Update: More Pointers & Lots of Pics!!

Hi guys!!

Update: Life is good.

I'm gonna let you in on a few secrets of mine...

• Find yummy healthy things
• Pick the healthy(er) option
• Know your weaknesses
• Make your own food
• Love your life

First Que: find yummy healthy things

Any acai bowl/smoothie lovers here? How bout peanut butter lovers? I LOVE ME MY SMOOTHIES AND PEANUT BUTTER!! So obviously combining the two is like a recipe from  heaven.

Below are sneak peaks of things that make me hyperventilate (<-- definitely used spell check on that one). 

The Acai bowl is from a place called Pressed For Juice in Las Vegas. This is evidence that it is possible to eat healthy while on the road on long trips with your fam! Highly HIGHLY suggest this place - this acai bowl has it's thick smoothie base on the bottom, yummy granola and fresh fruit, and its topped with their HOMEMADE PEANUT BUTTER. Its to die for.

The smoothie is homemade and one of my go-tos!! It's got PB2 powder, cacao powder, pink himalayan sea salt, stevia, 1/2 banana, and ice! 

Moral of the Que: Honestly I'd choose these things over a rich, buttery, pound cake for dessert. Not only do I genuinely think they taste yummier, but they make me feel better, less heavy, happy, and they're better for my body! YASSS. 

    

Second Que: Pick the healthy(er) option

If you're an OG reader here, you might know that I LOVE Malibu Farm in Malibu California. This place has 2 money examples of substituting to still be able to eat the things that you love. 

The first example is their cauliflower crust pizza (YUM). Replacing the crust for a veggie is an awesome healthier option and it tastes sooooooo good. 

The second example is this ice cream. It is vegan, meaning it contains no animal products (i.e. milk, cream, eggs, etc). The fact that this stuff is made out of coconut milk makes it so that it settles well in your stomach, it is healthier for you, and it serves as an awesome delicious alternative to your average ice cream. (BTW this is PB flavored too 😏)

 

Third Que: Know your weaknesses

My weakness = nuts. All nuts. Pistachios, almonds, cashews, peanut butter (okay overkill on the PB kass...) 

I have very little portion control with these things and  a visual example of this is seen below...

This is my tub of Costco Cashews (my fav) after just over a week....

SO know your weaknesses... because I know I am very susceptible to inhaling these I decided to divide the rest in individual little baggies with reasonable portions. I allowed myself one of these baggies each day so that I didn't sit there mindlessly with the entire tub on my lap and demolish a ton in one sitting. 

Fourth Que: Make your own food

I have realized that when I go out to eat, I can often make the same thing at home but 10x healthier, 10x less calories, and probably 10x yummier... so I started to loove cooking for myself and started to not like eating out as much. Plus I noticed that my self control was lower at restaurants cuz I'd see everything everyone else was eating and want some ice cream too, but I would get frustrated cuz I knew I had 35 calorie ice cream at home.

Tip: Make this at home! Its SOOO GOOD!

Turkey Avo Almond Cran wrap! (50 cal wrap, turkey slices, spring mix, chopped almonds, 1/4 avocado, dried cranberries)

Last Que: Love life!

While yes, it is always good to pick the healthier option and exercise and eat healthy etc. etc. make sure you don't get overly concerned about it. Life is (at least it should be) so simple. Don't spend too much time thinking about it! If you have a bad day and eat 5 slices of pizza and feel sick, get excited to drink a smoothie and eat a salad tomorrow! Or if you drank a smoothie and ate a salad yesterday, treat yoself to pizza! Listen to your body and love life! 

Snack Ideas

LOTS of questions I have gotten about what my healthy go-to's are when it comes to snacks! (Yoda...?) I definitely love my snacks and throughout my many munching years, I have developed a few yummy go-to's. Here are some of my favs!

Low calorie "midnight snacking" type of snacks

• lightly salted rice cake
• lightly salted rice cake with warm chocolate PB2 drizzled on top (or "slathered" on top if you're me...)
• apple 
• cotton candy grapes... 😛😍 or just normal seedless grapes (I love to freeze them!!)
• 45 cal bread toast with spray butter on top
• Almond milk smoothies

Healthy every-day "fat burning" type of snacks

• lightly salted almonds
• lightly salted cashews (THE BIG BINS FROM COSTCO ARE BAE)
• chocolate almonds (NOT the chocolate covered ones... Walmart sells a brand that is "chocolate flavored" and they're to die for!)
• pistachios
• popcorn (with little to zero butter)
• apple
• apple dipped in Sara Natha's maple almond butter 
• cotton candy grapes... 😛😍 or just normal seedless grapes (I love to freeze them!!)
• 45 cal bread toast with spray butter on top (or chunky peanut butter)
• multi grain crackers with sliced turkey on top (or the light/low-fat string cheese on top) (or both)
• light string cheese
• lightly salted rice cake topped with chunky peanut butter and jam 
• roasted chickpeas (the store bought ones are really good but even better, try roasting them on your own without any oil.. yum 👌)
• Two Moms in the Raw blueberry or cacao nib granola bars
• Larabars or RX bars
• reduced sugar chewy granola bars
• peanut butter ginger chews
• dark chocolate - in moderation (👈 the moderation part rarely ever happens for me so if I know I am going to scarf it, sometimes I'll just try to completely avoid it!)
• my homemade oat banana bread :):):):):):) (I love heating it up in the microwave and putting maple almond butter or "I can't Believe it's not Butter" spray butter on top!)
• CO2's salted caramel coconut chips 
• Almond milk smoothies (ice+banana+almond milk+cocoa/cacao powder+stevia+pink himalayan sea salt) or (ice+banana+almond milk+PB2 powder+stevia+pink himalayan sea salt)

MY BIG SNACKING TIPS:

-Remember moderation. Too many times I've started snacking, then continued snacking on seconds, then switched to a different snack, then another, then all of a sudden I've eaten the equivalent of an entire meal... plus my stomach hurts.
-Carry a water bottle around!! I notice that when I'm feeling snacky, sometimes I'm actually just thirsty. Now that I carry a water bottle around with me everywhere, I have noticed that my stomach feels satisfied more often!

That's it I'm recreating it

Hello again!!

CannIgetta GIRLS TRIP!?

Like I've mentioned, my mom and I are besties. We decided to take a long & fun drive to So Cal where we spent the weekend just chilling and watching my bro's HS football game! (& partying in Disneyland but don't tell Dad...)

Since she knows I'm a food nerd, she wanted to take me to try this "delicious/weird/healthy pizza" that she had tried once with her friend a while ago. So we took a little trip to MALIBU!!

It's this place called Malibu Farm and HOLY INCREDIBLE. We shared the cauliflower crust pizza and it tasted like the food-stars aligned and shed inspirational light beams on the hands that created it... and if that made zero sense, lets just say it tasted AMAZING!! It's one of those food moments where the flavors come together so perfectly. Shoot I'm salivating.



Yup. Definitely gonna try to recreate it.

👆That statement actually brings me into another one of my favorite foodie tips! Whenever I order something amazing, I ALWAYS get the weird nagging desire to run home and recreate it but even healthier and yummier. If I nail the recipe, I'll have to post it soon!! Can't wait to food process some cauliflower!! (Wow... if I heard myself say this as a kid I'd probably disown myself).

Oh! And we also decided to try the vegan peanut butter ice cream... another incredible dish. My mom is lactose-intolerant and my stomach sometimes gets gurgly after I have dairy too, so I had fun explaining to my mom that "vegan" meant no animal products and that it was completely dairy-free! Sooo yummy. And the bananas paired perfectly with it 👌

All in all the whole menu looked killer. & I'm dying to go back to try the spaghetti squash lasagna!! (and obviously get that cauliflower pizza again...) Thank you Malibu Farm!!

Raw Vegan Dessert?!

Am I vegan? Nope. But holy cow raw vegan desserts?! Seriously??

The other day, I decided I wanted to make a raw vegan carrot cake. No reason.. kinda just felt like it. So I went to our local Sprouts on student discount day and loaded up on the goods. I got a bunch of randos like Walnuts, Low-Fat Desiccated Coconut, Carrots (Obviously), a real vanilla bean pod!! etc... I basically just threw everything together and voiala! Vwallla...? Voila...?

I AM A CHEF PRODIGY

I even made 3 layers!! Food processors rock! Guys when I save up enough money to open up a real BakeryZero, this will definitely be on my healthy dessert menu 👌. So no worries, you might get to try it soon! 😄 Oh man my mom and I SCARFED it (my dad & bros tried to, but we were too fast...).

The best thing about it is that even though we demolished it, it settled sooo well and didn't leave any of us with a big/full/"food baby" stomach ache! YAS! I LOVE EATING HEALTHY!

Friendly Reminder

Wassupp! So a few days ago this was the conversation my mom & I had...

Mom: "We should hike Timp Mountain sometime"
Me: "Lets do it tomorrow! 4AM!"
Mom: "Oh shoot really? ...Okay!!"

Hahahah it was DANG hard!! But so much fun!!

Moral of the story:
#1 - Think before you speak
#2 - Have fun and enjoy life!!
Ok I'll admit... I am pretty lucky to have a mom that is my twin. We both love exercising and having fun and laughing and traveling and eating salads and smoothies. So even though I accidentally pulled an all-nighter the night before, and even though we started on the wrong trail for an hour and had to come all the way back to the beginning to start all over again, and even though we got lost about 6.5 times during the hike, and even though I am wobbling around everywhere like a chicken, this was still such a blast. Took us 10 hours but we made it!! Aand I may or may not have cried when I saw the parking lot with our car sitting there after... I was dying. Worth it.

BTW anyone else think its the best when you pack a PB&J and it gets kinda squashed and yummy? For some reason I looove it. Chunky Peanut Butter & Grape Jelly.... Ahhhhh. And bonus: we totally got to eat it at the highest peak of Timpanogos Mountain! So fun!

Ran into some fun people too. We talked with a bunch of cool guys at the top, and we even had a "tour guide" for almost half of the hike. His name is Ben Woolsey and he's 75 and a CHAMP. He's hiked it almost 900 times and sometimes does it twice a day.. yeah that's insane. Don't even want to think about it. 75 years old, and he was creaming us. So money.

After our excursion, we were CHOCOLATE WASTED (translation: tired) and it was soo perfect because we treated ourselves to one of our FAVORITE hearty plates from @Cubbys. We both demolished the rice and kale salad and it was absolute bliss. Yum. Sure I can't really remember eating it because I'm almost positive my face was falling into my bowl I was so tired, but I know it was delish because of past experiences... hahah.

Thank you Cubby's! 🙏

BE ACTIVE
HAVE FUN
CHALLENGE YOURSELF
ENJOY LIFE
WORK IT

Peace out girl scout ✌

Living in Cali!!

Hey!!

Wanna hear something awesome? For about a month during this summer I will be living with my grandparents in Northern California!! WOOT! Northern Cal is my ALL TIME FAV.

I thought this would be a perfecto opportunity to share some more tips on how to eat healthy and be healthy when on vacation/out of town.

Tip #1 - Exercise! 

Try to find time during the mornings or at night to go on a long walk or get a nice little jog in. 

My mom came to California to drop me off and spend a few days with me and her parents! So we’ve been motivating each other to exercise early each morning before the day starts. (Which TBH means we’ve been waking up at 9 or 10… #whoops)

But it's been so awesome because we’ve been able to do so many fun things like walk the beautiful levy out back, make up our own “high fitness playlist” and run our own mini cardio class, etc etc.

And it feels sooooo good because we know we’ve worked hard and can chill and enjoy the rest of the day even more! Plus we feel less guilty at night when we down TONS of HU chocolate bars, white chocolate covered gummy bears, and Trish’s Mini Donuts. #Pier39 #Sanfransisco

Whether you get up early to do a circuit workout, or walk from place to place at the pier, or take the stairs instead of the elevator, or sprint to get a chocolate bar - been there done that - it pays off to get your body active and moving!

FAVORITE CHOCOLATE BARS EVER!! @HUCHOCOLATE

Tip #2 - Look for good food options 
There are always good options!

Okay cmon… for reals how many times do we end up cooking our own meals on vacations? 

While sometimes it's fun and convenient to make a healthy egg white, spinach & feta omelette for lunch or breakfast, most of the time the fam ends up wanting to go out to eat to our fav spots!

My grandma, grandpa, uncle, mom, and I went to a steak house for dinner one night and in an attempt to eat a bit lighter, I ordered a suuuuper yummy salad and a tender steak with the butter on the side. YUM.

When eating out, *TRY TO BE IN CONTROL* Like trying to control your butter intake by ordering it on the side. Or asking for the dressing on the side to control how much you put on your salad. 

My mom and I went to this really good cafe on Pier 3 called The Plant Cafe Organic. I tried to 'be in control' by asking for fresh spinach on the side of my power bowl so that I could make my own little healthy salad! I also asked for the Kale Pesto and Hot Sauce on the side cuz the oil in the pesto would have WRECKED my stomach and while the hot sauce would have done the same thing, it also woulda seared my tongue… #teamnospicy

We also went to CRAB HOUSE for dinner last night!! (MY FAV!!) Healthy tips: try to avoid too much of the bread and butter before the meal, don't dip your crab meat in extra garlic butter (RESIST!) and just TRY to portion control... even though it's nearly impossible...

Tip #3 - Bring healthy snacks to munch on

California traffic… always unpredictable. My mom and I got stuck in traffic from 12-3 when we hadn’t eaten lunch and we were FAMISHED. But Kass to the rescue! I had packed some almonds in a bag and whipped em out right in the nick o' time! Because I had packed almonds, we didn’t get hangry and pull off to grab 5 bean burritos from Taco Bell, or dive for the first treat we could lay eyes on. 

Tip #4 - Portion control your sweets and desserts 

I know I know… This one’s hard. But it pays off in the end I promise. When I’m trying to eat healthier on vacay, I don’t want to completely restrict myself from desserts n' treats especially when everyone else is eating them! SO I allow myself to enjoy!… But not inhale them like I could.

When everyone is eating ice cream, I'd munch on my “healthy chocolate” or if dessert is ordered for everyone after dinner, I’ll take a few bites then call it good. I’ve noticed that when I do this, not only am I a better person because I'm not fighting my family for the most bites... but I feel SO much better compared to when I would demolish an entire dessert and have the biggest stomach ache the whole night (and even the next morning).

Caveat! I'm such a hypocrite cuz I know all of these things are legit^^ but heck no I don't keep to them 100% 24/7. Honestly though, when I don't follow these tips.. I regret it. I always wish I would have listened to my body when it was telling me I was full 5 hrs ago. So it's a "fun" process! Ha. I'm always pumped when I DO listen to my body and feel great and ready party hard the next day!

yuhm

Have you ever tried White Cherries? If not, please put it on your bucket list!

One last thing... I ♡ this place

Healthy Tips & Trix

I have noticed HUGE changes with my body, energy, cravings, etc. by sticking to these beautifully simple tips. I live by these things and they really do make the biggest difference if you A) Stick to them and B) Are patient and give them time.

Tips and Trix!! ~

1. Substitute! 

Check out my "Substitutions" page for a bunch of ideas on how to do this! IT GETS SO FUN!! Substituting is the best because I will go to a store or restaurant and realize that I can make food that tastes the exact same but with a THOUSAND times less calories (not a mathematically proven statistic).

EXAMPLE: I LOVE the upside-down honey oat bran muffins at "Mimi's Cafe". One day I tried to recreate it and absolutely NAILED IT!! (No joke) (Will post recipe soon!) Here's the thing: I substituted country crock for real butter; honey/maple syrup/coconut sugar for real sugar; wheat flour/coconut flour/almond flour for white flour... and more! REPLACE THOSE BAD CALS BABY!

2. Listen to your body

But forreals. If you are craving chocolate, eat it. If you have eaten a huge, delicious salad and are still hungry for a granola bar, eat it. HERE'S THE THING: Many of us eat when we are bored. (C'mon It's fun). This takes some serious practice so don't get frustrated or drill yourself when mess-ups happen, but often your mind will try to convince you that you are hungry when your BODY is actually not. Very often I have ended up consuming 50+lbs of dark chocolate at midnight along with a peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter toast, banana bread, a granola bar and occasionally some frozen fruit snacks too. So listen to your body... but REALLY listen to it.

3. Know what you are eating

I always try to know all of ingredients in the things I eat. Many processed foods (meaning frozen meals, eating out, microwave meals etc.) are what I try to limit. I'll admit, I don't know half of the listed ingredients on many the foods I have - BUT I know I am doing good things for my bod if I do recognize healthy, very simple, whole wheats, and "good for you" ingredients. 

EXAMPLE: I was given a "Pineapple Upside-down cake" LaraBar to try for my very first time and the ONLY ingredients were Dates, Almonds and Dried Pineapple... SO GOOD for you! 

4. Shop on the "outskirts" of the store (Paleo-based diet)

Try to base your diet on foods you would eat if you lived in Paleolithic times. Eat the delicious, fresh, "paleolithic", non-processed foods. Most of this food is found on the outskirts and refrigerated sections of the store i.e. fresh meats, fruits and veggies, milks, eggs etc. etc. 

5. Exercise when you can :)

Take the stairs, go on a fun walk, get a gym pass, park farther away... exedra! 

Whenever my family goes on a cruise, (all-you-can-eat food baby!!) we ALWAYS avoid the elevators. Even if we have to hike a few sets of stairs to get to our rooms, we try to keep our bodies moving and take the stairs no matter how tired we are after our fun excursions!!

Health Grocery List

Here is a list of things I almost always have in my pantry/fridge... These options are:

•  Healthy
• College-student-budget friendly
• Delicious 
• You can make so many different things out of them (sandwiches, salads, wraps, breakfast burritos, dinner burritos, omelettes, desserts, etc. etc.)

Refrigerated Section 

Spinach

Almond milk

Sandwich meat

OPI greek yogurt salad dressing

Thinly sliced provolone 

Fat free cheddar cheese

Eggs (sometimes I'll buy the egg white containers)

Veggies & fruits:

• Apples
• Bananas
• Zuchinni
• Butternut Squash
• Carrots
• Tomatoes
• Avocados
• Grapes (freeze them and they become addicting - I got my mom HOOKED 😉)

Hummus

Greek yogurt (non-fat)

Frozen Section

Pre-cooked grilled chicken

Frozen fruit (for smoothies)
Frozen fish (Salmon, Shrimp, Cod etc)

Not Refrigerated or Frozen Section

Spinach & herb wrap 
45-calorie wheat bread

Lightly salted Almonds 

Oats (not the pre-flavored kind) (trust me... just throw honey, cinnamon and chopped apples on and it becomes AMAZING - my fav comfort food**)

Honey

Peanut Butter

PB2 Powder

Stevia sweetener 

Cocoa Powder

Dark Chocolate Chips (a must)

Tuna Lite (In water)

Crackers (shoot for multi-grain, low-fat, lightly salted, low sodium etc.)

Chewy 25% reduced sugar granola bars

Kind Bars

Lightly salted rice cakes 

***I always look for the LIGHT versions (less sodium, low-fat, less calories, wheat, etc) (I very often look like a total nerd cuz I spend so much time comparing each different food label) 😆  

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

***Quick Caveat: Sometimes if food claims to be "low-sugar", "low-sodium", "low-fat" it is often neglecting other nutrients. For example a "low-sugar" food item could have a higher fat content than normal to compensate for the taste. It might seem complicated, but this is a process that will begin to make so much sense once you start paying attention! Promise!