Happy Hump Day!

Hey everyone! I can't believe how absolutely gorgeous the weather has been this week and it makes me so happy for the spring to come. I love spring and fall weather where it isn't too hot or too cold. The warmer weather is also making me really excited for the summer because I know I'll really be able to fully embrace the raw lifestyle in the heat of the summer :)

I had a really great day at work yesterday. It flew by so fast, we did 25 minutes of yoga and we had the breeze flowing through the studio through open doors. I may not have been enjoying the weather outside but at least I got to feel the beautiful warm air at work. Hopefully today will be more of the same, it'll make a 10 hour day go much faster!

I have my food all ready to bring with me today. I still have to make my smoothie so I'm going to apologize in advance but I did use a recycled photo. I know it is frowned upon but it will literally be the same thing and I think that a recycled pic is better than no pic! So let's check it out!

For breakfast I will make a Blueberry Muffin Smoothie. One of my new favorites, it's so good but is so good for you too!

For lunch I'm finally going to finish up this Thai food. It is kind of sad looking now but I just can't throw food out, especially when I paid more than I should have for it. 

So something I've started to do is bookmark Raw food restaurant menus with the intention of recreating items that look great to me. I am not a fan of going to to restaurants on a more than occasional basis. It's partially because I don't like spending money on it and partially because I just don't like going out in general, I prefer to be at home. It's just how I've always been. Anyway, I've seen some amazing items on raw menus that look like they can be easily recreated at home so I've started a collection and I'm going to try to mow through them this summer and try as many new things as I possibly can! They will mostly be smoothies and salads but there will be some other things in there too. Anyway, since it is going to be 70 degrees today(!!!) and since I'm bored of my usual chopped salad I decided to tackle my first salad, one I've been wanted to try for a long time.

This is my version of the S&M salad from One Lucky Duck! I have wanted to try it for so long but never had the ingredients. I'm still missing some and had to substitute some but it is close enough now! The menu describes it as "greens, avocado, hemp seeds, dulse, rosemary crackers, pumpkinseed lemon dressing." Mine has greens, avocado, hemp seeds, crumbled nori sheets and balsamic vinaigrette. I don't have dulse (yet) but I did have the nori sheets I got from Trader Joe's so I thought it would be an appropriate substitute! It's not 100% raw because the nori is toasted but I'm ok with that. I don't have rosemary crackers or the fancy vinaigrette but I like balsamic vinaigrette anyway. I'm so excited to eat this! Not bad for my first recreation!

Oh and I will be snacking on some of that awesome fruit salad from yesterday for sure!

OK time to finish getting ready for my long day. I hope you are all enjoying some warm weather and soaking up some Vitamin D today. 

Sunday Fun Day!

Hey everyone! Hope your weekend ended off on a good note :) Today was a pretty good day. I didn't sleep too well last night... for some reason I woke up at 4:30 am and had trouble falling back asleep so I was up until 7 am. I woke up again at 8:30 and at that point I just got myself together for the day and made my trip to Whole Foods. I got there later than I would have liked so I had to deal with more idiots than usual on a Sunday morning but I got what I needed. Check out the haul!

Vega performance protein backup, strawberries, Daiya cheddar (for Kris Carr approved veggie quesadillas!), Rice flour gluten free crackers, 2 containers of stuffed grape leaves, frozen strawberries and 2 bags frozen blueberries, packets of hemp hearts (I won't pay $12 for a bag but I'll pay $1.50 for a packet!  That way I won't be stuck with a ton of seeds I may not use), carrots, honeycrisp apples, avocado and a cranberry orange Pure Bar.

After Whole Foods I dragged my ass to the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio. After that I did some laundry and then spent the rest of the day relaxing. It felt so good!

This is I guess my "brunch" since I didn't eat until noon. I know that is bad but I was running around and just not hungry until after the gym. I had a snacky plate with a cut up carrot, some tomato, stuffed grape leaves, hummus and some of those gf rice crackers. They have a cardboard texture and pretty much no taste which is kind of exactly what I like :X Good meal all around.

I snacked on some grapes for an afternoon snack. No pic, sorry!

So the best part of this picture is that I took it at 6:45 pm using natural light! I love springing ahead ;) I had some of my thai leftovers tonight. I reheated it by sauteing it dry to try and get rid of some of the greasiness. I also threw in a big handful of spinach to try and get some more fresh veggies in there. It was a little better tonight, not quite as greasy but the tofu and eggplant still were pretty greasy since it all got soaked in. One more serving left.

If I get hungry later I'll probably air pop some popcorn. It's becoming a new favorite snack! I usually just enjoy it plain with a little sea salt. Sometimes simple is best.

So I've been eating pretty clean with an emphasis on high raw for a few months now and I've been reporting back on all of the positive changes I've been experiencing since then. I'm happy to give another update based on feedback I've gotten this week. I was told by three different people within the past week that my skin is glowing. This is not something that I would ever notice about myself but I guess I believe it now that I've been told by different people at different times. It's kind of a nice side effect of eating clean. I'm sure my skin is also glowing from sweating profusely at least 5 times a week during my workouts ;) This is definitely nice to hear, especially since I don't really like to wear makeup. It's mostly me being lazy but also because it is stupid to put it on then take it off a few hours later to go to the gym. And I won't be that girl that goes to the gym with makeup on. It makes me happy though that my skin apparently has a natural glow because someone told me once that I should really wear makeup because it makes everyone look better. I should tell her that she should eat more raw food because it makes everyone look better ;)

That's all I've got for today. I hope the weekend treated you all well! Back to the grind tomorrow. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight because I've got another double training session tomorrow. Always look forward to that!

Have a great night!

Is It Bedtime Yet?

Hey everyone! Well my Saturday off is pretty much in the books and I have to tell you, I'm so exhausted! I'm ready for bed and it is only 8pm. I clearly will be awake for much longer but I'm definitely happy to be relaxing in bed right now.

I started off my day with a training session this morning. It was a great session as usual. The rope made an appearance today along with some rounds on the heavy bag and other fun things. We always rock out abs/core and today was no different. Squats and lunges always find their way in too ;)

After the gym I relaxed for a bit then went to the baby shower which was cute. Now I'm home relaxing and watching The Hangover :) Funny enough the first time I saw this movie was in the theater on a date. I seem to see some pretty inappropriate movies on dates (I Love You, Man got pretty inappropriate for a first date lol). Maybe that's why it never works out? ;) In any case, I am enjoying some Bradley Cooper eye candy tonight.

Let's check out the food from today!

I waited until after my training session for breakfast. I made a quick protein shake with almond milk, banana, protein powder and ice. Simple but good.

After I showered and relaxed for a bit I snacked on my last apple. Good thing I'm going to WFs tomorrow :)

I decided to have a piece of gluten free toast with avocado before the baby shower in case the food wasn't super vegan friendly.

At the shower I had some salad. It was good but I'm glad I ate the avocado toast before.

I got home in the early evening and I wanted something spicy for dinner so I got some Thai food. I rarely eat it and it is definitely a treat. I got the basil eggplant (eggplant, onion, carrots and green beans with basil and "spicy sauce") and added broccoli and tofu. The spicy is in quotes because it was barely spicy and I forgot to ask them to make it extra spicy. It was also a little greasier than usual. I didn't eat this whole serving because it was sitting kind of heavy in my belly. I have a lot left so I'll just have to eat small portions of it at a time.

I'm looking forward to relaxing tomorrow. A quick trip to Whole Foods is on tap for the morning and possibly some cardio then who knows! If I am not lazy and have all my ingredients maybe I'll make my raw dessert. We shall see.

Hope you all had a great Saturday! Cheers!

Quick Post

Hey everyone! I'm super exhausted tonight so this is gonna be a quick post. Yesterday I ended up doing a double training session. That's an hour and a half of fun :) I was a little concerned at first but it went really well and I felt great after! Today, is another story, ha! I am very sore because we spent some time doing weight lifting which we don't do often... we mostly do body weight exercises. I know it worked because I'm sore in every muscle I used yesterday :) I randomly woke up at 4:00 am today and couldn't fall back asleep so I'm being plagued by fatigue. It took every ounce of energy and motivation in my body to get to the gym and do some cardio today. Only 30 minutes but it was more than enough.

Had some good meals today. Haven't had much of an appetite over the past few days so I'm doing the best I can. No dinner yet but check out the grub so far.

Breakfast was a slice of GF toast with a half of an avocado and 2 clementines.

Apple for midmorning snack.

Leftover Thai Food from last night. Spicy basil eggplant with tofu added in. I had about 5 bites last night and couldn't eat anymore so I just put the leftovers in a pan with some rice and reheated them. I don't know about you but I prefer to leave my stir fry in the pan for a long time to make it crispy. The rice had the same crunchy texture as the bottom of a paella, it was SO GOOD. I was going to add broccoli for more veggies but knew this was more that enough food for me so I decided against it. Forgot to ask for brown rice so had to go with the white rice but I'm fine with it considering I only eat white rice about twice a year.

OK, sorry for the short probably incoherent post but I'm going to go relax for a bit. No appetite for dinner but hopefully some inspiration will hit.  I have to work for a few hours tomorrow morning in the studio after I work out but then I have the rest of the weekend free! Yay!

Happy Friday everyone!

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Thank you all again so much for the birthday wishes! You are all so sweet :) I had a great day...however, I am glad that I had a mellow day because I could feel myself starting to get sick. And go figure, I wake up today and I'm feeling MAJORLY yucky. I don't know about you guys, but when I get sick it builds up over a day or 2 before I get full blown sick. Today I woke up with a little bit of a stuffy nose, some aching all over as well as a bit of a headache, some coughing and sneezing (just a little) and worst of all, this horrible pressure feeling in my chest. The pressure you feel when you are about to start having those horrible coughs that go way down into your chest. That worries me most.

I went to work but my boss sent me home after a few hours to rest because I am going to have a long day tomorrow. I have to be up at 4:30 am again for the wedding and will probably get home around 7:30 pm. I'm loading up on vitamin C and hopefully it won't be too bad when I wake up.

As a side effect of waking up sick, I'm had a major decrease in appetite.  I'll show you what I did eat.

For breakfast I ate a bunch of my Edible Arrangements fruit.  It was so good. I love the pineapple flowers :) I had intended to try my Kombucha today but it had taken me an hour to get all of the fruit down and I had no appetite left I decided not to chance it.

I didn't really want to eat anything all day. I drank a lot of water and green tea.  Then I knew that I had to eat something for dinner so...

I ate my leftovers from yesterday. Veggies and tofu in spicy sauce. Now I'm drinking a big glass of orange juice.

I haven't enjoyed a cookie today because I want to be able to taste it and enjoy it but some of you asked for the recipe that my mom used to make them. Ask and you shall receive :) Apparently she chose one off of vegweb!  Check it out here!

A definite silver lining in my day was coming home to find a package from Isobelle from vganjar! I participated in Lindsay's CVL Vegan Care Package Swap and was lucky enough to be paired up with Isobelle! Her package is amazing, so thoughtful and absolutely perfect for me and I can't wait to show you the goods! But you'll have to wait until tomorrow my dears :) I figured I'd save it for then since I won't have meals to show you because of my work day. Sit tight, it'll be so worth the wait!

Hope you all have a great night, I'm gonna snuggle up, drink orange juice and try and get some sleep!

28!!

Thank you all so much for the early birthday wishes yesterday! You are all so sweet :) Today was the big day and it was a fairly normalish day but was made special by my friends and family which was nice.  Weekday birthdays kind of stink...and add working the weekend on top of it and it stinks even more.  I am going for dinner on Sunday with my family though which will be nice. The only requirement I had for where was just that I needed to be able to get a giant margarita :)

So, here is how I spent my 28th birthday!! Get ready, this is gonna be a picture heavy post :)

Started off with breakfast, gf english muffin, peanut butter and my fancy cut bananas ;) Cinnamon sprinkled on top, naturally.

Iced soy latte, purchased with the gift card that Shen sent me! Thanks so much Shen!

So I'm sitting at work talking to a client on the phone and a delivery guy walks in with this...

A huge ass, gorgeous Edible Arrangements bouquet! YUM!! My bro, sister in law, little beautiful babycakes niece, and the animals (;]) sent it to me. Yay for vegan birthday awesomeness! What a great surprise!

 

Fast forward for a minute: When I came home I took it apart. Look at this amazing container! Breakfast for a while. There is a separate container with honeydew. That is for anyone else that wants fruit. I don't like honeydew. This is my container because I'm greedy ;)

For lunch I ate half of this yummy chopped salad.  I ate lunch super late and don't like eating right before I work out so I didn't want to stuff myself full of salad. Works out well because I have lunch for tomorrow!

After work I went to the gym and used this equipment...and much more! Great workout, and my trainer gave me the session as my gift. Very nice of him!

I wanted Thai food as my special birthday meal so I got some to bring home. This is tofu with mixed veggies in a SPICY sauce. After this dinner my mouth was on fire and my belly was full. Perfect meal I'd say. And I have a bunch left for dinner tomorrow!

I have the best mommy ever and she took her first shot at vegan baking. She refused to let me bake my own birthday treat so she researched recipes and found the recipe for these DELICIOUS pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Clearly my mom knows me well choosing a treat with pumpkin AND chocolate. They were delicious, she did an awesome job!

So, that was my day :) Family dinner is on Sunday so I'll try and get pics then if I remember after my margarita (HA!).  Hope you all had an amazing day!