People turn their noses up at the word “cleanse.”
Yet they embrace the McDonald’s…
This cleanse is my favorite because you can eat. Don’t get me wrong, I do miss peanut butter and meat. However, judging from the way my body has responded, I needed the break. I’ll refrain from the TMI, but let’s just say I’m definitely cleaner!
The other awesome thing about this cleanse is the creativity it inspires. Check out of some the fun stuff I’ve made in the past few days!
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Forced rest is tiring.
This may be the understatement of the year.
Energy begets energy… sitting around does just the opposite. Come 4 o’clock, my eyes have been glazing over and I am ready to be done working. Since that’s not an option, I’ve been enjoying a new pick-me-up.
Designer Whey – the makers of my favorite whey protein powder – came out with a new Sustained Energy Protein Powder. Thanks to Designer Whey and FitFluential, I received this package to try:
How is the different from the regular whey?
I 100% love the taste of both the chocolate and vanilla. I didn’t notice a sky-rocket effect on energy, but I did wake up after eating my smoothie bowl. At 4p, this was a great snack to curb hunger and tide me until dinnertime.
Unable to simply mix powder with liquid and drink it, I created a Cardamom Cheesecake Protein Bowl for my afternoon snack. With spinach… because isn’t everything better green?! The cardamom and ginger made for a fun, refreshing flavor on a hot Atlanta afternoon! (Recipe at the bottom)
Of even more interest to you…
SIX (6!!!) of you will have the chance to win your own Sustained Energy protein powder in either the Chocolate Velvet or Vanilla Bean.
***Giveaway OVER***
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New tasty protein powders and giveaways are obviously marvelous… so is the fact that Marvelous diva Katie, welcomed a new baby this weekend! Congratulations, Katie!!!
A few other Marvelous things:
I went to the Monday Night Brewery on Friday night. They were the location Gather‘s launch party. It was awesome. Lots of good food, good beer… and beer rests in the bathroom.
Saturday I took shots. Juice shots, that is. This is called the “Grand Slam” at Arden’s Garden. It’s shots of wheatgrass, ginger, lemon, and cranberry. That ginger is intense. They also gave me a little smoothie sample to chase it with.
Lastly, this girl’s recap of her visit to Atlanta and absolutely made my day. I miss her already. #bloggercrush
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Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Add additional ice to achieve thicker, ice cream-like consistency.
Enjoy!
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This morning I have my follow-up with the surgeon. He better clear me to workout!!!
What marvelous things did you do this weekend?
What do you do when you need a mid-afternoon pick me up?
People are always hating on leftovers.
They aren’t so bad! They make great lunches for work, and you much know that last night’s pizza is best eaten cold while standing in the refrigerator door.
This post isn’t about pizza (sorry). It’s about the tidbits leftover from the week that I wanted to share, but never found a spot in the belly of my posts for. (See the leftover food tie-in? Funny, right?)
Blackberry Coconut Cottage Cheese
It was a tasty adventure, but I’m still shocked I didn’t get food poisoning. And I will never tell what time of night/morning this occurred.
Clockwise, Left to Right: the line, a man cooking kabobs on a shopping cart, my sandwich being prepared, sandwich being shoved in my camera (they didn’t understand my need to take pics of everything).
I’m not sure what the sandwich it was, but it involved a delicious grilled bread with some sort of sketchy meat and lots of avocado. Sold.
I am forever indebted to my gracious guest-posters. In case you missed any of them:
I don’t think I said it enough in all of the Chile recap posts, but these are the BEST travel companions in the world. I have never spent so much time with such fun, laid back, drama-free women.
Julia and Katherine, thank you for a memorable, intoxicatingly fun, and sometimes bizarre (in the best way possible) adventure.
I can’t wait for our next excursion!!!
I gave my live some love post-Chile trip. Lindsay requested that I say a little more about my post-Chile recovery cleanse. Here’s the basics from their website:
“Fatigue, depression, nausea, dizziness, and unexplained weight gain may indicate your liver needs some lovin’! This cleanse helps your body rid itself of toxins and cleanse the blood. The liver converts everything we eat and breathe into life-sustaining substances, while also filtering toxins at the rate of a quart of blood per minute.”
They give you the juices you need, and tell you when to drink what. You are also told to drink as much water as possible. Here’s the line-up:
My favorite was the apple. I used the Vitamix to turned it into an apple cider sorbet bowl (with some cinnamon):
The Multi was hard to choke down. That just means it’s really good for you, right? I added some cinnamon and Stevia. It may be “cheating,” but you have to do what you have to do.
I was hungry the first day. I cheated with salad with avocado and sunflower seeds at dinner. After that I was used to the routine and didn’t suffer much from hunger pangs.
To get the full benefits, they suggest following the cleanse with two days of raw vegetables and fruits. I mostly did that, with the exception of a much-needed casein protein shake. This was a fabulous cleanse. In 3 days I felt almost human; after the two raw days following I was back to 100%.
Added bonus: it tamed the sugar addiction that had been rearing its ugly head.
For more info, click here to visit the Arden’s website.
P.S. My sister’s band, Goose & Fox, is recording an album. She begging for money via Kickstarter. Click here to check out her project/video! Here’s one of my favorite songs by the duo:
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Ok – done with Chile for a bit. Next week I’m back with a TON of recipes and an awesome giveaway!
Have you ever done a juice cleanse? Did you like it?
Would you eat random street food in a foreign country? Out of a shopping cart?
What do you do when you get booted off of a flight to Buenos Aires just before takeoff?
Those of you who caught this post already know. You get on the next flight out… which happened to be Santiago, Chile!
We landed in the morning feeling a little tired, but excited. The first order of business was to find coffee and wi-fi so we could locate a hotel and form a plan.
Thanks to the Internet and a very nice Chilean man in the airport restaurant we booked a hotel in a nice neighborhood called Providencia and were on our way in just a couple of hours.
The first order of business was lunch. Naturally we ended up at a French cafe. I was craving greens and enjoyed a massive salad topped with egg, asparagus, broccoli, avocado, and olives. We also enjoyed a glass of wine to mark the first of many beginning of vacation.
We sampled an empananda. This is once of the most famous South American foods, and one of the most tasty. It’s basically a pocket of dough filled with cheese and other items (often ham) that is either fried or baked.
More exploring/getting lost ensured before we found these gorgeous fountains.
And then we found wine.
And then we found dinner in a cute plaza called Patio Bellavista. It was a Peruvian restaurant called Barandiaran. Go figure.
The dinner was quite good. That highlight was a shared ceviche dish that was wonderful. I NEVER thought I’d eat seafood, let alone ceviche; however, I loved the sea bass! Shrimp is still a bit much for me.
The next day we found parks! A really cool sculpture park called Parque Las Esculturas:
Followed by an even better park that was filled with exercise equipment! I busted my ass a move on the elliptical.
I should mention that these were all found on a walk that must have been close to 10 miles. By the time we reached our original lunch destination in the Bellavista neighborhood we were starving. Annnnnd… we discovered the restaurant no longer existed. We did the only thing left to do: ate a greasy lunch at a trashy college dive.
Sometimes you need to be local. However, when you order guacamole and it’s served with Doritos, you wish you were a little less local.
That was followed up with a “traditional” dish of fries topped with onions, sausage, and fried eggs. I can’t lie… I didn’t hate it.
Doesn’t that first yolk look like a heart?
Post-lunch we really needed to walk more. There is a giant mountain/hill called Cerro San Cristobal that holds one of the most popular tourist destinations in Santiago: the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción. It contains a 14 meter statue of Mary. We hopped a funicular (a train built in 1925) to get to the top and visit Mary.
View of Santiago from the funicular
The view from Mary, looking down on the outdoor sanctuary and Santiago
The traveling trio with the Andes in the background
Random sight of the day: dude wearing a UGA sweatshirt. He wasn’t American.
Come se dice “Go Dawgs” en espanol?
Santiago was an interesting experience; however, we were ready to move on after 2 days. I hate to say it… but it’s a pretty dirty, crowded (7.5 million people) city.
One odd food note – when we sought out traditional “Chiliean” food, we were often directed to other cuisines such as French and Peruvian. It seems like Chile is sort of like America in that they take foods from other cultures and modify. It was good, but a shock having travelled more extensively in Europe.
Sadly, there are no workouts to recap this Monday. Instead I’ll recap my recovery from the trip:
Step 1: Green smoothie bowl
Step 2: Mani/Pedi
Step 3: Arden’s Garden “Love Your Liver” 3-day juice cleanse (this was amazing – no joke)
Icing on the cake: A special delivery of Greek yogurt from Chobani! Nothing but goodness. Thank you, Chobani. I love you much.
My concierge now loves Chobani, too. I tipped him with a yogurt, and he’s a convert. 🙂
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Check back tomorrow for some excellent wine and a run in with US Navy officers.
Have you ever been to South America? Was it what you expected?
Doritos with guacamole… any thoughts?
