A new month is on the horizon, which means it’s time for another TBV Challenge to begin… are ya ready for it? It’s going to be a wild one. And by wild, I mean crazy awesome and totally difficult and challenging in the best way.
But before I tell you what it is, I want to give the April Self-Love Challenge a proper farewell. This was by far the most fulfilling challenge I’ve lead since I started the blog, and what made it so great was the outrageous support and participation from all of you. I loved each and every one of the emails I received, the photos I was tagged in, the comments on the blog, and even the personal kind words I’ve gotten from friends and family (to my face – can ya believe it?! Self-love is a hot convo topic these days, and I am downright thrilled about it).
The final winner of the Self-Love Challenge is a wonderful girl named Peyton who I have been emailing with since the beginning of the month. She is a college sophomore in Washington, D.C. who has been struggling to balance her schoolwork, living in her sorority house, trying to lead a normal balanced college social life (it’s exhausting, let me tell you!) and of course maintain her healthy lifestyle.
Peyton and I have way too many similarities when it comes to food approach and overall life approach. She has made the incredible decision to transfer to Sydney, Australia to finish her schooling and I am SO proud of her. How amazing is that? And check out her self-love journal entries (PS I kinda want her handwriting):
People like Peyton remind me how beautiful it is for all of us to take a moment to reconnect to ourselves each day, tell ourselves how beautiful we are, and practice self-love versus any sort of negativity. Her story has been super inspiring to me, and I know we all have our own stories to tell when it comes to this journey toward falling in love with ourselves and making the healthiest choices possible. Thanks for being awesome, Peyton. If everyone was as self aware as you, the world would be a happier place.
Now… ya ready for May’s challenge? It’s definitely a different vibe than the self-love challenge, but self-love should continue all year round. I still better be hearing from y’all about your self-loveyness even after this month passes.
May Challenge = Dessert-Free!!!! Psycho move on my part, right? Totally bonkers. This chocoholic, raging sweet tooth, how-can-I-sneak-cacao-powder-into-every-meal girl is going to be giving up desserts for the month of May. And let me explain- this is not to deprive myself. Not at all. It’s just that I have been going overboard with desserts lately.
Even though I stick to healthy desserts, always free of refined sugar, refined flour and anything processed… eating something sweet after every meal has become a total habit rather than an indulgent treat. It may have stemmed from finishing my day 10 juice cleanse, because after I came off of it all I wanted was to shove my face with raw chocolate, agave, nut butters, fruit with cinnamon, chocolate chips, granola, chocolate oats, Larabars… you name it, it’s been in my mouth. A lot. Too much.
I also have an absurd obsession with bananas, and try to convince myself that having mini-smoothies as snacks with banana, cacao powder and almond butter is a good idea all the frickin’ time. It’s not a bad idea (that’s for sure), but I have an addictive personality! For me, a little bit is never enough.
So I’m going cold turkey. Kaput on the dessert cray cray train. Adios to the chocolate madness that exists in my kitchen, and all over my neighborhood (why do I have so many amazing vegan places in walking distance?!?!).
I will do low-glycemic fruits and I will have sweeter fruits in moderation (bananas, mango, coconut), but dried fruit = a no-no, and same with any obvious type of dessert or raw treat. I am still dabbling with the idea of including Kind Bars because I absolutely love them, but Larabars are outskis.
EMAIL ME If you want to join in on the challenge. The more, the merrier. Always so much easier to crush goals when you have a crew. Current contenders are me, my mama and one of my best friends Laura. I know we can round up some more peeps!
Anyway, now that that’s out of the way, shall we get to WIAW?! Or rather, what I ate Tuesday… because these were yesterday’s eats. Sorry for the ugg-o iPhone pics. I promise I will get back to my Nikon ASAP! Wild week.
Breakfast:
Green smoothie & raw overnight oats. Green smoothie = two handfuls kale, 1 frozen banana, ½ cup blueberries, ½ cup coconut water, ½ cup water, ½ scoop Vega One chocolate protein powder, 1 big handful ice. Oats = ½ cup raw gluten-free oats, ¼ cup almond milk, ½ cup water, cinnamon, ½ tablespoon cacao, ½ tablespoon almond butter
Lunch:
Big salad from Feel Food NY consisting of mixed greens, purple cabbage (my all-time favorite lately), roasted carrots, eggplant, cauliflower and hummus.
Dinner:
Excuse the recycled picture, but I didn’t get a photo of my dinner last night so I am using this photo of TBV Salad! I had exactly this, minus the almonds and plus some sweet potato.
Not pictured:
Juice Press Black Label for post-dinner dessert, and a few sips of the Juice Press “Kid’s Chocolate Shake”… OMG so good. And I had a Kind Bar for a midday pick-me-up. And a few handfuls of granola. With chocolate chips in it. See why I need to go easy on the desserts?
What do your Wednesday eats look like this week?! Does the May Challenge speak to you / do you think you’ll be participating this month? Please say yes, I need some company with me on this wild sugar-free ride!