Sunday Summary

February 16, 2014

Congratulations on another successful week everyone! I hope you have all been mindful of what you have been eating (Valentine’s Day is of course an exception!) and making sure you are staying active throughout the week.

What did you all do for Valentine’s Day? My Valentine of 5 years was sweet enough to come and see visit me (he lives about an hour and a half away) and we went out for Japanese food. I had a delicious and hearty soup of soba noodles (soba noodles are made out of buckwheat) and we shared some gyoza (how can you not?) and some grilled lamb chops.

We went to Sushi Zen; have any of you San Franciscans ever been there?

Apart from the extremely decadent banoffee pie (recipe here) I made as a Valentine’s Day gift, this weekend has been surprisingly healthy. I for one always give myself a little more wiggle room during the weekends because I like to meet up for meals with friends and I know that it is unrealistic to expect to eat healthily 100% of the time. My boyfriend and I went to a great restaurant for lunch yesterday in the Castro area of San Francisco called Chow. They had many healthy options, and a lot of their offerings were organic which is always nice to see. I got a Chai BaBa Chai to drink (delishhhh), Arancini as a shared appetizer and an amazing Beet salad with greens, fennel, endive, grapefruit, goat cheese and avocado.

Jump rope is #bae

In fitness news, I have re-discovered my love for jump rope (a.k.a skipping for all my European readers)! I became inspired by seeing amazing jump rope videos by the likes of Michael Olajide, Jr. who trains various models including Adriana Lima, and bernapril20 from Instagram. Jump rope is also a great form of cardio and strength conditioning so I highly recommend you try it out. I recently reached out to Miss Galaxy Australia 2012, Danielle Johnson, and asked her what she did to keep her legs in amazing shape, and one of her pieces of advice was to jump rope! So just do it everyone, it’s cheap, can be done anywhere and portable.

Here is a little video I posted of me on Instagram doing criss-cross jumps. I was SO excited I could do these again … they are harder than they look everyone!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1yxSXAEfTY&feature=youtu.be]

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and have a great fresh start to your week! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section below, email me or get in touch via my social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest).

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare

Friday Fare – Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins

February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! Whether you have a special someone to spend it with, or are single and proud, I hope you are having a fabulous day.

Since I made a very decadent raspberries dipped in dark chocolate and cacao for last weeks Friday Fare, I thought I would make something a little lighter, but delicious nonetheless. I bring you Almond and Oat Cinammon Spiced Muffins!

I really like muffins, particularly in the mornings but most commercial ones are full of junk and other yucky stuff I quite frankly refuse to put into my body. These muffins are light, healthy, and very versatile meaning you can add berries into the mix, dark chocolate chips, pretty much anything into them. If I had some coconut whipped cream I most definitely would have dolloped some on top of the muffins I made. They are still a sweet treat regardless of their lovely and wholesome ingredients however, so please treat these as a dessert and do not go nuts. I am planning on featuring a lower calorie sweet treat soon that you can definitely eat quite a few of, so stay tuned 😉

You need the following ingredients to make 8 muffins:

Almond & Oat Cinnamon Spiced Muffins

Alice Williams

Muffins that won't pack on the pounds!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp high quality salt
1/4 cup coconut oil

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees farenheit 🙂
2. Mix all of your WET ingredients in a large bowl (eggs, vanilla extract, unsweetened applesauce, melted coconut oil, and raw honey).
3. Mix all of your DRY ingredients into the wet ingredients (high quality salt, baking powder, oat flour, almond flour, and almond flour).
4. Once you have mixed all of the ingredients together well, get a muffin or cupcake pan and either put muffin cups into the cupcake pan holes or grease the holes with some olive oil or coconut oil. Put the batter evenly into 8 of the muffin holes.
5. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes (or 25 minutes if you like them more firm).

To make the oat flour, all I did was buy rolled oats and then quickly pulse them in a food processor (a blender works too).

Nutritional Values per 1 muffin

Calories: 320
Carbohydrates: 32g
Fat: 20g
Protein: 7g
Sugar: 18g
Fiber: 3g

Let me know how the recipe goes for you, and how you personally enjoyed them. Did you add any berries in, had some coconut whipped cream, etc?

Have a great weekend, and again, happy Valentine’s Day!!

Honestly yours,
Alice

Blogs I love, Fitness, Health

Sunday Summary

February 9, 2014

Well, this weekend was incredibly slooooow which was in direct contrast to my very busy and hectic week. I really should’ve expected this (I am a grad student after all) but after having that month long holiday it was just a big reality check for me.

To deal with the weekday hectic-ness that is now my life, I have had to start making meal preps at the very start of the week. During the holidays I was kinda lazy and was like, eh I don’t need to meal prep because I have all the time in the world. Hah, that was nice while it lasted … last Monday morning I made a huge pot of beef chili with chickpeas and plenty of fresh veggie which was basically lunch for the entire week which was awesome. This week I am planning on making a huge pot of Thai chicken curry 🙂

My yoga program has been going well and I am so happy to say that I am getting much more flexible. And my arm strength has improved too!!!! I two sets of 6 negative chin ups now, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I incorporated a variety of resistance band and cable machine moves this week to challenge my upper body from the usual weights and machines. I haven’t been able to go to the gym at the same time as any of my friends, so sorry I cannot show you photos of any of the moves I did.

Okay onto a more serious topic now .. have any of you heard of the 80:10:10 diet? I heard about it a while ago, but I recently came across an article on www.fiterazzi.com that talked about the dangers of it. Fiterazzi is fast becoming a favorite new health and fitness website of mine because unlike other websites that just talk about ‘losing 10 pounds fast’, they talk about issues tend not to get talked about, or which are hard to talk about. I recommend you check them out and the specific article I am talking about. I would love to know your thoughts about the diet, and whether you know anyone who is attempting it.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Honestly yours,
Alice