Feature Friday: Weight Loss Recap

Hey guys!

I have officially lost 8 pounds! That is 2 pounds away from my goal! I’ve been wanted to write a post on my weight loss for a while now, but honestly haven’t had the time until now, whew! I am so excited to share more in-depth details on what I have been up to!

How I started:

It all started at the end of summer when I realized that I did not lose the weight I planned on losing that summer. In fact, I put on a few pounds! It was time to make small changes in my diet.

In the beginning:

I was not seeing results. I cut back on nearly all of my favorite “bad” foods (cookies, brownies, chips & salsa, deep-fried things…) and tried replacing them with “better” foods. This worked for a while but it just wasn’t enough. I began going to the gym daily for that extra push and still didn’t see the results I wanted. Slowly but surly I was losing about a half pound a week.

What I did at the gym:

• Cardio pretty much everyday
• Ab workouts twice a week
• Zumba 🙂

How  I “count calories”:

From what I have learned, they key to counting calories is to keep it as general as possible meaning, DO NOT COUNT EVERY FREAKING CALORIE YOU EAT. That will just make you crazy. Instead, I keep a journal (or sometimes I just make a mental note) with a general guess on my meals. I will set a limit of how many calories I can consume and then I’ll try to follow it. Some meals I’ll go over the calorie limit but that’s okay. I think it’s more important to acknowledge the amount of calories that are in your diet.

What I’ve learned about weight loss:

• Exercising everyday can actually be fun
• Take exercise classes that you enjoy
• Count calories (as mentioned above)
• Be patient, it may take time but it is totally worth the weight wait! 😛

I have learned so much over the past few months that I am so thankful for. Obvisously, I thank you guys for always encouraging me to try harder and be my best or maybe even encouraging me to let go sometimes and be patient. Either way, I am thankful! 😀

Is there anything you could add to these lists??

Feature Friday: Sweet Potatoes!

 Oh my goodness. Is it Friday already? The weeks are flying by and I feel like I cannot catch up. School, homework, studying, gym, blogging, cooking, cleaning, … I am so behind! Thank God it’s Friday because that is my day of the week to catch up on all of those things. Oh yeah, and write a pretty awesome post about my favorite things. 🙂

This week: Sweet Potatoes

Yum!

Sweet potatoes are loaded with nutrition:

• Rich in Vitamin A and C with means this potato is loaded with antioxidants

• Reduces inflammation

• Known to strengthen the immune system

• High in fiber

My favorite ways to eat sweet potatoes:

Roasted…

Under almond butter…

In soup…

And now, IN OATMEAL!

please ignore the hideous photo, I was in a hurry!

A new fall favorite: cooked oatmeal with half of a baked sweet potato, maple syrup and cinnamon.

 

What is your favorite way to eat a sweet potato?

Feature Friday: Appetite for Reduction

This week’s FEATURE FRIDAY is extra special:

 

Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Appetite for Reduction

Source

Recipes I’ve Tried:

• Tempeh Meat Balls

 

• Cool Slaw

 

• Baked Falafel

 

• Cauliflower Pesto Soup

Why I Love This Book:

• Quick and easy recipes that even I can make!

Most of the recipes I’ve made took 30 minutes or less to make, total time!

• Healthy, unique dishes that spice up my packed lunches!

Soup is one of my favorite things to take to school or where ever I need to pack a lunch. She makes soup so simple yet so fancy! 😉

• Homemade salad dressings!

Once upon a time, I put Italian dressing on every salad I ate because I thought that was the only vegan option. Little did I know, dressing is the easy thing to make…ever.

• Hearty meals for a vegan cook book!

Vegan meatballs! Enough said.

I would recommend this book for vegan flirts, people trying to eat healthier, or just lazy busy people like myself.

What is your favorite cook book?

Feature Friday: Almonds

Happy Friday!

How is everyone? Are you back in school? Back to work? Getting ready for Labor Day weekend? Glad that it is Friday?

I love FRIDAYS. I love writing up Feature Fridays each week, they are too fun! I get to relax after work, sip on my spinach blueberry smoothie and get some baking done!

This week’s FEATURE FRIDAY is….

 

A l m o n d s !

Why I love almonds:

• Almonds are high in LDL-Cholesterol which can reduce your risk of heart disease
• High in calories (energy)
• Contains both B12 & protein
• High in magnesium and potassium
• Great source of healthy fat

Lately I have been putting almond butter in my green smoothies…

Favorite ALMOND combinations:

• Almond + Date
• Almond + Cherry
• Almond + Chocolate

Post your favorite recipe using almonds below!

 

Feature Friday: Vegan Food, Good vs. Evil

As a “health food blogger” I find it almost embarrassing to say that there were times in my life that I did not care about health. In the beginning, my reasoning for a vegetarian diet was because I could no longer hurt animals, I just didn’t feel right eating meat. It wasn’t hard to give up, I never liked the taste of any meat.

Favorite childhood accidentally vegan foods:

• Beef stew, with the beef picked out
• Thanksgiving dinner, minus turkey, add masted potatoes x3
• Ramen noodles, oriental flavored with just a pinch of the seasoning (not vegan, but whatev.)
• French fries

Even though it wasn’t until later in my young life that I discovered chicken = chicken, I still choose not to eat meat. This lead to eating more “bad” carbs and processed food. As I became more aware of health and nutrition, I realised that I was doing this all wrong.

If I wanted to go vegan things were going to have to change!

This is why I am dedicating this post to all of my noob vegan readers out there! I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as I did, it’s not fun. Eating a healthy balanced vegan diet is very beneficial.

 Just because you are vegan DOES NOT mean you are eating healthy.

The Bad:

Ramen Noodles

The Good:

Vegan stir fry

The Bad:

Vegan “lunch meat”

The Good:

Tofu & Tempeh

The Bad:

Soy Ice-cream

The Good:

Banana Soft Serve

The Bad:

Boring Salads.

The Good:

Adding nuts, grains, cool in season raw veggies, and homemade dressing to your salad.

The Bad:

Non-homemade smoothies

 

The Good:

Green smoothies!

Is there anything you would add to this list?

Feature Friday: OOAP.

That’s right, OOAP.

It’s the cool way to eat your oats!

(On a plate)

It all happened last week when I was going through my usually breakfast dilemma.

Tofu scramb again? Maybe I’ll have a  green smoothie? But, I want something sweet with chocolate. Do I want oats or do I want pancakes? WHAT TO DO?

Obviously, what to have for breakfast is the most difficult choice of my day. 😉

I came up with a favorite past-time dessert (more on that below) as a perfectly balanced breakfast…

First, I decided to make a chocolate-fudgey version for my favorite oats.

Brownie Batter Oatmeal

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk of choice
• 1/2 cup 1 minute oats
•  1 scoop chocolate hemp protein powder
• 1 T chocolate PB
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t maple syrup

1. Bring milk and water to a boil
2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and reduce heat.
3. Cook for about 4 minutes stirring occasionally

Breakfast didn’t stop there. It still needed something.

Then I made, banana soft serve!

banana soft serve with vanilla and cinnamon

& Ta-da! What a beautiful breakkie. 🙂

Applebee’s Triple Chocolate Meltdown= 810 calories.

Hot Fudge Brownie OOAP= less than 300 calories.

Have you ever had oats on a plate?

 

Feature Friday: Being Bitchy

As I’ve said before, I don’t force blog posts when I’m not in the mood. This week has been insane and I just don’t feel like a long, drawn out post!

Wednesday I worked at the day job from 7-12 then headed right to the new market hoping to have a better week than the first. We arrived an hour late but it was all good. We did better than the first week (which really isn’t saying a lot) and had a fun time doing so. After the 13 hour work day, I was exhausted.

Thursday I was scheduled to work 9-5 at the day job, then got asked to stay until 9 at night. Because I am a push over and can never say no, of course I stayed.

Today I am beat, tired, sore, and stressed out.

I’ve had no time to work out, make good food, or post.

I have every right to act like a whinny cranky bitch! 🙂

Breakfast:

Kiwi, bluebs, nanner with PB and coconut, dried cherries, ‘stashies.

Still open for a few guest posts while I’m gone! Comment below or email me if you are interested!

Feature Friday: Blueberries!

Because I went blueberry picking yesterday, I thought it would be completely necessary to do my first ever Feature Friday on BLUEBS!

Afterall, blueberries are one of my all-time favorites. I like the hard sour bluebs personally! We saw a lot of those on our blueberry picking aventure yesterday. I ended up picking 1.4 pounds of bluebs, and that’s not even accounting the ones I ate!

You would eat that many too if your were in this field!

The Good News:

• Blueberries are ranked as one of the highest antioxidant capacities among all fruits, vegetables, spices and seasonings. (1)
• Some studies show that blueberries have been proved to improve memory. (2)
• Like most fruit, raw blueberries are considered low on the glycemic index.
• One serving of blueberries contains over 30% of your daily value of vitamin C.
• Blueberries are great for the nervous and cardiovascular system.

The Bad News:

• Be aware when not chosing organic. Like most fruit, blueberries are heavily sprayed with pesticides.

What to do with blueberries:

• Stir them into your oatmeal for a sweet breakfast
• Use them in your favorite pancake recipe for something different and colorful…

 

 

 

 

 

GREEN Blueberry Vanilla Pancakes

• Toss them into a salad
• Bake me a pie… (no really, I love pie…) 😉
• Make these awesome blueberry bars for dessert!

Wait, did someone say pie?

 

Blueberry Pie Boatmeal Cake

(inspired by the chocolate covered queen 😉 )

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 small mashed very ripe banana
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 3 tablespoons almond milk
• 1 tablespoon oil (I used safflower)
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• dash of salt

Preheat oven to 380 degrees. In a blow, combine dry ingredients and then add in the wet. Pour in one ramekin. After 18 minutes of baking, turn the oven on broil for about 3 minutes, not longer than 5. When you pull out your super cute blueberry pie, add whatever toppings you want. Personally, I am on a blueberry + coconut kick, but that’s just me.

Have you ever gone blueberry picking?