ashleyd /

Monday Recharge

In case you missed it, this weekend was an absolute blast filled with great friends, a Derby themed housewarming party, plenty of homemade Southern comfort food, and lots of moving stress! You can read more about it and one of my favorite recipes right here!
After such an indulgent weekend I knew this week needed to include lots of exercise, sleep, and whole foods. Bo and decided that one way we’d achieve this goal would be to wake up and go to bed 30 minutes early each morning in May. This would ensure we’d be able to workout from 5:30-7am each morning. Extending a morning workout by 30 minutes allows me to pump some iron after sweating through a cardio session.
Luckily after curling up in bed at 10 last night, I woke up this morning craving a sweat fest and lots of whole foods!  This morning’s workout included a few of my favorites:
4 mile run in 38:10
10 mins on the stairclimber
Chest press, bicep curls, tricep dips, lat pull down
20 pushups
Lunges/Squats/Leg Press
Today I tried to focus on only putting whole foods in my body versus processed foods. It was definitely a challenge and opened my eyes up to how much I’ve started relying on bars as go to snacks. Today’s eats were as follows:
1/2 c oats, banana, cinnamon, and flax seeds (sorry for the Blackberry pic)

Late morning snack was 1/2 a grapefruit
Lunch was a delicious salad from Pax including romaine, egg whites, chicken, tomatoes, celery, red onion, and sprouts. I stuck with lemon juice, salt, and pepper instead of dressing.

Dinner was delicious grilled chicken with veggies Bo and I steamed/sauteed this morning in between showers and dashing out the door. We knew that if we had a dinner all ready to go when we got home we’d be more likely to eat our own food versus ordering. It worked perfectly!

When I got home from work and the Junior League meeting I was craving some yoga and stretching. I popped in the Core Fusion dvd and did thighs, arms, and stretching. It was a perfect 30 minute session that left me feeling stronger and relaxed! I forgot how much I love this great DVD. Any dvd that breaks the workouts up into convenient 10 minute segments wins me over!

The rest of the evening includes nothing except lounging on the couch with Gossip Girl!
xoxo

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ashleyd /

Whole Bag O’ Gluten Free Goodness

On our way to Lauren’s party Sunday, Bo and I had the great opportunity to stop by Union Square. Union Square is one of my favorite places in NYC during the summer months. It is always bustling with excitement and activities including the weekly farmer’s market, musician, and art festivals. It isn’t quite as touristy as other areas of the city north and south of this bohemian hub.

This Sunday was no different than most in that a local festival was taking place. This festival was in honor of NYC Grows. NYC Grows is the New York park restoration campaign.

The event featured many local and eco friendly companies such as Nature’s Path, Stonyfield Farm, Brooklyn co-op, and others. We had the opportunity to try some local sriracha sauce which was AMAZING, sample new smoothies, and try some of the new Nature’s Path products I’ve seen online.

Bo knows he is married to a health and food blogger and therefore grabbed a few extra samples for me to try since I couldn’t reached the table due to congestion. This morning I was able to sample the first of these Nature’s Path treats.

The Organic Whole O’s did not disappoint. Instead, the pleasantly surprised both me and Bo! Neither of us knew what to expect based on the gluten free statements. But, the corn and rice mix was deliciously fresh and crunchy with just a tad of sweetness. There was no cardboard consistency or aftertaste. Instead, these gluten free, wheat free, and trans fat free little o’s were a perfect morning addition to my fruit and yogurt while alsot packing a hearty punch with 3 grams o fiber and only 110 calories. My only complaint is that they are lacking in some of the nutritional content Cheerios provides such as added vitamins and minerals.

However, for someone who has steered away from many of the high sugar cereals of breakfasts past like Honey Nut Cheerios, Puffs, or others this is a perfect substitute. The gluten free characteristic also makes it a great option for those people who have been missing out on the fun and taste of that iconic breakfast cereal in the yellow box! In addition, Whole O’s are sweetened with pomegranate juice! Who knew? The ingredient list is short, sweet, and simple including only FIVE ingredients: organic brown rice flour, organic corn flour, organic evaporated cane juice, organic pomegranate juice concentrate, and sea salt!

I really enjoyed this sample of whole grain goodness and will definitely be buying it again soon as it makes a perfect trail mix ingredient, desk drawer treat, and stand by dinner option! I’m looking forward to trying more Nature’s Path products including a few of their new bars which were sampled at the Union Square festival this past weekend.

Thank you Nature’s Path for a great cereal option for those people who are looking for a gluten free option also made with whole grains or for people like me who are merely looking for good taste uncompromised by artificial ingredients!

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ashleyd /

Yoplait Greek Review and Goddess Giveaway

Are you ready to appreciate and nourish your inner goddess? Don’t we all deserve an at home spa treatment after hours of stress, hard work, and exercise? Yoplait agrees!


I discovered this fact when the friendly folks at Yoplait and Myblogspark sent me the Yoplait Greek Goddess pack. This pack is in honor of their new Greek yogurt which encourages women to nourish their inner goddess. The prize pack included 2 coupons towards the yogurt, comfy slippers, a full size white towel wrap, and a home spa kit including a loofah and other goodies.

I was most excited about the yogurt coupons and the wrap. I had a DG wrap all through college that I loved due to it’s convenience. I’ve already taken this wrap to the gym so my hands free blow drying days can return. I’m tired of holding the towel with one hand and the blow dryer with the other!

I’m not going to lie, it took me a while to find the Yoplait Greek Yogurt in NYC which was a bit annoying. As a health and food blogger I didn’t mind but I know the average person wouldn’t go out of their way to find a product when there are multiple similar products available in wider distribution. The new yogurt comes in four flavors: honey, plain, blueberry, and strawberry. I wasn’t able to find the honey in my stores. Once I found the new product, I first checked out the nutritional information which was pretty good but still had more sugar than I normally like in my yogurt. The plain flavor has lower sugar and calories than the flavored ones and all pack a whopping 30% of recommended daily calcium!
nutritionlabel
I bought the blueberry and strawberry to sample since these tend to be my favorite Oikos or Chobani flavors. This morning I used this in my “morning mess” in place of my Dannon Light n Fit or Chobani. Unlike Chobani, there weren’t any chunks or separation in this yogurt. It was very thick, creamy, and smooth while also having a tasty not too sweet flavor.
Yoplait has some great resources on their website including recipes, coupons, and more information about their wonderful breast cancer initiative. I was impressed by the number of recipes they already have posted for this new product. My favorite is the lemon blueberry muffins. I have a soft spot in my heart for all things blueberry. These would make a great spring treat especially since the price of blueberries is decreasing daily in NYC!

Lemon-Blueberry MuffinsPrep Time: 15 min
Start to Finish: 30 min

Ingredients

1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 container (6 oz) Yoplait® Greek Fat Free honey vanilla yogurt
1 egg
1 3/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fresh or frozen (do not thaw) blueberries
1. Heat oven to 400ºF. Grease bottoms only of 12 regular-size muffins cups, or line with paper baking cups.
2. In large bowl, beat milk, oil, yogurt and egg using wire whisk or fork. Stir in remaining ingredients except blueberries, until flour is moistened. Gently stir in blueberries. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
3. Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan.

If you click here you can print a $0.30 coupon.

Now, I want to ensure one of you has the opportunity to rest and relax goddess style! Yoplait will send an identical prize pack to one lucky reader. All you have to do is enter! Here’s the how:

1) Which flavor of Yoplait Greek yogurt would you most like to try?

For extra entries feel free to do the following:
-Tweet about the giveaway: “@healthyhappier wants you to win the Yoplait Greek Goddess prize pack and nourish your inner goddess http://alturl.com/u5f4” and let me know via comment

-Blog about this giveaway linking to this post and let me know via comment.



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