Month: December 2017

Gluten-Free Strawberry Pancakes with Vegan Whipped Cream

MORNINGS ARE THE WORST. And if you don’t agree with me, I do not even understand what kind of super-powered human being you are. Does your heart pump pure caffeine into your veins? Are you the product of a crazy scientific experience? I DON’T GET IT. Mornings are the literal worst. I pretty much feel punched in the face the second my eyes slowly, very begrudgingly peel open. My first thought is usually, NOOOOO! Or just like a moan of agony. My husband is one of those (disgustingly) disciplined people who wake up everyday at 5:30am, and therefore by proxy, my fat cat and I are forced to wake up at the same time. UGH. WHY, GOD. Even though my body might be awake, my mind doesn’t operate until at bare minimum around noon. Brunch is basically God’s gift to all the people who stoutly reject mornings. Let all those early bird’s catch all the worms they want; I choose pancakes and mimosas. I love hosting brunch parties, because it’s such a perfect way to …

Anti-Aging, Fat Blasting Blueberry Smoothie

All these low-carb/no-carb diets are giving fruit a bad rap, but the truth is carbs aren’t evil. It just depends on the kinds of carbs you’re consuming. The brilliant thing about berries is they have a lower sugar content than other fruit, so you can eat them without experiencing a potentially drastic sugar spike. Blueberries reign supreme as a not only a power food, but also a beautifying food. When you eat beautifying foods, the ingredients work from the inside out, creating total body change. You can slather the most expensive lotions and potions and magical ingredients on your skin, but the saying “skin deep” exists for a reason. These ingredients literally mask the results of poor health and/or an unhealthy diet, but it’s impossible for those expensive ingredients to really penetrate the deeper layers of skin. All the creams in the world don’t do anything for your total body wellness. Blueberries have the highest antioxidant capacity of all commonly consumed fruits and vegetables.  If that’s not enough to convince you to try out this …

Eat Your Way to Youthful Skin

We live in a society that’s pretty obsessed with beauty—outer beauty that is. The makeup industry is a multi-billion dollar corporation, and the average medicine cabinet is overflowing with lotions and potions and concoctions promising to make up more beautiful. More youthful. More desirable. Beauty is a business, and booming one at that. Somewhere along the way though, health and beauty became two very separate entities. The ingredients in these “anti-aging” and “beautifying” products often cause way more harm than good. Recently, I went to my dermatologist for the good old Let There Be No Skin Cancer checkup (all good in the hood; all those years of drenching myself in SPF and assiduously hiding under an umbrella at the beach like a stowaway vampire have finally paid off). I had just run out of the nighttime essential oils I use, so I asked about moisturizers and an anti-aging cream. She gave me two products and sent me on my merry way. Both creams cost around $200 (JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL) and what’s worse, when I looked …

How to Do: Side Crow

Arm balances just makes me soooo happy, I can hardly stand it. I mean, honestly, every time a yoga instructor calls out an option for an arm balance or an inversion, I’m literally like, YAAAAAS GAWD. Unless I’ve eaten all the things right before class and feel as though I’m made of bricks. Then I’m like, WHHHHYYY, make the lambs stop screaming!!! Yoga is cruel to the gluttonous, just so you know. But when a girl’s gotta eat, she’s gotta eat. Even if it’s right before class. Here’s the thing I like to tell my own clients regarding the oh-so-tricky art of arm balances and inversions: it should be fun. Sure, it’s difficult—really difficult. After all, you’re both balancing and holding yourself up on a tiny portion of your body. But this isn’t the time to go Type A or let your perfectionism kick in. This is the exact moment to practice patience and give yourself grace. Before you even start, lay your ego at the door. Hey, I know you just skimmed that sentence! …