Chia seeds claim to exceed the benefits of flax seeds in that they deliver heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids without grinding them up. Diana from GREENS+ sent me a jar of chia seeds to see if they really are the "superfood" they claim to be.
As you can see from the picture, chia seeds are tiny black/white-speckled seeds that I've thus far blended into smoothies and dumped directly into kefir. They didn't work too well in the smoothie because they all sort of clumped together, and when wet, they become a huge gel blob that is rather inpalatable (if that's a word).
What worked better for me was to throw them in my kefir. They seemed to give texture to an otherwise sour drink (pictured here with a slice of Ezekiel bread, which I will attempt to review in an upcoming post). When crunched on, chia seeds taste a little... grassy... but not in a bad way.
I'm sure these would work better baked into foods or scrambled with eggs...
Did these give me the burst of energy that they claim? Nope, but I could have stood to be more consistent. Are they a good alternative to flax seeds? Maybe, if you have erred like me and bought whole flax seeds that will run through my system without much benefit. Do they sprout? Yep, and the sprouts are edible and peppery (though I have not tried this myself)... anyone want to sing ch-ch-ch-chia??
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I ran 9.5 miles today with "The Ukrainian," although I had not anticipated running this much. He had to slow down bunches for me, but he claimed not to have minded.
I'll return with a brief post next week revealing my Halloween costume (it's a riot and creative work of art!), but beyond that, I must really start cracking down on my downtime and spend more time working on my dissertation.
On that topic, I have serious thoughts of dropping out of school, but we'll see how the job search goes. I know what everyone must be thinking... all that effort to pass my exam and the classes I'm taking right now.... wasted! I don't even know if I have truly gotten into the "right" field in which I don't know if I can be considered "expert" by any means. I mean, really, we're talking about going all the way here... P-H-freaking-D.
Either way, I'm tired of worrying about school all the time, feeling guilty that I'm not writing or reading, even when I'm trying to have fun and live a life. I want to have my evenings and weekends open like a normal person. No group project meetings to drive to, no checking my e-mail all the time for class/assignment updates, no writing about things I am tired of thinking about, no begging people to do interviews or otherwise collect data from them, no worrying about whether I've forgotten my statistics, no biannual tuition bombs, no books/papers to lug around, no thinking when I don't wish to think, no classes to interfere with my training/races/family/boyfriend/friends, no worrying about finding field/practicum placement.......... wouldn't it be nice?!!!!!
I still have an MS, which is much more than I thought I'd ever have. But for now I guess I'll keep bouncing along while I am able to, even if it doesn't go by as quickly as I'd hope.
EVENT: Santa Barbara Wine Country Half-Marathon 
