Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola

As I've mentioned in a few posts over the last little while, I've been suffering a little bit of a workout slump.  The past week and a half I'm really getting into it again, but I have been noticing my workouts are happening at night after work, instead of in the morning before work.  I've just been really tired lately.  The past two weeks I've had a really difficult time sleeping, every night around 12:00/12:30 am I've been waking up, and then I'm up for a few hours.  With the lack of sleep it's no wonder I'm not feeling energetic enough to do a workout even with a snack to give myself some energy.  My workouts at night have ben really good though, because I get a ton of food in me during the day to give me the proper boost of energy and I'm good to go.

Last night I had the best workout in a long time!  It's not that I was sweating more than usual (because trust me, I sweat like a pig in a sauce... okay maybe that's not the best example to use... /cough, especially on a vegan blog, but it get's my point out there).  I have no trouble at all sweating.  Last night, I came across a blog (I don't even remember the name, darn it), but there was an example of interval training for running, I decided to try it out on my bike.  In no time I did 17 minutes of this interval training, I then did it a second time so that I knew I'd worked out for at least half an hour that day + whatever walking and other tasks I do during the day.

This interval training was awesome.  It was a shift between "jogging" and "sprinting" which is easily done on the bike, just spark up your intensity and speed in which you're pedaling.  This done with awesome music doesn't even make it seem like you're working out.  I couldn't wait to do it a second time.  As the days go by, I'm going to step up the intensity of the gears, I'm not quite sure how to say what I'm biking at... on my left hand it's a 2 and on my right hand I have it set at 5... does that make sense?  Anywho, I hope to be able to go to work my way up, and to do two and then three sets of this interval training back-to-back.  I also found some playlists of different genres of music that I enjoy working out to so I hope all of this gives me the motivation I need.

Whenever I'm in a workout slump I find it's because I've been doing too much of the same thing over and over again, (30 Day Shred), which I've also started incorporating back into my exercise plan after taking a good two and a half months off of those videos, I'm sorry I just could not for the life of me listen to Jillian's voice anymore, or do any of those motions, I knew the video from start to finish by heart, yeah it was time to move on.  I also switch up my music and this always gives me something new to look forward to!

With all of that being said, feeling a little sluggish/unmotivated when it comes to your workouts?  Try something new.  Whether it's in the comfort of your own home, or going out and trying something new (when I go back home to Ontario, I cannot wait to get back into rock climbing, that is by far one of my favourite ways to workout), or check out the internet for different ways to spice up your current workouts, running, biking, treadmills, there's always different interval options, there is no need to get in slumps, even though we all do feel them at one point or another.  Get back on the horse and spread those wings, you owe it to yourself!

Enough peppiness from me, it's time to get some food up in this hizz-ousee.  My breakfasts lately have been absolutely amaziiiing.  Every single morning (not that it's any different than usual) I cannot wait to get my breakfast in me and gobble them down.  It seems that every recipe I've been getting inspiration by, or whichever one I try just seems to be mind-blowingly awesome.

Take for instance the other morning, I varied up a banana soft serve recipe, and made it with my recent cravings: cherries.  Haha, here's a fun fact about me: I don't eat pitted fruits, never, unless their is just one pit i.e. peach, plum, apricots, etc... grapes with seeds = total no no.  Last year my mom's boyfriend mistakenly bought a pack of grapes that contained seeds, I had one and almost gagged.  So what did I do?  I spent an hour and a half cutting each grape in half and deseeding every single one, it took a long time but it's the only way I would eat them.  I love cherries, but I just cannot get over the pit.  At the beginning of the summer while I was at Costco I scooped up a 1 lb bag of frozen, de-pitted cherries, needless to say I was in heaven.  I've been hoarding them since because I don't want them to disappear.  However, my stay in Montreal is coming to an end, and I travelled with that bag of cherries, and I don't feel like letting them unthaw again while traveling.  Lately however, I've been craving cherries so it's been good since I get the flavours but I also get to use something up so that it doesn't go bad.

The soft-serve I decided to make was absolutely fantastic.  It contained a ton of flavours that I crave on a daily basis, and it was like having my favourite dessert (ice cream) for breakfast, yes, I can have my cake and eat it to.

Banana Cherry Coconut Soft Serve

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 large, frozen bananas
• 3/4 cup frozen, de-pitted cherries
• 1 tsp cacao nibs + more for topping
• 1/4 tsp coconut extract
• Coconut flakes to top
• 2-3 tbsp coconut milk

 Directions:



Chop your bananas into chunks to make it easier to process.  In the bowl of your food processor add your banana chunks, and coconut milk.  Mix until the chunks start to get smoother then add your cherries, and coconut extract (this makes it easier on the food processor) you can also add in some cacao nibs at this point.  Process until your fruit mixture resembles soft-serve ice cream.  Do not over-process or you will have melted ice cream.  Scoop into a bowl and top with additional cacao nibs and coconut flakes.


Date and Chai Chia Pudding

Recipe adapted from here

Now, I've been reading blogs lately where people are commenting on how they don't like chia seeds.  I absolutely love chia seeds, and prefer them over flaxseeds to be honest.  This is going to sound really weird, but the fact that they get stuck in your teeth kind of makes it fun (it makes it so you chew like a princess and not a slob because you don't want people to point and laugh at you).  No, no, I just really like the chewy-sliminess that they offer.  One of the first things I'd made with chia seeds other than smoothies was chia Chai pudding, it was very delicious, but not one of those recipes that I'd make over and over again.  The other morning however, I decided to try a different chia pudding and see how that one compared.  This recipe here was hands down a winner (and perhaps due to the fact that I still used water, however I used a whole banana with less liquid, so it was nice and thick).  I really, really enjoyed this though, and it was insanely filling, from the chia seeds, to the soy milk, to the almonds, and the banana it was one heck of a breakfast.  It was simple and quick to whip together, and all the ingredients are ones that I always have on hand.  Of course this was going to be something I liked though ginger and cinnamon c'mon now!


Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp almonds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 6 tbsp soy milk
• 4 pitted dates
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• Dash of allspice
• 1 banana, peeled and cut into chunks
• Almond slivers to garnish

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender and process until very smooth and fluffy.   Sprinkle with chopped almonds, if desired.


Strawberry Cherry Basil Smoothie

Recipe taken from here


Last weekend I'd made Angela's Strawberry Cherry Basil Smoothie, although instead of strawberries I had used raspberries since I was out.  From the first sip I took that smoothie easily became one of my favourites, and I had mentioned how in the week to come I was going to try out the original recipe with strawberries instead of raspberries and see which one I preferred.  This morning was the day in which I chose to make the original recipe, and which one was the winner?  The one I initially made, the Raspberry Cherry Basil Smoothie.  Despite the fact that these two smoothies are about 80% identical, I much, much preferred the raspberry version, even though there tended to be a lot more seeds in it.  For some reason I found that the basil was more obvious in the raspberry version and I really did enjoy that about it.  The strawberry smoothie, I found that all the flavours blended in a way where the flavours became one (other than random after swigs of basil I would catch a glimpse of) and the flavours weren't easily distinguishable.  In the raspberry one, I could pick out the raspberries, the cherries, and the basil, the strawberries and cherries however became one (which isn't a bad thing), maybe it's just me, and because I am a bigger fan of raspberries.  But by now, since I've pretty much been redundant throughout this whole paragraph, you know which one I will be making again and again!


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 3/4 cup cherries
• 1/4 cup basil

Directions:


Blend all of your ingredients together until you've reached desired consistency.

What was your favourite smoothie this summer?