SIGN IN YOUR ACCOUNT TO HAVE ACCESS TO DIFFERENT FEATURES

Prove your humanity


FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD?

FORGOT YOUR DETAILS?

AAH, WAIT, I REMEMBER NOW!

Sidelines MagazineSidelines Magazine

  • LOGIN
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Subscriptions
    • Flipbook
    • Subscribe Options
    • Order Individual & Back Issues
  • Podcast
  • Marketplace
    • Business Ads
    • Directories
      • Barns, Farms, Trainers & Clubs
      • Equestrian Services
      • Real Estate
      • Stallions
      • Tack & Feed Stores
    • Classifieds
    • Horse Trailers for Sale
  • Advertise
  • Blogs
    • Show World
    • What’s Happenin’
  • Partners
  • Contacts
    • Contacts
    • Employment
0
Wednesday, June 03 2015 / Published in Sidelines Feature

Ride Right, Eat Right

Lauren Blacker (Photo by Steven Kaplan)

Lauren Blacker (Photo by Steven Kaplan)

By Lauren Blacker

My love of horses began like most others. Even before I allowed the training wheels to come off my bike, I was begging to get on a horse. Waking up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning when you’re 13 years old doesn’t sound appealing to most kids, but for a girl like me, I lived for those mornings at the barn.

Life was so simple back then! I’d spend my Saturdays grooming horses, turning them out, helping my trainer get her horses ready and getting a lesson of my own in the afternoon. Summers were spent at a sleep-away camp where I got to ride two hours a day, living within walking distance to the barn and hanging out with other horse-crazy girls like myself.

Now, more than 20 years later, I’m still in the saddle every day and sharing my experiences and knowledge through instruction and coaching in the equestrian program at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Like a lot of my peers, I’m trying to find a healthy balance between work/life as I juggle my career teaching and riding with maintaining my out-of-work life pursuits including enjoying the outdoors as much as possible, cooking and eating to my heart’s content, traveling when I can and being with the people I love.

Lauren Blacker (second from left) at a weekend clinic in Virginia with a few of the Dana Hall riders. (Photo by Steven Kaplan)

Lauren Blacker (second from left) at a weekend clinic in Virginia with a few of the Dana Hall riders. (Photo by Steven Kaplan)

Nutrition Becomes Priority

Nutrition became a priority for me about four years ago when I finally realized that being tired, stressed and uncomfortable all the time just wasn’t in my life plan. I needed a change, and nutrition and fitness were the answer. Working long hours can lead to bad food choices and that’s exactly what I did for years. I was uneducated about the foods supplied to me, and I didn’t care what the ingredients were. As horse people, we always choose the feed and supplements that give our furry friends optimal health benefits and keep them fit and healthy for their jobs — so why aren’t we, as riders, doing that for own bodies?

Most horse show vendors offer cookies, candy, baked goods and greasy food. This, of course, is not a terrible thing — everything in moderation, right? Even so, it took me a few years to realize that my energy and fitness levels were dwindling partially because of these food options, and by just taking a little time to plan the night before to prepare whole, nutritious meals, everything changed.

Once I realized that good health was key to my personal happiness, it was a natural evolution to the creation of my website, CreativelyDelish.com, that features recipes, health and wellness articles and how-to cooking tips. Maybe it was the instructor in me, but I really wanted to share the things that I’d learned with others and help them to understand how to live life in a healthier way.

So the long hours, little time to sit down and the constant need for energy in my life hasn’t changed, but now I rely on a few different, healthy strategies to keep me going. Incorporating these changes into your routine can yield great benefits and it doesn’t take much time!

Avocado & Orange Salad. A simple and quick salad to throw together that’s perfect for warmer weather. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Avocado & Orange Salad. A simple and quick salad to throw together that’s perfect for warmer weather. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Meal Planning

This was a life changer for me because not only does my week seem more organized, my body and my wallet are happier too. It can seem like such a daunting task, but I love making lists and staying organized, so this option works well for me. Every Sunday, I sit down for 20 minutes and write out the breakfasts, snacks, lunches and dinners I’ll have for the week. Then I make my grocery list and head to the store. Once I get home, I get to work for about an hour and prep ingredients for the week, chopping fruits and vegetables and roasting up sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts for salads. It’s much easier to throw my lunch together if ingredients are already prepped.

Once prepped, I lay out several plastic containers and get to work making salads for my lunches. If you keep the dressing separate, the lettuce and veggies will stay fresh for days. Combinations like black beans, corn and red peppers are great over spinach with a southwestern-style dressing, or try chopped walnuts, crumbled goat cheese and dried cranberries, which pair perfectly with a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar mix. It’s important to incorporate some protein and healthy fats into your lunches to keep energy levels high for long afternoons.

Berry Trail Cookies. Made with a simple banana and oat mixture, they’re a great snack to have on hand. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Berry Trail Cookies. Made with a simple banana and oat mixture, they’re a great snack to have on hand. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Smoothies & Juices

If you ask anyone what the most important part of a nutritious diet is, most will quickly answer fruits and vegetables. The new nutrition guidelines recommend we consume around two cups of fruits per day and up to three cups of vegetables per day to meet optimal nutrition requirements. This can be difficult when you’re on the go, and the easiest way for me to achieve this goal was to look into green smoothies and juices. For so long I’d been reading about these green drinks and weirdly enough started to crave them, so I got a Nutribullet and got going.

The Nutribullet is different than a juicer because it doesn’t extract and remove the vitamin-rich pulp from the foods, so you’re getting a bigger dose of nourishment. You can find them just about anywhere now and they come with three different travel mugs so you can blend and go — perfect for someone like me who’s out the door in minutes every morning. The green color can be off-putting, but when you mix in a banana or a few pieces of mango with your kale and spinach, you’ll quickly forget what color it is. Blueberries or blackberries will make it more of a purple color and will pump up the antioxidant levels too.

Every night I assemble my smoothies and pack them in little mason jars for easy access. I switch up the ingredients for different flavors and benefits. My favorite smoothie recipe is half a banana, a big handful of spinach, two pieces of mango, a half cup of blueberries, half a cucumber or two pieces of celery and about one cup of coconut water or regular water. This can be blended together in either a regular blender or a Nutribullet. It’s how I start my mornings and is an easy mid-afternoon snack, too.

Healthy, Portable Snack Options

At horse shows, it’s usually a cookie or a bag of chips that’s the most accessible, usually with empty calories and a lot of sugar. Instead, I pack little single-serving packets of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter with a banana or an apple. Other great alternatives are hummus with whole grain crackers, a small salad or a handful of nuts. I found little containers that perfectly fit small portions of salad dressing or hummus so it’s easy to portion out and bring with me.

I make sure I get my heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day out of the saddle to keep my muscles guessing. I switch it up between my own workouts at the gym, attending Bar Method classes or even just going for a hike. This helps to keep my stamina up when riding and is a great way to start or end the day. Being at the barn is a form of therapy for me, but the other workouts are a great way to unwind from a crazy schedule too.

Lauren coaches the equestrian team at the Karen Stives '68 Equestrian Center at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. (Photo by Angela Kenny)

Lauren coaches the equestrian team at the Karen Stives ’68 Equestrian Center at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. (Photo by Angela Kenny)

Throw Out the Junk!

It was also important for me to throw out junk food in my pantry. My rule of thumb is that if I can’t make it myself based on the ingredients list, I don’t buy it. A big red flag for me is when the list of ingredients exceeds what’s necessary if I were to make it myself. So many of the foods sold in stores aren’t even food at all, only chemicals and sugars made to look a certain way. Once I started reading labels, it became so easy to not eat those foods. Now I freely eat as many vegetables as I want and enjoy fruits, whole grains and lean proteins daily. The desire to reach for a bag of chips is a far-away thought at this point, and it makes me get creative with what I eat instead.

To be able to work with animals every day, watch the progress of my riders and be outside instead of at a cubicle couldn’t be more perfect. Finding that right balance between it all will always have its challenges, but never taking a moment for granted is what I focus on the most. My goal is to help inspire others to do the same, which is why I launched CreativelyDelish.com. Through trying out different recipes and getting creative with ingredients, I’ve learned how to enjoy real foods while saving time and keeping to a budget. There’s something for everyone on CreativelyDelish and I hope you can stop by!

Baked Steel Cut Oats. Lauren said she loves to make this on a Sunday night and have it for breakfast throughout the week. It lasts in the fridge for up to five days and tastes great warm or cold, so it's perfect for on the go. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Baked Steel Cut Oats. Lauren said she loves to make this on a Sunday night and have it for breakfast throughout the week. It lasts in the fridge for up to five days and tastes great warm or cold, so it’s perfect for on the go. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal

This makes six generous portions or eight smaller ones that are great served with something like a clementine. You can mix in whatever you prefer, just begin with the first nine ingredients and then add in whatever nuts or fruit you like. Cooking Tip: If you have time to let the oats soak in the milk mixture for at least an hour, you’ll get a slightly creamier texture. After soaking, add in the remaining ingredients.

SERVES 6–8

Ingredients:
1 c steel cut oats
1¼ tsp cinnamon
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 c milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
⅓ c maple syrup
1½ Tbsp coconut oil, melted + more for greasing the pan
1 c chopped walnuts
½ c dried cranberries
1 c shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a large baking dish with coconut oil.

In a large mixing bowl, combine milk and eggs and beat until the yolks break and it mixes well. Add the vanilla, maple syrup and coconut oil and mix well to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine oats, walnuts, cranberries, shredded coconut, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine, then pour it into the baking dish.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the top has browned and the middle is cooked through. Use a toothpick to check if needed.

Let the pan cool before serving.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork. Slow cookers are great because you can throw everything in that morning and by evening you have a complete meal. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork. Slow cookers are great because you can throw everything in that morning and by evening you have a complete meal. (Photo by Lauren Blacker)

The Easiest Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Recipe … Ever

Ingredients:
2lb pork butt, most of the fat trimmed off
2 large onions, quartered
1 16-oz bottle light ale beer
1 c BBQ sauce + more for serving

Place the onions in the bottom of a slow cooker, place the pork butt on top then pour BBQ sauce and beer over the pork.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

Carefully remove the pork and shred the meat — discard the onions and juice unless you want to put the onions on your sandwich.

In a heated sauté pan, stir the pulled pork with about another ¼ cup of BBQ sauce, letting the outsides of some pork pieces begin to caramelize.

Serve on a bun (I used an organic whole wheat bun) with some mayo-less broccoli-slaw.

Share this page:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
Tagged under: Baked Steel Cut Oatmeal, Cooking, CreativelyDelish.com, Dana Hall School, food, Healthy, Karen Stives '68 Equestrian Center, Lauren Blacker, massachusetts, Meal Planning, nutrition, Recipes, sidelines-magazine, Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

What you can read next

Life in the Art World
Jason Cole: Carrying the Horn for the Marlborough Hunt
John Plishka: Rekindling His Artistic Fire

Download Sidelines Digital now from your favorite app store!

Sidelines Magazine - Apple store   Sidelines Magazine - Google Play store   Sidelines Magazine - Amazon store
Update iOS app. Re-download Google Play and Amazon app.

Follow on Instagram!

sidelines_magazine

Sidelines Magazine
Sneak peep into the rest of October! 👀🍂 As Sneak peep into the rest of October! 👀🍂 As always thank you to out photographers for the amazing pics! 📸Portraits by Kirsten Hannah Julia Dags Adrienne Morella Melissa Fuller Lindsey Long Sara Farrell
Get your entries in for the TerraNova Dressage II Get your entries in for the TerraNova Dressage II CDI W & USEF National Level 5 dressage competition, hosted October 19-22, 2023 at TerraNova Equestrian Center in beautiful Myakka City, Florida. Conveniently located near Lakewood Ranch and Sarasota, TerraNova Equestrian Center is Florida’s premier equestrian destination. Discover TerraNova’s peaceful showgrounds and luxury facilities for a world-class competition experience. TerraNova Dressage II is managed by Thomas Baur and Monica Fitzgerald and has quickly become a favorite venue amongst dressage competitors. National Judges: Cindi Wylie Anne Cizadlo CDI Judges: William Warren (4* / USA) Elke Ebert (5* / GER) Agniezka Majewska (4* / POL) Debbie Rodrigurz (3* / USA) Christof Umbach (5* / LUX) View full prize list: https://www.terranovaequestrian.com/terranova-dressage-ii-cdi4 Enter CDI: https://equestrian-hub.com/public/show/165165 Enter USEF: https://equestrian-hub.com/public/show/184795 Closing date: October 12th – enter now! #showterranova
HELLO OCTOBER!!! Kicking off the month with Intern HELLO OCTOBER!!! Kicking off the month with International-level dressage rider Amelia Newcomb. Who is committed to making dressage accessible to anyone who wants to learn and improve in the sport. With a mantra of “Dressage for All,” Amelia, her husband, Germán Schneider, and the rest of her team at Amelia Newcomb Dressage believe that anyone and everyone can learn to love their ride. With over 100,000 YouTube subscribers around the globe, Amelia is able to share her joy and enthusiasm for the sport with more equestrians than she ever dreamed of through her online training platform. Amelia’s curriculum breaks riding down into a simple, proven system that anyone can follow and get results, regardless of age, discipline or location.“My goal is to make good dressage training accessible to everyone who is interested in learning. One way I do that is by producing quality videos to educate and encourage dressage students along their dressage journey,” Amelia said. “The transformations that my students get are insane and my business is changing the entire sport of dressage and the way people learn to ride.” While Amelia is a talented USDF Gold, Silver and Bronze medalist today, she knows the struggles associated with trying to make your way in the sport without abundant educational resources. “I grew up in Colorado, where there weren’t that many dressage resources available. I was so hungry for knowledge, I would go to big shows just to watch the big-named trainers work,” Amelia said. “That’s why, when given the opportunity to share what I’ve learned along the way, I decided to go for it and start my YouTube channel.” ➡️Catch the full story at the link in our bio!! ⬇️For more information, visit amelianewcombdressage.com and on Instagram amelicanewcombdressage 📸Photos by Lindsey Long, lindseylong.com #Sidelines #sidelines2023 #sidelinesmagazine #magazine #forhorsepeople #abouthorsepeople
The WPCSA American National Welsh Pony and Cob Sho The WPCSA American National Welsh Pony and Cob Show is happening now! Don’t miss another second by streaming it live! 🐴 📹👀HOW TO VIEW THE LIVE STREAM The WPCSA will again be streaming footage live from the ring at the American National Show next week. You will need two free passes to get to the feed this year. 1️⃣�The first is a USEF fan membership which you can get through this site: Join or Renew | US Equestrian (usef.org) 2️⃣ Once you become a fan member, you will need to log in to the USEF Network on ClipMyHorse. A video demonstrating how to do this can be found here: Existing USEF Fan - Watch the USEF Network - YouTube 📸Pictured- Grand Champion Section B under UK judge. Owner-Barbara Chappell Handler-Paul Maye /Maye Show Ponies Fairfield, VA
Load More... Follow on Instagram

From Our Classifieds Ads

  • JUMPS WEST - HORSE SPORTS EQUIPMENT
    Featuring Aluminum Jumps and Jump Packages. Also Poly, Wood Jumps and Jump Rails.Dressage Equipment, Trail Class, Water Jumps & Stall Kickpads 866-389-0018 E: sales@jumpswest.com www.jumpswest.com

    [Read more]

  • Holsteiner Stallion - Lieutenant Kije
    Lieutenant Kije (Laurinn x Carolus I x Rocadero) 17'h North American Studbook Approved Holsteiner Proven Hunter & Jumper Offspring thru Derby's & Grand Prix. USEF #45986 Fresh Cooled & Frozen LFG $1200 Frozen Straws $350 per dose www.Phoenixequestriancenter.com

    [Read more]

Sidelines Articles by Email

Subscribe to Sidelines Magazine Articles by Email

RSS Sidelines Blogs: What’s Happenin’

  • Woodside Recognizes the Best in the West
  • Get More for Your Money with an Adjustable-Rate Mortgage
  • Longines Global Champions Tour of New York Returns to Governors Island

RSS Sidelines Blogs: Show World

  • Conor Swail Was the Best Bet in $15,000 CSI2* Markel Insurance Welcome at San Juan Capistrano International
  • Lillie Keenan Leads in CHF68,000 South Coast Plaza Welcome Speed at San Juan Capistrano International CSIO5*
  • McLain Ward Wins CSIO5* Longines Grand Prix at San Juan Capistrano International

Category

Recent Posts

  • October 2023 – Table of Contents

    Subscribe for just $9.95 or Order Individual Is...
  • Zayna Rizvi: Horses from Family to Finals

    By Laura Scaletti Portraits by Melissa Fuller &...
  • Samantha Wolfram: Finding Success in America and Overseas

    By Juliana Chapman Portraits by Kirsten Hannah ...
  • Cedar Potts-Warner: At Liberty and Beyond

    Story and Portraits by Jennifer DeMaro   P...
  • Jordan Melfi: Turning a Secret Horse Life Into a Career

    By Veronica Green-Gott Portraits by Shelly Cart...

Copyright © 1987 - 2021 Sidelines Magazine
Privacy Policy · Returns & Refunds Policy · Hosting by Lucian Web Service
· Login

TOP
Get the Sidelines Scoop — your weekly look behind the scenes.Sign me up!