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Friday, May 24, 2013

New Greenberry Shakeology...but is it improved?



Zach and I drink Shakeology every day. Every. Single. Day. We drink it because we think nutrition is really important, and Shakeology is the best formulated shake out there. It gives us everything we need, and it's pretty much the only supplement we use, aside from from some occasional Whey protein powder and Recovery Formula on Shaun T days. I don't even take a multivitamin, because all that (and more) is in Shakeology.

We get all three flavors -- chocolate, tropical strawberry, and greenberry -- delivered to our house on a rotating basis. Chocolate is always available (because it's delicious and tastes like a chocolate shake), and greenberry and strawberry rotate every other month.

Until now I have merely tolerated greenberry. It was the flavor most Beachbody Coaches loved to hate. It's not that it was undrinkable -- I found that it was fine with some vanilla protein powder and a citrus fruit or juice mixed in (orange or pineapple). But I didn't love it like I do chocolate. (When I decide to have chocolate Shakeology for breakfast, by 9am I'm sad because I don't have a shake to look forward to that day).

So when Beachbody announced that they gave greenberry a makeover, I was interested to see how it would taste. Earlier this week we had a family-wide taste test:


We have a winner! Upon second (and third) drinking of greenberry, I'd describe it as berry vanilla-ish. Very light and smooth, and it mixes well with other flavors. I threw some raspberries in the other day and it was really good. I can whole-heartedly recommend greenberry now (something that I couldn't do before. Before I warned people that it tasted very..."Healthy").

Here are the technical details on the other changes to the formula:
  • Reduced calories from 140 to 130 per serving
  • Reduced Sugars from 11g to 6g per serving! (5 grams less than before!)
  • Reduced Total Carbs from 19g to 13g per serving
  • Increased Protein from 16g to 17g per serving
  • Fiber increased from 3g to 4g due to the addition of pea protein and increase in super greens.
  • Reduced fructose necessary in the formula due to the addition of Luo Han Guo
  • We added Shakeology's newest superfoods: Luo Han Guo, Moringa and Himalayan Salt.
  • We increased the amount of super-greens (it is Greenberry after all!) and included an even more delicious natural flavor which works more harmoniously with the formula to makes Greenberry sweeter and fruitier.
  • Green tea used is no longer decaffeinated — therefore it is less "processed".
    • (Note: Green tea is naturally very low in caffeine).
  • Plus we incorporated the improvements we made recently to Chocolate:
    • More concentrated grasses. We're using grass juice powders. The grasses are first pressed into juices—which allows us to concentrate the nutrients—then the juice is further concentrated into a powder. (Before we were just grinding the grasses themselves into powders)
    • Better strain of probiotics
  • No suma root or blue-green algae
  • Still Low Glycemic Index
There is always a 30-day "Bottom of the Bag" money-back guarantee on Shakeology. If you want to try some for yourself, contact me or visit this website. It just makes your body run better!

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Workout of the Day
Asylum 2 - X Trainer

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The eggs of our labor

The poop. The picking. The chicken bathing.

It's all led up to this moment:


Our first chicken egg! Laid by Roxie the Leghorn on Tuesday. I found it in the coop under the roosting bars on Tuesday afternoon, and from the way I whooped and danced a jig you'd have thought I laid an egg myself!

I brought it with me when I picked up the kids so I could show them, and then we took it to Zach's school so he could see, too. We were so darn excited about that egg!

You can see in the picture that it was slightly cracked. I don't know if it was laid while she was on the roosting bar and so it cracked when it hit the coop or if she stepped on it, but since it was cracked we elected not to eat it. I did crack it open and it looked like a perfect, tiny egg!

Then last night after dinner Kate was looking out the back window and declared that she thought there was an egg in the yard...and she was right! We all piled out to have a look, and there was a minutes-old egg that Roxie had laid! This one was bigger, but had a much thinner shell.


I made a video to show you just how thin the shell is and what the inside looks like.



Here are a few egg laying facts that I've learned over the past few weeks:
  • Chickens will lay about one egg per day. The record is seven eggs in one day.
  • It's common that the first eggs that a chicken lays are small with thin shells.
  • It's common that the first eggs will have multiple yolks. The record is nine yolks in a single egg!
  • Yes, the eggs do come out the same hole that poop comes out of, but they do not come down the same canal as poop -- so they aren't all yucky when they come out.
  • You can teach a chicken to lay eggs in a coop by putting some golf balls there for a little while. (Looks like we're going to have to do that.)
  • Fresh chicken eggs are still good for up to 21 days without having to be in a refrigerator. I'm not going to test that -- I plan to refrigerate.
  • Since we don't have a rooster, these eggs will never become chicks, even if the hens lay on them.
  • You have to be careful to collect eggs daily lest the hens become attached and want to sit on them, which is called getting "broody."
I did eat the double-yolked egg this morning. I had to add one store egg to make my usual two-eggs and kale breakfast, but the eggs were rich and creamy!

I have to admit that it was kind of weird to eat the egg, though. I know that the store eggs come from chickens, but there is something somewhat odd about going and collecting something that came out of an animal in your backyard and consuming it. I suppose it's not much different than harvesting the squash or tomatoes from the garden, but I'm just not quite wrapping my head around it yet. 

Meanwhile, I can't help but wonder what Roxie thinks about all this. She's the first one to lay eggs in the flock...is she the equivalent to the first girl in fifth grade to wear a bra or get her period? Are the Rhode Island Reds snickering behind her back about the eggs dropping out of her butt? Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the coop.

Changing chicken subjects, we do still have Polly the Picker. For the past two weeks she has been sentenced to solitary confinement, which really isn't confinement at all -- she gets free range of the yard while the others hang in the coop. If they are together, it has to be supervised to make sure she does not pick (or is dealt with accordingly if she does).

Zach read that spreading Vicks Vapor Rub on the picked chicken's behind would prevent picking, and as humiliating as it was to spread Vicks on a chicken butt, I'm pleased to report that it seems to have worked. Polly rubbed her beak on the ground something fierce when she got a beakful of that Vicks, and since then she has seemed to lay off a bit.

Last night before bed we knew that bad storms were on the way, and I knew that if Polly were to spend the night in her bin (her temporary coop) overnight, she'd be flung far and wide by the wind. So we made the tough decision to let her stay in the coop. I spread some extra Vicks on Roxie, and let her in.

Overnight I dreamed that when we let the chickens out of the coop the next day that Roxie stumbled out completely featherless.

Perhaps I'm a bit obsessed?

They were fine this morning. Seem to have weathered the storm just fine.

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Workout of the Day
P90X Yoga


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Clean make-up brushes

Yesterday my Mom called me up to tell me that she saw my make-up brush cleaning pin on Pinterest and that she tried it out. Naturally, I had no idea what she was talking about since I pin things and never revisit them. But she told me that I definitely needed to try this out!

The pin was a cleaning solution for make-up brushes. It calls for 1 cup of hot water, one tablespoon of white vinegar and one tablespoon of liquid Dawn dish soap. 

Here are my results:

The brushes and the detergent before brush immersion.

The brushes while being cleaned.
Disgusting! And, awesome! While I'm really pleased how well this cleaning solution worked, I'm pretty disgusted that I've been running those filthy brushes on my face for, like, I don't know...three years? Five years now? I don't track these things.

This is the second time in as many days that I've used the vinegar and Dawn super cleaning solution, as I'm a super fan of the "Magic Shower Cleaning Solution" of hot vinegar and Dawn (see more here).

Try this out! It's fast, easy, and you probably have all the tools already in your house to give your make-up brushes a good cleaning. Your pores will thank you!

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Workout of the Day
Insanity Pure Cardio

B-A-N-A-N-A-S!


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Top 3 Pinterest Recipes I'm Not Cooking Right Now

After a rocky start with Pinterest, I'm now completely on board with that time-suck of a website. I pin and ogle, pin and ogle, again and again and again. My favorite place to pin is while waiting in the never-ending car line at the kids' school. Have you noticed that the pins on the mobile Pinterest seem much more interesting than the ones on the computer?

Here's the thing about Pinterest, though: do you ever actually go back and visit your own boards? Are you making the recipes that you've pinned to your food board?

I sure as heck don't!

But if I did, here's what I would fix:

Honey Crisp, Kiwi, Raspberry Salad

One of my favorite salads, and so refreshing - Honey Crisp Apple Slices, Kiwi Slices, and a handful of frozen Raspberries, mixed in with Vanilla Yogurt.  Even non-yogurt lovers will like this!

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with some vanilla yogurt. So easy...why haven't I done this? Oh yeah, because I don't visit my own boards!
P.S. Those don't look like Honey Crisp apples...seems to be Granny Smith from the looks of it.

Quinoa, Red Pepper, Cucumber Salad

quinoa salad

This one's even got an official recipe. Maybe that's why I haven't fixed it.

No Bake Pumpkin Bites

Vegan No Bake Pumpkin Balls from The Cleaner Plate Club

Oh wait! I have made these...but only because I was the one who found the recipe and made it into a pin for Pinterest. Doesn't count!

And finally,

Sunflower Cupcakes

sunflower cupcakes!

I know those aren't healthy, but they are adorable and my daughter has a birthday coming up this weekend. I just may need to break my streak and actually use one of my Pinterest pins.

Do you use Pinterest in the way it was intended?

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Workout of the Day

P90X Core Synergistics


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Blood on their beaks

I promise that this will not turn from a fitness blog into a chicken blog, but I must share a rather traumatic story that I'm just now completely coming to terms with.

When we left the story last week, the Leghorn biddies, Nadine and Roxie, were ruling the roost over the Rhode Island Red newbies, Ginger and Polly. I was deeply ingrained in the Reds' corner, as they were being persecuted and bullied by the Leghorns.

Oh my, how the tables turned!

Early last week I noticed that Nadine's behind was not only featherless, but also had a giant patch of raw, irritated skin.

It is here where I must apologize to the Googling public, because I am responsible for what will be a shocking and grievous autofilled search option the next time someone Googles:

"Why does my..."

and the words

"chicken have a bloody butt?"

are displayed as a selection choice.

It was me. I Googled that question to find out why my chicken had a bloody butt. What ELSE are you supposed to do when your chicken has a bloody butt?

To say the least, the children and I were alarmed. Hindsight is 20/20 (and in this case I really wish it wasn't, as you can't un-see the hind of wounded chicken), but at that point I should have put Nadine in quarantine. But I didn't know! I didn't know.

It was late in the evening, so I put the birds up in their coop and checked Nadine in the morning. She looked...okay, I guess. Not good. Not better. But not really worse and again -- what are you supposed to do about something like this? I briefly considered bathing her to clean the wound, but I knew the weather was scheduled to dip down to the 40s, and I read that chickens aren't supposed to be wet and cold. So I put them back in the coop. (Misguided new chicken owner!)

The next morning I got the kids off to school, and went out to check on the chickens.

When I peeked in the coop, I saw one of the Reds with blood on her beak.

Nadine was trapped in the corner of the coop with her hind end sticking out, and it was torn open and bloody. She was dripping blood everywhere. I panicked. Why was she bleeding so bad? Why was there blood on the Red's beak?

I ran inside and called Zach, my voice reaching screeching decibels usually reserved for children doing something very wrong. It just so happened that Sprint was working on a very annoying outage in our area, and so my husband heard only about every fifth word that I screeched. In so many words he told me that he had eight things going on right now, he's not at the house and cannot help me, and do whatever I wanted with the bleeding chicken. I forced a DROPPED CALL.

WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS?????

I went out to the coop and surveyed the situation. Nadine was trapped in the corner and was either too scared or too wounded to get out. I ran inside and grabbed some rags to cover her head (I didn't want to get  pecked) and pulled her out. She walked around, got some food and water, and acted...fine. Sort of fine. I went inside and donned an old flannel shirt, latex gloves, and my poop boots. (As a chicken owner, I now have a designated pair of "poop boots." We all do!)

I gathered a basin, filled it with warm water and Epsom salts, and set up the basin inside the shop. I also prepared a box with some shavings, food, and water so Nadine could rest after her bath.

I went outside and gathered up that enormous bird (I would wager she weighed 7 or 8 pounds), and brought her in for her bath.

How do you suppose giving a chicken a bath would go? I imagined it would be squawky, with feathers flying and hijinks to be had. Not so much. Nadine sat very quietly while I soaked her nether regions in the bath. I held her there gently and talked to her softly and she was a really good girl. After a few minutes I wrapped her up in the rags, dried her as best as I could, and put her in the box.

Now that she was secure, I scoured the Internet to see what I should do next.

Naturally, my first stop was to register myself on the message boards of mybackyardchicken.com and post an urgent message on the Chicken Emergency boards. There were all manor of crises going on on this page; chicks smashed by doors, chickens partially eaten by dogs, chickens with bumblefoot, chickens with Marek's, chickens that had been...nearly pecked to death by other chickens. WHAT?????

Apparently some chickens, referred to as "Pickers", will peck other chickens to death if they sense weakness in another bird.

This is Polly The Picker. If you see her, steer clear. She has issues.
So THAT'S why my Red had a bloody beak. She wasn't an innocent bystander...she was an attempted murderer!!! Oh man, that's rich. Here I thought the poor little Reds were being bullied by the Leghorns, when it turns out that the new girls were picking on the fat girls!

I read all manner of tricks to heal the wounded chicken and cure the picker. I jotted down some medicine to pick up at Tractor Supply. Before I left to get the kids from school I checked on Nadine. She still sat in the box quietly.

When I picked up the kids, I told them the whole dramatic story, and said we'd need to doctor Nadine when we got home. After snack time, I grabbed the medicine and the kids and I went to the shop to see what we could do.

When we opened the door, Nadine was laying down dead with her head in the water (later my husband would ask if I thought she drowned. Uhhh...no). I tried to back out before the kids came in, but they scrambled in beside me to have a look.

Man, the memories we're making for the kids with these chickens! I can hardly wait to pay for therapy hear about it 10 years down the road.

We filed out of the shop and had a moment. "I'm sorry, you guys," I said. "She didn't make it." They were sad for a beat and then it turned to annoyance. "Now we only have three chickens!" Drew said. "Does this mean Nadine has to go back to the wild?" Kate asked.

It was a dramatic end to a dramatic day. In the end, I'm glad she went quickly. My guess is she either bled out or died from the shock of being pecked within an inch of her life by a fellow bird and then given a bath by an insane human.

The days since Nadine's death have been spent being protective of Roxie, the lone Leghorn and only chicken left from our original flock. We have discovered that Polly is The Picker, and we have caught her nipping at Roxie's behind in the same area where Nadine's wound appeared. Most of the time they seem to live in harmony, but there are times when we have to fly out of the house to shoo Polly away from Nadine.

I tell you what, I was not prepared to be a chicken owner.

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Workout of the Day
P90X Back and Biceps