Make the Vision for Your Life Your Reality
Such a pleasure to be on Sarah Baker’s lovely health and wellness website, BalancedBabe.com. Honored to be a featured “balanced babe” and to be interviewed by Sarah about everything from my experience on ABC’s The Taste, how I work with my coaching clients and to how I started blogging for GoSweetandSkinny! Click here to read the entire interview.
When I saw my new friend, Desiree, discuss a conversation we had on her instagram feed, I was so moved at how she had taken my advice to heart and I just knew I had to share it with you all. Before I get into it, read what she said and I’ll chat a little more at the bottom.
So inspiring!!! I love how she was able to change her perspective and is now back on tract with a diet that’s going to keep her auto-immune disease in check and allow her to be the glowing, radiant being she is. I see this “intention situation” often in my clients with prior histories of eating disorders or disordered eating. They were so wrapped up in associating healthy food or limiting food with punishment and self-hatred that they have a hard time flipping the switch and realizing when it is okay to make certain food choices. My go to for those clients is always to discuss the intentions behind eating, sometimes even go so far as to tell them to silently recite the intention for their food before they eat it! If this is something you struggle with, try that for a week. Before you put anything into your mouth, whether it’s a green smoothie or a bacon cheeseburger, say to yourself, ” I am eating this food to nourish and fuel my body” or whatever intention that you connect with to get to that place of true self-love and wellbeing.
It’s no wonder people feel negative emotions around dieting, even if you haven’t struggled with any severe disorder eating almost all of us of have put ourselves through the misery of diet at one point in our lives. I’m officially 26 days off sugar, if you asked my boyfriend, he’d say I’m just torturing myself, however because of the intention behind my actions ( exploring the benefits of eliminating sugar from your diet and test driving it for a couple clients who are interested in trying it) I have found it to be a totally exciting adventure! Don’t worry you’ll hear more about how it went in a later blog or vlog after my 30 days are up. My point is that because I’m doing it for fun, seeing it as an experiment and research for my clients who I absolutely adore, it’s no a brainer. The second you try to do a diet to “lose weight” or “fix yourself” it’s going to feel like depravation. Switch your focus to the FUN, to the LIGHT at the end of the tunnel, think about it as self-care.
Taking care of your body and fueling it would foods that support it’s best possible vitality is an absolutely wonderful thing. Stand in the power of doing something fabulous for yourself and if a certain style of eating or book your reading about food doesn’t seem to be in sync energetically and intentionally with that, then toss it! If you’re serious about changing your energy and feelings around food and dieting then reach out, email me for a breakthrough session at Cassandra@GoSweetandSkinny.com and let me walk you through it so you can start transforming those intentions ASAP.
I am incredibly proud to say that I successfully completed my first half marathon this past weekend in Central Park at the More/Fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon. 13.1 miles of pure blissful power and a major check off my bucket list (yes I know I’m getting started early, but why not!?) .
First, let me say I’m not a runner.
My friends find this hilarious because I do run from time to time but only for a race or a cause, usually both. What I mean is, I’m not that girl that loves waking up at the crack of dawn and pounding the pavement. I despise the treadmill even more than the streets and in total honesty, I find running extraordinarily boring at times. I’m a yoga girl, I’ll get up early to get to class, love twisting my body in all sorts of fun postures and will happily do it several times a week. So running was all about going out of my comfort zone and challenging my endurance.
I trained for about a month and a half before the actual race and let me tell you IT WAS HARD, for me at least. I seriously give props to runners who do it day after day. It definitely taught me about commitment and pushing myself. Gosh, it was too easy to give up after 3 miles when it’s just me out there in the park and my foot starts hurting or I just get bored on the treadmill. Yet I’m so happy I didn’t, I pushed and pushed and broke past my comfort zone.
A couple weeks into training I gave up sugar, they’ll be a vlog on that coming soon, but suffice to say the first few days running on no sugar (aka no easy carbs) were extraordinarily challenging but it didn’t take too long to adjust. By the time race day came, I didn’t even eat anything in the morning and I was fine!
The night before the race I did make some pretty kick ass healthy, sugar free “cookies” to carb load. That recipe will be in this week’s email blast so sign up below if you want it! They were delicious and did just the trick. I carried a few of them in my pocket for the actual race, just in case, but never ended up needing them.
Race day was actually leagues better than any of my practice runs. There’s so much energy in the air, so many people all around and I made a kick ass playlist with the help of some friends, so I was pumped. I ran the first 8 miles relatively seamlessly, although for anyone who knows Central Park, some of those hills are a killer! It wasn’t till mile 8 which was an typical practice run for me that I started feeling it, had to push through, pump up the tunes (we’re talking Britney Spear’s “Work B*tch”, American Authors “Best Day of My Life” and Sara Barielles “Brave”) to keep me going.
By mile 11, it was actually more painful to walk for the 30 seconds I was guzzling water at the hydration stations than it was to keep pace and run. I ended up running the entire thing other than those water breaks where I simply stopped so I didn’t choke on the H2O I was inhaling.
Once I saw that finish line in sight it was like an extra burst of energy and the high of knowing that I completed it (and it better time than I had imagined) was indescribable. I was walking on sunshine.
Will I do it again? Maybe. The Brooklyn half is in month. ;)
If anyone has any questions about the half marathon, training or is contemplating doing one yourself, feel free to comment below and I’ll answer any questions you may have!
After running 13.1 miles yesterday, I was craving a hearty, filling and treat-worthy breakfast. After messing around with some ingredients I had in the kitchen, I whipped up this super easy to make recipe for healthy, raspberry chia seed pancakes that are not only sugar free, they are also PACKED with protein! Woo Hoo! Who says a girl can’t have everything? Enjoy this recipe and feel free to add a little maple syrup or date syrup to sweeten up if you are not “I quit sugar”-ing with me.
healthy sugar free raspberry chia seed protein pancakes
2 tbsp of non fat plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup oat bran
1 organic hormone free egg
2 tsp of flax seed
2 tsp chia seed
a dash of vanilla extract
a dash of cinnamon
6 or 7 raspberries gently broken up (by hand ) into small pieces (and then extra for on top!)
Add everything except the raspberries and mix it up in a small bowl. Heat your pan on low setting and spray with your favorite cooking spray or use a little coconut oil. Add in raspberries last and gently fold them in. Batter should make three 5-6in pancakes (perfect single serving!), feel free to double or triple it when eating with others. I topped mine with some mashed raspberries and a couple whole ones on top!
Great thing about this recipe is that it’s not only easy, quick and contains minimal ingredients but it’s sugar free and has tons of protein thanks to the egg and non fat greek yogurt. Toss in the flaxseed meal and chia seed and we’re also loading up on heart healthy omega-3s while getting a nice dose of fiber with the oat bran! It’s GOOD and good FOR YOU!
My SUPER simple Chia Seed Pudding recipe:
Just take 2 tbsp of chia seeds and one cup of almond milk (or coconut milk) and mix them together in cup (I love using little mason jars). I added 1/2 tsp of pumpkin spice (cinnamon,nutmeg,cloves) to this batch and it was delicious with out using any sugar! Store it in the fridge for at least 3-5 hours or overnight- I tend to stir it on and off in the first hour or so to prevent clumping of the chia seeds.
Isn’t is always those pesky LAST FIVE POUNDS that we’re trying to get rid of!? I work with so many clients to help them make those small healthy changes to get rid of those last 5lbs for good and with summer just around the corner, I wanted to share my “secret” with you! Watch this video, put this tool into action and you WILL see results! You just have to DO IT.Ready to go deeper and learn even more simple steps to start looking better and feeling great? Check out my Mindful Eating & Meditation video here.
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I was craving a healthy snack this afternoon and decided to try my hand at whipping up some baked zucchini chips! I have been thinking about different healthy snack ideas for my upcoming Sweet + Skinny Detox Meal Plan and these fit right in perfectly! They are super healthy, easy to make and really satisfy that crunchy potato chip craving.
Baked Zucchini Chips
Preheat your oven to 225 degrees. Slice a zucchini very thin, you can use a mandolin if you have one but cutting them as thin as you can with a good knife works just fine! Spray 2 baking sheets with olive oil cooking spray and spread out your zucchini slices evenly so they do not overlap. Sprinkle some garlic, oregano and a little salt and pepper to your liking and bake them for 1 hour and a half to 2 hours, depending how thin you slice. You’ll know they’re done when they get a little brown and turn crunchy!
I’m not a big protein shake girl, it’s never really been my thing. So when I got a sample of body logix’s chocolate vegan protein powder, I just stuck it in my drawer. Fast forward to these past few weeks where I’ve been training for a half marathon and it has been really interesting finding just the right kind of breakfast to get me going before my run. It can’t be too heavy or I won’t feel well and it can’t be too light or I won’t run as long as I need to, so a protein smoothie seemed like it just might be right! I jazzed this one up by adding flaxseed meal and even snuck in some kale, of course.
Mocha Protein Smoothie
1 serving size of chocolate vegan protein powder ( I used bodylogix and it tasted good. It’s also soy free, dairy free, non gmo and has no artificial flavors. They DID NOT pay me to say this! haha)
1 frozen banana (but a regular one will do)
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup coffee
2 tbsp flaxseed meal
1 cup of kale ( or just two handfuls of kale)
4 ice cubes
Blend it all together and enjoy! You can also add dates to make it a little sweeter but I’m off the sugar right now so that’s why I didn’t.