Simple Pleasures

April 1, 2013 by

Morning all! Happy Easter Monday! The weekend is still continuing over here, which is a nice treat!

Hopefully everyone had a marvelous weekend. It’s been a little while since we chatted, but I simply needed a little mini vacay from the blog. Instead, I had a weekend filled with some simple pleasures to occupy my time.

baked banana oatmeal

I may or may not have started each morning with baked banana oats. They taste so dang delicious after hanging out in the fridge overnight.

My weekend ended up pretty low key. With lots of friends taking finals soon, along with a delightful migraine and sore throat, things remained pretty quiet around here. Although I wasn’t doing anything too memorable, it was still rather enjoyable.

Especially when the days entail workouts, delicious eats, puppies, family time, coffee, and more simple pleasures like… [Read more...]

{29 Comments }

What I Ate Wednesday

March 6, 2013 by

Hello and good morning!!

The day started off with a lovely morning spin ride while catching up on Downton Abbey, of course. I look forward to morning rides where I can indulge in this show, almost finished with season 2 now!

Another thing making me smile today, the fact that it’s What I Ate Wednesday. The day where we all get a peek behind the scenes and share the delicious things we’re eating. Getting recipe inspiration from others is something I totally need right now. I’ve been neglecting spending much time in the kitchen, especially since my appetite seems to be missing today.

Moving on to the food portion for today…

Breakfast:

buckwheat bake

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{27 Comments }

Time For You

February 26, 2013 by

Morning friends, and happy Tuesday to you all!

How was your Monday? I feel like the day just flew on by. If this is how the rest of the week will go, I will happily accept that fact.

Today, I want to chat busyness. There seems to be a “busy epidemic” going on, where we all feel the need to put too much on our plates, stress ourselves out until we are living completely unbalanced lives. Therefore, we are experiencing far more than a healthy level of stress.

banana oat bran

{ A stress free Breakfast is my favorite way to start the day… Oat bran, sun warrior, banana, cinnamon, and coconut butter }

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{45 Comments }

That Girl

February 7, 2013 by

We all know “that girl”. You know, the girl people project their judgements on. Possibly because she acts in ways you find odd, maybe you wish you had certain attributes or confidence “that girl” has.

We’re human, we sometimes judge others. Though it isn’t the best quality, it certainly happens to the best of us.

Have you ever been that girl who commits the very things you swear drive you crazy? I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to this, at least at one time. We may not even realize it happening. Call it being a living contradiction, or just being human.

It’s easier to judge others than it is to judge ourselves. Our ego wants to avoid feeling uncomfortable, so we turn to judgement. Who are we to judge when we all in some way are that girl…

I know I’ve been that girl…

Salad

 

Who loves salads (and is picky when ordering them)…

quinoa

 

Who eats Breakfast for Dinner…multiple times per week.

starbucks

Who claims to run on caffeine.

Who loves putting on and wearing makeup.

buckwheat

{ Buckwheat on the regular }

Who eats the same Breakfast almost daily.

Who claims sleep is the best beauty essential, but barely gets 6 hours a night.

roasted kale

{ roasted cauliflower and kale chips, with coconut oil, nutritional yeast, and dill }

Who loves kale chips.

DSC03394

Who takes selfies…with my caffeine.

wine

{ fine…cheap wine sometimes finds its way into my life too }

Who claims being classy is drinking expensive wine or vodka.

spin

Who loves to exercise.

381870790789059317_190311299

{ best dark chocolate. ever. oh goodness. }

Who likes eating chocolate when feeling emotional.

socca and veggies

Who likes likes eating healthy.

That girl is me.

Yep, I’m all these things and if you’d like to judge me for being that girl, go right ahead, we’re all entitled to our opinions;)

In what way are you “that girl”?

Do you ever find yourself committing the same actions you’ve judged others doing?

Enjoy this wonderful day!

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Everything Happens for a Reason

January 22, 2013 by

Everything happens for a reason.

I’m a real sucker for this statement. I use it time and time again.

We go through certain situations in life for a reason. Every hardship we go through, we learn a lesson in the end. Even if it isn’t clear in the beginning, when we are aware and willing to learn, we will find a reason.

Everyone goes through tough times throughout their lives.

glazed tempeh and roasted veggies

{ Dinner last night; glazed tempeh, roasted veggies }

Sometimes, the answer is simple like getting under the covers a few hour earlier and get a good night sleep.

Other times, the answer is more difficult and we have to struggle to get there.

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what I ate wednesday

January 16, 2013 by

This past week has been a rather pleasant week. It kind of feels it should be Friday but alas it’s not. That doesn’t make it any less great though.

After a rough last week, I’ve come through the other side I realize I was being quite ridiculous with it all. I was really vague on why I was feeling this way, but it is good news. Well for me at least, I’m sure others could care less. After a few years of no monthly cycle, it has finally returned.

Enough about that for now, let’s move on to the food. After all, it’s WIAW.

Breakfast -

oat bran

I returned to my old staple, oat bran. Oat bran, chia seeds, hemp seeds, banana, peanut flour on top.

My naturopath mentioned trying out L-Glutamine to help repair some of the digestive problems I’ve been having so I finally got around to picking some up. Well, I tried it out and ended up feeling kind of weird after it. Not sure why. It was such an odd feeling! Has anyone else experienced this?

Lunch -

socca

Socca, coconut oil, nutritional yeast, zucchini, asparagus, hummus, avocado.

It’s been a while since I’ve had socca and I just so happened to get in a new shipment of garbanzo bean flour from iherb, so of course I had to make socca as part of my Lunch.

Snack -

DSC02847

Oats, protein powder, coconut flour, stevia, and pumpkin.

There was a weaning bowl of pumpkin in my fridge, so I decided to use the rest of it to make one of my favorite pumpkin cookie dough bowls.

Quick, easy, and a satisfying snack before my next meal.

Dinner -

dinner bowl

Turkey, zucchini white sweet potato, green beans, dill, and creamy tahini sauce (except I halved it and used sunflower seed butter since I don’t like tahini).

I had plans to try out a new Dinner, but I got home late so I just threw together a mish-mash of left over things I had from the weekend.

Combined for a random, but delicious bowl for Dinner.

My evening snack will be my new vegan muffin with coconut frosting and almond butter to finish it up. The lighting is unfortunate at night, so no pictures for you.

 Do you use L-Gluatime? Have you experienced any side effects?

Any Dinner recipes you’d like to link up? I need some new ideas to try out!

Do you snack before bed? It’s a must for me.

Hope you’re having a fantastic Wednesday!

{59 Comments }

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

October 16, 2012 by

This week I’ve learnt not to sweat the small stuff.

I had a lot of goals I wanted to accomplish this year, however not all of them were completed. It feels like time has passed by so quickly. Disappointing feelings started to sink into my mind as I realized I hadn’t made certain goals a reality.

So what could I do to turn these negative feelings around? The worst thing to do is so allow the negative feelings to take over our minds. I accepted the fact that I hadn’t accomplished the bigger goals I had hoped to.

* Dinner last night was a simple broccoli slaw stir-fry; made with broccoli slaw, tempeh, nutritional yeast, sunflower seed butter coconut oil, cumin, zucchini and leftover millet. *

Allow yourself to feel upset and frustrated, and then work on turning those feelings around. Let go and release the negative energy. Don’t become too involved in them. Begin looking at other areas in life, and realize how much progress you’ve made in other ways.

For me, I’ve come a long way from where I was in the past and I’m proud of that. Accepting where we are in life right now and celebrating the place we are in, at this moment. The small things aren’t worth the stress, anxiety, and disappointment we can make ourselves feel. It’s a small thing and doesn’t need to take over our lives and thoughts. Don’t let negativity rule your mind.

* A pumpkin spice bar I later coated in my favourite raw cashew butter *

Also make sure these are goals you do want to accomplish. Sometimes our goals change and that is not a bad thing. If you are dreading completing something, its probably not right for you. Goals should get you excited and energized! It still takes hard work to complete them, but that’s the beauty of a goal. It can be anything your heart desires. Not something you think you “should do“.

Maybe the time isn’t right for those other goals we have planned, but its never too late for those things to happen. Its important for us to accept where we are in life right now. Celebrate where we are while we are moving toward where we would like to go.

 [Source]

Assess our goals and allow us to accept the things we didn’t get to accomplish. It’s important to pick ourselves back up and take the next steps so we can accomplish goals that are important to us.

Its okay to not complete every goal you had intentions of completing. Just make sure to keep your head held high and realize that despite the fact not everything happened the way you thought it would, you are a fabulous and beautiful person just the way you are.

What are some of your goals?

Do you have any tricks to get yourself out of a negative funk?

Do you tend to sweat the small stuff?

Hope your having a fabulous day with your fabulous self!

{29 Comments }

HLS Highlights Day 1

August 24, 2012 by

Good Morning and Happy Friday! I can’t believe the weekend is here already. Crazy talk.

Get ready for a picture heavy post!

I’m really happy I  made the decision to head over to Boston on Thursday night. As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I quickly ate a dinner I had bought at the airport and passed out, since I had been up since 4.

* I packed little pre-portioned bags mixed with oats, chia seeds, and flax seeds so I could have them for quick breakfasts in the morning. I just ran water through the coffee maker in our hotel room so the hot water could soak up in the oats overnight, and I just picked up a few bananas at the hotel so I could add them in as well. Served with a little protein frosting on top. And it was perfect fuel for the morning. *

I woke up quite early, and decided to get in a little movement, since I had plans to take the next 3 days off. I just did a quick pilates workout in the hotel (I’m still doing the low intense exercise thing at the moment).

I knew there were a few events planned for Friday, and I really wanted to go to both the Flour Bakery meetup and the Whole Foods lunch. I talked to a few of my blogging friends and ultimately decided to attend the Whole Foods lunch, we all met in the lobby to make the walk on over. It was about a 15 minute walk, where I made the bad decision to wear wedges (I just hate flat shoes!).

* (From Katie) - the group headed to Whole Foods *

When we got to Whole Foods I was SO excited, like so pumped up it was borderline sad. I’ve never been to a Whole Foods before, since the closest one is over in Vancouver. Come on WF, get yourself over to Victoria!

Anyways, after I finished jumping up and down with joy, we made our way to the salad bar, even though I really just wanted to look around.

* Amy, Min, Katie, and Me – Photo from Min*

I met Amy and Min for the first time and were such lovely and sweet girls! It was such a pleasure to meet you guys:)

This is where my first bound of anxiety came up about food choices. I looked over the items, and started freaking out about certains foods, wondering whether this or that was cooked in oil, how much, all blah eating disorder nonsense. I think I was probably the last one to finish putting my salad together since I was procrastinating adding anything “new” to it. Eventually, I decided, and ate away happily. It ended up being delicious!

* My first Whole Foods salad; with tofu, romaine, kale, roasted zucchini and red peppers, cucumber, edamame, and hummus *

The company was the best part, obviously!

After our meal, Meg, Chelsea, Lindsay, and I decided to walk on over to Newbury Street and do a little shopping. We obviously had to stop off in Lululemon.

Back at the hotel, we all made sure to check in and pick up our swag! It was wonderful.

Tons of samples along with new Reebok shoes! I was pretty pumped about getting a pair of these babys. I went back up to my room to unpack the swag, snack on an apple and a homemade protein bar I brought along, and get ready for dinner that evening.

We didn’t know what the food situation would be like at the cocktail party later on, so a group of us decided to go on over to Figs and try out their dinner. It was a really cute, very small restaurant. Where they made amazing looking pizzas.

I looked at the menu and I’ll be honest in saying my dinner choice was based out of fear of ordering something different and “unsafe”.

I stuck with a salad, dressing on the side, and grilled chicken. I can’t judge the restaurant based on the food choices I made, I mean does a plain salad with grilled chicken taste much different between each restaurant? Probably not.

Everyone else said their meals were delicious though! So, I take that as a good sign.

Poor Heather though, they didn’t have anything vegan so she couldn’t enjoy a meal with us! Anyways, I ended up having a minor (major) freakout over the fact that the chicken was cooked in oil and I ended up asking the server about it. After talking to her and the others, I decided to eat it anyways, even though my head screamed at me to not finish it.

It was so much fun to actually get to sit down with all these ladies and talk about everything. We all got along famously and had such a blast. I knew that we would all connect right away, and we basically blabbed the whole time and I just adored getting to know each of these ladies better. They are all such amazing and kind-hearted people!

After we finished up dinner, we were all set to head back to the hotel for the Cocktail party. More on that next! This is getting way too long!

Do you have a Whole Foods where you live? Favourite things to buy there?:)

What do you usually order when you go out to eat? Or does it depend where you go?

Hope you all have fun plans for the weekend!

{35 Comments }

WIAW #16

July 11, 2012 by

Hello darlings! Happy Wednesday to you all!

Can I get a holla for What I Ate Wednesday time? Oh, you are too cool for that? My bad.

I ended up waking up about 20 minutes before my alarm and thought why not just get up and get moving. So, I drove on over to the gym earlier than normal and happened to forget the gym doesn’t open until 5:30.

Is that not so late for a gym to open? I feel like it is…

So I just sat in my car and sang to the lyrics of some songs…most of which I got wrong, until the gym finally opened. I hope no one saw me, because I’m pretty sure I looked quite awesome.;)

All being said, it was a great class! I love every minute of spin.

8 – Breakfast:

I was super hungry after class, so was glad I had pancakes I made the night before in the fridge waiting for me. Greek yogurt on top.

This pancake is totally scrumptious, especially when dipped in coconut butter!

After, I had to attend my therapy session, which went well. I’ll discuss more about this later. Whenever I finish up therapy, I take about 15-20 minutes and just walk around the area where the office is. It’s a very beautiful place, right along the water. I find it really relaxing to just take a break and absorb everything that we had discussed over in our session.

11:30 – Lunch:

For lunch I heated up a leftover turkey burger with roasted cauliflower and asparagus. I had a side of tomato paste mixed with stevia, and a little ball of goat cheese.

Later, I went to the mall and got my passport photos taken. Man, do those pictures blow. I really dislike that you can’t smile. It’s not a great look on anyone.

Once snack time came around, I was craving some simplicity.

3 – Snack:

Ezekiel bread with a coating of almond butter and a side of fresh blueberries.

I quickly ran to the grocery store, as I looked in my fridge and it looked pretty bare.

Naturally, next called for some dinner.

5 – Dinner:

Sorry for the extremely ugly photo…I just roasted up some leftover kale, tempeh, broccoli, and asparagus, with another round of a dressing made with avocado, hummus, and nutritional yeast.

Fresh and delicious.

8 – Snack:

Post dinner noshing included a bowl of coconut pumpkin cookie dough and a side of the Bachelorette.

I’m going to try and get to bed early tonight, since I’ve been staying up far too late the past couple of nights. I can’t wait to snuggle up in bed.

What’s you favourite meal of the day?
If you watch the Bachelorette, what did you think of her final two choices?!? Discuss.

{42 Comments }

Smile with Intention

July 10, 2012 by

Good morning babes, how is your day going so far?

Last night, I got a glorious 10 hours of sleep last night and it was so needed! Ah, feeling refreshed today.

I awoke with a large craving for coconut, so luckily I had some added into my morning breakfast bowl.

I changed up the usual egg whites oats this morning by using 1/4 cup buckwheat hot cereal, 3 tablespoons coconut flour, chia seeds, egg whites, cinnamon, and peanut flour paste. The coconut flour made it taste cakey. So delicious!!

When I add toppings to oats I always savour those for the last bite.

Next up, my sister and I headed to Starbucks for a little sister chat. It was nice to be able to catch up a bit.

Okay, I really need to buy a coffee maker. I think with all the money I spend on my love I could have bought 17 coffee makers buy now, but I always say I can’t afford one. It just seems like it would be an expensive purchase at one time, even though I spend tons of mula on starbucks. What to do, what to do?

I kind of wish it was okay to have my place smell like coffee, I just love that smell. That would be rad. But then no one would probably come over.

Later on, after the day so quickly passed me by! I made myself a quick and delicious dinner.

Kale chips, roasted cauliflower, chickpeas, served with a side of the best and ripest avocado (I can’t stop eating avocados lately!), also had a small microwaved sweet potato on the side.

These were cooked to my perfection. Love when it turns out that way.

********

Have you noticed that such a simple statement of the face can make such an impact on the day? You know how some think you “fake it until you make it”, well sometimes that really works. As soon as I put a happy face on my mentality changes for the better. How I present myself on the outside reflects how I am feeling on the inside.

(Source)

Smiling can be contagious, it can improve your day and maybe even make someone else’s day more bright. Not saying that just by smiling it will be a life changing experience, but you do have the ability to make your day better.

When you are a positive person and send out positive statements you will receive positive feedback in your life.

(Source)

If I wake up in a grumpy mood, something that fills my love tank is to just put on a smile and even go out and buy the persons coffee behind me in the line. You’d be surprised how good it feels to do a good deed, such as this little one.

Some people wake up in the morning and instantly want the day to come to an end, why not celebrate life with such a simple thing. Just a smile from a person can instantly improve my day.

(Source)

Smile everyday, smile as often as you can. It makes everyday more beautiful to look at.

What’s one thing that made you smile today?

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