What I Ate Wednesday.. On Thursday 1/31/13

So I decided that it is acceptable for me to participate in WIAW on Thursday. After all it is my favorite blog day. I just happened to not have the time to get around to it yesterday.. but hey, better late than never!

For breakfast yesterday I had a yogurt parfait. It was vanilla Greek yogurt topped with dried cranberries, 1/4 cup old fashioned oats, slivered almonds, cinnamon and a few white chocolate chips :p

Recently I have been trying to cut back on my meat consumption. Not because I believe all meat is bad and those who eat it should be shunned, I'm just trying to convert to more of a plant based diet. So far I'm liking it. I feel great and refreshed after my meals. For lunch I had a veggie sandwich inspired by the Spinach Veggie Wrap from Jason's Deli that I usually get as a gluten free sandwich. It consisted of pepper jack cheese, spinach, mushrooms, tomato and avocado. It was delicious!

For an afternoon snack I had some cut up veggies and hummus. Peppers, kalmata olives and grape tomatoes go so nicely with spinach hummus :p

Once dinner rolled around I was feeling something quick and easy and not too heavy. I had just finished training so I wasn't in the mood to demolish all my hard work with a heavy meal. I made a veggie fritata. It had spinach, peppers, mushroom, onion, and was topped with a mexican cheese blend and salsa. Heart healthy and delicious!



My late night snack consisted of a scoop of lowfat vanilla fro-yo, a dark chocolate kiss and gluten free a cappucino chip mini muffin I snagged from Holiday Baking Company. It. Was. Perfect.

Hopefully next week I will actually be on time for What I Ate Wednesday! Fingers crossed :)

So It's Been a While..

It took me a while to get back into the blogging spirit but I've done it. I'm here!

Highlights from this past week include;

Going out out for Lauren's birthday, I swear her birthday lasted like two weeks. Not mad about it though ;)  We got the girly friends together and hit a few bars saturday night.

Then a marvelous trip to the gorcery store. Oh how I love grocery shopping. It's actually somewhat strange how much I like grocery shopping.. I found this product called PB2. If you are familiar with it, shame on you for not sharing it with me sooner. It is amazing. It's 85% less calories than regular peanut butter but it tastes exactly like peanut butter and even has the same consistency! It comes in traditional peanut butter flavor and peanut butter chocolate.

 

Along with the PB2 I bought some chia seeds. They are full of fiber and a decent amount of protein so I like to add them into things like oatmeal and smoothies. This morning I had the most filling oatmeal, I couldn't even finish it. The recipe is as follows:

 

Power Packed Oatmeal

-1/2 c old fashioned oats

-1 Tbsp Dried cranberries

-2 Tbsp PB2

-1 Tbsp Chia seeds

-1 c Water

 

Stir together the oats, water, cranberries and chia seeds. Microwave on high for two minutes. Then stir in the PB2 and viola! It reminds me of Peanut butter and jelly with the dried cranberries. Yumzzzz.

 

I also visited one of my favorite gluten free bakeries this week. I enjoy their faccocia bread more than written words can express. Also, since I have a birthday coming up this week, cough cough tomorrow cough cough, I thought it was only right to treat myself to a gluten free lemon cupcake. :p I always bake gluten free cakes for everyone else on their birthdays so on my birthday I prefer to have someone else bake for me. Hence why I ventured on over to Holiday Baking Company.





That's about all the excitement from this week so until next time..
-B.

THE Big Day

Starting at 12:00am today, we have successfully been celebrating the birthday girls big day. It's safe to say that she entered it with a bang as opposed to leaving with one. Lauren greeted the day with a handful of drinks and friends.

 

After we made it make home and got at least a few hours of sleep, I then had to get up for a hair appointment. At first I was dreading it simply because I was so tired but afterwards it was completely worth it. I love getting my hair done but what girl doesn't. I went to an AVEDA salon and reaped the 95% organic ingredients :) Lately I've been pulling a little bit of burgundy through my bangs and a little on the under layers on the sides of my head. I'm loving it.

 

I had training today and it went well. It consisted of a lot of lunges and push ups. Not mad about it though! Lauren and I met up with her grandparents for a little cookie cake and ice cream (for the gluten free gal right here) and then grabbed sushi at our favorite joint in town. YUM. We did it in a backwards order but it was all still equally as delicious!

Needless to say it was a fantastic day. Now to get ready for hump day :)

 

 



It's Yonanas!

I have successfully made it through yet another Monday! Today honestly flew by. I think this has something to do with the fact that I was soooo excited all day today because tonight we have a celebration taking place. Lauren will be 21 once the clock strikes midnight!! And how are we going to greet this once in a lifetime occasion? Midnight margaritas, of course :)

This weekend was definietly eventful. First with meeting up with a couple friends on Friday night. Then, Saturday, Lauren and I spent the WHOLE day together. That is a rarity but it was oh so fantastic. We started out relaxing with a little PLL (which we finally finished last night! Side note- Mona is a crazy chatch) and then went to the mall in efforts to find something to wear to the wedding that night. We got incredibly lucky because apparently Saturday was one of the biggest mark down sale days ever. I walked away with a new dress and earrings for about $35! Here's how the outfit turned out..


After dinner tonight (which consisted broccoli and quinoa pasta, peppers, chicken, feta and tomato sauce) I was craving something sweet. I remembered that one of my friends had bought me this frozen yogurt maker for christmas called Yonanas.


The concept is that you put frozen bananas and other fruits in it and push down on the little lever and viola, out comes the 100% fruit yogurt. No milk or anything necessary, just frozen fruit. I was skeptical at first because I really didn't believe that just fruit could have the total consistency and flavor such as regular frozen yogurt. I was wrong. It's amazing! I used frozen bananas (reccomended that the bananas are peeled prior to freezing. My fingers almost froze off while trying to pry the peel off of the frozen bananas) and a mix of frozen berries. It was SO good. The bananas really enhance the texture and make the yogurt thicker with more of the yogurt like consistency.


I topped my creation with a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter (let's be real, crunchy > creamy any day) and some old fashioned oats. What excites me most about this is that it is a perfectly acceptable breakfast as well as dessert! Or any meal for that matter. And no added sugars or preservatives!

Cheers to the Weekend!

For the first time in a while I have the ENTIRE weekend off. I can't begin to describe how glad I am. This wasn't a hoorible week by any means but it definitely had it's flaws. For instance, I had to hand over the $1400 for the damages to the car I had a little run in with that I mentioned earlier this week. Kissing a hard earned chunk of money like that away is enough to put anyones day in a tizzy. Not to mention I had much better plans for that money. Needless to say, I wasn't quite myself today. I had a little "money noise" going on as Bethenny Frankle would say. It made my wick a little shorter when dealing with customers at work (who were abnormally unpleasant today I might add). I am almost always overly friendly to customers at work but that wasn't enough today. I work at a bank and one customer was asking why it was necessary to sign a reciept for a cash transaction. I simply stated that her signature was just authorizing the transaction and verifying that everything was OK with it. That wasn't enough for her. She argued that her transaction slip with written instructions should be enough to "authorize" (insert her air quotation marks here) her transaction. Unsure what else to say at this point without repeating myself again I said it was just our company's policy. That comment landed my name into someones ear at our corporate office from a phone in complaint. -__- People sucked today. Hard. As you can probably gather, I am entirely too ready for this weekend.

Tonight I'm headed out to a pub with a few friends from the gym for a birthday party. It should be a good time. What I'm really excited for though is tomorrow. Lauren and I are going to a wedding for my former boss(es). They are such fun people and I'm so glad to get to be a part of their big day! I am always ready for a night full of fun, drinks, dancing and friends. Of course Lauren and I must continue our journey through PLL before the festivities tomorrow night. Unfortunately we couldn't get caught up before the season premier so we are cramming in as many episodes in every spare moment together as possible. On the bright side, we have the premier recorded and can watch when we do get caught up. So fear not, we won't die.

I officially registered for the half marathon yesterday! I am so excited. Training has been going well thus far. My body is slowly but surely adjusting. I've made it to the 6.5 mile mark in my training. Thats almost half way there! Yeee :) Saturdays are my longer running days so wish me luck for tomorrow!

Cheers to the weekend, y'all :)

Back on my A game

The past couple weeks I have been ridiculously sluggish compared to my norm. Though I was going to the gym regularly and still sleeping on the same schedule my body was used to, I felt tired and weak. When I went to training last week my arms gave out in the middle of a push up! Pathetic. I'm not sure if my immune system was too busy attacking my joints and forgot to attack a bug that was making me sick or if I was just emotionally drained and it was physically exhausting me (probably a combination of the two) but needless to say I am VERY glad to be feeling better :)

Last night I had training and it went really well! We started off doing squats working our way up to 155 lbs and then back down again. Then we did some rowing exercises and a few other upper body exercises. It wasn't easy by any means but the simple fact that I wasn't ready to just fall over and zonk or that I didn't have feelings of hate toward my trainer (like last week) was rewarding. I think it's safe to say I'm out if my body's little funk :)

After training last night I refueled with Jason's Deli. Mom and I met up to grab dinner and catch up. Jason's Deli is one of my favorite places to grab a quick bite to eat. One of the few places that I am able to get a delicious gluten free sandwich. And did I mention that they have soft serve ice cream when you dine in? Game on.

Today consists of work and running. Lauren and I have a wedding to attend on Saturday and I really need to figure out what I'm going to wear. It seems all I have is little black dresses which somehow doesn't seem appropriate. What does one wear to a winter wedding? Hmm. Ill have to ponder this while I finish up my lunch sipping on this lovely.. :)

Paying for the Consequences

Happy Monday.. Sort of. I have a serious case if the Mondays today. I happened to get into a little fender bender the other day. On New Years actually. Such a great way to start out the year, right? I just received the amount that will be necessary to cover the damages. Brace yourself. It's $1400! Yikes. I've been saving up to go back to school so it looks like this will be consuming those funds for the time being. -__-

Aside from this little setback, my weekend was pretty swell. I helped out at my younger cousins birthday party on Saturday. It was a house full of excited 14 year old girls. We did full make overs and they turned out great! The girls came over not knowing what they were getting themselves into. Once they arrived, all the mirrors in the house were covered and the tables were covered in beauty supplies. The kitchen was transformed into a nail bar and set up in the living room was a hair styling and make up station run by yours truly. It was a ball. The girls had a blast too! It reminded me of how much I love beautifying people and made me that much more eager to start cosmetology school at AVEDA. In turn, that's why I'm so depressive about this $1400 set back that I will have to re-save to finally get to attend school. Plus, $1400 is a hefty chunk of money. Sunday was basically just a day of errands and relaxation. The weather had me craving a nap all day long so I laid low after my errands. Lauren's dad had us over for white chicken chili for dinner. It was magnificent! Perfect comfort food for the gray day, not to mention very nutritious as well :)

Today after work I'll be hitting the gym to run a few miles and then coming home to cram in as much PLL as possible before the new season kick off tomorrow! Woo hoo :) Then resting up for all that tomorrow holds aka training Tuesday. Or in other words, death. Just kidding, I enjoy the intense work out. More so once it's over though. Ha!

Training Torture

Last night I had training and I am SO feeling it today. I really like my personal trainer but I must say, for the first time ever, I left the gym feeling like he was the enemy last night. Like I absolutely hated him. I guess that means he was doing his job though. Ha! We worked on arms and I felt so incredibly weak the entire time. Partially because my upper body could stand to gain some more muscle but also because I was surrounded by a weight room full of body building meat heads! It's slightly humiliating trying to lift my baby weights around such proficient athletes. Though I will say, regardless of how much I did or didn't lift last night, I know I had a great work out and did great for me. It wouldn't have been satisfactory for one of those body building monsters but for me it was awesome and full of improvement and that is all that matters because I am not there to prove anything to anyone other than myself. As long as I keep seeing progress then I will continue to stay motivated :)

Moving on, I can't believe it is already Friday! This week FLEW! I think that probably has to do with having the holiday earlier in the week and not having to work. Not mad about it though. Speaking of work, I made it to the top 10 of a company wide competition which landed my name in a drawing to win either $100 or $50. Guess who won the $100? THIS GIRL. Happy Friday to me! Woot woot :)

Nothing too crazy going on tonight. Just meeting up for dinner at Piada with an old friend from high school. I absolutely love going to Piada simply because there is a variety of fresh and vibrant vegetables to choose from. I get the salad when I go there because it's basically the only gluten free option they have but I can't say I've ever left unsatisfied! And the lobster bisque is to die for. After dinner I will be commencing in a girls night with Lauren :) There will be face masks, nail polish, Pretty Little Liars and ice cream in our near future. Sounds like a solid night to me!

Happy weekend y'all :)

WIAW 1/2/13

For some reason I absolutely did NOT want to crawl out of my cozy bed this morning. Maybe that reason would be because Lauren and I were up late watching Pretty Little Liars last night.. Yeah. That's gotta be why. Ha! Netflix may very well be the death of me. I grew up without Internet or cable at my house so I've never really been hooked on television shows but here recently Lauren has turned me on to PLL. It's getting out of control, really. I've begun relating everything to that show. I can't imagine a day without at least one episode in it. It's sick. It's twisted. I love it. And luckily, the new season starts up next Tuesday! Woot woot :) Since I just started watching about a week ago, I still have a ton to catch up on before I can watch on Tuesday. It looks like more tiresome mornings are to come in my near future until I am caught up!

After I finally got my tush out if bed this morning I made my way down stairs to make breakfast. I am a firm believer that if I don't get breakfast, the day will be ruined and the world may very well end. Today I made a turkey, spinach and pepper jack cheese omelet with a side of mixed fruit. Naturally, I doused my omelet in hot sauce. It's like that commercial. I really do out that s*** on everything.

For lunch I made tuna salad with dried cranberries, slivered almonds, apples and cinnamon. I made a slight variation from usual tuna salad and have been using Nayonnaise. It's vegan Mayonnaise. I LOVE it. I prefer that to regular mayonnaise hands down. Not only is it better for your body by not having any animal byproducts but it also has a fraction of the fat and calories. Win win? I say yes! With my tuna salad I had Nut Thins crackers and a clementine. Very satisfactory.

Since I worked today I needed a quick and easy afternoon snack that was as equally delicious as it was efficient. I went for a Peanut Toffee Buzz Cliff bar. Toffee? Peanut? 'Nuff said. I love these things. As I am currently in training for a half marathon, these keep my body energized to pull through the rest of my work day and my long run at the gym before I get home for dinner. This particular Cliff bar even has caffeine for an extra charge of energy :)

For dinner I had left overs from yesterday which consisted of pork and sour kraut with apple slices from the slow cooker. Since it was New Years you know I had to make some sort of "lucky" food.. Regardless of how it made our house smell.. Don't get me wrong. Love sour kraut but it's aroma isn't the most desirable.

My evening snack while I continued on the PLL grind was a cup of hot chocolate made with Silk Almond Milk and a couple Hershey's dark chocolate kisses. A perfect way to end a long and cold day snuggled up on the couch.

Hello blog world :)

Hey there :) I'm Bailey. A health conscious and fitness oriented gal. When I'm not working or working out, I'm normally found in the kitchen. Cooking, experimenting, and tasting. I grew up in a small town but now I live with one of my very dear friends, Lauren, and her handsome puppy, Winston. Growing up it was always just my mom and I so she and I have a very strong relationship. I have a puppy named Molly whom I love but unfortunately can't live with me. She is too big for our condo and even a diet couldn't bring her down to the 35 lb weight limit. She stays with my mom for the time being.

I've always been a healthy eater but my true interest for fitness and nutrition developed during my junior year of highschool. I was diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis and also battled a handful of other autoimmune disorders. My joints eventually became so inflamed that I could no longer bend my fingers, move my wrists or even stand to pick up my back pack. It took months to figure out what was going wrong in my body so in the pass time I took steroids to ease the inflamation. It was a functional temporary fix but I realized the medication was just masking my symptoms, not fixing them. Along with my stiff joints came digestive problems, inflamed and irritated eyes, poor blood circulation, keloids, hair loss, skin out breaks, and the list goes on. After a while on the steroids my mood became angry and I began to gain weight.

I learned that I could alleviate some of my symptoms by changing my diet and exercise. I began by cutting out wheat and gluten. I also cut out dairy and refined and processed foods as well as night shade plants (also known as peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant and a few other things notorious for feeding the fire for arthritus). In the beginning of my diet change I was a lot more strict until I started to get things under control. I am now gluten free and try to stear clear of processed foods. I do however have a very large sweet tooth so I don't take to well to no sugar. All good things in moderation though, right?

Upon changing my diet, I also invested in a gym membership. Exercise completely changed my outlook on life and helps me to continue to feel great. Though things such as weather and lack of sleep and stress can trigger my immune system to go haywire, I find that staying active keeps everything balanced in a sense. Diet and exercise have made it possible to get off and stay off of medication and I plan to keep it that way!

This blog will be a journey through my experiments, documenting my healthy lifestyle with infusions of fun and fashion along the way. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or Instagram. No facebook as of now and/or maybe ever. We'll see. ;)