My personal favorite and and unique coffee location is Press Coffee Roasters offering coffee, food and wine. Ask for the Double Dirty Chai Latte, keeps me wired for hours. They roast there beans locally in Phoenix as well. If you ever have time locally in Phoenix it is worth taking the roasting tour. Very Interesting!

I’m a big fan of local vendors and sourcing local vegetables and items. It seems to be a reoccurring theme that when a popular vendor streams into the franchise world the quality of the products get diluted. It is nice to see HMS Host (the purveyor of many airport restaurants) going for quality instead of  quantity fast food locations.

Excitedly visit any of the following locations below when visiting Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor. There is great atmosphere, sitting area and options for dynamic concept meals. (Visit Terminal 4 interactive map.)

New  Food Concepts To Try at Sky Harbor Terminal 4:

(Links go to Yelp reviews)

• Barrio Café
• Blanco’s Tacos & Tequila
• Chelsea’s Kitchen
• Cowboy Ciao
• Dilly’s Deli, Terminal 3 
• El Bravo
• Focaccia Fiorentina
• La Grande Orange (LGO)
• la Madeleine
• Modern Burger
• NYPD Pizza
• Olive & Ivy Marketplace
• Paradise Bakery & Café
• Press Coffee Food & Wine
• Sauce
• Sir Veza’s Taco Garage
• Starbuck’s (Three new locations now open)

Next Year’s Planning Launches For 2013 from SSP America, Inc. include:

• America’s Taco Shop
• Cheuvront Restaurant & Wine Bar
• Culver’s Butter Burgers & Frozen Custard
• Delux Burger
• Four Peaks Brewing Company
• Humble Pie
• Matt’s Big Breakfast
• MidCity Kitchen
• Nocawich
• Pei Wei
• Sweet Republic
• Wildflower Bread Company
• Zinc Bistro

Other Links:

• Sky Harbor Press 
• AZ Central Article

Discuss:

• Have you tried any of these locations yet?
• What food allergies or food preferences do you have to deal with when traveling?

The post Sky Harbor Offers Healthy Concessions Through Concept Restaurants appeared first on When To Zen.

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1. Travel Friendly Food – Pack Your Avocados!

Moments after landing Delta cancels my next flight to Sheffield. Blood sugar dropping and now stuck in an airport where everything that resembles “edible” cuisine is closed my frustration might have grown had I not had my own travel-friendly snacks packed.

Most of you I know personally in some capacity. I find healthy eating while traveling a continuous adventure. Similar to Indiana Jones it is an always an adventure hunting for the least processed and most natural items.

Enter my secret Travel Friendly Food Collection.

Did you know you can fly with Avocados in your carry on baggage? My experience has been that you can fly with avocados unquestioned.

They make great snacks and you only need a set of simple plastic utensils to eat them. They travel well in a simple zip lock bag and last for days unrefrigerated.

The glorious avocado is rich in folic acid, B6, potassium, omega-3 fatty acids and oleic acid. But like bananas they have a natural side effect of enhancing your libido.

For all my fellow women travelers who find themselves high and dry looking for a satisfying lite healthy- minded food choice the Avocado is a simple solution. Bananas are my second choice but a good choice as well. They boost your energy, satisfy a food craving, and keep you safe from consuming a less healthy option from local airport concession stand.

Discuss:

What is your go-to travel snack?

Do you bring healthy snacks with you in your luggage?

Do you enjoy searching for healthy meals at airports or do you wait until you reach your hotel?

The post Travel Friendly Food – Pack Your Avocados! appeared first on When To Zen.

Related posts:

1. “Faux” Fruit In Our Food
2. Sky Harbor Offers Healthy Concessions Through Concept Restaurants
3. Travel Diet – Death By Sugar

I am happy Consumer Reports made it a point to write about it. There is always a level of deception in package labeling but to add visual images of fruit on food labeling and yet have no actually real fruit in the item is a repulsive concept. It might just be me but it seems deceptive in nature. If I’m really craving something healthy and closer to natural I would lean towards a product with clear visual fruit representation. In this case, I will be observing what I consume more closely.

Nutritionally, you are suppose to consume real blue berries. Not items that look, taste or smell like blue berries. Fruit compote, which they put in your yogurt smoothies is so far from real unprocessed fruit that the fruit flavor is the last item they add in at the smallest quantity.

Two Items To Consider:

When reviewing nutrition labels remember “the highest percentage” of the elements included within are listed first. For example, if grapes are listed before blueberries that that product is made with more grapes than blueberries. So consider, all the items listed before  grapes… is it elements you recognize or dextro–?  (This is also relevant formatting for cosmetic ingredients as well.)

If there are a handful of  ingredients your either can’t pronounce or so many that you can’t seem to find the healthy ingredients you might reconsider eating it.

Are you hungry yet and your pantry is looking more and more grim as you read the nutrition labels. I often revert to our sister site and one smart lady Stephanie Quilao at Noshtopia.com. She has some amazing food that she prepares and finds in her travels. Her knowledge goes beyond nutrition and into common sense. She is also extremely aware of  food allergies and food that meets those needs. I would recommend reading Nostopia.com  and hiring her for consulting if you are curious.

(I have food allergies and eat clean and closer to Paleo. In short, if I can’t grow it, kill it or forage for it I don’t consume it.)

Check out the Healthy – Minded Travelers Food Mantra. You are what you consume.

Discuss:

What food items are your favorite snacks?

Did you reconsider eating it after reviewing the ingredient label?

The post “Faux” Fruit In Our Food appeared first on When To Zen.

Related posts:

1. Travel Friendly Food – Pack Your Avocados!

Curious what amount of actual legroom is your comfort zone?  Knees up against the seat in front of you or stretched out? Some of our more seasoned travelers might know what there favorite airlines are. But really how much legroom is a comfortable amount of legroom? The simple answer is the type of plane, seating category and length of the flight.

BusinessTraveller.com surveyed earlier this year and did a great job of  logging popular airlines and the inches provided.

The value of your flight is sometimes hard to determine. It is all about the “Experience” you have and whether you would repeat the process or recommend it to a fellow traveler.

Look up your favorite airline below!

Purchase the full report here. 

Other Helpful Links:

SeatPlans.com

Discuss:

• What makes the “Experience” worthy of your flight dollars?
• Is it the concierge service?
• The plane food?
• The flights that are never delayed?
• Do you constantly upgrade for larger legroom or the First Class option to board first?

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About Us:

We are a Healthy Traveling Lifestyle and Mentality community.

Together we comprised of  Traveling Women Entrepreneurs and Executives Finding Healthy Balance, Adventure and Fun Offline. We live hard and fast and make our own opportunities. As women, we are the masters of balancing family, career and fun for ourselves. Every now and then we need a new challenge health and fitness being ideal.

Being an online Entrepreneur or serial C-Executive you find yourself trying to balance online responsibilities, team management, your personal brand and a great fitness routine. The most commonly used mode of transportation is an airplane or Skype.com. Meeting conference needs is just a way of life. Having a life balanced both online and offline only adds to the long tale for positive results for your health. Sometimes, it takes doing something such as a hobby or having an adventure to clear your head and you feel healthier…

Limited Access

This will be a private community and paid membership community soon. Joining now will keep you in the “freemium” model and you will be “grand mothered” in when we go to an annual membership fee.

Benefits:

• Healthy Travel Tips
• Community that understands you.  Connect with other women earning six-figures and more annually.
• We are all Women C-Executives and Entrepreneurs. You worked hard to get here and we understand how hard you worked and sacrificed to achieve your success.
• Public Relations Opportunities for Women-Owned businesses from national media sources
• Business Forum for the like-minded.
• First exposure to gear and new technologies relevant to you.
• Insights into a tech-savvy family
• Travel locations – healthy minded
• Nutritional tips for food allergies and healthier food choices
• Fitness on the road
• Books worth reading and why
• and more…

The post About Us appeared first on When To Zen.

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1. About Our Founder

Read Elizabeth’s Full Bio here.

About Us:

We are a Healthy Traveling Lifestyle and Healthy Business community.

Together we comprised of  Traveling Women Entrepreneurs and Executives Finding Healthy Balance, Adventure and Fun Offline. We live hard and fast and make our own opportunities. As women, we are the masters of balancing family, career and fun for ourselves. Every now and then we need a new challenge, health and fitness being ideal.

Our Story – How Did We Get Here?

Two years ago, I was on a flight back from Boston to Phoenix. Sitting next to my good girlfriend another road warrior we discussed the latest conference accomplishments and results from brainstorming sessions. She was the corporate - avenger. Myself, the corporate- flung-entrepreneur we were both pioneering new strategies in online digital marketing. I was 32, she 37. It was an interesting time. We compared hours for projects and the time it takes to plan, fly across the country, speak to 1,000k plus audience members and flying home within 48 hours. We both were accomplished by national standards. Fiscally viable, and common sense in business was our ally. We both had our grooves set for success.

“Reporting and data is my friend and when you start to feel unhealthy all that data rational goes out the window.”

Where Was The Value?

What was I missing in real life? Early 30′s is an interesting turning point. Half of your girlfriends are still hitting the bars, the others with family and defining the new “stay-at-home”. None less valuable than the next. Then there are the small percentage of “us”. We are the women you read about in Forbes and wonder how “she did she get there“? The Entrepreneur  and C-Level Executive that redefines business during a recession is an interesting animal.

There is “No, I Can’t” there is only the mindset of “This is How I Am Going To Make This Solution Work“.

Balance Is Everything

I love Martha Stewart and wish I could craft Birch coat hangers all day with Conan. Unfortunately, I’m building a nationally recognized online marketing agency. It takes all my efforts. Unsure if it’s is my chosen path but I have become a full-time media personality, speaker and content creator with a default medium of writing.

“Great efforts need “Balance”.

So, for all the hours in a day I log in front of an IPad, Tablet and laptop I need to match it taking care of me through fitness, yoga, Nutrition and food allergies knowledge. Hour for hour it needs to equal out at the end of the week.

Eating poorly: Of all the things I missed, I did miss my waistline the most. I miss feeling “healthy” and “alive”.

At Warp Speed Everything Takes It’s Toll

Capt. Kirk, never mentioned the “Warp-Speed-Boosters” needed to be serviced after every jump or the cost of fuel.

(Yup, I am a comic book, Star Trek nerd, SciFi nerd first and always.)

The post About Our Founder appeared first on When To Zen.

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1. About Us

The Challenge:  ”3 grams of sugar a day for 30 days” Can you do it?

Sugar

It is one of those nutritional elements that sneak up on you. In our family we were raised “organic”. This meant if we could grow it we could eat it. Weekends were spent adventure hunting at the local farmers market and learning about all aspects of fruit and vegetables.

It was an ongoing education. We didn’t own a microwave. Everything took time to steam, boil or cook. I have a hunch the time it took to cook the food might have some correlation as to why as kids we didn’t “graze” as teenagers do. Given, in my early 20′s I lived off of Strawberry Fruit Rollups and coffee I quickly learned almost no part of a “Fruit-Rollup” actually was from fruit I could grow in the garden.

My mother was right, sugar, fried and preservatives are not good for anyone. As a chemist by career and Cornell Certified Master Gardener as her encore career she is still perfecting the art of  ”compost”. I tease her: “The Dirt Chemist” can tell you which nutrients will produce a good crop of vegetables to vineyard grapes.

Fall Initiative – How Low Can You Go?

It is fall and I’m cutting back and becoming more aware of my Sugar Intake. I want to keep it at 3.5 Tablespoons daily for 30 days continuously. 3.0 total tablespoons daily is the maximum recommended for women. Here is a calculator for reference. Men are at roughly 4.0 tablespoons daily. These are the recommendations of the American Heart Association. My vice is Ginger-Ale, but it is way to high in sugar! Want to check out your soda’s sugar amount? Compare it here.

Here are some tips to avoid over-consuming your sugar consumption. Yes, eat more dark chocolate!

Simple Math

• 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar weighs 12.55 grams for US tablespoons. (need to know more)

Example:

To give reference, one can of Mountain Dew is 31 g of sugar per 8 fl. oz serving.

So, for a 12 fl. oz soda can, that’s 46.5 g of sugar which equivalent to about:
1/4 c. of sugar per soda can
(190 g = 1 c. granulated sugar)

• So one can of Mountain Dew a day has already reached the recommended consumption for one male. We ingest sugars from all over and different foods. Anything with any more sugar above that would put him over the maximum for daily consumption.

My Alternative:

Drink unsweetened tea. There are so many flavors to choose from! One might tempt you pallet just right. Tea is easily obtainable at many locations and be considered a stable in your diet. I love everything green tea related.

Clueless?

We seem to graze when our consciousness is not engaged. Since we should be eating for “fuel” for our bodies and not for “pleasure” shouldn’t your consumption be to fuel your finely-tuned body? Sugar tricks us. The more we eat the more we want it. It numbs our tongues senses and tricks the brain to think we need more. (Reference: American Heart Association)

Food Logs

My journal keeps me happy. I seem to have the inability to remember what I ate and when so I log it daily. Most days it is a simple black and white notebook or online. When traveling it is on Google Documents online. I figure by the time I hit 40 I should have the past 10 years documented of 90% of everything I have eaten and when.  If you prefer more options DailyBurn.com is one of my favorites.

One consistency I have noticed, if I can’t log the food or exercise right away I forget and don’t log it. It is lost forever for me. Apps keep me on point on the road and spur my competitive nature.

I try to think of it like my sports car’s engine. How do I fine tune it inconstantly with out breaking it? If I pour sugar in the gas tank it would wreck the engine. This is not an exact analogy but it is similar in the damage it will cause.

Tell Me More:

(in the comments below)

• Do you have a food log? Are you notebook or digital?
• What amount of sugar do you consume daily? Where do think most of it comes from, food or beverage?
• Where do you get stuck? (I.E. I hate airplane food….so processed)
• Come back and post how low your were able to get your Sugar Consumption down too. I am curious!

Photo Credit – chotda via Compfight 

Disclaimer

The post Travel Diet – Death By Sugar appeared first on When To Zen.

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1. Travel Friendly Food – Pack Your Avocados!

Because it’s Fall, I’m more into Fall flavors. Next week would be Pumpkin Super-Shake week. If it’s healthy and can grind, beat, or grate it is going into the Super-Shake! My “Super-Shakes” set up my week to have the best beginnings  Creating one huge shake and then I can then portion control them out over the next couple days. They are all different colors and textures! In the summer, I make smoothie pops and freeze them for a cool treat.

Training My Pallet

The flavor is constantly changing on purpose. It is a daily surprise! It can be sweet or sour. Starting a busy day with a surprise keeps me happy. Either way, it is a routine and stable in a hectic time of day. (You can view my recipes here. Most are a base staple and ad-hoc.)

Today Is  a Sad Day

This will be the last “Super – Shake” from this blender. On the setting of  ”grate”  it suddenly became an air compressor type wall painter. I can’t be upset. I guess even appliances aspire to be other types of appliances. It’s base must have cracked and wildly sprayed this morning’s concoction from the base on to me and the walls.  An impromptu cleaning followed soon after.

Change Is Inevitable

My backup Oster handheld will have to do for now. It is amazing like multi-purpose gift. Unfortunately  it can’t handle more than a single serving at a time. I can’t live with out a home-base blender, its just absurd! So, today I begin my search for a new blender and a new juicer…

Discuss:

(In the comment section below)

• What is your favorite blender or juicer? What do you use?
• What do you like about it? Would you buy it again?

The post Bummer Broken Blender appeared first on When To Zen.

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