last night was a treacherous yet epic feat that i completely and totally annihilated. my dad's friend had a dinner party that we all were invited to. as we walked into their house, their personal chef had a spread more beautiful and more un-paleo than you have never witnessed in your life. although it was difficult avoiding all the nasty, yet scrumdidliumptious pot holes, i succeeded. here is what we were offered:

1. hamburgers with buns
2. corn on the cob
3. salad with feta cheese
4. cauliflower salad
5. potatoes with truffle oil
6. homemade mac n cheese

and to top it all off...

7. homemade white cake with homemade raspberry sorbet in the middle, all dipped in a chocolate icing. 

KILL ME.

im a girl who loves dessert (anything chocolate) and dies for things like homemade mac n cheese. it almost literally killed me not eating those two things, but i felt so accomplished when i didnt, knowing that my stomach would feel great the next morning. another plus to the evening was that everyone else got SMASHED, consuming hundreds of extra calories than i did, and i got to enjoy watching everyone be drunk psychos playing catch phrase--- so entertaining. all in all, i felt really good about my first night actually having to pick and choose from what was offered to me. 
normally i would have just said fuck it and chowed down. 

proud of myself! 

today i found something that i am now utterly in love with. i have always been skeptical of peaches, only able to eat them in pie form because of their freaky, hairy, slimy texture normally. today, i conquered my fear by roasting the freshly picked, pink, peaches in the oven with a skirt of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. SO AMAZING. everyone do this. 

then, even though it's not exactly within the whole 30 regulations, i made a blended coconut milk and roasted peach popsicle to die for, especially in crazy sweaty heat.

pics of beautiful food and surroundings for your indulgence: 

CAKE

DASH the dog

my clean lunch today, so good. lettuce, tomato, grilled bell pepper and onion with 3 slices of turkey and some avocado. lemon juice as the dressing. 

POPSICLE. nuff said. 

so i got up today for the fourth time this week at 6:40 to go work out. i know that's not that early for a lot of people, but for a college gal like me, it's killer. 

turning each pedal of the sticky citi bike was like a never ending feat towards the west side, walking up the stairs to crossfit NYC was excruciating, and the twenty minutes of hard ass work were the worst twenty minutes of my life. i couldnt breathe, sweat kept dripping into my eyes, my pony tail was falling out, my legs were sore from previous workouts and my hands were ripping from holding all the bars even though i used chalk. 

after each round i felt like i wanted to quit and only kept going out of embarrassment of stopping. after every round i marked how many reps i got and each time i had less and less even though i wanted more and more. UGH. 

i left today feeling totally down in the dumps, not able to conquer the world like i want to.

just kidding! i love every moment of every WOD (workout of the day) we do at crossfit NYC. they are all challenging and may not be fun, but they are so worth it. i love the pain and sweat, the rips and short breaths, they are all worth every ounce of discomfort. i also love the power and fulfillment, the camaraderie and the encouragement i get from every single member of every single class. not only do i feel the energy from those around me, a switch flicks on inside me and its an energy that i feel nowhere else. after every single round, i ticked off more reps, competing with myself more than i've ever competed with anyone else in my life. i leave the gym every morning feeling accomplished and ready to take whatever gets thrown at me.

so, get your butt out of bed before work or school or whatever it is that you do and start your day right by going to crossfit!

monday wednesday and friday i go to crossfit before work. how do i get there you ask? citibike. if youre not in NYC, citibikes are like zip cars but the bike version and they are alllll over the city. my dad got me an annual membership, not sure why since i dont live here, but whatevs. i dont like riding the bikes except for in the mornings because, as a non-native new yorker, the cars are fucking scary. 

most new yorkers are probably super critical of the bikes, it seems sort of touristy, and real new yorkers would have their own bikes. they seem cool to me but also i get the other side. what i dont understand about new yorkers, particularly men, is why they are so so so so forward with girls on the street.

so i was riding my citi bike to crossfitnyc this morning at ***7:15 AM** wearing my workout clothes, no make up, hair thrown in a pony and obviously just gotten up, when a man on the corner legit looks me up and down on the bike and whistles at me as i turn the corner. so many things wrong with this. its super early, im on a BIKE, and most importantly, i look like shit! it's not like guys here only hassle the models ... its EVERYONE. keep it in your pants, dude. 

leg days are my fave because.. i've got legs. today i front squatted 113# thanks to my big ole thighs and butt. proud of them babies. 

i decided that even though i really wanted to make coconut whipped cream, i cant yet allow myself to buy anything with the phrase "full fat" in it. im just not there yet now matter what any paleo person says to me. instead, i had nuts, berries, and coconut milk (light fat) for breakfast. 

~~DIVINE~~

look at how the coconut milk drapes over the raspberries, seeping into their crevices just enough so when you bite into the berry it melts all over your tongue. so damn good.

even though i legit didnt stop sweating the whole day because of the heat in the city, i decided to make paleomg's roasted red pepper and avocado soup. her recipes are THE BEST. she used pre-roasted red peppers but i wanted to roast my own. 

voilà. crispy skin but juicy, fall-apart-in-your-hands flesh. smells great too!!

final product:

looks shitty but tastes so good! try it. 

Day 5 of my Whole30 complete! feeling good. stay strong everyone

y'all. today my bosses took me and the other intern in my department out for froyo. i resisted and didnt eat it. yay me! they definitely judged me. one of my bosses was like, i feel so sorry for you... why are you doing this.. but her eyes were all like, you're such a stupid girl who diets all the time. i ignored her. instead, i brought my lunch which was leftover from last night! spaghetti squash with a broccoli pesto type sauce. 

it was super nom but not the point of this story. coconut milk is.

if i could bathe in coconut milk i would be the happiest person in the world. if storm clouds released a deluge of coconut milk instead of rain, i would never bring an umbrella. if the nile turned to coconut instead of blood, it would truly be a miracle. i'm a believer. 

i've been wasting my time with the coconut milk that is in the cartons all these years. little did i know that what's in the can is gold. the other day i got a can of light fat coconut milk and it was soooo good. i made my spaghetti squash and broccoli pesto into an alfredo type dish. excellent. my next venture is getting full fat and making whipped coconut milk with berries and cocao nibs. YUM! i cant wait to try it!!

on the other hand, i was super stressed out about the fact that tsa took my khiels face wash away when i went home for the fourth of july, so i bought some more... and a few other things as well. welcome to my khiel's addiction.

once i leave the life of an unpaid intern and enter a world with pay checks, i fully plan to buy the whole store.

think back to the summer after your freshman year in college. freshman 15? yes, no, maybe? maybe not 15 for me but it sure is enough to want to do something fun get back to my prom bod-- classic high school girl who does anything and everything to look good in one dress for one night. most girls starve themselves or spend hours on end at the gym. i went paleo and hunkered down with my crossfit friends. it worked! 

after prom however, was when things got a little rough around the edges. my friends and i went to europe for a month, and with all those baguettes, cheeses, and gelaterias, you can only imagine the damage done. then, off to college where they force an unlimited meal plan on us to eat as much, apparently laxative ridden, food as we can shove in our grimy, hungover faces. i made a home in a new place and made friends with people i now love, but for some reason, although im not complaining, we decided to only socialize while drinking our personal bottles of wine, taking at least 6 shots a night, or a combination of the two. Not saying i didnt have fun, but the wreckage left behind is less than amusing. 

first night of the trip spent in munich. first thing we did was go to a beer garden... and drink lots of beer.

we proceed to have lots of fun throughout the trip... thats me in the front on the left. harry, a fourty-ish, very hairy, man, also on the left, and the rest of the ladies are my crazy ass friends. this was the second night of a seventeen night trip. things got a little weird.

now that that's over with, i want to kick ass. so, i've decided to start my first whole 30 and see how that goes.