Summer is here!

This morning I managed to sleep til 8, then hit the gym to do the Endurance Training workout from Nike Fit Club(a full body strength training workout), then did some HIIT on the treadmill of 1 minute sprints and 3 minutes rest. I've been using the Seconds Plus app, and it's a dream. I finally sprung for the paid version, and it's definitely a plus being able to save my timers. When you make circuit timers it ever reads out loud what your next move is, and counts down when you have 5/10 seconds left. It's great since I don't have to keep peeking over at it!

Today was  a gorgeous 33 degrees and sunny, and I had a location to check out for an upcoming shoot. We were looking for an old abandoned building to shoot in, and I found one online so Travis and I went to check it out(I was a little creeped out to go alone). After getting on the wrong bus, and then taking a few wrong turns, we managed to find it with the help of a nice lady we kept bumping into while wandering around lost. Sometimes the universe just provides right when you need it! Google maps never hurt either. We managed to find a really beautiful meadow/creek with some gorgeous trees, a little urban oasis! Getting lost is the best thing sometimes.

There's something about abandoned places I just love. You can almost feel the events that have happened there(in this case lots of parties, I imagine). There's such a beauty about decay. This is the second time I've gotten into an abandoned building. I wouldn't really call it breaking in, since the door was wide open. It's strangely peaceful inside.

With that mission completed successfully, we headed back to downtown, and I discovered a cute little grocery store selling organic produce for super cheap. I stocked up on blueberries and grapes, and some coconut water and a Luna Bar. I've never tried Luna Bars before, but I wasn't too excited on this one. It was a little too sweet for my liking!

Since it's been so hot out lately all I wanted to eat was a smoothie, so into the blender went ice, some vegan ice cream I made the other day, lime juice, blueberries, blackberries, half a banana, a ton of kale, spirulina, and some vanilla protein powder. I poured it into a bowl and topped it with some grapes, buckwheat, gojis, and cinnamon. Yum city! Hot weather makes me crave mostly raw food and lots of fruit, without fail.

Sweaty Sundays and Vanishing Bees

This morning I finally made it to Yoga in the park, and it was worth every second of the early morning wake up call! The birds were chirping, it was warm with a slight breeze, there was a guy with bongoes, and I pretty much felt any tension melt away in a couple minutes. Something I struggle a lot with is tying my self worth to how busy I am. If I'm not busy, I must be lazy and that must equal I'm useless. And worthless. While I'm aware that's not how it works, it's something I struggle with a lot. Trying to focus on just letting quiet moments happen and enjoy them, not feel compelled to fill every single second with work. This past year has been incredibly challenging to me in that respect(moving across the country, quitting my job to focus on my photography, making my own schedule, decisions, choices). While I am extremely grateful that life has allowed me this opportunity, it comes with it's own challenges. In the end it can only make me stronger but trying to maintain balance throughout it can be frustrating(and rewarding too!). So this yoga class was a nice chance to reset, calm my mind, and just chill. The instructor's assistant was super cute too.

Yesterday was great, I went to the Vegan Expo which was conveniently held down the street from my house. It was quiet small, only taking up the front porch and one room of the building. There was some great granola bar samples from Taste Of Nature, which grows it's ingredients with organic sustainable farming practices. I liked that they only used whole food ingredients in them, and they're sweetened with agave and brown rice syrup. I tried the Brazil nut flavor, which was super delicious and not too sweet. There was also a huge array of free food which I attacked, the hummus was my favorite. My only complaint was that the speaker was held in the same room as a bunch of the booths, so you couldn't really comfortably converse with anyone at the booths. Hopefully next year they'll move into a bigger space!

After my roomate and I hung out in the park, then hit up Fresh for dinner. We munched on some Onion Rings, which were amazing as always, and I went with the Holiday wrap without the wrap.

Later last night I watch the documentary 'Vanishing Of The Bees'. After reading all the bee talk on Gena's blog, I was curious to find out more on CCD(Colony Collapse Disorder). It's a phenomenon that's been happening around the world, where bees just seem to vanish from their hives, yet very few bodies are being found. Bees play an integral part of our food chain, pollinating numerous plants which grow into the food we eat. Without bees, the majority of our food and vegetable supply would disappear, which would cause dire circumstances for the entire earth. Speculation about the causes have pointed towards pesticide use and GMO crops, as well as the lack of biodiversity in most farms in the States. In strong doses it appears that the pesticides poison the bees, disrupting their sense of direction and navigation, therefore making it impossible for them to find their way home.

Some beekeepers are taking up a more holistic, biodynamic approach to caring for their bees, and this seems to have a positive effect on them. Yet another reason that I believe farming needs to go back to it's roots and employ organic, biodiverse methods. This would cut down on pests' ability to flourish, as well as enable bees to have a wide variety of crops to pollinate and feed off of for longer periods of time,as opposed to fields of entirely one crop which bloom and die all at once. This type of farming forces beekeepers to move their groups(hives? herds? I don't know what you call them) to different fields all over, disrupting the bees and probably confusing them as well.

The documentary is as fascinating as it is disturbing, you can find it here: www.vanishingbees.com.

I've never really been sure of where I stand on honey consumption as a vegan. I don't eat a lot of it generally, but after watching the documentary I think I'm going to make a conscious effort to exclude it from my diet, perhaps unless I know where it is coming from, and how the bees are treated. Treatment of bees may sound a little ridiculous, but after watching the documentary and seeing how colonies are treated in larger scale factory farm bee situations, it's not something I'm really comfortable with, or that aligns with my beliefs.

Bees live in colonies each with a Queen, the rest are worker bees(all female), and drones(males, whose sole purpose is to mate with the Queen). In factory farm bee operations, the Queen is generally artificially inseminated after been drugged, and then after a short period of time being Queen she is killed to make room for a younger replacement. If left to their own devices, bee Queens in the wild may live for up to 5 years. As a vegan a principle I try to live by a Sanskrit phrase 'Ahimsa', which translate to 'avoid violence', or 'do no harm'. In my life I try to practice non-violence, whether towards animals, myself, or others. Bees are included as animals, and I just don't find myself comfortable with farming practices which kill needlessly or cause harm.

I'm aware that not all beekeepers run their hives this way, some take a more holistic approach to it, and maybe it would be a different situation if I knew how the bees were treated. Maybe not, though, since the same argument can be made for cattle that are grass fed, antibiotic free, and the like. It's a slippery slope when you start justifying some means of animal farming.

Anyone else have any thoughts on bees and beekeeping? On whether vegans should eat honey or not?

Fridays and Fitness Apps

Friday's are do whatever I feel like it for an hour workout days. So I tackled Level 3 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I wish I owned heavier weights since I can't really take my computer to the gym, and had to do it at home with the 8lb ones I have. Exciting thing is that it was easy peasy. 2 months ago this workout killed me, today I breezed right through it, and then did the HIIT The Beach Routine from Tone It Up. Seeing results and feeling myself get stronger each week is super exciting. Hard work pays off!

I've been dying to do hot yoga lately but it doesn't really fit into the budget, but I've managed to come up with a solution! The gym in my building's got a sauna no one uses, so that paired with the All In Yoga app does the trick. The only obstacle is that the sauna is hottest near the ceiling, so I've been balancing precariously on the top bench and hoping I don't fall.

Speaking of apps they've become my new favorite thing for coming up with workouts. The Nike Training Club one has some amazing workouts for pretty much everything you can think of, I did the Gladiator one on Monday and it kicked my butt. There's 4 categories, for getting lean, toned, gaining strength, and 15 minute workouts focused on each body part. Most of the workouts vary from 30-45 minutes, with 3 levels of difficulty. All for 99 cents!!!  It also has a timer that tells you when to switch moves, and videos showing you how to do each move. So it's pretty much a gift from the workout gods.

Another one I've been using is called Jefit, where it has a huge database of moves you can pick from to combine your own routines and log your weights, reps, and sets you've done. You can also make up a routine for each day of the week, and it'll tell you when you've beat your previous weights(it's more of a strength training app).

Dinner today was a vaguely Mexican inspired salad. Mixed greens, topped with Smokey Paprika Tofu, broccoli, 1/2 a sweet potato, onion, avocado, and lots of lime juice and hot sauce. The whole way through I was thinking it'd be better with salsa, but I didn't have any. Lately I've taken to dumping wine onto whatever I've been cooking, and you wouldn't think that white wine and tofu would go together but somehow they do. Don't ask. I also gobbled it up far too quickly to take a photo.

Where does George Washington keep his armies?

In his sleevies! Sorry, bad pun. Anyways, yesterday was arm day so I did this:

Tricep Dips x 15
Alternating Hammer Curls x12
Tricep Dips x 15
Alternating Floor Press x 12
Dumbell Bench Press x 15
Tricep Rows x 15
Deadlifts w Dumbells x15
Bent Over Row x 15
Dumbell Curl x15

x3

and then 20 minutes on random on the elliptical.

I purchased Eat to Live by by Joel Fuhrman recently, cause I can never get enough of books on nutrition. I took it to David's Tea and read and chugged a Swampwater iced tea(which was way tastier than the name or color implied).  I also made a quick trip to Whole Foods for dinner(I was in the 'hood, how could I not?). I made a giant salad consisting of greens, edamame, quinoa, sweet potatoes, tofu cubes and carrots. I've never really been huge on fruit in my salad, but I remembered seeing some sort of quinoa salad on Gena's blog involving grapes, so I figured I'd give it a go. Normally I'm not a huge fan of sweet and salty things, but this tasted pretty good! I frequently get into food ruts and eat the same thing for weeks on end, so it's good to switch things up sometimes.

After I met up with Dani to watch Dark Shadows, it was way better than I expected. The sets/lighting/costumes were stunning, obviously(I adore Tim Burton). I was expecting it to be a little campy, which I wouldn't have minded but it was much better! There are never enough good words to say about Johnny Depp. I can't begin to count the number of movies those two have done together. No complaints though, I love them all.

2 Lbs is No Joke!!

Up until recently I've been using 8 lb weights, so I decided to switch to 10 lbs this week. Who knew 2 little pounds would make that much of a difference? My biceps were dying for 3 days after. Honestly I'd been kind of intimidated to use weights in our gym, but then I realized no one cares what you're doing, they're just focussed on their own workouts. So now I'm over it. Kind of. This morning I woke up at 9:30(sleeping in is a thing of the past now that the sun has decided to get up nice and early and heat up my room making it impossible to sleep). Went to the gym and did this workout:

Bicep Curl to Arnold Press x 15(10 lb)
Bent over Dumbell Flyes x 15 (10 lb)
Overhead Tricep Extension x 15 (15 lb)
Tricep Kickbacks x 15 (10 lb)
Outward Bicep Curl x 15 (10 lb)
Deadlift with Dumbells x 15 (15lb)
Crunches x 15 (15 lb)
Russian Twists x 15 (15 lb)
x 3

and then did some 2 minute sprints with 2 minutes rest on the Treadmill for 20 minutes!

This week's been a little crazy, I shot the cover for an upcoming issue of Chloe Magazine the other day, which I can't wait to see hit newsstands! Last night for dinner my friend Dani and I hit Whole Foods, where I got a ginormous salad(obviously), and stuffed my face not so secretly with chocolate almonds in the bulk food section. And guzzled Kombucha, which for some reason was super bubbly and made me burp all throughout the night(TMI? Possibly. But it happened.) We watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which was hilarious. I don't think I've ever seen Keanu Reeves so unbrooding and chipper.

I also picked up a Black Bean Burger from Whole Foods yesterday and crumbled it up and topped a salad with it today. It was pretty tasty, I think I may attempt to make my own. It's hard to get off this tofu kick I've been on lately, I just can't help it!

I recently found out Lululemon has free yoga classes on Sundays, so I'm hitting that up tomorrow! Why didn't anyone tell me this? I feel like everyone's been holding out on me!! FREE YOGA?!!! I can't wait.

Beet Ravioli with 'Goat Cheese', and Pesto Pasta

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I wanted to use it as an excuse to make some beet ravioli that I've been eyeing for awhile. Since I've got my new mandolin, no veggie is safe from being sliced into exquisite thin strips of loveliness. I even took the time to cut each little slice into a heart shape, which maimed the cookie cutter a little, but nothing too serious. It was worth it. So were my red hands, and the stained counter. I filled them with a Pine Nut/Cashew 'Goat Cheese', and served them with pesto on summer squash pasta. Since there's no special someone in my life at the moment, I fed this to my parents, whom I love most of the time. I was rather pleased at myself for sneaking them an almost entirely(I let them eat whole wheat spaghetti instead of summer squash) raw dinner which they liked. The things you do for those you love.

Beet Ravioli with 'Goat Cheese'
1 large or 2 small beets, slice thin as possible on a mandolin or with a vegetable peeler
1 tblspn Macadamia Nut Oil
1/2 juice of a lemon
1/2 tsp salt

Let the beet slices marinate in the lemon juice, salt and macadamia nut oil for 30 mins or overnight to tenderize

'Goat Cheese'
1 cup Pine Nuts
1 cup Cashews(you could use all cashews if you prefer)
1/4 cup water
4 tsps nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lemon

Mix all in a food processor til smooth.

Cream Sauce
1/2 recipe of 'goat cheese'
1/2 cup water
1 tsp thyme
1 clove garlic
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1 lemon

Blend in a blender til completely smooth.



Pesto Pasta
I ran out of enough basil to make pesto entirely with it, so I threw in some spinach. I kind of prefer it this way, sometimes basil can be a little pungent and overpowering for me.

1 bunch of basil
1 cup packed spinach
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Mix all in a food processor til almost smooth, but still with a few chunks, serve over pasta.



I cut some leftover Chocolate Mousse Cake I had into heart shapes, then dipped them in Chocolate sauce, then popped them in the freezer for about 10 mins. Served with some Strawberry Ice Cream and Strawberry/Blueberry sauce. I can never get enough of pairing strawberries and chocolate together. Never.