Blasts of Light

HAPPY NEW YEAR MY GO SWEET AND SKINNY LOVES! I hope you all had a fabulous time wishing 2012 farewell and are filled with excitement for all the possibilities of 2013. I know I certainly am! New Years is probably my favorite time of the year because I reassess my goals, review what I’ve accomplished in the past year and create a game plan to dominate in the new year! However I can be as guilty of forgetting all my resolutions as 90% of America by the time February rolls around some years but I’m committed to not letting that happen this year and helping you stay on track as well! GoSweetandSkinny will be a place you can check back to for reminders of how to stick to your goals and for new ideas to make your health and fitness goals easy to accomplish and fun to achieve! For starters, I’d like to share with you some of our goals for 2013 because I want you to be able to hold me accountable and perhaps even help contribute to making some of them a reality! Then, stay tuned this week for even more posts about keeping your resolutions in gear and yourself on track for 2013!

What 2013 looks like for GOSWEETANDSKINNY

More voices. Not that mines not amazing or anything but you can look forward to seeing more guest bloggers on the site this year. GSS is all about making a healthy lifestyle easy and obtainable and I think it will be great hearing from all sorts of REAL people on what’s working for them, what hasn’t worked for them and what you might want to give a whirl! I’ll also be reaching out and blogging on other sites so we can get that GSS word out there.

More updates. My apologies for the less than consistent posting this year, I promise you can look forward to more posts each week, more tweets and more tip clips. I know how anxious you get when you don’t get your GSS fix!

More media attention. This site is dedicated to demystifying a healthy, fit lifestyle to the masses who are terrified that being in shape simply means suffering on salads for the rest of their dieting lives. However,no matter how much amazing content I put up, it does the masses no good if the masses don’t know about it! So this year I’ll be reaching out to magazines and newspapers to get the sweet and skinny word out there and help as many people as possible!

I couldn’t be more excited and I’m happy to have you going along for the ride with me! If you have any post ideas, want to write a guest blog, have a media connection or just want to share your new years resolutions with me, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com . I love hearing from you!

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

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Happy Holidays my sweet and skinny loves!! I hope your all done with your baking and cooking and have sometime to sit back and relax with your family for the next few days! This year I made nutella xmas trees, red velvet wreaths(pictured above) and vegan snickerdoodles! Since cookies are certainly on the naughty list I made them bite size so everybody can taste each different one with out busting their cookie calorie budget. I also made some pretty incredible wicked hot chocolate cupcakes which you can look forward to being posted about next week and some vegan strawberry shortcake cupcakes who’s recipe I’ll also divulge soon!

Alright, enough taunting you about yummy baked goods– here are some sweet and skinny tips for tonight and tomorrow! Enjoy!

Staying Slim during Santa Season:

Come prepared. I know it’s hard to remember to eat breakfast with all the excitement of the holidays and all the things on your to do list but a good healthy breakfast will be your best friend later in the day! Don’t arrive at a party ravenous or you’ll eat whatever they have out, when your not too hungry you have the advantage of being picky about what goes in your mouth!

Bring your own. This is my go to. When in doubt bring a delicious appetizer and/or dessert that’s healthy or low in fat. This way everyone wins, you look like a super sweet guest and you know for sure there will be something you really like that’s also healthy for you at the party!

Think like a bird. That’s right, take tiny portions of everything and only go back for seconds on things you absolutely love. You get to sample all the goodies and not over eat. An even better ideas is to allow yourself twenty minutes before you go back for seconds. This way you’ll know of your truly hungry enough for another!

Hope this helps! Drink lots of water and focus on catching up with your loved ones, not the buffet and you’ll sail through the holidays sweet and skinny style!

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

With only a few days left before Christmas, if your anything like me your stressed beyond belief! Between last minute shopping, christmas card writing, cookie (and cupcake) baking and trying to figure out my holiday wardrobe, exercise and yoga are a MUST DO! It’s my favorite way to stay balanced, focused and keep my head in the right place to juggle it all. Yet I find myself still looking for something else to add to my usual routine during these crazy pre-holiday times.

Luckily, a new study from Stanford University has found that drinking just three cups of chamomile tea a day can have a similar or perhaps even better (cause of it’s extra painkilling benefits) effect on my stress level this season! Just three little cups can help ease tension headaches and soothe a stress-related upset stomach. As an added bonus, the calming effect of this herb also helps reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol which causes inflammation and can lead to weight gain. It’s no wonder Starbuck’s calls this tea “Calm”, I’m getting relaxed just thinking about the cup I’m about to enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

Sorry for the belated post – was having some technical issues with YouTube yesterday. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

Picking the right gym for you is about as crucial to your physical fitness as picking the right partner is for your relationship! I would say that no one gym is neccesarily better than the next, they’re all just different and it really depends on your taste. Now, as you can guess, this article was inspired because I just joined a new gym! After moving a couple months ago, my old gym was no longer convenient and I needed to find something more local. There are about four gyms within walking distance of my apartment with quite a range in style and atmosphere. After visiting them all it became clear what was important to me in a gym and what gym I would REALLY want to go to day after day – and that’s the key to finding a place that helps you work out! Here are the ABC’s I would strongly advise you to consider when choosing the perfect gym to start shedding that holiday weight at..

ATMOSPHERE
Do you feel like your in someone’s basement? A mannequin on display at a store in a window front space? Now don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean these negatively, if you like the rough and gruff appeal of a basement like gym with the barebones of decorations and tons of machines and weights because it makes you feel like your ready to pump some iron and work hard – then that’s the right gym for you! If you get so bored at cardio but absolutely love people watching, maybe a gym with a huge window front that you can stare at while working it on the elliptical is for you. If your like me, you’ll tend to go for the spa like gym with a sauna and jacuzzi because it makes you feel like your treating yourself to a workout each day. The key is just to recognize which one is going to get you into YOUR workout happy place!

BUDDIES
Nothing beats having a friend to meet at the gym, I promise nothing will make you look forward to it more. My friend Katelyn and I have been taking full advantage of belonging to the same gym, exploring classes together and gossiping on the treadmill before rewarding ourselves with a nice sauna or steam session. It doesn’t even feel like work if you have someone to join you and you’ll never miss a gym date when someones counting on you to be there!If you don’t know anyone in your neighborhood, it might also be a good idea to take some group classes and try to make a gym buddy out of someone you frequently see in your favorite classes.

CLASSES
Classes are SO important if your a group exercise person or just stuck in a rut. I’m not a huge fan of spinning but I absolutely love the spinning class at my gym because I know I will get a work out I wouldn’t get by myself. If your a yoga girl, you may want to ask around the gym about the different yoga instructors and who teaches the best class. NYC gyms are expensive enough as it is, you don’t want to join one and then have to go take your Zumba class somewhere else, so make sure you pick one with classes you could really see yourself going to!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

Motivational quotes are probably one of my favorite things in the world. I’m a total quote-a-holic, I have pages of them in my documents, they’re tacked all over my cork board and scribbled on my dry erase board. So I thought I’d share my little personal “fire starter” with you. Every monday morning I’m going to share another motivational quote to start your week off on the right foot! I hope it get’s you thinking and sets your mind in the right direction for having the best week yet.

This first one is particularly close to my heart, it’s been with me since high school and it’s probably the closet thing to my life motto. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” You are a blank slate and the beauty of that is that you can create whatever you’d like. We live in a world where people are inventing jobs that would have never been thought possible just a decade ago. We’re breaking barriers and reinventing ourselves and you can do this right now in your life. It can be as big as deciding you want to start your own business or as small as deciding you want to be a person who regularly goes to the gym. You decide what defines you, what kind of person you want to be. So what do YOU want to create this week?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

I hope you guys all read my “Morning Mojo” post, it was super quick and if I do say so myself, motivational. In keeping with the theme of that I figured I would share one of my favorite morning go-to DVDs, “Bethenny’s Skinnygirl Workout”. I love workout DVDs in general just because they’re so convenient, great for taking when traveling and perfect for that spur of the moment sweat (or stretch) session at home! This one is particularly close to my heart because it’s Bethenny! So for me it’s a two for one special, it’s a pretty intense yoga practice while getting to watch a woman who I personally find truly inspirational.She’s done leap and bounds to help make eating healthy and staying skinny accessible to woman everywhere and seeing her face during my morning work out reminds me of all that we are capable of and all that I strive to accomplish. Not a bad way to start the day,eh?

Anyways, more on the DVD, it’s divided into three 15 minute segments where you can pause it if you don’t have time for a full on 45 minute work out but it also flows nicely if you don’t pause, which is really quite wonderful. It’s ideal for someone who’s done a bunch of yoga before and is trying to incorporate a morning workout into their lives. You can start just doing the first 15 minutes for a week or two and gradually work your way up to doing the entire workout through. I usually prefer a more spiritual, meditative yoga class but I think this is a really great wake up routine to get those juices going so I’ll save the meditative stuff for later at night. 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)


I heard a very interesting story the other day about a woman who wanted to start exercising in the morning before work but was having a real hard time putting it into action. That was until someone told her to start taking small steps. “Wake up and put on your gym clothes and have coffee.” they suggested. Sounds a bit silly, eh? Well after a week of waking up, putting on her gym clothes and having coffee she started doing 10 mins of light stretching, the next week 15 mins of yoga and so on till she had a full on morning work out routine! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are great rituals!

I hope this inspires you to wake up just a little bit earlier and rally yourself to take those baby steps to a rewarding commitment.  I know for me getting my body going in the morning starts my whole day off on the right foot! I tend to switch it up, depending on the day I’ll either do 30 mins on the elliptical and some free weights or a yoga dvd. Even on those days you hit snooze a little bit longer than you planned, there are some great 15 minute stretches and morning yoga sessions on youtube right at your fingertip! Here’s one below from yoga today that I did the other morning to get the juices flowing when I didn’t have the time for a full on workout.  I’ll keep posting different ones as I stumble upon them because it’s a great way to spice up your morning and turn a potential breakdown into a breakthrough. You have no idea how amazing you’ll feel even doing ten minutes of yoga on a morning you normally would have just hoped in the shower and made an excuse. When you move in the morning it sets a great tone for the rest of the day to be happier, healthier and a more take charge you! Try it for a week and I promise you’ll start looking forward to it. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

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Just the other day I had a lunch break while I was filming a movie down in TriBeCa and I stumbled upon this adorable little Cosmopolitan Cafe. It was the perfect quiet spot to enjoy a low key relaxing lunch. I was feeling a bit naughty and decided to indulge in some banana pancakes and scrambled eggs but their menu had some wonderful healthy options. Everything you could ask for with a bit of a home cooked spin. I’d highly recommend checking it out if your in the area for brunch with a friend or just a nice rejuvenating lunch alone! With my warm cup of green tea and my Diane Keaton autobiography that I’m reading – I couldn’t have asked for a more heavenly lunch hour!

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Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

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I was on location this weekend for a film shoot and it just reminded me of the importance of B.Y.O.S. or bring your own snacks! Now I’m lucky enough to be able to make specific requests most of the time like vegetarian, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, etc., however, I still always try to remember to bring a “just incase” snack. You never know when they’ll have donuts and bagels for breakfast and your ravenous after a long night of sleep and will be tempted eat anything. Bringing snacks helps you stay on track without starving!

For this particular shoot the other actress and I brought fiber one bars, special K meal bars and mixed nuts. Not exactly a buffet but enough to tie us over if need be. Now normally I would recommend staying away from over processed bars but in this instance it’s much easier to have a few bars and a bag of nuts in your purse instead of dealing with perishables. So maybe you don’t have a film shoot coming up but it also comes in handy for road trips, camping trips or your office retreat, pretty much anywhere your at someone else’s mercy for food!

Nuts are a great go-to, just watch out for the salted or cinnamon sugared ones. Get plain nuts and don’t eat much more than a handful at a time. Nuts have lots of great fat in them and we really don’t need as many of them as we think to feel full. Just give your body a little time to digest and then go back for seconds if you still want. This particular nut mix is pistachios, almonds and cashews. Pistachios are a really top choice nut health wise and cashews have ‘happy’ nutrients in them that can be a sort of natural Prozac. They’re two of my favorites!

Fiber/protein bars can be a little trickier. Some are loaded with sugars and carbs so you’ll have to do a bit of label reading for these. I love the Special K meal bars because they have a lot of fiber and protein, plus they taste pretty good. They can fill you up and leave you satisfied for around 170 cals. Some of my other favorites include LARABARs which are vegan and made from fruits and nuts. My two go to flavors are lemon pie and cherry pie- they’re soo yummy! KIND bars are also great but I think of them as more of a snack or maybe a quick breakfast/lunch when there’s not too much time till the next meal. They have a great blueberry cashew and a naughty dark chocolate sea salt that can hit the spot. Don’t be afraid to spend a little time in the store aisle reading all the nutrition labels, it’ll help you find a great bar that’s good for you and can become your diet’s safety net!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)

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In this lovely installment of “don’t make me write a blog post about you”, I would like to discuss the subject of integrity. For those of you who question how relevant this is to my blog, I say to you,” I have a blog and I’ll rant if I want to!”. Kidding! Gosweetandskinny is about the SWEET and skinny life and this can certainly help you out with the first part of that! Integrity is a really easy way to make your life work for you and strengthen your relationships in all areas of your life and I think it’s something in our text crazed, facebooking iPad world that has gone to the waste side!

I have noticed more and more that my lady friends and business contacts can become huge black holes for communication at times! Not to be sexist, but for men when it comes to business I usually get a speedy response but that hasn’t been the case with some female contacts lately. I’ve felt like a crazed girl after the third date waiting for a text back about a business lunch! It’s absolutely ridiculous! Now, I know I’m no saint and can be completely guilty at times of falling off the planet for a day or two when I’m super busy BUT I would never make plans with someone and then just not get back to them or completely ignore a text MSG/email/etc. Ladies, we need to look out for each other, help each other fulfill our personal and business goals and I am telling you the foundation for everything is your integrity!

What does that mean? Answer every call, respond to every txt right away? Not necessarily, it’s probably easier than calling someone back or remembering to text later but I know how annoying an electronic leash can be so you can get back to people in an appropriate time frame. However, it is important to get back to people! Relationships are so crucial to our livelihood and you want to have a reputation of reliableness and communication in both the your personal and professional world. You know how annoying it is when a guy your dating is posting in Facebook while not answering your texts? Guess what? It’s just as annoying when it’s a different scenario with a business contact. You can’t hide in our social media crazed world. You don’t have to say yes to every meeting or tackle every project, just say something and stick to it. If you say your going to do something make it happen and if you physically can’t do something then let them know that. Under promise and over perform but never the opposite.

After some recent incidents inspiring this blog entry, I’m definitely going to give myself a big integrity check up and make sure I’m keeping up with my word. I’m going to clear and file my inbox tonight so that I can easily see which messages need my attention and I’m going to schedule a time each evening to check my txts and vmails to make sure I respond to everyone even when I’ve had a crazy day. What will you do? We can all improve our integrity and we’re not always going to be perfect but if we make an honest effort we’ll be well on our way!

Thoughts, feedback? Email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com, you know I’ll get back to you! 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan and vegetarian recipes (from everything from appetizers to cupcakes!) and diet advice. I”m committed to helping you get skinny and live the sweet life! Please follow @gosweetnskinny on twitter, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel (youtube.com/user/gosweetandskinny) to keep yourself sweet and skinny 24/7. And as always, feel free to email me at gosweetandskinny@gmail.com and let me know what low fat, healthy recipes you want to see on the site, what diet books your trying and ask any diet questions your little heart desires! I’m here to help you!:)