A few months ago, knowing that I sweat a lot, My Gazelle bought me two Halo products: the black Halo II Headband,

and the black Halo Visor

I sweat like a dude. There’s no shame in my game. I work hard, and I sweat. Hell…sometimes I sweat like a man while standing still. What I’m trying to say is that when I’m running or biking, I spend a lot of time wiping sweat out of my eyes. Since I wear contacts, this turns out to be a huge pain in the ass, and usually leads me to have to give my contacts a complete rinse down when I’m finished working out.

My sweat is not easily tamed by any headband. Luckily, Halo does not make just any headband. Halo headbands are designed to move sweat away from your eyes with a magical yellow sweat re-routing thingamajigger.

Prior to wrestling with the seaweed monster at my first triathlon on Sunday, I had tried the headband a few times under my bicycle helmet on practice rides, but didn’t even take the tag off of the visor yet.

I decided to use them both during the triathlon.

OH! See?! Hi! There I am wearing my visor at the finish.

I normally don’t wear hats when I run. Don’t get me wrong, I love hats. I think that hats are adorable, and I’ve tried wearing various hats several times. The problem is that I always get completely overheated, or I feel like my head is going to explode from the pressure of the hat. The hat always comes off and gets attached to my fuel belt around mile 1.

Did you see me up there, wearing the visor at the finish line?

I was pleasantly surprised that the Halo visor did not cause any discomfort at all, I didn’t have to adjust it at all, and it made it through all 3.4 miles. At one point, as I was dumping water on my head at an aid station, I became very thankful that I wore it. The water (and sweat) honestly, magically, completely circumvents your eyes. There is no wiping, and no losing a contact lens.

The verdict: Jogger approved! I love them both. At a price of $12.99 for the headband, and $27.25 for the visor (both through the links above), they are both completely worth the investment.

These, my friends, are the Sony NWZ-W252 Walman MP3 Player. They are very lightweight, wireless, water-resistant, reasonably-priced ($60), and hold approximately 270 songs (2GB). The best part is that you can move music directly from your iTunes library onto the device. When Sony offered these up for a free, I jumped at the opportunity. However, since I’m a slave to my iPod, I decided to let My Gazelle do the reviewing this time. It’s only fair…what’s mine is almost his, right?

So, here is Rizzle Dizzle’s review of the Sony NWZ-W252 Walkman MP3 Player.

________

Giving these headphones to me for a product review was the right thing to do. My workouts are sorta acrobatic to say the least!

The first thing I noticed when I turned on the player was that the sound was not as clear and crisp as on my iPod.

However, the headphones did fit snugly over my ears, and there were no cords to wrangle.

I decided to try the walkman with a medium-intensity workout and an extremely fast paced, high-intensity workout. When I used the headphones with the medium-intensity workout (consisting of running on the treadmill and lifting weights in a circuit), they worked like a champ. They never fell out of my ears, and I loved the fact that they were cordless.  One of the most annoying things for me is trying to figure out where to put my headphone cord while I’m working out.

For the intense workout, I did circuit weight training and plyometrics for an hour and a half.  This workout even included me hanging upside down from the  pull-up bar doing sit-ups, reverse crunches and back rows (Note from your girl: I hope our children get your genes…just sayin’).  Unfortunately, I found that the headphones were hard to keep in my ears when I working out, and at one point they actually fell out when I was hanging upside down. However, I understand that this is the extreme case.  If you are a regular gym-goer or runner (who doesn’t hang upside down like I do), these headphones would be great for you.

The Pro’s:

• The headphones are comfortable to wear (like a Bluetooth headset).
• Keeps your arms free while lifting weights or running, and there are no cords to get tangled up.
• Very easy to operate while you are engulfed with your workout.
• Inexpensive.
• Portable.
• Fits snugly in the ears during most exercises.

The Con’s:

• The sound is not as crisp as an Ipod.
• When the player is in shuffle mode, it makes a weird noise that lets you know that the next song is coming.
• If you’re doing hard-core workouts, they might fall out of your ears.

The conclusion is that I’ll still wear these headphones because I love the wireless feature, but I’ll bring my iPod when I plan to hang upside down!

Remember when I used to cook all the time and then post recipes for you guys?

Yeah.  Well, there’s not a whole lot of time for cooking these days, considering that I’m either working, sweating or studying.  Unfortunately, cooking is a great stress relief for me.  For that reason, I do my best to cook at least one delicious meal every weekend.

Thanks to an unexpected offer from Ryan at POM Wonderful, I received a case of delicious, nutritious POM Pomegranate juice.  I had tried POM in the past (after I received some freebie coupons last year), but I never attempted cooking with it.  Considering the fact that I had an entire case, I knew that I needed to cook with it.

I didn’t want to try the normal things that immediately came to mind (pancake syrup, glazes, etc.), so I decided to make Chicken PACOS.

Chicken POM Tacos.

Yes, I made that up.  Isn’t the name just brilliant?

(I kid.)

Tacos are My Gazelle’s favorite meal of all time.  If I ask him what he wants to eat for dinner (provided that he’s home), approximately 90% of the time, he’ll tell me that he wants tacos.  The other 10% of the time, he doesn’t want to tell me that he wants tacos because he likes to seem mysterious and unpredictable.  So, I make him tacos.  Then he says “woo hoo! Tacos!” I basically never cook anything besides tacos for him.  I don’t mind, but tacos get kind of old.

Since I’ve been partaking in the occasional bout with organic, locally farm-raised chicken, I decided that I wanted tacos tonight as well.  So, we were having fancy tacos.  POM tacos.

I chopped up the chicken breasts into tiny cubes, added Adobo seasoning, pepper,  and garlic powder, then cooked it in a little bit of olive oil over medium heat.

(please excuse the sub-par photos…my camera apparently does not respond well on manual focus in low light!  Lesson learned.)

When the chicken appeared to be cooked all the way through, I added approximately 1 cup of POM Wonderful.

Then, I added a packet of my favorite taco seasoning.

Then I drank the rest of the POM (with my hawt post-12 mile bike ride hair).

As soon as I stirred everything together to combine, I noticed a marked difference in the texture from my normal taco meat.  I would guess that something having to do with the fruit sugar in the POM caused the mixture to be much more thick, and the seasoning seemed to adhere to the meat better.  I hate watery taco meat, so this was a good thing.

I was nervous about the whole thing, because I was afraid that the POM would make the meat way too sweet.  I crossed my fingers and layered up the tacos…

Spinach, Amy’s refried beans, chicken, salsa, daiya cheese (yum!), and sour cream.

PERFECTION!

These tacos were so freaking good.  By cooking the chicken in POM, it made it incredibly tender.  It also added an interesting edge to the standard taco meat flavor, and made things sort of sweet without being too sweet.  Even My Gazelle loved it.

So, I’ll probably make this again tomorrow.  Since he’ll probably want tacos again.

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago when Phillip did a review of the Vibram Five Fingers Classic for me?  Well, at the time, I was sad because I had been through a debacle trying to get my hands on a pair of Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) KSO that actually fit me.

It all started about 3 months ago when I ordered a size 38 for myself.  I am a professional shoe-buyer, and I always wear a size 38 in European sizes.  Don’t be fooled like I was…just because you think that you wear a 38 in VFF’s doesn’t mean that you really do.  When they arrived, I nearly cried when I could barely pull them over my toes.  After fighting with them for 10 minutes, I resolved myself to the fact that my feet were too large for the size 38 VFF’s.

I promptly returned the size 38′s to City Sports where I had ordered them online, and then I cried again when I found out that the size 39′s were backordered indefinitely.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

In the meantime, I purchased a pair of Nike Free’s.  Due to my previous IT band/knee/leg/calf issues, I was a little concerned about wearing anything with no “support” by way of squishy insole.  I must also mention that I am an overpronator, and I have relatively high arches.  In order to transition a little more smoothly in to the Vibram Five Fingers (and because…well…they were cute as hell), I bought these Nike Free’s:

I had fully intended on training with these and wearing them to the Disney Princess 1/2 at the beginning of March, but it turned out that they gave me MONSTROUS blisters on my baby toes.  Like full-toe blister action.

It was pretty freakin gross.

So, I didn’t completely bail on the Nike Free’s, but I decided that for the sake of the future use and appearance of my mutated baby toes, I needed to stop running in them.  I continued wearing them for lighter workouts and general walking around type stuff.

Then, 2 weeks later (much to my surprise), My Gazelle presented me with a shiny new pair of KSO’s.  In size 36.  THIRTY SIX…you know…since the previous size 38 had just been too small.

Men.

(but they were uber-cute in all of their tiny little 36ishness)

We returned the 36′s promptly and requested an exchange.  I wasn’t taking any chances.  I asked for a size 40 this time.

Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally!  They arrived last week (cue confetti & fanfare)!!!

I wore them for the first time last Friday.  To work.  They didn’t match my outfit at all, but I just went with it.  My boss kept looking at my toes and shaking his head.  The KSO’s got more attention than any pair of 4″ stilettos that I’ve rocked in my life.

Here are some notes that I took throughout the day.

So the first observation that I made was that everything was cracking when I walked.  It’s possible that this always happens, but I was just hypersensitive to it because I was paying specific attention (due to trying out the KSO’s).  In the end, it turns out that nothing snapped in 1/2, so all is good.

It did concern me that my big toe was hurting.  I’m clumsy.  I’ve broken my big toe on my left foot umpteen times.  There are only two instances which I actually remember:

1. When I was 16, while running full-speed to the microwave so I could rescue my Spaghetti-O’s that were about to blow up, I janked my toe on the footstool.
2. At 26, my ex-husband dropped an entertainment center on said big toe.  A week before our wedding.  Should’ve taken that as a sign.

Due to all of the breakage, the toe is much larger than normal, and has a strange bend-to-the-left quality to it that was never there before.  I’ve actually been considering going to see a podiatrist about it because my running schedule over the past year seems to have further aggravated a persistent ingrown toenail problem with that crazy mixed up toe.

In any case, something about the total immersion nature of the toe sleeve was causing me pain in that toe.  Not debilitating pain, but just one of those “hey…here I am…yeah me…you know…your mutated toe?”

It didn’t stop me from running a little bit in them during my lunch hour, though.  My first observation was that I felt naked.  Vulnerable.  As if I really was barefoot, and everyone was staring at my naked toes (shudder).

I honestly thought that I would be all heels in these things when I ran.  I have a history of heel striking, and all I could envision was myself smashing the treadmill with my heel on each stride, and everyone would be staring at me because I was running so loudly.

Didn’t happen.

I was very comfortable.  I didn’t feel heavy-footed, and I didn’t heel strike.  In fact, I was striking on the mid-foot, and I didn’t have to work for that landing like I do when I’m wearing running shoes.  I could definitely feel the difference, and I could also feel that I was working different muscles than I normally would.

This sounds very cliche and kind of psycho, but I could feel my “running” muscles being used and getting stronger.  Since I’m not a natural runner (and I didn’t really “run” until I was in my late 20′s), I don’t KNOW how to run.  My body does not naturally know how to engage the correct muscles.

I can honestly tell you that running in the KSO’s felt good.  Running never feels good to me, but in the KSO’s, I didn’t feel like I was fighting myself to get the right landing so that I would strike on my midfoot.  It just happened.  Naturally.

I’ve heard some chatter about people’s calves being sore from wearing them, but I didn’t have any issue with that.  But, then again, I have calves large enough for most men to be jealous of.

I’m going to be wearing the KSO’s when I run.  They feel better to me than any other running shoe that I’ve worn, and I feel like my body will benefit from wearing them.  I’ll let you know in a few weeks how it’s going.

Has anyone else tried Vibrams?  I’d like to hear about your experience!

I’m very excited to bring you guys a great review of the Vibram Five Fingers Classic.  This review was written for Joggers Life by Jeff Wilson, who has worked as a coach, a trainer and a personal fitness consultant.  Jeff has had numerous health and wellness articles grace the pages of many popular websites and print publications, and now he’s here to school us on Vibram Five Fingers!

You may have ‘heard’ me complaining last month on Twitter about how I wanted a pair of Vibrams, but couldn’t find them in my size anywhere.  Then, I received a pair of KSO’s as a birthday present, but they were sadly the wrong size.  Hopefully I will receive the new ones soon.  In the meantime, I’m going to read Jeff’s review and wish I had a pair of my own.

Enjoy!

_________________

Running can be a Real Pain in the…

You name it, it can finish that sentence: foot, ankle, knee, back, Achilles’, etc., etc.  Running may not take a whole lot of equipment to participate in, but if you don’t have the right equipment – you can be in for a world of hurt.  Despite all of the advancements in the world of the running shoe – all of the money spent on research and all of the latest and greatest technology, runners are still getting hurt and may even be getting hurt at a greater pace than they were a few decades ago.

One thing that generally creates injuries in sports is the use of poor or improper from, and to many researchers this was precisely the reason that runners were getting injured – all of the super padded, gel and micro chip filled shoe technology was allowing runners to participate in the sport without having to focus on proper form at all, which inevitably results in injury.

This theory began a movement toward minimalist running (running with as little protection as possible) so the athlete’s feet could move freely rather than be bound, which let them respond properly to the terrain and which facilitated the most natural (and safest) running form possible.  As an avid runner who’d suffered his fair share of injuries, this possibility of running pain/injury free intrigued me greatly and I began to do some research of my own.

The transition from running in heavily cushioned shoes to running with zero protection for your feet is a difficult, if not impossible, one to make in one fell swoop – enter the “barefoot running shoe.”  I know that the term “barefoot shoe” seems a bit contradictory, but this transitional form of footwear is a complete blessing for those who are interested in running with better form and less pain.

I tried a number of different types of barefoot running shoes in my quest to find the best and ultimately I decided on the very first barefoot running shoe that graced my feet – the Vibram Five Fingers Classic.  In the past few years Vibram has become synonymous with minimalist running and for good reason – no other piece of footwear on the market allows your feet to move as much and as naturally as the Vibram Five Fingers Classic while still providing the protection necessary for running on rough terrain.  Vibram Five Fingers let you experience the benefits of barefoot running, without actually having to be exposed to the potential dangers of being completely barefoot – that’s why they were chosen as the number one pick on Bestcovery’s list of Best Barefoot Running Shoes.

Vibram Five Fingers Classic: Awarded Best Barefoot Running Shoe- Expert Reviews Bestcovery

Last week, I discussed the importance of water, and the fact that 20% of Americans drink no water at all, and 42% consume only 2 cups or less per day.

I’m sad to tell you that I was beginning to fall into that category. Despite the fact that I sweat a lot, I was only drinking water sporadically, and I was definitely not drinking the necessary approximation of 56 ounces per day. This is bad news.

“Water is required by almost every bodily function, and is the primary component of all bodily fluids–blood, lymph, digestive juices, urine, tears, and sweat” (Haas, 2006, p. 13).

Medical research has shown that dehydration as a result of not getting enough daily water intake is linked to a plethora of chronic health problems. This list of problems includes asthma, kidney stones, migraine, multiple sclerosis, adult-onset diabetes, muscular dystrophy, high blood pressure, high cholesterol…and the list goes on!

I’ve read the research. I know that depriving my body of it’s lifeblood is detrimental to my health. I just couldn’t find a solution that would help me develop this healthy habit. Last week I began using an 8 ounce plastic water bottle. However, the plastic was very flimsy, and refilling that bottle over time could lead to other health problems that I’m just as uncomfortable with. Not to mention, there are already too many plastic water bottles taking up space in our landfills.

I just didn’t want to perpetuate another problem in the midst of my efforts to hydrate.

I considered buying myself a Sigg. Although I think that Siggs are wonderful, I also was concerned about the weight of the Sigg and the bulkiness. The goal was for me to find a practical solution that I wouldn’t feel burdened by. I wanted something that was sleek and practical, yet functional.

I’d like you to meet The Water Bottle That Dreams Are Made Of.

Thermos Intak® Hydration Bottle. Twenty-Four ounces of wonderfulness. The reasons why I chose this bottle (after spending 2 hours online looking at water bottles):

1. The bottle is BPA free.
2. It is very light, yet not at all flimsy.
3. The top of the water bottle has a “rotating intake meter”, which lets you keep track of how many times you fill it per day (this is what really sold me).
4. The price.  At only $10.99 plus shipping, this was a very cost-effective solution to my dehydration problems.
5. The top has two locking mechanisms, which makes it virtually impossible for it to pop open and leak in your purse.

I’ve only had the bottle for a couple of days, but I am in love with it.  I think it’s the perfect solution to my water problems, and I think that it’s going to help me get into the habit of drinking more every single day.

References:

Haas, G., and Levine, B., 2006. Staying Healthy With Nutrition: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine. New York: Random House.

The Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon is only a mere 13 days away.

That means that I will be in Florida in 9 days!

Nine.  Days.

Vacation in NINE DAYS!!  Yay!!

So.  Back to the matter at hand.  The Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon is only 13 days away.  I got slightly sidetracked for about 1.5 weeks due to the Great Snowpocalypse of 2010.  My gym was literally closed, so no running was to be had.  As a result, I missed one of my long runs (I believe it was the 7 miler), and it set me back a week on my training.

My running schedule has been very easy: Tuesday recovery run, Thursday is my mid-week longish run, and Saturday or Sunday is my long run.  That’s it.  Three days of running.  In addition to running, I’ve been doing kickboxing on Monday and Wednesday for 45 minutes (which is very high impact and intense), and one day of core and stretching.  I’ve tried hard to keep things well-rounded this time, so as not to revisit Joggerslife Kneehab, 2009 Edition.

In order to feel the least affect from my Snowmagadon-induced long run folly, I decided to bump up my weekday runs the following week.  I was supposed to do 2, 4, 8 that week, but instead I did 3, 5, 7–which put me 1 mile over my weekly mileage goal, but still didn’t have to bump up my weekend run to get there.  My past injuries have taught me that when I try to ‘kill it’ and bump up that long run before I’m ready, that’s when all hell breaks loose.

Since the Snowcation, I have been right on schedule with my runs, and last week, I even banged out my 2 mile recovery run in 20:15–which felt like a miracle of sorts.  Especially since I felt fantastic the entire run.  However, the fact that I ran a “recovery” run faster than even my normal race pace was maybe not the smartest idea…but it doesn’t appear that I’m any worse for the wear, so I’m just going with it.

In any case, tonight I did my first 10-mile treadmill run ever, and it went pretty well.  I just took it very slow–10 miles in 1:58, which is about 11:45/mile.  That’s slow.  I got wicked bored around mile 7, which is my major gripe with the treadmill.

The only thing that kept me going were these:

After searching for over a month for a pair of Vibram Five Fingers in my size (39 must be like the most popular size or something), I got sick of waiting.  After doing some research, I learned that these Nike Free 5.0 V4′s are touted as a barefoot running alternative, so I jumped on board.  I bought them yesterday for $85, which is basically the same price as a pair of VFF’s.

It might not have been prudent to inaugurate these bad boys with a 10 mile long run, but I went for it.  I’m impatient like that.  The verdict is that I like them, but I definitely feel the difference between these and my standard Nike Air Pegasus 25′s.  It’s been about an hour since I finished my run, and my forefoot and ankles feel notably sore.  However, research is starting to show that the mark of a good runner is in the strength of their feet, so this soreness is most likely just a sign that I’m running correctly for a change…that makes me happy.

I’m all about making 2010 an injury-free year, so hopefully my Nike Free’s will help me achieve that goal!

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Last year, I tried something called a Nut-Thin.  I don’t know about you, but I instantly thought that the company’s marketing department had made a terrible oversight.

Nut-Thins?

Nut.

Thins?

NUT…

thins.

Yeah.  Anyway you say it, it still doesn’t sound like something that should be eaten.  After having ample time to heal from my NUT thin episode, I decided to take another CRACK at it.*

*I know that was corny, but there’s no shame in my game.

I have to tell you first of all that I’m not a cracker person.  I mean…I’m a ‘cracka’, but I generally don’t like crackERs.

A serving size is 15 ‘crisps’, and each serving has 140 calories.  The part that charmed me the most is that each serving also has 2 grams of fiber and 5 whopping grams of protein, which is amazing for a crackerish type of thing.  Since they are made primarily from almonds, the protein doesn’t come from some sort of alien chemical test-tube source, so that’s good.

I decided to have some with an orange as my pre-run snack.  Is that 12?  I don’t know.

…I didn’t count.

I just ate.

These crispy little guys are somewhere between the texture of a Ritz cracker and a pita chip, and they are very tasty.  There are actually pieces of almonds in the crackers, and that was a nice touch.

I’d buy them again.

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I’ve seen this stuff floating around the blogoverse quite a bit over the past year.  I didn’t know what the heck it was.  All I knew was that people either loved it or hated it.

I did a little bit of research, and found out that Kombucha is basically a handmade tea that is fermented for 30 days.  Throughout the 30 day culture process, essential nutrients naturally form, such as active enzymes, viable probiotics, amino acids, antioxidants, and polyphenols.

Although the FDA hasn’t approved any of the claims, commercial Kombucha-makers claim that the concoction reduces liver toxicity, and helps to restore the body’s balance and vitality.

I don’t know about any of that.  I just like to try stuff.

My Kombucha experiment was performed with Synergy Organic & Raw Kombucha, which I found at my local MOM’s for $3.49.  The stuff is not cheap, people.

I LIKED KOMBUCHA.  YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE KOMBUCHA.

…Because I also like kefir and plain seltzer water.  Kombucha is kind of a cross between kefir and plain seltzer water.  It’s fizzy, yet it isn’t soda.  It’s got the bite, yet it isn’t kefir.

It confused me a little bit, to be honest, but I did enjoy it and will probably buy it again.

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* Everyone loves a giveaway!

A few weeks ago, I received an email from the wonderful Alex at Waterpik, asking me if I’d like to receive one of their products for free in return for an unbiased review.

Since everyone knows that I like FREE, I’m sure you know how I answered this question.

I decided to try Waterpik’s Ecoflow Shower Head because I am quite the impressive sweatter.  I sweat often.  And I often sweat in man-sized proportions.

I didn’t really think this review would be a true review unless I walked you through the entire process.  I wear the tool belt in my family, so the shower head installation was my responsibility.  And my tool belt is rather scantily-equipped.

So, this is what I was working with:

In other words, just the contents of the package.  I was confident that I could either a) install this shower head with great success, or b) cause my whole building some serious plumbing problems.

I timed myself.  At the moment when I decided to install the shower head (hadn’t even opened the package), it was 8:50PM.  By 9:07PM, I had the entire thing installed and I was instructing The Boy on how to operate the new contraption.

And, it’s shiny.  I like shiny.

Everyone in the family (even the dogs, except the bird) has now used the new EcoFlow, and the consensus is that we are in love.  We all love it for different reasons, of course.

My Gazelle loves it because he’s tall (6’2″), and he doesn’t like to have to duck down to put his head in the water.  Since the removable head sits up very high, there’s no ducking necessary.

The Boy loves it because of one particularly fun setting on the shower head that makes him feel like he is being rained on.

I am partial to the shower head because it is easily removable, which means that I can clean the tub out very easily, and also easily bathe the pups.  I also like the multiple settings, and the fact that you can pause the water flow.

So, I think we’ll keep it.

RIP old shower head (that took me over an hour to install).  Sorry ’bout your luck.

SCOOP:  Tune in tomorrow for a WICKED COOL giveaway!  And, get your soup recipes ready…this one requires a little more effort than my usual giveaways!

* Have you joined my Facebook Group yet?

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* Everyone loves a giveaway!