Organic Surfer Girl

I'll be honest. The past couple of months I haven't exactly been 100% clean eating. I've ran into some obstacles. I identified them and I plan to deal with it after the holidays. I figured it would be too much stress to try to change my behavior during the holidays. I had missed some things and other times, well, it was just plain difficult. Mind you, I am still a "new foodie" if you want to call me that. :) I only started in September. A lot of changes I was able to keep. I even had a all "clean eating brunch" for Christmas Eve with the exception of one ingredient. (Go me) Obstacles/Things I missed 1. Preparation time - Being busy on the weekends left me no time to cook. We would get hungry for dinner and have no time to make something. Often, we got a pizza or had sushi. I wasn't thrilled with this and I plan on correcting this issue in the future. 2. Flavored Coffee- Honestly, pumpkin spice coffee only comes out at a certain time

Lately I've been doing things at the gym that I never thought I'd do. I'm over in the free weight section and bench pressing!!! I'm also squatting with the bar among several other exercises. I definitely feel stronger. I contribute most of this to Katie. I know I'm not lifting enough weights if I don't need her to push me through the last couple of reps. Also if I'm not hating her by the end. :) She knows I say this out of love. I am on my way to getting in shape for summer season of surfing. Yay! However I do run into an obstacle, I hate going to the gym alone. I know that this is a must in order to do my cardiac work outs since I can't have Katie there. Weight lifting means nothing if I don't do my cardio. I'll be able get up on the board, get myself riding but I won't even get past the waves if I don't hit my cardiac goals. I do know that I am much more motivated to go to the gym then I was in November. I am

Real Food according to Michael Pollen are "whole foods that are more a product of nature vs. a product of industry". Two things really struck me as I read "In Defense of Real Food". One, my grandparents wouldn't recognize the majority of the food that is in the supermarket these days and two food these days are now designed not to rot. What did that mean for my body then?? After reading this book along with Food Inc, how could I justify eating the way I did. So off I went to change my eating habits. Folllowing the guidelines below REALLY helped me figure out where to start my foodshopping. The following is my guideline that I use when food shopping. (The ideas come from http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ and Michael Pollen's book "In Defense of Real Food") Look for: 1. Dairy Products are limited to milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs and cheese. Milk is preferably to be local and no hormones added. Only use blocks of cheese as

I honestly have to say, the biggest challenge about cleaning up my diet and converting to a "real food" lifestyle, was relearning how and when I should be cooking. I couldn't just pick out what I wanted to eat anymore without being at the supermarket. Some of the ingredients I had previously used were no longer suitable. I was shocked to see how many chemicals and preservatives I was eating! I had to do some shopping around to find the best products to use. I had to decide whether I should just eliminate the product or try to make it from scratch. I didn't know if I was up for that challenge! Arriving to the supermarket and selecting my food became a whole different ball game. I spent two hours at Whole Foods the first time I got there. It was there that I discovered that labels are truly misleading. Natural and organic did not mean what I thought they meant anymore! I had already gone through my pantry and tossed out a lot. I felt the food ind

I had worked out with Katie yesterday. (my friend whose a personal trainer! I'll be mentioning her consistently throughout my blog as well as mentioning her blog!) Generally when I meet with Katie, we do an hour. (I had mentioned in the introduction that I meet with her twice a week now. Yay to being consistent as that typically is my problem when it comes to hitting up the gym.) She has me doing circuit training which includes free weights, sandbags, kettle balls among other things. I find myself quite sore after. I take a hot bath and stretch often to relieve my muscles. That said, I know protein is often important to help repair and heal the muscles. I'm often at a lost for what to eat since I don't eat processed foods and rarely anything that I don't make from scratch. Generally I will have a banana or make myself my lunch. Lunch ranges from a salad filled with veggies, left overs from the night before or a soup and fruit. This brings up men

My name is Suzanne, and this is blog is about my journey through changing my diet into all "real food" and "exercise".  I was not able to surf this past summer due to my health complications.  I had many headaches, I was tired all the time, I gained a lot of weight, I was unhappy with myself.  Not being able to surf truly made me depressed.  I find surfing to be cleansing for the soul.  It's meditative, addicting and quite honestly, the best thing I've ever done for myself.  There's no feeling like catching a wave.  I had been really trying to find ways to clean up my diet since I didn't think eating preservatives was healthy for me among several other bad habits that I had obtained.  I couldn't deal with the headaches anymore.  Since the end of the summer, I've been reading a couple of different blogs in regards to "clean eating" and "fitness".  I read "Food Inc." and "The Defense of Food" by Michael P