It's been a while!! 

Where did we leave off?! I'm a bit frustrated that I haven't been able to keep up with this blog as much as I would have liked to this summer, but you know what? Life gets really freaking crazy sometimes!! I had next to no motivation to keep up with social media for the past month for a couple reasons. For one, creating recipes gets pretty expensive. Michael and I try to keep our grocery bill under $100 every week for the both of us, and there's not much wiggle room there for me to experiment with super cool ingredients. I'm starting to think however, that this could be more of an opportunity to create BUDGET friendly recipes with minimal ingredients. Aside from that, I had to go home for a while because some unexpected news hit my family like a truck. Everything is going to be totally a-okay, but cancer fucking sucks. My mom is as strong as a horse though, so I know this will be a bump in the road. I mean look at her, she's a boss. 

I've also been absolutely loving my job. It's a little physically exhausting so whenever I'm home I veg out instead of turn my brain on to write and do work (this needs to change). Along with my job as a Thrive trainer, I've been able to pick up some more Body Cycle spin classes and I will be starting at another studio, Unite Fitness real soon here! I'm psyched. I always know I made the right choice by switching to fitness full time when I wake up and have to decide which gym I want to train at that day...HA. Totally kidding, there's so much more to it (although it is a pretty sweet perk!)

Speaking of, last week I had such an awesome opportunity to be in a promo shoot for Idalis Velazquez's (@ivfitness on the IG) All In 18 Women's Health DVD! It was SUCH a blast. It was so lovely to meet her and see her in action! I also loved being able to see what goes into making a short video. SO MUCH. I finally kind of understand what my boyfriend does for a living now. The coolest part was that I got to share this experience with one of my own clients, Diana. She killed it. Here's some BTS action...

So thankful for that awesome opportunity. Now I've gotta get my shit together for a busy week at work. I should probably also start packing considering we're moving again next weekend! Packing would be a good idea. 

Okay everyone, have a great Monday. 

XO - Rach

How's your summer going?

Any big plans for the weekend?

YO! I posted a granola recipe a few days ago and then I made it again and it came out better the second time after I tweaked some things!  But first, happy Thursday! We're almost to the weekend. Almost there. I feel like this week just flew by insanely fast and last week was the total opposite. I think because last week I was just exhausted! On Saturday after work I just passed the hell out for about three hours and I feel like those three hours caught me up for the entire week ahead. Is that possible?? 

Anyway, I've been loving this granola recipe and I wanted to stress just how EASY it is to make this and other snacks to have on hand. I have a few clients at work who have been asking about nutrition lately, and the biggest thing I've noticed is that there's a general lack of knowledge about really how easy it is to meal prep a bit to avoid eating packaged shit. You guys, it's SO EASY! Just don't be lazy. Take a couple hours on Sunday and make a bunch of food. That's it. No need to get all crazy and measure out every little ounce into tupperware, just make a big batch of the foods you love so that you have them ready for the week to grab when you need! 

Meals

Carb sources: Rice and sweet potatoes. Rice takes like 15 minutes to make. Poke some sweet potatoes with holes, wrap in tin foil and bake for an hour. BAM you have healthy, already cooked complex carbs for the week! 

Protein sources: Chicken, fish, ground turkey. Bake your chickens and fishies and/or sauté a package of ground turkey. Easy! 

Veggies: Chop some raw vegetables for snacking A.K.A celery, carrots, peppers. Roast a big pan of vegetables (great combo = brussels sprouts, peppers, mushrooms) and then keep in the fridge for the week. 

Snacks

Chopped raw veggies, hard boiled eggs, homemade granola (see below :) ) , homemade protein bars or bites, fresh fruit with plain greek yogurt...the list goes on! 

So please stop spending a ton of money on fancy protein bars and high-end, organic granola when you can make it yourself. Look how delicious it looks! And it is! 

One step in making this granola is major key. When you take the granola out of the oven to cool, scatter a few chocolate chips on top. They will melt and when you mix it all up to transfer to a container, the chocolate will harden and make little chocolate clusters. MAJOR KEY. This morning I topped it on some FlapJacked protein pancakes for some crunch...

[yumprint-recipe id='22']

If you like this recipe, pin it for later! 

Hey there! I haven't had the time to sit down and catch up lately - everything has been really busy, to say the least! I'll share some snap shots of the last week and a half or so, which seems to have gone by so fast. First off, I moved! Again! Michael and I got our first place together. It's been very new and exciting. We couldn't be happier with our place, and it seems to be finally coming together. We had an Ikea field day last Sunday and it took us three days to build a dresser. Okay, it was probably only a total of four hours, but when we get home from work the last thing we want to do is build furniture...

I'll share photos once the place looks nice, but here is one from the day we moved. Moving this leather couch was one of the hardest things I've ever done - it feels like it weighs 1,000 pounds and we put multiple holes in the hall way walls lugging this thing up the stairs!

The last few days we've just been busy trying to settle in. Here's a few snapshots from last week. We had a fun week at work including a venture to Painting With A Twist, a Good Humor sponsored ice cream party (clearly the ice cream deliverer doesn't eat the ice cream), and a morning of volunteering at MANNA which included making a batch of brownies for 300 people which was SO FUN. You better believe we cleaned the bowl pretty well...

On Thursday my mom and grandma came to visit! I had a blast showing them around Philly. They both have never been here before and absolutely love it!

I was able to leave work early on Friday to give them a little tour. We stopped at Agno for lunch, which is basically a really healthy & Mediterranean Chipotle (AMAZING).

I showed them a lot of the historic landmarks including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Elfreth's Alley and Betsy Ross's house. We also walked through the National Museum of Jewish American History. It's a beautiful museum! I loved it because it wasn't too large or overwhelming. We got through the entire museum in probably an hour, if that. Definitely recommend! The bottom floor features a lot of Jewish pop culture and we were cracking up at a Seinfeld episode that plays on a loop. We ended up at Spruce Street Harbor Park on the river because we all needed a beer after walking all day. Spruce Street Harbor Park is easily one of my favorite places in Philadelphia.

Yesterday my mom came to my Saturday morning class at Sweat Fitness, we grabbed an egg sandwich at Reading Terminal Market and then we all hopped on the train to come to the new apartment. We spent the rest of the day buying some odds and ends for the apartment, some booze (necessary for a new apartment) and some stuff to make for dinner. It was the perfect Saturday ending with an amazing home cooked meal - angel hair with veggies and shrimp and delicious sirloin. Plus some munchies before hand...

Michael and I are heading into Center City soon to have brunch with my mom and grandma before they leave to go back to Florida. It was a short but sweet visit - we packed it in! I always say this, but I really do feel like I'm on a summer vacation even though I work full time - Philadelphia is such an amazing city with so much to offer! I probably won't be saying this in the winter, but for now, I'm loving it.

- Rach

How is everyone's summer going?

What's your favorite city?