Tag: sweat pink

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

Green Goddess Pasta (Adapted from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch)

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Hello beautiful beloved ones!

I had to share this phenomenal recipe with you. In all honesty, this may probably be up on my list with my favorite pasta recipes. This dish was full of flavor and color with different textures to satisfy the palate. I made a few swaps to the recipe (as usual, DUH!) and cranked up the flavor by adding in thyme, organic extra virgin olive oil, baby sweet peas and took out the kale and zucchini (since I didn’t have any on hand). I promise you this recipe is super easy and it’s great to take to work or school for lunch the next day (if there are any leftovers).

Green Goddess Pasta

Serves 4

What you need:
5 cloves garlic, minced (set one clove aside for sautéing veggies)
4 tablespoons refined organic extra virgin olive oil (set one tablespoon aside for sautéing veggies)
6 tablespoons vegan butter
3 quarts water
About 5 teaspoons fine sea salt
8 ounces whole wheat or brown rice elbow macaroni (I used brown rice spinach spaghetti)
1 broccoli crown, cut into bite-sized florets (about 2-1⁄2 cups)
1⁄2 bag frozen baby sweet peas
1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
1⁄4 cup pine nuts (pan roasted, roast with no oil in a small sauté pan until slightly brown and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside).
2 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed

How you make it:
In a 1-quart saucepan over low heat, combine the garlic, thyme, and olive oil and cook, swirling occasionally, until the garlic is fragrant and starting to brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the butter, swirling until it melts, and set aside.

In a 4- to 6-quart stockpot over high heat, combine the water with about
1-1⁄2 tablespoons salt. Bring the water to a boil, add the macaroni, and cook according to the package directions until about 1 minute shy of being done.

In a sautee pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and one clove of garlic. Let the garlic get fragrant then add broccoli. Add baby peas at the end. Cook until veggies are tender.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1⁄2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot and stir in the veggies, garlic butter, pepper, 3 tablespoons of the roasted pine nuts, and the remaining 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt. Transfer the pasta to plates or a platter, garnish with remaining 1 tablespoon of pine nuts, and serve. For a little extra garnish, add a handful of pea sprouts. Delish!

Peace, love and green goddess pasta for all!

Guramrit

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Just a little food porn for your Sunday funday. The moral of this story? Eat more greens! Yum!

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?