I recently shared on my Instagram Stories the trouble with letting smoothies or fresh juice replace a full meal. My first concern is always with the amount of sugar that may be present as most smoothies/juices are majority fruit. Even with the addition of vegetables, smoothies end up being high on carbs and very low in the other two macronutrients our body needs. In order to replace a complete meal all three macro-nutrients: fat, protein and carbs, must be present. 

You’ll hear me harp a lot about fat. For those of you trying to lose weight it may seem a little backwards but our bodies NEED fat to function despite what the diet food industry leads us to believe. This is why I never purchase anything claiming to be “light” or “low fat” because in order to make whatever it is taste good again or like itself again  (nothing tastes as good as fat) they add artificial shenanigans or sugar. Plus, vitamins A, E, D and K are all fat soluble meaning they need fat in order to be transported to the bloodstream. I don't know about you but baby girl doesn't eat vegetables for no reason. I need those nutrients all in this thang!

“Good Fat” ingredients you gotta get into:
-wild-caught seafood
-almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts, etc.
-meat and dairy from grass-fed animals
-flaxseed
-chia seeds
-avocado
-coconut, olive or nut/seed oils (not vegetable oils like corn or soybean)

PEANUT BUTTER BANANA SMOOTHIE

½ scoop Vega Protein+Greens Vanilla Protein Powder (optional)

6oz water or almond milk

1tbsp peanut butter

3.5 oz. (half a small container) Fage Greek Yogurt

1 whole banana

½  avocado

pinch of sea salt

1tsp honey (optional, my peanut butter is honey flavored)

Blended and topped with sunflower seeds and walnuts

22g protein, 18g fat, 38g carbs

(there’s 27g carbs in a medium banana whaaaaaa)

If I had really crunched the numbers while making it, I probably would've added MCT Oil to increase the fat content. This smoothie kept me full for maybe an hour and a half but an added 14g of fat from 1 tbsp MCT oil may have bought me another hour and some increased mental focus.

This is not a super sweet smoothie so it’s perfect for someone who likes a nice balance of sugar and salt. Let me know if you try it!

The Upstairs Pannenkoekenhuis or Upstairs Pancakes is one of the most special places I have ever been. As hyperbolic as it seems, I remember it as clearly and beautifully as the Eiffel Tower at night. Probably because Upstairs Pancakes was equally, if not more, surprising.

I remembered the café from photos I’d seen of a pancake house with teapots covering its ceiling. I had clearly gotten carried away with the oh so American idea of a pancake HOUSE and remembered the place much larger than it is in reality. MUCH, MUCH LARGER. Upstairs is in fact, the smallest restaurant in Europe with only four tables. We walked single file up the steepest flight of stairs, tempted to use our hands as if it were a ladder, and arrived eye to eye with the sole chef and full house of patrons. All six. It felt like a mistake. Luckily, there’s little time for bullshit in a place this small. We all could heard the sound of more guests climbing the stairs and there very literally would’ve been nowhere for them to go. The chef quickly let us know that without a reservation, we were out of luck. We had the option of enjoying pancakes at 5:00 that evening or 1:30 the following afternoon. We decided the initial shock and awkwardness was meal enough for the day and opted to try again the next day.

We were so pumped. It was all we could talk about. How good must the pancakes be if you can run a whole restaurant with six seats and have people crawling back, literally, day after day? The pancakes are INCREDIBLE! We returned the next day 30 minutes before our reservation and people watched outside. The best part was watching couple after couple take that awkward climb up the stairs only to be turned away just like we were the day before. There was even a group of six! We DIED laughing with no words.

We were seated at the window (in the second window box pictured) and we agreed to let a solo traveler dine with us. He was chill and didn’t’ speak English. I ordered the banana with chocolate sauce and Brittany ordered the rhubarb and plum special. The menu is lengthy but fairly simple. Each pancake has no more than three ingredients and typically just two. As delicious as they were, as with most great meals I’ve ever had, the best part was something seemingly insignificant—the house made cream. BABYYYYYY we licked those plates clean, you hear me?

If you can manage to get past the zesty funk and sharp flavor, apple cider vinegar makes a great addition to your diet. I try to drink a shot of ACV once in the morning and again at night to aid digestion. Most people give ACV too much credit but it does have some solid benefits. It can increase feelings of fullness if taken before a meal, which means you consume less calories. Plus, the acidity promotes your guts natural acid, breaking down food more quickly. Less bloating and happy tummies! I’m all about it. But my obsession with ACV goes much further.

ACV sat in my cupboard for the longest time in the beginning of my wellness journey. Taking less than 5 tablespoons daily in total didn’t put a huge dent in the bottle right away. So, when it came time to repurchase I wasn’t running to the store. It wasn’t until I started working for Whole Foods that I slowly discovered all of the possible uses for ACV within the home.  Fast forward to today and a spray bottle of ACV and water (1:2) holds a permanent position on both my bathroom and kitchen sinks. Here are a few of my fav uses for that golden, funk: 

1.         Armpits! Like, no lie. We gotta talk about this. You guys realize you wear deodorant 24/7, right? You wake up, you shower, YOU PUT ON DEODORANT, you go to work, you come home, go to bed WITH YOUR DEODORANT, wake up and repeat again and again. The only time you’re not wearing deodorant is in the shower. And that’s giving your bodywash a lot of credit!  Most traditional soaps aren’t going to draw out all the dirt, sweat and bullshit trapped under your pits from yeeeeears of daily use. So, FIRST, make a habit of washing your under arms before bed. Deodorant is chemicals. Deodorant is aluminum. Deodorant is bullshit. I pray every night for God to send me a natural deodorant that can handle my level of lady sweat. But until that day, I’ll be washing my under arms every night and spraying my ACV water as a kind of toner. The malic acid in ACV makes it a potent antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral substance capable of keeping all kinds of bacteria at bay. AVC also draws out toxins from your skin and restores pH. This is a game changer given the amount of time deodorant sits on our skin. It actually inhibits the natural process of the body and traps dirt and sweat under the skin. Regular use of ACV helps restore order, which is especially helpful before a good night’s sleep while our bodies are doing lots of repairs.

2.          ACV is an absolute godsend when it comes to cleaning fruits and veggies. I’m going to ruin your day real quick and let you know those apples you bought are as dirty as a doorknob. Forget about all the hands it passed through in the packaging and delivery process, the amount of people that poked and prodded your fruit in the grocery store alone is enough to quickly realize a few rinses under the faucet ain’t enough. ACV kills bacteria and removes dirt and pesticides. If you have your mixture of ACV water ready in a spray bottle all you have to do is spray your produce before putting up your groceries and it doesn’t even feel like an extra step (I like to spray, rinse and spray again).

ACV makes a great all-purpose, all-natural cleaner for your counter tops and works miracles on burnt, crusty pots and pans. There are sooooo many more uses for ACV, ask Pinterest! But these are the few that I’ve made habits in my life and swear by. Let me know if you’ve adopted any other uses that you think I should try.