Awesome Ancient Treat

5.13

Our pantry always needs great snacks, and eating clean doesn't have to be weird or boring. So I have kept dark chocolate as a great superfood feature in our pantry since I started my wellness lifestyle. Chocolate has been renowned as beneficial ever since it was commercially produced in the late 1800's.

And for good reason. Chocolate is a genuine superfood and offers numerous benefits that go well with a healthy lifestyle. See this great article from Dr. Josh Axe, highlighting seven benefits of dark chocolate:
7 Awesome Benefits of Dark Chocolate

This ancient treat can help with everything from fighting cancer to improving heart health and cholesterol, to giving us better cognitive function. Note these benefits are focused on dark chocolate (which has 70% cacao solids, compared to milk or Dutch chocolate, which have lower amounts.)

The mild amount of caffeine offers a pick-me-up, and the taste just keeps us coming back for more. So find an all-natural dark chocolate to add to your pantry, and enjoy this healthful addition to your snacks and desserts.

By the Way

I found a great chocolate brand at Target: Guittard's makes an all-natural dark chocolate for baking (chips and wafers, etc.) It is made with sunflower lecithin instead of soy. I avoid legumes, and the majority of dark chocolate chips or bars have soy lecithin as an emulsifier. I also look for cane sugar instead of corn syrup, and no artificial flavors or vanillan.

A Genuine Memorial Day

5.12

The next installment of my 2018 celebration of turning 50 is a legitimate memorial event to celebrate Memorial Day. Some time ago I was introduced to The Murph Challenge (likely through CrossFit videos on YouTube...). Memorial Day Monday, I'll be grindin' it out, doing this classic workout, in honor of Lt. Michael P Murphy.



Lt Murphy fought for our country as a Navy SEAL, and lost his life in 2005 near Asadabad, Afghanistan. Learn more about his heroic investment in his team here. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Murph Challenge workout is something Lt. Murphy was know for among his comrades. This self-styled PT was something Murph embraced, and invited others into. The workout?
1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run
All with a military body-armor vest on (about 20 pounds)

Years ago, this workout caught on as a great, simple cardio, upper-body and leg workout, and was promoted in military circles before catching on with CrossFit. The Murph Challenge is now repeated world-wide in honor of Lt. Murphy.

A month or so ago I registered for the Murph Challenge, and I've been preparing mentally and physically since. How about you? What's on your wellness calendar? Are you reviewing your pantry or your physical activity for 2018? Have you added anything beneficial recently? There is no time like the present.

By the Way

I'll be doing the Murph Challenge without the body armor vest. I will do the run with my 25 pound sandbag, but the arm and leg portions will just be body-weight. And the point is to do the workout for time. Without the weight vest, I should be able to finish in about 45-50 minutes. We'll see... And maybe this will become a yearly tradition for me - our military deserves our honor and acknowledgement.

Add Yogurt to Your Pantry

5.11

Fermented foods are just plain good for you, and the most common and available is yogurt. Our gut has a 'microbiome' which benefits from healthy bacteria, and fermented foods offer great bacteria for our overall health.

Probiotic foods like yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi all offer healthy bacteria, which hold a host of benefits. Healthy bacteria can even 'crowd out' unhealthy bacteria in our gut, giving further reasons to having beneficial probiotics over unfermented foods.

Check out this great article from Dr. Josh Axe on why the most accessible fermented food, yogurt, should be included in our pantries.
10 Benefits of probiotic yogurt

An important thing to keep in mind is to source your dairy from the most raw, grass-fed, high quality dairy possible. Yogurt from goat's milk or sheep's milk is best, but hormone-free, grass-fed cow's milk yogurt is a close contender.

So add some beneficial dairy to your pantry, and improve your gut health, blood pressure, weight and mood.

By the Way

The most beneficial yogurt is one with active probiotic cultures, and little to no added sugars. Common production yogurts full of fructose, sugar and fruit purees are often giving you way too much sugar, and are likely sourced from hormone-treated dairy cows (to increase their milk production.) And Greek yogurt (as well as Greek-style yogurt) are dubious in their health benefits, at best. Check out this article from Dr. Axe on the issues with Greek yogurt...

Sweet Pantry Addition

5.10

All foods are not created equally. If I've learned anything on my wellness journey, it is that truth. I know after years of learning about healthful eating, and then living out my convictions, that some foods are great for my everyday diet, and others are not.

One vegetable that I have grown fond of is the sweet potato. Gone are the days of sweet potatoes being the holiday casserole with sugary syrup and marshmallows on top. Now sweet potatoes are found in all forms of main dishes, side dishes and snacks. and all of these make nutritious and tasty offerings for our pantry.

I don't eat white potatoes, which are from the nightshade family, but sweet potatoes are different. A simple root tuber, sweet potatoes offer numerous vitamins and minerals,fiber, antioxidants and a good calorie to fiber profile to assist in regulating blood sugar. Here are some nutritional highlights of common sweet potatoes:
High in vitamins A, C, B6 and niacin and thiamine
High in minerals like manganese, potassium and copper
High in protein and fiber, low in fat

Our bodies benefit from sweet potatoes in that they help regulate blood sugar and aid in weight loss. They aid in our immunity and are high in antioxidants, and promote good vision. So give sweet potatoes another look when you're stocking your pantry this week. Or maybe you can substitute a sweet potato side dish for regular potatoes next time you're eating out.

For other details on the value of sweet potatoes for your pantry, check out this article from Dr. Axe's website: Sweet Potato Facts & Benefits

By the Way

Sweet potatoes are not yams, and yams are not sweet potatoes. They are two different kinds of root tubers. Most of the confusion happens in our western-market grocery stores because the two descriptions are used interchangeably (when they shouldn't be). Check out this article from Epicurious about the difference: Sweet Potatoes compared to Yams

What Makes You Come Alive?

5.09

I've posted before about 2018 being a big year for me. Yesterday was part of the celebration. A couple years ago I first understood what an obstacle course race was, and I learned of the Spartan Race. Spartan Races have become the top obstacles course races world-wide, with the goal of ripping 100 million people off the couch.

With lots of doubt and misgiving, I put a Spartan "Sprint" on my calendar for 2016, and had this passing thought about a stretch goal of doing a Spartan "Trifecta" to celebrate my 50th birthday. For the Trifecta, you need to complete a Sprint (~5 miles), Super (~10 miles) and Beast (~15 miles) race in the same calendar year.

At the time I remember thinking, "well...that's a dumb goal, because there's no way I'll ever be physically fit enough to do it..." Fast forward through a couple hundred of miles of running, thousands of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, jumping rope, planks, and eating a diet of real food, and I had gained the confidence to sign up.

I admit I was a bit anxious going into it. Some of the obstacles are really strenuous. Lifting, climbing, jumping, numerous monkey-bar obstacles, cargo nets... and lots and lots of mud. To me, these races are truly awesome.

What are some of the results of this journey? One of the ones I'm most grateful for is that a couple years of focused diet and training have kept me out of trouble. I have very little time, interest or bandwidth for anything that didn't invest in my faith, my family, my work and my fitness. Very cool, and that's the kind of unintended results I like.

So, do you have to go do some crazy mud-run for your wellness journey? Absolutely not. I don't know why, but obstacle course racing brings the best out in me. I love the intensity of training, the challenge of finishing, the exertion of participating. There is, no doubt, a wellness challenge you can grab onto that will make you come alive and keep you out of trouble. Find it, and it may change your life for the good..

By the Way

Catching my breath after the race

Fought hard for this one...

The race yesterday was the 13+ mile Spartan Beast on the ski slopes of Mountain Creek Resort in northern NJ. Wow was it an experience. 31 obstacles later, I finished in 5:04:09. The five hours took me up and down the mountain about 8-10 times for a total elevation
gain of 4,600 feet. I think another Beast race will be in my future... someday.

Running Hot

5.08

I ran my first half-marathon of 2018 yesterday. It was an awesome day... turned out really hot for mid-April, but no matter how you look at it, it was a great day.

It was the Garden Spot Village Marathon, Half-Marathon and Kid's Marathon. Our daughter ran the Kid's Marathon on Friday night (and I ran with her for the 1.2 mile finish on her 26.2 mile journey.)

Yesterday there were over 800 runners for the marathon and half-marathon, through the Amish farms and farmlands of eastern Lancaster county. It is a well-run, fun day, and celebration of an active lifestyle and supportive of runners of all ages.

I have one or two other half-marathons I plan to do in 2018, as well as a number of Spartan Races and other timed workouts... all as part of my 2018 celebration of being 50. Yesterday was a wonderful start, and it's going to be a great, active year!

How about you? What's on your calendar?

By the Way

Even though I trained well in late winter and into the spring, the heat yesterday really took the starch out of me. I probably started out too fast, and the GSV course is hilly, and a number of the hills are long and slow. At about halfway, I realized I needed to tone it down, or risk not finishing because I was just going too hard. The result? I walked several times during the race (something I had never done before) and still finished with a PR of 10 seconds faster than my best GSV time from a couple years ago. It was a great morning of running!

New Hardware!

5.07

Sometimes you need an upgrade (or at least your wellness toys need an upgrade.)  I have had some form of a pedometer or Fitbit for probably 8 or so years. My most recent was a Fitbit Blaze, and while it still works, it was getting a bit tired. Two issues with the Blaze is that it isn't waterproof, and doesn't have on-board GPS (you need to have your phone along to sync your workout in real time.)

In search of something next, I shopped a bunch on line and just wasn't satisfied with what I was learning about new Fitbit trackers. So when a business acquaintance and I were talking all-things-running, and I saw his Garmin Forerunner, I thought, hmmm, I need to give that a closer look.

What I learned is that while not quite as popular, the Garmin trackers tend to be more robust and offer better data collection for your workouts. As a trained engineer, I like to make things objective. Numbers don't scare me, and drawing trends from data seems like a good thing to do.

So I got myself a new Forerunner 235. I've really enjoyed it, and while I'm still learning and digging out more content from the data collected, it's been great so far.

My Garmin has on-board GPS, tracking my runs accurately without having my phone along. And it's water proof. Both beneficial to my half-marathons and Spartan races. It is great to see the data gather in the background, and know that the more I workout, and the more details I capture, the better I can draw conclusions about how I'm doing.

As they say in business, what is measured can be managed. Look into some objective measurements in your wellness journey, and event think about stepping it up a notch. Your future self will be glad for how you managed your efforts.

By the Way

One of the great things about the Garmin trackers / watches is that there are all kinds of cool widgets and watch faces you can customize to. You also have options for how your workout data is collected, and what you see on the screen during your workout. I'm still having fun personalizing my new tool.