Wild Roots

Happy Monday! Time for a fresh start! I have had a pretty hard time focusing and staying motivated, think I am just being hard on myself (cause I have pretty much stayed on track). The last workout I had was the walk at the park on Thursday. I feel like I just felt burnt out and needed a break. My hormones kinda have made me feel overemotional. This weekend I just felt like sitting around watching movies and eating junk food but I tried to push myself out of the house =) I also have been staying up late and waking up late. Saturday I met my friends at the mall (shopping is my favorite form of cardio!) We walked around and then had lunch at Stove Oven, I had the Goat Cheese Chicken Salad (no chicken, no bacon, no cheese, no dressing) and asked for lemon wedges for my dressing. Oh and I removed the huge piece of delicious looking bread and threw it away! I also had an Iced T which I barely drank. After lunch, the girls wanted coffee so we headed over to Coffee Bean where I was pleased to find coconut water! Not gonna lie, I was still pretty hungry but I walked around and tried on clothes (I am also trying not to spend so it's very tempting). I have this new habit of trying on stuff, or browsing and not buying anything. It's pretty cool cause I still get to enjoy "shopping" but I feel such a feeling of power when I leave without purchasing any items! I do want a cute pair of jeans and Forever 21 has them on sale for like 10 bux! After the mall, I came home and started juicing! I juiced kale,apple,celery, lemon and gave some to my brother to try..he didn't like it too much =( but oh well more for me =) I made a dessert blend which I knew would taste better for him. I froze bananas. Side-note- Apparently bananas are supposed to be frozen without the peel! oops! live and learn right? ok so you know how you have those nasty looking bananas that have spots on them? just remove the peel and put them in plastic wrap and freeze! I swear it's better than ice cream!!!!!!!!!!!! ok so back to my smoothie, I blended strawberries and banana with a little almond milk ...tastes amazing! I'm pretty sure you have to use some sort of water when you blend but I still have to watch my Blendtec CD for the ice cream portion. Later that night I met some friends at  "The Americana" (shopping,movies,dining center in Glendale) We went to Amici Trattoria where I ordered a bean soup with kale and potatoes (tasted great since there was salt in it and also potatoes which I hadn't had for a while!yum) I was already pretty full but I also ordered a salad which I didn't finish:
                     Insalata di Carciofi e Cuori di Palma  13.50
                     Fresh raw baby artichokes, hearts of palm over
                     mâche salad (yes please!)
                      with shaved Parmigiano
                      Reggiano cheese and walnuts (no thank you!)

I love hearts of palm and I love artichokes!!!!!!! The waitress was a vegan so she told me the dressing was really light so I was ok with it! Not sure what a "mache" salad is but it tasted like the stuff I put in my fatoush salad. After dinner we had some tea and headed home. I have a bit of a youtube addiction lately :/ I watch health and beauty videos and cant stop! That's why I have been staying up late :/ I don't remember if I ate anything when I got home but I don't think I did (hope I didn't). I feel like I may have had a piece of cheese and thought it didn't taste good at all and a piece of bread that also tasted yucky. Food that I used to love has started to not taste so good =) I think this is a good thing because they were bad for me anyway! Sunday I was feeling extra lazy and just really enjoyed lounging around in PJs. I watched a movie ate some foul (middle easter bean breakfast made of fava beans) I felt hungry all day, cant remember what I ate ...I do remember having a few small armenian cookies my dad brought home. I decided I need to start logging everything I eat. I will use the app "My fitness Pal." A friend came over in the afternoon, I made her the strawberry banana smoothie without almond milk and she loved it..(hope i didnt mess up my fancy blender) ooh now I remember! Earlier that day I had mangos and grapefruit juice too (cause I realized citrus juice can be my "liquid" since I don't like the taste of the peel or white stuff anyway). We had dinner at Kings Head later, my friend ordered a burger and I asked her to cut me a piece so I can get my burger craving out of the way. The bun didn't taste good so I removed it and ate the piece of meat which wasn't worth the cheat at all. I had ordered a salad with lemon and vinegar on the side. Afterwards we went to a bar called "Local Peasant" I ordered a glass of wine and didn't drink it because I wasn't crazy about it. Think it was a Santa Barbara Pinot Noir. If I am going to cheat it's gotta be worth it right??????! So I came home and had recorded a few shows on Oprah's OWN channel that I wanted to watch and I just missed that bad habit of being a couch potato and nibbling on something (I am human after-all!) so this is what I ate(picture on top)...no I didn't eat the whole bag but wow this stuff is yummy! My mom bought it from Costco to replace the high sodium nut medley that she normally eats (she thinks she needs salt but I am trying to convince her otherwise)  This isn't really bad (minus the yogurt things in there that I swear taste like white chocolate) but I should probably only have a handfull a day but please note that the bag is empty. Overall I guess I wasn't that bad. I barely drank any alcohol which is great for a weekend with friends. I guess the real reason I feel bad is the lack of exercise but I'm meeting my friend tonight for BODY PUMP...