FitFluential | Saucony Triumph ISO-Series

The following guest post is by my hubby Neil. 

Disclaimer: As part of a FitFluential campaign, my hubby Neil received a pair of Saucony ISO-Series Triumph, in exchange for his honest review. The opinions shared are his own.

Before moving to Portland, I would surely have called myself an avid runner. It seemed I was always training for a different race, tailoring my workouts and strength training to compliment running and getting in my miles whenever I could. Things started to slow down a bit when Edith was born, but I was still running. I finished my 2nd half marathon of the year after she was born (the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Montreal) as well as a number of 5k and 10k races as part of my training.

race

I started to lose my way a bit once we moved to Portland. I was working a less flexible job that didn’t allow for as many runs during the day and with no shower, we were spending a lot of time exploring the city and I didn’t have any running partners any more. My training started to fall off and I ran the worst of my 3 half marathons last October. Lately, I’ve had the itch to start running regularly again and to really take it seriously again. When Lindsay asked me if I wanted the opportunity to try out the new Saucony ISO-Series Triumph, I jumped at it!

Triumph_Men_Lateral

Until now, I’ve jumped around from shoe to shoe and hadn’t been able to settle on one that was right for me. A neutral, cushioned shoe has always been what I’ve found works best for me and the Triumph fits that bill. As soon as I put the Triumph on, I knew I was going to love them. The new PWRGRID+ cushioning technology made for a really comfortable ride and minimized the stress on my knees and legs that I’ve experienced with other shoes. Despite the cushioning, the shoe was incredibly light and responsive. The inner sock on the shoe provided a lot of great stability while running as well. The shoes felt great on the runs I took them on, both on the road and the treadmill. I felt fast and my legs didn’t feel like they had taken the same pounding that they did in some of the other shoes I’ve tried that were a similar weight, but less cushioned.

Triumph_Men_Outsole

I’m really looking forward to running many more miles in the Saucony Triumphs as I make my way through the next step in my training and fitness journey. Now on to finding a new race to run! Also don’t forget to check out my WOAH face over on Lindsay’s Instagram account$55kneilandedith

Book Feature | Plant-Powered for Life

Plant Powered Cover

I have been wanting to share this book with your for awhile now but honestly have just dropped the ball a bit when it comes to regular blogging due to pregnancy, birth and now moving (we move in 9 days!!).  I have a moment this morning while Neil is our running, Edith is watching an alphabet show and Alder is napping in my arms so I wanted to share one of my new favorite books Plant-Powered for Life: Eat Your Way to Lasting Health with 52 Simple Steps and 125 Delicious by Sharon Palmer.

I received an advanced copy of this book to check out and to feature on the blog if I so chose (<–disclaimer). I often receive books and don’t end up featuring them because they just aren’t ones that I love or ones that I think you will be interested in but this book has easily become one of my favorites and is feature worthy. That being said if I didn’t own it already I would buy it for myself and I see it being a perfect gift this holiday season for family and friends.

This book is NOT about becoming a vegetarian or vegan but rather about incorporating more plants into your diet whatever that may be. The aim is simple: to show how anyone, from meat-loving omnivore to junk-food vegan, can benefit by making room in their diet for more whole plant foods.

Delicious Arugula Pizza recipe that I made - so good!

Delicious Arugula Salad Pizza recipe that I made – so good!

The book is laid out so that there are 52 different steps that one can take to become more plant powered.  Along with tips on how to incorporate more plants into your diet each step includes 2-3 recipes that go along with the theme of that step.  One idea that I think would be great is to use this book as a jumping off point to add more plants to your diet by following one step and the recipes in that step each week for one year.  It would be a great way to transition your diet to a more plant powered one without becoming too overwhelmed. Now I don’t know if that is why there are 52 steps but I think it would be a great plan and of course you can go in any order you’d like, although I would do step one first because it has you set a goal such as you want to go 100% vegan, you’d like to become a more plant focused vegetarian or a plant powered omnivore.

The steps are really inspiring and even though I would consider myself a plant powered veg I could always use room for improvement because it really is easy to become a junk food veg or slip into that at times especially when life gets chaotic.

So what about the recipes? I have been cooking up lots of the recipes in this book because they all just sound so good. I also love how easy most of them are to put together.  There are a few more time consuming recipes or recipes that I have had a difficult time finding the ingredients for but the majority of the recipes are healthy, easy and tasty. The book also includes great photos for most of the recipes, tips and side notes and nutritional facts.

So far my favorite recipes are the Arugula Salad Pizza, Tofu Ratatouille and Neil and Edith love the Black Bean Brownies with Walnuts (recipe below). Have you read this book yet? If you do or if you try this recipe come back and let me know what you think!

Plant Powered for Life - brownie photo

Plant Powered for Life brownie recipe Plant Powered for Life – Black Bean Brownie Recipe – PDF

Credit line: Recipe from Plant-Powered for Life: Eat Your Way to Lasting Health with 52 Simple Steps and 125 Delicious Recipes, copyright © Sharon Palmer, 2014. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Experiment. Available wherever books are sold. Photo credit: © Heather Poire

Amazon affiliate links included in this post. 

Chia Squeeze: New Gluten-Free and Vegan Snack from Mamma Chia

I am head over heels in love with the new Mamma Chia snack, Chia Squeeze, they are honestly insanely delicious.  I have been snacking on them after my runs and reluctantly let Neil try one and my friend Fawn try another flavor (looking back I wish I hadn’t shared they are that good.)

mamma chia squeeze

These little packets contain/are:

  • Chia + Fruit + Vegetables
  • 1200mg Omega-3
  • Good Source of Fiber
  • Gluten Free and Vegan
  • Only 70 Calories
  • No Added Sugar
  • Non-GMO
  • USDA Certified Organic

Like I said I have been enjoying these after runs and the other day I was sucking one of these back while stretching.  Edith was sitting on the floor with me and as soon as she saw the packet she got excited and crawled over and attempted to take it from me, I think she knew how good it was….or maybe it just reminded her of her fruit and veggie packets, anyways she wanted it.  I finished the packet it tossed it in the trash small trash bin in the living room and then went to grab a fruit and veggie puree packet for Edith to snack on since I teased her with my Mamma Chia Squeeze.  In the two seconds I was gone she had fished the empty packet from the trash and was just about to put the (capped) end into her mouth when I recovered and swapped it out for her own packet of food. Needless to say the girl knew how good it was and would go to any length to get just a taste.

mamma chia

Honestly, there are very few products that I gush over (most I just like or really like) but this is one that I love. It is a product that I plan on going out and buying mass quantities of it is that good. I also think it is the perfect post workout snack because it is sweet but low in calories and sugar. Also did you know chia seeds offer a complete nutritional profile of omega-3, balanced dietary fiber, complete protein, antioxidants and minerals? Neat, eh?

Have you ever tried Mamma Chia? What is your favorite post workout snack?

P.S. the Green Magic is my favorite flavor.