To celebrate the end of my first year in grad school, and a very long year in a long-distance relationship, my boyfriend & I will be hitting up one of our favorite vacation spots over Memorial Day for some serious California fun in the sun Venice Beach style. While I've been feeling good lately, I'd love to rock that bikini with 100% confidence.
So... I've been considering a major mental and physical challenge in preparation... THE CLEANSE.
Scary, right? But also potentially incredibly rewarding. My body is craving a major detox.
Do you think it's crazy? Have you tried a cleanse? I'm considering BluePrint and would love to hear your thoughts.
Life (food) is an adventure. Enjoy the ride... and cheers to the memories!
Save cheese for a special treat.
Like la fromagerie. This happens to be one I visited (frequented) on a trip to Paris in 2008.
Picnic style meals.
Enjoy a little bit of all of your favorite things. Make it extra special when traveling in a new place, like this meal I put together on that same Parisian adventure with my boyfriend in 2008. A sliced apple or pear would be a great addition to this plate as a compliment to the cheese. But, I dare you not to fall in love with that baguette.
Road trip.
And never pass by that fruit or veggie stand on the side of the road without stopping. Never!
Invite friends over for bites and cocktails.
Chicken skewers. Melon wrapped with prosciutto. Homemade roasted eggplant hummus. Veggies. Fresh squeezed cocktails.
Date night.
Make sushi with your man.
Mediterranean Diet.
A 2010 trip around Greece with the boyfriend inspired many healthy, Mediterranean influenced meals. Stuffed Roasted peppers? Greek salad? Need I say more?
Make pasta a special treat.
And do it right. #Eataly
I work in PR. We use the term "relationship building" all the time.
So, I got to thinking. Why should my approach to food be any different? The truth is, it shouldn't. Just like any other, your relationship with food is something you have to work on.
There are things we love in life. I love food. I love cooking. I love cooking for people. I love wine.
I love going out to dinner and trying new, amazing, expensive restaurants. I love hole in the wall Mexican restaurants. I love the most absolutely decadent flaky and delicious croissants ever made from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.
I love it all!
What I never want to feel is anger or resentment when I indulge in any of my favorite things. This is why I am constantly striving for #balance. Because we all know, with too much indulgence, your pants get tight, your heart gets heavy and your spirits go down. I really don't believe in self-deprivation. But I do believe that everything in moderation is good. Because, if after a long week, that glass of California Zinfandel makes you feel good and makes you feel closer to home... I say... ENJOY!
I've said it once, I'll say it again. Knowing I would be enjoying some well-earned wine tonight, I kept my calorie intake otherwise low. Oatmeal for breakfast. Salad with turkey for lunch. Fruits and nuts for snacks. I promise, it works!
The Food Pyramid is long gone...Call it the color wheel!!
I
saw this today and had to post, as it’s very reflective of my dieting
philosophy. Fruits and vegetables are your best friend when trying to
achieve #balance.
Since my weekend of fun (eating and drinking) I’ve gone back to my healthy ways. Oatmeal for breakfast, and fruit and salads with lean meat the rest of the day.
I
even restrained myself yesterday when my office got free Chipotle for
lunch. OK, I did not say no to a free lunch, but I did say no to the
burrito and instead got a healthy salad with chicken, salsa and
guacamole, holding the beans, rice, sour cream and cheese. A sacrifice,
yes. But worth it... and still delicious!
Going
to a concert tonight, which will most likely mean a cocktail or...
two... three... ok, I’m not counting. BUT I did make the restaurant
suggestion, suggesting Pio Pio in Hell’s Kitchen. The rotisserie chicken
and avocado salad... YUM! Small plates are great for sharing and
portion control.
It’s the end of one of those weekends that lasted three nights. Three nights with a boyfriend visiting from out of town. We know what that means. Lots of eating and drinking.
If I had to count, I would count 10 glasses of champagne, 3 red wines and 2 vodka sodas over the course of the weekend. I’m not sure about you, but that doesn’t exactly qualify as #balance.
But then again, I do have justifications.
After five years of dating, we’ve spent the last eight months living on separate coasts, meaning we only see each other once or twice a month. So, while last weekend I did buckle down, study hard, eat right and not drink at all, this weekend I let loose and had fun with my favorite person in the world. There were drinks at Eataly followed by a homemade Italian feast, steak frites at Les Halles in the Financial District, an amazing dinner at Scarpetta in the Meatpacking, out with friends on the Lower East Side and brunch at Kutsher’s Tribeca.
So, while it might have been a weekend of excess, I do it so rarely, that in my book, that’s #balance because I got to share so much special time with someone that I miss very much.
To regain my sanity, back to a healthy diet of fresh fruits and veggies and lean meats this week.
So, cheers to a great weekend!
It’s crunch time, and no, I’m not talking about getting a workout in after a long day.
Group projects, finals and deadlines at work are all rearing their ugly heads, forcing me to truly work hard to achieve #balance. A big part of this is eating right. Yet somehow, during an incredibly busy and stressful week, I managed to stick to a diet of mostly fruits, veggies, whole grains and lean meats. Ok. And lots of caffeine. (And maybe a delicious dark chocolate covered pretzel or two).
Part of making this possible on an ongoing basis has been integrating a trip to the grocery store into my weekly routine. Often times, even two or three times a week to keep fresh food on hand. Even yesterday, after a 14 hour day, I got off the train 2 stops early for a pit stop at Whole Foods in Tribeca. I was, after all, craving the salad bar. In the shopping card? Kale salad and chicken for dinner. And to get me through the rest of the week? LOTS of fruit for snacking.
To top it all off, my walk home was beautiful and refreshing.
Now, I feel fit and healthy. Eating good just feels so right sometimes. But hey, I’m by no means perfect, and after an exhausting week which consisted of studying all last weekend, I am treating myself to a glass of wine as we speak :)
P.S. Hesitant about trying kale in a salad? Get over it. It’s amazing.
P.S.S. Snack on THIS!
I was 22 years old. Fresh out of college, I decided to take an adventure, traveling (eating and drinking) my way through Europe and Israel for 2 months. My appetite for adventure barely quenched, I bought a one-way ticket to Honolulu where my boyfriend had moved to be a dolphin trainer (yep).
Six months later my mom came to visit. I meet her at the airport. She leans in. Whispers. “Have you gained weight?”
The loving touch of a mother, right? Later I went to her hotel which had a gym and a scale, neither of which I had seen for months. Twenty pounds overweight. Ouch.
While my boyfriend had all along been too nice to tell me what I already knew, even with the constant exclamations of “How do I look?”... “Am I fat?”... “Does this bikini look bad?” Mom had come right out and said it.
I needed a change.
...Fast forward five years. I did lose the weight, and I’d even venture to say that I lost it fast with a steady regime of exercise and healthy eating. But that’s not what this blog is about, because anyone can Google weight loss and healthy eating tips. This blog is about thinking about eating right and exercising as a lifestyle and as a daily part of your routine - then it’s not a diet.
A favorite example (because I love going to good restaurants and drinking wine): Know you’re going to your favorite Italian restaurant tonight? Mine happens to be Scott Conant’s restaurant Scarpetta in the Meatpacking. The spaghetti is... tomato & basil perfection. I would never order anything else. And yes! I would like another basket of fresh baked bread and stromboli! And yes! More olive oil to soak it in! And yes! Another bottle of wine, please!
There will be fruit for breakfast and a light salad for lunch. Balance is really that easy.
Throughout the journey of this blog, I will explore my challenges with balance- and maybe try to have two glasses of wine instead of four (I did say TRY:)). I do also have a beach vacay coming up, and would like to rock that bikini, so stay tuned in for updates on my progress.
