Super Strawberry Smoothie & Salad

It's a Strawberry Kind of Day

Smoothies - Wheat Germ, Flax Seed, and Strawberries
When we were in the local A&P last week, my partner decided to get some wheat germ.  I am not sure he knew what he was going to do with it but he figured it looked healthy so why not?

While researching what to do with wheat germ, I found a recipe for a blueberry peach and wheat germ smoothie.  Since then I have taken to adding wheat germ to my smoothies alternated with flax seeds.  I find the flax seeds are better when I prep a smoothie the night before and they can sit in the yogurt and almond milk until the morning, but the wheat germ is great on the go!  I have a the Oster shake blender so I can prep everything in the container slap on a lid, wrap in tinfoil and drink a smoothie at work.  The tinfoil is just in case it leaks, it doesn't destroy my shoes or workout gear. Wheat germ just needs to be shaked up once I get to work.

This allows me to have a filling breakfast after teaching in the morning without a lot of work and it is something I can drink in meetings and on the go.  People often think I have coffee, turns out it's goop.

This morning I used some 1 tbsp wheat germ with:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 big spoonful plain yogurt (exact measurements are not happening after the gym and before work)
• 5 or 6 big strawberries, mine were frozen.
• 1 banana
• 6 or 7 chunks of pineapple - it looked delicious in the store so I bought it

Salads - Strawberry Avocado
Salads are my go to for a busy day. I often will bring leftover chicken or tuna in a pouch and have that in addition to a salad bought at the Fresh & Co.  But today I made my own salad in a leftover sushi container with a recipe from Facebook! It included:

• Big Bunch of Spinach Leaves
• 6 strawberries cut up
• 1 avocado cubed
• handful of sliced almonds
• 1 tbsp feta
• 1 piece of cut up chicken
• balsamic dressing 

*photos from the internet

A Runner's Vacation In Paradise

I have not been as diligent as a good blogger should. Unfortunately, the work/life balance lately has landed often squarely on the work side, leaving me to not have as much time for fun blog posts.  However, I have been following a pretty good diet leading up to our big trip to Costa Rica, which is now officially over!  Back to freezing NYC COLD.  However, the days in Nosara were beautiful, pura vida!  I will happily return next year and look forward to perfecting my surfing skills.  It's a great vacation since you don't feel bad eating since much of the food is healthy fish and greens and they have a juice bar and you're always on the go!  It's just a few cocktails and desserts thrown in for good measure.  But returning was rough!

In the meantime, under six months to go for the wedding, the 5 month countdown starts right before St. Patty's and we're hoping to sign up for some races this weekend, so back to the diet and hopefully back to the blog to share with you my Tuesday boot camps, Spinning Profiles, races and recipes.

I did get to use my favorite Oscar Spinning Profile this past Wednesday, from Fame to 8 Mile, all Oscar nominees,so that was a lot of fun, and made returning to the cold not as bad.  But, in commemoration of my trip a few pics from a perfect vacation.  We started each day at 6am with a sunrise run on the beach then had a healthy breakfast, did some surfing and yoga with a stop at the juice bar, hit the pool for siesta, had some drinks, sunset surfs, and more.  We stayed at the Harmony Hotel Nosara, which is just beautiful and a 5 minute walk to the beach.  I would recommend it in a minute.

Our back porch at the resort.  There was an outdoor shower too! And specially made products from Red Flower that smelled amazing!

We started every morning with a run along this beach. 

There's nothing like having your toes in the sand!

Another view of our back porch, you can see how much time we spent in the water by the suits and this my surfboard and our shower!  I did much better surfing this time.  I am still learning but it's going better. 

And it was a 5 minute walk to the beach and we ended with either a sunset surf or evening stroll.  This palm tree marks the path back to the resort and was the sign of our run ending, which when it was 90 degrees was well earned. 

And sometimes we ended the night with a few cocktails! This is a tropical sangria.

Nosara has the most beautiful sunsets!

You always have to buy something on vacation!