Blasts of Light

 

              It’s that magical time of year again, the weather’s getting warmer, the sun’s shining and it’s only a matter of time till you need to be seen in public in a swimsuit. This year I’m saving myself some money and not buying an over priced NYC gym membership, instead, I’m going to do some work out videos in the comfort of my own apartment. Work out videos are great for those of us with less than ideal schedules – you can do them whenever, for how ever long, no judgement. So I’ll be reviewing a string of different workout videos for you guys over the next couple months as I test them out but here’s my very first!

10 Minute yoga is ah-mazing! Not for the beginner yogi, (they have a beginner version for that though) it has a great pace, flowing from pose to pose while connecting with your breath but without giving you enough time to go over your grocery list while hanging out in downward dog. I love that it’s chopped up into little ten minute segments so that even on mornings that I don’t quite have time to work out, I can do a run through of “yoga basics” and get centered for the rest of the day. My favorite is by far the “yoga burn” segment but they are all short and sweet, making it incredibly easy to switch up your workout daily and not have an excuse to skip it. I’m excited to try out the rest of the videos in this ten minute series because I think it’s an absolutely brilliant way to make work outs accessible to even the most time crunched of us all. Give it a whirl! I bought the DVD, but it’s also available on Netflix instant play!

I stumbled across this gem in a book I was reading and felt like it was worth passing on. It’s actually written by a man who started losing his mind to Alzheimer’s at age 50 and found himself having to rediscover who he was all the time but I think it can be applicable to our lives in so many ways. I know that I and a lot of my twenty-something, and yes even thirty-something girlfriends often find ourselves holed up in a coffee shop discussing how lost we sometimes feel. It’s a very human, and perhaps even more feminine trait to think about what we’re doing with our lives, where we’re heading and if we are where we’re “supposed” to be. I think this poem is a great meditation on embracing that feeling, being at peace with not knowing and not looking at lost in a negative way. Hey, maybe we’re just playfully wandering?
The first few times
Being lost was frightening
Stark, pregnant
With the drama of change
Then, i didn’t know
That everywhere is nowhere
Like the feeling when an ocean wave
Boils you in the sand
But as time goes by
Each occurrence of lostness is quieter
Falling from notice
Like the sound of trains
When you live near the tracks
Until one day
When a friend asks
“How often do you get lost?”
And I strain to recall a single instance
It was then that I realized
Being lost only has meaning
When contrasted with
Knowing where you are
A presumption that slipped out of my life
As quietly as smoke up a chimney
For now I live in a less anchored place
Where being lost is irrelevant
For now, only when there is a need
Do I discover where I am
No alarm, no fear
Just an unconscious check in
Like glancing in a rear-view mirror
David Hollies, “lost and found”

My first post in 2012 and it’s already January 19th! Someone’s been a bad, bad girl, but that’s about to change.

I love resolutions, I make them all year round ( and post little reminder notes all over my room) but I especially love them on new years because it always feels like a clean slate. Whatever happened in 2011 is over and now I can decide who I want to be in 2012 and what I want my life to be like. This year, I’ve made some big personal ones, to finally get my own apartment with out roommates and to take a leap of faith when it comes to my career, to name just two. Only 19 days in and I can tell you it’s already been pretty exciting. Don’t you love that feeling when your completely overwhelmed and stressed but somehow you know it’s all going to be worth it? I’m pretty sure it’s one of my favorites.

Maybe I’ll touch back on my personal resolutions at a later date but for now I want to focus on my GoSweetandSkinny resolutions! First, I promise to post more frequently, this starts today! I’m aiming to be posting at least once a day, five days a week minimum. I want to keep updating the site so that you guys have a reason to come back and see what’s going on.

Secondly, I’ve decided to expand a bit. After some careful thought and reflection over the holidays, I’ve decided that I want GoSweetandSkinny to be about so much more than just baking. Yes, I love baking and yes, I love vegan baking even more but that’s not all my life’s about. In fact, that’s a very small part of my actual life. Don’t worry, there will still be more recipes to come and I’m not about to stop baking but now I’d like sweet and skinny to relate to every aspect of your life. I want this to be about having a sweet life and being skinny (staying fit) while doing it. Having your cake and eating it too, in all aspects of your life.

So look out for upcoming posts that will be more, well in Oprah’s words, about “having your best life”. I’m not putting any limits on what it could be but I want this to become a place where you can be inspired and find things you can take away for yourself. Which is why my next big undertaking is going to be a webseries for the site called “Sweet Talk” where I will interview successful, entrepreneurial woman while making their favorite baked goods. With so many wonderful women doing incredible things, I think it would be incredibly valuable to share there story, ask them what hurdles they faced and what advice they have to give us twenty-somethings still trying to find our way. I know, I’d sure like to know!

Lots of exciting things going on for GoSweetandSkinny in 2012, I’m thrilled to get started.

 

 

Have some ideas for future articles or ways to contribute? Want to share your new years resolutions with me? I’d love to hear! email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com

 

 

Made a quick stop by Liquiteria in the East Village before heading to set today to get myself some fresh juice! This adorable juice bar has quickly climbed the ranks in my book of must haves. Its the next best thing to making it myself at home, and none if the mess in my kitchen. I got a “Royal Flush” this morning, which is one of their special Rx mixes and it was refreshing and delicious. My usual is their “all greens” which is kale, spinach, romaine, parsley, celery, cucumber, apple, lemon and ginger. These juices will run you around $8.00 but trust me, it’s just what the doctor ordered, you’ll feel great after liquiteria get it’s hands on you!

Oh, those weekend brunches sitting outside of your favorite cafe with good friends and great mimosas! Now fast forward four or five hours and your not quite at dinner but searching your cabinets for a little something to hold you over. Well we’ve got the sweet and skinny answer to your prayers with some of these light lunches. And if your not a big brunch fanatic like myself, feel free to use these in between any meals to tide you over – they can also be great light dinners if you’ve had a big lunch!

AA – Apples + Almond Butter
Once again, adding my biased spin on old favorite. Go ahead, use peanut butter if you must, even cashew butter but almond is my favorite by far! My advice to you is cut your apple all nice the way you like it, spread whichever of the ‘butter’s you choose and then put the jar away. With the fiber from your apple and the healthy fat and protein in almond butter, you should be more than satisfied with this little dish and leaving the jar out for dipping will often leave you falsely un-full and going back for more. Yes, this is a good thing, but indeed, you can have too much.

Hummus + Co
Is there anything you can’t put with hummus? Well I guess, it might be gross sticking a cookie in it or trying to spread it on a cupcake but hey, can you blame it for forcing you into healthy choices? Let’s take a stroll down hummus lane, whole wheat pita bread, pretzel thins, string beans, carrots.. the yumminess goes on and on. Seriously take a walk down the aisle at your local grocery store and check out all the different hummus flavors that are out there right now! So many delicious, healthy choices – you can try ’em all. I have a particular obsession for Sonny and Joe’s brand hummus and my favorite variations are Sesame, Spinach and Artichoke or Roasted Red Pepper. Happy Dipping!

Goat Cheese and Grape Bruschetta
Think of it like grown up cream cheese and jelly, this combination makes me salivate just thinking about it. Ok, maybe that was a little TMI, it’s fantastic, just take my word. Yes, it’s a little decadent so don’t go over board or eat this when your ravenous, cause you might do some serious caloric damage but eaten in moderation, it’s perfection. Buy a small whole wheat baguette and slice thinly on the diagonal. Only cut the amount your allowing yourself to eat, I’d say any where between 3-6 depending on how hungry you are. Wrap the exposed end and put it away. Now thinly spread the goat cheese on each of the pieces and cut seedless red grapes in half and affix them on to. Voila! Painlessly easy and perfectly delicious!

As much as I’d hate to admit it, I am only human and tonight has been one of those nights. The ones where you spend hours diligently resisting a cookie craving, make tea, eat yogurt, call a friend, you know all those ‘get your mind off the craving’ activities you find in your favorite healthy living magazine. And yet, they all offer no help. There I was at 10pm and I surrendered. I went out to the supermarket and I bought some sugar cookies. I don’t even like store-bought cookies! I was desperate and certainly not proud of what I was doing.

Funny enough, four cookies deep and cutting myself off from the rest, amidst the shame of my indulgence, something miraculous happened : I regained my focus. All of a sudden, the writing and work I had been trying to do for the past few hours were at the forefront of my mind. I had killed all those sabotaging cookie fantasies simply by giving in.

While I’m not saying that this is an excuse to put yourself in full on sugar coma everytime you get an inkling for a brownie, I think there is a lesson to be learned. If I had gone out and got a cookie perhaps after an hour of thinking about it, maybe I would have had only one and maybe my focus wouldn’t have been quite so effected. I guess this one comes down to ‘know thyself’, sometimes it’s okay to indulge a little, just not all the time and always remember to get back on track and on with your life!

Some great treats to get you through ‘those nights’ are Skinny Cow Ice Cream, No Pudge Brownies and my recipe for ‘Chocolate Somethings’ which I’ll post right away.

Have you heard about the Dukan Diet? Ever since rumor got around that it was Kate Middleton’s pre-wedding weight loss diet of choice, I knew I had to purchase the book. Don’t hate me, I can be a sucker for the flavor of the week diet. Now, to give you the spark notes version of what it entails, it’s a primarily protein based menu. For the first 3-7 days all you can eat is protein and then following that you alternate protein only days with vegetable/protein days. After reading this, I debated whether or not this was even possible for some one who “only eats fish occasionally” to do and let me tell it was no walk in the park!

The first two days were pure torture for me, ah, who I am I kidding, the whole thing was pretty hard. First, it’s not easy to pack anything to take with you for the day when the things you can eat consist of eggs, meat or fish. Sometimes it’s not even easy to grab something that fits into your ‘allowed’ foods on the go. (And I live in NYC where food options are seemingly endless) However, Dukan does give you a recipe for a “Dukan Galette” which is pretty much a protein pancake that he allows you to have once a day and this turned out to be a god-sent! In a later post, I’ll give you the recipe along with some fun variations I’ve created, of course!

Okay, okay, I’ll get to the good stuff, I did lose a few pounds and if you had more to lose, I’m sure you’d lose more. However, what really surprised me was the effect it had on my skin! After two days of no carbs at all and eating purely protein my skin looked FABULOUS! Most of my acne cleared up and my face looked great. This could have also been helped by the large amount of water you MUST drink while doing the beginning stages of this diet but I think I have mostly the lack of carbohydrates to thank for this.

So overall, I lost a little weight and I gained a few enlightening tools. I will continue to watch my carbohydrate intake (especially white carbs) because I love how my skin is looking and somehow that is even more gratifying than the numbers going down on the scale to me. I also, am completely in love with my protein pancake creation and think that it will become a regular on my menu! Thank you Mr. Dukan!

Here I am, sitting in my favorite East Village cafe, for the first time in a few weeks. And while, perhaps I feel slightly guilty for the indulgent piece of Vegan Red Velvet Cake, I’ve allowed myself to indulge in, I feel even more guilty about how much I’ve slacked off on posting for GoSweet&Skinny! So I’d like to apologize for being less then dedicated to updating this website. I have recently had pleasure of having a lot of film projects come up and steal my attention and energy. And while they will be continuing into the winter, I am fully committed to making this website current and improving my posts! I’m also excited to announce that by September, I will be posting video clips of myself making some of my favorite recipes!

Yes, obviously Whole Foods Supermarket is an amazing skinny girl grocery shopping spot because they have TONS of uber healthy, low fat, sugar free, vegan, gluten-free and all natural versions of your favorite foods but this post is about why Whole Foods is a skinny spot for a meal when your running around during the day.

Top Ten Things You Can Grab to Eat at Whole Foods:

1. Anything from their yummy salad bar or fresh (healthy) food buffet.

2. Hot and homemade soups or oatmeal if it’s breakfast time.

3. Fresh cut veggies and fruit in snack size portions.

4. Sushi with brown rice and Edamame!

5. Vegan, Gluten-free and low fat scone and muffin options.

6. Premade Salad in three different sizes.(My Fav. is the goat cheese,walnut and cranberry one with baby spinach and fat free balsamic — yummm!)

7. Organic fruit and veggie juices and smoothies.

8. Their nut bar is absolutely delicious if your looking for a yummy little sweet snack.

9. All different macrobiotic dumplings/rice/sushi in meal size containers.

10. Just about every protein bar, meal bar, snack bar you could imagine and in all kinds of organic,all natural and vegan varieties.

Take a little trip to ‘Whole Foods’ – you will find a hard time not falling in love with this heavenly place made for anyone who cares about what they put into their body.

Just cause it’s the holidays is not an excuse to binge eat and ruin all the hard work you’ve been putting in all year! Yes, I know those comfy winter sweaters and stretchy pants make it oh so easy to forget how stuffed we are but the scale won’t. With Thanksgiving upon us, I decided I’d kick off our holiday tips but I’m sure they’ll be more to come before Christmas/Hannukah.

Thanksgiving Eve : I bet some people gain more weight on the night before Thanksgiving than on the day itself. Just because alcohol is a liquid does not mean it has any less calories! Be conscious of what you put into your body, stick to clear beverages with soda water and low calorie light beers. You’ll still get drunk I promise, which is what leads me to my next point. Don’t get drunk and binge eat. Yes, it’s 4am and I know that pizza looks appetizing but stop and think of how you’ll feel in the AM and resist!!

Wear tight clothes. Do it. Trust me. You’ll have a much better indicator of how full you are and be more likely to pace the amount of food you eat. That comfy sweat shirt is not your friend when it comes to holiday eating. Show off your cute little figure in a cute little dress or tight jeans and you’ll help keep your figure that way.

Veggies!! Vegetables are your friend. Learn to love them. While your impatiently waiting for your turkey or tofurkey to be ready, let the the vegetables in your crudite keep your mouth and tummy busy. Not only will you fill up on all that fiber and be less likely to overdose on stuffing or sweet potato caserole but you’ll save your self hundred of calories by avoiding the cheese/crackers or any other dip/fried/fattening h’ors deurves.

Help the host: (if your not hosting) Not only is this polite but it will also keep you from vegetating on the couch while watching football and eating chips. Keep yourself busy setting things up or preparing food and you won’t be tempted to eat out of boredom. Your friend or family member will surely appreciate the help and we can keep your true intentions between us. ;)

Good luck! Remember, it’s only one day, if you want to indulge pick your favorite dish and go for it but try to remember moderation and portion control. And a gym sesh on Friday if all else fails..

So after a long hiatus and completely burying the idea of blogging about my little cooking/healthy eating fascination under a mountain of unfulfilling part time jobs, I am back, thanks to a DVD of “Julie and Julia” I received in the mail a few days ago. And I decided tonight, after a particularly amazing yoga class, that I would treat myself to an evening of watching it while baking some vegan oatmeal muffins. Lo and behold, the muffins are AMAZING (and I will post the recipe! ) and here I am at my computer resurrecting this wonderful website back from the dead.

So where have I been and what have I been eating? Well, shortly after finishing my juice fast, I went back to the completely vegan side and stopped dabbling in animal products. My body feels fantastic and I really don’t have a terribly hard time eating healthy and staying full. In fact, being vegan has given me a kind of freedom I have never had before in my life. It gives me the freedom of not being on a diet. I don’t count calories anymore and I eat till I’m full. If I can make it vegan, I can eat it. Bagels, muffins, cookies, ice cream, anything at all I want, I allow myself to eat it. Now let’s be honest, I don’t live on these kind of treats or I would surely gain weight, but I never deny myself them. It’s a whole new world for me. I’m pretty sure this is the longest in my life I have gone without being on a diet. To be honest, I now finally understand what they mean when they say ‘it can’t be a diet, it has to be a lifestyle’. Vegan is my lifestyle, it’s not some crazy fad I’m doing for the next 3 months till bathing suit season or something ridiculous like that, it’s just how I eat.

I don’t want to preach and I would never force my views on anyone else (or judge them for eating meat!) but I figured I’d explain a little more about my particular lifestyle choice because I know it might seem a bit extreme. I love animals, yes, I have an awesome little Westie named Charlie who might as well be my little brother. However, I am not a vegan ONLY because of this. I truly disagree with the way our animals are handled in mass quantities and pretty much bred to be slaughtered. It’s gross and I personally don’t need that kind of karma in my life but for the sake of food chain logic, let’s go beyond that. The hormones, the pesticides, the infections, and the illnesses of these animals are seeping into our food supply and that is truly what I want to stay away from. Cows, chickens, pigs, etc are fed hormones to make them grow faster and gain weight so that the farms can expedite the slaughtering process. Now I absolutely do not need those kinds of hormones in my system, nooo thannk youu! Not to mentions the illnesses and infections these animals get because of the treacherous conditions they live in or the pesticides put on the grass/greens their fed – completely unappetizing.

Enough about that though, in all fairness I must admit I do slip off the vegan wagon from time to time and as a lover of food and cooking, it is hard to deny how amazing some animal products taste. I can’t promise I’ll be vegan for the rest of my life but I’m pretty sure I’ll always err toward the vegan side of the scale. I confess to missing fish (particularly salmon) and brie the most but I don’t ever see myself eating steak or drinking milk again.

* If your interested in learning more about living vegan, I strongly recommend checking out the books “The Kind Diet” and “Skinny Bitch”.

My roommate suggested when I told her about my idea for this site that I should add posts about my favorite meals. Now, this didn’t really occur to me seeing as I had already thought up a ‘coming soon’ recipe section for healthy cooking and baking but now seems like an obvious suggestion. Now I’m not going to bore  you with mundaneness of me eating an apple, or some raisins, etc. However, from time to time I’ll let you in on some yummy meals I prepare that will hopefully give you some easy to whip up healthy ideas for your day to day!

Today’s yummy selections include:

Raspberry Vanilla Soy Oatmeal : simply heat up a cup of Light Vanilla Soy Milk, add 1/2 cup of Quick Oats and fresh Raspberries or I personally heat up some frozen raspberries and make a raspberry compote of sorts and mix it in. Either way, it’s the perfect comfort food any time of day! Sweet, satisfying and healthy with the added bonus of being completely Vegan!

Scrambled Eggs with Grilled Eggplant : this one was inspired by some left over grilled eggplant I had from a few nights ago but ended up being delicious! So first, if you don’t have left over grilled eggplant – you can substitute it for any other left over veggie – or just grill it yourself. Cut the eggplant as thin as your expertise will allow and lay it out on paper towels. Press another paper towel on top of the slices to get rid of some of the moisture and put them in a frying pan with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil drizzled on top. I’d keep them their till their sufficiently browned for sweetness’ sake. Now you can simply cut them up into smaller pieces  for your eggs. I use one yolk and 3 egg whites and added a little rice milk for fluffiness. Mix em all together and throw it in your frying pan that you’ve sprayed with some fat-free non-stick cooking spray. A yummy,low- fat, delicious, protein packed, Vegetarian breakfast (or anytime meal).