Curried Quinoa Salad & Strawberry Dreams

Lovely mid-week blessings to all. The weather here in San Diego is gorgeous as ever. It's a complete joke to even comment on the sun because it is rarely -NOT- out. So I'll comment instead on the delicious end of season strawberries I picked up for two dollars today. Two pounds for two dollars. It's fantastic. Yes, that doesn't happen every day. I just have to figure out what to do with them. Half will be frozen for future green smoothies--- that's a given, but that still leaves a generous pound to experiment with. I'll think about it before sleep tonight and maybe come up with some unique recipes in my dreams.

Dreams of sun salutations in India inspired this spicy curried salad I created a few nights ago. Quinoa is a favorite of mine. A staple, and always in my (studio make-shift) kitchen. Gluten free and protein packed, low fat and high in fiber. A near perfect food that is quite versatile as well. Combined with curried chickpeas, onion, carrots, tomatoes, sunflower seeds and celery and served with mixed herbs and sliced avocado it made a fantastic meal.

Curried Quinoa Salad

2 C prepared quinoa

1 1/2 C rinsed chickpeas

1 small onion diced

3 roma tomatoes diced

2 carrots, shaved

3 stalks celery chopped

1/3 C sunflower seeds

2 T curry powder

3 T tumeric

2 T garam masala

1/2 C extra virgin olive oil

s & p

Place prepared quinoa in a bowl and set aside. Mix chickpeas with remaining ingredients, coating everything evenly. Combine quinoa with chickpea mixture and refrigerate from thirty minutes before serving. Serve alone or on top of greens. Enjoy!

Any ideas for my plethora of berries?

Black & Blue Sorbet

This weekend included a much needed escape into the mountains, complete with fire, breathtaking scenery, hiking, stars and tons of trail mix. Getting back to reality was a slight bummer, but fresh fruit was highly missed in the wilderness.

A stroll through the Cedros Farmer's Market inspired dinner tonight. Fresh, light, energizing and full of antioxidants. Frozen blended blackberries and blueberries combined with half a frozen banana. Topped with homemade granola (recipe here), fresh blackberries, fresh banana and coconut. Heavenly, refreshing and icy goodness. A respectful tribute to the passing days of summer.

Black and Blue Sorbet

1 C frozen blackberries

1 C frozen blueberries

1/2 frozen banana

1/2 C granola

handful fresh blackberries

1 sliced fresh banana

1/4 C shredded coconut

Combine frozen berries and banana in a food processor until creamy. Add to a bowl, top with granola, fresh berries and sliced banana. Sprinkle with shredded coconut.

What is your favorite light, fruit recipe? Any sorbet combos?

Raw Blueberry Granola

This breakfast left me feeling extraordinarily energized for the rest of the day, minus caffeine. A real feat when work usually leaves me drained by 4 pm. This is a different take on typical granola because all of the ingredients are raw. Nothing cooked. A true rawnola. Yes.

Blueberry Rawnola

1 C fresh blueberries

1/4 C slivered almonds

1/2 C rolled GF oats

2 T. shredded coconut

I topped mine with almond milk, but vanilla hemp is fantastic with it as well.

Any favorite granolas? or rawnolas? Cheers to Tuesday. Bottoms up green smoothie.

Mindful Energy

The Basic Idea of Energy Flow in the Body.

This is part 1 of an ongoing project i'm entertaining myself with. Energy, and all the ways it can be used mentally, physically and spiritually. Bare with me as I answer my own questions whilst I journey along.

Simply, everything we can perceive, see, do and feel is made of energy. Everything in the universe is made of spinning wheels of energy.On the most basic level we can control how we think, move and talk. On a deeper, more concentrated level, we can then control where we are expelling and harnessing energy and storing energy. Everything we do is energetically motivated, and it is a renewable resource. It's constantly being re-used and recycled. Sleeping, eating, thinking, seeing. All these innate human motions use energy, but like all resources, it should be used mindfully.

One of the most simple laws of physics is that any form of energy can be transformed into another form. There are no boundaries to where it can travel and no leaks while transferring. It can be done in a perfectly efficient manner because it can neither be created nor destroyed, only cycled. From one cell to another.

Learning to use, transfer and harness energy is a passion of mine. An even circular flow in energy of the seven chakras lets your body attain an optimal balance and perfect its energy efficiency promoting ultimate health and a sense of well being.

Every life experience is made of energy, and the single most important thing we can do for ourselves is to open up entirely and absorb everything that happens keeping the cycle spinning. Blocking negative experiences and not absorbing and fully dealing with them causes us to block out the universal energy flow, which in causes our chakras to not develop fully-- leading to mental and physical disease of the body.

Chakra balance is an ongoing and mindful task. If one of the chakras is blocked, universal energy will be slowed down throughout the entire body, causing anxious, tired, depressed and sickly feelings.

The most basic way to balance chakras is to be fully aware of them each morning. Making sure our chakras are all open and fully receiving energy. This can be done through yoga. An hour of unifying the body, mind and spirit. If an hour of yoga is not possible with your schedule then just a few minutes of stretching and acknowledging individual body parts can give you the same unifying experience. The idea is to figure out where your body feels well and energetic and where it feels hurt, tired and sore-- both emotionally and physically. Taking a few moments in the morning before leaving the bed to address physical and mental concerns can open up the chakras to ensure a balance in the flow of energy, promoting a sense of wellbeing that flourishes for the entire day.

Do you do anything in particular to promote wellbeing for the day?

Any knowledge of the seven chakras? Any recommendations for my research?

Lululemon Salutation Nation, New Gym & A GIVEAWAY!

I recently moved to southern California. Spur of the moment decision? No, not at all. I've always wanted to live here, ever since my first road trip at 16. The pristine beaches, endless sunshine, cool breeze, love for life and progressive thought all attract me to the area. My new gym is fantastic. It's always set at the perfect temperature, always open, has no membership fee and if I get there early enough in the morning I can spot dolphins jumping just a few meters away. At first it was hard to not have access to a treadmill, rowing machine and weight room, but I got over it as soon as I left my ipod at home and started jamming to the waves. The stairs down the cliffs are killer. A few rounds and my legs are begging for the old elliptical. In a good way.

I've sneaked peeks at a few studios around here and there are a couple I've considered...before looking at the pricing. So until my teacher training ensues I will be doing beach practices as well as partaking in Lululemon's events. Salutation Nation was this

morning and for one hour thousands of people across the country were doing sun salutations, warrior ones, twos and threes and attempting crow pose outdoors in their own cities. Here in San Diego it took place on the Liberty Station Promenade. The vibrations

of the collective om were powerful and the energy being circulated from person to person was epically beautiful.

There's a lovely gift today. CSN home stores has offered to give one of my readers a $60 gift certificate to cookware.com. I've checked out the site and they have everything from beautifully simple, seashore inspired dishes to my favorite, gorgeous Le Creuset dutch oven. All you have to do is leave a comment mentioning it, and you will automatically be entered into the random drawing.

Have you ever relocated and had to completely change your workout regimen?

Anyone attend their local Lululemon Salutation Nation?

Journey Well- Stress Less Travel Tips

Traveling. There is something so incredible about discovering unknown roads, seeing stranger skies and walking new ground. Almost like a rebirth, of seeing things for the first time. It sparks the imagination and puts things in perspective all at the same time. Driving through the desert I can't help but think about life 200 years ago. It would have looked exactly the same, minus interstate and automobiles. Mind Blowing.

But amidst the beauty and joy of travel can lurk stress, tension and irritability. Traveling can test your patience, and make you wish you were at home wrapped in a blanket on the couch. This past week was spent on the road, crossing southern state borders en route from north eastern Kansas to southern California. I loved the journey, but there are a couple of things that made the 3 day road trip bearable, and without them m

y outlook would have been quite dire, I'm sure.

Since it's summer, many will be packing up the cars and heading out to the open road for warm weather advent

ures. I just want to spread the love and make sure people have the best traveling experience possible with just a couple minutes worth of planning. I had an incredibly stress free ride ---In a moving truck with

my mother for three straight days non-the-less.

1.) Pack fresh, raw snacks. Just the thought of having to look for a restaurant on the road that would offer something other than a serving of grease is enough to make my head spin. It's near impossible. I filled a cooler with carrot sticks, celery, hum

mus, tabouli, ezekiel, bananas, strawberries, pistachios, quinoa corn salad and dark chocolate. We did not go hungry and we saved time by not

having to stop and search for eateries.

2.) Find a hotel with a gym. If you work out daily when you're at home

then you should continue that routine on the road. Exercise is the best form of stress release and I know I can get irritated if I'm not able to get a good heart pounding session. Exercise releases endorphins and eases stiff muscles. After a long day of sitting nothing feels better than pounding the treadmill and pumping iron. I located hotels within 30 minutes on my GPS and called each one to find out what they offered.

3.) Burn Sage. I was weary of this at first. I rented a moving truck and really didn't want to risk a fiery accident which would result in buying a new 50,000 dollar automobile. But the truck smelled horrid. A mixture of cigarette smoke and locker room gave the truck intensely strong bad vibes. Nothing was pure about it. So I burned a bowl of sage on the dash for an hour. It was so much better, and left me with a clean slate.

4.) Bring lavender. Lavender is a miracle flower. It is gorgeous live, but once it's dried and crushed the aroma has the ability to calm nerves and clear the mind. I made a sachet of crushed lavender and chamomile in a lavender oil dipped bag which filled the truck with a fresh, light and calming fragrance.

Do you have any travel tips? Any things you won't leave the house without?

An Ultramarathoner's Perspective on Wellness, Diet and Nutrition

Guest post today! From a dear friend, Matt, who transformed his health completely. He decided to change his life and did a complete 180 degree transformation with diet and a new passion for running. I asked him to write about his journey because I find it fascinating and inspiring, hopefully you will too!

Wellness, Diet and Nutrition: An Ultramarathoner’s Perspective

By: CPT Matthew Doellman, RN, BSN

When I was a senior in college, I was your typical beer-guzzling frat boy living off any food that was cheap and came in a box or a can. At the time, I weighed 184 pounds, slept most of the day and was quite proud of my ability to reproduce the “truffle shuffle” from the movie “Goonies”. All of this changed when my girlfriend of four years broke up with me and I found myself single once again. Like any hormone-driven college student, I knew I had to get in shape before I had any chance of picking up girls.

I called my friend Mike Moore from back home to get a diet plan to lose weight. Mike was a former bodybuilder/lifter and at the age of 18 set two world records in weightlifting for a combined bench, dead lift and squat total weight. Mike gave me a radical diet, eliminating almost all carbohydrates and replacing them with lean protein, salad and water. His last words to me were “If you want to lose weight Matt, you have to run your ass off”. So I took his words to heart and that is what I did, literally. I began following his diet down to the finite detail, counting total calories in and out based on my body mass index. I ran each day for an hour, trying to get faster and faster with each passing run. I used to fill a gallon milk jug with water each day and made sure it was done before I went to sleep. Mike told me the importance of hydration and the influence water had on metabolism so I knew this was critical. After eight vigorous weeks on the diet/exercise program I weighted in at a lean 156 pounds, down 28 pounds from just two months before. And indeed my newly shaped physique got me the attention I wanted from the ladies, but we will save those details for a blog of a different nature.

The previous events in my life set me up for my later obsession with diet, nutrition and running. I became very intrigued with how eating properly and exercising on a regular basis made a person look and feel. I began searching for the perfect diet, experimenting with low-carb diets, high protein diets, vegetarian, vegan, Neanderthal, and all genres of the extremes. My search ultimately led me to how I practice today, which is simply following the food guide pyramid and eating a well-balanced diet free from trans fats and hydrogenated oils. I eat very little meat, all lean and usually chicken. Typically I drink nothing but water, a little milk, and eat whole grain breads and pastas. Mostly, I love fresh fruits and vegetables! I enjoyed experimenting with the extremes of diet and this was what I found to be most beneficial with my lifestyle and wellness beliefs. For me, balance is key and I have maintained my weight for the last four years.

I later graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO and became an Emergency Room Nurse for the Army. I continued running every day, usually the same 4.2 mile loop around where I lived in Manhattan, KS. I met a friend who was a big marathoner and he talked me into running my first marathon, which I did in 3h33min with very little training. While in KS, I met CPT Jules Meyers, a former Special Forces Medical Sergeant. He also shared a passion for running and told me all about ultramarathons, or any run greater than 26.2 miles. I was both shocked and intrigued at the concept, but ultimately I knew I was up for the challenge. I began running farther and farther each day until I was running marathons as training runs. My first ultra was a hilly 40 mile race through mud and rock around Clinton Lake in KS and I did very well. I continued training hard, running farther and farther, logging more miles with each passing week.

Finally I put myself to the ultimate ultramarathon challenge and took a plane out to Ohio and ran the Mohican Trail 100 mile ultramarathon in the heat of summer with over 11,000 feet of ascent in just over 26 hours. I realized then that the limits of human performance were much farther than I could have ever dreamed. Our bodies are like an automobile in that if you put the proper fuel in them and provide the necessary maintenance, their is no telling how far you can take them. I continue to run each day and follow my normal diet, although I have to consume between 4500-8000 calories/day in the heat of my training for a big ultra. I weighed in at 149.8 pounds yesterday and at 6‘0’‘ am at what I would consider “fighting weight” for my upcoming race. On July 31st I will be flying to the Burning River 100 mile ultramarathon to compete in the United States Track and Field national championship. If everything goes well, this will be my fourth 100 mile ultramarathon I will have completed and sixth ultramarathon total. My secret to success with running is twofold- proper diet and following the words Mike told me years ago and simply running my ass off!

I am always excited to see a new message from Jenna’s Wellness Blog and get many ideas for recipes from here frequently. My favorite part about Jenna’s Wellness blog is how she uses it as a tool to both share her experiences and learn from other people’s perspectives on diet, exercise and wellness. It takes a special discipline to follow a healthy dietary and exercise regimen and the typical practices in American society today make it difficult. Banning together through blogging and networking is a great way to keep the discipline and share with others enjoyable ways to stay the course. I have greatly enjoyed her adventures with diet and am always eager to try out new recipes and foods. I appreciate Jenna for asking me to share my experiences with diets and running and hope you all find the wellness you are searching for.

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."

-T.S. Eliot