Wholesome and Delicious Saturday Morning Pancakes

Good morning my dear readers,

Happy Saturday. Last night I had so much fun. Was able to go out and hang out with one of my favorite people in the world- my best friend. We celebrated a new accomplishment in her career and had quite the good time at Local 138, a pretty cool and low key bar in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (with pretty awesome drink specials...umm $3.00 drinks?! count me in).

But anyways, enough about that. This morning I woke up craving pancakes. My friend stayed over (she may or may not have drank too much) and so, what better way to spend some quality time with her and chat about the adventures of the night than over some delicious pancakes, eggs, and coffee.

Ingredients:

I've been substituting cashew or almond milk instead of regular milk for my pancakes and let me tell you...it makes everything so much fluffier and better. 

Prep Time:

Mix it all up- until smooth & silky:

1/4 cup of the batter over low-medium heat, make sure skillet is hot, once it bubbles flip it:

Final Product...

...Dont forget to add some nice fruit and awesome coffee with soy milk on the side ;)

Bon Appetite!

What are your plans for this weekend?! Hope you all spend time doing some fun stuff and/or simply in the company of loved ones.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mabelle

Why I enjoy a Healthy Lifestyle

Hey All!!

I haven't passed by here in a few weeks and you probably could very well guess why. When I start getting inconsistent with my posts it usually means I am dealing with a pretty stressful life or simply just have a whole lot going on and this is no exception. 

I must confess....

I haven't been running since October when I ran my half marathon and my 10K only a week apart. I had decided to take a break from running in order to give my legs some rest from the months of training and the actual races but the "break" has extended for longer than expected. The fact that we've had bipolar weather here in NYC which is now gearing more towards freezing temperatures has not helped at all!

What usually happens when I stop working out consistently? my "consistent" healthy eating also go out the door. I have to admit that I still incorporate healthy foods in to my diet most of the time. However, it is also true that junk food, fast food, and other not so great consumption have made their way in to my life one way or another. 

I must confess...

When I am stressed I feel anxious and when I feel anxious and stressed I overeat and I eat a lot. And it doesnt feel good. Food is delicious and is meant to be enjoyed but there is a thin line between enjoying food and having a balance and overeating/gluttony and having an "F*ck it" mentality, which is what I've been having lately on and off. 

Although there is nothing wrong with relaxing from time to time eating whatever we want and taking a break from working out; I do have to admit that I feel my BEST when I am in fact taking care of myself and my body. I am sure many can relate to the fact that making a conscious effort to eat wholesome super foods and making sure we get in a reasonable amount of cardio and/or strength training in to our weeks can make us feel amazing. Hence, although it isnt always easy to make the best decisions it is soooo worth it. Do you agree??
I usually get back on track by starting to plan my meals, adding workouts to my calendar, rekindling my relationship with my food journal (so therapeutic!) and simply deciding that I will do whats best for my body and myself. I dont do it for anyone else. I do it for ME!! To feel my personal best <3....There is something about making positive decisions in life (from food to exercise to relationships and everything in between) that contributes to making us feel like a million bucks.

I am not saying that life is automatically perfect when we eat well, exercise and loose those love handles. However, everything in life is a balance and I read somewhere one day that "if something makes you happy; dont question it, just do it" (as long as we arent hurting ourselves or anyone else!).

With that said, I have to admit that my BESTOWED box for this month came at a PERFECT time! I was ecstatic when I received the box with all the goodies and it was as if I "called" it with my mind. You know how they say that when you start thinking positive, positive things happen? I believe that is true. Receiving the box was the "materialization" of my positive mentality towards getting back to my healthy life. 

Check out all the GREAT stuff for November:

Hello, Gorgeous:

 Booklet with some information about all the goodies included + some recipes. It even has some "tips on eating and working out" in the back. (Loved this!):

All the AMAZING goodies:

What I love the most is that most of the items are things I haven't tried before. So, I am super excited to try some new stuff and see whether is something I'd like to keep adding to my diet, Here is a quick summary of the goods:

• Wild garden hummus dip 
• Crunchmaster Multi-seek crackers
• Eat Green Tea
• LifeIce
• Nektar Honey Crystals
• Perfect Fuel Chocolate
• QUEST Bar--chocolate peanut butter <--- pretty popular on instagram, cant wait to try!
• Salba Smart Chia Boost
• Skratch Labs Exercise hydration mix
• ZICO Chocolate  

The amazing peeps @ Bestowed are running an amazing deal---get the box for only $10 (instead of $19). This is  GREAT opportunity to indulge in some delicious goodies before November ends. The  code is HELLOTEN105 and can be used at checkout on their site by clicking here.



To enter the giveaway:

• Follow me on Blogger (click on the "join this site" icon on the right hand side of the screen)
• Follow me on twitter (@dolcemabelle)

Comment below when you do! Each action counts as one entry!! :)

**DISCOUNT CODE AND GIVEAWAY VALID UNTIL 11/30/2013 (SATURDAY)**

GOOD LUCK

***

*Bestowed gifted me a box for the month of November, and discount code. ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN. 

Hanging out with Jillian in the Morning

Hello Everyone!

So, in honor’s of my “wake up earlier” goal and yesterday’s accomplishment, I decided to take another stab at it today and managed to get out of my very comfy bed at around 6:30 am. I was shooting for 6:10 but I’ll take it! In order to complement yesterday’s run, I decided to do some strength training this morning and what better person to do this with than with my beloved Jillian:

I completed the entire 30 day shred workout sometime last summer and I absolutely loved it! I may have mentioned this before, but I actually started seeing results on my entire body! About a month or so ago I re-started the program but things got busy (read: school) and I was just able to complete week 1. Well, today I picked up from where I left of!

I remember week 2 for some reason being more difficult than week 3 so I was scared and wondered whether I should start off with the basics again. However, I pushed through and didn’t find it as hard as I thought. I was sweating bullets (which felt awesome) and once it was over I was super happy to be able to finish another morning workout. Just makes my day that much better!

After the workout I rushed to get ready for work and couldn’t eat anything. By the time I got to downtown Manhattan (over an hour later!) I was starving! I began craving bananas for some reason (random) so I passed by my local Duane Reade  and picked up a couple (50 cents each if you are wondering). They were all super green. I usually like my bananas in the “middle” not green but not too ripe either but I got them anyways and inhaled one as soon as I got to my desk.

While checking through work email I then proceeded to have my breakfast which consisted of almond butter and jelly on a 100% whole wheat English muffin brought from home, prepared the evening before (not pictured) paired up with my fruit and café (w/ almond milk, no sugar) also courtesy of my casa. Failure to plan is planning to fail!                  

Hope everyone is having a fabulous hump-day. Break is over. Back to work but I leave you with today’s wonderful quote from the runner’s world calendar:

 

Q: Do you enjoy working out first thing in the morning?