By the way….

I moved! Check out my real site by clicking HERE

<3 Abigail 

My iPhone, Minus the Brain Cancer! Yaysies!

“Did you know the World Health Organization deemed radiation from cellphones “potentially carcinogenic“?  So, despite your best efforts to stay away from BBQ and free radicals in general, it looks like all those oh so important biz calls you take on your cell phone could be feeding the cancer-causing radiation straight into you ol’ brain. What kind of deal is that?”

A crappy one indeed, Ms Telpner! Loving this contest idea, I’m on my phone all the time. It’s kind of a problem. Fingers and toesies crossed I win

Linkage: http://meghantelpnerblog.com/2012/06/07/ill-have-an-order-of-chitchat-hold-the-brain-cancer

Tempting my credit limit, and a note on veggie-stigma

I’ve become a bit obsessed with online shopping.  Receiving packages in the mail is like Christmas, and typing in a few combinations of numbers that apparently mean I’m charging a “credit card” makes it feel that much more like my birthday or something.  I’ll go through the motions, finding my products, adding them to my non-existent cart, typing in my address… my total pops up… I see the shipping fees… and before I can go through with it, I minimize my window.  I’ll come back to it tomorrow.  Seriously, this goes on for like a week before I just man up and charge the damn thing.

Currently I have three vegan cookbooks in my Amazon.ca cart.  I really never thought I’d be looking at vegan cookbooks – the idea that I’m 99.9% vegetarian (with the odd piece of fish at a restaurant or something) recently (since February) still seems odd.  I love it, and I feel fantastic, but there’s a stigma around this diet for sure.  I don’t like saying “I’m a vegetarian”, I’m an “eat whatever the hell I want-ian”, because if one day I feel like I want meat, I’m not going to restrict myself if it’s sustainably-sourced, humanely-raised, and naturally-grown.  I’m all for listening to my body’s needs.   What I don’t like is this ridiculous stigma I have in my head about eating this way – I don’t like to be the one at dinner that needs an exception made. I’ve cooked for people before, and there’s enough stress that goes into it wondering if everyone will like it, let alone will everyone eat it.  I empathize with hosts.

But I’ve met vegans before that just look pale and unhappy, and I always associated “vegan” with granola, dreadlocked, hemp shirt wearers.  They even had matching boyfriends.

Which isn’t to knock you if this is your life, I just had an idea of “who” vegans were, and now I’m staring straight at the diet, watching it tip-toe into my meal planning and I gotta say, I still love how my boyfriend looks in a suit.

The only non-vegan things I have in my diet right now are honey (Nude Bee, organic raw Ontario honey) and sheep yogurt.  And occasionally eggs when I’m feeling a quiche.  This isn’t really a “real” post (and I promise, a genuinely informative post is coming your way soon), more of a filler post because its 1 AM and I’m staring at this Amazon purchase like I’m making a down payment on a house.

Good night.

WIIAAAWWWWWWW

What an obnoxious title.

Breakfast: Green smoothie – yummers

Snack: Chickpea Coconut loaf (recipe to come soon… still perfecting!)

Lunch: Quinoa w/ kidney beans, avocado, and Averie‘s Apple-Edamame mix

Snack: 1/2 blondie (from Chocolate Covered Katie), Mary’s chocolate chip cookies (serious sweet tooth today), 1 quinoa beet burger from Fully Nourished

Dinner: 2 quinoa burgers, quinoa, beets, tahini sauce

Yum! Delicious day

I think I have some hippie blood in me

And here’s why:

1. I’ve decided for tonight that I’m not going to listen to music, but to the sound of the rain outside.  Don’t have windows or rain near you? Go to http://www.rainymood.com/

Goats!

2. I’ve decided to start volunteering in a vegetable garden.  I did it for my co-op during school and I loved it.  I spend 5 hours pulling weeds, watering plants and watching dogs chase the goats.  I leave feeling exhausted and happy and usually with some kind of basket of organic vegetables. Gardening is seriously therapeutic.

3. I voted Green Party.

4. I on occasion smoke herbaceuticals.

5. It’s not uncommon for me to talk about connecting to the earths energy, etc, etc.  I have a crystal salt lamp next to my bed.

6. I save a lot of snails on the sidewalk.

Okay so 3 and 4 are somewhat common/irrelevant, but seriously.  I spent so long thinking I wanted to live in a high-rise condo near the water, and now I’m thinking more north so I can have a garden in my backyard and be surrounded by nature.  Granted, I’d still love to live in a high-rise condo near the water.  I love being near any kind of water (hence my love for Vancouver), and there are certainly ways to have balcony gardens, but long term I’m not sure it’s what I want.

Also, it’s Wednesday! Which means WIAW (does anyone else read “WEEWA” and immediately think of Borat?) #2:

Breakfast Homemade granola with goat yogurt, 1/2 banana and powdered stevia

Snack Two quinoa-almond-chickpea cookies with honey drizzled on top

Lunch Bean-kamut salad with cucumber, red pepper, carrots and homemade dressing

Snack Blueberry muffin, homemade by my boss (the day gets 100x better when I get surprise treats at work)

Preworkout A spoonful of Artisana raw cacao coconut bliss – this stuff is seriously addictive, and I say it’s preworkout because the coconut butter gave me some sustainable energy and the agave gave me some unrefined simple carbs to run off of.  I also had a Vega Sport preworkout mix.

Dinner Baked asparagus with olive oil, lemon and sea salt, side salad, the rest of my bean-kamut salad from lunch

Evening Creme caramel rooibos tea with a few drops of vanilla stevia

I’ve been keep a food journal recently (aside from my WIAW’s).  A study was done involving a group post-menopausal women, and the goal was to find out what was more effective for weight loss: diet or exercise.  They found that the women who exercised 5 days per week and kept a food journal (noting everything they ate and drank aside from water and calorie-free items) lost approximately 11% of their weight in a year, while those that just focused on diet lost about 8%, and the exercise-only group lost about 5%.  Not that weight loss is a goal, but I definitely had a few moments when I was about to have a third quinoa-almond-chickpea cookie and thought “Hmm, maybe not, I’d have to write it down”.  It forces you to face your diet and be responsible for your actions.  Try it out, let me know how it goes for you!

I’m embracing my part-hippie status.  I’m not sure I’m ready to give up everything about city living, e.g. the cute sandal wedges I ordered came in today, and I definitely tried them on with a few possible summer-evening bar night outfits.  And I’m not sure I could let my hair go free, sans-styling for longer than a few days or give up mascara.  However, I do think it’s important to not get too caught up in ego-focused things such as appearance, social status, reputation, and so on.  We all think about them sometimes, and we all act on ego-based impulses, just don’t let that rule your life.  There, that’s the end of my hippie-quote for the day.

I’m working on another cravings post that goes into some further detail about craving different textures, I’m getting lots of hits for that post!  Also stay tuned for a Mythbusting: Fats edition.  Any other requests? Email abigail@myinnerglow.com

My First WIAW

So, what does a nutritionist eat?  Well, every Wednesday (or the odd Wednesday, we’ll see how this one goes) I will be posting a WIAW: What I Ate Wednesday.  People hear all about what I don’t eat (at dinner, in the grocery store, after hearing I haven’t eaten chicken in months…) and might be left wondering, is this one of those nutritionists that survive on lemon water and air?  No ma’am, I most certainly am not.  The article that link goes to is a completely misconstrued view of how nutritionists eat, which is why I wanted to do this.  WIAW’s are not real posts, but hopefully they’ll provide you with some inspiration to start cookin’ (or something).

So today looked like:

Breakfast Juice (spinach, cucumber, lemon, ginger, parsley, carrots, apple) and a couple homemade mini muffins

Snack Sheep yogurt with homemade granola and a bit of stevia

Lunch Mixed greens with a couple sweet potato dumplings and a lentil pattie, topped with some dressing (tahini, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, salt, pepper)

Snack Tea, a couple raw cookie dough balls

Preworkout Vega Sport preworkout boost

Dinner Lentil patties, sauteed kale with mushrooms, quinoa with caramelized onions

Dessert A scoop of Cappuccino Coconut Bliss, Creme Caramel tea

Also, I drank a lot of water.  Like, probably 20 cups.  It’s not hard to do when you have a water bottle that stares you down all day (well, it doesn’t stare me down, I stare me down from it’s reflective surface).  It’s amazing how much you’re not hungry so much as you are bored or emotional.

So, what’d you eat today?

Happy Easter!

So pretty!

Happy Easter everyone!  While I’m not celebrating religiously, I have been celebrating with some good food.  I could comment on the Mini Eggs, the Crème Eggs and the cheap chocolate bunnies at the dollar store, but my opinion on those are probably pretty obvious at this point.  On a related topic, I read about a vegan truffle company in Toronto that is making bunny “buttons” instead of goodies resembling bunnies.  Such a cute idea… I didn’t realize the vegan lifestyle extended this far!  I watched a TED talk by Mark Bittman that summarizes the evolution of processed foods very well (click here to watch) – very interesting if you’re interested in learning more about the harms of your typical processed meal.

Do you guys eat differently than your family?  How do you deal? Comment or email me at abigail@myinnerglow.com!

Friday quickie: I have a girl crush. And she’s a vegetarian.

I have to admit something: I have a girl-crush.

Who is this leading lady in my life? Dianna Agron.

It started as a mild admiration back when first Glee came out, but since doing some more research it’s grown into a bit more.  As it turns out, I have a [very weak] social connection with her: a past boyfriend’s best friend used to date her, and from this I learned she is a fantastic cook and a vegetarian to boot.  Between her, Olivia Wilde and Natalie Portman they make veggie-based lifestyles look better than any fast food commercial they can throw Audrina Patridge in.

If you tell me I look like her I will love you forever, and make you healthy brownies!

She kind of makes me want to start dying my hair again.  And start singing and acting, neither of which I excel in except behind closed doors.

I definitely agree with being a first-rate version of yourself rather than a second-rate version of someone else, but if I can bring natural eating and healthy lifestyles to our culture the way these ladies bring class, talent, and beauty to Hollywood, I’ll consider myself a success.

Check back on Monday for my next post!

Once you’ve finished being inspired to eat well here, get inspired with Dianna’s creativity here: http://felldowntherabbithole.tumblr.com

Cheating, and a Slow Death by Rubber Duck

Happy new years everyone… It’s been a little while since my last entry, so I’ve got a few things to update you on.  I had the pleasure of getting out of the city for new years, and spent four long, lazy days at a cottage.  The weather was mild, but unfortunately this meant that when my iPod fell out of my pocket onto the partially frozen lake, there was a couple inches of water that caused it an early death (thank god it managed to connect to my computer, I managed to save my playlists before bidding it adieu).  So I am sans music right now, which puts a serious dent in my subway rides.  However, instead of crying, I decided to pull out one of the books I got for Christmas.  When I had my music on, I’d fiddle around with the solitaire or mahjong on my iPod, or send a few messages instead of reading.  The book I’m reading is called Slow Death by Rubber Duck. It’s about two guys from Toronto that decided to see just how harmful some everyday chemicals are in our products. They tested out chemicals like phthalates, Teflon, and PCB’s.  Before chemical acronyms scare you away from the innocently named book, trust me, it’s incredibly well written!  It’s written so people can grasp the magnitude of harm that these chemicals are doing to our bodies.  I highly recommend picking it up.  Gotta give credit to a couple of Torontonians for bringing such an invaluable amount of information to the world’s attention.

So on the note of new years, there’s always talk of resolutions.  I made a couple of personal ones (like moving out of my parents basement, for example) and some for my career, but the popular health-geared ones I find are much more likely to succeed when you’ve got a reason besides the clock turning midnight.

But this wouldn’t be much of a health blog if I didn’t list at least one, right?

On February 19th I’m going to Mayan Riviera with my family for my dad’s fiftieth birthday.    I’ve got a pretty big family, as you can see from the picture (taken on our last trip together), so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of, if not the, last trip we all take as a family.  So I’ve decided that I’m going to try another crazy meal plan to get in serious bikini-ready shape.  Before I get bombardments of messages about how I don’t need to lose weight, et cetera, I know. I’m well aware, and I’m quite happy with my not totally perfect diet and pretty regular gym routine.  But let’s face it, we all feel better about being next to naked in a bathing suit when we know we’ve put in a lot of work into looking good.  From January 19th to February 19th, I am going to give it my best damn shot to eat super clean and feel my best when I go away.

Which leads to the cheating part of this post.  After eating not so holistically over the weekend at the cottage, and then last weekend when I ate out for every meal from Friday’s dinner to Sunday’s brunch, I really thought I’d want to start my crazy meal plan early.  But last night I went for dinner at Fresh with a girlfriend, and I had this crazy craving for a burger (now, for all of you that aren’t familiar with Fresh, it’s an awesome vegetarian restaurant, and their burgers are comprised of nuts, seeds, and tofu) and quinoa battered onion rings.  I even got a gluten-free dessert.  I felt wild, really living on the edge (I’m rolling my eyes, I’m aware that my dinner still sounds way too healthy for lots of people). So I cheated, again.  And it felt awesome, sometimes you really need to give in to your cravings.  Stay tuned for the Abby Gets Bikini Bod Ready Diet over the next week!

Why wait for 2011?

With New Years fast approaching, everyone is trying to sort out their new goals for next year.  Dreams of eating better, exercising more, and taking some much deserved R and R are always big ones, but why are we waiting for a new year? Start your goals now and you’ll have a much better chance of making them lifestyle habits rather than forgotten resolutions.  Prove to yourself that you have the power to achieve your goals no matter what time of the year.  Take it one step at a time towards becoming a better “you”, and remember the SMART goal acronym: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.  You can make it a SMART-R goal by remembering to Relax.  No one expects you to change over night, and neither should you.

I never fully followed up on my allergy diet results.  The conclusion I’ve come to is that my body does not respond too well to unhealthy acidic foods.  Things like dairy and sugar do not make my body happy.  Eating lots of green veggies, fruit, whole grains, lean proteins, and lots of water keeps me feeling optimal.  I savour every bite of a lemon Lara bar, and cold coconut water is way better and definitely more satisfying than any other sports drink (for more than one reason!).

This morning I went a little crazy at Noah’s after my Bikram class, and I picked up a product called Omega Swirl.  It’s an absolutely delicious way to get people to get their essential fatty acids.  I bought the Strawberry Banana Smoothie Flax Oil bottle, but normally I would buy the fish oil version (which I promise does NOT taste like fish oil!).  Fish oil takes fewer steps in the body to digest and absorb than flax oil.  This is a personal preference for me, but if you’re really that worried about the taste, I highly recommend trying the Strawberry Banana flavour.  A 16 ounce bottle is a months’ supply.

Christmas was great at my house.  On Boxing Day I put the extra turkey to use in a delicious gluten free spinach turkey lasagna.  It was a satisfying way to end my day of Ikea shopping and cleaning.

How were your holidays? Anything special from Santa this year? Let me know at abigail@myinnerglow.com