New Store, New Puppy = Eek!

Hey team!  I just wanted to update as to my whereabouts these days!  (I hate posts that explain the lack of posts, but I do understand the concept.) 

The new store opened to great success and crowds.. Yowzers!  It was awesome to see the line of people around the block to get in at the Grand Opening at 7 am.  We answered tons of "health food" questions and hopefully we'll start to establish our store as the place to go for healthy eats in the neighborhood.  Needless to say, I be workin my butt off, nailing some extra hours helping out as much as I can. 

On top of that..we got a puppy!!!!!!  He is adorable and quite the happy little lab-pit bull mix.  And wouldn't you know.. I investigated dog food nutrition and we are feeding him organic kibble.  :)  So between the store's grand opening and the grand puppy arrival, leisure time at the computer is scarce. 

However, I have been nibbling on some new healthy eats, just to test more and more of the awesome items in our section.  (Though many of these trials are processed and probably won't stick around in my daily intakes, I like to have tasted them so I can deliver knowledge-based service when customers ask opinions of me.)  A very quick review of 4 items:

Look Mom, Straight A's!

Healthy nutrition in action!  Yesterday there was a free health screening at work, where a bunch of nurses came in and set up a little circuit to measure height, weight, waist:hip ratio, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol.  I am stoked to report that my results were great, no doubt due to clean nutrition and regular exercise. 

I was especially excited about a cholesterol total level of 154; my brother has high cholesterol and had me convinced that it was a hereditary thing.  (Total cholesterol level should be under 200.)  It may or may not be, but I seem to be kicking its butt regardless.  The waist:hip ratio was also an interesting health measurement.  I ranked a 71, which means I'm in a group of decreased risk for diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.  Hooray!

The only two blips I encountered, one of which I was already aware, is that I tend to have lower blood sugar and I have low blood pressure.  The nurse verified that these were likely due to a healthy cardiovascular system and a sodium-controlled diet.  I do get a little dizzy occasionally upon standing, but I've had low blood pressure ever since I lost the first 30 pounds and I'm careful about it.  I wish I had my exact results from a physical from when I was 40 pounds heaveier for comparison.  I think I intentionally blacked out the specifics, but I remember it wasn't pretty.  The nurses were definitely singing a different tune this round!

Weekend Sugar Buzz

Happy 5th of July to all my fellow USA'ers.  What a busy weekend of celebrating!  Hope you all enjoyed some sunshine and were successful in monitoring holiday food indulgences.  I admit that I wasn't as neat and tidy in my intake as I would have liked, and that is why I'm currently sitting here typing away, sweaty as a pig from my ouchie badass combo lift-and-sprint workout this morning.  I'm quite proud of Ed and I for getting our butts out of bed so early to get good workouts in before the 'dangerous heat wave' arrives.  Feels like it's already here to me!  I will confine myself to the air conditioning as much as possible for the rest of the day, water bottle in hand. 

I was surprised this weekend by how many sweet foods I was surrounded with at each party.  Each barbecue/meal/ whatever had a display of muffins or cupcakes or pie or brownies or cookies etc. etc. etcetera.  Attack of the SUGARS!  Added sugar is probably my biggest dietary no-no, considering I am an apple-shape type of girl, and excess sugar always finds its way right to my belly.  So what's a girl with a sweet tooth to do?

Good Eats at the Relay for Life

Hello friends.. just finished up my bee pollen-laced oatmeal breakfast and am ready to get my busy day going.  This weekend should be fun and very active - I'm a Team Captain (should I capitalize that?  ... I'm going to.. it makes me feel special.) in the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  I'll be coordinating my small but mighty team in this 24-hour walk to raise some money (and have some fun while we're at it.)  My team includes myself, my brother, my Mom (who's flying in from Ohio to offer up some laps and help us out), and my friend Nancy from an ex-jobsite of mine from days gone by.  At this point, with the Relay starting tomorrow, I have an afternoon crammed with last-minute preparations and organization.

Apart from the fact that the weather report for the entirety of the 24 hours is 90 degrees F and 40% chance thunderstorms (eek.) my first priority was... FOOD!  Of course.  Though we'll be walking our butts off (at least one representative from the team needs to be walking the track at all times) and burning some extra calories, I didn't want us to use that as an excuse to go overboard and be cramming a bunch of junk into our systems all weekend.  So here's the general food list we have going..

Buzz Off!

BUZZ Buzzzz Buzzz buzzz... anyone else notice how it sounds like giant bees are in attendance at every World Cup game??  My house has recently been inundated in the bee-buzz-like bullhorns of international soccer as Ed has suddenly become obsessed with seeing every game in the series.  I like them too so I have no complaints - and I swear this wasn't meant to be a lame segue into today's post, merely a vignette into my nice day at home with Ed, but it inevitably is a nice introduction to my nutrition topic du jour, so I'm just gonna roll with it. 

Bee pollen!  ..What the hell?..  That's what I said anyway, when the fourth customer in two days had bee pollen questions for me in my store.  By Shopper #4 I knew where our bee pollen supplement selection was located, but not a whole hell of a lot about it and why Shoppers #1-4 were willing to spend $8 on it.  Then I kept coming across it as a supplement listed in many a meal plan on TheKitchenTable.  Interest officially piqued, I needed to see what was up.  So the other night, blissfully free of chemistry homework and gymtime over with, I attacked the internet for info on this hippie-hype-sounding "nutrient." 

As it turns out, I spent eight of my very own dollars on a jar of pollen granules one week ago, and have officially begun my 'Pollen Potential Testing Period'..