Beginner's Pilates Challenge: DONE!

So, a while back I decided to try the beginner's workout calendar over on Blogilates.com as a way to help me start working out on a regular basis and as an intro to Pilates which I've been wanting to try for a while now. I'm happy to say that I have officially completed the entire calendar. Yay me! This is a huge accomplishment for me because in the past I've never actually stuck with a workout routine. I'll usually start and stick with something for about a week or so before I get lazy and just say forget it. I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it and completing the entire four weeks.

There were a couple of days that I didn't get up early to do the workout videos before starting my day but I made sure to do them later in the day when I had time. There was also one day that I didn't workout at all so I had to double up and do two day's worth the next day to stay caught up. Also, on rest days there's healthy meal suggestions but I only tried the very first one; the banana pancakes recipe. Now that I'm done with that calender I'm not sure what to do next. I'm not going to jump into the July workout calendar at the end of the month so I decided to make my own schedule for the last couple weeks of the month. I just went back through the calendar and picked out some of my favorite videos to do.

To be honest I haven't seen much, if any physical results but it's largely my fault. I really haven't changed my diet too much and I know I should. Just working out isn't enough to see real results, you have to change your diet too which I've learned. That's a lot harder for me and it's gonna take a while. It's actually really easy for me to ADD healthy foods to my diet but getting rid of unhealthy ones is my real challenge. What can I say, I'm a work in progress.

That's all for now.

Newly Discovered Music: Lorde

Have I mentioned how much I love finding new music? Well I do. Maybe it's not new to you but it is to me. In this edition I'm talking about a young lady called Lorde. I say young because she honestly doesn't look much over 16 to me but I actually have no idea how old she is. Anyway, I was turned on to Lorde by someone on my Twitter feed mentioning her. I decided to check out her website and listen for myself. I liked what I heard and decided to download a couple of her songs. Lorde has an EP out called 'The Love Club' and I definitely recommend it. 'Royals' is the single but 'Bravado' is my favorite.

Newly Discovered Music: Jessie Ware - Sweet Talk

Yet another artist and song discovered in Amazon.com's free mp3 section. You really should check it out sometime if you haven't. They have some decent music over there. This was supposed to be a 'Music Monday' post but I was so busy I just didn't have the time so here we are. I really don't have anything to say about Jessie Ware, I just want to share this song with others who might enjoy it as much as I do. The song is called 'Sweet Talk' from Jessie's album 'Devotion.' Happy listening!

Date Smoothie Recipe

So I'm still experimenting with different flavors of smoothies so I'm not just alternating between the same two recipes ALL the time. I recently bought some dates from Trader Joe's because I love them and wanted to see what they might taste like in a smoothie. I looked up some recipes online and pretty much took bits and pieces from each to come up with my own recipe. I didn't make too much because I didn't want to waste it in case I didn't like it so feel free to alter the amount of ingredients used to yield more servings.

                         

-Pitted dates, chopped ( I didn't count or measure them so I really have no idea how many, sorry)
-1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla coconut milk ( I may use more in the future)
-2 Tbsp of vanilla coconut milk yogurt (I added this mostly just to thicken it up a bit)

                         

Blend it together and boom! There you have it. My one issue is that there was still some date chunks in the blender that I just couldn't get rid of. Maybe I didn't chop the dates up enough? I'm not really sure what happened but for the most part everything blended together nicely. My taste buds are VERY happy.

Coconut Milk Smoothie Recipe

I recently decided to give coconut milk a try because of this health kick I'm on. A while back I tried almond milk but it was just gross. I've never been a fan of almonds so I don't know why I thought I'd like the milk but whatever. Usually I make my smoothies with yogurt but I decided to try looking up recipes that use coconut milk and I found this one. It's very simple and only has three ingredients.

This picture isn't mine but this is pretty much what my smoothie looked like.

-1 cup coconut milk
-1 banana
-2 cups of raw spinach

Mix it all in a blender and there you have it. My only "issue" with this smoothie is the very milky texture. By using yogurt all the time I'm used to the texture of my smoothies being thicker, almost like a milkshake but this wasn't a big deal. Anyway, try it for yourself and enjoy!

Stuff I Like: Wholesome Sweeteners

To be more specific, organic blue agave vanilla flavored syrup by the company Wholesome Sweeteners. I found this product while I was browsing the aisles of Whole Foods yet again. I was actually looking for honey and more coconut manna but I happened to see the line of agave syrups and sweeteners. Now I've never tasted agave anything before so I wasn't sure about this purchase but it was definitely the right decision.

As soon as I smelled it, I knew I did the right thing because it smells SO good. Then of course I had to taste a little drop (just on my finger because I didn't want to just pour it in food without knowing how it would be). Heaven. I seriously want to eat this stuff by the spoonful it's so good. I may never buy regular sugar or honey again. It's that deep. The best part is that it's healthy. According to the label it's "organic, low glycemic, gluten free" AND it's 25% sweeter than sugar. I'm in love. You MUST try this stuff if you haven't already.

Music Monday: Alice Smith

Alice Smith is yet another artist I discovered while browsing the free mp3 section over on Amazon.com. The song available at the time was called 'Cabaret' which I've grown to really love so of course it's on repeat on my iPod. I haven't listened to much of her music but I really like her voice.

Here's Alice giving a live performance of Cabaret. She sounds amazing live! 

Music Monday: Delta Rae

I first heard of the group Delta Rae when I was browsing the free mp3 downloads over on Amazon.com. The song available was called 'Bottom of the River' which I love. I decided to listen to some of their other music and found that they have quite a few songs that I really like. I've added two of my favorite songs below. Give them a listen.