Thursday, 28 March 2013

Friendship, Fifties, Fitness and Feeling FABULOUS



Me and Fabulous Wendy!

As I near fifty, I celebrate the woman that I have become, and the friendships that I have cultivated through my journey of life.  Finding a true friend is a rare gift, and I dedicate this Blog to one of my dearest friends who celebrated her 58 year young birthday this month.  I will be calling this the fun, fit, fifty and fabulous write up, and why not feel fabulous…right?  Being a healthy person is not about a number, but how we treat ourselves every day, what we feed our bodies, how we move our bodies, and how we enjoy quality time with our self and others.  Birthdays are gifts that remind us of what a pleasure and privilege it is to wake up each day, have another day, and the opportunity to make it a GREAT one! 

In walks my friend Wendy…now she and I have had some really fun times together, some serious talk times, cry times, and kick butt fitness times. We share a sister bond of trust and vulnerability that allows us to be ourselves with each other…that is what I mean about a true friend.  And laugh…we both have that in common and we are far from frumpy… are you kidding me…fifty something does not mean that for us, exact opposite…we feel youthful, trendy, sexy, and enjoy being confident, fit women.  Here is what Wendy has to say about being 58 and fabulous:



Wendy, 58 and Fab
Being Fabulous at 58

What??!!??!! I’m 58?????? Almost hard to believe since I do not feel 58…or 48…or even 38 for that matter…I feel like I did when I was in my twenties…young, vibrant, healthy, fit, happy and full of life. Age is an attitude, not a number.  It is great genes (thanks mom and dad) combined with living life with a fresh attitude every day. To have a full heart that shines with love, faith, friendships, motherhood, fun, laughter (sometimes tears) and with a deep sense of power over my own happiness. Feeling tremendous at 58 is an understanding that I need to set good boundaries, to know when to be sweet and when to be strong. I strive to take life’s serious issues and deal with them boldly and with a productive spirit.  Working out, eating healthy, getting plenty of rest combined with a positive outlook is the key to feeling my very optimum.  And, laughing… till my belly aches, keeps the child in me alive!!!  I adore my husband of almost 30 years, my beautiful daughters and my wonderfully magnificent friends who breathe new life into me every day.  Finally, being fantastic at 50+ is having a strong love of the Lord who gives me courage, strength and confidence.

My Fabulous Friend
So, if someone comes up to me and asks me, “How old are you?” I think I’ll answer…do you want to know how old I am or how old do I feel? Because you see, the answer will be quite different…

  ”Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” John Lennon

Blessings,

Wendy Wise





Thanks Wendy for being such a fabulous friend, and I celebrate you and your beautiful example of living a healthy life through body, mind and spirit…YOU ROCK!!!

My Ellie Outfit

FIT GEAR REVIEW
20 percent of Ellie


    I am so excited to share a new online Fitness Clothing Store. Ellie designs contacted me awhile back
to try out their new fitness clothes line, and I being such a fitness fashionista and not about frump, was happy to oblige and give my 5 cents worth on their product.

 First, let me say…WORTH THE WAIT! I wanted to sample, workout in, and wash the clothing prior to giving my feedback on the product. Also, I am a firm believer of not promoting things that I would not wear myself.  To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first due to the length of time receiving the product as the company was working through the “kinks” that all new businesses do, but with that understanding, my patience was rewarded with a fabulous outfit.  Also, what comes to the forefront of importance to me is customer service, and all my questions/concerns were promptly answered, and I would give Elliea high rating in customer service.  I am a stickler for quality fitness attire being that my job revolves around fitness and also, it is my every day ware in the studio…so I am looking for great quality and functional wear that can take me through my day, and often into the evening.  I can honestly say, that I look forward to wearing more Ellie!

Heart breaker capris
Let me move on to the product. I ordered from the February collection: the After Dark Fitness Top and Heartbreaker Capri Bottoms.  True to size and the fit was just as described and appeared on the Ellie site.  The quality of the material was superior and provided the support I needed and I felt comfortable not having to wear a bra under the fitness top. In fact, I would even wear the top with a pair of jeans/shorts for out and about.  Excellent coverage and feel, not cutting in and feeling like I had to adjust the top or bottom from riding in places that are well…uncomfortable, and you know what I mean.  The moisture wicked away from my body and did not leave me feeling like I was setting in water soaked clothes and believe me… I sweat like no other during a hard workout.  The outfit stood up well to wash, no shrinkage, and I always drip dry all my fitness clothes, so did not put my product in the dryer.  The color remained vibrant and the quality of the stitching, and straps maintained their 
integrity. 

Feb Collection: After Dark Fitness Top




















Love the Straps!






















 









 My Shopping Selections
After Dark Fitness Top - Left
Heart Breaker Capri's - Right







I received no payment for providing this product review, other than the outfit to provide feedback.  I am happy to promote Ellie Designs after having the opportunity to sample the clothes line and have made the decision to become an Ellie Ambassador based on the quality product. What this means is that I can provide YOU with discounts for fabulous fitness outfits, and in turn I do receive a small commission for each person that signs up using my link.  If you have not given Elliea try, it is such a great deal for quality fitness clothes at a discount price.  I say it is about time for this concept to hit the fitness clothes scene, as I for one am on a budget, and it is nice to be able to buy quality clothes, look and feel good when I workout, and not feel guilty with my purchase.

Wishing everyone a very HAPPY EASTER from My Family to Yours!!!!

Happy Spring and Stay Healthy
Thanks for stopping by my Blog, hope you enjoy the content, and if you have not become a follower yet, I would love to see your face on my friend's list.  If you are inspired, LIKE my entry, leave a comment and I look forward to responding! 
Stay Healthy~ Darla
Receive My Stay Healthy Nutrition Guide as a Free Gift and Thank you when you donate to Stay Healthy Fitness...
 

HIA Gateway moving and changing but still staying the same

Fro Dr Sue Wright, HIA Gateway Manager:


The HIA Gateway is moving. It is part The Network of Public Health Observatories group (this was previously known as the Association of Public Health Observatories) but from 1st April the website (including myself) is moving into an executive agency of the Department of Health, called Public Health England (PHE). The HIA Gateway will become part of the PHE portal (website) and this in turn will be accessed from the English Government Domain website: www.gov.uk . This means that the HIA Gateway is now secure for the foreseeable future.

The term "HIA Gateway" will remain but may become "PHE HIA Gateway" or Public Health England HIA Gateway and existing URLs for the HIA Gateway will still be operational and you will be redirected to the HIA Gateway landing page on the PHE portal.

I am unclear at this stage if the monthly emails will still be sent out nor if and how people will be able to register with the HIA Gateway alone. Registration with the HIA Gateway has ensured you receive a monthly email listing recent resources added to the website.

I will also be contacting those people on the People’s Directoryand Contractor’s Directory in the near future to check if they wish to remain on the HIA Gateway now it has moved into PHE.

Thank you for your continuing support and if you have any HIAs or other resources you think relevant to the practice of HIA, MWIA or any other health related Impact Assessment, do please forward these on to me (or if you prefer links to these).

*********************************************************************************
Take home key points:
  • The HIA Gateway will become a formalised part of the new national public health agency of England.
  • www.hiagateway.org.uk will still direct you to the HIA Gateway site as it currently does. 
  • Those using the existing actual URL should check to ensure that they have updated the URL to the new one generated when the site becomes a micro-site of the larger Public Health England website or use www.hiagateway.org.uk.
  • Please continue to email Sue with your HIAs and other resources so she can put them on the site.
*********************************************************************************



Monday, 25 March 2013

Workout Binder (Workouts Post 12-Week Program)

Now that I've completed the Jamie Eason 12-Week Training Program, I needed to figure out what to do next.  The last couple of weeks I slacked off on my workouts, so time to get back to it!  I want to continue the strength training (especially on my legs/glutes) and picked a few of my favorite workouts from the Jamie Eason program and will continue to do those to build muscle.  I think they are all from Week 7 of the program.  I'm also looking forward to trying the spin classes at my gym, and now that the weather is warming up here, I'm going to start jogging outside again.






I went ahead and printed the workouts (Arms, Back, Shoulders, and two Leg workouts), wrote in the weight I typically lift for easy reference, them laminated them so I can use them while I work out.  I could commit them to memory, but this is easy and mindless so I don't have to think about what comes next.  


I have printed out all of the workouts from the 12-week program and keep them in a binder, along with my measurements so I can track my progress.  The binder is just an inexpensive 1-inch white three-ring binder with a plastic cover, so I inserted something to motivate me on the front. 


I love the shot of this strong woman climber and the quote that accompanies it.  


And on the back, I included a shot of a muscular and feminine physique I admire.  That booty- dang! 


Those pages are from Oxygen magazine.  The binder lives in my workout bag along with my mini i-Pod, workout gloves, and water bottle.  

How do you keep track of your workouts?

* * * * * 










spin class

running


Extracting the facts: an investor guide to disclosing risks from hydraulic fracturing operations



This guide by the Investor Environmental health network offers best practice recommendations to energy companies for reporting and reducing risks and impacts from natural gas operations in shale relying on hydraulic fracturing (commonly referred to as "fracking"). The guide can be a resource for companies responding to the Securities and Exchange Commission's growing interest in the environmental risks from fracturing operations, especially chemical and water management, and assists companies seeking to implement a November 2011 US Department of Energy advisory panel recommendation that companies "adopt a more visible commitment to using quantitative measures as a means of achieving best practice". The guide suggests goals, practices and indicators, providing existing examples from numerous companies.

Synopsis
The guide is organized around 12 core goals and supporting practices and indicators. These include:
1. Manage risks transparently and at Board level
2. Reduce surface footprint
3. Assure well integrity
4. Reduce and disclose all toxic chemicals
5. Protect water quality by rigorous monitoring
6. Minimize fresh water use
7. Prevent contamination from waste water
8. Minimize and disclose air emissions
9. Prevent contamination from solid waste and sludge residuals
10. Assure best in class contractor performance
11. Secure community consent
12. Disclose fines, penalties and litigation



In alphabetical order, the full list of the 55 investors, investment management and institutional investor firms supporting the “best practices” guidelines for fracking are as follows:  Adrian Dominican Sisters (USA); Adveq Real Assets, Adveq Management AG (Switzerland); APG All Pensions Group (Netherlands); As You Sow (USA); Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (Australia); Bon Secours Health System, Inc. (USA); Boston Common Asset Management, LLC (USA); Calvert Investments, Inc. (USA); Catholic Health East (USA); Catholic Health Partners (USA); Catholic Super (Australia); Ceres (USA); Christian Brothers Investment Services, Inc. (USA); Christopher Reynolds Foundation (USA); Compton Foundation (USA); Congregation Sisters of St. Agnes General Council (Fond du Lac, WI) (USA); Dexia Asset Management (Belgium); Dignity Health (USA); Domini Social Investments LLC (USA); Dominican Sisters of Hope (USA); Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose (USA); Ethos (Switzerland); Everence Financial (USA); First Affirmative Financial Network (USA); Governance for Owners (United Kingdom); Green Century Capital Management (USA); Local Government Super (Australia); Maryknoll Sisters (USA); Mercy Investment Services (USA); Miller/Howard Investments, Inc. (USA); NEI Investments (Canada); Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment (USA); Park Foundation (USA); Parnassus Investments (USA); Pax World Funds (USA); Portfolio 21 Investments (USA); Qube Investment Management Inc. (Canada); Regnan - Governance Research & Engagement Pty Ltd (Australia); Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Western American Province (USA); Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment      (USA); Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) (Canada); Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth (USA); Sisters of St. Dominic, Congregation of the Most Holy Name, San Rafael (USA); Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity, St. Francis Province (USA); Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia (USA); Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange (USA); Sisters of St. Louis, California Region (USA); Sisters of the Holy Family (USA); Socially Responsible Investment Coalition (SRIC) (USA); Swift Foundation (USA); The Sustainability Group at Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge Trust, LLC (USA); Trillium Asset Management LLC (USA); Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, U.S. Province (USA); Walden Asset Management, a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management (USA); and Zevin Asset Management (USA).

Sunday, 24 March 2013

Neuronal Control of Appetite, Metabolism and Weight

Last week, I attended a Keystone conference, "Neuronal Control of Appetite, Metabolism and Weight", in Banff.  Keystone conferences are small, focused meetings that tend to attract high quality science.  This particular conference centered around my own professional research interests, and it was incredibly informative.  This post is a summary of some of the most salient points.

Rapid Pace of Scientific Progress

Read more »

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Healthy Granola Bites


Hi, lovely readers!  It’s Jennifer from The Chronicles of Home and I’ve got another healthy little treat for you today.  I started making these granola bites a few weeks ago as a way to satisfy my daughters’ late afternoon snack attack without ruining their appetites for dinner.  And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t dip my hand into the bowl a lot of days, myself!  


They taste like a cross between granola and cookie dough and my girls would probably put down the entire batch of them if I didn’t limit them to 2 or 3 at a time.  They’re really filling and satisfying and full of healthy ingredients, so a perfect snack or even breakfast on-the-go if you’re really strapped for time, though we haven’t taken it there ourselves yet.

I like to make these in the food processor because it makes it that much quicker, and I like to have some of the raisins and chocolate chips chopped up into smaller bits.

The “dough” can be both a little crumbly and stick to your hands (seems like those two wouldn’t go together, doesn’t it?).  I didn’t really roll them into balls as much as press them into balls by squeezing back and forth between my hands and shaping into balls.  When they started to stick to my hands, I’d give a quick rinse to get off any sticky bits and then start again with damp hands.  I had to do this maybe twice during the making of them.

I store the granola bites in the fridge to keep them really fresh, though they might do fine at room temperature as well, but I can’t say how they hold up on the counter since I’ve always put mine in the fridge.

Hope you (and your kids) enjoy!





Granola Bites

Ingredients
1 c. oats
3/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 c. raw almond butter
3 tbsp. flax seed meal
1 tbsp. chia seeds
1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 c. raisins
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. light agave nectar

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well mixed.

Scoop tablespoons into your hands and shape into balls.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator.


Thank you for this post from contributing writer, Jennifer, of The Chronicles of Home.  You'll definitely want to check out her blog for more amazing recipes, beautiful home decor, and easy-to-follw DIY projects!






Talking about windfarm health problems may make people more likely to feel they are suffer from them


Interesting Guardian article and research study:

The Guardian article link "Windfarm sickness spreads by word of mouth, Australian study finds"

The study pre-print article "Spatio-temporal differences in the history of health and noise complaints about Australian wind farms: evidence for the psychogenic, "communicated disease" hypothesis" link



NEW TERM: communicated disease
TERM NEW TO ME (UPDATED): Nocebo (Placebo, is a non-medicinal substance that has positive and beneficial effect on health, a nocebo is a substance that has negative and harmful effect on health)

Guardian Extract:

Sickness being attributed to wind turbines is more likely to have been caused by people getting alarmed at the health warnings circulated by activists, an Australian study has found.

Complaints of illness were far more prevalent in communities targeted by anti-windfarm groups, said the report's author, Simon Chapman, professor of public health at Sydney University. His report concludes that illnesses being blamed on windfarms are more than likely caused by the psychological effect of suggestions that the turbines make people ill, rather than by the turbines themselves.

"If windfarms were intrinsically unhealthy or dangerous in some way, we would expect to see complaints applying to all of them, but in fact there is a large number where there have been no complaints at all," Chapman said.

The report, which is the first study of the history of complaints about windfarms in Australia, found that 63% had never been subject to noise or health complaints. In the state of Western Australia, where there are 13 windfarms, there have been no complaints.

The study shows that the majority of complaints (68%) have come from residents near five windfarms that have been heavily targeted by opponent groups. The report says more than 80% of complaints about health and noise began after 2009 when the groups "began to add health concerns to their wider opposition".


Study Abstract:

Background and objectives
With often florid allegations about health problems arising from wind turbine exposure now widespread in parts of rural Australia and on the internet, nocebo effects potentially confound any future investigation of turbine health impact. Historical audits of health complaints across periods when such claims were rare are therefore important. We test 4 hypotheses relevant to psychogenic explanations of the variable timing and distribution of health and noise complaints about wind farms in Australia. Setting All Australian 49 wind farms (with 1471 turbines) operating from 1993–2012. 

Methods 
Records of complaints about noise or health obtained from wind farm companies regarding residents living near 47 Australian wind farms, expressed as proportions of estimated populations residing within 5km of wind farms, and corroborated with complaints in submissions to 3 government public enquiries and news media records. 

Results 
There are large spatio-temporal variations in wind farm noise and health complaints. 31/49 (63%) of Australian wind farms including 17/34 (50%) with turbine size >1MW have never been subject to noise or health complaints. Western Australia has seen no complaints. Only 120 individuals across Australia representing approximately 1 in 272 residents living within 5km of wind farms appear to have complained, with 81 (68%) of these being residents near 5 wind farms which have been heavily targeted by anti wind farm groups. About 1 in 107 of those living near turbines >1MW have ever complained. The large majority (82%) of health and noise complaints commenced after 2009 when anti wind farm groups began to add health concerns to their wider opposition. In the preceding years, health or noise complaints were rare despite large and small turbined wind farms having operated for many years. 

Conclusions 
In view of scientific consensus that the evidence for wind turbine noise and infrasound causing health problems is poor, the reported spatio-temporal variations in complaints are consistent with psychogenic hypotheses that health problems arising are “communicated diseases” with nocebo effects likely to play an important role in the aetiology of complaints.


Wednesday, 20 March 2013

"There are already mechanisms in place": same old arguments against health impact assessment?

The Australian Senate
The Australian Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs released a report on Australia's domestic response to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health report "Closing the gap within a generation" last night. The response to the report seems lukewarm to me, though that may be coloured by my personal sense that this represents another missed opportunities for intersectoral action for health in Australia. The Social Determinants of Health Alliance released a fairly upbeat press release.

From an HIA and Health in All Policies perspective there are a few interesting sections. I'll post two reasonable lengthy excerpts below so you can make up your own mind. This is from the Government response section:

Adopting a Health in All Policies approach
4.46      The pre-eminent idea put to the committee to address the social determinants of health in Australia was for the Commonwealth government to adopt a similar mechanism as the South Australian 'Health in All Policies' (HiAP) approach to government action. HiAP is a horizontal health policy strategy that incorporates health as a shared goal across all parts of Government and addresses complex health challenges through an integrated policy response across portfolio boundaries.[54] As explained by representatives from the South Australian Government:
Health in All Policies is essentially an approach to working collaboratively on policy issues across government to enable joined up policy responses to complex, so-called wicked, policy goblins. The problems faced by the health department results from these wicked problems, such as obesity, chronic disease and health inequities. All of these have serious impact on health services and health financing and budgets, but health departments do not actually have the policy levers to address them. Other sectors and departments do have the policy levers—such as transport, agriculture, employment and education—however many of these agencies that are able to take action on these determinants of health and wellbeing do not see health as their business...Our version of Health in All Policies looks at how we can assist other agencies in meeting their goals, in a way that supports health and wellbeing...In South Australia the Health in All Policies approach is applied in the internal government policy process, focusing strongly on Health being a partner rather than a director in the public policy process.[55]
4.47      Under the South Australian model, in order to ensure that policies have considered potential health impacts, health impact assessments are used. Health impact assessments consider the potential health consequences of a policy.
4.48      A large number of stakeholders called for the Commonwealth to adopt HiAP approach similar to the one used by the South Australian government.[56]
Later in the chapter:
 4.54      One argument put forward for the adoption of a health impact or equity assessment framework was that it would 'create a little bit more awareness and consciousness around how decisions we make in every government department impact on people's health and equity issues.'[62] The actions already taken by a number of state governments point towards some jurisdictions being well ahead of the Commonwealth when it comes to ensuring that there is a sufficient understanding of the social determinants of health within government programs. Improving the awareness of health in areas outside the traditional health field is to be encouraged.
4.55      Although the Department conceded that health impact assessments might be useful, it was argued that this needs to be considered alongside their time- and cost-heavy nature:
Health impact assessments have been promoted as a means of assessing the health impacts of policies, plans and projects using quantitative, quantitative and participatory techniques. While we think that they may be a useful tool, we believe that they have the potential to be expensive and time-consuming, and we believe that this needs to be taken into account in any further consideration of these.[63]
4.56      This point was expounded upon in the Department's supplementary submission:
In the case of both the South Australian Government and Tasmanian Health in All Policies Collaboration, key drivers have been established through legislation; in particular Public Health Acts, as well as state based strategic plans and/or targets. Duplication of such approaches at a national level could add further complexity to an already complicated environment without a clear mandate for action.[64]
4.57      The Australian Social Inclusion Board made a similar case against the use of a South Australian style approach:
The development of a more formally structured framework, such as the South Australian approach, could introduce ambiguity into existing Commonwealth mechanisms and therefore detract from the social inclusion narrative. It could also result in current measurement and reporting framework and social inclusion principles holding less currency.[65]
4.58      However, representatives from the Department argued that there was already adequate consideration given to health in public policy making:
An approach is taken, certainly by our department, that recognises the interconnectedness and complexity of the social determinants of health through integrated approaches to the development and implementation of social policy and programs, both at the Commonwealth level but also across all levels of government. Key aspects of the approach include a number of things: firstly, strong governance arrangements. Some examples of those are the Australian Social Inclusion Board, the Social Policy and Social Inclusion Committee of Cabinet and also COAG's standing committees that look into these issues...[W]e believe that other approaches can and are also being used to achieve coordination across sectors and levels of government.[66]
4.59      The committee did not receive any evidence in the form of improved health outcomes that the South Australian model is more effective than comparative systems. The diversity of international and domestic responses to rising awareness of the social determinants of health points to a field of practice undergoing rapid evolution of thought. As noted by the Chief Executive Officer of ANPHA:
We are not sure which approaches will work best. We have almost got a set of natural experiments going on in Australia, which we think ought to be evaluated before we come to a conclusion on that. The South Australian method is one way of doing it...We are not quite sure what will do the trick here. It is one of the reasons we looked at Canada so closely. They do a bundle of different things, and other countries have done different things as well.[67] 
Committee view
4.60      The committee notes that the Department believes that it effectively takes a social determinants approach within its own policy making. However, the key point is that such an approach needs to be taken across government, and in particular in social, economic and employment policy decisions that affect social determinants (such as employment status, levels of welfare benefit, and access to education). The need for a social determinants approach lies not only within, but beyond, the health portfolio.
4.61      There are already mechanisms in place to ensure that important issues are considered across government when necessary, such as the requirements for inter-departmental consultation in the preparation of cabinet submissions, the requirement for Regulatory Impact Statements in conjunction with the introduction of legislation, and statements of compatibility with human rights.
4.62      Introducing a health in all policies approach of some sort would not therefore represent a completely new dimension to policy development. While the committee does not have a fixed view about how it should be done, the government's adoption of a social determinants approach should influence the policy development process, particularly in relevant areas such as education, employment, housing, family and social security.

There are a few familiar themes in this response that I've heard from government representatives over the years, from local health services to the World Health Organization:
  • HIA is expensive and time-consuming;
  • we're already doing addressing health in all our policy; and
  • HIA or HiAP would create duplication between levels of government and existing cross-sectoral policy initiatives.
All these assertions seem almost entirely without evidence to me. They may in fact be true but I haven't seen any empirical research that demonstrates them compellingly. Any discussions about expense and time investment should be in comparison to other interventions, rather than continuing to do nothing. HIA practitioners in many Federalist countries (e.g. Canada, U.S.A, Austria, Switzerland) have faced similar rationales to not develop an HIA or HiAP agenda at a federal level.

We need to be more assertive in calling out these kind of untested attitudes if we want to see further intersectoral action for health.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Are you in the mood for a hearty salad?  I found this mediterranean chickpea salad recipe in Barefoot Contessa's latest cookbook, Foolproof and enjoyed it all last week!  It's healthy, delicious, colorful, and very fast to assemble.

Dice a couple of tomatoes, a cucumber, scallions, and add some chopped basil.


Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas.



For the dressing, you add lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil and whisk to combine. 


Toss it all together. 


Then add feta cheese.


For a hearty accompaniment, I baked two pita bread slices at 350 for about 10 minutes.  A touch of olive oil and they're good to go! 


I couldn't get enough of this salad.  Hope you like it! 


* * * * *