day 69: running in the a.m.

First, and most importantly, the winner of the 5 Days of Healing with Everyday Superfoods tutorial is Blair.

Blair says: My favorite superfood right now is chia! I always add some to my oatmeal, but recently I’ve been enjoying chia puddings as after dinner treat.

Congrats! I’ve already started reading through my copy of the tutorial and it is really awesome so far. It’s got loads of information about superfoods as well as a full 5 days of meal plans with recipes.

Today wasn’t very exciting in terms of foods. I have so many leftovers from Good Friday and Easter that I’ll be eating them for days!

My workout today was stellar, though. Since schools had a holiday today, Matt was able to come weightlifting with me. Yay! I’ve been needing a spotter. I was able to get in 6 full reps of almost each exercise.

Bench Press:                       110lb (4 sets x 6 reps)
Bent-over Barbell Row: 100lb (4 sets x 6 reps)
Shoulder Press:                    35lb (4 sets x 5 reps)
Skullcrushers:                       55lb (3 sets x 6 reps); 60lb (1 set x 5 reps)
Barbell Bicep Curl:              55lb (4 sets x 5 reps)

I’m trying out the whole cardio in the AM and weights in the PM again this week. So far, I have a bit of an issue with the AM cardio. I have to break up my run with bathroom breaks  TMI, I know, but I’m sure that other people run into this problem too.

I came across this article about 7 ways to prevent runner’s diarrhea. Most of the tips involve avoiding eating or consuming particular things (like dairy or caffeine) prior to a run — none of which are applicable to my morning workout. On the bright side, at the gym you’re never to far from a toilet. Do you have a problem with the runs from your runs?

day 65: superfoods

So back in January I took part in a 3-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse hosted by Meghan Telpner at Making Love in the Kitchen. I read her blog daily because she always posts interesting and informative nutrition facts and it’s fun to read. The Green Smoothie tutorial is what kicked off my Green Smoothie weekends that I was doing for Lent. In it was  in-depth background information on the nutritional benefits of several smoothie ingredients, as well as a whole whack of smoothie recipes.

I’m really excited to take part in her April challenge: 5 Days of Healing with Everyday Superfoods!

If food is what is making us sick in our society, what if we amp up our diets and use food to resolve the problem too? What if we looked at food as our fuel, as our medicine and made it easy, delicious, and so uber powerful that our body had no choice but to heal and repair itself? That is what this tutorial is about. I will show you how to incorporate these superfoods into your everyday eating.

Sounds Super

If you want to Win a Copy of the 5 Days of Healing with Everyday Superfoods, leave a comment below explaining your favourite superfood and how you like to eat it.
You can get additional entries for each of the following: 1) Tweet about the giveaway (include @SamanthaAngela), 2) Blog about the giveaway, 3) Add Bikini Birthday to your Google Reader, 4) Add Making Love in the Kitchen to your Google Reader.
Leave a comment for each additional entry.

I’ll pick a winner on April 5th.