Linkin' & Clippin' To Healthy Food & BEER!!

Eating healthy foods is such a huge part of doing this bike racing thing, but sadly the best foods are often damn expensive! In recent weeks I've become quite the coupon clipper (75¢ off Boca this week! Yes!!!), and a lurker on the web sites of the foods I eat, looking for samples, coupons and discounts.

I've also learned to suck it up and shop at Wal-Mart. It has killed me to do it. But it all comes down to where can I get the best deal on a product. Why would I go to Giant Eagle (local Pittsburgh area supermarket) and pay $2.99 for a 12. oz. bag of whole wheat pasta when I can get a 16oz. box of whole wheat pasta at Wal-Mart for .99¢ ??? I mean an extra $2.00 just for a little more protein, a couple extra trips to the bathroom and the smug knowledge that I didn't go to the Mart. I think not! I'm not that proud.

Don't even get me started on produce! I was forced to pay $3.79 a pound for Red Bell Peppers. GOD DAMN! On top of that, they looked like they were dug out of a dumpster.

Since many of you are in the same moneyless bike racing boat that I am, I'm gonna try to increase the level of "heads up" that I dish out about sites or deals.

I had kicked around the idea of starting yet another blog (needed like the proverbial "hole in the head") that would play host to the info and recipes that I use. I was gonna call it Cycle Fuel, but I've thought better of it for now, so it's just being used to test out template stuff for folks like the Ricker.

I'll keep throwing links up here of course, including one that I was told about the other day and that I also recently saw on the side of my box of Fiber One cereal. It's a pretty cool site called EatBetterAmerica.com It has nice, clean, Flash based layout design. (reminds me a lot of the Crank Brothers web site!)

I was a bit leery of the site at first since it is sponsored by U.S. food giant General Mills. Not sure why though. The divisions sponsoring the site are- Green Giant (eat your veggies!), Cheerios, and the organic divisions Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen, so it wasn't at all like when you see ads about eating healthy sponsored by cultural and nutritional blights like McDonalds.

Unless your a newbie to good nutrition stuff the site won't tell you too much new, but I find the recipe stuff pretty cool. Seems to be geard more towards everyday eating rather than sports and fitness nutrition, but they do touch on it of course.

You can search through foods that target a specific need such as antioxidants, find the food you want, then look through recipes that feature that food, and then save it to your personal profile library of articles and recipes. You can also target your recipes towards your goals- weight loss, immune boosting, etc., etc.,

I also like that there are coupons made available for registered user for stuff like yogurt, soy milk, and other stuff that many of us buy.

When you see an article like one I read about substituting whole wheat flour for regular flour, there's no need to book mark it, or print, just save it to your personal library. I just saved that one, since I may try my hand at making my own pasta soon.

All in all I think the site has a lot of potential. Navigation can be vague at times, but I can usually find the info I'm looking for. If nothing else find myself using it for the coupons! HA!

I'll be adding the link over to the right as well as a link to Oxygen magazine. (yeah, I know it's another chick health site, but as I've said before, since I don't want to get as big as a brick shitter, I stick to looking at mostly women's health mags. Plus, Wifey reads 'em so we save on magazine costs (yet more savings! ha!)

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Short 1 hour spin tonight. Nothing worth writing about, other than iPodious contained a newly acquired Morrissey show from Berlin, Germany that was broadcast on German radio.- "Welcome to the human abattoir...."

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Time to get local on your asses, talk beer, and help a brother out....

There's a new Beer Shop open in Pittsburgh called Barley's & Hop's Bottle Shop. It's owned by Tim, who is a good friend of a good friend of mine who I've met a few times and enjoyed more than a couple tasty high-brow malty beverages with.

If you're in the Pittsburgh area and near South Park (riding the trails there I hope!) Stop in and check it out. Mix and match bottles from around the world, drink in, or take out. Tim's putting together a nice menu too.

I'm heading over there tomorrow night at 6 p.m.. Great Lakes Brewing is having a beer tasting from 6 - 8 p.m. Hope to rock a couple of Edmund Fitzy's with Yancy.

OK, Local pimping off.


Later.