Exercise Is My Medicine

You are crazy.

I must hear this at least once or twice a week, sometimes more. It is no hidden fact that I love to exercise. I love to run, but even on my non running days I am at the gym working out in some way shape or form.

Why am I so hooked on sweating?

It is my medicine. Pure and simple. I feel like I am alive after a great workout, and there is nothing that can take me from feeling lousy and depressed to on top of the world in 30 minutes like a great workout can.

Exercise is my medicine. Exercise releases endorphins that make the body and mind feel good. It allows the brain to release those feel good chemicals. It is the healthiest most natural high you can give yourself.

I have never met a person who said they hated the fact that they worked out all the time. I have never met a person who would admit that they did not feel awesome after a great workout. I have pushed clients in the gym time and time again and it always ends with them hating me during the workout, but after it is over they are smiling and thanking me for pushing them. Why? Because exercise is good. Exercise makes us feel good.

Our bodies were made to exercise. We were hunters and gatherers, we were designed to be moving around all day. Unfortunately and fortunately we have become an advanced society that does not have to hunt and gather food just to survive. We can walk into a store and buy it, heck if you do not want to leave your couch you can order it and have it delivered!

This leaves one very big problem: a lack of exercise in our daily living.

We need it to survive, I promise you if you exercise for at least 30 minutes once a day every single day you will feel amazing! Many people do not realize how little they actually get out and exercise anymore. It can start with simply parking your car at the end of the parking lot to sneak in an extra walk, or always making a point to take the stairs. Make time in your schedule for 20-30 minutes at least 5 days a week and build from there. Baby steps, like I always say, small changes over time lead to that big major shift from a sedentary unhealthy life style to a positive active healthy and happy one!

Exercise is the best medicine. It helped me come off 7 medications, one for depression and 2 for RA. Exercise became the best way for me to deal with a lot of negativity in my life, it helped me feel better and more comfortable in my own body. It helps me relieve stress even on the toughest of days.

Exercise is such a positive way to help you feel better both mentally and physically, so I recommend it!

What are some ways you sneak in your exercise?

Vegan Breakfasts

I started tweeting and posting pics on facebook of my breakfasts and I got the immediate, send me the recipe please! I honestly never even think to jot them down soemtimes as I am in the kitchen creating, but I am trying to get better about it, so here are some of my favorite new break fast ideas that do not involve eggs. I must admit, they are the things I have missed the most since going vegan. I was ok giving up meat, I was only doing lean turkey and chicken breast anyways and not at all meals. I was already dairy free so that part was easy. But my eggs and egg beaters, those were tough.

But I have found that I can still enjoy  breakfast without missing them too much. The thing I miss most, I found a replacement for that kind of works. So I thought I would share :)

First, I have embraced gluten free oats again. Being grain free for a long timme, a year perhaps? I missed it. So now I have been having old fashioned oats, oat bran, or this gluten free whole grain grit type of cereal I found. I alternate around so I do not get bored! I make them with a cup of unsweetened almond, coconut, or flax milk and put in some frozen berries. I find if I have time I like to cook them on the stove but if I am in a rush the microwave works well too.

But when I am racing, or long running on weekends I need something portable. So I came up with a bake, a take along item I can bake ahead of time and take with me.

Vegan Pumpkin Bake (this is the title I used in My Fitness Pal)

1 can 29oz of pure pumpkin
1 medium banana (or you can use a large jar of banana baby food I like doing that sometimes)
1/2 cup natural apple sauce
4 tbsp flax meal (a great egg replacement)
cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened flax milk (almond milk etc)
2 cups old fashioned oats
stevia to taste

All I do is mix all together and bake in the oven for about 45 min to an hour at 350. I cut it into 4 sections and each serving is 300 calories so It gives you a solid breakfast option especially when on the go. Sometimes I will eat it with some raw almonds or walnuts when I am in a hurry.

To get the feeling of my egg scrambke back I came up with this.

1 serving of Arrowhead Mills gluten free brown rice grits its called Orgnaic Rise and Shine and a serving is 1/4 cup. I make it in a small sauce pan on the stove with  1 cup of plain almond milk. While that is going on I saute some veggies in 1 teaspoon of olive oil. I used zuchinni, tomato, onion, peppers and spinach this time. Then when the veggies were done and cereal I combined the 2 in the pot and added 1/4 cup of Daiya cheddar vegan shreds. The Daiya cheese is my favorite vegan cheese it melts and tastes great!

The result was a yummy scramble of veggies, grits, and cheese and it curbed my egg scramble craving.