Paris Part Two

       So I know this blog has mainly been dedicated to health and fitness, but I want it to also be a little bit of a lifestyle blog as well. I just mainly want to be able to look back through my archives and have memories other than food and workouts ya know? haha. Don't get me wrong, health and fitness will always be a HUGE part of my life and will continue to be a majority of my posts, BUT my husband and I may be traveling a lot more than we thought in this upcoming year and I'm too lazy to create a whole different blog for that so this is what ya get. Hope you're ok with it :)        So now that we've cleared that up, I wanted to share some more pictures of our trip and trust me I regret not taking enough food pics. The sad thing is I loved ALL the food so much, taking pictures of it didn't even cross my mind until my last bite... Oops. 

 Little Orem Utah girl finally going to Europe! 

 This was about 2 blocks away from our apartment that we stayed in. 

Just being touristy and stuff. 

 Oh look! A food pic :)

 That sky though!

 Walking around the Lourve 

 Obsessed with crepes more than EVER. 

 My favorite door the whole trip (trust me there are a lot of awesome doors) 

Had to get a goofy pic in front of the door duh. Too bad the coolest part was cut off.. Phil. 

Phil and his little brother Daniel who now lives in Paris and is going to high school there, talk about a life changing experience! He's excited though that he gets to do the same thing that both of his older brothers did about 15 years earlier, so cool.

Paul Bakeries were on just about every corner in Paris. Good thing too, because it gave me plenty of chances to eat this heaven sent pistachio oversized macaroon. 

This is the only pic we have of the tiny apartment (more like a room) that we stayed in for the first half of the trip. Phil's head is at one end of the room and that wall is the other end. We both barely fit in the bed but hey, no complaints here for a free place to stay! We were out and about all day and really only came back here to sleep.

Santa has a little bit different style here in Europe. 

The most amazing stained glass I've ever seen. 

It's impossible for me to focus long enough to post all of my pictures at once, so I'll have to get around to that another time :)

Paris Part One

        My husband and I were lucky enough to go to Paris this month. Talk about a great way to end 2014!! I had never been to Europe before so it was like a whole new world to me. I was obsessed with literally everything. Everywhere you looked was magical. Everything had so much detail and was so interesting, even the simple things were amazing! 
       Phil (my husband) actually partially grew up there, he went to 2 years of high school at the American School of Paris and then spent time there after his LDS mission. It was so cool to be able to see him in his element and get a small perspective of part of his childhood. He doesn't speak a lot of French but he definitely knew enough to get by and he honestly knows the city better than he knows Salt Lake City so I pretty much had a personal tour guide the entire time. So awesome. Anyways, here are a few pics that I snagged off of my new camera (early X-mas gift). I have a TON more from my phone which I will be posting eventually... stay tuned. 

Side note: A few people have asked about my coats so here are the deets....

Grey coat: Soel Boutique at the Riverwoods in Provo: http://soelboutique.blogspot.com/

Green Coat: Anthropologie:  http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/product/clothes-jackets-outervest/4133349960012.jsp#/

Bikini Comp Round 2

     As many of you know, I did a bikini competition around this same time last year. I placed in the top 10 back then and was generally happy with how I did for my first time. It was a tough experience but definitely worth it. Since then I had that fire under my butt pushing me to do another one. My main goals were to gain more upper body muscle and a little bit bigger booty :) and of course actually place this time around! 
     Well I just competed for the second time 2 weeks ago and was pretty happy with how I did. I placed 5th in my class which definitely was an improvement from last year! However, I felt that this prep was SOOOOO much harder than the first one. I went into this one thinking it would be easy because I had done it before but boy was I wrong. I had a lot longer of a time to prepare for this one so I felt like I had all the time in the world compared to my last show. This kind of led me to bing a little more lax on my diet for a while which was a bad idea probably! 
     The beginning phases of my prep was what's called 'bulking' (I hate that word btw). For those of you unfamiliar with the term 'bulking' it really just means that you eat more than normal and lift a lot to essentially gain more muscle hence the other bodybuilding term 'gains'. Bulking was hard for me, I in turn gained weight, and although I knew it was necessary to build the kind of muscle I wanted to but I still felt like crap because I had never weighed that much before. 

     In the end it was worth it though don't worry.  I got my cardio on mixed with a much stricter diet and I eventually shed down the fat while keeping on the muscle I had gained, woo hoo! In all honesty though, I didn't give 100% effort during this prep. I had cheat meals more often than I should have, I skipped workouts every once in a while, etc. It was really tough mentally to get through the last month. I definitely have a lot to work on mentally and physically if I want to do another show, but for now I don't have any plans for future shows. We shall see! Anyways.. here's a few pics of the day!

          

     

 

Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Hi!! I'm back and I am sharing the most delicious and EASY Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancake recipe. It's October and that means pumpkin everything, amiright? I wish I could make every single pumpkin recipe I find on Pinterest but unfortunately I don't have enough time to wait for 47 minutes for bread to rise or to make my own  pumpkin puree, etc. Aaaand the fact that 90% of the recipes are packed with sugar, cream cheese, and more sugar also makes me a little less inclined to make them.  So I decided to make up something just as delicious, only a lot healthier, and much much quicker!

Recipe (makes about 2-3 pancakes)  * 1/3 C Kodiak cake pancake mix * 2 Tbs pumpkin puree * 1/3 and 2 Tbs water * 1/2 tsp pumpin pie spice *1/2 tsp cinnamon *Chocolate chips   Just mix it all together and add water if you need to make the consistency a little thinner. You can make them as pancakes or waffles, either will work great! I eat them with Walden Farms 0 calorie pancake syrup and fat free Reddi Whip. Hope you like them :) 

Fish Taco Salad

As of yesterday I started my competition prep for my bikini competition in October. I've got just about 15 weeks to be prepared. My diet is going to be a lot more strict now where as I am going to be gradually leaning out. Finally all the hard work I've been putting into the gym will show once I get my body fat down a little. I've gained a lot of muscle since my last competition in October 2013 and I can't wait to see all the changes I will have made in a years time. Anyways... back to the food. I have a set meal plan and my goal this time around is to not get bored of it. That's why I made up this quick and easy little recipe.  As of right now, I can basically have unlimited veggies, so I am going to try and incorporate as much as I can into the staples of my diet (Fish, Chicken, Rice, etc). Here is what I used for this recipe, Ingredients: *Tilapia *Ezekiel Tortillas *Brussel Sprouts *1/4 Red Onion *Lime *Cajun Seasoning *Olive Oil *Garlic Salt *Avocado I turned the Ezekiel tortillas into chips by heating them on a pan until they were crispy. I usually don't like any kind of tortillas, especially super healthy ones, but these were delicious once I turned them into 'chips'. I marinated the fish in a little lime juice, olive oil, and cajun seasoning, and while the fish was grilling I made the brussel sprout mixture. I think I would have normally used cabbage instead of brussel sprouts but I didn't have any cabbage and I figured that they were basically the same, and it ended up tasting awesome! I just sliced the brussel sprouts, diced the onion, and squeezed some lime juice on top of it, then added a little garlic salt to taste. Mix it all together and you've got a delicious, competition friendly meal! Or just a delicious meal, I know most people actually reading this aren't crazies like me and like to walk around in high heels and a sparkly bikini :) Either way, ENJOY!  p.s, you might want to use some kind of dressing on this, I just used lime juice and it tasted great but I think a little something extra, even just some salsa would make it even better!