Overnight oats make a reappearance

I had completely forgotten about overnight oats! Once I remembered them I was extremely excited to eat them in the morning. They are raw, depending on the oat you get, and vegan!

Overnight Oats:

1.5 cups raw oats
2 cups almond milk or other milk (I used homemade vanilla almond milk)
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tsp agave

Mix all ingredients and put in the fridge overnight. You will wake up to delicious and raw oatmeal. Put your extras in the oatmeal in the morning. I added some maple syrup, walnuts, banana, and strawberry.

Sorry for the bad pictures, they looked better through the tiny screen on my camera ;)


There are some days where you just don't want to exercise, and some where you probably don't even want to get out of bed. Today I just had zero motivation to run outdoors. I even tried to rearrange my whole week schedule so that today could be my rest day. Instead I made a compromise and ran on the treadmill. It was a lot easier on my tender shins and gave me some time to catchup on daytime television :) . The time went by surprisingly fast since I wasn't watching the clock on the treadmill, but the distance instead. I ran 4.5 miles in 42 minutes then did a leg workout.

Squats, 4 sets of 10 at 105 lbs
Lunges, 3 sets of 20 with a 35 lb plate overhead
Step ups, 3 sets of 20 with two 25 lb dumbells

Now I am currently icing my legs, will do a quick stretch, make a smoothie, cater to my amazing husband, then head off to work. Wash, rinse and repeat :)

Hope everyone is having a great day and looking forward to what will be a spectacular weekend!

Protein

One of the most prevalent, and annoying, questions I get when it comes to a raw vegan diet, is  "where do  you get all your protein from?". I get it, everyone is so hyped about protein, what with paleo and other low carb diets, but as North America is the nation with the highest protein intake, doesn't it also make sense to look at why we are also the nation with the highest obesity and heart disease rates?

We don't need THAT much protein people. When I was doing my heavy lifting, I thought I needed about 150 grams of protein a day ( I weigh between 145-160, it ranges) and I am positive my body wasn't doing anything good with that much protein. I was eating paleo for a very long time and not only was it the worst for my stomach but it was also the worst for my energy levels. Paleo for me + lots of coffee to function. I understand that everybody has what works for them, and I am in no way promoting one form of eating over the other, just insisting that you do your research, and understand that what might work for you wont always work for your friend.

Case in point: my friend K and I both started training hard around the same time and both adopted the paleo way of eating. Within about 3-4 months she was JACKED, and I don't mean little biceps, I mean you could see the muscles of her back ripping through her shirt. And I just stayed the same. The coffee affected my skin, my hair was shitty and straw-like, and I had countless urinary tract infections.

It took me a few months and a few mistakes later to figure out what worked for me, and that meant going back to my roots. Veganism and raw food.

I really went on a tangent there, sorry. What I meant to show you was this:

Easily digestible and amazing protein. No more taking protein from another animals breast milk that creates a completely acidic environment inside of you.
After you workout, yes, its recommend to have protein, but your body can only process so much at one meal. So having 30 + grams is kind of a waste, you'll literally pee it out. And the more you give your body to do after a workout, the less time and energy it has to do important things like keep up your immune system and recover from the workout you just did.

So after your workout, give your body something easy and healthy to help it make you stronger and recover faster.

Todays Eats:

Breakfast: 1 banana + strawberries + raw almond butter
Snack: smoothie ( protein, spinach, cherries, vega sport, pollen, honey)
Lunch:Kelp noodle salad with hemp hearts (picture following)
Snack: 1/2 cup almonds + (carrot, cucumber, parsley, ginger juice)
Dinner: Green salad with cucumber, pepper, almonds, hemp seeds, and lemon shallot dressing
Snack: 2 flourless cashew cookies (not raw)

Kelp Noodle Bowl:

My food presentation skills are getting a bit better eh? Or worse...

Lola! How did you get in here?!

Hope everyone is having a great day! I am feeling amazing today, especially for having the two greatest dogs in the world, the most amazing husband, who would support me no matter what even if it made him poor, and the best parents, because having your mom as your best friend is a pretty great thing!

:)

I made some more zucchini hummus today, and it was amazing, in all its garlic glory.

Zucchini Hummus:

1 peeled and chopped zucchini
1/2 cup tahini
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp sea salt
pinch cayene
1/4 cup lemon juice, about 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves

Puree all ingredients in food processor and enjoy.

Went on a run today in Moore Park cemetery and got really lost. I only went down one straight road but managed to screw it up on the way back. Thank goodness for iPhone GPS. Took me 30 minutes to get out of there but got a nice suntan out of it.

Todays Eats:

Breakfast: banana  + almond butter
Snack: green smoothie with sunwarrior protein
Snack 2: peppers with zucchini hummus
Dinner: large spinach salad with mixed veg and basil vinaigrette
Post workout meal: bowl full of slightly de-thawed cherries

Todays workout:
6 km jog, intended 4, but ran 2 extra to get out
Bench press at 75 lbs (3 sets of 10), Pushups ( 3 sets of 10)
Seated row narrow grip at 70 lbs ( 3 sets of 10), DB bent over row 25 lbs (3 sets of 10)
Then some extra shoulder stabilizer work

All in all a great and fun day in the sun, could have done with some more Husband time though. Hope everyone else also had a good day!

Poop on a spoon

I made some amazing chocolate ganache today, unfortunately it looks like poop in the pictures, so don't judge :)

Poop on a spoon, but seriously, just try it.


Raw Chocolate Ganache:

1/4 cup raw cacao, not cocoa, powder
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut oil

Mix well and freeze for 15 minutes. Enjoy with a spoon!!!

Todays Eats:

Breakfast: organic banana + almond butter
Snack: smoothie with sunflower sprouts
Lunch: zuchetti with pesto, sprouts, and bell pepper
Pre-workout: 1 orange + few cashews + seaweed snack
Dinner: rice + spinach and broccoli sprouts with pesto

The ten km run went great yesterday, I figured out why I was having side cramps. POSTURE! Posture is key when running, once I get tired I start falling forward and my lung space decreases so my air isn't flowing properly. I'll remind myself to straighten up and everything gets better :)  Running with your husband is amazing, I cant wait to do more of it!!

Today I did legs at the gym, squats at 115 lbs ( 4 sets of 10), straight legged deadlifts at 135 lbs (3 sets of 10), and some overhead lunges at 35 lbs (3 sets of 24). I finished this off with 20 minutes of intervals on the stairmill.

I feel lately that I'm not full enough after my meals, so I'm going to start incorporating more fat.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Sorry for the random assortment of information in tonights post. See you guys in the morning :)

Rice day

Today I was craving rice.... so I had rice :) I considered it my sort of cheat meal. I added it with some organic salsa, and raw veggies. I was so happy eating it :)

Today was a rest day, so I had my FST done and am making sure to drink lots of water. I can feel that my body is ready to go for tomorrows long run!

My shins have been bothering me a little bit and I've been feeling some tenderness in my calves, so Im on the lookout for some compression socks. My dad bought me some a few years ago, but Im finding that now they're not tight enough.

Anyhow, I hope everyone has a great Friday!

Myself and Princess Lola had a great time at the park today. She loves attention and will run over to people and then run back when they stop petting her. Attention whore, that's what she is!


Today's Eats:

Breakfast: Sunwarrior and superfood smoothie with lots of bee pollen for energy
Lunch: Kale salad with microgreens and homemade caesar dressing
Snack: carrot, cucumber, parsley, and ginger juice
Dinner: rice bowl from starting of post
Snack: 2 raw oatmeal balls + 1 organic lady apple

What is with this salt craving! It's getting to be annoying, the mere idea of fruit is turning me off, I just want pesto and seaweed.

Cucumber Pesto Salad with Broccoli Sprouts:

I took homemade pesto and added it to a thinly sliced organic cucumber, some red bell pepper, red onion and broccoli sprouts. It was delicious and surprisingly really filling.

Yesterdays eats:

Breakfast: superfood cherry smoothie
Lunch: cucumber pesto salad
Post workout: carrot parsley and ginger juice
Snack: banana with almond butter
Dinner: greens with yesterdays caesar salad dressing
Snack: organic apple and a boat load of seaweed

Yesterday was just a light day for working out, some shoulder supersets and yoga. I am getting FST today by an amazing friend and I am soooo excited! For anyone who has not heard of Fascial Stretch Therapy, look it up, the benefits are out of this world. And tomorrow is long run day with Husband :), very exciting.

Side note: one thing that raw foodists and vegans alike lack is B12 so make sure to supplement with it. Produce isn't what it used to be, so you have to make sure to eat a WIDE range of fruits and veggies with all the colours to make sure you're properly supplemented!

A line I thought was really nice:

What have the years written into your body?
What pattern emerged as you passed through fire?
Put your palms together, lifeline to lifeline.
Bow your head for the history you bear.

I'm not a barbie

Since adopting my new lifestyle my tastes have changed enormously. I no longer crave sweets, and bitting into an organic strawberry is enough for my taste buds. Now I crave salty foods like seaweed and pesto. Different, but much better for my waistline. It's amazing how desensitized your tastebuds become when eating a standard american diet. Once all the crap is cut out you can taste all the amazingness in natural food! No more "food like substances", I'm not a barbie--> I need real food.

Along with my new lifestyle I am trying to get rid of all negative things and people in my life. I am trying to create a nurturing and positive environment for myself, because life is much too short for anything less than that. If I meet with someone or do something and don't feel amazing or inspired after doing it or meeting that person, it's not worth life's precious time. But more on that stuff later, that could be 23892842 paragraphs long.

Caesar Dressing: adapted from choosingraw.com

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 to 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1-2 tbsp dulse
1-2 garlic cloves
3/4 cup water
2 pitted dates
2 celery stalks
1/2 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients and enjoy. For ingredients that are given in ranges, use the lower range then add more to your own tastes.

Today's eats:

Breakfast: 1 organic orange + 1 organic egg
Snack: 2 oatmeal energy balls (recipe still to come)
Lunch: Zuchetti pasta with homemade alfredo type sauce with bell pepper
Snack: Sesame seaweed x 2 + coconut water
Dinner: Caesar salad (as per above) with romaine and spinach
Post workout: Superfood smoothie with sunwarrior protein

How cute are these?

Morning update

Woke up, had the same smoothie as yesterday, and some delicious "sour cream and onion" kale chips. Smoothie was a bit chunky because I basically broke our blender when I left a spoon it in and tried to blend something last night. If that's not a blonde moment, I don't know what is.

Read this book, or tried to, while being over heated by having these guys lounge on me.

Cleaned the bed linen because Lola chewed open a pen and ink was everywhere.

Did the dishes. Planning on painting the gross cupboards, any recommendations for colours?

Marvelled at the awesomness of this.

And these super cute S&P shakers.

Admired the new charms from Husband. <3

Brought the dogs for a walk, but forgot one of these. Ended up having to use a leaf to pick up their poop and got it all over my hand. Awesome.

Got my running gear on.

Procrastinated putting these on.

Ran 6 km in 25 degree weather and did this when I came home.


Hope you all had a productive and healthful morning too :)

Fresh and easy dinner

Dinner for my father-in-law, Husband and I:

Mixed green salad with a basil vinaigrette:

Dressing (bad manicure not included)

1 cup olive oil
1/3 cup packed FRESH basil
2 tbsp agave
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp sea salt

Process all ingredients and enjoy the amazing taste and smell. I wanted to drink this. Though I do have a weird sort of love affair going on with basil, Husband is kind of jealous.

In this salad was a blend of organic baby spinach and field greens, yellow pepper, tomatoes, hemp seeds, pine nuts, asian pear, thinly sliced cucumber and AMAZING basil vinaigrette.


Dessert was from Ani's Raw, and it was a mango cobbler. Soooo effing good. Pardon the language, but you have to make it. If I could find a way to eat the cobbler with the basil vinaigrette at the same time, I would, and I would be in heaven.



Mango Cobbler:

Crust:
1.5 cups pecans
1/2 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup dates, pitted

Syrup:
3/4 cup dates
1/2 vanilla bean
3 tbsp coconut oil
2/3 cup water (or as needed)

Mix syrup with about 2-3 diced RIPE mangoes, let it sit. Make your crust in a food processor, and use half on the bottom of a baking dish. Squish it down and then top with your syrupy mango goodness. Add the second half of your crust on top loosely and enjoy!

This is what the crust should look like.

Finished product. I realize that this looks like ground beef, and that its not aesthetically very pleasing. But its fantastic, so I recommend you look past the picture and make it yourself! You wont regret it :)

Husband and wife bonding time

I've been asking Husband to take salsa dance lessons with me but he said he would "think about it." I know what that means.

So instead, today we ran about 6 km, did some hill sprints, went for an amazing raw vegan lunch, and then walked home. It's been a great day so far and I hope it continues. Exercising with your partner can either be a really good thing or a completely awful experience. I know that with Husband it will be a great bonding one because we respect that we have differences in our physical capabilities so I don't feel bad when I see that he's not sweating and hardly breathing hard after 6 km (well....I kind of mind :)

I made us both a delicious smoothie this morning, enjoyed with my new glass straw. It makes drinking smoothies that much better :)

2 cups of water, 2 cups of organic cherries, 1/4 cup bee pollen, 1/4 cup goji berries, 1 banana, 1/2 lemon, 1 inch piece of ginger, 1/4 cup hemp seeds, and some love :)

For lunch we went to Fresh. They usually  have great vegan food, but I didn't remember them having any raw options. So I was pleasantly surprised when there was a zucchini bowl available! It came with a basil pesto and kale chips. Sooo good.

We have lots of stuff on our to do list today so I'm going to try and get my butt moving!

Have a great day everyone!

The camera was missing its memory card today, so unfortunately no pictures!

Breakfast today an organic banana with home-made almond butter and a superfood smoothie (bee pollen, goji berries, the works).

Snack was one of my raw maple oat squares which I still have to post the recipe for, and an organic valencia orange (sooo delicious right now).

Lunch was a bowl of dehydrated buckwheat, homemade strawberry almond milk, strawberries, hemp seeds, pinch of agave, and cashews.

Snack was a bowl of delicious organic strawberries and 1/2 a cucumber.

Dinner was some zuchetti (raw zucchini made into noodles) mixed with a cashew based alfredo sauce, topped with diced tomato and pine nuts. Sooooo good.

And as a snack after work I'm currently eating a slice of apple and almond butter.

I was extremely tired today and desperately needed some sort of pick-me-up. So I apologize to the caffeine police, but I had two cups of green tea-brown rice today.  :(

Today was also a rest day, so 1 hour of yogadownload.com was done! It's great and slightly annoying to do yoga with your dog constantly trying to sit on you or sit in the worst spot possible. Good ol' Gigi.



I'll be back at it tomorrow with more pictures and recipes! I will be going out for brunch with a dear friend at Live Food Bar tomorrow, so I will definitely post pictures of that!


See you soon :)

Raw sweet potato chips

Our new raw food lifestyle is working wonders on both Husband and I's shape, skin, and general sense of well being. I've had a bit of a rocky road with getting rid of coffee, but am starting to feel okay without it. Husband has lost about 5-8 lbs, which is incredible considering he didn't have anything to lose in the first place. He now has a sick pack. Sexy carpenter husband with a six pack? CHECK!

On my end, I've noticed a better glow with my skin, and my waist has narrowed quite a bit. It's going to be very hard to make sure that I don't lose muscular size but continue to lose weight around my waist and arms.

But here are the delicious sweet potato chips!

Sweet potato chips:

1 large sweet potato, skin on!
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp chilli powder ( I made my own from dried chillies)
1 tbsp nama shoyu or soy sauce

Slice the potato with a mandolin very very thinly. Coat with ingredients and spread out on your dehydrator mesh screen. Dehydrate for 12-15 hours. You dont want soft chips!

Cucumber dill salad

The past few days I've had these pounding headaches in the afternoon. I wake up in the morning feeling great, have a superfood smoothie, then as the hours pass I feel more and more like crap. I don't know if its the coffee withdrawals or I am adjusting to the dietary changes; but either way it sucks.

On a random side note: if anyone is thinking about investing money into a garmin running gps, DONT! You can get a really great APP on your phone for 3 dollars that does the exact same job. Coming from someone who last year spent 350$ on one, I felt pretty stupid when I experienced how well my iPhone handled the same task.

Run today: 30 minutes, 5.5 km! There are some brutal hills in Toronto.

I was soooo lazy today, so I just dad yesterdays cucumber, radish and dill salad.

Cucumber salad:

2 organic cucumbers, sliced and diced
5-8 radishes, sliced thinly (I hate giant mouthfuls of radish)
1 avocado, chopped
1/4 cup fresh dill

Dressing:
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp apple cider dress
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp shallot minced
pinch of salt and pepper

Now I'm off to shut off all the lights, block out the noise, and try to get my head to stop pounding.

Mushroom pate/dip

This looks pretty gross, as most pate's do, but it tastes excellent! I think I'm going to spread it on some raw wraps with some veggies for a tasty afternoon snack!

Raw Mushroom Pate (adapted from Raw Express):

1.5 cups sliced and diced mini bella mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped raw walnuts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nama shoyu
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
sprinkle of pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley

The recipe called to blend it, but mine ended up being too mushy. So I recommend using a food processor and pulsing it very briefly! The original recipe also called for 2 tbsp water, but I found it very unnecessary.

Have a great day everyone :)