Turn the beat around

Sometimes you just need to change your whole energy and move in a more positive direction. I’m using this man as my model:

Do you know that he (Michael Bernard Beckwith) was once a pot dealer? Then he turned it all around, after dreaming a “dream-death” one night, and became a mega success! I saw part of a PBS special he hosted, and it was brilliant. He’s going to be at the Agape International Spiritual Center he founded on January 22nd…you know I’m going to be there!

I’ve had a major case of winter doldrums (sorry, winter, I don’t actually think you’re to blame whatsoever). It happens sometimes, but it’s time to pick myself up and move upward and onward! I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me, filled with indie bands, house music, and friends.

My online horoscope yesterday said:

Single? You could find love where loud music plays.

Hmmm, is it no coincidence that my every plan involves loud music this weekend? Love on the dance floor, maybe? I heard Beyonce once explaining that “Get Me Bodied” means making love on the dance floor!!! You know I’ll be doing a whole lot of this:

*Images: google, Lefashionimage

Peace out!

♥ appletop

Humbug

Happy Christmas!

My sister’s over and we’re watching White Christmas.

We made some yummy holiday brownies this week. I gobbled up several and took the rest to my co-workers on our last day of work before the holiday…

I’ve been indulging quite a bit this holiday!!

While I was frosting up these little goodies, my little Christmas Humbug buddy had a little fun…

Isn’t he cute?

He wanted to see what the view was like from the top of the fridge.

And then he went exploring in my sister’s bedroom.

Oh no! He’s gotten into the Brandy Beans!

Oh dear…

Time for bed!!

I think it’s bed time for me as well. Got to get up early and open presents! Oh, I also saw Avatar tonight…it was even better than I thought it would be!!!!!!

♥ appletop

Return of the Scotchmallow!!

At first I fell into a little holiday depression (not going anywhere, bored, blah blah blah), but now I’m really enjoying the holidays! I’ve been giving lots of presents this year, and it’s so rewarding. One of my BEST friends, Lemon, called me to say it cured the bad day she’d been having when she got it in the mail!

My sister took me to her work Christmas party, where I played secret santa for the first time and enjoyed a three-course meal. My sis has the nicest boss, and everyone at the party with so lovely! I had a great time.

Also went out for a friend’s birthday this weekend. I hadn’t seen her, or a lot of the people from the restaurant I used to work at, for a few months, so it was really nice to catch up! Confession: I used to be a bit of a party girl. Ah to think of how far I’ve come! Now I’m all about simple pleasures.

I ran 3.14 (Pi!) miles at the gym yesterday. I can’t run outside, but I LOVE the treadmill. Is anyone else like this?? I’ve got Lady Gaga on repeat lately, which reminds me…I used to have this weird flirtation with a co-worker of mine. He’s beyond metro. I thought of him because it’s his dream to see Lady Gaga before he dies! What was I thinking?!?! HAHAHA

I also ate a candy bar! It was kind like a deliciously lumpy, gourmet, HUGE version of this See’s classic:

I just couldn’t get enough milk chocolate/caramel/marshmallow goodness! I then proceeded to also eat some dark chocolate and a lemon bar. I guess some days you just have to indulge. I think the sweets fueled my morning the next morning too!!

Since I have no new photos, here are a couple pics from my desktop:

Robert Downey and Jude Law looking extra handsome at the London premiere of Sherlock Holmes. Even though he seems a little sketch, I just can’t get enough Jude Law. Is anyone else going to see this on Christmas??

Also can’t wait to see AVATAR!

There is now no doubt that I am going Hollywood…this is part of my secret project…so mysterious…

Less than a week ’til Christmas!

♥ appletop

Want vs. Reality

I had a great spin class this morning, after which I wanted to eat this:

(yum! omelet from yesterday)

But, in reality, I just loaded up on snack foods like cheesy popcorn, an apple, a pear, and roasted cashews. Why would I not just eat what I wanted? Alas, my roommate had taken over the entire kitchen to prep for a little get together she’s having later. She was deep frying tortillas for some reason…

Ah well, at least I’m full. I get really touchy when I fill up on mentally unsatisfying foods, but I’m moving on! I’m happy about a great workout and lovely morning!

Today, I want to find that Christmas mug I went shopping for yesterday! I’m gonna hit up Target. I’m also thinking about getting a haircut. Anyone watch Legend of the Seeker??? Right now my hair looks more Caelan (left), but I’m thinking of going shorter like Cara (right):

Hahaha, now I just need my own personal Richard.

Ah, I have to cut geek time short…I just realized that Legend is on soon! Today’s reality will be fantastic.

♥ appletop

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Even though I don’t really celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense, I love winter and Christmas-y goodness! In fact, my roommate picked up a tree yesterday:

I haven’t had a real tree since I was a kid!!! This is so exciting.

I kept waking up this morning, thinking I had to go to work, but I just stayed in bed and insisted on enjoying my morning! I started with some holiday mailers, festive Chia Goodness with applesauce, and toasty almond butter on Ezekiel:

Isn’t life festive? I think I’ll spend today shopping for a good holiday (preferably snowman) mug. At least 2 of my favorite food bloggers (Fitnessista and Peas and Thank You) have been displaying the same snowman mugs!

In other news, I found that I haven’t been drinking enough water! I had been eating erratically and getting more stomach aches, and it just dawned on me that it’s because I stopped drinking lots of water. I’m on hydration watch, and I already feel more balanced and am eating normally again.

Now I’m off to holiday shop! Hope everyone enjoys their lovely December weekend!

♥ appletop

i snorted vitamin C

Rant time…my roommate is annoying me soooo much! She’s home 24/7! She’s here when I leave for work in the morning, she’s here all day working from her home office, she’s here when I get home from work, and she’s more often than not at home all night. I, on the other hand, go to work all day and spend at least half of my free time outside of the house.

Right now, it’s almost 10PM and the roommate is vacuuming…even though she had all day to do it! Am I the only one who thinks that afternoon would be a more appropriate time to vacuum?! She was also, by the way, vacuuming when I got home at 6PM…she just took breaks to watch TV, do laundry, and hang out, all the while keeping me confined to my room with the threat of vacuuming again. Ahhhhh!

On a positive note, I ate really healthy again today (2 salads, 1 chia oatmeal, and fruit/veggie snacks) and did 20 minutes of breathing yoga. Zzzzzzen.

I’ve also been using this vitamin C powder for your face, and I decided to snort a little bit just now.

Okie dokes, I’m off to bed. I’ve been having trouble waking up to the alarm lately. I’m so excited for a long holiday weekend!!!

♥ appletop

GONNA RUN THIS TOWN

I’m on fire today!!! I have one of those all-day stomach aches (ate twice my body weight in food yesterday), but I DID NOT LET THAT STOP ME from pounding it out at the gym after work and eating like a superstar! I did 3.6 miles in 48 minutes, which is a 13+ minute mile, but you gotta start somewhere. I’m still:

(you heard that as gangsta, right?!)

The AMAs last night were AMAzing (haha). You’ve got to watch Jay-Z and Alicia Keys if you haven’t already!

DAMN. I’m gonna buy Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 as soon as I can go shopping, and Alicia Keys The Element of Freedom is coming out December 15th! Even though I’m not very hip hop/R&B anymore (oh when I was young, I only wanted to be bla-a-a-a-ack), I love them!

I’m transforming this into a random thought pad, with food/exercise updates, instead of posting on the daily. I love photographing food for sure, but it’s too stressful to post everything I eat (and more than half the time I’m way too hungry to stop and photo before shoveling food into my mouth). It’s all good. You and me, we gon’ RUN THIS TOWN.

GET INSPIRED!

★ appletop

p.s. This guy kept giving me funny looks at the gym today. This may or may have been because I was grinning to myself the whole time…little does he know, it would have been worse if I hadn’t been trying to look normal. Or maybe I was inspiring him! I’m an inspiration! (Clearly, I’m going with this second scenario…)

Who ordered the pah-tee?!?!

All of my refrigerated food is temporarily living at my sister’s place while our fridge is being replaced. I say our because I have a (sometimes) lovely roommate. So it’s lots and lots of oatmeal for awhile…but in awesome news, I finally tried chia oatmeal!!! SOOOO delicious! Pictures right after I catch up on the past couple days.

So end of my last post I was already thinking about this late night snack:

A leftover piece of Trader Joe’s mango berry bran muffin and another pear. Then I had a cozy cup of what I’ve coined Cinnamon Stevia Tea (just cinnamon and stevia in spring water, yayyy for laziness being delicious!), while catching up on some very important reading.

A

And then my sis came over to watch Top Chef, and I ended up snacking on popcorn, baby carrots, and spicy hummus. Doubling up on food…maybe I’m storing up for winter?

Now yesterday’s cereals:

I obsessively needed to start and end my day with cereal. Ezekiel cinnamon raisin + organic spelt flakes in Almond Dream and stevia.

Of course in between these I ate TONS of food. Don’t know why I was so ravenous…oh wait, yes, I do know, I got it today…

Today, it was back to oatmeal for breakfast AND lunch:

It might not look so amazing, but look at ze close up:

I cooked 1/2 cup McCann’s quick cooking Irish oatmeal with 1 cup water, added a TBSP of black chia seeds (soaked briefly in water while oatmeal was cooking), and sprinkled some stevia and Sunspire grain sweetened chocolate chips on top! I wasn’t a huge fan of the melty chocolate chips (it didn’t dawn on me that they would melt, duh!!) at first, but I was hooked by the last precious, gooey bites.

My NuNaturals stevia (got it here) arrived a couple weeks ago, and I think I’m fully obsessed. I didn’t think I had a huge sweet tooth, especially because I can’t eat fruit like I used to (more sensitive to sugar), but I’ve now gone into a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style frenzy for sweet! My sis told me it’s a pre-biotic and good for digestion…and my stomach feels great lately! This kind of fortuitous love comes but once a lifetime…

This weekend, I vow to take better photos (i.e. be less impatient), photograph meals other than breakfast (i.e. be less impatient), and post more frequently (i.e. be less lazy).

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend planned!!!! Who ordered the pah-tee?!? (In case you can’t identify that voice in your head, it’s Denise!)

♥ appletop

fave songs of the week: “Empire State of Mind” (Jay-Z and Alicia Keys), “Run This Town” (Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye), “You Belong With Me” (Taylor Swift- don’t judge me!), “She-Wolf” (Shakira). I don’t know why or when this happened, but I’ve gone POP. POP. POP. (Now I’m craving popcorn…)

i eat apples

Hi loves! I’ve finally been inspired to start my own blog. It’s a ghetto operation until I figure out how to make it pretty, but you have to start somewhere, right?!

 

On to the good stuff! I promised myself last night that I would snap photos of every single thing I ate…and of course I only captured one meal (though there’s still hope for my late night snack). So on with the photo-light journey…

 

Breakfast every day lately is a big bowl of Ezekiel cinnamon raisin + spelt flake cereal in Almond Dream almond milk (the only kind I could find without carageenan- more on this later) w/chocolate chips & stevia. YUM. Must take a photo tomorrow. The problem I’ve noticed is that I like lots of milk, so you can’t even see the cereal…hmmm…well I’ll work it out tomorrow. I eat as soon as I pop outta bed, which probably indicates that I’ve been dreaming about it. Breakfast is my absolute FAVE! I’m really passionate about breakfast (maybe if I had this kind of passion for work or boys, I would have a fulfilling career or love life…but instead I have a fulfilling breakfast every morning).

 

Lunch. I most often eat at work, but today I came home for lunch because I felt like it and work five minutes away from home (plus I woke up too late to pack a lunch). I made myself this delicious Ezekiel wrap w/TJs spicy hummus, hard-boiled free range egg whites, and romaine lettuce:

Plus the HUGE slightly unripe pear you can see in the background. I once tried to eat fruit only on an empty stomach (food combining 101), and it made me SO GRUMPY! Never again.

 

Anyway, I begrudgingly went back to the office after this to finish out my day. I’m an assistant/account manager at a small company. I’m soon going to change occupations, but much much more on that later!

 

So I rushed home and had dinner in 3 parts: (1) another small bowl of cereal to peak my appetite, (2) half of a TJs mango berry bran muffin w/a smear of almond butter, (3) a tuna + light swiss cheese melt on Ezekiel low sodium toast. I should know that I just need to eat a huge bowl of cereal and call it a meal, because otherwise I eat too much at once. Cereal just peaks my appetite when it’s in small doses!

 

In a little bit, I’m going to eat my evening snack…probably a fruit and some popcorn. I’m carbo-loading lately! But you got to do what makes you happy, eh?!

 

This is impossibly long for a post WITHOUT PICTURES! I promise that I will be a good (newbie) food blogger tomorrow. In parting, here is a picture of a delicious cinnamon-dusted Fuji apple that I recently had the good fortune of putting in my mouth:

 

♥ appletop