Feb062013

Restaurant Review: Chez Thuy

We had heard good things about this place. We are all about Vietnamese food and it was a nice Saturday to have a good lunch. So here we show up at Chez Thuy, one of Boulder’s Vietnamese cuisines. It was a sunny day, a little windy, but we were all game for our one-restaurant-out-a-week (attempted).

The atmosphere was wonderful. Ethnic music in the background, loud enough to hear, but not overpowering our conversation. The place is beautifully decorated, we were loving it. Beautiful paintings and traditional decorations all around. The only thing hurting the atmosphere were two obnoxious loud Boulder moms a few tables away.

I had a difficult time deciding between the Blended Boba drinks and Thai Iced Tea, but eventually decided on the latter since I like my Boba on ice, not blended. We order our dishes and they bring out two complimentary hot and sour soups. I’m delighted–Chris can’t exactly eat spice. So I get two! And am then full a lot quicker. The soup was delicious and warming and I ate both bowls.

hot + sour soup

For appetizer, we order steamed vegetable dumplings served with a side of peanut sauce. I was delighted with this. The dumplings were light and fresh, and the peanut sauce was the perfect heaviness to compliment it. I wish there were more of them to gobble up!

Then we wait for our meals. It’s a pretty busy time for them, but we don’t mind waiting, taking, and making fun of the two moms near us. Chris orders a Pad Thai and I order a Yellow Curry with Calamari. Eventually, they come out. Now I’m almost full at this point (way to go, Alana), but we dig in anyhow.

yellow curry

pad thai

Now…the dishes didn’t quite cut it for us. I actually enjoyed Chris’ Pad Thai a lot more than mine. Mine was too fishy, and not enough of that peanut-taste that you get in most yellow curries. I really didn’t eat much of mine. It wasn’t something I was very excited about, and I usually love Vietnamese food. Chris was not a big fan of his Pad Thai. It didn’t seem like it was prepared with a lot of care and love, the noodles really stuck together in one large mass, thus not allowing the dish to mix well.

Overall, we wouldn’t come back here for a main meal again. It just wasn’t impressive or very tasty. However, we would come back for appetizers.

Cheers! (Sorry for the lack of posts, we have been sick and busy)

Feb022013

It’s Time to Listen to Pocahontas

I think we’ve got our philosophies wrong in the world. And sadly, it is most of the world now. There was a time where beliefs of nature and the world reigned in some parts of the globe, but global expansionism and global economy has changed that. I know it’s Disney. I know. But, I can’t help but think how right Disney’s Pocahontas is, every time I hear “Colors of the Wind.” I know you’re thinking, “Alana, I can’t believe you’re actually writing about this right now.” Well, probably some of you can believe it and are shaking your heads and sighing.

Yes, it’s Disney, but listen to some of the lyrics. If more of us thought this way, it could change the world into a more beautiful place. I know it’s Disney, but there’s some real truth and grit in it. Just look over the lyrics.

You think I’m an ignorant savage
And you’ve been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don’t know?
You don’t know …

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they’re worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you’ll never know
And you’ll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you’ll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

I think we all ought to take a page of Disney’s Pocahontas’ book. Step back to realize the beauty that we all live in and give back to the earth more. Don’t see everything in monetary value or dollar bills. After all, how can we let green pieces of paper rule our lives? Step back and love what’s around you.

Peace, Love, and Pocahontas

: Sunbathing

Feb012013

7 Tips for Getting Back on Track with Your Goals

It’s February 1st of the new year. One month since the start of 2013. Where are you at?

Maybe you’re not exactly where you want to be. You’ve set goals, but you haven’t quite followed them all the way through. You’ve started your path, but perhaps you’ve diverged somewhat–say eating 4 treats a week instead of 2. That’s okay. It’s important to not get frustrated and throw up your hands. What’s important is to look back and see when and why you cheat and ditch the goal. Here are a few tips on getting back on track…

English: DeBarra Mayo in workout gear 1987. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Evaluate and re-design your goals. Perhaps you weren’t so wise–or realistic–when you set these goals. Maybe you didn’t listen to me when I told you to do your SMART goals. Sometimes when we are trying to help ourselves with truly good intentions (for example, setting goals and resolutions), we shoot ourselves in the foot by being over-ambitious. Now, I am never one to be a dream-killer, I’m in support of getting what you want, but we need to be in the real world when we do them. So take a look at your goals, and decide maybe if it’s too ambitious and you need to take a smaller step first.

2. Be held accountable. I’m not saying you have to tell the whole world what you want to do. But have someone know. And have that someone be a person who can remind you and be your supporter on this mission of yours. You could look into personal training–I know some of my client would not make it to the gym if they didn’t know I was waiting for them. If you don’t want to jump into a trainer, find a gym buddy. It can be a social and a fitness visit–you can go to your gym, or go for runs, or circuit training in the park!

Personal trainer monitoring a client’s movement during fitball / core exercise. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. Make a date. Whether it be with yourself, your trainer, or your exercise buddy–write it down in your planner, calendar, iPhone, WHATEVER you have. One of the easiest ways to get back on track and into fitness is to creating your workouts (or at least your workout times before the fact). This way you can look at your phone, schedule, whatever and know, “Okay, Wednesday at 3pm is when this workout is planned, and I think it will be focused on cardio and lower body.” Every week, I would plan it in my schedule, when, what, and where I was working out. And then I would send that schedule to my fitness buddies for them to join in.

4. Make it mandatory. Make it a part of your schedule, not something you could do. I always considered it along the same lines of my classes during college (of which I never missed, weird, I know, but for some reason couldn’t make myself do it). And because I would never miss a class…why would I miss a workout? Unless sick, of course. I made it mandatory, just as attending my Existentialism or Human Rights class. It was a part of my schedule. Make it a part of yours.

Schedule (Photo credit: Marco Buonvino)

5. Share a goal. Have a friend with a similar goal or resolution? Why not go at the thing together? This will double your chances of actually succeeding. You will have each other there for guilt and support, and it’s always easier to do something when you are part of a team. I’m sure if you think about it, you know someone who wants the same thing you do–and I’m sure they’d be thrilled by the idea.

6. Track your goals. Didn’t track those goals last month? Let’s start now. Make a sheet of what you want to do every week, every day. And have check mark boxes to track them. You could do this through Excel or Word, or just write it up on a notepad. Don’t just keep it in a notebook, though, stick it up on the wall where you see it every day.

7. Use apps. If you have a smart phone (and even if you don’t), tap into the wealth of helpfulness you can get from tons of fitness apps. Even if you don’t have a smartphone, you can use these apps online, using your computer. Here are a few that I think are great: My Fitness Pal, Fooducate, Nike Training, Map My Run, and GAIN Fitness.

Use these tips and help yourself thrive to succeed with your goals! Comment with any questions and feel free to email hungryandfit@gmail.com for person-specific questions! Cheers!

Jan312013

Follow Us!

Drum roll please…Hungry and Fit now has a Twitter and a YouTube. Yes, this isn’t an exciting post…at all, but we try to keep you updated with what’s going on with us in accordance to this blog. Both are pretty easy to access…twitter.com/hungryandfit and youtube.com/hungryandfit. Pretty simple, no?

We will be updating it as regularly as we can, probably more so the Twitter than the YouTube, but the YouTube already has some cute kitten videos up on there! So you can follow us (our twitter handle is now on the left side of the blog page) and subscribe to the YouTube channel.

For the Twitter page, we will be updating it with workout tips, eating/cooking tips, and lifestyle guides. Much similar as to what you see us posting here, but in very short condensed form!

For the YouTube page, we will be putting up videos of kittens (duh), workouts, home cooking, and more! It will be well worth it to keep an eye out as we will keep them to a shortened length.

Sajah ninja-attacking Chris

Thanks for following/subscribing to us, stay tuned, and as always…stay hungry and fit!

Jan302013

15 Minute High-Intensity Workout — No Excuses

I don’t care how busy you are. You have 15 minutes. You do. Don’t lie to yourself. So if you don’t have time for your own full workout, try this one. Only 15 minutes. Extremely simple. All you need is a timer. You could use your phone if it has one too. You can get some of your family to do it with you–it will make it more fun (and entertaining) this way. Most everyone can do it, unless you have a significant injury. Just try it! It gets you working, your heart rate up, hopefully sweating, and your core/legs strong. So here it is…

1 minute mountain climbers

1 minute russian twists

1 minute lunges

Meaning, you perform 1 minute of mountain climbers, 1 minute of russian twists, then 1 minute of lunges. And REPEAT FIVE TIMES. Take as little rest as possible. If you do so, you will have completed a very efficient, high-intensity, muscle-burning workout.

With the mountain climbers, I want you to go as quickly as possible. Keeping the pace up is one thing, but you also need to try to get those feet as close to the hands as possible to complete a good exercise.

With the russian twists, make sure you are doing complete rotations. This means that it’s not just your hands moving side to side, but also your shoulders. You’re doing a complete twist from either side. Once you’ve mastered that rotation, try to get a solid speed going.

With the lunges, if you have enough room you can do moving lunges. Otherwise, place your hands on your hips, lunge forward with the right, bring it back to center, then lunge forward with the left. This way, you stay in the same spot, but still get the full extension of the exercise.

Good luck, work hard, and sweat often!

Jan292013

Healthy Whole-Wheat Honey Banana Muffins

If you couldn’t tell by the title, this recipe is very healthy. There is no sugar and no refined flour. AND THEY TASTE GOOD. I wouldn’t lie. This is my first time baking muffins from scratch, so I’m very pleased. I found the recipe here, altered it slightly and cut in half because I only have a 12-count muffin pan. And this was all the while watching Fawlty Towers!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 17 minutes
Yields: 12 beautiful muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
2 bananas mashed
1/4 cup hot water

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and grease the muffin pan
Put the whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl and mix.

Put the dry ingredients to the side and get a bigger bowl where everything will end up. Put in the olive oil and honey and whisk well.

Once that is well mixed, drop in those two eggs and mix mix mix!

Once those are beaten, then add the mashed (MASH THEM) bananas into the mix.
Now the dry ingredients are ready to make friends with the wet ingredients. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with pouring in a little of the hot water you measured out before. Mix well!

Mix all ready to go

The mix is delicious by the way–had way too much of it before it hit the oven. Go a head and pour the mix into your muffin pan. Fill it as high up as you want–it all depends on how big muffins you’d like.

Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Mine cooked in about 17 minutes. Try going for 15 minutes and test them.

And here they are. The texture turned out wonderfully, the taste not overpowering, and the structural integrity strong. Very excited about these.

Chris’ hand (you can see dinner in the background)

My hand

Cheers! Enjoy the recipe and the food! Delicious

Jan282013

Movie Review: The Impossible

It’s been awhile since we hit the movie theatres with our busy schedules, work, and sickness. But today, we did. It was a movie that I’ve wanted to see for a while now: “The Impossible.” It’s a true story about a British (though in the credits of the actual family members, we think they are Spanish) family of 5 (parents and 3 boys) on a resort in Thailand when the 2004 Tsunami hit the Southeast Asian area. It was very gripping and intense.

Countries most affected by the tsunami, with the earthquake’s epicenter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is an underlying tension from the beginning, seeing as the audience knows what’s going to happen as they show the date and time continually. The family is happy travelling to Thailand and having a blast on a beautiful resort, lots of love and joy. But we know what’s going to happen. We just don’t know how it specifically is going to happen to these people. So right from the start, there’s that gripping tension of waiting.

Once it does happen, the movie becomes very intense and consequently emotional, family members trying to find their others. And in the midst of the tsunami actually passing through, a feeling of panic and terror rose up even in me as I was sitting safely in my cushioned movie theatre chair. The thing that made this harder to watch and comprehend was that it happened in real life, all of this occurred to real people and I kept remembering back to the catastrophic death toll of this event.

The Impossible (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The family, split up, travels to different locations, sustaining horrific injuries and struggling to survive through it all. I won’t spoil it by telling you if they do or not. Despite the terrible event that triggered the horrors, there was something incredibly heartwarming about many parts. People, when they were significantly injured, stopping to help others in need when it could cause their own death. A village of Thai helping out two rich anglos, going completely out of their way just to save someone’s life. During these scenes, I felt an incredible warm feeling of hope and the beauty that still thrives in humanity, despite scenes of horror.

The acting of this movie was splendid–I mean, how could you go wrong with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGreggor. Also, the oldest son was an incredible actor and took up a big role of the movie. It really felt as if you were thrown into the situation with them. The only downside to this movie for me was that, at some parts, it was a little bit too dramatic. Sometimes you didn’t need the drama of Hollywood because you had the drama of nature–a real-life event.

English: Naomi Watts at the Cannes film festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It was tough to watch in some parts, but highlights what’s good in humanity in the worst of times. Take the time to go see it, or catch it on DVD when it comes out.

Cheers!

Jan272013

You Can Train Your Cats Too

I have always been a dog person. Not to say that I was a cat hater, but if given the choice of feline or canine, I would always go with the dogs. I am an animal lover, thus I do enjoy cats as well, but they never seemed as approachable or personable as dogs did. I’m still a huge dog person, but now I’m a cat person too (somehow that makes me sigh). Since I’ve gotten our kittens, I’ve learned to love them. Instantly. And now I see that they aren’t so different from dogs after all. Especially Nymeria.

Sleepy Nymeria

If you’ve read about her, you’ll know that she acts like a dog, rough housing, and cuddling, and afraid of nothing. Sajah, our newer kitten, behaves like a dog when it comes to food…and he’s become quite the cuddler as well. I’m drawing the connection between these two species for a reason. Dogs are trained right from when they are of puppy age (if possible) to sit, lie down, come, and so forth. Rarely will you find people training their cats this way. Sure, they might urge them towards a litter box when they’re young (although they are born with the tendency to go to the bathroom in a confined place), but when do you ever hear of someone training their cats as you would dogs?

Rarely. And I ask, why? Why should dogs be trained to do certain tasks or tricks but not felines? It doesn’t make sense to me. It just seems to be a cultural thing to just train dogs and not cats. With Nymeria, we’ve been training her to do pull-ups on her cat tree since she was young. Even though she’s smaller than Sajah (and was smaller than Misty too), she can use her upper body wiry strength to get out of a bind. That was just a little thing.

Up until the kittens, I’ve only known how to raise a dog. So I am raising the kittens like puppies. I’ve begun a training regimen with both of them, and I try to keep to it every day. And guess what–they’ve learned commands incredibly fast. At the same speed or quicker than dogs that I’ve trained. So there’s to people who think that cats aren’t made for training.

How do you train them? Some might ask. All I do is cut treats into small pieces (we use “Greenies” for good kitty dental health) and have them follow different commands. It can be tough and hectic training them both at the same time, but if one starts interfering just plop them somewhere else. Say the commands and show them what to do until they understand.

Random window pic

Both Sajah and Nymeria know “come” although they don’t always choose to follow that one without treats. Nymeria is an expert at “sit.” She does it on command without treats now and understands the word. How did I get her to understand? I would say, “Nymeria, sit” and then position her body in a seated position. Eventually, she connected it and put it together.

Nymeria, sit!

Sajah, on the other hand, is an expert at “up.” He knows even by the hand gesture of patting the couch that he will jump up right beside me. He picked that one up quickly and does it frequently whenever I ask. Of course, he’s hoping for treats, but it’s great that he will do it without them.

Sajah en route to command “up!”

It takes time and patience, as all thing such as these require, but I think it’s worth it. Some may call it odd or strange, but I believe it’s due to culture that people don’t train their cats. It’s simply not the thing to do. So break the pattern, get with your kittens, and give them a few minutes of training every day so they can become intelligent, task-managing fiends!

Cheers!

Jan262013

Hungry’s Secret Recipes: Humming Chicken Star Deluxe

My father taught me much about sandwiches while growing up. While Mom was always making creative and sophisticated dishes, Dad was the master of the art of sandwich. And it was not something to be messed with in the house. If you didn’t toast your bread, you were a punk. Cheese and salami on bread? Not a real sandwich. He invented the super deluxe sandwich, with all the fixings. Lettuce, pickles, cole slaw… anything in the fridge was fair game to be put on the sandwich.

Being from the New York area and having the earl of sandwich in the house, I inherited a love for the sandwich. My standards are high, even though I’ll eat just about anything. The philosophy hasn’t changed, put stuff on it, and toast it, or you’re just an ingrate.

Without a ton of time before work and having to go in the water for four hours, and five without food, I knew I had to throw together a nice sandwich that wouldn’t hurt my stomach at all. Since I’m getting back into working out, I also wanted a good amount of protein, calories, and carbs since it’s still early in the day and I need my fuel. The catch is that I woke up with some cold symptoms including a sore throat and congestion, so I wanted to avoid cheese and thickening agents.

Here are the ingredients:

1 Morningstar Original Griller
1 large can of Chunk light tuna
hummus, plain
mustard, Gulden’s
butter, land o lakes
whole wheat bread, 3 pieces
1 avocado, large

(I forgot pickles, really just a lack of time)

And the pictures show the rest.

Get the avocado on there

Next comes the tuna

DON’T FORGET TO TOAST IT

Essentially, create a monster stacking sandwich that has toasted bread. First toast the bread. Then construct as the pictures show. Then cover in butter and toast on the stove top. Take that Dad. Feel free to add lettuce and pickles.

Ready to be eaten

Nutritional Facts: Way over 50 grams of protein. That’s all you need to know.

Be hungry!

Jan252013

Supplement Review: Optimum Nutrition Platinum Pre-Workout

It is time to write this review because I have officially decided to stop using this product for health concerns. Honestly, I cannot say for certain if this is having negative side effects on me, but I believe that it is.

A little history: I have been using Optimum Nutrition as a major supplement provider for the past five years. I have consistently gone back to cycles of their Isolated Whey Protein (Chocolate) because it is affordable in bulk, mixes well with milk and water, and is one of the more natural proteins in its class. I also only use Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder in cycles for the past four years. I have never had any issues with these two products, obviously.

As a result, when I found out that they recently released their own Pre-Workout, I was excited. I bought it immediately and said as soon as my MusclePharm Assault and 1MR are finished, I’ll start a cycle with it. Well I did just that and was immediately not impressed. I got the Raspberry-Lemonade, 30 servings, which has recommended use of 1 scoop for average training and 2 for intense. It’s a rule that you only try the half serving the first time around with a new supplement so I did just that.

It tasted awful! Really was one of the worst tasting pre-workouts ever, and I have tried nearly all of them (not every flavor of all of them). The weirdest part was that is was spicy. I have a tongue disorder that causes my tongue to be extremely sensitive and this burned my tongue worse than chili peppers. This was extremely painful and the sensation lasted for quite some time. Within three days of starting using this I ended up in the emergency room with what was diagnosed as gastritis. Looking back, I truly believe that this was the cause of the gastritis, which essentially ruined my last two months of 2012 and even carried into 2013. I believe if I did not buy this product, I would not have had my health issues that led to me missing work, Christmas, and weeks of working out.

Now, I have no issue with ON over the incident but as of tonight, despite having servings left, I will stop taking it to see if my stomach issues and digestive problems go away. If they don’t, maybe I’ll finish the load. If they do, I’ll give it away to someone who might not have as sensitive a stomach. I highly doubt any other supplement that I am taking is the cause since I have used them for the last five years with no issues.

As for its effectiveness, it is hard to measure but I never felt any sensation of extra blood or oxygen flowing through my veins or body during the cycle. No tingling in the lips or mouth. No extra pump in muscle groups and no noticeable decrease in my lactic acid build up.So unfortunately, ON, from a professional opinion, I have to give your Platinum Pre-Workout a 2/10. It is somewhat affordable and mixes well, but tastes awful and has little to no effect on a workout, either pre, during or post. The rating does not even include what I think it did to my health. No hard feelings on potentially ruining a ton of progress that I made and my two favorite months and holidays of the year.