and fiber. These mildly flavored beans blend right into the oats and you don’t even taste them!

My Powered up Back-to-School Oatmeal:

1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup water
1 apple, pear, or banana
1/2 cup white beans
dashes of cinnamon

Try it and tell me if you like or dislike the beans!

Geraldine