Brendan Brazier's 6 Stress Busting Tips for the Holidays

Monday night was great, then really great, then kinda horrible. A few days ago I signed up for a class/ q and a session with Brendan Frazier on LearnItLive. It was free, and I thought the idea of a live q and a with one of the top vegan fitness/ nutrition guys sounded pretty awesome. I didn't take good enough notes to remember what specifically his 6 stress busting tips were but I think you can listen to a recording of the session here.

What I really liked was his talking about whole foods, fewer grains (and more psuedo-grains like quinoa and amaranth), and alkaline boosting foods-- which I've been meaning to look into, and how to get your nutrient-rich foods on the cheap. So that was the great part. Then the great part-- he answered my question in the q and a section! And it was the last question answered, so it might not have happened at all. I asked about muscle soreness after working out. See, I get sore. Really, really sore. If I do like, one 15 minute workout I can't move very well for the next 4 days kind of sore. I try to make sure I eat enough protein (and when I was counting calories I would track protein specifically), eat before and after workouts, get enough iron, eat healthily, and drink enough water. First off, he said some muscle soreness is really good, especially when you're switching up your routine. I'm cool with that. He said if you are super sore day after day, even when you are doing the same types of workouts consistently that that is a problem. That's the boat I'm in.

So what was his answer? Three parts, non of which was "take a certain supplement", which I thought was pretty cool. Part one: alkaline foods. Still need to look into that, about to go do that right now. Part two: higher-quality protein, like pea and hemp. My protein powder has these but next time I order, I'll get something with a higher percentage of each. Part three: greens! This was kind of an "aha!" moment for me. I eat greens, I like them, but I wouldn't say they're a huge part of my life. I get a bag of spinach, some broccoli, and maybe something else a week. Sometimes it's spinach or broccoli. I also love kale but I haven't been feelin' it. That's gonna have to change. He said a green smoothie every day for breakfast is great and that plus other greens have chlorophyll, which is apparently great for muscles! Good to know. I'll bulk up my greens and let you guys know how my workouts go. Does anyone else have this muscle soreness issue? Did you find anything that helps?

Oh yeah, the horrible part. It got better this morning so don't worry. Remember my post about our kitties? One of them got out of the window Monday night and we couldn't find him. And he'd never been outside before (well he was born outside, but pretty quickly came in and has been a snuggle-bug-not-so-outdoorsy type since then). Anyway, We found him Tuesday morning, on the roof, just chillaxin' like nothing happened. If he wants to go outside, more power to him, but I thought he'd be scared so I was all worried. He napped all day long Tuesday, so I guess he had quite the adventure, and since he's obviously not upset, I'm fine now too.

This is him. His name is Little Prince. I call him Little or Little Kitten most of the time.

He doesn't love pictures. This is him looking all grumpy and also huge-- he only weighs about 9.5 pounds and he's usually not grumpy, so just ignore the giant grumpy cat-man in front of you, but look at his big, bold stripes on his arms and the spots on his tummy-- isn't that awesome? I think he's pretty. Or handsome. But he's a cat, so he can be pretty, right?