Hi and Happy National Nut Day (I kid you not)! I always find random food holidays to be amusing, and this morning I found out about today's holiday via Twitter. Cashews and almonds are my favorites! I love to top my yogurt bowls with them or eat nuts with fruit for a snack. On National Nut Day I can't forget about my nut butter obsessions. Peanut butter, almond butter, hazelnut butter.... I never get sick of them! I actually just bought cashew butter to try, and I'm a little afraid of how much I'll probably love it given my fondness of cashews in general. Week 1 Recap: Eats Since talking about my plans to shed a couple of pounds last week, I decided that I'll do a weekly recap as a way to share my journey with you all. I'm happy to say that my first week went really well. ... [Read More]
healthy living
Autumn Slim Down to Find My Ideal Weight
Hi friends! Today's post is about a topic that a lot of people struggle with: finding, reaching, and staying at their "ideal" weight. It feels very personal for me to write about, but I'm doing it because I know a lot of other people have a hard time with it, and why be afraid to be honest and talk about my journey right? My Weight Story I'll spare you the sob story about how life isn't fair, but I've never been a person who can just be thin without eating right and exercising. The reason why I've never been heavy is because I've (thankfully) never eaten a standard American diet, and I've been active my entire life. I'm so blessed to have grown up in a household where healthy living was just a way of life, and I've carried that mentality with me as an adult. I've never been a ... [Read More]
Mixed Green Salad with Blueberries, Goat Cheese & Honeyed Walnut -n- Hemp Seed Clusters
A few weeks ago, I stopped at the Vitamin Shoppe to pick up a few goodies (and buy my first box of Quest bars!), and they had a store party going on. I walked out with a bag of samples to try, which I was obviously excited about. It's the little things in life people! One of the samples in the bag were hemp seeds, which I've heard a lot about but have never tried (at home at least). Today I used my sample and whipped up one awesome salad for lunch. I adapted this recipe from Vegetarian Times, switching around some ingredients and amounts, and making a single serving portion since it was just little ole me. You can view their original recipe here. To make the clusters, I toasted the hemp seeds with walnut pieces, honey and cinnamon. So easy to make, and such a tasty addition to a ... [Read More]
Labor Day Snapshots & National Yoga Month
Happy Labor Day & September! Besides getting some freelance work done, the past 3 days have been all about relaxation and fun for me. Here are some snapshots from my weekend: Food appetizer dinner night: oven baked zucchini fries (more on these later this week!) + heirloom tomato & avocado bruschetta whole wheat apple cinnamon pancakes drizzled with honey: quinoa brown rice bowl with feta, avocado, zucchini & tomatoes: Chipotle veggie burrito bowl (the closest I get to fast food dining!): Fun Yesterday we wanted to go somewhere to enjoy the sun, but also wanted to take Harley girl with us. We decided to go to a nearby spot we've visited a few times this year, called Uvas Reservoir. I really like the reservoir because it's pretty, dogs are allowed, ... [Read More]
Do What you Can, With What You Have, Where You Are
(source) Have you ever seen someone nutty enough to go to the gym with a cast on (or done so yourself?)? Well, in the very unlikely chance that you go to my gym, you recently may have... because I've been back working out at the gym! After 2 weeks of staying away from the gym and doing light at-home workouts due to my foot injury, I decided to try going to the gym. Since I only have light weights at home, I wanted to head to the gym to do some heavier upper body strength training. It certainly has been challenging to come up with exercises where I'm not putting pressure on my foot, but I've been managing to do some pretty good arm/back/ab workouts. There has been a lot of sitting on a bench or stability ball, and it's a bit tough taking it easy... but my improvised workouts and ... [Read More]
Foot Injury Update & My Favorite At-Home Exercises That Put No/Low Pressure on the Feet
Happy, happy weekend everyone! It's been a low-key Saturday for me so far - sleeping in, eating delicious whole wheat oatmeal blueberry banana pancakes (They are seriously the only pancakes I've made recently!), taking Harley for a long walk, and now here I am. Adam got an awesome hiking backpack for his birthday that he wanted to try out, so he went for a hike and I'm here sulking because I can't hike and blogging to you all. Since I'm laying on the couch icing my foot, I figured this is a good time for an injury update. As I briefly mentioned last week, I have been wearing a soft cast on my foot. When I went to the podiatrist, he confirmed that I have sesamoiditis (further explanation of that here), and that one of my sesamoid bones looks a lot worse than the other and is probably ... [Read More]