Lots of Veggies and Another Dehydrator Experiment!

Hey everyone! Thank you all so much for your kind comments yesterday :) It made me happy to read them after a long day of work :) The wedding went well yesterday, we just ended up being so far from home that I got home an hour and a half after we left the hall! It didn't help that I was at the gym by 7:45 am yesterday to get in a pre-wedding workout in. I did 45 minutes of intervals on the arc trainer (no impact cardio when I work 12 hour days) and I rowed an 8 minute mile. I have no idea of that is good or not but I plan on continuing to do a little rowing to hopefully help strengthen my shoulders/upper body.

Like I mentioned yesterday, since starting this cleanse I've been craving fruits and veggies like crazy! I eat them like it's my job! Yesterday I enjoyed some yummy fresh fruit during cocktail hour and they were nice enough to make me a special vegan dinner. It was a MOUNTAIN of veggies cooked in olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. It was the most delicious meal I've ever had at a wedding. It was just so much though. I ate 1/4 of it and there was still a mountain on there! I was very happy though! I wish I had gotten a pic!

Today I woke up craving veggies and water. I tend to get dehydrated when I work and I usually am good about drinking water but not so much yesterday. I've been drinking a ton of it today though!

For lunch today I really wanted veggies and I wanted pizza. So I ended up making one of the healthiest pizzas you can probably eat.

Isn't it pretty? ;) I used a gf tortilla as the crust, added some organic, all natural sauce, lots of spinach and zucchini and 1/4 cup of Daiya Mozzarella. After it came out of the oven I sprinkled it with garlic powder. So good and no need to feel guilty! I think Kris Carr would approve of this pizza :)

We are going to my brother's house for dinner tonight and since they are having a meaty BBQ I'll be eating a chopped salad for dinner. More veggies, this time raw :)

Here is a teaser of the dehydrator recipe I'm testing today! It is making the entire house smell amazing! I have a good feeling about this one. Recipe tomorrow!

Finally, I just wanted to share my favorite picture from last night! I got bored during the reception so I decided to go outside and play with long exposures and nighttime photos. My night photography is pretty weak so I wanted to play and I got this shot that I love! The hall is on the right, the water on the left. The bride and groom brought Bocce balls and had done a few photos with them and left it on the lawn when they were done.  I think it adds to the pic :) The pic is a little soft since it was such a long exposure but it's not too bad. And I actually didn't touch the color or enhance it at all, that's what the sky looked like out of the camera! So pretty! Oh and it is shot with a Fish-Eye lens that I borrowed from the other photographer.

I hope that you are all having a great Sunday so far! I'm going to try and take a nap before we go to my brother's house. I'm so tired! I woke up early to get to Whole Foods so between the long day of work in the heat yesterday and not getting much sleep I could use a rest day :) Assuming I can get my butt out of bed tomorrow morning I'll be starting my morning running tomorrow! 

Have a great evening!

A Pretty Great Food Day!

Hey everyone! As you can see recently, I've been focusing on eating more often, with the goal of keeping my metabolism revved up throughout the day. It also balances hunger, eliminates cravings (at least for me) and keeps me energized. I highly recommend eating this way. Plus, you get to eat a wider variety of food every day! Who doesn't love that!

I started off my morning with an early workout on my own at the gym. I did 30 minutes on the arc trainer (I wanted to try intervals on the treadmill but my legs were like lead) and then followed it with this arm workout:

I only did 2 sets because my shoulders were at failure and I couldn't lift my arms. I then realized that I'm clearly in the middle of a massive flare up and I should take my anti inflammatory meds. I don't like to but sometimes you just have to suck it up and do what you have to do to feel better. I can't believe I didn't realize it was just flared up and not necessarily permanently worse. I can be pretty dense sometimes :)

Anyway, after the arm circuit (wish I was on the beach!) I did some ab exercises too. It felt like a great, well rounded workout.

Then I got to grubbin ;) Check out my Tuesday meals. Some are packed for work, but you know the deal for Tuesdays.

For my post workout breakfast I needed a big protein boost so I made a protein shake with Unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, Chocolate Vega Performance Protein Powder, 1/2 banana and ice.

Late morning I had the other half of my banana with some all natural peanut butter, raisins, cinnamon and a cup of the amazing Orange Carrot tea I had tried a month or two ago and the coffee house. Finally got a tea ball strainer thingy ;)

I won't lie to you, this lunch was pretty stellar. I was craving pizza so I decided to do it up my way ;) GF brown rice tortilla crisped up then topped with some sauce, steamed zucchini and spinach. I popped it back in the oven to heat it through then topped it off with some garlic powder and nooch. Who needs cheese?!

My afternoon snack is going to be kind of random. I need to go to the store desperately but probably won't be able to get there until Friday afternoon so I'll be throwing meals together the next few days. Anyway, for snack I'm finally going to try So Delicious Greek Style yogurt (chocolate flavor) and the other half of my carrot from...

My gorgeous salad for dinner! Greens, carrots, cucumber, grape tomatoes, chickpeas and some avocado on top. Dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. This is going to be awesome!

I hope you all have a great day! I'll be home after nine, looking forward to relaxing after work. So far the anti inflammatory med seems to be taking away some discomfort I've been having so that is good. I may ask my trainer to skip the boxing/kickboxing (I know, shocking right?) on Thursday and maybe I'll just focus on cardio and lower body this week. Once I get through the flare up I'll be ok so I'm glad I figured it out.

Catch up with you later :)

Vegan MoFo Day 15: Portabello Pizza!!

Good afternoon everyone! Today is going to be a short post because I have SO MUCH to do in such a short period of time. I was at the gym by 7:45 this morning...I tried something new today and walked on the treadmill on an incline with a 20 lb weight vest. That was a great workout! I'm so sore from the past three days too...had some great workouts! After the gym I came home to shower quick then I had to take my car to the mechanic for an oil change/inspection/tire rotation. Then directly after that had my hair color touched up. I got home at about 12:45 and have been roasting veggies since. 

So for today I kept it simple, clean, and beautiful.

This right here is my portabello pizza. It is so easy and has so few ingredients but has so much flavor! The "crust" is a roasted portabello mushroom (feel free to grill it!) seasoned with garlic and pepper. Then I placed a bed of lightly steamed spinach on top of that and topped it off with a layer of savory sauce. I then topped it off with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. I wanted to take a very clean pic but serve it up with some veggies, salad, soup...whatever your heart desires!

OK, so much more to get done before I babysit my niece so I hope you all have a lovely Saturday and if all goes well in my recipe experimentation I'll have something awesome to show you tomorrow!

Happy Saturday!

*Edited to add - or I'm going to be in bed all night because I'm getting sick again. I haven't been feeling right throughout the morning and took my temperature and it is about 100 :( So it's time to rest so I'm not sick for work tomorrow. Boo!

Pizza Bagel!!

I had to use Daiya cheddar cheese in a pinch.  Very tasty but good ol' mozzarella is still preferred ;)

Roasted Veggie Flatbread Pizza

The cheese is Daiya brand non-dairy mozzarella...because I KNOW you wanted to know ;)