Fun Friday - Stuff That I Find Awesome

Hey everyone! Since last Friday's post seemed to be a hit, here is round 2 of stuff I am digging right now :) A little insight into how much of a weirdo I am ha! Just kidding(?)!

You've seen this pic before but I'm really digging my current nail polish situation. It has lasted a while too, with minimal chipping!

Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Breeze. I'd never had it until this week and I've been missing out! It is the perfect way to satisfy a chocolate craving without packing in too many calories. I bet it is a great hot chocolate base too :) 

I can't for the life of me remember how I found this video but it is legitimately the funniest thing I've see in a really long time!

Nunchucking! I've been kind of obsessed with nunchucks for a little while and would love to get some so I can learn how to freestyle like the bad ass chick in the above video. They are pretty inexpensive but I can't really afford extras right now but one day they will be mine and I'll have a video of me being a bad ass with nunchucks too. And I'll wear this shirt...

:)

This is an adorable Steampunk Bunny sculpture I found on Etsy. So adorable, but SO expensive! I kind of like it as a tattoo design :X

Finally, how awesome is this watermelon shark?! It is making me excited for summer :) I wish whoever that person is would get their hand out of the photo. Oh well, so cute!! 

I hope you liked this week's edition of stuff I'm into. I hope you all enjoy your Friday night! Tonight is the first night of Passover. Good bye grains, I'll see you in 8 days!

Weekend Wrap Up

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, this weekend turned into absolute craziness! I woke up at the crack of dawn yesterday and got in an hour of cardio before work. I ended up working late because clients showed up 5 minutes after I was supposed to leave (instead of a half hour before like they said) and then locked my keys in my car after running errands. Yeah it was that kind of day! I ended up babysitting Delilah last night (sorry no pics, she went to bed like 15 minutes after I showed up) so I was out and about all day.

I spent most of the day cleaning, doing laundry and cooking (spaghetti squash hell yeah!). I haven't photographed all of my meals but here is a little bit of what I've eaten.

GF Multigrain Puffins with *cough Chocolate cough* unsweetened Almond Breeze. Don't judge me for using chocolate milk in my cereal, it was awesome! ;)

Hummus plate.

There was also avocado toast and salad and whatnot. Same old.

After I got home from the key locked in the car situation my mood was brightened after finding my package of goodies I ordered from Pangea! Check out the treats!

Gluten free german chocolate cake cookies (it comes in a 2 pack!).

Alternative Baking Company brand gluten free pumpkin spice cookie!

All cookies were cut in half and put in the freezer for an occasional treat. I like to have small treats on hand for dessert on a special occasion and I saw these and decided to get them!

This was the actual reason I placed the order. This is vegan "egg yolk" that I saw on Bianca's awesome blog, Vegan Crunk. This stuff is supposed to be good for things like French Toast and tofu scrambles. I can't wait to try a tofu scramble with it! The cookies were actually added on to the order to justify the $7 shipping charge. 

Today I also did my nails, check them out!

I was inspired by Sophie who always has the coolest nails! I saw her use this glittery polish and was obsessed with it :)

So the last major thing that happened this weekend was that I re-evaluated my fitness goals. I had to cut my Monday double sessions to singles because it was getting too expensive to use 3 sessions a week. I've also realized that as much as I hate to think this way, it will be really hard for me to really compete in a legit fight situation if my shoulder continues to weaken. I am still going to use my sessions as fight training, and I'll continue to train hard and be the best I can be, but I think that realistically my body has different plans than my heart in this case.

However, I find that I perform better when I set specific goals so I wanted to set more goals. I've been really interested in biking lately (even though I haven't started yet, ha!) and I really want to get back into running, so I've decided that I want to train for a 5k in the form of either the Warrior Dash or Run For Your Lives (the Warrior Dash was also inspired by Sophie!). I think the obstacles and mud and zombies will help keep my mind off of the whole running thing ;) I also am debating whether or not to maybe start training for a Duathlon (well a duathlon spint to start with) in the future. I'm going to talk to a trainer at the gym who is really into cycling and ask him how to go about training for that leg of it. We'll see though, these are just thoughts :) I also need to get back in the game with weight training. My session from Thursday really made me realize I need to get back into that. It's all about balance!

So, all in all it has been an eventful weekend. After dinner I'm going to go with my sister in law to get my massage :) I'm very excited, it's my first one!

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Happy Friday!

Hey everyone!! We made it through another work week. I'm very excited for my mostly shut in weekend coming up. I say mostly because I'll still go to the gym tomorrow morning but after that, it's hibernation time! Very stoked.

Let's check out my Friday eats!

For breakfast I had some Carrot Cake Pancakes I made the other day. I put all the leftovers in the freezer so I'll eat it probably one more time before the cleanse and then I'll save the rest of a treat after. Served them up with an orange...my last one! I've read that lemon, lime and grapefruit, although acidic, actually have an alkalizing effect on the body. No word on oranges though. Anyone know?

Here is an Instagram pic of my midmorning snack. I'm trying to be smart this time and I'm weaning myself off of the coffee rather than going cold turkey. I had a small coffee (half regular half decaf) and a pear. Hopefully three days of weaning will be good enough because that is what makes me the most nervous!

My lunch was very random but consisted of exactly what I wanted so I had a slice of gf millet toast with avocado and some stuffed grape leaves with hummus. Very delicious!

After lunch I decided to do my nails. I don't paint them often enough at all and I got tired of looking at naked nails. I would say 7 out of 10 times I paint them I end up taking the polish off because I become too impatient to let them dry and mess them up. This time they survived! The color looks a little more red in the bottle and brown on but I still like the way it looks :)

After my nails dried I decided to have a Zing Protein Bar in the Chocolate Coconut flavor. It was really really delicious. It tasted like a candy bar and not a protein bar. This is the perfect alternative to the Vega Protein Bar since it is the same exact flavor and I can NEVER find the Vega Bar. Yum! I'll have to remember this as an occasional treat after my cleanse. 

Dinner was another bowl of that delicious soup from last night. I switched bowls so you could tell I took a new pic ;) Just as delicious tonight! One serving left...will I eat it tomorrow or Sunday? Riveting cliffhanger, I'm sure.

I have only read a few parts of Crazy Sexy Diet (I plan on reading it through this weekend) and I'm completely inspired. Her story is amazing and really truly inspiring. I know that green smoothies are going to be my breakfast for the 21 days so I've been looking up alkaline green smoothie recipes and collecting them so I can have a little variety over the three weeks. It is going to be difficult for me to drink my breakfast for 21 days so I figured as long as I have a little variety it'll be a little easier. I'll share the recipes as I try them. I found a few that sound really good so I'm excited to try them. I'll probably stick to spinach as my greens of choice but maybe I'll be bold enough to try kale eventually.

I should be back to check in throughout the weekend! I hope you all have a really lovely weekend. I plan on resting and cleaning....then resting again ;) Enjoy!

Breakfast and a Great Deal!

Hi everyone! Today's post is gonna be short because I'm exhausted but here is the rundown :)

I woke up early and was at the gym by 8am. I did an hour of cardio to start off my day. After the gym I had this breakfast...

A breakfast banana split with almond butter, cinnamon, raisins and a little granola. So delicious and the crunch the granola adds is so great!

Later on I went shopping in Astoria with my mom, sister in law and niece. We went into all these bargain jewelry stores that typically has cheap looking crap but then I found this...

I LOVE it so much! I think it is really different and it was ONLY $2!!! Seriously, 2 bucks. It was a little big when I tried it on but not too bad. Then as it got colder it got to be really big so I'll have to wear it on my middle finger instead of my ring finger. It is still big but totally manageable.

Hope you all had a lovely Saturday! I had a big lunch with my family before we ventured out so I didn't get to enjoy some yummy greek food there but I'm sure we'll head back! I at the veggies out of a veggie wrap for lunch by the way. No pics, sorry!

See ya tomorrow!

Detox Day 6 - A Great Food Day!

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I had to work and I came home feeling like crap with a monster headache so I just checked around a few blogs and then just relaxed and watched the (FREE!!!) UFC fights. They are normally PPV but they played em for free on Spike so it was a great night for me after my headache eventually went away :)

Today I woke up at 5:30 am because of the time change so I just bummed around for a bit.  After breakfast I did some low impact cardio for an hour at the gym because I felt gross after not working out for a week. I have a training session tomorrow and I'll probably ask him if we can spend the last five minutes stretching my back and neck because hopefully that will help any discomfort that may come up.

Now lets check out the awesome food I ate today! Today's meals were so yummy.

Breakfast was an apple with almond butter, raisins, cinnamon and I added some coconut today. So delicious.

After the gym I had a banana as my midmorning snack.

For lunch I had a yummy plate of roasted chickpeas, roasted brussels sprouts, a carrot and a pickle.  One pickle left in my container :)

For an afternoon snack I had a HUGE mug of green tea and a few of my thai chili and lime cashews. Sorry no pic!

For dinner I made this yummy plate of spaghetti squash with my new favorite sauce made of grape tomatoes, garlic, a little olive oil and fresh basil. I added in some roasted veggies and sprinkled the top with some nooch. This is definitely a great meal! You can totally tell the difference when I use incandescent light as opposed to natural light in my photos. It was dark by 5:15! All of my dinners are going to be in ugly light so sorry about that!

Did my nails today! I LOVE this color. I'm really into the jewel toned vibrant colors in the fall. This one dried a little more blue than I thought it would but I'm thinking maybe if I put a top coat on maybe that'll help?

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Finally have my appointment with the doctor tomorrow so hopefully that'll get the process of figuring out my neck situation going and I'll get this all sorted out soon.

Almost one week into my cleanse. It's getting difficult to do breakfast without grains but just one week left! Does anyone have any grain free breakfast suggestions (other than smoothies and fresh fruit)?

Vegan MoFo Day 16: I Won(!), Veganversary, and Cookies for Breakfast!

Good morning everyone! I'm going to warn you, today's post is going to be so full of awesomeness and happy things that confetti and glitter and balloons may shoot out of your screen! I can't be responsible for the mess ;)

I woke up feeling MUCH better than I did yesterday and saw the sun shining and felt the brisk cool autumn air as I went out to grab a cup of coffee.  Then I decided to check out the results of some giveaways that I had entered and to my total surprise I WON!!!! I am so thankful that Celyn at Miso For Breakfast popped in here to comment on a post because that led me over to her amazing blog. What did I win you ask?

A copy of The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen! I am SO EXCITED! I've wanted this book for a long time but never picked it up so I can't wait to read it and maybe class my cooking up a bit ;) Thanks again Celyn!!

Now, let me explain that this win comes at the PERFECT time. Today, my friends, is my 2nd Veganversary! 2 years ago today I made the decision after being a vegetarian for 8 years to take the next step and go vegan. I have not looked back. I'm happier and healthier than I have ever been. I'm more adventurous and creative in my cooking and eating. It was the best decision I've ever made. Next month I'll be 10 years meat free...2 of them being vegan. I'm debating a tattoo commemorating the milestone. I'll let you know if I decide to go for it!

So, breakfast is the only meal that I have today to really celebrate this milestone and my very first giveaway win...so it should be good, and special. What better way to celebrate than with cookies for breakfast!! No silly, not actual cookies, but how about Chocolate Covered Katie's Cookie Dough Oatmeal Cake?! All of the deliciousness of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie without all of the calories and fat...eaten right out of the oven.  Count me in!!

Here are the dry ingredients all mixed up. I decided to add a few walnuts and a sprinkling of coconut. Yeah, that's just how I roll ;)

Here it is all ready to go in the oven. Katie gives a lot of leeway in the recipe so I decided to use the mashed banana instead of applesauce, 1 packet of stevia as the sweetener, no added fat and you better believe I put in that cinnamon ;)

Here it is right out of the oven with a few chocolate chips and walnuts sprinkled on top. Doesn't hurt right? ;) Look how beautiful it is, AND it makes the house smell like fresh baked cookies. So amazing.

I decided to take a second while I was devouring this warm bowl of yum to take more pics. Yes, that is the bamboo fork that goes with the spoon (I have a knife and chopsticks to round out the set too). This meal was so delicious. I think next time I may try pumpkin instead of banana and I may drop the oats down to 1/3 of a cup to see if it is more gooey. It was drier than I like my oatmeal so we'll see how that works. Oh and one last thing, don't be like me and forget to spray the ramekin! Whoops! Luckily it wasn't too bad and I was able to scrub it clean but I'm sure life would have been easier if I had greased it properly.

]

Finally, check out this amazing nail color I have on right now! It is bright pink and a little glittery. Can't wait to get those pink gloves on with these nails :)

OK I should stop rambling and finish getting ready for work. I hope you all get to enjoy this beautiful Sunday! I may be at work but at least I'll be outside to enjoy the weather.  Later kids!