How to be a Well-Fed Traveller

Eating healthy can be a challenge while travelling. Airports and train stations are generally filled with unhealthy chain restaurants. I always try to bring enough snacks so I will not starve if I cannot find appropriate options. I also always request vegetarian meals, which has pros and cons. The pros are that your food comes out first and if it’s a dinner meal then it’s usually Indian food. Airplane food sucks in general but the Indian food is actually super tasty and I’ll be done eating by the time the rest of the cabin gets served boring old chicken or beef. The only con is that the breakfast and lunch options suck, but I think they suck across the board so it’s not so bad.

Before my flight home to the U.S., I scoured my terminal for a good morning snack/lunch option. I settled on Pret a Manger, which is a Starbucks-esque chain in the U.K. I was excited to find edamame in the pre-packaged section and decided to have that for a snack with a flat white made with soymilk. A flat white is an espresso drink made with the milk from the bottom of the steamer so it has a creamier texture more coffee flavor and less milk. I really liked it and wish it was available in the States!

Protein + caffeine = a happy traveller

For lunch I picked up a sandwich that contained avocado, pickled carrots and daikon, spinach and a chili dressing. It was delicious and really fresh, and had lots of good veggies.

 

Water is a must for long flights. I always try to stock up on two liters before I board. It’s a pain in the butt to lug around two liters of water but it’s definitely worth it. I ended up drinking both liters, as well as 4-5 cups of water the airline supplied and I was still thirsty!

Other travel essentials are a snack (I brought along a Clif KidZ Bar) and lip balm. Chapped lips are the worst!

Passport(s) (I have dual citizenship which basically means never waiting at customs… #luckiest), American cell phone, European cell phone and most importantly my trusty Kindle.

With these essentials I was managed to stay happy, healthy and entertained throughout my flight (even if I was a bit thirsty towards the

Preparing for Travel by Baking Cookies

I’m leaving tonight for a vacation in Europe! My parents gave me a trip to Paris, Aachen and London as a graduation present and I am beyond excited to get on my way this evening. My first stop is Paris where I will be visiting with my freshman year roommate who I haven’t seen since last May!

Before I could start packing, however, I needed to get my bake on. I put on my new cupcake apron and set out to make a recipe from the copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar I received for Christmas. I made the Banana Everything Cookies and they were delicious. There is A LOT of oats in them so they are super chewy and taste pretty healthy. The addition of mashed banana, walnuts and chocolate chips added to the delicious factor of these babies and they were polished off by me and my family in no time. I did save one cookie to pack with me in my carry on as a snack later!

Does anyone else have the problem where you make your cookies larger than the recommended amount? This recipe made two dozen cookies but I only had eighteen! This always happens to me…

I’m kind of frightened of flying, I know it’s a silly thing to worry about but I’m always scared that something bad will happen. People always remind me that it’s much more likely to be in a car accident than a plane crash but it just feel so much more dangerous to be in the air! I usually just take a Benedryl so I get knocked out for the entire flight and don’t worry about it. I’m going to really miss this guy:

As a side note, last night I saw the movie Tintin in theaters. It was really good and there was a cat in it who looked just like Henry! It was a great adventure story and really clever, I highly recommend it and it’s not just because my cat stars in it. After baking and snapping some pics of my favorite kitty, I better get started on packing! My flight leaves in 9 hours, Europe here I come!

I probably won’t be posting once I’m abroad, but I’ll be back on the 23rd!

I’m a SkinnyGirl

Thursday afternoon I headed into NYC because Bethenny Frankel was doing a book signing at the Barnes and Nobles Union Square that evening.

I read A Place of Yes over the summer and really enjoyed it. I’m a huge fan of Bethenny from her reality show and her books did not disappoint. I also read Naturally Thin and think it is a great resource for people who want to lose weight without obsessing over food. A Place of Yes really helped me stop stressing out about not having a life plan. One of the chapters is called “All Roads Lead to Rome” and is about how you can always reach where you want to go even if you take a few detours. It was great to hear Bethenny speak in person and get her to sign my copy of her book!

Proof:

After the book signing, Dan met me in the city and we went for dinner. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant L’Annam, where I got a tofu curry.

I loved the presentation and it tasted pretty good but it was way too much food! Dan always makes fun of me because I complain that his dish is better than mine, but it usually is! He got the Vietnamese-style Pad Thai and it was really good and had a unique flavor. Someday I will have a tastier dish… someday.

After dinner we went bowling at the only bowling alley in Manhattan, Bowlmor Lanes. I had been there for mini golf before but never bowled there.

It was fun but so expensive, I guess they have a monopoly on bowling and can charge whatever price they want. It was $12.95 EACH per game! As students we could only afford to bowl one short game (which Dan won) but it was nice to do something different and fun with each other!

I had a nice (short) trip to NYC and it made me eager to be back there full-time at the end of the month!

Mmm Cheezy

Today I made a batch of soup for lunch.

I bookmarked a recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows a couple of weeks ago for Broccoli and Cheeze Soup. Whenever I go to Au Bon Pain I always like the look of their Broccoli Cheddar soup, but alas, it is not Fiona’s diet-friendly. So I was super excited when I saw this recipe, and for good reason, it is DELICIOUS! I’ve been impressed with every OSG recipe I’ve tried and this was no exception.

 

I made my own croutons to go on top as well! I toasted some bread, slathered it with Earth Balance and garlic powder and then toasted it again. This made 4 HUGE servings of filling soup and was the perfect lunch. My only advice is, if you don’t like things spicy, scale back the cayenne pepper!

First Swim and Shake

Thursday was my first swim of 2012!

Do you like my outfit? Super flattering right? It was an improvement on my last swim, I did 140 yards in 20 minutes. If you think about it, that is pretty pathetic, but it was only my 2nd swim so I don’t feel too bad about it.

After my swim I had my first protein shake of 2012! I had run out of protein powder so I was very happy when this arrived on my doorstep Wednesday afternoon.

I like Sunwarrior Protein Powder best because it tastes good and mixes well into smoothies and oats. I’ve heard conflicting views on soy protein so I prefer the brown rice protein in Sunwarrior. My smoothie was great, it contained 1 frozen banana, 1 scoop Sunwarrior, 1 Tbsp peanut butter, 1 cup Silk Vanilla Light Soy Milk and 2 ice cubes. Super scrummy 🙂

I find that eating a vegetarian diet I do not get enough protein so as I lost weight I ended up losing a lot of muscle as well. Protein powder has been a great way to up my protein intake and help build muscles! I’m gettin’ buff!

What I Ate Wednesday

This is my first WIAW post!

I didn’t end up going to the gym or physical therapy yesterday. I had to cancel my PT appointment because I switched to a new insurance on January 1st and my therapist is not in my new insurance’s network. I’m so disappointed! I spent the rest of the afternoon moping around upset because my knee hurts and feeling pessimistic about ever getting better… I actually got all my gym clothes on but couldn’t bring myself to go, which was super lame. Whatever, that was yesterday and today is a new day!

Not to dwell on the past but here is what I ate yesterday. Yesterday was Tuesday but today is Wednesday so it still counts as WIAW right?

I had the same breakfast as Monday, which was overnight oats with chia seeds, half a banana and almond butter. Plus cinnamon, never forget the cinnamon!

Lunch was an impromptu sandwich, I pan fried some tofu and seasoned it with soy sauce and spices then stuffed it into a toasted whole wheat pita with a quarter  avocado, some hummus and some sauteed spinach. I just used what I had available and it turned out great!

For an afternoon snack I chomped on half an apple with a half packet of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter. Plus cinnamon again :). If you’ve never added cinnamon to your apple slices you are missing out, it makes a huge difference to the flavor! As you can see, I was already halfway through my snack when I remembered to take a picture.

I was super hungry by the time dinner rolled around. My dad made vegetarian chili and it was scrumptious! I was so famished that I forgot to take a picture of it until after I finished, so I just snapped a pic of the leftovers in the pot. I ate this with a half cup of brown rice and some roasted cauliflower.

Then I snuck a few spoonfuls of Ciao Bella Blood Orange sorbet from the container… (but we will pretend I didn’t.)

I’ll get better at remembering to photograph my food by next week, I promise! Today I have to take my mom to the doctor, then I have to hit up the gym (since that failed yesterday) and go visit the boy! It’s gonna be a great Hump Day!

Put My Swag On

Happy Tuesday everybody! As I informed you I was thinking about heading to the mall in yesterday’s post, and I did! I had a successful shopping trip where I hit up Aritzia and Express with some gift cards.

Aritzia is one of my favorite shops, I got hooked on it a few years ago when I visited my roommate in Vancouver. It’s a Canadian company with only a few U.S. stores but luckily for me they opened their first east coast location in the mall near my parents house pretty about two years ago! They also opened a flagship store in SoHo this summer, which was incredibly exciting for me. The only downside is that everything is so expensive… The combination of a gift card and winter sales was in my favor yesterday and I made two great purchases 🙂

a Talula cashmere sweater on sale

a HUGE Wilfred wool scarf on sale

I’m obsessed with both things but I especially love the scarf, it’s so big I can wear it as a shawl, a regular scarf or an infinity scarf!

After Aritzia I made a pit stop at Anthropologie where I purchased a birthday gift for my mom and then headed to Express. Dan’s mom gave me a gift card to Express for Christmas so I thought I would check out what they had. I ended up getting this super chunky wool waterfall sweater. It was originally $98 but with the combination of sales and my gift card I ended up only paying $22.99! I love a good deal and try never to pay full price for anything.

Overall I had a successful shopping trip! On the agenda for the rest of my day is helping my mom take down the Christmas decorations, doing an upper body workout and physical therapy. I’ll do an update on PT tonight, see you crazy kids later!

I really should put some real clothes on…

Good morning! Over this winter break I have had a bad habit of staying in my pyjamas until the afternoon. It is no bueno and today is no different. Maybe tomorrow I’ll make an effort to get out of the house before noon… maybe.

Check out this awesome drawing Dan did of me for our 2 year anniversary!

Isn’t it great? It looks just like me! I can’t believe we have only been together for two years, it feels like forever (in a good way!).

For breakfast today I had a simple filling bowl of overnight oats coupled with a steamy cup of green tea.

I used Chocolate Covered Katie‘s voluminous oats trick and microwaved 1/2 cup of oats with 1 1/2 cups of water for 4 1/2 minutes, left it in the closed microwave for 5 minutes and then transferred to the fridge overnight. I love this method because it feels like you’re eating a lot of oats but you’re really not! I also added 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to the oats before I put it in the fridge and added 1/2 sliced banana, cinnamon and a small scoop of almond butter before inhaling it this morning. Holy yum!

I’m feeling pretty sore in the hips and behind my knee from physical therapy on Friday and walking the 5k yesterday afternoon so I’m going to do some gentle yoga. I’m at my parents house in New Jersey until I start culinary school at the end of the month so I’m really missing my normal yoga studio. I found some free yoga podcasts on iTunes though so I’m going to try one of those today. Other than that I think I’m going to do some shopping this afternoon with some of my holiday gift cards and try a new recipe this evening!

Have an awesome Monday!

Hangover Run and Resolutions

Happy New Year!

How did you all celebrate the beginning of 2012? I rang in the apocayear with a Hangover Run in Westfield, NJ. I wasn’t hungover but I was certainly sleep deprived from a late night partying with my boyfriend’s family last night. I walked the entire race with my dad and we finished in 47 minutes and 17 seconds! We did jog the last 0.2 miles but other than that we kept a good walking pace because I didn’t want to interfere with healing my runner’s knee. Walking is harder than it seems, I was definitely feeling it in my hips by the end of the race and getting a little out of breath when we went up the hills.

I wore the new shoes my boyfriend gave me for my birthday, Nike Free Run 2’s. I really like them; they are adorable and comfy as anything. However, they don’t offer a lot of support and are probably not a good choice for running for me personally because of my knee issues. I love them for strength training and other gym workouts though since they are so flexible and light. They honestly feel like slippers!

My dad watches a lot of soccer (or as he calls it, football) and he told me that soccer players only really suffer from three ailments, hamstring twang, groin-gah!, and knee knack. So I guess I have knee knack!

I had a lot of fun with my dad! I was originally going to do it with my mom but she broke her ankle 2 weeks ago, so I was pleased when my dad agreed to take her place! We chatted the whole time and plotted to overtake other walkers ahead of us. He said that maybe this could be our new father daughter thing, and we already made plans to do it again next year running the whole time. Running a 5k is a good attainable goal and as long as my knee gets better I don’t see why I won’t be able to do it! I would love to be able to train for a half marathon but I don’t want to set my sights on that until it looks like my knees are getting better. It’s tough having my goals limited by my body but hopefully patience will pay off!

My other fitness goals for 2012 are:

• To do at least one unassisted pull-up
• To be able to do regular push-ups (not girly ones)
• To do yoga at least 3x week

Instead of New Year’s resolutions, I like to do monthly resolutions. This way I can reevaluate my progress each month and adjust my goals as I see fit.

So without ado, my January resolutions are:

• Blog at least 5 times a week
• Try a new recipe every week
• Swim twice a week
• Practice yoga twice a week
• Stick to my budget (this might be hard since I will be traveling for 2 weeks!)

I feel that these resolutions are within my reach but not entirely without a challenge. It will be interesting to see how I feel about them come February!

I’m exhausted from last night a so I’m going turn in early this evening. See you tomorrow Lovelies! 🙂