All posts tagged: healthy living

Anti-Aging, Fat Blasting Blueberry Smoothie

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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

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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

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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! …

Sunscreen Swaps: the Best Picks for Children

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Currently, my husband and I are spending the week in Vegas. I’m not into the casino scene, but we are having such an amazing time together. I’m convinced that you can have the time of there life wherever they are, if you’re with your Person. We got to put this to the test when our flight in was bumped, and we chilled at the airport all day…and had a ball. I’ve always been a big believer that you can make extraordinary memories from the most ordinary of days, and so far, life has proven that to be true. Meanwhile, Vegas is literally hotter than crawling into an oven, and now all those crimes on CSI make so much more sense. People are probably going crazy from the heat! Surprisingly, we adapted to the weather pretty quickly (read: we stay inside/poolside), and I’ve been pile on a bottle of sunscreen per day to protect my oh so fair skin from this desert sun. That’s an exaggeration…but just barely. If you’ve read my post/rant about sunscreens for …

Use This Not That: Sunscreen Swaps

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Summer is officially here, and according to my Siri, it’s going to be a million degrees with a UV ray index of off the charts. This is what happens when you don’t recycle, people! Mama Earth gets angry at us all and then gets hotter than Hades! All that aside, I’m a delicate little flower when it comes to the sun. My skin is so white, I glow in the dark like a ghost. I really do; true story. I could effortlessly play a Walker on The Walking Dead, especially if I didn’t get any coffee when I woke up.  I’ve never been into tanning (read: the sun and I are genetically incompatible). It takes a lot to keep this Walker skin ridiculously young-ish and protected from the sun’s death rays, so I used to pile on the sunscreen. Then I found out most sunscreens might cause as much damage as sun exposure. I can’t even.  The reason sunscreens are harmful is because most are laden with toxic chemicals. These chemicals get directly applied and then …

(Best Ever) Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup

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I’ve had a lot of chicken noodle soup in my day, and I do believe nothing cures the common cold except a big bowl of hot soup. That was before I went vegetarian, of course, but I still make it for the carnivorous people I heart. My husband is about 80% vegetarian, and what meat he does eat is usually more in the style of Asian cuisine, where the meat is an accent–not the main dish. Whenever he gets sick, he always special requests my chicken noodle soup. I love cooking up a big batch of this soup whenever I make it. It smells soooo good, and it takes me back to so many happy childhood memories. To me, childhood smells like coming in from a snowy day and finding a big pot of chicken noodle soup simmering away on the stove. My mom is pretty awesome, for sure. Except she refused to let my sister and I eat Captain Crunch, which I think is ethically questionable and highly cruel. Aaaaaanyway. I can’t take credit for …

Use This, Not That: Deodorant Swaps

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The many of the ingredients that go into our every day, run-of-the-mill products are a little bit terrifying.  Worst of all, when it comes finding out just how unhealthy a product really is, the burden of proof falls on the consumer. It shouldn’t be that way, but unfortunately, if we want to stay healthy, we can’t completely trust the FDA or consumer reports. There’s a huge chance you’re using a hazardous product right now. Aluminum is directly linked to Alzheimers and a slew of other health problems, but guess what we put directly into our lymph nodes every day? Yup. Aluminum, brought to you by way of your trusty deodorant. I don’t know about you, but this makes me mad AF. All I want in life is to smell fresh as a goddamn daisy, without risking putting my husband through a Notebook type of scenario. My memory is pretty sketchy as it is, so I need all the help I can get. Since it’s approximately a million degrees outside right now (depending on the sun’s …

Hazelnut Biscotti (So Good, You’ll Wake Up for It)

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I’m kinda sorta completely obsessed with all things hazelnut related. If someone asked me what I wanted for my last supper on death row, I’d promptly reply, “First, it’s called dinner not supper, but allegedly the South will rise again, so don’t you worry yourself over vernaculars. Second, I want nutella over nutella filled cupcakes, piled on top of a pillow of nutella cakes…AND HOLD THE GLUTEN!” What the heck, it’s death row, I can handle the gluten. During my travels abroad, I came across a hazelnut biscotti that was so insanely delicious, I literally woke up extra early to stomp over to the local cafe for my daily biscotti and coffee. Note: I do NOT do mornings, and I’m not a huge coffee drinker unless it’s a legit cup o’ Italian brew or French pressed, so this was an act of devotion. When I got back home, I decided to experiment with some recipes to make a vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free recipe. I was anticipating gross cardboard-like sticks of non-deliciousness, but to my surprise, the …

Fiesta for Your Mouth: Smokey Chipotle Tomato Sauce

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I would just like to announce that I’ve stumbled across a culinary gem: chipotle tomato sauce. It is mind-blowing delicious, and it serious has changed my vegetarian food game. Because the flavors are such a delicious, smokey mix of savory, slightly sweet and spicy, this effortless sauce elevates even the most humble of spaghetti squash or gluten free pastas, and takes a could be blah dish and adds all the panache you could ever want. I can’t take credit for this recipe, because I learned it from a chef here in DC during one of my cooking classes. I feel like I should send her a thank you note or something, because I love.this.sauce. Here’s why: Effortless Inexpensive to make Makes everything taste better Free of the fructose corn syrup, sugar, and gross preservatives found in your tomato sauce on the shelf This recipe is sugar free, preservative free, and you have complete control over the ingredients. This is why I LOVE making everything from scratch. Honestly, homemade tomato sauce is so effortless to make, …

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Latte: Kiss Starbucks Goodbye

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Like many women, I pretty much lose my mind to obsession compulsive fall thoughts each year. I practically live in a virtual pumpkin patch, because if something is labeled “pumpkin” Imma gonna snatch it right on up! I consider it my life’s goal to incorporate as much spice into my life as possible, and I take this mission very seriously whilst wearing the classic Basic B*tch Uniform of fall: over-sized sweater, riding boots, and a scarf, of course.  Unlike most women, I loathe Starbucks, their “pumpkin” spice lattes, and their coffee in general. I know…I am such a bougie Wish I Were Euro snob when it comes to my coffee. Look, you have no idea how badly I wish I could go mainstream on my coffee…it would just make my life so much easier! But alas…I just can’t. I do however, love their baristas, all of whom I instantly want to be BFF’s with because they’re so darn delightful.I’m more of a chai drinker when I’m in the States, but I do drink coffee occasionally, and …