I'm Playing the Field. . . of Dates

     I was going to wait until tonight to right up this post but I'm to excited, so I've got to share. About a week ago I ordered a 15 lb. pkg. of Organic Khadrawy, Halawy Honey, and Deglet Noor dates from the Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch in California. Today, the package arrived. The box was slightly damaged, but fortunately it may have affected how some of the dates looked, but it definitely didn't have any affect on how they tasted. OMG they are out of this world! Where have these dates been all my life? The only dates I've ever had before this were Deglet Noor and Medjool dates from Israel; man have I been missing out. I'm never buying any other dates from anyone but the Bautista Family from this day forward.

Deglet Noor

 Khadrawy

 Halawy

Honey

My mid-morning snack for today. Best ever!

This was on the package of dates. 

I love knowing that my dates are fresh, organic, and NOT irradiated.

     You too can treat yourself to some of these luscious dates at www.7hotdates.com! =D

Must have sleep!

     Hey guys! Sorry I didn't post last weekend, I was sick. Last week both my mom and brother were sick, and much to my dismay, they passed it onto me. I normally have a very strong immune system and don't get sick. However, with my training, homework, chores, and taking care of sick family members I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep. With my weakened immune system "the bug" was able to infiltrate my body, and it was NOT fun. It just goes to show you that you are only as strong as your weakness. This time my health weakness was sleep, and I payed for it. I was only sick for three days but that put me behind school, so I've been scrambling to catch up this week, leaving me little time for any sort of training let alone blogging. Thankfully today I have finally caught up on all my work and have started training again. 

     Just because I was out for the count last week doesn't mean that I wasn't able to snap some pictures here and there. The following pics cover my two week gap between posts. Enjoy!

Lunch from Whole Foods

     I've read articles from professionals who say that eating too much fruit is bad for you because it can cause high blood pressure. I found this highly unlikely. Fruit is an unrefined sugar (carb) that our bodies were designed to easily assimilate. Still, I decided to see for myself using the blood pressure machine at a   local pharmacy.

Blood pressure 30 min. after a 2 hr. workout (5 hours since last fruit meal)

Blood pressure 10 min. after an 8 banana & 6 date smoothie.

As you can see, there isn't a very significant difference. Fruit rocks!

When I was sick my mom made this lovely Get Well Strawberry Banana "Ice Cream"

     My latest fruit bounty:

Honeydew

40 lbs. of Organic Bananas

 Nothing is as beautiful as a fruit filled refrigerator!

 Fuyu Persimmons

Chocolate Sapote, Pineapple, & Spinach

Watermelon & Mangos

 Tangerines, Strawberries, & Blueberries

Heirloom Tomatoes

     Not pictured was 2more boxes of Mango, 2 more packages of Persimmons, and a liter of fresh Coconut Water. I hit the fruit jackpot for sure this time around!

 Training Update: 2/6 - 2/20

Peace!

Training Log #1

Yummy Eats and Bikila Vibrams

     Hello my lovely readers! I'm so glad that I finally have some time to post. January was crazy! Trying to get my computer fixed, trying to get my refrigerator fixed, homework, training, working on my book, and finding time to spend with my family. . . yeah that's a lot to juggle. LOL. Somehow though, by the end of the month, everything that needed to get done was done, so I'm happy. So what's new with me? Well let's see. . .

     I've been really enjoying a wide variety of fruit, as always. This month alone I've gotten to have Mangos, Papaya, Chocolate Sapote, Ice Cream (Blue Java) Bananas, Cavendish Bananas, Persimmons, Pineapple, Heirloom Tomatoes, Blood Oranges, Clementines, Medjool dates, Pomegranates, Honeycrisp Apples, Strawberries, and Engilsh Cucumber. This of course meant that I had to spend time with my beloved Vitmamix to create colossal amount of smoothies.

Bananas, Strawberries, & Cherries

A Berry Blast!

Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Banana

Papaya, Banana, and Mango

Pineapple, Mango, Blood Oranges, & Spinach

My mom has been enjoying a lot of fruit as well. 

This was her breakfast a couple days ago. 

It looked so pretty that I had to take a picture to show you guys.

     Since this year I plan on doing a lot of running, and I'm already starting to wear out my Vibrams, I thought it best to invest in another pair of Vibrams exclusively for when I run. So I forked out the dough and bought the new and improved running Vibram, the Bikila! Now I'm not usually one to wear pink, in fact I don't own a single item that is pink, until now that is. I went for these hot shoes is because I want these babies to get noticed. If people see people will ask, and if people ask they might just go get a pair themselves. I am determined to raise awareness about the benefits of going barefoot. . . well almost barefoot anyway. =)

     I aslo decided that if I was going to be running these races for all to see, that I should raise awareness about the benefits of a raw plant based lifestyle. Having recently becoming a member of Organic Athletes, I purchased this running shirt to wear on my race days.

                            Front                                                                             Back

      As to recording my training, I've decided to not post my workouts daily. I want to remain consistent in updating you guys on my progress, so every Saturday evening I'll be doing a special post to list all my workouts for the week. This way I can still post about my fruit and adventures whenever I have time. However, when I don't have the time, I can at least be confident that my training posts will be posted consistently. And during the days before my Saturday post, you guys are more then welcome to hop onto daily mile. It's an online site where you can log in your running, cycling, and swimming mileage. My profile is here: http://www.dailymile.com/people/AmandaJ_B#ref=tophd.

      Until next time,
Run fast and eat fruit!