A friend of mine hashtagged a photo at the gym yesterday morning “#yougotcaughtsleeping” and I absolutely loved it! It truly is about going the extra mile and honoring that commitment you are making to yourself to have a healthier body! Now, I am the first person to admit it’s not always easy but it’s ALWAYS worth it! Have you ever felt like you wish you had skipped the gym after a good workout? My guess is probably not. It’s all about showing up, not every session needs to be crazy intense but if you do yourself the favor of getting into the space regularly, you have won half the battle. You create a routine and you can build upon it and expand. Sometimes the last thing I feel like doing when I wake up is getting dressed and hitting the gym but when those less than ambitious days come and I drag myself there anyway I always reward myself with something small. It can be as simple as a sauna session afterwards or buying a new magazine to read on the elliptical but it gives me something to look forward to while I’m lacing up my sneakers. I’ve also found that having a gym buddy can really help motivate you to get to the gym more often. Sometimes my girlfriend and I will spend an hour gabbing away on side by side treadmills and totally forget we’re at the gym! Plus, it definitely helps you get out of bed when you know you have someone waiting for you at the gym.

          So there’s some Monday motivation for you! Make a pledge to get to the gym everyday this work week and be a little unreasonable in what your commiting to do for your body!!

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Forgiving yourself for all your negative self talk and your little food blunders is the first step to getting healthy, happy and hot! Take a few minutes to watch this video, it’s going to give you one of the easiest tools to lay the foundation to new and improved healthy you! Please SUBSCRIBE to my youtube channel, like and comment below to let me know what you think!

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I almost didn’t think this worthy of a post, and then I realized this is EXACTLY the kind of post you guys want!! Sure, recipes are fun and I’m sure those cupcake pictures get your tummy grumbling but the best way to start yourself on the road to healthy, happy, hotness is to make small changes to your normal routine everyday! So if we can all get honest a second, who has time to make an elaborate breakfast every morning?! Don’t get me wrong, I do love my quinoa or chia seed pancakes but on the average day that’s just not realistic for me. Cereal is so easy! However, talk to me on the norm and you will know I’m not a huge cereal fan. This is because MOST but not all cereals are loaded with sugar and refined carbs and have very little nutritional value. However, the lovely folks at Barbara’s (who make the cinnamon puffin cereal I’m seriously in love with) gave me a sample of their new healthy kiddie cereals! Yeah, their pretty awesome and I totally love that their helping children eat better and not even realize it. So this morning I gave their “snackimals” a whirl with some almond milk and made it in to an adult protein, omega and antioxidant packed breakfast by sprinkling on some of my favorite super foods! Hemp hearts and goji berries are both delicious and great for you and best of all, they take no time to prepare! Great stuff to have around the house to kick any meal a notch up.

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts
Just one serving of these in your cereal (oatmeal, yogurt, etc) has 10 grams of Omegas 3 & 6 and 10g of protein! That’s one hell of a pump up if you ask me!

Sunfood Organic Goji Berries
These raw super fruits are loaded with antioxidants to keep you healthy and beautiful! Not to mention they contain 18 amino acids and all 8 essential amino acids! Can you say vegetarian gold mine?

So there you have it. Literally took me two extra minutes if that to sprinkle these delicious goodies on my cereal and give it a healthy super punch to start my day off right!

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Hello all! As a lover of all things healthy, delicious, and gluten free, I have been battling a most recent foodie obsession with kelp noodles. On the hunt and coming up short in finding these little guys, I was finally able to pick some up at a local Gluten Free Fair here in San Diego! You heard me correctly, kelp noodles…as in sea kelp. Kelp is a type of seaweed that is packed with more than 70 minerals and 21 amino acids. Kelp aids the body in digestion, increases metabolism, and works to strengthen bones and teeth! Kelp noodles are relatively flavorless and if eaten cold offer a crunchy consistency whereas when warm offer a more typical noodle like texture.
Here is the dish and the quick simple steps/ingredients to tasty nutritional success!

Ingredients:
1 bag of kelp noodles
1 whole red pepper, chopped (high in alkaline, help balance out acids)
1/4 cup of Kalamata olives (provide healthy fats to the body)
1 container of firm tofu, chopped into eatable pieces (contain antioxidant effects)
1 can of chickpeas (high in fiber)
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds (high in calcium & magnesium)
3 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar (gluten free)
3 tablespoon of tamari (gluten free soy sauce)

Cooking:
Combine the kelp noodles, chopped red pepper, Kalamata olives, and chickpeas in a bowl. Mix in 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of tamari. Set bowl aside.
In a pan over medium heat, cook pieces of tofu with sesame seeds, remaining rice wine vinegar, and tamari until tofu pieces are golden brown around the edges.
Add tofu into the bowl set aside, mix and enjoy!

I hope you find this to be as tasty, nutritious, and delicious as I did
xoxo Amanda Alimo- Girl in the Healthy City

Amanda Alimo is a studying Health Coaching at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. A recent transplant from NYC to San Diego, she soaking up the West Coast lifestyle with some sun and Namaste. Amanda is a digital savvy gal with a passion for holistic health coaching a love of writing, cooking, and teaching. You can follow all of her happenings on her blog, Girl in the Healthy City, or catch her on any of her social media pages!

Girl in the Healthy City: http://girlinthehealthycity.blogspot.com
Girl in the Healthy City Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Girl-in-the-Healthy-City/397017427062996?ref=hl
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/aalimo29/

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I was so overwhelmed with gratitude from all the lovely messages I got after my “Get Skinny from Meditating” video and honestly, a little surprised! I had no idea how many of you would really be interested in meditation. A few brave people also mentioned to me that they have a hard time meditating, they don’t know where to start and I can totally relate. I have been meditating off and on since college but it wasn’t till I found Gabrielle Bernstein’s book “Spirit Junkie” that I actually sat down and did some real work. Now I’m a total meditation addict and I look forward to it when I wake up in the morning before my coffee and at night before I tuck myself into bed. However, I would not claim to be an expert, YET, I’m still working on it. So here’s a video from Gabby about how to meditate that I thought would really help all of you GS&Sers take the plunge and give it a try! Feel free to comment below or email me any thoughts or revelations! Namaste!

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Really excited about this video! I hope you all enjoy! These three easy tips are so useful to staying motivated for any goals you want to accomplish in life! Please comment, like and SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel!

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This delicious and decadent rendition on skinny super food quinoa is a great on the go snack or lunch during the week as well as a wonderful side dish for any dinner. I personally love putting this under a piece of balsamic glazed salmon! Yummm! Quinoa is SOOO good for you that you could eat it every day and with a little creativity, not get too tired of it. This recipe is so simple, it’s great when you want to make a large batch and take some to work with you during the week or if you just don’t want to be slaving over the oven for hours to make dinner.

WHITE TRUFFLE OIL QUINOA

1/2 bag of baby spinach
1/4 cup of quinoa
1/2 cup of water
2 tbsp of White Truffle Oil
5 or 6 of your favorite mushroom (I used baby bella)

Put your quinoa and water in a saucepan on the stove and boil. Keep mixing around the quinoa till the water eventually dissolves, once your pan is pretty much just quinoa, turn off the burner. In a separate frying pan, drizzle 1 tbsp of white truffle oil and add in your baby spinach and chopped mushrooms. Sautee for a little till spinach has wilted a bit. Now, mix in your cooked quinoa and let it cook for a few more minutes before adding a final tbsp of White Truffle oil to the mix and then serving. Simple and delicious! Enjoy!

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Check out my video about the correlation between mediation and achieving your health and happiness goals! I hope you enjoy, give it a whirl and let me know how it goes for you!

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                Nothing says summer quite like colorful, light salads and this Summer Avocado Salad certainly fits the bill! I have been having some fun lately trying out various recipes for upcoming projects and I fell in love with this one! It’s perfect on it’s own as a light starter for your summer backyard dinner party or you can serve it with whole pita chips as an appetizer. Enjoy!

Summer Avocado Salad

2 Avocados (or one avocado per person)

3/4 of a mango chopped

1/4 of red pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1/4 green pepper, seeded and finely chopped

1/2 cup of grape tomatoes, sliced

1/4 of a cucumber, skinned and chopped

1/4 of a red onion, chopped

“Dressing”

juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 a lime, 1 tbsp of Olive Oil and a pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in one bowl, cutting and slicing your avocados last (so that they don’t brown prematurely), mix up your “dressing” in a separate bowl and then toss it in with all the veggies and fruits. Serve either as a dip with whole wheat pita chips or in a fun glass (like I did) as a creative, light starter for your festive summer dinner party! Tastes so fresh and so summery, you’re going to love it!

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan, vegetarian and low fat recipes, and dieting advice. Let me know if there’s a healthy recipe you want to see and feel free to ask me questions. I’m here to help!

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These Gluten Free Coconut Lime cupcakes (VEGAN) were the highlight of my summer creations last year and I couldn’t help but recreate them once the weather started warming up! I’m not sure why I didn’t post the recipe last year but here it is! Over due! Enjoy these Gluten Free and Vegan gems and stay sweet and skinny!

GF/V COCONUT LIME CUPCAKES

1 cup of coconut milk
1 tsp of apple cider vinegar
(Combine both and set aside while mixing the rest of the recipe)
1 1/4 cup GF flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
Juice of 4 limes

Add all ingredients in your mixer and then add your vinegar curdled coconut milk in last. Fill your cupcake tin about 3/4 of the way as these do not rise as much as typical cupcakes. Bake for approx 10 mins, while continuously checking on them! Enjoy!

For the icing, I simply used the vegan buttercream recipe and mixed in some unsweetened coconut as well as used the coconut to garnish the top!

Thanks for reading! I love that Go Sweet and Skinny is your go-to website for healthy living tips, vegan, vegetarian and low fat recipes and diet advice. Let me know what healthy recipes you want to see on the site and ask any questions your may have. I’m here to help!

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