The weather is starting to heat up here in Virginia. It’s officially time to start packing away my winter wardrobe, busting out the shorts and incorporating more warm weather foods, like overnight oats and smoothies, into my diet.

I’m pretty sure you guys already know this, but I’m pretty much hooked on adding greens to all of my smoothies. If you haven’t tried my green lemonade smoothie, what are you waiting for? Just kidding, kind of. No, but really, it’s good and I do recommend trying it.

I’ve grown to like the “green” taste in my smoothies but the recipe I’m sharing today is perfect for those just getting hopping on-board the green smoothie train. It uses frozen banana and mango, both of which are super sweet and do a great job masking just about anything. Of course, it’s still a winner for those of us that have been drinking green smoothies for ages — you can’t really go wrong when combining banana, mango and coconut.

The recipe is actually inspired by one of my favorite smoothies from the Tone It Up Beach Babe edition: the Monkey’s Mango and Coconut Cream Smoothie. It has tropical flavors, which give me a reminder that after all the stress of planning a wedding, our day will be here (and be amazing!!) and then Isaac and I will be headed to the Caribbean to relax and soak up the sun while sipping tropical flavored drinks similar to this one, but with a splash or two of rum.

I normally buy and use Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze but this week I decided to switch it up and buy the Unsweetened Almondmilk Coconutmilk blend. It’s perfect for this tropical smoothie but I also love the subtle coconut flavor it adds to my morning iced coffee. I’ve been enjoying it this week while day dreaming about laying on the beach with my toes in the sand. Can you tell I’m ready for our honeymoon?

What’s your favorite green smoothie combo?

Hey friends. I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was busy and fun — starting on Thursday with Isaac’s sisters’ college graduation in NOVA and ending on Sunday with a long drive home from a wedding in Long Island. 

Traveling and events always make it a little more difficult to stay on track with healthy eating and workout routines, but I tried my best. I have a few tips and tricks I use when traveling. Here’s my normal routine:

• Pack my workout gear: one or two workout outfits, shoes, socks, head phones and my heart rate monitor
• Pack healthy snacks. Y’all are probably going to think I’m crazy but as soon as I know I’m going on a trip, the first thing I usually start packing are my snacks. It’s kind of comical, but I’ve found that being prepared is way better than being hangry. And unless you’re going to a big city with lots of healthy options, it can often be a challenge to find nutritious options. 
• Research. I always check out the place I’ll be staying to see if there’s a gym and then look at a map to see what’s nearby — cool workout studios, healthy restaurants, etc. I always look to see if there’s a Whole Foods nearby as well.

This weekend we were driving so I packed lots of snacks including hardboiled eggs, mini protein muffins, a grapefruit, apples, a baked sweet potato, a couple KIND Bars, protein powder, almond butter, almonds and sunflower seeds. 

Before our trip I emailed Erica and Adam (our lovely hosts that live in Brooklyn) to see if Erica would want to go to a SoulCycle, Bar Method or Physique 57 class with me. NYC has the best workout classes and I wanted to try at least one of them! Erica loves SoulCycle and was totally game so we made plans to attend a class at 7:30AM on Saturday morning. 

We went to the NoHo location on Lafayette and the class was, in one word, amazing!

I’m not sure if the bikes are nicer than the spin bikes at my gym or if wearing actual spin shoes made all the difference, but the ride seemed to be smoother and overall more comfortable and enjoyable than a regular spin class experience at my gym. The environment was awesome — around 50 bikes in a dimly lit room, the instructor’s bike on a little stage in the center with a few candles around it. Throughout the class upbeat music pumped through the speakers while the instructor energeticly led us in what we should be doing by calling out different positions and demonstrating. The rhythm of the music was timed perfectly with what were doing on the bike. And we weren’t just riding…oh no, we were working our whole body by turning up the bike’s resistance, jumping in and out of the saddle and doing pushups and crunches while pedaling.

At one point we even pulled out small weights for a track full of arm exercises. This part reminded me a lot of the arm exercises I’m used to doing in a barre class. Let me be the first to tell you that the 2 lb weights are quite deceiving. By the time the track was over, my biceps and triceps were on fire! Definitely feeling the bun. 

Another aspect I loved is that I could feel my core working the entire time. Because we were doing so many other things on the bike, I really had to focus on keeping my core engaged to make sure I stayed balanced. The class was 45 minutes and I burned around 460 calories, only a tiny bit less than what I would burn in a normal spin class, which is an additional 15 minutes long.

SoulCycle is definitely an effective cardio workout and it’s SUPER fun. I could easily see myself wanting to go a few times a week if I lived in New York. Alas, I guess I just have to wait for BoHo Cycle Studio to open in Richmond later this year. 

 After class I convinced Erica we needed to swing by NoHo Juice Bar. I got their signature green juice sans the celery…

Obviously I hated it.

I also convinced Erica we should go to Whole Foods… because I needed more snacks. Obviously.

No but really, I do like to explore Whole Foods in different areas. They always have unique setups and fun local flair. The New York locations are always awesome and tend to have things we don’t have yet in Richmond (like the black label Classic GT Synergy Kombucha). I also found some tasty chili mango trail mix that I’ve never seen at our Whole Foods before. It’s already gone and I’m wishing I would have bought more.  

After that little adventure, we headed back to Brooklyn, woke up the boys and had breakfast at Maybelle’s Cafe before heading to Long Island for our friends’ wedding. 

My egg white omelette with spinach and mushrooms.

By the time the ceremony was about to begin the weather was a little rainy and cold so it had to be moved indoors Of course, everything was still beautiful and perfect. We had a great time celebrating our friends, Meghann and Rob. We drank a little, ate a little and danced a lot — as it should be.

The lovely couple!

Some fun details…

This was the last wedding we’ll be attending before our wedding, which is now less than four weeks away! So much to do and so much excitement!!

Question for you: Have you ever taken a SoulCycle class or something similar? What did you think? 

Hi friends. Sorry I left you all in the lurch for a few days — things have been crazy busy with wedding planning, work and the like. In addition, last weekend was Mother’s Day (Happy belated Mother’s Day to all my moms out there) and I took time away from the computer to hang out with the fam. It was quite lovely and a much needed break from the computer and wedding planning. I’m a pretty laid back person and I’ve been trying to be a laid back bride but the countdown is officially on (32 days!!!) and my stress level seems to be rising as the number of days until the BIG DAY dwindle…

Speaking of wedding stuff, this Wednesday (a.k.a. tomorrow) I have my bridal portraits. I’m really excited about these because they’re at our venue and I’m having my hair/make-up trial and getting a mock bouquet. It will be nice to get some of these things settled upon — like how I’m going to be wearing my hair and what my bouquet will look like. I’m also excited to wear my dress for more than 15 minutes at a fitting. It should be fun day!

In preparation for Wednesday, I’ve been trying to eat really clean and limit any extra sodium. This week I’m doing a modified version of the Tone It Up 7 Day Slim Down. Since I took photos of everything I ate yesterday to keep myself accountable, I figured I’d share them with you.

Meal 1: slim down scramble with 1/2 cup egg whites, 2 cups spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning. I’m started to love Mrs. Dash seasonings. You get lots of flavor without any salt! Right now I only have the garlic and herb flavor but I can’t wait to try some of they others. Do you have any favorites that you’d recommend?

Grapefruit for snack.

Shrimp and black bean salad with red onion, baked sweet potato chunks, radish, broccoli and pineapple balsamic vinegar for lunch. The TIU 7DSD plan doesn’t mention adding carbs to your lunch and dinner but I know my body and I’m ravenous if I don’t have some carbs so I added some sweet potato chunks to this salad.

I snacked on a few berries and Lemon Strawberry infused water between lunch and dinner. The water was amazing. I always forget how much I like lemon in my water.

Dinner featured a big salad, similar to what I had at lunch with sweet potato chunks (from the same baked potato), radishes, peppers, broccoli and sprouts. I had a veggie burger and balsamic sautéed kale on the side. Notice how my salad plate turned into my dinner plate and my dinner plate turned into my salad plate. I typically always use a salad plate for my dinner plate because it’s a great way to keep my portions in check, which is something I struggle with.

So there you have it, my slim down eats as of late. I’m planning to eat very similar today and I already have my salad for lunch prepped and ready in the fridge thanks to the Salad in a Jar salads I made on Sunday evening. Woot woot!

Hooray for being prepared. It really is the key to eating healthy.

Have a lovely Tuesday friends.

I hope you guys like muffins!

Last weekend I bought two containers of strawberries from the farmers market. I was only going to get one but Isaac convinced me to get two, which is fine because I love fresh berries. They’re the perfect snack and also great as a topping for things like yogurt, salads, cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, pizza… the list goes on.

All that said, I still felt like we had too many strawberries for two people to eat in a week so I decided I needed to bake something with them. That something turned out to be these strawberry chocolate chip protein muffins.

I actually made two batches on Friday night when I was testing the recipe — one with chocolate chips and one without. Isaac says the chocolate chips make the muffins so I’m sharing that version of the recipe with you all today.

Truth be told, I think these muffins might be the best protein baked good I’ve ever made. They’re light and fluffy, you can’t taste the protein powder at all and the strawberries and chocolate chips add the perfect amount of sweetness.

I wanted to try to make these sugar-free, besides the berries and chocolate chips, so I used a little NuNaturals Stevia MoreFiber Baking Blend. If you don’t have this blend you can always use packets of stevia or another sweetener of choice. As for the oat flour, you can make your own by processing raw oats or just buy it. I used Bob’s Red Mill.

Happy Monday friends. I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was nice with tasty Indian food on Friday night (at the new spot in Carytown, Curry Craft) lots of wedding planning stuff, a trip to the farmer’s market, a visit from my mom and a little baking/cooking. Not too shabby.

Some green goodness was involved as well…

Sunday morning I woke up craving something green for breakfast but I didn’t feel like breaking out my juicer. I decided to try making a green juice smoothie in my Vitamix. I usually use frozen bananas and almond milk as a base for all my smoothies but I wanted this one to be more like juice so I stuck with a pear and water.

The Vitamix did a great job of pulverizing everything which resulted in a smooth textured drink that’s not only detoxifying, but alkalizing and energizing as well.

I know there are benefits to both juicing and blending, but this type of green smoothie is great for a few reasons:

• You don’t have to clean a myriad of juicer pieces (Score!)
• You get all the fiber from the fruit and veggies so your blood sugar won’t spike
• The smoothie is thicker and a bit more filling than a juice (IMO)

I paired the smoothie with a few mini protein muffins for breakfast and it was the perfect boost of energy to start my day, but I could also see this being a great mid-afternoon snack. And for all of you that may have indulged in one too many margaritas yesterday in celebration of Cinco De Mayo, this would be a great recovery drink this morning. Just throwing that out there.