Successful Book Shopping...

The modern world has allowed the amazing ability for me to research then buy books without ever leaving my house or talking to a real person. Maybe not a good thing... I digress.

I have recently acquired three new books that I want to share with the world. Feel free to jump around as not all of these things will strike everyones fancy:

The Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier:
Brendan is a professional Iron-man triathlete turned writer and presenter. His insight into the stresses your body has to deal with while training, and heck just living, really hit home for me. Paralled in my life by talking with physiological stress with my chiropractor, Brendan talks about minimizing the energy it takes to digest and absorb the nutrients from our foods and how we are over-fed and under-nourished in this over=processed foods world. I am finding the recipes intriguing and can't wait to start getting to some of the more athleticly aimed ones like recovery puddings for after a session and energy gels for eating while training on those long haul days. Here is a sneak peek-

Ginger Pear Energy Bars
1 small pear
3/4 cup fresh or soaked dried dates
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup ground flaxseeds
1/4 cup hemp flour
1/4 cup walnuts
2 Tbsp ground fresh ginger
sea salt to taste
Throw everything into a food processor. Top with 2 Tbsp of sesame seeds once formed into bars or balls.

Direct Fuel Bites (for long training sessions)
5 dates
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
sea salt to taste
Throw everything into a food processor. Makes about 8 bites. Wrap individually.



NEXT...
Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Moskowitz and Terry Romero
I have never had better gingersnaps than these, and this is only the first recipe I have made. Can't wait to try the Peanut Butter Pillows and the Hazelnut Fudge Dreamies. Yeah. So good.
And the Oatmeal Raisin were epic too.


AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST..
Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler:
Every women should read this instead of "You - the Owners Manual." THIS is our owners manual. I'm amazed at how easy it is to talk about it to all the intelligent women I have in my life, and even more surprised at how open most guys are to it as well. It is a new challenge for me to surround myself with men that find knowledge sexy rather than threatening... obviously already on my way, but this is a great way to cull the herd of men who just don't get it. It is especially easy to bring this up in the context of physical activity at work. When is is best to do those hard, intense training sessions, and when during your cycle is is best to put in some Long-Slow-Distance? I am charting now and plan on doing my best to share as much about the correlation as I can. Finding all the factors that will affect me throughout my training will be impossible (from food type and times to sleep to work stress, my cycle is just one in a big pot of many things that will mess with recovery) but I will try to give some ups and downs and possible culprits in the next little while.


So those are the three books on the mini-fridge that sits beside my bed right now.

Yes, cookie recipes make amazing bed-time stories... they are logical, have great characters, rarely have surprises, and always have a satisfying end.