Clean Eating - A Daily Struggle

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, it's probably quite apparent that I love food. Always have and always will. But I also realize the importance of eating well for the sake of feeling well.

Last Sunday, I made what looked like a huge greasy Southern meal of fried fish, collard greens, mac & cheese and sweet potato cornbread and called it "The Last Supper" before embarking upon a "veggie-centric" lifestyle. In all honesty, the only thing that wasn't the "healthiest" was the fish. I used no oil or butter in the collards, the mac & cheese wasn't baked with eggs & butter, but a stovetop version made with a simple roux of grueyere and fontina cheeses, and the sweet potato cornbread was without the egg & half the milk, using the potato puree for moistness. All of that is to say, that if I had actually measured the calories of that meal, it'd be a FRACTION of what it had been if I'd followed the recipe exactly, or dared order it at a restaurant.

I don't believe that you have to eat like a rabbit to eat, look or feel "well". I do believe that you should know exactly what you're putting into your body and exert as much control over the sourcing of your products and minimizing the unknown and hidden ones in sauces and seasonings especially as you can. Thus, I try to buy organic fresh produce, farm raised & grass fed meats, and season with lots of fresh herbs. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with flash frozen foods or dried herbs. I just have a tendency to want to use ingredients before they go bad, so it keeps me on my toes to eat the fresh stuff I have, as opposed to boxed and preserved.

Two days after posting my last supper, I posted a picture of this great sandwich I made for lunch, an avocado BLT.

I touted that I didn't use any cheese or condiments, thinking it was a healthy & delicious choice. But, I was challenged about my "veggie-centric lifestyle" comment on the last supper. To which I will clarify that I could never be a vegetarian, or maybe I could with everything except giving up bacon. I cannot live without it. And my beloved bacon was precisely the victim of the next criticism, "Would have been great without the fatty bacon..." she said. And I thought to myself, did you notice that I subbed out "lettuce" for for a healthier, greener pile of spinach? That it's on two small slices of multi-grain bread instead of a big fluffy white or sourdough roll? Oh..ok... Let it be clear that I will never go on a diet, because I don't believe in them. Everyone I've ever known to try one was back to their old ways and weight in just a matter of time. What I do believe in is daily lifestyle choices.

9to5 Chic

I had a moment yesterday in the mirror checking out how my body was changing, you know with 25 fast approaching, and I turned around and thought "oOot! I am indeed my mother's child."  She's got an effortlessly great physique and a few enviable assets in particular, I just didn't see it coming, but I digress. As I was examining, I noticed that my cute little black dress purchased from F21 a few months ago was legit falling apart, like on my body. o_O... I thought to myself "Did I bust my dress open??" But then decided, no, it's just was just poorly made. Keep any thoughts to the contrary to yourself.

Nonetheless, I again appreciated the time my personal-Mommy-stylist helped me to find a few work appropriate, grown up sized/fabrics and budget friendly pieces. So I thought I'd share a few of my finds, and a few tips for business casual work environments for the stylish gal.

LtoR - Dress: London Times | Top: Vince Camuto, Skirt: H&M (old) | Dress: Anne Klein | Sweater: Monteau, Dress: Vintage

1.) You can be trendy without looking inappropriate for work - I love the peplum trend and am elated that it's sticking around for another season. I think it does wonders creating a feminine shape, especially for us athletic builds. I normally don't like investing substantially in trendy pieces and try to find them at affordable places, but would typically leave me in need of about 5 more inches of fabric above the knee. Marshall's/TJ Maxx are great places to find on trend pieces in real women sizes at friendly prices. I ushered Autumn in with this rich blue dress for just $39.99

2.) Keep separates simple - If you can tell, the arms of the polka dot blouse are a tad sheer, and the overall shape is quite flowy. Thus, the top alone made enough of a statement, so I paired it with a plain black pencil skirt and clean leather pumps. I could have accessorized a bit more, but instead went with a fun red lip color. Just me and my cube anyway lol. I nabbed this super cute blouse for $29.99.

3.) Fit is key - Even though you might be trying to catch a man walking to and from, maybe even in the office, form fitting clothing is just not appropriate. Save the freakum dress, skirts, and pants for the club, on the real. You want to be noticed for your merit, not for being ill clad. As you can tell with both dresses, but particularly the navy one, I could possibly have gone a size smaller, as there's room in both the waist and hip areas. But it fits properly for work, and I could wear a sexier or higher heel to accentuate my legs, because nothing else was being highlighted. This Anne Klein shift dress was $49.99

4.) Cardigans are an office girl's best friend - I tend to take my sweaters off for pictures, but I am never in the office without a sweater. I know people have mixed feelings about exposing armpits in certain environments, but it's mostly just because I'm usually cold and it provides structure to any simple attire. I almost squealed in excitement when I found this Chanel-esque tweed looking but super soft stretchy cardigan for just $19.99. 

So those are just a few tips I thought to share, after seeing a few too many divas on my morning commute and wondering just where they thought they were going/what kind of office they worked in. 

Stay fly, but more importantly stay classy.

xox

Please Stop Lying About "The 20s"...Wait - is this a quarter-life crisis?

I'm getting a little tired of all these articles about not wasting your 20s, about throwing caution to the wind and doing all the things you always wished because with age comes responsibilities, blah blah..bills now anyone? I'm tired of everyone asking me about my job, my graduate school plans, my relationship, my future. I'm tired of going into trendy stores, grabbing what I think is my size and needing Crisco to get the ill-fitting garment off of my no longer pre-pubescent body. I'm tired of probing rhetorical questions that send me off into an abyss of my own mind as if I don't do that on my own enough.

It's in few sobering moments that your 30+ friends will really admit to you that the early 20s actually kind of sucked. That what they thought was the time of their lives galavanting from bar to bar, hooking up with randos secretly wishing that each new toad would be their frog prince, sitting in jobs they hated because student loans and credit card bills from those same bars and boozy brunches in the City wouldn't pay themselves was really just a rite of passage. Don't get me wrong, those bar crawls and eye-canoodling with a new sexy stranger each weekend have their places in your life and the 20s are it. But let's quit not acknowledging that each of us is really searching and wishing to find all the answers about ourselves, to truly know what makes us happy and what we want out of life so we can stop falling on our faces chasing what we've been conditioned to want. Wait, I think...Is this a quarter-life crisis happening?

I've been conditioned, some way some how, to go to an ivy-league college, go to a top 5 professional graduate school, pursue a career as an executive of some sort, meet and marry a peer along the way, climb the corporate ladder until I decide to take maternity leave, which may or may not be 3 months or 6 years until "the kids" are in school, then to pursue my true passion of writing, with the cushion that my stint in the professional world or my equally/more successful husband's wealth will provide, since they don't call them starving artists for no reason... Oh and all of this is to be done by 35. o_O...That ish cray.

The reality is that there's no room along that type of path for the stumbles that will inevitably occur to teach you the life's lessons that you are unable to teach yourself for lack of experience. I'm not really sure if I want to be a professional, not even positive I want to have kids I just think as a woman I should experience the miracle of carrying life inside me even though that's a really creepy thought, and marriage - when I sit down and really think about it...it scares the crap out of me. Weddings and marriage are NOT the same thing, every girl wants the bling and to plan the party of a lifetime where she's the belle of the ball, but realize that after it, you've joined your eat, sleep, breathe, poop, every single day moments with another human being. HUGE DEAL...HUGE!!!

LOTD: Red Lips & Polka Dots aren't just for Minnie Mouse

When I woke up this morning and checked the weather I realized that Fall was attempting to make it's presence known, and in this attempt just confusing the heck out of everyone trying to get dressed this morning. With a high of 77 and a low of 61 and a 60% precipitation rate, I didn't know if I would swelter in my raincoat or be sad and cold that I didn't have one at some point in the day.

Either way when I start with my raincoat, then my color scheme is kind of set - black, white, red, tan. Can you guess what my raincoat looks like? :) Lol. I tried flexi rods for the 3rd time and was substantially more successful than the first two resulting in these pretty loose waves. And I even had a little time to play in my makeup, yes I'm embracing my Russian Red.

I scanned through my newly refreshed with fall staples closet and nabbed this super cute polka dot blouse. While I would have loved to pair this top with the red skinnies I also found over the weekend, I instead remembered where I was going and kept it simple with this black pencil skirt and black pump.

What's Your Design Style?? Take the Quiz!

So I was poking around on Apartment Therapy like I do almost every other day, and I stumbled upon this fun post about online design quizzes. Of course I took all 3 (don't worry they each took between 2-5 mins). I thought two were pretty spot on, the third not so much.

According to HomeGoods' Stylescope, I'm "Sassy" with a touch of "Urban Funk" which looks like...

To style my home they suggested starting with a crisp fresh white room - which I have and often refer to as my 'blank canvas' - and add bright colors and bold patterns. Besides the bright pink sheets and standing bunch of sunflowers on my window sill, I haven't yet added much color. I originally thought I wanted to do the whole "Spa Serenity Chic" thing, but at this point it feels boring and gets visibly dirty too quickly. Meh.

Over at Sproost, my style was decidedly a mix of "Hollywood Couture" (60%), "French Eclectic" (20%) and Modern Elegance (20%) based on a flurry of rooms I rated on a 5 point, love it to hate it, scale. Hollywood Couture, taking the lead, also seemed more aligned with the look I've been going for with my new place.

Wedding Weekend Wears

Ah! So if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you already know how crazy (in a good way) the past two weeks have been. Ever since Labor Day & Made in America, it's been a sprint to the finish line, which in this case was two really good friends' wedding this past weekend. We hit the road on Friday afternoon and booked it a good 4.5 hours to Albany, NY. We made it just in the nick of time to join the first course at the rehearsal dinner.

Thanks to pre-planned and packed outfits in my suitcase, I was able to freshen up quickly and pull this entire ensemble out of my suitcase in the 15 minutes I was given to get ready.

Dress: H&M | Shoes: Zara | Necklace: ILY Couture

I decided to take advantage of one of the last summer nights and had a little color blocking moment with three of my favorite summer purchases. It was comfy, chic, yet family friendly - three crucial things when sitting for hours dining to celebrate someone else's big day amongst their family and friends. While I was bright as a highlighter and showed a little leg, but I reserved the bling and the glowing skin for the bride, and of course made sure my dress was roomy enough for my potential post dessert bulge. 

For the actual wedding the next day, I took advantage of their evening wedding to don a floor length pink silk gown. Like seriously, how often in our post-prom and fraternity-formal lives to we get to wear evening dresses, right?

Dress: Jill Stuart (pictured here) | Ring: F21

Week(end) Roundup: Red Lips, Boozy Brunches & MadeInAmerica

I think I'm just now at this very moment recovering from a whirlwind of the past week basically. Labor Day weekend truly took on a mind of it's own, prep starting Friday, festivities Sat - Mon, and back to work on Tuesday?? Asking way too much of me. Nonetheless, I'll share a few highlights...

On Friday, I was feeling a bit patriotic and having finally reached my six empty container quota for the M.A.C. recycling program, I was excited to pick out a new lip shade. To my surprise, my choice was not just between lipstick shades, but lip glosses and eyeshadow were part of the deal as well. And thank the Lord for that. After trying on many a shade of red lipstick that all looked like I'd been eating red chalk - no like seriously, matte lipstick on me drains the moisture from my nose to chin Tyrone Biggums style, so not cute...I switched gears and moved to glosses. First pick was "Ruby Red" and I was sold.

Much to my surprise, I loved it. She did warn me that it wouldn't last as long as lipstick, which I thought I was totally fine with, until I got some yogurt from Scoop Deville (aka sweets heaven on earth) and it was all over my spoon. Had a moment, but such is life. Loved my red lip so much went and got my nails painted in this orangey-red color by O.P.I. called "Ole' Caliente"