Tag Archives: SF

Day 10: The Pre-Gaming, Night Out Challenge

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  • Breakfast: Omelette with smoked salmon and tomatoes, coffee with milk
  • Snack: Fruit tasting at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market
  • Lunch: Chinese Chicken Salad at Gott’s Roadside in the Ferry Building
  • Snack: Iced Coffee
  • Dinner: Left-over salmon with roast potatoes and fennel
  • Pre-gaming: Prosecco, mini cup-cake, tortilla chips and guacamole
  • Gaming: Vodka Soda
  • Post-Gaming: Pizza…

woops

Day 10 of my 100 Healthy Days in SF brought the greatest challenge to date – the pre-gaming night out. (Or, if you’re in Ireland, the pre-drinking before going on the tear). And I am ashamed to say, I failed spectacularly. 

From the start, I’ve known that social drinking would my Achilles heel. It’s probably the whole reason why I feel the need to embark on this challenge. I’m relatively healthy during the week and feel empowered and motivated to make healthy choices. However, as soon as Friday comes and the suggestion is made to go for cocktails/beers/dinner/margaritas my resolve crumbles faster than low-fat feta cheese. It’s not just the drinking, it’s the whole package – the unwinding after a long week, the catching up with friends, the debating over what cocktail to try…it’s just all so social and fun. 

So, today’s event was a night out with some of the Irish people living in SF. Our friend Kev was over visiting from Dublin, so of course we wanted to ‘catch up’ (aka go on the lash). We started out pre-gaming at another friend Katie’s house in The Mission, followed by drinks at my fave bar The Latin American Club (beware the Margaritas – they are lethal!).

In fairness to me, I couldn’t have been faced with more difficult foes. Kev is the Emperor of ‘getting on it’ and it’s practically impossible not to be affected by his good buzz and Katie is always on hand to pour the bubbles. I just couldn’t say no. Actually I didn’t even try. 😦

So, I ended up drinking a lot, and then going for pizza afterwards. The shame!

I’ve been beating myself up about this ever since, but I’ve decided to stop doing that. This is the first time I’ve met with this challenge during the 100 healthy days, and while I failed it’s not the end. I just need to come up with some strategies to ‘healthify’ the nights out. Some ideas:

  • Drink a TON of water the day before going out so you’re not dehydrated and reaching for the neared liquid to hand
  • Eat a big, protein and veggie filled meal before-hand so your blood sugars are balanced and you feel in control
  • Drink a glass of water as your first drink
  • Bring your own ‘healthy’ beverage to the pre-game
  • Have a healthy snack prepared for when you come home, so you don’t feel the need to go to the pizza place

The next time I go out, I will be prepared!!!

In other news, I spent a lovely day with the folks wandering around the famer’s market at the Ferry Building (a must for those visiting SF) and then doing the city bus tour, joined by the bold Kev.

 

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Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Buidling. Check out dem peppers!

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Irish reunion!

Day 9: The Wine Tour Challenge

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  • Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, banana
  • Snack: Half a banana, wine
  • Lunch: Meats, cheeses, tomatoes, olives, cheeses, cheese
  • Snack: Wine, wine, wine
  • Dinner: At Slanted Door – 1 x fresh spring roll, 1 x crispy spring roll, cellophane noodles with crab, glass wine, coffee with milk
  • Snack: Cheese
Meals today were mostly of the grape variety. And cheese...

Meals today were mostly of the grape and cheese variety. 

One of the nicest things to do when you’re visiting San Francisco is to head off into the hills for an afternoon of wine tasting – Sonoma and Napa Valley being the most convenient areas from the city.  You can hire a limo, join a group, or cajole (bully) a friend into being the designated driver (sucker). Blissful hours are spent wandering through vineyards, sipping on delectable vintages and trying to decide which of the cheeses you bought at the farmer’s market will go best with the 2010 Chardonnay you’ve just tasted.

Sounds idyllic, right? It is.

But days like this are a NIGHTMARE for anyone trying to eat healthily.

1. Wine is obviously high in calories.

2. Cheese goes amazingly well with wine. And cheese is also high in calories and potentially other not-so-healthy things like trans-fat.

3. When you have one glass of delicious wine, you want another. And another. And sure why don’t we buy a bottle for the limo.

4. You don’t drink enough water, so you’re thirsty, so you drink more wine.

5. At the end of the day you’re slightly buzzed so all you want is to eat carbs.

As a result of all of the above, my day was not the healthiest. So, I think I probably failed the Wine Tour challenge. But what are you supposed to do? Decline the invite and sit at home drinking green juices? Actually, that’s probably exactly what you’re supposed to do if you’re really dedicated to living a 100% healthy lifestyle. But, I still want to do fun things and live the full SF experience. I just need to be as healthy as possible.

So, what would the ideal healthy wine tour look like to me? I think it would mean going to wine country, doing the tastings, being able to choose your own healthy lunch (or bring your own picnic), not having any extra wine, drinking enough water and going home to a healthy, home-cooked meal.

Lesson learned.

But it was still a lovely day and I’m glad I was able to give my parents that experience.

As regards the details of what we did – we joined a tour group run by Valley Wine Tours in Sonoma. We visited some lovely wineries – my favourite being Jacuzzi, which had more Italian type wines. I did find an amazing Sauvignon Blanc in Bartholomew Park Winery as well. We had a lunch stop at Larson Family Winery, which was nice. They have dogs you can play with (I say play, but all they want is for you to feed them) and some fun lawn games to play. The tour itself was only OK I would say. I’ve heard rave reviews about the owner Bob, but we had a different driver.

Dinner that night was in Slanted Door on the Embarcadero, which has won a few awards. Tasty Vietnamese food and the views of the Bay Bridge at night are spectacular.

Tasting the wine

Tasting the wine

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Lawn games at Larson Family Winery

Views of the Bay Bridge at night

Views of the Bay Bridge at night

Day 8: The Dinner Party Challenge

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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and egg whites, sauteed escarole, raw vegan, coffee with milk
Exercise: 30 min PT session, 20 min intervals on treadmill
Snack: Raw carrots, 5 almonds, coffee with milk
Lunch: Salad with lots of veg, chickpeas, grapes
Snack: Edamame with raw jicama and tomatoes
Tulsi tea
Dinner: crudités with hummus, baked salmon with roast potatoes and fennel, green salad with avocado, strawberries, 2 glasses of wine, 2 small slices cheese

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You can't see the final meal but you can see the tray of roasted potatoes and fennel.

Today brought a new challenge in the form of a dinner party. Luckily my roommates and I were throwing the dinner party, so I had a lot of control over the menu and was able to be relatively healthy.

The dinner was for 8 people, which is a challenging enough number to cook for. In the past, when cooking for that number, I would always have made something easy and carby and invariably Italian. With my Italian roots, it was kind of expected of me! So,  pasta, risotto, bread etc would always make an appearance. Quick, tasty and always a crowd pleaser.

But, sticking to the 100 Healthy Day rules I decided to go for baked salmon and roasted new potatoes and fennel. It’s a Jamie Oliver recipe and sooo tasty. And if you call it Salmone al forno, it’s still Italian! Yes, potatoes are probably not the healthiest but they are acceptable as per The Rules.

There was one failure and one coup today.

Failure: I had probably 2 glasses of wine rather than the 1 I am allowed per The Rules. All I can say is that cooking is stressful and the wine was beautiful. Lame I know.

Coup: Everyone enjoyed delicious ice-cream from Mitchell’s for dessert. We’re talking mocha fudge, we’re talking caramel pecan praline, we’re talking heaven in a big fat bowl basically. But I stuck with my lovely, fresh strawberries, and did not even have one lick of a spoon.

Overall, it was a lovely meal. Not just the food but the company as well. My folks got to meet my roomies, I got to meet my roomies’ family. Good conversation and laughs. And it’s important not to ignore the laughs as they also have a huge impact on health!

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The group minus one roomie Venessa and her boyfriend.

Day 7: One week milestone!

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  • Snack: 10 almonds
  • Exercise: 45 mins spin class
  • Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (half egg whites, half regular), sauteed escarole (I had never heard of this veg before), celery, coffee with milk
  • Lunch: Mixed salad with loads of veg, chicken, avocado
  • Snack: Half a carton of Chobani Greek yogurt and half a banana
  • Dinner: Kale salad with smoked salmon and chia seeds, apple cider vinegar, nectarine

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Today marked the one week milestone in my 100 Healthy Days in SF challenge. Whilst there are still 14.3 weeks left in the challenge I’m going to go right ahead and celebrate! Whilst the victory is small, I feel proud of myself for being consistent – both in terms of eating healthfully and blogging every day. Go me!

kale party

One week in and how do I feel? Not radically different- I obviously haven’t suddenly lost a stone or developed a six pack (not that I would want a six pack), but I do feel good. I feel slightly more alert and energetic than usual. I’ve also noticed that I’m not battling any major sugar cravings, which is amazing.

I was even able to go to Mitchell’s ice cream parlour in the Mission with my roommate last night and resist getting a scoop. Anyone who has ever been to this place will know how hard it is to say no. Their ice cream is goooood! Check them out. My fave is the Grasshopper Pie. Arrgghhh enough talk about ice cream.

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Mitchell’s Ice Cream parlour in The Mission. Check them out! 688 San Jose Avenue

 

It just goes to show that even one week of healthy eating can have a positive effect on your well-being. I’m looking forward to seeing how I feel at the end!

Michelle x

Day 6: The 100 Healthy Days in SF Rules

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Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, steamed greens, raw red peppers, raw celery, coffee with milk

Exercise: 1 hour PT session

Lunch: Mixed salad with loads of veggies and grilled chicken, balsamic vinegar

Snack: Mixed salad with turkey and apple cider vinegar

Exercise: 1.5 hours hip hop class

Snack: One apple with a carton of plan chobani greek yogurt

Dandelion and nettle tea during the day

 

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Today was the first day back after vacation and I was ready to launch myself full throttle into the 100 Healthy Days challenge. I am feeling super motivated at the moment! May have something to do with all the fit bods on Venice.

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Muscle Beach, Venice. There was a body building competition on!

I thought it might be a good idea to ‘jot down’ ‘on paper’ (funny how that expression is now practically obsolete with the internet) what the rules of my 100 Healthy Days challenge are. Health and healthy eating can mean different things to different people. As such, I best be specific about what I’m doing lest I draw the wrath of any health zealots out there. ‘You ate store-bought Greek yoghurt?!? That’s not healthy – you need to buy a cow, and a field and make your own.’

 

I’ve also decided to approach this in stages. I don’t think it’s a wise move to radically change everything about your diet and your daily habits in one go. I tried that once and I lasted one very miserable day before gorging myself on ALL of the carbs, meat, sugar, coffee, salt, dairy, cooked veg etc etc that I came across. 

So, for the next 14 days these are my rules:

1. No processed carbs – bread, crackers, pasta (I’ve decided tortilla chips are fine. I’m not ready to let go yet).

2. No sugary foods – chocolate, ice cream (arrrghhhh), cakes etc

3. When I go out for a meal and host a dinner party I will limit myself to one glass of wine

4. When I go out for drinks or a night on the town I will limit myself to three vodka sodas

 

Sound simple? In theory, but I know i’m going to find this challenging. Particularly, the alcohol rules. No jokes about the Irish liking to drink please. 😉 Even though it’s probably true.

Let’s do this!

 

rules

The Canadian part of me loves rules.

 

 

 

Day 2: Road trip fun on Highway One

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Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, fruit salad, coffee
Snack:Apple
Lunch: Fried artichoke hearts (3), Greek salad with sea bass, coffee
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Grilled chicken breast, with half a bun and salad, glass of wine

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So, today we started our road trip on highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We drove halfway along the route, stopping at San Luis Obispo for the night. We being myself, Mom and Step Dad. This is something I’ve been wanting to do since I arrived in CA 6 months ago. And it didn’t disappoint! Sheer cliffs, vast ocean views, hundreds of different shades of blue. It was a whistle stop tour- I definitely want to go back to Big Sur for some more in-depth exploring and definitely some hiking.

Healthy eating wise it was tough- starting in the morning. I had left it to the last minute to pack of course, so after frantically throwing everything I own in a bag I realized I had nothing for breakfast and my parents were arriving in 30 mins to pick me up. I could have caved and had a sugary cereal but instead I legged it up to the local cafe for boiled eggs and fruit salad.

Healthy eating takes effort and you can’t be lazy!

I did cave later in the day to try some fried artichokes. But only because we had passed so many fields where they were growing! So cool, I’ve never seen them grow before. (Apart from in Farmville…ahem). And I also had some wine. It was free!!

All in all a fairly healthy day- I was definitely healthier than I would have been, had I not been making an effort. I’m good with that. 

Plus it’s vacation!!! You need to be slightly more relaxed.

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Some of the scenery, complete with giant hawk

Some of the beautiful scenery. Look at the bird. It’s a giant hawk!

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Posing along the way. Look at the fog line!

Day 1 – the day before the vacay

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  • Breakfast: Egg whites, steamed kale, chia seeds, raw red peppers and a large coffee 
  • Snack: Cherry tomatoes
  • Lunch: Chicken with mixed green salad
  • Snack: Carrots and aubergine dip
  • Dinner: Omelette with cheese and tomatoes and mixed green salad
  • Lots of water and nettle and dandelion tea
  • Exercise: Power Sculpt class, 1 hr

 

Day 1 Food

 

As today was the day before the big Cali road trip I tried to go as easy on the food as possible. It’s so hard to be 100% clean and healthy on vacation (and in fairness, kind of boring) so I kind of feel like as much good work as I can do beforehand the better. So this meant loads of water and herbal tea and no refined carbs or sugar – including sugar from fruit. It wasn’t 100% perfect – I accidentally had eggs twice and I could have done without the cheese but it was a good enough effort. Even my parents peer-pressuring me into having a glass of wine didn’t sway me!

And even though my quads were killing me from the workouts earlier in the week I dragged my butt along to the exercise class today. Squat-hell. But hopefully worth every minute.

Overall a good day, ending with some road trip planning with my Mom. Some exciting days ahead with some of the best scenery in the world!

Day 1 Food

Let’s do this! High fives all round and a big group hug.

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They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well go right ahead and call me cray-cray!

Over the past 3 years or so, I’ve been spending a lot of money on expensive exercise classes (Crossfit, I’m talking to you), healthy food (organic quinoa don’t be growing on trees, even in SF) and random health crazes (wash my mouth out twice a day with virgin coconut oil -seems necessary to me).
 
But I haven’t really seen any significant change in my body.
 
It’s not that I mind the money – I would happily invest heavily in health. It’s the lack of any major progress after a whole lot of effort  that’s the biggest bugbear.
 
I say effort but I have the feeling I’m my own saboteur. All of those nights out, boozy brunches, desserts, wine Wednesdays, chocolate Thursdays etc etc that I ‘treat myself’ to, have somehow become the norm, This has been compounded by the fact I’ve recently moved to SF – a city of bottomless mimosas, margaritas and guac, Sunday Fundays, and gourmet EVERYTHING.
 
So, in an effort to turn the tide I’ve decided to take a leaf out of www.100-healthy-days.com and commit to, well, 100 healthy days in SF! Over the course of these 100 healthy days I will make a concerted, dedicated and publicly documented effort to be healthy.
 
100 days will take me nicely into the holiday season and a joyous homecoming to Ireland. How would I love to breeze into my old local in Dublin, to cries of ‘Jaysus – you look amazing’, or ‘The California lifestyle is obviously suiting you’ or even better from the jealous ones ‘She’s taken it too far, she’s lost her child-bearing hips…’
 
There will be MANY obstacles in my way between now and then of course:
1. Road trip to LA with my parents – happening on Day 2
2. Work conference in Las Vegas
3. Long weekend in Mexico
4. Thanksgiving in Tahoe
5. Many, many SF boozy Sunday brunches, random food-related events, margaritas in The Mission, Napa wine tours etc etc
 
However, there are many things in SF that will also help:
1. Free healthy food in work
2. An abundance of fresh Californian fruit and veg
3. Nice weather!
4. Paleo Margaritas
5. Many, many beautiful, tanned, toned, healthy people to motivate me.
 
So, while it will be tough, no doubt, I am confident I can do this, with baby steps and an attitude of loving kindness!
 
Let’s do this!
Michelle
 
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