Sweet Potato Workout Cake

I think sweet potato has got to be one of my all-time favourite slow burning carbohydrates. Not only because it’s delicious and can be used in both sweet and savoury recipes, it also has a minimal impact on your blood sugar levels (depending on how you prepare it, that is. A baked sweet potato has a higher glycemic index than a boiled or steamed sweet potato). What better way to spend a rainy long weekend than playing in the kitchen? This single-serve cake is a perfect pre-workout or afternoon snack, breakfast, or dessert. It provides hours of fuel and loads of deliciousness!

Ingredients

2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and steamed

1/4 cup brown rice or quinoa flour (or even protein powder could work)

1 tbsp coconut oil, plus extra for greasing

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

Pinch sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a ramekin or small dish with coconut oil.
2. Steam sweet potatoes and mash by hand or toss ‘em in the food processor.
3. Add flour and mix or process with the sweet potato. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix.
4. Scoop mixture into your ramekin and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy. Bonus: stick a square of dark chocolate into the middle of the cake when you pull it out and let it melt. Yummm. 

Max Out Your Workouts with Affirmations

One of my favourites from HeyManifesto

What do you think about when you’re working out? Lunch? Chore list? Chances are, your mind wanders when you’re training. I find I can zone out when I’m doing cardio (especially when it’s not super-high intensity intervals, or when I’m outside). Considering how much time I spend getting jacked, I thought I’d take advantage of this time to increase my levels of awesomeness.

I found this great app called HeyManifesto. It’s got a ton of positive affirmations on brightly coloured pictures for all areas of your life. If my cardio takes place on a machine, I like to have something to focus on aside from the timer counting down the minutes.

The increased levels of feel-good chemicals and more blood pumping through your veins while you’re working out puts your brain in place for super-optimal information absorption. The neuro-linking that happens when you’re in a good mood is amazing! It’s one of the reasons Kelsey and I host The Awesomeness Advantage: whether people watch it for our giddiness and hilarity, or just to look at our pretty faces, it puts people in a good mood and sends home a great message. It associates positivity and feeling good with the ideas or messages you’re absorbing.

Positive mood + positive messages = increased absorption rate of said messages

You don’t need the app to try this technique out. Send yourself some positive affirmation pictures to your email (assuming you get email on your phone, of course) and flip through them while you’re on the bike/elliptical/stair machine/tread mill. If you’re looking for some good ones, check out my page on Facebook (there’s a link on the right side of this page).

Let me know if you try this! I love doing it, and I’d love to hear your experiences with it.

The Chocolatiest Breakfast Bowl That Ever Was

I have always been a chocoholic. Nine times out of ten, I will choose chocolate over any other flavour. While some people crave savoury flavours for breakfast, I use it as another opportunity to eat chocolate. And you know what? I don’t see anything wrong with it. It makes me really happy. A few weeks ago I found I had an abundance of chocolate-flavoured items in my house and decided to make the chocolatiest breakfast bowl that ever was.

The Chocolatiest Breakfast Bowl Ever

1/2 cup chocolate almond milk

1/2 cup chocolate (or regular) coconut water

1 serving chocolate Sunwarrior Warrior Blend protein powder

1 serving chocolate Amazing Grass greens powder or 1 large handful of spinach

1/2 frozen banana

Optional optimizers: 1 tsp maca powder, 1 tbsp coconut oil

Optional toppings: 1 handful chocolate Kaia raw granola (or regular granola), goji berries, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds

Directions

Blend all ingredients (except toppings) and pour into a bowl. Top with your, erm, toppings, and enjoy! Smoothies in a bowl taste better. Especially ones of the chocolate variety. Happy weekend! XO

 

The New Age Crystal Light

When I was a kid we always had Crystal Light drinks in our fridge. It was a childhood reminder of summer time (especially the lemon-lime flavour). I have a different type of “crystal light” now, one without fake colours, flavours, or aspartame.

Okay, and it’s kind of hippie-ish.

Here’s what I do. I take a few crystals and let them sit in a big jug of water for about 24 hours. Tigers eye and opalite are my current picks, but you should choose whatever you vibe with. This alone will change how your water tastes (seriously, try it). Tons of research on water will show you the effects of positively and negatively influenced water cell structures (see picture below), and this is essentially what putting crystals in your water will do. It will infuse the water with the characteristics of the crystals. Add some trace mineral drops to take it to the next level (check out your local health food store, they’ll definitely have a product like ConcenTrace).

DISCLAIMER: Do your own research on crystals and their effects on the body before making elixirs. Some have less than desirable or even toxic effects.

If you’re so inclined, also try adding some crushed fruit and a few drops of stevia. Add lemon slices and strawberries for a pink lemonade flavour. Or orange slices with vanilla stevia for an orange crush flavour. The options are endless. Plus, it makes you want to drink more water! Water’s kind of a big deal when it comes to your overall well-being. Just look at a plant. As soon as you water it, you can visibly see it perk up and glow a little bit. Considering how we’re mainly made up of water, it would make sense that drinking more of it would have a similar effect on us.

With summer (and music festivals, and outdoor activities, and traveling) upon us, it’s key to start drinking more water than you normally would! It’s one of my top seven ways to instantly feel better (as featured on MindBodyGreen). Read the rest of those tips by clicking here!

Infuse Some Love into Your Mornings

I just have a short post for tonight! I wanted to share how happy little things make me, a realization I’ve been reminded of recently. The last couple of weeks I’ve been using a heart-shaped ice cube tray to freeze leftover Americano and other liquid goodies. Each time I pop out a little cube, I feel a little burst of rainbows explode inside of me. It’s magical! It also reminds me that summer is coming, because that’s one of the biggest associations I have with iced espresso. Anyways, I love remembering how happy I get from such small changes in my everyday routine. It’s inspired me take some cool pictures and write up new recipes. Here’s my latest:

Sweetheart Espresso Floats

1 cup of almond milk

5-6 drops of English toffee stevia

8 ounces of frozen heart-shaped Americano

Mix milk and stevia together and drop in the heart cubes. Allow the cubes to melt a little bit and sip away. Optional: warm the milk and stevia first make melting a bit easier.

How to Attract the Love of Your Life

Yeah it’s a bold title. Especially for an unattached 20-something year old. However, my quest out west has taught me a lot so far. One of the biggest lessons I’m learning now is the importance of self-love. We’re always so eager to encourage and compliment other people, but never stop to tell ourselves positive, lovingly lovely things.

We attract people that are reflections of ourselves. Like I said in my post about playing the victim, if you’re not being your own cheerleader you’re probably not going to attract someone who supports you like one. So how do you attract someone like that? How do you attract soul-mate-twin-flame-hot-lust-tangled-up-in-each-other love?

By falling in that kind of love with yourself. Take care of yourself. Tell yourself how beautiful you are. Tell yourself that you are fully accepted exactly as you are. Walk past the mirror, pause, and earnestly mutter “Damn…” under your breath. Admire your muscles flex in the gym. Make you your background. Notice your skin while you put on lotion and be present to how good you feel. Look at that part of your body you don’t particularly love (if there is one!) and realize it’s a part of a whole that makes up this mind-bogglingly incredible person. This part of your body is not you – it’s a part of the vessel that you reside in. Your dream partner already knows this and never focuses on it, if they even notice it.

What would you like to hear the love of your life say to you?

Now look in the mirror and say it.

Finally, trust and be patient (this is where I’m at right now). I trust that right now, I’m meant to fall in love with myself and no one else. Truly, madly, deeply in love with myself. When I’m meant to be with someone, I’ll meet the perfect man in Vancouver who is also solid and grounded in who he is. But you know what? I haven’t met this guy yet. I trust that he’s out there, but I’m not worried about meeting him. If we’re all the same (energetically speaking that is; I am you, you are me, I am the trees, I am the earth, et cetera), then falling in love with myself is pretty much the same as falling in love with someone else anyways.

I had a thought about this the other day. Since time doesn’t really exist (clocks exist, time doesn’t), then I’ve technically already met this person somewhere in the future. I’ve already fallen in love with myself, met someone who reflected this love back to me, and we’re in soul-mate-twin-flame-hot-lust-tangled-up-in-each-other love. I just have to let my earth body catch up to this moment.