Planning Ahead

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your Friday and are having a great start to the weekend! As you all know, I'm on day 2 of a 3 wedding weekend so I decided to theme today's post on planning ahead. I've been struggling with this for a while now but I paid extra attention to it this week and I think that I'm headed to success! Now, not only am I just planning meals, but I also have to plan around eating what I have since I won't be home enough to really go through a lot of my produce. I kept this in mind while I went to Whole Foods Thursday night and went light on the produce haul. There is nothing worse then buying gorgeous produce then not getting to it in time! Now I know exactly what I have and have planned my meals accordingly.

So of course there was some menu planning involved. Ideally I'd have a book so I can just write everything down but until I can get one I just used a blank sheet of paper and wrote down my meals for the next three days. I included Monday since I won't have time to on Sunday and I don't want to get stuck on Monday! The goal is that I just don't have to think when I'm super busy, everything will be right in front of me. It will also help me get nutritious meals in me without having to reach for convenience.

My dad is really awesome and got me a ton of cherries! Of course the timing isn't great and I won't be around to eat them that much so I pitted them, stuck them in snack sized baggies and put them in the freezer! Cherry chocolate smoothies here I come! I still have a ton of fresh cherries left to snack on so we'll see if I have to add another bag or two to the freezer :)

You all know what a smoothie looks like so I'll just show you my AMAZING lunch from today!

Before I show you my lunch I just wanted to show you these gorgeous baby roma tomatoes I picked up from Whole Foods. They are perfectly ripe and so delicious and they are much smaller than they look. You better believe they made an appearance in my lunch!

Inspired by Ingrid's beautiful tofu scrambles, I made myself a spinach and tomato tofu scramble! I seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic and some nutritional yeast. This was the PRFECT tofu scramble. Super fresh and so delicious. I served it with avocado and in true Ingrid style, a brown rice tortilla. Best meal I've had in a really long time! And a perfect, hearty meal to power me through my second long day!

The perfect bite! Thanks for the inspiration Ingrid!

OK I'm off to finish getting ready for work. I hope you all enjoy your Saturday! I'll be back tomorrow with some more work day meals :)

Fun Friday!

Hi friends! I'm sorry yesterday was a bit of a bummer but I promise today will pick up! I've been a little bummed that I haven't been feeling well and that I haven't been able to exercise but you know you can always count on Pinterest to lift your spirits! This round of Fun Friday is going to be based on some fun and inspiring things that I've found on Pinterest recently :) Trying to stay positive and tell myself that better things are on the horizon!

I don't know why but I thought that this was really beautiful and perfect. The idea of this instantly makes me happy and puts me in an better mindset. 

This just makes me laugh my ass off. It is so simple but perfectly hilarious!

I found this quote really inspiring because I can be guilty of this. I tend to let a bad day linger and I can blow it out of proportion and/or take it out on people I care about. It is so important to remember that a bad day is just a bad day. Things will get better. And it they don't then you know that it is time for a change!

This is what I try to do every day :) I love this, I kind of want to find this or make one for my bedroom.

I repinned this from Sage who always shares the best advice.  This is so inspiring to me because it is so true. I've been afraid of chasing my dreams for so long and constantly make excuses as to why I shouldn't or CAN'T. Can't should be considered the ultimate four letter word because it carries so much more weight than "fuck" or "shit." Seriously. Anyway, it's time to pursue my dreams. And I know what the first step is to take ;)

Um, can we talk a little bit about how AMAZING and HILARIOUS these rings are?! I don't know where this whole mustache craze came from but it is so funny. I love the guy on the right with the hat.

I'm pretty obsessed with these super cute DIY glasses! She just used the back of a paint brush to dot acrylic paint on the glasses. Then she put them in the oven (I can give you specific instructions if you are interested, or just check out the pin! ;]) and check out these super cool glasses! I think I definitely need to make these.

Alright friends, I'm off to run some errands before my wedding today. Yes, I know it is 8:30 am but alas this is the only time I have :) I like it better too because the stores aren't crowded. It is my good friend's birthday tomorrow and I'm working with her on Sunday so I am putting together a super fun gift so I need to go and grab a few things for it :) I'm so excited about this gift and I'll definitely show you guys what I came up with... probably on Sunday! I hope you all have a great Friday and I'll definitely do my best to pop in and keep you updated on my busy weekend and the yummy food I'm eating to keep my energy up :) I think I have next weekend off too which is great motivation for the next week as well!

Happy Friday friends! Hope you all enjoyed this Fun Friday post! :)

Thursday July 12, 2012

Hello my friends. I'm sorry my posts have been kind of boring and uninspired lately. I haven't been feeling to great. I'm super tired all the time and my whole body hurts pretty much all the time too. When I wake up my entire body is stiff and hurts a lot. Luckily I have an appointment with my primary care physician on Tuesday so hopefully she can shed some light on what may be going on. Until then I'm going to try and get as much sleep as possible and eat the best food possible to fuel me through the next three days of weddings!

Today's meals were pretty standard.

Avocado toast and strawberries.

Stuffed grape leaves, pickles and carrots.

I will have a chopped salad for dinner that I picked up for $5.50.

Been feeling a bit bummed about not being able to work out but hopefully I'll get this all sorted out and get back to it sooner rather than later. I will try my best to post throughout the weekend even though I have weddings tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. I will definitely do a fun friday post tomorrow though! I won't forget this week, I promise! ;)

Hope you have all been having a great week. I'm off to Whole Foods to restock with yummy, nutritious foods :)

Bikram Yoga - 1, Sarah - 0

Hello friends. I'm going to apologize in advance but I have a feeling this post will be short. I took my first Bikram Yoga class in a year and a half this morning. I expected it to be brutal because that first class always is... but this morning was the worst I've ever felt it. The room was 107.6 degrees when I walked in. I had to sit out a few sets because of severe dizziness and nausea. I walked out with a pounding headache, bad nausea, more dizziness and feeling 100% drained of energy. I felt like shit basically. Oh and to top it off, my shoulders were super fatigued and my left arm hurt.

I came home and obviously jumped in the shower immediately. I feel like I sweated out 90% of the water in my body so the shower felt good. Then I got into bed and literally could not lift my head off the pillow for an hour. It was horrible. I know from past experience it does get better but at this point I don't have time to feel this shitty. The next time I can get to a class is Friday before my first of 3 weddings this weekend. There is no way I can risk feeling like this on Friday! They just started Vinyasa yoga classes there so I'm thinking about trying that instead.

The goal for today was hydration hydration hydration! I drank a ton of water and whatever food I could get down was hydrating, clean, and high alkaline. Yes, I'm aware it isn't much but it's more than I thought I'd get down!

Those of you that may have taken a Bikram Yoga class know that one of the top rules is DON'T EAT BEFORE CLASS! I'm glad I didn't, I can't imagine how much worse it would have been! I made this smoothie before the class and kept it in the fridge so it would be ready as soon as I got home since it was a bit late for breakfast (I drank it at 11:15am). I focused on getting hydrated and recovering so this one has banana, coconut water (both great for replacing electrolytes), pineapple (anti inflammatory), vanilla vega powder and spinach (alkaline!).

My second meal needed to be light since I was not feeling like ingesting anything after that smoothie so I made another hydrating drink by blending watermelon with the juice of 1/2 lemon (also super alkaline!) and had some plums and seaweed snacks.

Dinner was a ton of veggies with hummus and stuffed grape leaves. 

And since most of you put in the request, here's 2 of my 3 tattoos. I don't have a pic of the third.

This was my second tattoo and the only decent pic I have of it. It's cherry blossoms in wind and pretty large as you can tell :) 

I have this little guy on the inside of my left foot. It's pretty small and I love it :) A little bit of bad ass I guess. 

My third one (the first on I got actually) is a hibiscus flower on the back of my ankle.

OK guys I'm super tired and am ready to relax so the party must end here. I'm bummed that I had such a bad experience this morning (and all day actually) but maybe Vinyasa will work out better for me.

I hope you all had a good day!

Fun Friday... On Monday!

Hey everyone! I just realized that I've neglected my Fun Friday posts for 2 weeks! That is totally unacceptable so I'm halting everything and bringing a special edition of Fun Friday on Monday :) No theme this week, just some fun stuff that I'm into.

I really wish I could take credit for this but I found it on Pinterest and thought they were so beautiful! These are definitely the epitome of summer in a glass!

I just thought this was true and hilarious :)

Haha so as I talk about being unstylish I'll show you this skirt I just picked up in Old Navy. It's one of the rollover jersey skirts that are so comfortable. The color is SUPER pretty and probably one of the main reasons I got it. I've been working hard so I decided it was time to buy myself another present ;)

My new "gym bag/" I've shown you the contents of my gym bag before (boxing and mma gloves, etc.) but now I'm trading that in for my yoga mat and this no slip towel for Bikram Yoga. I found the towel on sale thankfully because these things can cost $75! That's insane!

I've mentioned before that I want to get a half sleeve tattoo. It is hard for me to verbalize what I want but then I found this! It has the same general idea of what I want but I'd definitely make a few changes to make it more my style. I also wouldn't have it start on my back (I already have a large one on my back) but I love this one :)

I now have this crazy obsession with mason jars. I want to put everything in a mason jar! I just chose this photo because they are so small and adorable and fresh squeezed lemonade sounds amazing right now.  I love the lids too! I have a feeling that if/when I start a business it will definitely feature lots of mason jar packaging :)

OK I think that's all for Fun Friday... on Monday :) Sorry I forgot, been so crazed lately! I confirmed that I'm working Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week too so it'll be another intense weekend. If anyone has any suggestions of ways to keep up energy I'm all ears. I'm going back to a very alkaline heavy diet too, especially since I'm starting Bikram yoga tomorrow too. Hydration will also be key!

I hope you all had a great day! More food tomorrow :)

Sunday Fun Day

Hey everyone! Can you believe the weekend is already over? It totally flew by and that's kind of a bummer but I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my evening and take it from there. Next week is going to be busy again so I guess I just have to take it one day at a time.

The fights were awesome last night, I'm really happy my brother decided to order it! It was definitely a good time and it was good that I got out of the house. I got up this morning and got my pedicure which was nice and relaxing. This afternoon we went to my brother's house again for BBQ leftovers and fun time with Delilah. My sister in law and I took her to the park and she is so funny! She runs around like a crazy lady. She has so much energy!

I'm in for the night now, just trying to cool off. I had some pretty great eats today too :)

For breakfast I decided to go for some avocado toast. 1/2 avocado split among 2 slices gf toast with a few pieces of watermelon. This was super filling!

For a snack I had some strawberries and banana with some leftover (Almost) Raw Crumble on top. This was delicious and super refreshing.

I didn't really have a proper lunch I was kind of snacking throughout the day. I need to get back to eating 5 small meals a day. I think my energy will be better if I can figure out how to keep that going without letting my schedule get the best of me.

For dinner I had a grilled portobello mushroom with some salad and corn on the cob. So good! 

So that was my Sunday! Trying to get back on track this weekend in terms of energy and fitting in all of my meals. Also starting Bikram yoga probably on Tuesday. I'll get some cardio in tomorrow. 

I hope you all had a great weekend! It was nice to have some time off but now it's back to the grind.

Catching Up

Hello friends! I'm back! This past week has been pretty tough for me and I hit a bit of a wall on Thursday. I was just really exhausted during that wedding and it took me all day yesterday to recover. I worked in the studio in the morning and then came home and could barely get out of bed. The combination of long hours, not eating enough good food (fuel) and the horrible heat really took it's toll. I went to bed early last night and woke up feeling pretty refreshed so I started off my day with some no impact cardio. I hadn't worked out all week because of my horrible schedule and it felt good to finally get back to it. Bikram yoga on Monday :)

I have a few random photos I've taken of meals to catch up on so I figured I'd just spend this post catching up. Not reinventing the wheel here but it'll give you an idea of what I've been eating.

Banana with some Raw Buckwheat Cereal and almond milk.

Snacking on some refreshing watermelon.

My post workout breakfast today. Rice cakes with peanut butter. One with banana and cinnamon, one plain. The rest of the banana and some strawberries. So delicious and filling!

Today is going to be brutally hot here. My brother is having a BBQ later and then ordering the fights on PPV so it'll be a fun day and I'll finally be able to relax. Planning on getting a pedicure tomorrow morning because I deserve to pamper myself a bit :) I will definitely have some more food to show you tomorrow as I continue to get back to my normal meals and routine!

I hope you all have a great Saturday!