iheartwellness.com

Bodacious Berry and Brandan Brazier

Posted on 19. May, 2010 by kris.

Hey Everyone!  Happy Wednesday!

It’s a bit grey here today  I feel that we were so spoiled last week enjoying the summer weather and it was strange waking up to grey!

Is everyone having a great day?  Thank you SO much for the wonderful emails I have been receiving regarding the Mind of a Child post!  So many of you also have felt this way at some time or another.

Yesterday my day quickly turned from focusing on the grey damp sky to happy smiles when Ryan took me for a S’bucks date late in morning!  Then smile got even BIGGER when I got home and FedEx had dropped a pretty little package off….

I was lucky enough to be sent a package of the new Shake & Go Smoothie by Vega!  I am in heaven here people!  You heard me rave loudly about the Tropical Tango flavour before and now I am in LOVE with the Bodacious Berry flave as well!

Here is a video of moi demonstrating how simple this product is to use

You can purchase this product here:

Other exciting Vega news for all you Vancouverites – Brendan Brazier will be coming to this part of town for his Speaking Tour starting early June!  I am so stoked to go see him as I believe in the lifestyle he lives and explains in The Thrive Diet!

Here is the outline of each event:

Brendan Brazier shares his tips for losing weight, reducing stress, and staying healthy, the whole foods way through his bestselling books, The Thrive Diet and Thrive Fitness.

• Lose weight and reduce body fat
• Boost energy, productivity and mental clarity
• Reduce stress and enhance mood
• Eliminate hunger and junk food cravings
• Build a stronger immune system
• Diminish visible signs of aging
• Lower cholesterol
• Stay healthy for life

WOOOT!  Who wouldn’t want to find out how to Diminish visible signs of aging? Hello!  I might go to a few of these seminars just to make sure I catch everything he says

You can find a list a of the different venues Brendan will be speaking at and the date and times here:

http://www.vegacommunity.com/events

**More iheartwellness.com news! As you can see there are a couple new additions to the blog – A Subscribe form and the Blogroll is back (it was lost for a while!)

Please subscribe so we can stay connected and let me know your url so I can add it to the ‘roll

What is your Favourite Vega Product?  Bars or Powders?  Have you read The Thrive Diet?  What are your thoughts on it?

XXOO
Kris

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Weekend Recapping and New Vega Product!

Posted on 10. May, 2010 by kris.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Did you have a nice weekend?  All you mom’s out there enjoy your mothers day?  It was such a beautiful weekend here!  Sun every day and all

Saturday night we had a nice time out at the fundraising event.  The crowd was large and the cause was great!  I love being in environments where everyone is together for the same reason and that reason is to help others.  The vibe was great, and so was the fun atmosphere – a barn

The bar looks like a barn!  I did not get pics….

We left there around 10-ish to get home as Ryan and I had an early start on Sunday.  We met the family at 9 am and headed up to Whistler for a day of sun and fun! When I say fun that included wine……hehe….and some S’bucks!

We did a lot of walking and sight seeing, some shopping and of course some eating!  We went to the Brew House for lunch and I ordered the Szechuan green beans – WOW, were they spicy!  I ended up eating my sisters fries

My Beautiful Nana, Uncle Mike and My Mom!

The day was beautiful, and the company was great!  After our long day trip we headed back down the mountain for some dinner and I relaxed!

New Food!

WOW!  I was wondering through the grocery store saturday afternoon and stopped at the vega stand to get my usual Vega powder and the songs from heaven started signing and this puppy was glowing at me:

Tropical Smoothie Powder, just add water, shake and go!  Yes, I purchased and YES it is as good as it sounds.  The flavour is so perfect, it is thick, and does not all settle to the bottom quickly.  It has been designed to just shake and go and enjoy!  It tastes like you are on the beaches of Hawaii….ahhh

They also have 3 other wonderful sounding flavours!  This is the perfect snack packed full of nutrients and only 100 cals.

I am off to the gym and then the chiropractor so I hope you all have a wonderful day!

What did you do on the weekend?  Any new food finds?

XXOO
Kris

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Tropical Island Eats

Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by kris.

Happy St. Paddy’s day everyone!!

What a beautiful day we are having here today!  I don’t know about you, but these sunny, longer days keep me super excited for the hot weather that is on its way!  To keep my ’sunny’ feeling alive throughout my day I have been indulging in some tropical snacks

This has been my most favourite snack or treat right now:

Fresh organic pineapple, 1 banana, shredded coconut and a sprinkle of vanilla chia vega powder – Hello Hawaii!!

My tropical passion has also blessed my smoothies in the mornings.  I have replaced the usual organic apple I use in my smoothies for fresh pineapple and 1 frozen banana, unsweetened almond milk (my fave!) and a heaping scoop of vega. Woohoo this is paradise first thing in the morning!  Sometimes I even get a little crazier and add a tsp of fresh ginger to my smoothies.

On my quest for more ‘vacation feeling’ eats, I came across these wonderful looking tropical muffins on OhSheGlows.com –  I have yet to bake these puppies up, but I will be greasing my muffin tins for these bad boys very soon!

Here is a tid bit of info on Pineapple – It is full of vitamins and minerals and is a wonderful source of Calcium, Potassium, fibre and Vitamin C. Pineapple is also know for its bone strengthening abilities.  It is super rich in manganese, which is a trace mineral needed to build bone and connective tissue.  Just 1 lovely cup of pineapple gives you 73% of your daily amount of manganese.

Although we all wish we could be eating fresh picked pineapple from the sunny sands of Maui today, for those of us who are not there just yet, good ol Whole Foods can provide your tropical cravings today!

Do you love pineapple?  What is your favourite way to enjoy it?  Do you add it baking?

XXOO
Kris

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Day 1 of my 3 week 7 day vegan meal plan

Posted on 09. Mar, 2010 by kris.

Hello Everyone!

Happy Tuesday to you all!  Today is a very special day as it is my sisters birthday and we are going to enjoy the day together and then the family is heading out to dinner tonight.  I just love birthday celebrations!

Thank you all for the wonderful comments and emails on my last post on the quick and easy red soup and of course Hudson’s new accessory. He loves the attention

I have been lacking these last couple days on the baking.  I am sad about this because baking is my way to escape and relieve stress and I decided for 3 weeks I was going to stick to this 7 day vegan meal plan that I found on the Vega site and commit to it.

My reasons for following this diet was really to see if I noticed a difference in my energy.  Following a vegan diet isn’t just about eating potato chips because there is no meat, but I have noticed over these last few months that it is really important to get variety, proper protein, and nutrients. The vega brand is my favorite and I know they have their stuff together when it comes to a well rounded vegan diet, so I figured heck, I will give it a try and see if they way the food is being combined makes a difference in the way my body absorbs it.

I learned that when you combine pumpkin seeds with a citrus fruit your body will absorb the iron way better! Who knew?!

I am on day 2 today and it feels really great to have all my meals already planned!  On Sunday I made a list of everything I needed and loaded up!

Yesterday was a little difficult as I am such a snacker…..I wanted to eat cookies, and more fruit and I said “No” I am sticking to this so I drank a lot of water and tea’s when I felt my inner snacker appear!  It was hard, I am not going to lie.

The funny thing is through these last 2 days I have noticed that I eat a lot just because it is there and I might not even be hungry at the time. Do you find that with yourself? Being at home is different than when daily office trips were made as my lunch was always set and packed and had no option to add to it.  But now, wow, I could graze all day when I am home!

Day 1 of my challenge:

Breakfast – 3/4 cup of quinoa with almond milk and 1/2 sliced apple sprinkled with cinnamon

Lunch – 1/2 apple, orange, and banana with vega fruit “dip” – 1/2 serving vega meal replacement and 1/2 tbsp hemp seeds.

Snack – 3 (I had 5…shhh) dates with nut butter

Dinner - 3 cups salad with 1/2 cup broccoli, 1/4 cup chick peas. 1/2 avocado.  Dressing was 1/2 tbsp evoo and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar.

Snack – 1/3 serving vega with water

Day 1 down and now onto day 2!

Surprisingly I had a lot of energy yesterday and I went to the gym in the morning worked the treadmill out and my weights and then went down to the treadmill AGAIN with Ryan in the evening!  That is a lot of treadmill for me in one day

Have you ever followed a set meal plan?  Do you have any tips for that snacky feeling that pops up between meals?!

XXOO

Kris

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My High Raw Day

Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by kris.

Hello Everyone!

Happy Wednesday.  Wow, is this week flying by or what? I am totally loving that the Olympics are here and the cities are buzzing!  We went to the beach yesterday to enjoy the sun and let Hudson run around and the beach was packed with tourists in red Canada sweatshirts and jackets taking pictures and videos.  They are all so friendly!  I think it makes this city so much more beautiful when I see other people really enjoying it.  No better place than Vancouver on a sunny day.  Yesterday was the nicest day, you didn’t even need a winter coat down by the water.

So as I have mentioned before I am challenging myself to an all raw diet. I decided I will do this 100% when spring arrives and I can get my hands on a better variety of local fruit and veg.  During the winter I just don’t feel that the fruit and veg that need to travel around the world to get here to me is really that full of nutrients anyways, so I would rather buy local

However, I have decided to eat raw until dinner. And it has been going wonderfully well!

Here is an outline of what my day has been today:

Wake up – Tall glass of water and a Grapefruit

Green Smoothie with Vega

Raw Protein Bar

Salad with Hemp Seeds and Dressing

And some sun dried tomato crackers  Not raw, but vegan….

2nd Green Smoothie – this is how I roll  Green me up!

Water & My new Favourite tea:

Pecans and dried Figs (my fave)

Dinner is leftovers!  Woot….I love leftovers!  This is a veggie packed quinoa dish that really hits the spot.

I had some errands to do today which included me going to the post office to pick up my wonderful gift from Jenna at jennaswellness.com

My beautiful Sugar Scrub I won on Jenna’s blog came in!  I was like a little girl on her birthday, unwrapping this bad boy as quickly as I could.  I love gifts.  It is not that I am spoiled (all the time) it is the anticipation of my opening them that I get a high from.  I also LOVE watching others open gifts…..I could do it for days

Isn’t she wonderful?  You can’t smell it, but I can tell you it is so refreshing and delightful!  There are hints of peppermint, lemon and sweet sugar!  Thank you Jenna for my smooth skin

On my errand running day I also picked up a mag.  Fitness Rx.  I do not, I repeat do NOT want to get this big, but I have done Jackie Warner’s workouts in the past with phenomenal results.  So I purchased this one as well and can’t wait to get down to my gym to get my workout on.  I will keep you posted.

Well my friends, its been a slice.  I hope you are all having a great day!

What is your favourite workout magazine?  Do you change your routine up often?  Do you have a favourite Tea to share with us?

XXOO
Kris

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Determine Your Values & Make Good,Vegan Protein Bars

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by kris.

Hello Everyone!

Wow is this week flying by for me!  How is it feeling for all of you??

Yesterday I was m.i.a as I having too much fun doing other things    I had my Life Coach appointment yesterday afternoon and really “woke up” and was able to do some shaking within me.

I really discussed my relationships, my values and my wants with her.  I find when I have my sessions I can really see the other side of things and it lets me open up into viewing things is such a different way!  I love it!

Today while drinking my smoothie I took the time to really think about my Values. What do I value in my life?  What do I value MOST in my life? These were all great questions that I wanted answers to, so I decided to try a Value Determining Exercise.

Determine your Values:

Take a sheet of paper and write down EVERYTHING you value.

• Relationships
• Health
• Career
• Happiness
• Freedom
• Wealth / Money
• Self Respect
• Love
• Affection
• Creativity
• Power
• Wisdom
• Helping others
• Harmony
• etc

I wrote all of these down in one of my journals (I have a ton….stationery fetish, yup)

Then I broke it down even further – I took these and listed:

• My top 10 Values
• Top 5
• Top 3
• TOP CORE VALUE

It is intense when you take the time to do this and actually see your end result!  What a beautiful thing when you know what you value the most in your life.

Once we figure this out we can really understand why sometimes we get frustrated with friends, family and spouses.  With Ryan and I we seem to “nit nat” about our time spent together.  I must value relationships a tad more than he does.  This is not a bad thing as we are all different, but now I know WHY he feels the need to work late some nights, where as I enjoy this time spent together.  He values career and freedom maybe a bit more than I do.  Like I said, this is not a bad thing, it is beautiful knowing we are all different and can adapt to each others needs this way!

I feel like I understand a whole lot more now that I know my values and the order I live them.  Amazing!!

As I looked further into this topic today I read many comments from people explaining they were very surprised at their outcome.  So beware – You will be Surprised!

I believe as you move on your path your values will change, they would have too.  I bet a lot of parents out there used to value money over family time before they had children, so this is definitely and ongoing exercise to do with yourself.

Try it, I would love to hear what you come out with on top!

For myself my top 3 are:

Health
Relationships
Freedom (no one wants to be controlled by anything – work, set time frames, restrictions, etc.  this is me!)

FOOD!

Ok….I would love to thank my beautiful friend Averie at www.loveveggiesandyoga.com for sharing this recipe.

I have almost eaten the whole tray of these bars!  These are the easiest, sweetest, most delicious bars I have ever made.  From the bottom of my belly Averie, I thank you

Averie’s Vegan Protein Bars (with a few tweaks)

1 Ripe Banana (mashed)
1.5 c Oats
1/2 c Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1/2 c Raisins
1/2 c Carob Chips
1/2 c Agave
1/2 c Raw Almond Butter
2 Scoops of Chocolate Vega Powder
2 Tbsp Flax Meal
1.5 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

I put everything in a big ol bowl and mixed well!  Place in the freezer for about 1 hour and cut into bars!

I wrapped them individually and then almost ate them all in 2 days

Here is the original recipe!

Today I also made a large batch of my fave cookies – Kris’ Kitchen Cupboard Cookies

Always need these on hand for lunches and snacking

Do you know your true Values?  Do you make your own protein bars?

XXOO
Kris

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Wednesday’s Vegan Food Outline

Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 by kris.

Hey Everyone!

Today was a jammed packed day of work and eats, so I figured I would outline my day for you all as I have been asked recently by a few lovely readers what I eat daily.  After my eliptical workout this morning and consuming a lot of clean water, this is what the day looked like:

This morning the Green’s attacked and Ryan and I both had our Ghetto Greens:

2 scoops vanilla chai vega powder
1/2 banana
1/2 apple
1 cup almond milk
2 cups water
2 raw kale leaves chopped
bit of cinnamon

Delicious!!  I look forward to my breakfast every morning, seriously, I love this stuff!

After Ryan left for the office, I had a couple cookies…..yes I did.

But they are healthy and I love them!  I also took some of the readers advice and added cinnamon to my morning joe. It was great!!  I like my coffee black, but I bet this tastes extra fantastic with almond milk in the coffee with the cinnamon.

I was still hungry so I made some oatmeal.  I normally don’t eat oatmeal daily as I find it a bit too acid for me but today was definitely an oatmeal day and again out came the cinnamon, and a tsp of almond butter!  Love Raw Almond butter very much.

A cup of chamomile tea also accompanied this Royal D bowl full of oats.

There were a lot of emails flying today and phone calls – before I knew it 2 pm was here and I hadn’t had my salad!  So I quickly assembled one of these:

Also placed a bowl of Mary’s crackers next to the greens for grazing….ahhh they are so good!

Water, water, water!  Of course I had a lot of water!!!

I am now at my parents place waiting for dinner, I seem to invite myself over for dinner when Ryan is going to be out late….. tonight is Brown Rice Pasta with Sundried tomatoes and Veggies!

I will leave you all with a quote that I love and gets me through each day believing in myself and my purpose:

If you can Imagine it, You can Achieve it.
If you can Dream it, You can Become it.

I have this written out on my day planner and my vision board!  Love it!!

Do you have any favorite quotes you would like to share??  Do you know of any other gluten free crackers I should try?

XXOO
Kris

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Vegan Cookie Monster

Posted on 17. Dec, 2009 by kris.

Happy Mid of the week my fellow bloggers and readers!

I hope you are all enjoying your day as much as I am?  Our Internet has been on the fritz since Saturday and our wireless has been down (the Wii fried it!) so like I said before my “office” was located at the dinning room table, and Ryan’s office is the kitchen counter – close enough to the closet so we can hard wire our computers to the line in the entry closet!  It was not pretty and really uncomfortable!  But it is now successfully working and I have my own separate office and Ryan has his so we can stay out of each others hair when we are working.  Do you find that working with your partner is hard all day?? 

I would also like to thank you all who commented and sent loving encouraging emails my way after my post on my Life Coach visit.  It really means a lot to me that I have made such wonderful friends.  We all complement each other very well, don’t we?

I have been asking myself throughout the day today “what am I grateful for right now”  WOW do I have a lot to be grateful for and life is always a bit more interesting when you are able to sit back and acknowledge all the beauty!

The sun started shining through the clouds and that made me happy!

FOOD:

Today has been a beautiful healthy eating day and like usual I started my day with my Ghetto Green(has been brown lately due to the chocolate vega) but it has been full and vibrant with fresh raw Kale, 1/2 banana, 1/2 apple. 2 tbsp Chia Seeds, 1 cup nut milk and water!  Perfect punch to start the wheels turning!

Throughout my morning I had consumed a lot of water!  I feel so alive when I drink water and notice a large difference in my performance when I am fully hydrated.  Water is the juice of nature!

I might have also thrown in a couple mint chocolate cookies throughout my day   Plus Baked some more!  These are a staple item in our home now as they are easy, tasty, full of holiday goodness and healthy! 

Lunch was a beautiful and large salad – 3 cups Mixed Greens, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, handful of sprouts, 1/2 an avocado, hemp seeds, lemon juice and a dash of Mrs. Dash!  Mmmmmmm perfecto in my tummy!  Salads keep me happy

I also consumed some tea and other snacks…..

Tonight I need to replenish my Veggie Stash – I go through piles of veg through the week and I know the grocery store clerks cringe as I walk in because they know they have their work cut out for them remembering all of their produce codes.  I am sorry Choices Market…..

For dinner I made curry quinoa and made sure to make enough for 2 dinners and a few lunches as I feel less stress when dinner is already in the fridge for tomorrow. 

Fitness:

This morning was cardio day!  I woke up at 6:15 headed down to the gym in the building and rocked that tread mill.  I FINALLY don’t mind that stinking thing!  I bring magazines with me and prop them up so I can’t see the time and any of the digital readings so when I am done reading I look and like 30 min have passed already.  BRILLIANT! 

I also whipped out some 10 pounders and did lunges back and forth across the room a bunch of times.  Lunges with weights sure work the sides of my thighs better than anything else.  I hate the lunges, but love them at the same time.

Tonight I am resting off of P90X and will pick that back up tomorrow   I feel I should take some time for myself tonight and possibly give myself a mani……ahh spa night at my place – who’s in?

Ok, I have walked passed my warm cookies and have eaten a TON – 45 min treadmill workout tomorrow??  YIKES

What are you Grateful for today??  I can’t wait to hear from all of you!

XXOO
Kris

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Friday Traditions with a Cherry on Top!

Posted on 14. Nov, 2009 by kris.

Happy Friday my Healthy Friends!

Ahhh what a beautiful day here in Vancouver!  I woke up to torrential down pours and massive gusts of wind, to be surprised 3 hours later with blue, sunny skies!  Vancouver does have some random weather and it always seems to keep us on our toes!  On Fridays I treat myself as I made it through a week and it gives me something to look forward too – today I stopped at starbucks for a little red cup action, and on my lunch break I picked up some Organic Dark Chocolate covered Cherries…….ahhhhh the perfect day.  Friday’s are the only days that I get treats and I don’t feel guilt about it….i seem to have programmed myself to know “its Friday treat day, bring them on!” 

 Do you treat yourself on Friday’s? 

Today I was be busy with work, meetings till late, groceries, and blogging – got to keep my momentum going!  I am about to  sit down with a cup of tea, watch The Ugly Truth and eat the box of these bad girls……. Who doesn’t love these?!

Last night we had left over Vegan Indian Dal – I tossed it with spinach and peppers; it sure hit the spot after a long day!

After dinner last night we trekked down to the gym as it was our cardio night for P90X and I decided (actually my body decided) I was way too sore for Plyometrics, so I rode the bike instead for 15 minutes and walked the treadmill at a fast pace/ steep (8) incline for 15 minutes.  It felt good to get some cardio back in, but I can still feel a little out of “cardio shape” after the month off from excerise for the detox!  But I will get back into it quickly!  And I can’t allow myself to feel guilty for not being in the Cardio Shape I think I should be in because really my body went through a lot during the month detox and I need to learn to listen to my body and acknowledge it might need rest on some days. 

Now what to do for the weekend??  I can see that the local mountains have some fresh snow, so maybe we will head up there one day and let Hudson run around.  He loves the snow and it is so pretty to see “icing” covered trees!  I would really love to decorate for Christmas, but I am not sure it is still too early?? 

So as I was writing this post, Hudson came trotting into the office smelling something similar to my breakfast…..I looked at him and his whole mouth was green!  He broke into a baggie I had filled with Vanilla Chai Vega and ate the whole bag of powder!  He has his vits for the day

This is the best pic I could get as he was trying to lick his lips to get the rest of the Vega off!  Look carefully you will see green…..

When do you usually start decorating the crib for Christmas???  Leave me a comment and let me know when you decorate. I would love to hear other people’s views on this!

I am going on an Exciting Adventure tomorrow morning early (like before sun early….) I will keep you posted!!

XXOO
Kris

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