Saintly St. Ana

Jk. I know it's important to eat and I know it's even more important to eat well. I'm having a really hard time staying motivated to meal prep and cook lately! I'm definitely turning to junk food more often and I'm FEELING it. My skin keeps breaking out and my pants aren't as comfortable. Also I just feel so sloooooooow. I'm sharing a bit of meal prep stuff I did last week because sharing stuff (even if no one really sees it, lol) makes me more accountable and I can also look back at times that I meal prepped and remind myself that it's not as terrible as I think it is.   First up is my classic go to prepped lunch: steamed brown rice, steamed veggies, and crispy tofu topped with homemade hoisin sauce. I always forget how good this is! It seems like it might be boring but it never is. Honestly, the hoisin sauce makes this dish. It's sweet, spicy, and savory all at the same time! Also pictured is some bananas that are about to be frozen. This ...

I fell off the wagon people- the consistent blog post wagon. It's dumb that I have yet to find my rhythm/schedule but maybe this is my rhythm? Just sporadically posting? Lol. Anyway, I'm here to talk about my recent jump back into yoga. Back in my early college days I was really into yoga. I practiced almost 7 days a week thanks to the free classes provided to students at the campus activity center. Sadly, as my curriculum got more demanding, my class schedule got much more restrictive I didn't find time to fit yoga into my life. I was occasionally able to visit a pricey private yoga studio after the free classes on campus no longer fit my schedule so I felt I was staying on track for a while. Then my senior year came. I'm sure many people can relate to me when I say that my physical and mental health fell to the bottom of my priority list during this time. Aside from hurrying between classes and moving around in the print room I became pretty inactive. I wa...

Sometimes I'm not that good at prepping and packing lunch for the week. This was one of those weeks. My schedule was kind of thrown off by my birthday celebrations last week and this week is my dad's birthday so things have been kind of cray. Luckily there's always one place I can depend on to get quick vegan and gluten free lunches- my local co-op. I visit Mountain View Market Co-op a few times a month to get specialty items (like my gluten free oats) and for quick, tasty meals. I try not to eat out too often during the week but sometimes life happens, right?! The best part about eating at the co-op is that they have options . I've noticed that even while some places offer vegan alternatives they can be limited. Which is fine, I don't want to complain because I made the choice to eat this way, but it's such a relief to find a place that truly caters to my lifestyle. There are a few different ways you can get a meal at the co-op. Firstly there is the Kit...

Imagine if managing your health were as easy as popping a cute little pill?! If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that I posted a photo recently of me finally being able to donate blood again. It's kind of a weird thing to share on social media but for me it marked a turning point in my physical health. It's been years since my iron level was high enough to donate. I used to regularly donate a few times a year until I developed symptoms that were eventually diagnosed as hypothyroidism, or an under active thyroid. I was pretty bummed out and confused after being turned away from the blood donation center a few times in a row due to my low iron. I didn't know why my levels were dropping so I kept trying to donate. I was also dealing with some other symptoms such as lethargy, weight gain, depression, and more but I suppose I found all those things easy to ignore. Coincidentally around the same time, my mom was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and an aut...

It's been a little over two months now since I've transitioned to a plant based diet. During that short amount of time I've found quite a few products and alternatives that soothe my omnivorous cravings. I've been trying to stick to a more "whole foods" based diet rather than filling my body with a bunch of processed stuff but sometimes you just gotta change things up! Some people may ask why vegans want to eat something that mimics the look and taste of animal products. I think this quote from an older Huffington Post article says it best: " As it turns out, vegans did not stop eating animals because they didn’t enjoy the taste. Who doesn’t enjoy the taste of a juicy hamburger, or a few slices of bacon? However, vegans chose to stop consuming and using animals on an ethical basis."   Do I miss the taste of a burger or grilled chicken sometimes? Like, kind of. I do for a split second then I think about how those animals were mistreated before bein...

So far this vegan thing aint too bad! Actually, it's not bad at all. I'm enjoying a lot of aspects of a vegan diet and I've been trying to keep track of my favorite meals so far. I've pictured a few of them below! (I apologize in advance for the terrible lighting in my house.) First up is a gluten free hummus wrap. Awwww yeah. It's super simple (in fact, all of these are ridiculously simple) and really tasty! I use my homemade jalapeño hummus as a base on a rice tortilla and then basically pile on whatever veggies I have on hand. Usually that includes spinach, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and maybe sliced carrots if I feel like taking the time to slice carrots. This is something I throw together for lunch quite a bit during the week.  Next is a pretty typical vegan brekkie: oatmeal and fruit. I swear there's oatmeal under all that fruit! I eat overnight oats basically every morning during the week but on the weekends it's nice to cook oats and hav...

I've been talking about my shopping habits quite a bit here lately. I definitely have a better understanding of my shopping patterns and I think it's been good for me to evaluate why and how much I'm shopping. I've had mostly positive outcomes because of these changes, but I've also had some unpleasant experiences now that I'm much more intentional with my shopping. Nothing horrible obviously. I mean, it's just clothes! But regardless, I've had some unexpected experiences. Someone commented on my last post saying that the moment you start looking for specific items they seem to disappear from all the shops. This couldn't be truer! I swear, now that I'm actually looking to buy things nothing is in stock! I've spent a good two months or so planning what I want to spend money on and it's so frustrating not being able to find those items. But the most prominent issue I've faced recently is sizing. This is a pic I took in my plu...

Random post about my plant based diet: IT'S SUPER CHEAP GUYS . I got all this food yesterday for $7, no joke. Maybe it does't seem like a lot to some people but I was pretty stoked leaving the grocery store. I'm using the strawberries for breakfast toppings/smoothies and the rest of it I used for jalapeño hummus and dipping. The hummus was actually my dinner last night because, like, I wasn't hungry after a huge lunch of rice, beans, spinach, and avocado salad! So far I'm really enjoying how cheap and easy meals are. It's a pretty big difference from my previous eating habits that included expensive proteins and longer prep/cook times. Physically and mentally I feel great so I'm excited to keep going! Happy almost-weekend!

Vegan curry prep! I recently completed a Whole30 and it went by super fast! Originally I was planning on doing a Whole45 or Whole60 but sometime between then and now I became curious about a plant-based diet. I stumbled upon a few vegan bloggers' recipes while looking for Whole30 recipes and noticed that they had a common thread: a focus on consuming minimally processed, whole foods. There are obviously big differences between these two lifestyles, mainly the whole animal products thing, but there's no dairy, minimal processed food, and an emphasis on listening to your body. While I was on the Whole30 I already got used to not eating dairy, staying away from processed foods, and being in tune with my body so I figured that a transition to a plant-based diet wouldn't be too difficult. I really like the Whole30 program and I think it provides so many benefits for so many people but I need to confess something: meat grosses me out. And on a paleo based diet you're ea...

The past couple of weeks have been kind of cray to say the least. My grandpa was dealing with some serious health issues that essentially turned everything upside down. He's now (thankfully) back home and starting on a long journey of recovery. Now that everything is relatively settled down again I've had a chance to process how and why his health issues escalated so quickly. I've now realized that a lot of what happened to him could have been prevented through proper diet. This was a real wake up call. These health issues aren't only his; they run in my family and have the ability to trickle down and affect me as well. This illustrates my new found love for citrus on the Whole30. Previous to one of the major events of my grandpa's stay in the hospital I had made the commitment to go through another round of Whole30 . Having had success previously with this "nutritional reset program," I knew how many benefits I could get from changing my diet alon...