A) I was still getting used to my new diet and wasn’t super comfortable posting photos of non-vegan foods in fear of (more) backlash from the vegan community and also because this was a vegan food blog to begin with so initially I wasn’t sure how to build upon that.

B) In my recovery process I find myself taking fewer photos of my meals! I still photograph most of my good looking meals, which happen to be a ton of them, but I used to photograph from every angle, have friends shine lights on the food, etc. and now I kind of just go with the flow more. At the end of the week, I have a heck of a lot fewer photos to work with than I used to!

C) Paying distinct attention to everything I eat in a day isn’t exactly the healthiest way to recover from an eating disorder. I now feel much stronger than I did a couple of months ago when food gave me raging anxiety, and thinking about my next meal could have sent me into a serious panic attack. Now I am learning to let go and enjoy food a lot more, and also do a LOT less planning when it comes to what I eat in general. After a fun weekend eating out with my mom in town, I feel like it’s about time to hop back on the “WIAW” train and give you all a glimpse into my non-vegan recovering food life.

It feels good to be back on the WIAW wagon. Big thanks to Jenn for hosting! Ready? Here we go…!

What I Ate Wednesday: Recovery Style

My mom came to visit me in LA this weekend, which meant lots of eating out at yummy spots, lots of furniture shopping (furnishing the new apartment, woo!!) and laughing hysterically all weekend because that’s what we do together.

Breakfast:

Before I picked her up from the airport on Friday morning I ate this super delicious superfood oatmeal. The recipe is in my post from Friday. It’s definitely a new breakfast staple. So many nutrients packed into one filling little bowl!

Lunch:

After I picked her up we headed to the Brentwood Country Mart and shared a lovely lunch spread from the Farm Shop. We had organic free-range chicken breast, a corn and nectarine salad (YUM!), mushrooms and Brussels sprouts. Lots of plant-based goodness balanced out with some protein, and everything was local and bursting with flavor. Farm Shop is fabulous and it was so fun to show my mama one of my new neighborhood spots!

Snack:

While we were driving to Target (which ended up being a “City Target” a.k.a not even a full-sized version of Target which was so disappointing… who even knew those existed?) we passed a Penguins frozen yogurt shop. Penguins brings back so many memories for both of us – there was one right next to LMU where I went to college so I used to go all the time with my friends, and there was also one in my hometown that my mom used to go to longgg before I was even born. We decided it sounded delish and we were going to get some.

This might sound like not such a big deal to you at all. Because it really isn’t. But for me, this was kinda huge. I can’t even remember the last time I had an impromptu dessert (non-vegan, to boot!) in the middle of the day for fun. And it was so good! Worth every bite. Indulging is fab every once in a while and I am learning that more and more in my recovery process.

And now we made new fun memories there! That’s what food is all about afterall, isn’t it? Enjoying it with the people you love.

Dinner:

Okay, so dinner was a little trickier. I have gotten some feedback from readers lately that I may or may not tend to make recovery sound like it’s all sunshine and rainbows and a beautiful excuse for self-discovery. There is definitely that positive aspect to it, but most of the time it’s just hard and psychologically taxing. Dinner on Friday night was one of those experiences.

We met my aunt for dinner at Katsuya, a cute and super trendy sushi restaurant a few blocks from my apartment. After all the indulging from earlier in the day I was a little freaked about eating a regular meal, and to top it off I wasn’t even really hungry. (One of my biggest fears is eating when I’m not hungry and then throwing myself all out of whack.)

My aunt suggested that we all split a few dishes, but I quickly responded that I don’t do tempura dishes (fried food) and that the two of them should split and I would order my own thing. I ordered a kale and salmon sashimi salad that was a special on the menu, thinking it sounded great and balanced and nice and light.

Well, it came to the table, and the kale was fried in oil!! It was basically a plate of kale chips (super oily kale chips) with a little bit of salmon sashimi. I was horrified. But for some reason I wasn’t in the mood to send it back and I made up my mind I was going to eat it and deal with it. I suppose as far as recovery goes that was a good thing and I am proud of myself, but as far as my BODY goes… and I know my body and what works and doesn’t work… my stomach was writhing in pain for 48 hours after eating it.

Fried. In. Oil. Does not work for me.

But instead of obsessing and letting it ruin my weekend, I woke up the next morning and had another bowl of oatmeal. I was tempted to just juice or not eat anything until well into the day like I would normally do when feeling super gross after a meal… but I didn’t! And there’s where the growth came in.

PS… We’re goobers.

Superfood Oatmeal for Two (Yum!):

Quinoa Chicken Salad at Wood Ranch:

Iced Almond Milk Mocha at Axe:

Dungeness Crab Salad with Chili Lime Dressing at Axe:

Steel Cut Oats with honey & berries at The Coral Tree:

Strawberry Fields at the Brentwood Farmer’s Market:

The M Chopped Salad at M Café (Okay usually I love this place but this salad kind of tasted three days old…ew?):

What did your eats look like today / this weekend?! Any fun new indulgences or is that just me?

It’s very true that those of us who suffer from orthorexia, or any eating disorder for that matter, have a pretty tough time traveling and finding food to eat. We have our places that we are extremely comfortable with, we like to know that our kitchen is but a comfortable distance away, and we like to have a full pantry/fridge stocked with our healthy, organic, clean foods.

I know it sounds a little kookoo. That’s why I am working to get past it. I don’t want to be that way, and I don’t find very much enjoyment in being completely obsessed over what I’m going to eat for my next meal and how perfectly clean it’s going to be – that’s why I’ve been working my butt off to ditch the labels and go completely restriction-free for the last several weeks.

I lived in Italy for four months when I was in college (Florence to be exact – the most gorgeous city in the universe!) and I was vegetarian before I went. When I was there, I ate chicken and fish because I lived with an Italian family that cooked every meal for us and it would have been extremely difficult to be fully vegetarian. At that time in my life I also ate a lot of pasta and bread, so I was basically set when it came to living in Italy and finding food to eat. Oh, and I had no qualms with having gelato every day… and sometimes several times per day. When in Italy…

Anyway, I have been dying to go back to Europe ever since I lived there three years ago, but I have also been silently panicked about what I was going to eat while I was there. In the years since I’ve lived there, I have cut out gluten, dairy, chicken, fish, eggs, oil, sugar and more or less anything that was not a veggie, a fruit or a grain.

It was a huge blessing that I ended up realizing that I was suffering from orthorexia and started reincorporating some of those foods back into my diet before I went on my trip… or else I would have been totally screwed while I was there! And my family most certainly would have wanted to kill me.

It’s hard to describe what the food experience was like for me on my trip because it felt like it was changing every thirty seconds… which is pretty much how my recovery process has been going so far. One moment I was totally fine with trying a bite of anything and feeling really confident about it, and the next moment I was completely panicked that the food I was eating was going to send me into gastrointestinal disaster and that my stomach would be in pain for the rest of my trip.

All in all, I would say my positive thoughts won out over the negative. I faced a ton of foods that I never thought I would allow myself to eat again as long as I lived… including dairy (gelato!!!! And a bit of cheese… yum!), chicken, certain desserts with refined sugar (they’re fine in moderation), and a few bites of pasta and pizza here and there. It may not sound like a huge fete to you totally normal eaters out there, but for me this was HUGE. If I had a dollar for the amount of times I said to my mom, “I can’t believe I just ate cheese and I feel totally fine” on our trip, I would be exceptionally rich.

I definitely had my down moments – like when I woke up each morning feeling a little queasy because of all the new foods I was trying and because I was eating much later and larger quantities than usual, and when I started envisioning myself gaining a million pounds because of said new foods… but I kept telling myself that there was no reason to panic. I was living in each moment, breathing, and allowing myself to indulge in the delicious cuisine of Italy and France without totally panicking. This was a win for me.

( Bag from TBV Apparel. )

Shall we recap a few especially memorable meals? Yes, yes we shall! I’ve also added in a few things that I admired from afar but didn’t eat—you haven’t fully experienced Europe if you haven’t ogled the shit out of their food!

What I Ate in Italia:

Sorrento:

Sorrento is the town of limoncello! They are known for their extraordinarily large lemons, fresh fruit and of course mixing said lemons and fruit with alcohol.. Look at these babies!!!

This. Pastry.

Capri:

One thing I didn’t get so comfortable with on the trip was drinking very much alcohol, but I’m realizing that is becoming more of a personal preference than an orthorexic tendency. So, whenever we stopped for a drink, I had some sparkling water with lime or a fresh Arnold Palmer. Yeah, I’m a five year old. So what? Yummy sparkling water with lemon overlooking the gorgeous Capri.

I had the most amazingly delicious chicken salad in Capri. One thing I noticed in Italy is that the food is so unbelievably fresh that it is much less likely to bother my stomach than our pesky processed American food. The salad was extremely fresh and had a yummy and light citrus dressing. Barely even visible – my favorite kind! And the chicken was tender and not dry at all. One of my favorite meals on the trip, actually! I like to keep it simple.

Positano:

Does gelato need an explanation?

Our Ship:

We were on a fabulous cruise ship that had pretty delicious food. The breakfasts were all heavenly (can you say oatmeal + dried fruit + fresh fruit + eggs?!?! I was on cloud nine), and the dinners were pretty good. Lots of salmon and chicken for me, and a couple of outrageously good desserts.

And when I say outrageously good desserts, I mean an abundance of decadent chocolate cake.

The ship also had FRESH JUICES! This was a carrot, ginger, watermelon, pineapple, apple creation. A little fruity for my taste… but anything ginger and I’m in.

Sardinia:

Should I channel my inner Italian and call it Sardegna? Say that phonetically and you might just l-o-l. Or maybe that’s just my jet lag speaking. More gelato…. Mmmm. We had a beach day here, and it was glorious!

Firenze:

Yes!!! I was waiting for the food in Florence. Or really, you can say I’d been waiting for the last few years… Florence food is my everything. I was a little nervous to try a full on pasta (I still have an extremely sensitive stomach, after all!) so I ordered chicken with roasted potatoes. It also came with mashed potatoes, and I wasn’t complaining…

My mom got this spaghetti carbonara and I had a few bites. REALLY good. Really rich. My tummy would have flipped over into a new universe if I had eaten very much of it.

Gelato. We had to.

Marseilles:

You can’t go to France and not have macaroons! I mean, that might actually be a sin. Another food I thought I’d never allow myself to eat again for many reasons. But they were sooo yummy. I was particularly proud of myself for trying these!

Thank goodness for French Nicoise salads!

Saint Tropez:

To be honest, I struggled a bit in St. Tropez. The rich foods were finally catching up to me and I wasn’t feeling my best. I was starting to panic a little about the nauseous feeling creeping up on me and also about coming back to the states and getting back into my routine. I tried a chicken crepe though, and even though it was super oily so I only ate a bit of it, I’m glad I tried it and I felt pretty decent afterward!

And nowwww it’s back to the good ol’ U S of A to get back in the swing of my regular routine. Just moved into my La-La Land apartment and was lucky enough to receive a 5-day cleanse from my babe Sophie at Philosophie. I am not doing the cleanse full out… I have had enough cleanses this year to last me well into my nineties, but I am incorporating her juices, smoothies and soups into my daily meals and they are soooo delicious. I am feeling cleaner already.

Thoughts on my Euro eats?! What are your favorite vacation indulgences?

Tropical Detox Smoothie (from Day 2 of the Cleanse):

And I feel the need to clarify the word “cleanse” after Kim’s lovely post about her experience with the cleanse she created for herself. She isn’t a fan of using words like cleanse, detox, etc. because of the association they have with them about being crash diets and/or false advertising of full organ detoxes.

I could not agree more with her on those fronts, and I even considered changing TBV Cleanse to “TBV Reset” or “Recharge” or something even longer and catchier (okay, so maybe not catchier) like “The Summer Guide to a Radiant New You from the Inside Out…” but none of that totally seemed to fit, either.

So for now, the name TBV Summer Cleanse remains! Similar to the winter cleanse, it is a no-nonsense guide on how to eat plant-based for a 5-day period. 20 recipes are included (3 meals a day + 1 juice per day), and everything is made from fruit, veggies, grains, legumes and nuts. That’s right, you can eat grains & legumes on this cleanse! More info to come alllll about the cleansey cleanse in the next few days. It will be available by mid-next week!

Now, let’s get to What I Ate Wednesday… Photo shoot day style! Which reminds me, I cannot wait to tell you all about our incredible photo shoot in Central Park on Monday, but I want to wait until I have all the photos so I can tell the story in full effect. Let’s just say the photos are more like works of art than photography (thanks, Tyan for that!), and the models are some of the healthiest, happiest, sweetest and most fun people that I know. I am giddy every time I think about the photos and what an awesome time we had. Here’s a lil’ behind the scenes preview:

But now really, on to WIAW, I swear…

What I Ate Wednesday:

Breakfast:

So this is pretty cool for me because a few years ago (and even a few months ago, to be honest) I would have done a major juice cleanse leading up to the shoot and/or highly restricted my calorie intake. Not proud of it, but that’s the way my brain was working at the time. I am on the road to a much healthier (and more importantly, much happier) relationship with food, so Monday’s breakfast was all about eating what was going to keep me sustained and give me energy throughout the day for the shoot.

I had a bowl of gluten-free oatmeal with a scoop of chocolate chia pudding, ½ cup superfood granola (a combo of Chia Ginger, Cacao Crunch and Raspberry) and some pecans and blueberries. So delicious!

Snack:

You remember the major Suja stack I have in my fridge right now? It looks a little something like this:

I had a Lemon Love juice while I was on the run Monday morning, picking up necessities (like Juice Press gift certificates for all the models!) and a huuuge bunch of balloons for the shot. (They attacked me on the subway.)

Lunch & Dinner:

I had a Squarebar on the run before the shoot (wasn’t trying to deprive myself, was just totally running around like a crazy person!), and while we were there we all sipped on Sujas and munched on watermelon that one of the lovely models brought.

We shot from 4:00 – about 7:30 or 8:00, and by the time it was over we were starving! The shoot was such an adrenaline rush I didn’t even realize how hungry I’d gotten. Ty and I went to this awesome little walk-in build your own salad place called Dig Inn and brought our food back to the park to eat!

I had a salad with arugula, kale, couscous, broccoli and tofu.

Afterward, I walked from Central Park all the way home (wayyy downtown) because I was still on such a high from the amazing day.

Have you ever been so wrapped up in something you’re doing that you don’t even realize you’re hungry?! What were your fun eats this week?

Also… have you ever been attacked by balloons on the subway? #shameless

I have written posts about traveling as a health-a-holic before, and those posts mainly centered around the extreme anxiety I felt when going to a place that didn’t have Whole Foods, Juice Press and Integral Yoga Market within walking distance. (Refresher: me traveling to Cabo with a bag of food the size of my body… My tiny body might I add, since this was in the days when I was seriously panicked to eat anything but fruit, veggies, or nuts. I’ve come a long way, guys!)

Now I am evolving from a total health-a-holic into a “I do things in moderation because I’m healthy but also want to enjoy my life to the fullest and not make my friend’s/family’s lives super hard when they’re with me” kind of gal. Baby steps, but I am getting there. This weekend I tried my very best to roll with the punches (umm, did you see yesterday’s post on alcohol?!) and although I did bring a cooler of food the size of Montana, it was just because I have learned what it takes to come prepared.

I should add that (other than Clare! My trusty vegan BFF / fellow Blonde Vegan) everyone in the house was living off of burgers, hotdogs and beer for the weekend. Not super conducive to the way I do things. So here are a few things I picked up to snack on over the weekend:

Kind bars (honey Nazis, come at me if you must… read this if you want to see what I have to say about eating honey!), Suja juices (obsession and a half. These saved my hung over booty three mornings in a row this weekend), Kombucha (this is becoming a daily thing for me), Larabars (the ultimate between-meal sustenance!), berries and apples (nothing beats totally fresh fruit) and dried apple rings (YUM).

I also brought a bag of gluten-free steel cut oats, which served as the BEST breakfast each morning. It was perfect because it filled me up, gave me lots of energy (to party and swim and play tennis and hang at the beach all day, duh), tasted delish and it was super easy to make. And, truth be told, almost every single person in the house said they were jealous of my oats throughout the weekend! I tried to share… and then my bowl face planted in the ground (true story) which was probs a sign that I needed to keep it all to myself.

On top of the food I crammed into my lovely Trader Joe’s portable cooler bag, I also hopped in the car with the boys to head to the store the moment we arrived. I stocked up on lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, beets, green beans, limes, lemons, tofu, sweet potatoes and black beans. Perfect ingredients for yummy salads and simple dinners. Here was one dinner, from our Mexican food night:

And here were the salads I made for Clare and I just about every day. They consisted of mixed greens, tofu, cherry tomatoes, carrots, avocado, green beans, beets and fresh lime juice:

By Monday, I think everyone was wishing they were lunching on big green salads instead of leftover burgers, hotdogs and burritos. And I swear that maintaining a healthy diet made my hangovers more manageable than some of my non-veggie eating counterparts.

Plus, the adorable coffee shop in town had green smoothies, which was the hugest and best surprise of all time! I actually didn’t order one, since I already had my Suja in tow, but I was thrilled for my hung over friends to be able to drink yummy greens and was of course beyond happy to see green smoothies at a small town coffee shop. (Modeling the lovely LIMES below… to be paired with tequila shots…)

All in all, the weekend food-wise was a major success, and I definitely attribute that to A) being freakishly prepared and B) knowing that simple is best when it comes to meal prep on the go.

It’s amazing to see how much more sense the food I bring with me on vacation makes now than it did a year and a half ago. Steel cut oats, juices, fruit, bars and salad supplies make WAY more sense than trying to smuggle fresh veggies and Trader Joes veggie burgers across the border… ayi yi yi.

And, I have to admit, it was reeeal nice coming back to my original green smoothie yesterday morning. Hit. The. Spot.

Can you say inconsistent? Actually, I prefer unpredictable. Or varying. That’s what makes life fun, after all.

And this coming from the girl who ate the SAME THING every day for nearly 6 months after I went vegan — chicka whaaatt?! Yeah, I did. Green smoothie + kale salad with berries + roasted veggies with quinoa. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but hey I was healthy as a clam and felt absolutely great so I had no problem with it.

(^ Flea market eats!!) But now that I have the hang of this whole plant-based lifestyle shindiggy-doo, I have fun with it. And my eating days are never two in the same. This week I am participating in TBV 5-Day Cleanse Program, but I am also cooking up new recipes for y’all for next week which I am uber-dee excited about. (Can you tell I’m in the mood to make up words this morning?)

Anyway, on to WIAW! This week I will be detailing my eats at Smorgasburg a.k.a the Brooklyn Flea a.k.a a little (or big, actually) open-air market in Williamsburg that can basically be defined as foodie heaven.

When my roomie and I first moved to NYC, we went to Smorgasburg all the time. You could kinda say we were enamored by it. Williamsburg, being the trendy, hipster, somewhat grungy older brother to Manhattan, is very savvy on vegan eats, but also does non-vegan fare pretty darn well. For Katie and I that is pretty much a match made in heaven, so we kept going back and back. Here we are eating our pickles there last summer:

And here we are trying to channel our inner Williamsburg coolness:

And then it turned winter… annndd, we stopped trekking to Williamsburg. Until we went back this weekend I had almost forgotten how much I loved the flea. Not only is the food delicious (tons of amazing vegan options!!!), but the atmosphere is so laid back and fun, and there is an indoor market with jewelry, artwork, clothing, etc. attached to it. So much fun.

The Food!

Well, luckily Katie and Danielle were with me, because try as I might… my eats are always a wee bit boring. Because I can’t eat too much at once (dang stomach probs. I wanted all the donuts / desserts / veggie burgers / slushies!) I always have to stick to about one order, and that wouldn’t be as much fun to share. Here are the yummy citrus slushies they got upon arrival – one with strawberry flavoring, and one with pineapple. All natural and organic!

I was ogling over these fresh coconuts from Summers (the juice bar where Ryan did his cleanse when he interviewed me for his juicing documentary!), but I didn’t end up getting one. (Told you I’m boring.)

I was also admiring the vegan donuts from Dunwell Donuts (100% vegan and they win all sorts of awards for “Best Donut NYC”… cool as ffff right?) but fried dough and my tummy really don’t go well together, so I settled for a bite of Danielle’s and a bite of Katie’s instead. D got “french toast” and Katie got “salted caramel”… both so good!

As for what I did eat, this heavenly “Phatty Beet Slider” salad from Chickpea & Olive! I absolutely adore Chickpea & Olive, and the lovely people who run it are nice as can be. I also did an interview with them a few months back that I have yet to post because I am a little scatter-brained like that.

And because we are on the topic of Chickpea & Olive, this amazing LENTIL BURGER that they also sell. Holy yumness.

And here is the kale salad with “fried cashew cheese” (!!!!) that I almost got, buttt I didn’t because it was recently brought to my attention that I order kale salads everywhere I go and I can’t stand to be too predictable.

Questions:

– What looks the best to you out of our eats at the flea?!

– Is there something that you order everywhere you go?

– Do you think you’re more of a Williamsburg person or a Manhattan person? (I’m more of a Manhattan person, but I wish I was hipster-y cool enough to be a Brooklyn gal!) 

See… I’m too big of a dweeb for Brooklyn!

Plus, Arielle’s hostessing skills were BEYOND supreme, so I kinda sorta had to interview her for the blog so I could learn some of her secrets (and share them with you)! Stay tuned for a Q&A with the beauty behind the brunch at the bottom of the post! Food photos first – I know what y’all love most.

The Eats!

We started with some delicious pineapple champagne, with star-shaped (!?!?! heck yes) blueberry ice cubes. You know I’m not the biggest drinker in the world (not in the morning, at least… anymore…!) but this was pretty delicious and I had to go all out. I mean, what is brunch without some bubbly?

Then we had something that may have been my personal favorite. OK, second favorite. Nothing touches the amazingness of those granola cups for me. These were “Cookies N’ Cream” green smoothie shots. Holy yumness. Still drooling over this one.

After some cheers-ing of the green smoothie shots and some chit chat, we sat down for the meal. Our first course was this super fresh farmer’s market salad with maple dressing. It may as well have been straight from the garden, because it was bursting with flavor. You all know I love a good salad. This was delish.

Then came the works! We loaded our plates with avocado toast with mint, GRANOLA CUPS WITH CASHEW YOGURT (all caps because I die every time I think about it… and it gets two pictures because it really has my heart right now), and jicama hummus tacos (favorite #3).

And, no great brunch would be complete without dessert. Arielle made these vegan cinnamon sugar donuts and I just about DIED. I am a total donut freak, but I never eat them because A) hard to find a good vegan donut, B) most vegan donuts are full of total processed crap and fake sugar, and C) I didn’t know anyone (until Arielle!!!) with a legit recipe. Ok, and Gigi’s recipe looks bomb dot com too but I have been lazy and haven’t tried it yet.

And of course the lovely Cassandra brought some of her out-of-this-world cupcakes. These were strawberry-basil cupcakes, and while I am usually a chocolate fan when it comes to dessert… she totally turned me on to the beauty of basil in desserts! Wow. Really loved these, too. And I am a total sucker for “mini” anything.

Q&A with Miss Arielle Fierman:

Q: You are seriously the hostess with the mostest, wellness brunch throwing, healthy cooking/baking extraordinaire! Top 3 tips for aspiring hosts (like myself) who have no clue where to begin?

Oh my goodness- thank you for that compliment! Seriously, my motto is “just do it”. If you have the willingness to cook, let alone, entertain, all it takes is some prep, delicious recipes, enough chairs, silverware, some flowers and you’re set!

Q: 3 tips to get started: 

1. Send out a pretty invite and firm up guest list. Sending out a pretty invite  gets people excited to come – even an easy one on paperless post will do. Once you know the guest list and who is coming, send out an email kindly asking if they have any allergies, food sensitivities, restrictions or preferences. Once you know what you shouldnt serve, you can focus on what you can serve!

2. Create a menu. I like picking a theme and then getting inspiration from pinterest (follow me at http://www.pinterest.com/bewellwarielle/ for inspiration), or even looking up menus from your favorite restaurants and emulating their recipes is inspiring! Hosting a brunch? Look up your favorite brunch spots and what they typically serve!

3. Buy flowers or plants. Flowers instantly brighten up a table and can provide the entire decor for a party. No need to purchase an expensive bouquet – pick one up from the supermarket or nearby deli for less than $10, put it in a pretty vase and voila – looks like you got it professionally done! Base your colors off of the theme. Cinco de mayo? Purchase red or yellow flowers. Brunch for girlfriends or Mother’s Day? Pinks or purples always work well for the women!

Q: Top 3 kitchen must-haves in order to throw a successful food partay.

– Enough plates, forks, knives and spoons for all of your guests (oh- and enough for serving pieces as well)

– Blender: it’s so versatile. You can whip up smoothies, cashew “yogurt”, almonds into almond flour, soups, hummus, dips and creamy salad dressings. No need to purchase an expensive one. Even a $30 blender will do!

– A good knife: having a good quality knife will save you so much time and energy, not to mention, it will make everything look so clean (and professionally) sliced! I like these Kuhn Rikon knives and they come in pretty colors too.

Q: Top 3 wellness principals you live by.

– Chew! Cients come to all the time with stomach issues. Often, its not just what they’re putting into their bodies that are affecting their digestion – its lack of chewing! Enzymes are in your mouth to break down food. if you chew well, mixed with the enzymes in your mouth, once the food gets to your digestion, it will hardly have work to do and you know what that means: less tummy aches.

– Sleep. Get it! Its as important as your work, will make your skin glow and energized for you to work even harder the next day!

– Eat food that you can pronounce. Just because something is labeled “healthy,” “vegan,” “gluten free” or “dairy free” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to make you feel good (and look good). If you can’t pronounce it, don’t put in your cart, kitchen or your mouth. Your body will thank you.

Q: Who is YOUR inspiration for all things wellness?

– Christa Orecchio’s weekly nutrition videos

– Dr. John Douillards weekly wellness newsletter

– Gabrielle Bernstein for spirituality and positivity and business skills

… and that concludes today’s WIAW! You can find any and all of these recipes over on Arielle’s blog. Do yourselves a favor and make, well, all of this. Starting with the donuts and granola cups. And the salad if you’re feeling extra tame… hehe, but really, it’s AMAZING!

But before I tell you what it is, I want to give the April Self-Love Challenge a proper farewell. This was by far the most fulfilling challenge I’ve lead since I started the blog, and what made it so great was the outrageous support and participation from all of you. I loved each and every one of the emails I received, the photos I was tagged in, the comments on the blog, and even the personal kind words I’ve gotten from friends and family (to my face – can ya believe it?! Self-love is a hot convo topic these days, and I am downright thrilled about it).

The final winner of the Self-Love Challenge is a wonderful girl named Peyton who I have been emailing with since the beginning of the month. She is a college sophomore in Washington, D.C. who has been struggling to balance her schoolwork, living in her sorority house, trying to lead a normal balanced college social life (it’s exhausting, let me tell you!) and of course maintain her healthy lifestyle.

Peyton and I have way too many similarities when it comes to food approach and overall life approach. She has made the incredible decision to transfer to Sydney, Australia to finish her schooling and I am SO proud of her. How amazing is that? And check out her self-love journal entries (PS I kinda want her handwriting):

People like Peyton remind me how beautiful it is for all of us to take a moment to reconnect to ourselves each day, tell ourselves how beautiful we are, and practice self-love versus any sort of negativity. Her story has been super inspiring to me, and I know we all have our own stories to tell when it comes to this journey toward falling in love with ourselves and making the healthiest choices possible. Thanks for being awesome, Peyton. If everyone was as self aware as you, the world would be a happier place.

Now… ya ready for May’s challenge? It’s definitely a different vibe than the self-love challenge, but self-love should continue all year round. I still better be hearing from y’all about your self-loveyness even after this month passes.

May Challenge = Dessert-Free!!!! Psycho move on my part, right? Totally bonkers. This chocoholic, raging sweet tooth, how-can-I-sneak-cacao-powder-into-every-meal girl is going to be giving up desserts for the month of May. And let me explain- this is not to deprive myself. Not at all. It’s just that I have been going overboard with desserts lately.

Even though I stick to healthy desserts, always free of refined sugar, refined flour and anything processed… eating something sweet after every meal has become a total habit rather than an indulgent treat. It may have stemmed from finishing my day 10 juice cleanse, because after I came off of it all I wanted was to shove my face with raw chocolate, agave, nut butters, fruit with cinnamon, chocolate chips, granola, chocolate oats, Larabars… you name it, it’s been in my mouth. A lot. Too much.

I also have an absurd obsession with bananas, and try to convince myself that having mini-smoothies as snacks with banana, cacao powder and almond butter is a good idea all the frickin’ time. It’s not a bad idea (that’s for sure), but I have an addictive personality! For me, a little bit is never enough.

So I’m going cold turkey. Kaput on the dessert cray cray train. Adios to the chocolate madness that exists in my kitchen, and all over my neighborhood (why do I have so many amazing vegan places in walking distance?!?!).

I will do low-glycemic fruits and I will have sweeter fruits in moderation (bananas, mango, coconut), but dried fruit = a no-no, and same with any obvious type of dessert or raw treat. I am still dabbling with the idea of including Kind Bars because I absolutely love them, but Larabars are outskis.

EMAIL ME If you want to join in on the challenge. The more, the merrier. Always so much easier to crush goals when you have a crew. Current contenders are me, my mama and one of my best friends Laura. I know we can round up some more peeps!

Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, shall we get to WIAW?! Or rather, what I ate Tuesday… because these were yesterday’s eats. Sorry for the ugg-o iPhone pics. I promise I will get back to my Nikon ASAP! Wild week.

Breakfast:

Green smoothie & raw overnight oats. Green smoothie = two handfuls kale, 1 frozen banana, ½ cup blueberries, ½ cup coconut water, ½ cup water, ½ scoop Vega One chocolate protein powder, 1 big handful ice. Oats = ½ cup raw gluten-free oats, ¼ cup almond milk, ½ cup water, cinnamon, ½ tablespoon cacao, ½ tablespoon almond butter

Lunch:

Big salad from Feel Food NY consisting of mixed greens, purple cabbage (my all-time favorite lately), roasted carrots, eggplant, cauliflower and hummus.

Dinner:

Excuse the recycled picture, but I didn’t get a photo of my dinner last night so I am using this photo of TBV Salad! I had exactly this, minus the almonds and plus some sweet potato.

Not pictured:

Juice Press Black Label for post-dinner dessert, and a few sips of the Juice Press “Kid’s Chocolate Shake”… OMG so good. And I had a Kind Bar for a midday pick-me-up. And a few handfuls of granola. With chocolate chips in it. See why I need to go easy on the desserts?

What do your Wednesday eats look like this week?! Does the May Challenge speak to you / do you think you’ll be participating this month? Please say yes, I need some company with me on this wild sugar-free ride!

1. My mom and sister fly into NYC tomorrow morning to visit me for the weekend, and I am so excited! My mom has officially been to NYC six times since our first flight out here last April to tour The New School (holy cow, right?) but it’s my sista’s first time coming out and seeing my place and my new hood! I am in desperate need of a girls’ weekend, and I can’t imagine two ladies I would rather spend it with. Here they are, with the rest of my adorable little fam bam.

2. TBV Apparel launches THIS. FRIDAY. I am basically hyperventilating I am so thrilled about it. There have been some sleepless nights this month (and especially this week) setting up The Blonde Vegan Store and getting everything all squared away with the designs, sizes, styles, details… all culminating to the big reveal at the end of the week when I can finally share the tees with all of you! And yes, shipping will be international – TBV tees for all! Also, WorldLifestyle published an awesome article about the tees and a little Q&A with me… check it out! I can’t wait to take over their Instagram account on launch day.

3. Today marks Day 10 of my 10-day juice cleanse… wowee, it’s been an incredible, reflective, accomplishing, challenging yet enjoyable experience. I am certainly ready to get back to my main love in life come tomorrow morning – FOOD!

4. Today is my best friend in the whole wide world’s birthday. It makes me so sad that I can’t be there to celebrate with her, but I know she is living it up in LA today/tonight. Jilly Bean, I wanted to send you donuts to your door this morning to keep the tradition going… but I didn’t know how you’d feel about them waking you up at 8 a.m. buzzing into your apartment – so I’m sending you virtual donuts! (And real life presents/card…duh!!!) I’ll be NYC boss for you tonight.

SO, since I already dedicated last week’s What I Ate Wednesday to a day in the life of a juice cleanser, I thought I would use today’s post to quickly go over what I eat in a day on a cleanse and then share the deets of my 10 day experience with you all.

Day in the Life of a Juice Cleanser:

For details on which juices I was enjoying on my cleanse, check out last week’s WIAW. I won’t bore you with going over it all again.

Now, down to the reeeaal interesting stuff… how the heck was it going 10 days with no solid food?!?!

10 Day Cleanse Recap:

Days 1-6 were really not that difficult for me, with the exception of a little bit of hunger and tiredness on days 3 and 4, but nothing a few green juices didn’t fix. I went easy on my workouts, allowed myself to rest and sleep a bit more than usual, and I took the time to reflect on my experience and journal throughout. I found it incredibly liberating to free myself from the thoughts and worries that I have on a daily basis when it comes to food… or even just going to the grocery store and trying to decide what to get!

I saved a crapload of money (being the Whole Foods shopaholic that I am), and I found that a significant amount of time opened up in my day that is usually dedicated to preparing, cleaning up, consuming and planning meals. It was extremely nice to have a break from cleaning my Vitamix twice a day and sticking my whole body into the refrigerator to try to make room for all of my produce. And my roommate was certainly thrilled that for once in our lives my fresh fruits and veggies were not overflowing our kitchen.

My mental clarity totally remained in tact, which I was pleasantly surprised about. I have suffered on three-day cleanses in the past with fogginess and dizziness, but I think something about the 10-day mentality and also the amount of fruit juices I was adding in did the trick. The only times I found it hard to think were early in the morning before I’d had my first juice, since it sometimes took me over an hour between waking up and walking to Juice Press! (I’m a lazy bum in the mornings.)

Day 7 is when things started to get more difficult. Up until then, I was feeling pretty miraculous for transitioning from an all-food diet to an all-juice diet. I woke up that morning with a light headache and feeling exceptionally exhausted. I took that as a sign that my body was finally reaching the detox period, so I let myself rest. I cancelled my plans for the day and hung out at home… no working out, no yoga, no nothin’. Ummm, can we just take a second to realize how amazing that was? I never… I repeat, never, allow myself a full-on rest day with no plans. That in itself was so rejuvenating that it made the detox quite bearable.

Day 8 I woke up super starving. That’s the day that I added a smoothie with almond butter into my diet, and it was by far the best thing I have ever tasted in my life. I felt life coming back into my body… and it recharged me and fueled me through the day. Days 9 and 10 have been much easier, and I think it’s partially because I know I am nearing the end. Food is in sight, and I am excited about it.

Earlier on in the process I thought I was going to want to extend the cleanse. Now I feel as if 10 days was the perfect reset. I feel totally amazing and clean from all of the nutrients the juices have given me, and my digestive system got a real break. And it helps that Juice Press juices are ridiculously yummy.

And, ta-daaa, I lost about 7-8 pounds (I didn’t weigh myself beforehand so I am estimating), which definitely feels good. Everyone likes to feel lighter after an extended cleanse – it’s part of the body doing it’s detoxing job!

Overall, I am most thankful for the reflective aspects of the cleanse. Writing in my journal and working out some of my personal issues with food, digestion, and overall life stress has been exactly what I needed. I allowed myself to take out a whole lot more time for myself (weird sentence, but you get it)… and I feel very restored.

Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting me throughout this journey. To anyone who is looking to do a cleanse, read my last several posts about deciding which type of cleanse is best for you before diving into one. If you’re looking for a good company, JPis the way to go, and they deliver throughout the US. Solid food cleanse? Check out TBV 5-day Plant-based Cleanse, of course!

What’s on your agenda of Wednesday Eats? What is exciting in your Wednesday today?!

I get a whole lot of questions from people about what exactly a juice cleanse entails, so I have compiled this post to break it down (chicka chicka yeahhh) for you all. Linking up with the lovely Jenn for What I Ate Wednesday!

And for those of you who are familiar with what a typical juice cleanse incorporates, you might still find this post helpful because I am going to include a few tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way as a certified cleansing fanatic.

First of all – solid food detox versus liquid juice cleanse. I have done a few posts on this before (check out the juice-related posts in the Lifestyle section if you’re interested), so I will just give a mini-brush up here, because choosing which type of cleanse is right for you is an extremely important component to the cleansing process.

I had a chat with Marcus Antebi, owner and CEO of Juice Press here in the city, before I started my cleanse and he reminded me that cleansing is as much of a psychological practice as it is physical. You have to be mentally prepared for the changes, the social implications and the release of using food as a comfort and a form of therapy (so you don’t end up like Kim K. over here).

If you are mentally prepared for the cleanse you embark on, there is no way you will come out unsuccessful. I have spontaneously dove into one and three day cleanses that I don’t finish or totally psyche myself out about simply because I wasn’t prepared for them.

If you are cleansing for the very first time, I recommend looking into a solid food detox. Depending on how you eat normally, this could range anywhere from eliminating processed foods to eating a solely fruit, vegetable and nut based diet. You can begin by cutting out red meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, and fish and then work your way into eating fully raw for a constrained period of time. In order to choose the right cleanse for you, you must know your body and where you stand in your health and wellness journey.

If you’re at the very beginning of your journey, leaping into a 10-day juice cleanse would likely not be smart. But hey, I’ve seen it be accomplished! I definitely believe that a cleanse is 100% mind over matter (just like running a marathon or committing to a lifestyle change). If you believe you can do it, you will finish it. I sound like a cheese-ball but it couldn’t be truer – get out of your head & listen to your body. Your body will tell you what it can and can’t handle.

If you want to do a solid food detox, I highly recommend TBV 5-Day Plant-based Cleanse — my unbiased opinion, I swear. I’ve never had someone finish the five days and not be blissed the eff out.

When I started contemplating doing an extended juice cleanse this last weekend, the first thing I did (besides run over to Marcus and tell him about my excitement) was turn inward and ask my body if a juice cleanse was what I needed right now. I tuned in with the digestion problems I’ve been having, the stomach pains, the headaches, and the extreme amount of stress and pressure I’ve felt with some things going on in my personal life, and I decided that cleansing by nourishing my body with raw vegetable and fruit juices was one of the best decisions I could possibly make.

At the Fred Bisci talk I went to this weekend, Fred discussed how we as humans often turn to food for comfort when we are in a state of stress. Eating when we are stressed is the worst thing we can do for our tummies, because the food does not get a chance to digest properly and starts to ferment in the stomach. Especially after this cycle begins, it’s hard to quit it without doing a proper cleanse. And let me tell you, my body has been in need of a proper cleanse since early January… the last time I fully participated in TBV 5-Day Plant-based Cleanse!

I started my cleanse on Monday (Day 3, goin’ strong!!), and since I knew I was beginning a 10-day journey rather than a shorter one like I am used to, I decided to incorporate a smoothie into my day of juices. Instead of having 6 juices, I had 2 juices in the morning, my smoothie for lunch, and then 3 juices throughout the remainder of the day.

Holy crap, adding a smoothie into my cleanse was the greatest cleanse-related decision I have ever made! I chose Juice Press’s “Fountain of Youth” smoothie (coconut water, banana, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, agave, hemp protein and coconut oil). The natural sugar from the fruit gave me so much energy, and the hemp protein and coconut oil were completely satisfying and revitalizing. I didn’t have a moment of hunger all day that the juices did not satisfy. I was on cloud nine, and already beginning to freak out about my cleanse ending after 10 days.

I did, however switch up my juices a bit. I loved Monday’s combo, but I decided while I am doing this cleanse it is best to get the widest variety of produce in my diet, so I am going to vary my juices a bit each day.

Day 1: Love At First Sight (green apple, kale, spinach), Gravity (cucumber, celery, aloe vera leaf, lemon kale), Fountain of Youth, Masterade (filtered water, lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne), Doctor Earth (apple, kale, cucumber, celery, pineapple, swiss chard, lemon, dandelion, parsley, ginger) and Black Label (coconut water, dehydrated almonds, vanilla, sea salt).

And yes, Black Label is as sinfully and perfectly mouthwatering as it sounds. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: if I could marry a juice… it would be Black Label. Holy yumness.

Day 2: Love At First Sight, Gravity, Fountain of Youth, The Remedy (filtered water, raw honey, lemon, ginger, turmeric, celtic sea salt, spearmint, cardamom, cayenne), Body Fit (apple, celery, fennel, arugula, lime, ginger) and Black Label.

You’ll notice that I start each day with a green juice, have an energizing pick-me-up in the middle of the day, finish off each day with a green juice and end with a protein-rich juice. The reason for this order is because your body is most willing to assimilate the nutrients you eat first thing in the morning, so it is always best to begin with a green. I have my smoothie midday because I like to work out in the afternoon and it’s always good to have an energy boost for full performance ability. And protein at the end of the day because it helps your muscles recover from a workout, and so that I don’t get hungry late at night before I fall asleep!

That being said, I don’t drink my Black Label within two (usually more like three or four) hours of going to bed, because the same rules apply when it comes to giving your digestion a break before bedtime.

And last night I went out for “drinks” with a girlfriend, and I stuck to sparkling water with lime. Now that is dedication. I’m here to show you all that you can go out and have fun with your friends and either A) not drink, or B) drink minimally and in the healthiest way possible so that you don’t feel like a hung over slug bug the next day.

Day 3:

Today I decided to try something a slight bit different in smoothie town (wild, I know!). I have been fantasizing over Juice Press’s “Vital Force” smoothie for a while – raw almond milk, banana, pineapple, filtered water, soaked cashews, lime, dates, maca, garden of life probiotic and sea salt. I haven’t had it yet, but I seriously cannot wait to try it. I will certainly report back with my critique.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out my video interview below with the lovely miss Nadya Andreeva! We are giving away three copies of her Happy Belly book!!!

Vacations are a reminder of how important it is to recharge, turn inward and give ourselves a god damn break once in a while. You can ask my family (all 12 of them that I was on vaycay with) how long it took me to fully unwind, and they will surely tell you it took me until the middle-end of our trip to be at peace with the relaxation.

On our first day I woke up early and set up shop on the couch overlooking the water. I wrote a blog post, responded to countless emails, reviewed TBV Apparel photos, worked on TBV Summer Cleanse, scheduled meetings for when I’m back in NYC, and next thing I knew my family was sitting down for a late lunch and I had missed the whole morning with them. (Below was my view from the couch… not bad, eh?)

To be honest it freaked me out a little bit to see how fast our precious time flies by – on vacation or not. I got a lot of work done, but I was a (super pale) wound up stress ball! My family was laughing, sun kissed, bonding and on the road to unwinding – oh, and relatively tipsy off of delicious margs and pina coladas.

That afternoon I decided to ditch blog-a-holic, uber-focused, super-excited-about-new-TBV-installments, writer-centric Jordan and focus on relaxing with my amazing family. I read three books (one of which, Happy Belly, I will be giving away on TBV this week… get excited!!!), paddle boarded, did a whole lotta beach yoga, took a vodka shot or two, got silly with my nieces, unwound with a beachside massage, ate lots of yummy vegan food prepared by the most incredible chef around, and had a total blast with my fam. How cute are they???

I was planning on writing to you today about my Los Angeles vegan adventures from the week before last, but since Cabo is fresh on my mind I am going to start there. My LA eats will be allll over the bloggy this week, so don’t you worry. But I promise these Mexico deets will have you just as excited and drooling in your seats!

Another fun thing on the blog this week? Traveling as a vegan/health nut/healthy on a budget… made easy and delicious. Stay tuned!

What I Ate in Mexico:

I got a lot of questions from people on Instagram this week asking where the heck I was staying – a hotel? A bed and breakfast? A timeshare? Certainly not at the Bahia in downtown Cabo San Lucas, where I stayed with my friends in college for the last two years of Spring Break…

I stayed at a house in San Jose del Cabo within the One & Only Palmilla Resort. The house is independent of the resort, but if you know the area then that gives you a little bit of a reference point. The chef at the house is a woman we love and admire deeply, and we told her before our arrival about all of my eating difficulties and restrictions (whoops).

Good news was, not only was she up for the challenge of making me different meals from the rest of my family, but she was excited about it! And she did an absolutely stellar job. 100% vegan and gluten-free, and nearly 100% oil-free, sugar-free and salt-free. (God, I’m a pain in the ass…!)

Breakfasts:

Breakfast each day was a green smoothie, a bowl of fresh fruit (mainly berries for me with some pineapples and mangoes thrown in! I’m not a melon person), and her super delicious homemade granola. She does use a bit of brown sugar in her granola recipe, which at first gave me extreme anxiety, but I loosened up after the first day (remember how I decided to breathe and let the uptight shit go?) and indulged. I stick to about ¼ cup granola with any meal as a general rule, since you know I am prone to go overboard with anything granola-ish or nutty and delicious.

Green smoothie ingredients: spinach, kale, chard, cucumber, cilantro, pear, and banana. I am not sure of the exact measurements she used, but boy was it good! (Another eating idiosyncrasy of mine I had to let go of was my fear of combining fruit with nuts in one meal… not absolutely perfect combo for my digestion, but when on vacation loosen up a bit. I’ve learned that if I just loosen up and let my fears go, my body will respond much more positively to any meal or food combination.)

Olivia & Jeff modeling Liv’s yummy layered smoothie:

Lunches:

My lunch on vacation generally consisted of a green salad, veggies, and either a veggie soup, a lentil dish or a quinoa dish. By lunch each day I was pretty much starving, because we ate breakfast around 9 a.m. and lunch was at 1 p.m. That’s a nice long time between each meal, just like my nutritionist recommends for me to do with my tummy problems, but a full four hours when only having fruit and a bit of granola for breakfast calls for a very hungry gal!

Since I was so hungry at lunch each day, it means I enjoyed each meal to its very fullest. It’s a fantastic way to eat, really. I am going to try to bring those mealtimes back with me into my everyday life.

Veggies wrapped in jicama with fresh guacamole and pico de gallo:

Butternut squash soup with ginger, turmeric, almond milk & pepper:

Avocado soup and fresh green salad:

Dinners:

My dinners consisted of salads, veggies, lentil or quinoa dishes, soups, and on the last night a delicious baked tofu dish with a side of sweet potato puree. Heaven.

Roasted cauliflower and squash with a lentil, pumpkin seed and veggie salad:

Roasted pear, avocado pumpkin seed green salad:

Baked tofu drizzled in a mango cilantro salsa, sweet potato puree (pureed with almond milk, cinnamon and a touch of coconut oil), and a side of roasted veggies.

Desserts:

Ummm, hello, my favorite part of every meal! Most nights dessert for me consisted of dates and nuts (while my family ate lemon meringue pie, chocolate cake, etc… #veganwillpower, baby) but on the last two nights she made me a delectable chocolate chia seed pudding! And don’t get me wrong, I adore dates and nuts. I could eat them all day long!

Chocolate chia seed pudding: chia seeds, almond milk, agave, banana, cinnamon and coconut water. Topped with fresh berries.

Grapefruit, amaranth, coconut shreds & dates! Mmmm

Vacation Highlights: 

It wouldn’t be a Younger family vacation without people spontaneously launching into yoga poses and/or dance moves at any given moment:

Can ya tell crow pose is one of our faves?

Don’t drop me, bro!!

My rockstar yoga students:

My brother’s daughter Kealey has gotten so big since the last time I saw her (Christmastime). It makes me sad to be so far away, but lucky me she warms up quickly! She calls me “Juju” (for Jojo), which is just about the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.

The only dude I know who is as weird as yours truly:

And this chick is my life (my niece baby boo Bella and best friend in the world):

And, last but not least, a huge shout out to the two most giving, selfless, loving, fun, hardworking and supportive people that I know. My mamacita and daddio. If I ever make someone’s heart half as full as they make mine every frickin’ day, then I will be satisfied. I am so beyond grateful for the opportunities they have given me to live my dream. And get excited for some REAL exciting news about my extremely stylish mother’s soon-to-be-entrance into the blogosphere… OMG I can hardly wait.

But before we get started — I’ll give you a little update on my non-food-related life. (Ok, let’s be real, my life is always food-related… but you know what I mean!)

A) Tomorrow I am headed to Los Angeles, my home for the last four years and the city where almost all of my closest friends and family live. I could not be more excited to arrive, enjoy the sunshine, party it up for my best friend’s birthday, connect with awesome people in the L.A. health community, take classes at my beloved Yogaworks, hit up my favorite restaurants (Rawvolution, Cafe Gratitude, True Food Kitchen and Feed Body+Soul to name a few… think I can drag my non-veggie friends with me to these all weekend?!), go to the beach, see my family (cannot WAIT to squeeze my nieces into a million pieces) and do something veryyyy exciting for TBV — skip to E) to check it out.

B) After spending the weekend in L.A. I’m flying to Mexico — yahooo!! I will spare you the deets since I’ve written about it in a previous post and I am sure to be postin’ up a storm while I’m there. Let’s just say I am so stoked for paddle boarding, beach yoga, reading by the pool, the freshest fruit I’ve ever had, running on the beach (if this darn ankle heals fast…) and enjoying time with my favorite people ever. My fam bam.

C) I will write more about this in an upcoming post, because I can assure you there are a lot of details to be had, but… I have officially registered in the Institute of Integrative Nutrition to get my health coaching certification!!!! I can’t even tell you how over the moon I am about it. There is nothing that makes me happier than discussing health with all of you and guiding you toward a healthier, happier lifestyle, and now I will be able to do that with the utmost legitimacy. The class starts in May and I am freakishly ready — cannot waaaiiitt to give you more details the moment I am able to.

D) I just started reading the book Happy Belly by Nadya Andreeva of Spinach and Yoga. It was recommended to me by a friend over at WorldLifestyle because she knows how much I have suffered with my stomach issues and digestion. The book is all about finding balance with your tummy/digestion, and it draws on the Ayurvedic principles of health. I am learning a lot so far — I can’t put it down!

E) Ok, I’ve kept it from you long enough… Thursday night in L.A. I will be doing a photo shoot for my upcoming TBV apparel line!!! That’s right. TBV clothes. T-shirts to be exact. That’s where we are starting at least. We have FOUR different styles, both men’s and women’s, and they will be on sale within the next month. Stay tuned for the rockin’ ad campaign that’s sure to be plastered all over my social media after this shoot. I will be working with my extremely talented friend Tynan Daniels, who has taken all of the beautiful photos for this site (minus the food photos — that’s me), and my babe-a-licious friends who conveniently double as models

Now… WIAW, lovas!