Thank you to those of you who entered our giveaway to win a FREE copy of the book "Stop Dieting and Start Losing Weight."  And the winner is...

Lori S.!

Congrats to Lori for winning this giveaway.  Keep an eye out on our blog for more giveaways coming up over the next few months - plus quality nutrition and fitness information, as always!

Congratulations to Jenny S. for winning a FREE run or swim clinic at TriMania Boston!  We hope that you enjoy your clinic, and come visit us at the expo afterward!  

If you're new to our blog, read more about TriMania, an amazing event for triathletes taking place in March in Cambridge, MA.

And if you didn't win, try entering another giveaway on our page!  We are currently running a giveaway for a free copy of the book "Stop Dieting and Lose Weight" - a great easy read with practical tips you can start to implement today.  We'll draw a winner for that giveaway on 3/1, so enter today!

I’m excited to be able to do something nice for all you readers on Day 10 of 25 Days of Christmas Kindness:  host a giveaway where we’ll choose one lucky winner to receive one case of 16-ounce Chobani Blends shipped right to your door!

Chobani makes a ton of varieties of greek yogurt.  Greek yogurt has gotten a lot of attention in the nutrition world recently, and for good reason - it typically packs twice the protein and less sugar compared to regular yogurt, is a good source of calcium, and contains probiotics that may help with digestive health!  A 6 to 8 ounce serving of plain greek yogurt typically provides 15 to 20 grams of protein, less than 10 grams of sugar, and 15-20% of your daily calcium needs.  Flavored varieties contain some additional added sugars, but still have a great overall nutritional profile so they can certainly be incorporated regularly in a healthy diet.

I was lucky enough to receive 6 new flavors from Chobani’s “Blends” line to try out – they are delicious!  My favorite was the 2% mango blended variety.  I popped a cup into my ice cream machine and ended up with a super creamy and yummy frozen yogurt – or fro-cho!  One cup contains 215 calories and 27 grams of sugar, but it also contains a whopping 17 grams of protein and 20% of your daily calcium needs.  It’s a good substitute for ice cream when you’re craving a cold treat.

I also love using greek yogurt as a substitute for fats (like oil or butter) in quick bread and muffin recipes.  It keeps the recipe moist while cutting down on calories and fat.  Keep in mind that when you use flavored yogurts, you can also cut back on the amount of sugar in the recipe too since the flavored yogurts do have some extra sugar in them.

I did a little experimenting with the new peach blended flavor, which has little bits of chopped peaches in the yogurt.  I also had some apples lying around, so I decided to make some peachy-keen apple muffins!  Delicious - check out the recipe.

To enter our giveaway for a case of six 16-ounce Chobani blends, simply leave a comment below answering these questions by Friday, 12/14/12:

What is your favorite way to use greek yogurt?  As a snack, in a recipe, in a dip…?  Share with us!

Terms:  You must be at least 18 years of age and live in the United States.  One winner will be randomly selected.  You will be required to provide your address within 3 days of notification if drawn as the winner.

Disclosure:  Chobani provided me with six 16 ounce containers of yogurt to taste-test, and are sponsoring the reader giveaway by sending a case of 16 ounce yogurt blends for the lucky winner.  As always, I only partner with companies and brands that I support and believe in, and all opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.

Thanks to everyone for your great blog comments on our Bob's Red Mill giveaway.  Congrats to Emily as our randomly selected winner in this giveaway!  We hope she will enjoy her gift card to stock up on some great products.

Also, for those of you who didn't get a chance to read the comments, I wanted to share some of these great ideas posted by readers for utilizing healthy grains and other Bob's Red Mill products in your diet...

• "I love their coconut for my yogurt..."
  
• "I utilize Bob's Red Mill Flax Seed in my morning smoothies."
  
• "I love Bob's Red Mill whole grain bulgur."
  
• "I use their flax seed meal to add to our muffin recipes."
  
• "I love using bob's coconut flour to make "coco-meal" (thats oatmeal, but with coconut flour instead of oats)."
  
• "I love their products, the quinoa is best I've found so far."

Thanks readers for sharing your awesome ideas!  And congrats again to Emily for winning our giveaway.


For full disclosure, Bob's Red Mill provided this gift card for me to use in this giveaway.  I received no other compensation for this post or the previous post.  And as always, I only do giveaways with companies/products I believe in. 

Grains get a bad reputation – people claim they’re filled with “unhealthy” carbohydrates, and they’re often the first thing people cut out when they start dieting.  But grains have an essential spot in our diet.  Yes, they provide carbs – a word that has a bad connotation in much of the dieting world – but carbohydrate is our body’s preferred source of energy, and it’s where the majority (40-65%) of our calories should come from.  We of course want to make sure these carbohydrates are coming from healthy choices like fruits, veggies, and grains. 

The key when choosing grains is to select whole grains- those made from the entire kernel of the grain.  And what better time to talk about these than Whole Grains Month, which happens every September! 

Here’s the deal on whole grains – they contain all three parts of the grain kernel.  This includes the:

• Bran – This outer layer surrounds the grain and protects it.  It provides fiber, B-vitamins, and minerals
  
• Germ – This is where a lot of nutrients are stored, including antioxidants, Vitamin E, B-vitamins, and healthy fats.
  
• Endosperm – This is the largest part of the grain kernel and contains carbohydrates as well as protein.

Because all the parts of the grain kernel are used, we’re given an extra boost of fiber.  Fiber is essential for a healthy digestive system – I always tell the kids I teach that “it helps us poop!” and hear the class break out in “ewwww!”.  But it’s the truth, and it’s important that we get enough fiber each day for that reason.  Fiber is important in other ways, too – for example, it helps regulate blood sugar better than when we eat foods lacking fiber.  One type of fiber, soluble fiber, can also help to lower cholesterol.

A refined grain product is typically only made from the endosperm portion – so it provides carbohydrates, but lacks a lot of other nutrients.  Some of these lost nutrients are added back in during processing (through enrichment and fortification) but not to the same nutritional profile of the original whole grain. 

So how do you spot the whole grains?  It (unfortunately) isn’t as simple as you might think!  There are tons of breads out there that look like they should be whole grain – they’re a brown color – and some even say “wheat bread” or “multigrain” in the name of the product.  But to truly identify if you’re eating a whole grain, you’ll need to flip the package over and take a look at the ingredient list.  The very first ingredient should say “whole wheat,” “whole grain oat flour,” “brown rice,” or a similar term (for other types of grains) indicating it is the unrefined form.  If it’s a multigrain product, look at the different types of grain in the label to see if they are all whole grains.  If you see “enriched wheat flour” as the first ingredient, that’s just another term for white flour, aka a refined grain product. 

Sometimes people look at the nutrition facts to check the amount of fiber, and purchase products based on this amount.  This can be deceiving, though, since manufacturers have jumped on the fiber bandwagon and have been adding isolated fibers to foods.  These boost the grams of fiber without adding whole grain, so they can be added to refined products to make them seem like a healthier choice.  Scientifically, though, we’re not sure if these isolated fibers have the same impact as regular fiber on your body.  Your best bet is to read the ingredients and select items that are truly a whole grain.

Want to experiment with some new whole grains, or stock up on your favorites?  Would a $25 Bob’s Red Mill gift card help you with that? 

Well perfect, because we are going to give one away!  Simply make a comment below on this blog post by 10/4/12 and be entered into a raffle to win a $25 gift card to use in their online store.  Bob’s Red Mill makes great products, including different flours, oat products, barley, and other grains.  My favorite product is there whole wheat pastry flour, which I use for all my baking needs.  

Terms:  You must be at least 18 years old to win this giveaway.  Upon winning, we will contact you via email and you must reply with your mailing address within 3 days or we will choose another winner.

Good luck! 

Yesterday I was working at a local farmers market in Boston, handing out some healthy food samples and recipes highlighting seasonal produce.  As you know from my last blog post about farmers markets – I love shopping at them since I know the food is fresh, it often tastes better, and I like supporting fellow local businesses.
 
After working, I did some shopping there and picked up a ton of food – raspberries, blueberries, summer squash, peaches and more!  I also got the item in the photo below.  This was the first time I’d ever seen or heard of this item, so I chatted with one of the farmers for a bit about it.  He let me take a taste – so good! –and I picked up a bunch to bring home.

So you tell me – what’s the vegetable?!  Enter your answer in the comments section below by Monday, 7/23/12.  We’ll randomly draw two names from all the correct answers and each will win a $10 Amazon.com gift card.

Plus, after I pick the winners I’ll share the recipe and pictures for how I cooked this yummy veggie and a few other recipes I found too!
 
Good luck!

Fine print:  You must be 18 years of age to enter.  Only one entry per person.  You must enter your email into the email field (which is not published) when you comment so we can contact you if you win.  Two names will be randomly selected from those with correct answers.  Each winner will receive a $10 Amazon.com gift card by email.  If no one answers correctly, we will randomly two draw names from all those who commented to win.

I was so excited when I came across a recipe on Marci Gilbert’s blog for a yogurt bread.  Her recipe comes from a version of a Chobani recipe, and I’ve adapted both these to create the yummy version below!

Why am I loving this bread?

1) This quick bread contains no added fat like butter or oil.  In a regular recipe, eliminating the fat would cause the bread to be really dry and not very tasty.  But the greek yogurt in this makes the inside incredibly moist – you’d never know there’s no butter or oil in it.  

2) Whole grains add fiber and micronutrients to this recipe.  I made this with whole wheat pasty flour and barley flour, but you can easily use all whole wheat flour if that’s what you have.

3) There’s fresh fruit in here!  Strawberry picking season has just started, so I’m betting this will taste even better when I get out to the farm and grab some fresh berries.

4) Do I have endurance athletes out there looking for a good, carb-rich snack?  A slice of this bread is a healthy way to fuel your body.

5) It is absolutely delicious!

Strawberry Orange Yogurt Bread
Makes 10 slices

1 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup of barley flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 6 ounce container of blood orange greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
1 egg
2/3 cup of sugar
¾ cup juice from a large orange (doesn’t have to be exact; I just used as much as I could get out of a very large orange)
1 ½ cups chopped strawberries
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
   
2. Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add yogurt, egg, sugar, and orange juice.  Stir well.  Fold in strawberries and pecans.
   
3. Bake mixture for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean (check around 30 minutes).  Enjoy!
   

Nutrition Analysis:  206 calories, 4 grams of fat, 248 mg sodium, 40 grams of carbohydrate, 4 grams of fiber, 18 grams of sugar, 6 grams of protein, 41% DV for Vitamin C, 8% DV for Calcium, 7% DV for iron

Giveaway!
Want to make some of this yummy bread on your own?  Comment on this blog post by 6/11/12 for a chance to win one of four coupons for a free Chobani yogurt!  
(Disclosure - Chobani provided us with these coupons.  I received no compensation for this post).

And the Danskin Triathlon Giveaway winner is (drumroll please).... … Jennifer M!  

Congratulations to Jennifer.  She has won a free race entry into the Danskin Triathlon of her choice.  We are so excited for Jennifer and wish her the best with her triathlon training!
                                                                              
Thanks to everyone else who entered our giveaway.  Keep your eyes peeled for more giveaways soon!


And if I may make a polite request on the topic of giveaways:  please don’t enter a giveaway on our site and not actually do the tasks you need to do to enter.  I moderate these giveaways, so if you earn an entry on rafflecopter by saying you left a blog post, it’s pretty easy for me to glance at the blog to see who did not actually do this (and I do go in and remove these entries so it’s fair).  Same goes for twitter posts, etc.  Let’s play by the rules to make it an equal playing field for everyone!  Thanks to those of you who already follow the rules!

You all know how passionate I am about endurance sports.  Back in 2009, a friend of mine convinced me to sign up for a sprint distance triathlon with her.  During training, she hurt herself and wasn’t able to continue.  I decided to keep training on my own and tackle my very first endurance event.  Up until this point, I’d never even run a 5K.  Completing the sprint tri was one of the best moments of my life – I was so proud of myself and what I’d just accomplished.  And from then on, I’ve been tackling endurance sport events every year, from marathons to cycling events to triathlons.

So I was super excited when Danskin approached me about getting the word out on their women’s only sprint triathlon series!  Danskin strives to help women to get moving with a “women empowering other women” mentality.  Never done a triathlon before?  Don't worry, because their races are very first-timer friendly and you'll have tons of support and motivation along the way.  Triathlon is definitely a sport with lots of encouragement, and there's no doubt you'll hear other women cheering you on during the course.

Their sprint distance triathlon races take place throughout the country.  The sprint distance is comprised of a ½ mile swim, 12 mile bike, and a 3 mile run.  And in addition to regular individual participants, there are relay options too – so if you never learned how to swim or hate cycling, grab a few friends and you can each take on your favorite part.  

Plus, in the spirit of “paying it forward” the series supports the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Team Survivor nationally; as well as a local food bank and women’s shelter in each of their race cities. 

I'd highly encourage you to checkout the Danskin Triathlon series and their race schedule, and consider participating in a triathlon this year.  If you're sitting there thinking "I could never do that" - then I especially would encourage you to challenge yourself this year.  I know you can do it!

2012 Race Schedule:

May 13 – Clermont, FL (greater Orlando area) 
June 3 – Austin, TX
July 22 – Webster, MA (greater Boston area)
August 5 – Howell, MI 
August 19 – Seattle, WA 
August 26 – Pleasant Prairie, WI
September 9 – Sandy Hook, NJ 
October 7 – Palm Springs, CA


Giveaway!
Now here's the really awesome part of this post - the Danskin Triathlon Series wants YOU to TRI something new.  They are offering a complimentary entry to one winner of the Inspired Wellness Solutions giveaway!  The Danskin Triathlon Series is a great first-timer friendly swim, bike, run event.  Get your girl friends, sisters, daughters, and nieces involved by signing up to do this fabulous women’s fitness event together – and of course if you win, your entry will already be paid for!

Enter this giveaway using Rafflecopter below.  
You can earn multiple entries by completing each task using Rafflecopter.

Terms and conditions:  This giveaway is open to US residents only and you must be at least 18 years old to enter.  Upon winning, we will contact you for your full name and specified race city.  This information must be provided within 1 week of our email to you or we will choose another winner.  Good luck!

*Disclosure:  Danskin Triathlon has provided me with one triathlon entry to giveaway on our blog.  I was not compensated for this post.  As always, I only partner with organizations and products that I fully support and believe in!*