Jill McCauslin, Author at Becoming Elli

Cooking with Cruciferous Crunch Collection

February 26, 2018

I picked up this bag of Cruciferous Crunch at Trader Joe's this week. It's made up of shredded and chopped kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, and red cabbage. Trader Joe's did all of the work of shredding the vegetables. Other stores are probably now carrying a similar product but if you have to, you could always make your own crunch collection. This was an impulse buy and it worked out well for me. I basically decided to make some kind of salad or slaw with this. I think you could add to these ingredients or change them without problem. If I had some dried cranberries or dried cherries in the house, I would have added them to the salad too. Slivered almonds or pignon nuts...

Training with Your Smart Phone– Fitness Apps

February 21, 2018

Fit and Strong, Fitness, Work Outs

Today I'm thinking about fitness apps. In one of our recent podcasts, I made the comment that I like to be told what to do for my workouts. Sometimes I use a personal trainer to keep me on track. That’s not always an option and not everyone has the resources for hiring a trainer or doesn’t have a trainer close by. Of course, you can figure out something to do on your own but if you’re like me, and want that little bit of extra guidance, what do you do? I realized this weekend that I have several apps on my phone that I use for workout routines so I thought I’d share some of them with you. Presumably, most of us have found different apps...

Apps Smart Phone

Making Your Own Walking Desk

February 15, 2018

Fit and Strong, Motivation

I know that it is 2018 and that now bicycle desks are becoming the hot thing and that walking desks are so 2015 but today I’m feeling very pleased with myself. I own a lovely treadmill that I bought last year on a Black Friday deal. I use it for running indoors when I don’t go to the gym and for walking in the evening sometimes while I’m watching TV and need to get in some steps. So let me tell you about making a walking desk. This treadmill takes up a lot of space in my family room so I feel that if it’s going to sit here taking up floor space and represent a significant investment in fitness, I should use it more. I...

Nutrition and the Best of Diet Writing 2017: Check It Out

February 8, 2018

Book Review

There's tons of information on the internet about diets. Oh my, I think diet information is only behind pornography in popularity for internet searches. I confess, I like reading some of it. even if I roll my eyes at what some people put out there. Specifically, there's a lot of discussion about nutrition and what we should eat and less writing about diet. A good source for information about nutrition that seems to be pretty reliable and unbiased is the Nutrition Wonk blog and website. This site provides lots of detailed information about studies and nutrition science. Here's their description of the site: This is a site for the folks who love nutrition as much as they love food. Nutrition Wonk gets into the weeds of nutrition science,...

Ten Ways to Avoid the Gym

January 28, 2018

Fit and Strong, Fitness, Work Outs

So, let’s say your idea of fun is not going to the gym and working out but you know you need to get some exercise to stay healthy. How do you avoid gym? Whether it’s because you don’t have a gym nearby, you don’t want to spend the money on gym membership, or you just don’t like gyms, you still need to get some exercise, right? We all know that fitness depends on moving our bodies. What should you do? I have some ideas to share. Get a Fitbit and count your steps. We all hear this, get 10,000 steps a day. Well, get a Fitbit or some other step counter (pedometer, Apple Watch, Garmin watch) and see how many steps you get in a...

dance hiking walking

Sardine Salad or How to Get Sardines in Your Diet

January 24, 2018

Recipes

The standard health message these days is to eat lots of veggies and try to get oily seafood into your diet a couple times a week. I don’t know if that’s really a healthy diet, but it sounds reasonable, though I’m not sure referring to fish as oily is all that palatable. Oily seafood includes tuna, salmon, and sardines. It seems like every diet or healthy eating book I pick up recommends eating sardines. I usually try to add protein to my salads so making a sardine salad seemed like a good idea. Sardines are not my favorite food. They remind me of eating them on a Saltine cracker, and it’s not my best childhood memory. Maybe I’d like sardines on a cracker now, but I...

Salad Sardines

Yummy Sauteed Keto Cabbage

January 15, 2018

Recipes

Here’s a recipe I’ve read variations of on different Keto sites. I can’t believe I’m going to say this about a cabbage dish, but I LOVE this recipe. It’s so easy and cabbage is so inexpensive, and it keeps for a long time. This is a great change from making coleslaw or that infamous diet cabbage soup. I’ll write a post about Keto diets later, but a quick definition of Keto is a diet consisting of high fat, moderate protein, and low carbs. If you’re hesitant about eating fat, you’ll have to modify how you make this dish. I think you could make this with olive oil but I’ve never tried it. I’ve written this up using butter but I’ve seen similar recipes that recommend bacon grease...

cabbage

Who Thought Up Swimming as a Sport?

January 15, 2018

Fitness, Races

It was 2o F this morning so what did I decide to do? Go swimming! I’m signing up for an indoor triathlon at my gym. It’s held in early March. The race is swim for 10 minutes, bicycle for 25 minutes and run for 20 minutes. Everything is done in the gym, so the run is on a treadmill and the bicycle is a bike used for spinning classes. For me, the order of ease with this is running, bicycling, and dragging up the rear is swimming. I know I can run for 20 minutes. I can ride the bicycle for 25 minutes though probably not very fast. The swimming is a problem. Initially I thought, swim for ten minutes? How hard could that be? Turns...

Triathlon

High Energy, Easy to Make Protein Oatmeal Balls

January 12, 2018

Recipes

I created these as a snack for someone who has food allergies, avoids sugar, and wants protein mixed in with carbs. He uses them as an energy snack. Chris and I tried them on a long run and they work pretty well. Because the balls are small, they're easy to carry for a run and they're easy to eat while on the trail. These oatmeal balls are easy to make and pretty tasty, considering there's not much in them. They are dairy free and sugar free. If you use gluten free oats, they would also be gluten free. I don't use sugar or sweeteners and with the banana, I don't think you need it but if you wanted it sweeter, you could add some honey or whatever...

Oatmeal Balls Protein

Three Goals for the New Year

January 2, 2018

Building Muscle, Fitness, Races, Weight

I asked my mother on New Year’s Day if she was making any resolutions for the new year. She said, “No, I’m past all that.” She’s now 88 years old so I guess that makes sense. I sort of want to be past all that too so no resolutions for me. No, instead I’m setting goals. Is that different than making resolutions? I hope so. Instead of saying, this year I’m gong to lose weight and be fit and healthy, which is what I want to be all year long and not just in this year, I’m trying to set clear definable goals. So, here are my top three goals for this year: Goal 1: Run three half-marathons this year [caption id="attachment_315" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Running[/caption] Last year I ran...

New Year

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Author: Jill McCauslin

Cooking with Cruciferous Crunch Collection

Training with Your Smart Phone– Fitness Apps

Making Your Own Walking Desk

Nutrition and the Best of Diet Writing 2017: Check It Out

Ten Ways to Avoid the Gym

Sardine Salad or How to Get Sardines in Your Diet

Yummy Sauteed Keto Cabbage

Who Thought Up Swimming as a Sport?

High Energy, Easy to Make Protein Oatmeal Balls

Three Goals for the New Year

Beyond the Basic Bowl: Creative Ways to Use Quinoa

Buddha Bowl

Vegetable Soup for a Cold Weekend

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Getting Steps Done – When There Is NO Time

Celebrating a Two Year FitBit Anniversary

Starting to See Results from the Strength Building Season

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Author: Jill McCauslin

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