Fire, Ice and What I Wore

I did more in Iceland than just drop in at Crossfit Reykjavik (although that was pretty awesome).  I went whale watching...

... and saw two humpbacks (one above) and a minke (below).

I walked on a glacier.

And drank from it.

And drove on another.  (Ok, I didn't actually drive, but I rode shotgun!)

I chased waterfalls...

.... and rainbows....

... and ran behind them.

I hiked around crazy hot sulfur mud springs.

I walked along the edge of the American tectonic plate.

I hiked to and then bathed in a hot spring.

I zipped around a glacial lagoon in a zodiac boat.

And more.  It was an amazing, amazing trip.  And I pretty much spent the whole time in Lululemon's Studio Pant.  I brought the lined, unlined and the cropped versions with me in various colors (read: black and gray) and was always super comfy.  The Studio Pant is easy to layer - which is important when you're hiking around a volcano one minute and walking on a glacier an hour later.  And I didn't feel like a total schlub walking around the city between adventures.  Score!

In related gear news, I continue to adore my Inov-8 Terrafly 297's for hiking.  They're so light that packing them didn't weigh down my suitcase, and I could easily wear them all day long.  

The other star of my vacation wardrobe was a Cintamani fleece that I bought mid-trip.  I had brought an adorable pink Northface with me, but after a long day of hiking, it was done.  Fair enough. The Cintamani one (which I purchased in all black) has lycra mesh at the top, both in the front and back, and down the undersides of the arms, so it breathes really well.  It's also very thin, so it was easy to layer under my windbreaker or over an Under Armour base layer.  Cintamani is an Icelandic brand, but their online store ships all over.  

On that note, I need to stop dwelling on vacation and suit up for work!  More later.

-Gym Belle- 

A Matter of Health: A New Healthy Supermarket on the UES

Monday night at Remorca Studio, I overheard one of my fellow yoga classmates discussing his plans to check out "the new supermarket."  Naturally, I was curious.  As it turned out, A Matter of Health, a cute little health food store on 77th, had opened a supermarket-sized location on 72nd and 1st.  Tonight, I went to check it out. 

"Health" is a pretty meaningless word these days, so I wasn't sure what to expect and I tried not to get my hopes up.  You enter the store in the produce section.  It's all organic.  I'm pretty excited about having a nice selection of organic fruits and veggies so close by.  There are also some prepared foods, but few seemed paleo-friendly, so I picked up some peppers and spinach and kept moving.  Behind the produce section and the juice bar, you can either head left into the supplement/beauty side, or right into the supermarket.  

I did the supplement side first.  If you're into organic lip balm (I am), aluminum-free deoderant (yes, please) and things of that nature, you'll have fun here.  There's also a nice selection of fish oil, probiotics, protein powder, aloe etc.  They cater to every gimmick and every neurosis, so you may have to wade through things to find the products you're into.  The huge selection of vegan products - protein, sports gels, electrolyte mixes - stood out to me.  I had never seen that before.

On the supermarket side, they had a lot of what you'd expect.  There were lots of drinks, a large election of Applegate Farm products, and tons of supposedly healthy snack foods and chips.  I imagine that vegetarians would have a lot of fun here.  Soy was everywhere I turned.  

If you're the type to pour over ingredients - or the type who thinks ingredients is a dirty word - you'll find yourself in good company.  

I have to admit, I was hoping against hope that they'd have a nice butcher counter with lots of good grass-fed options.  No luck there, but they do have some grass-fed beef in the freezer section.  It's something.

I spent a small fortune buying up things that caught my eye.  My top 5 finds were:

1. Kombucha.  Kombucha is everywhere - but this cost me well over a dollar less than the bodega by me charges.  (And, yes, I know it's not paleo, but since I take so much antibiotics, it's a somewhat necessary evil now and again.)  
2. Organic Pickled Ginger Carrots.  They had a really nice selection of naturally fermented/raw foods (pickles, beets, kimchi, etc.).
3. Organic Grass-Fed Whey Protein.  I care what my food ate.  Also - the "no" list is amazing: no gluten, no soy, no added sugar, no artificial sweeteners, flavors or colors, no GMO ingredients of fillers, no added hormones and no high fructose corn syrup.  Let's hope this doesn't taste like chalk!  
4. Buddha Cups.  These pricey wonders are raw organic dark chocolate almond butter cups.  Diary free. Gluten free. Soy free.  And they're made in Brooklyn.
5. Organic Grass-Fed Heavy Cream.  Not so uncommon - but it makes me happy.   

Happy shopping!

-Gym Belle-

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies (alternatively titled Paleo PMS)

Each month, I spend at least one sleepless night angsting about something.  My heart races.  I toss and turn.  Sometimes there's heartburn; rarely, there's sleep apnea.   Even though I know that my anxiety is probably just PMS, I am utterly consumed by a sense of impending doom.

Good times.  

Also, I'm starving.  For a few days, my not quite 4'11" frame seems to require the Zone blocks of an NFL linebacker.  

To combat the woes of being female, I bake.  Yes, I realize that paleo baked goods aren't actually nutritious, but they are far less evil than the alternative.  This month, I made Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I adapted these cookies from a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, Livin Paleo, who credits ForverFit with the original.  If you liked banana bread or banana muffins in your pre-paleo existence, you will gobble these up.

As made by moi:

Preheat the oven to 325.  

Mash up 2 ripe bananas in a bowl.  Mix in 1/2 cup of coconut flour, 1/2 cup of coconut flakes and 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil.  Mix in 2 eggs, 1 tsp of baking soda, 1/4 tsp of salt 1/2 of a bar of super dark chocolate broken up into chunks. 

Form the "dough" into balls and bake for approximately 25 minutes.

To keep the recipe from getting too un-paleo, go super dark on the chocolate to minimize, if not eliminate, the evil ingredients (sugar, soy lecithin, and so forth).  Ghirardelli has a 100% percent cacao bar, as do a few of the other brands, and I've gotten totally raw, organic chocolate from Fairway, Whole Foods or even the Food Emporium on occasion.  Livin Paleo suggests that you can add honey and/or coconut sugar.  I would not go there - you do not need sweeteners.  Bananas have a lot of sugar - and more than enough to make your cookies sweet. 

Incidentally, I added the shredded coconut by mistake, but the cookies were tasty, so it's a mistake I'd make again.  I'd show you a picture, but I ate them all.  Forgive me; PMS is a bitch.

-Gym Belle-