Tag: health

Elf For Health Round 2: Day 1

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After a week of seeing tweets about elves and health I thought I’d sign up for a six week challenge designed to keep me healthy and active during the holidays. Even though I missed the first round of elf pairings, I got the opportunity to be paired up with someone to help inspire and push me for the next two weeks. I havent heard from my fellow elf yet, which saddens me but Im sure she will reach out soon! This weeks’ challenges look amazing and incredibly doable. I will keep you all in the loop of my progress with these challenges.

Today’s challenge was to track my water intake and to drink my body weight in ounces of water. At first I was trying to convert my weight of 122 into ounces and then convert into cups and thought there is NO way I can drink 1952 ounces of water in one day. But when I realized I only needed to drink approximately 15 and 1/4 cups of water, I thought okay this is actually doable.

I think we underestimate how much our bodies need water. Water makes up about 70% of our body and can you believe there are people who don’t like water? How can you not like water when you are practically made up of it? Water is completely refreshing, cooling, healing and often a way to cleanse. I drank my 15 and 1/4 cups of water today and felt pretty good. On average we really should try to drink about 8 cups of water a day. Yup, you heard me. 8 cups AKA 64 ounces of wet, flowing, crisp goodness. If you were stranded in a desert, imagine how refreshing and delicious a cool cup of water would be?

I savored every last sip of water today. I noticed that my urges to snack disappeared and my mood felt more balanced. Even though the challenge of the day is over, I am keeping my Integrative Nutrition water bottle near by and clinging to it for dear life. I just LOVE water!

Peace, love and no beef!

Guramrit

Pardon My Slack: A Mini Update

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Wow I can’t believe it’s December already! It seems as thought November flew right on by bringing and taking Thanksgiving away ever so quickly. The past few weeks have been hectic but pleasant. The joyfulness of the season and the culinary delights have kept me, well, delightful (for the most part).

The day after Thanksgiving my favorite fitness instructor, whom I have taken classes (Zumba, Pilates, Total Body Conditioning, etc.) with for nearly 3 years took another job and left me. Needless to say, I felt and still feel abandoned, maybe a little depressed. I found that my instructor motivated me to stay fit and active and kept me sane. But the moment she told me she was leaving (which I could feel coming) I could feel myself shrivel. NOOOO! Now what am I supposed to do? This past week I didn’t want to go to the actual gym. I decided to work out at home this week, which for me isn’t the same. I truly enjoy those workouts with a group and an instructor I can trust to push me to get results.

I realized that my instructor leaving actually has pushed me even more to want to get my Zumba certification. I even bought the Zumba Exhiliarate DVDs with toning sticks, which has been on my wish list FOREVER! I am pushing myself to quit making excuses. Excuses don’t get us anywhere but at the same time, I am allowing myself to rest. Lately I have felt super tired and those extra hours of sleep have really done me justice.

I am really looking forward to keeping fit for Christmas and the rest of the year. Lets face it, I’m just a tad bit of a sucker with the compliments regarding my toned and slim vegan body. Did I mention I’m on Month 3 of veganism? Even the biggest cheese lover can go vegan (if that’s something you’re willing to try!).

Well ladies and gents, that is all for now.
Peace, love and no beef (or cheese),

Guramrit

P.S. By the way did I mention I recently was accepted as a Sweat Pink ambassador? This community of amazingly strong and motivated women will keep me motivated as I recover from my favorite fitness instructor abandonment.

P.P.S. I’d love to hear from you lovely readers! What are you doing to keep yourself fit, motivated and healthy this holiday season?

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Change Your Health, Change Your Life.

Please excuse the zooming into my face and Rev. Fred. I truly apologize for the zoom aspect . Please excuse that and enjoy this video 🙂

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Sugar Addiction

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I’ve been in complete denial over my addiction to sugar. I thought my addiction to dairy products was bad (luckily I have overcome that) but me + sugar = bad news bears. In the past I always wondered what exactly was causing me to put on weight in the winter time. Seriously, I am not a bear I have no reason to put on weight, I have no intentions of hibernating. My appointment with my gyn and physician really opened my eyes to my weight. I was 135 pounds in February and though I felt fine, I wasn’t completely paying attention to myself.

I have made some drastic changes to my lifestyle as of late. It’s nearly 2 months since I have made the transition to a vegan lifestyle and I can honestly say I have never felt better. But then the fall inspired flavors at Starbucks came out, my aunt came to visit and wanted to do a “sweet tour” and then Halloween candy magically appeared at home. All three of these things came at the same time and hit me like a hurricane (no pun intended- even though Sandy showed up at the same time too).

I allowed myself a few treats here and there but then started to feel edgy, moody, frumpy and reactive. I immediately felt the desire to blame it on PMS. Come on, as women we have those moments when we want to blame our behaviors on mother nature. But this was no ordinary PMS, and I was no where near my beloved time of the month (please note the sarcasm). I pretty much had two weeks of intense sugar consumption. I felt lethargic, grumpy and overly emotional. I refused to admit it to myself at first but then it really struck me. I was obsessed with sugar. I looked back to the past years during the fall/winter seasons and realized I was drowning myself in comfort foods (cheese, cheese, more cheese, pumpkin spice lattes and pies).

This epiphany really allowed me to come to terms even more with my health and needs. I realized I can deal with one soy pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks (ONE!) a week and nibble a little bit of dark chocolate goji berries and I will be okay.

Even though I feel I am healthy, I have my moments of overindulging. I am, after all, human (and a woman…we have a thing for chocolate). I am currently 120 pounds and loving every second of this feeling. I refuse to over do it to the point that I compromise the progress I have made. But of course, I am not going to deny myself the pleasure of indulging in a decadent sweet every once in a while. After all, where’s the fun in that?

Peace, love and no beef!

Guramrit

Nourish Your Soul With Minestrone

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This week has been incredibly intense. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy. I feel immensely blessed that my family and friends are safe from harm and that we have our home, food and water. 

On top of the craziness of this week, it has been COLD. Winter has come early and I am NOT ready. One of the only things I get excited about for the winter is the cooking. Winter time means feeding yourself with comforting foods. BUT! This year I am turning those overly fattening, hibernation-causing, overly-cheesy, super decadent winter foods into healthy, nutritious and DELICIOUS meals. One of the recipes I played with was a minestrone recipe from Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust by Ina Garten. Of course, I always turn a recipe into my own to suit my vegan needs. Well, here it is. Enjoy!

What You Need: 

1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion

2 cups (1/2-inch) diced carrots (3 carrots)

2 cups (1/2 inch) diced celery (3 stalks)

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1 cup of purple kale, chopped (remove the spine and wash thoroughly)

1 large zucchini, sliced into half moons

26 ounces canned tomatoes (1 small can of whole peeled tomatoes, 1 large can roasted diced tomatoes)

1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups cooked small pasta (you can cook it in the soup!)

8 to 10 ounces of fresh baby spinach (2 big handfuls)

6 cups of vegetable stock

1/2 cup dry white wine (or cooking wine)

2 tablespoons store-bought pesto (I got pesto paste- no cheese!- has more concentrated pesto flavor)

1 bay leaf

Salt, Pepper to taste

How To Make It:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add onions, garlic, celery, carrots, thyme and cook until vegetables soften. Add zucchini and stir. 

2. Add tomatoes, vegetable stock, bay leaf, 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil and low the heat. Simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender. 15 minutes into the simmering process add the kale, let it wilt slightly. Toss in pasta and allow to cook. 

3. Disgard the bay leaf. Add the beans and heat through. Toss in spinach and stir in until leaves are wilted. Stir in white wine and pesto. Add another teaspoon or two of salt to taste. 

4. Serve with your favorite crostini/bruschetta/croutons and ENJOY!