This week’s favorites

These past couple of weeks have been BANANAS!

First, I’ve had house guests for the last week and a half.  And now…it’s time to move!  So I thought I would just pop in real quick to share some of this week’s favorites with y’all.

Favorite eats:

I made SkinnyTaste’s Cilantro Lime Shrimp with a side salad that consisted of: spinach, fresh figs, chopped red onion, pistachios, chopped apple, chopped pear and topped with dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and olive oil…YUMMMMM!

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Favorite workout:

Because of aforementioned craziness, I’ve had to keep my workouts short and sweet.  So, this week my favorite was this tabata workout that I found via The Not Quite “It” Girls.  I did this quick little workout in between 2 x 15 minute sessions on the elliptical.

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My favorite picture from this past boozy crazy weekend (courtesy of Genell…thanks bitch):

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And my favorite wiener dogs.  I seriously can’t get enough of these guys!

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I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

Next week’s diet plan and a photo dump

Hola!  Como Estas?

I’ve got some familia in town so things have been a little bit hectic around here.

So far this week, I have been doing The Blonde Ponytail‘s Summer Shapeup plan.  I wanted to do a spinning class this afternoon but I came to the sad realization that my gym membership expired (because we are moving in 1.6 weeks, I can’t believe it!!!).  SO, yesterday and today, I did Day 5 and Day 6 of week 1.  The upside is that my building’s gym has a pretty great view especially during the summertime where there’s lots going on in the park.  I was workin’ out as I looked down on the peeps at the concert in the park!

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Next week I am planning on eating super clean and I thought I would share an example of what a day will be looking like.  In general, I will be avoiding carbs, sugar, alcohol, meat and dairy.  I’ve been doing all of the above this week minus the alcohol 😉

Breakfast: 2 egg whites, 1 egg + coffee with almond milk (no picture because I’m lazy)

Lunch: Salad with a variety of fruit/veggies + oil and vinegar (in this picture I had 1/4 of an avocado, broccoli, tofu, red peppers, arugula, cucumbers, olive oil, fig-invused vinegar)

Snacks: 12 almonds + handful of grape tomatoes

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Dinner: fish + veggies

ImageIf you try this, I urge you to eat as many veggies as you want.  In terms of fruit, limit yourself to berries.

In other news, I got some new duds (sneakers) and am getting rid of some old duds (dishes).  It actually worked out quite perfectly because my bro-in-law and his woman want the dishes I’m getting rid of for their new apartment: win-win!

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ImageI will miss those dishes but I am also looking forward to entertaining guests with the new ones 🙂

And in case you are bored, here is another photo dump from my weekend…

Saturday, we rented an electric boat and cruised up and down the river so I thought I would share a couple of pictures with you.  Obviously, alcohol was involved (except for the driver, she did not partake…thanks for being the DD Leslie!!!).

Me and the blondie DD before things got messy.

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My husband chose to wear his “captain” hat even though he was not the captain at all!Image

That’s all I’ve got for now!

I hope you guys have a great rest of your week!

A cleanse, some good workouts and my favorite processed foods

Happy Friday ya’ll!

I’ve been a little MIA for several reasons.  First, I did this cleanse on Monday & Tuesday so I had ZERO energy to do anything. The cleanse isn’t too bad in the fact that a) you eat actual food and you eat really clean and 2) you can bank on losing 3-4 pounds.  As long as you continue to eat healthy after the cleanse is over, you can plan on keeping the weight off, too (in fact, I’ve lost another pound since!).  However, I do have one suggestion: DO IT WITH SOMEONE ELSE!!!  Because that thing is NOT easy peasy.  I did it with my step-sister, Melissa and it was nice that we were able to bitch to each other during the 2 days.

I’ve also got like 800 million people that are coming to visit Chicago over the next 2 weeks so I’ve been trying to get my life together in preparation for that.

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Lately, when it comes to my workouts, I’ve been feeling a little apathetic.  I did complete the following workout that I thought I would share:

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I found the “Supine Oblique Ball Twist” from Shape Magazine and it looks like this:

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Because of said apathetic feeling, I figured it was time to lean on someone else to come up with my workouts for me.  SO, this week I started The Blonde Ponytail’s 4 week Summer Shape Up Plan.  I did Day 3 yesterday and it would GOOD.  In fact, my husband (who is ridiculously fit) agreed that it was a great workout.

I don’t plan on following it to a tee but I am going to plan on doing at least 3 of the workouts a week.  You can find week 1 HERE.  I highly recommend trying this out!

Moving right along to my take on processed foods…  I consider myself to be someone who eats really clean most of the time.  However, I do think that in today’s world, it can be really difficult what with busy lives and all the shit that is out there (hello, just take a look at the list of ingredients on most, if not all, foods that are in the middle aisles of the grocery store).  Often, it is just a lot easier to eat the garbage than to take the extra time to make your own “clean” version of something.  With that being said, there are also other things that are just simply guilty pleasures and I thought I would share with you some of mine.

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LAUGHING COW CHEESE IS PROCESSED?!?!?  Yep.  Do you know what the hell “sodium citrate” looks like?  Me neither.  But you know what?  It’s delicious.  And I don’t care.

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As much as I would love to brag about making my own alfredo sauce, I am much too lazy for that.  Especially on the weeknights.  So with this one, I choose not to look at the list of ingredients.  #sorryimnotsorry

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I put this crap in my coffee every. single. morning.  I have tried so hard to use almond milk but I just can’t.  I love this stuff to the death.  I don’t even want to think about what “mono and diglycerides” are.

Speaking of coffee, another guilty pleasure?

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SKINNY VANILLA LATTE!!!!  OK, this DEFINITELY has a bunch of garbage in it.  I see those baristas pumping sugary shit in that cup.  But you know what? I DON’T CARE!!! Bwahahaha!

So next time you find yourself eating or drinking processed food, don’t worry, most other people do it too!

I hope you guys have a fabulous weekend!

Do you have any processed foods that you just can’t live without?

My mini-goals and a MAJOR photo dump

Happy Tuesday peeps.  I have been TERRIBLE about getting my ass to the gym.

My IT band has been bothering me along with my ankle (STILL!) so it has been a struggle to get myself to the gym knowing that I can’t run.  Today, it made me realize that I need a few mini-goals to get myself re-motivated so here they are:

1) STOP feeling sorry for myself about being injured and START doing something about it.  So my goal is to focus on low impact weight lifting, spinning, swimming and doing the elliptical.

2) Do a better job of meal planning (mainly, lunches).  Lately I have been scrounging around for food to bring to work and end up feeling unsatisfied after eating.

3) Live in the moment!  I often find myself being so consumed with my “list” that I lose sight of what life is all about.  STOP IT.

And now for the fun part!!! PHOTO DUMP (I know you guys are so excited, stop frontin’)

Last weekend (Memorial Day), the weather was nothing to write home about but we did get out on Sunday and that was nice.

ImageAnd then a SERIOUS game of Jenga commenced.

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Followed by a little rooftop action and a game of Parcheesi.

Hello Michigan Avenue!

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ImageThen this past weekend, it was time for some BFF action with my high school sweetheart who now lives in NYC with her husband.

Friday, we went to the Rolling Stones concert and it was AMAZING!

The stage:

 

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Guys, Mick Jagger is SO SKINNY!Image

 

 

This is us after the concert, clearly sober.Image

 

The next day, we went to the bean, walked through an art festival, had brunch and went to a music festival that got rained out.  Here’s a couple pictures from Saturday.

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ImageIt truly was an amazing weekend, the only thing missing was our friend Iveline who lives in Paris.  We miss you Iveline!!!!

Anyway, after my fun-filled weekend, yesterday, my husband and I decided to hit up the free concert in the park.

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SEE, I told you it was a major photo dump!!!

Anyone have any unforgettable memories/weekends/nights/events of late?

Mine was definitely the Rolling Stones concert!  Thanks again Rachelle & Michael!

 

 

 

 

Recent eats

Greetings!  This weekend was AMAZING (minus the awful weather).  As I said in my last post, my wonderful friend, Rachelle and her husband came to Chicago this weekend so I was hanging out with them and it was AWESOME!  I plan on doing a separate post about my past weekend because it was one I will never forget.

I have been pretty good about taking pictures of some of my recent eats and I thought I would share them with y’all.

So here goes…

Favorite breakfast of the week: green smoothie with avocado toast on the side

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A couple of my lunches included:

Cucumber and tomato salad in a carb friendly wrap

ImageSalmon and pineapple skewers (well, they were on skewers but I failed as a human being today and they completely fell apart) with chilled roasted brussels sprouts on the side.

ImageI’ve been eating carrots and cottage cheese with fruit every.single.day this past two weeks.  What can I say, I love the stuff!

ImageCONFESSION: I’ve been really into making bread every week.  I think it’s because I am in “nesting” mode where I want to be Martha Stewart when I grow up.  Last week was cheddar chive cheese bread and this week was Onion cheese bread (I think someone (ahem, me) likes cheese).  I don’ think my husband is complaining 😉Image

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Anyone been consistently snacking on something healthy and delicious?!?!  Please share because I NEED to get out of my snacking rut!