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3-Day Juice Cleanse

so as many of you know and have read, we went a little crazy in nyc with our food binge. feeling unhealthy and to be quite honest, heavy and sluggish, we decided to try a 3-day juice cleanse. our friends have done different ones (there are so many of them out there, blueprint, ritual, master, etc) and have said that #1) it was hard, #2) its rewarding in the end, #3) you arent really that hungry through the whole thing and #4) the juices aren’t bad. we went on this advice and bought a deal on thrillist.com for kreation in beverly hills for a 3-day juice cleanse for $99. (this might seem steep but it actually is a huge discount of the original price and compared to other juice cleanses!) here are just a few of our thoughts. keep in mind that this comes from two people who love to eat too much and me, someone who has little to no will power. (spoiler alert: this is not going to be motivating)

HARDEST THING I HAVE HAD TO DO…IN MY LIFE. the thought of it now makes me want to go into my fridge and eat a creamsicle right now. so the only thing that was true about our specific cleanse was #1. yes, this was very hard. all we could think about all three days was food. anything and everything. kyle would like to smell food he could not eat and then drink the drink pretending it was food. i could not be around any smell of food or else i would just quit. everyone has their quirks. we did not think this through when we decided to start the cleanse because we did it on a weekend! we were surrounded by food AND it was $1 chicken sandwiches at burger king. fail.

my opinion on the hunger part: there was always and empty feeling. i dont think i even felt satisfied or full by any means. it may be because i opted not to drink 1 of the 6 juices i was supposed to finish that day (the third one).

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  • the first juice, a green one with lots of green veggies, like kale, was actually okay.
  • the second juice was pretty much the master cleanse (lemon, agave, cayenne pepper).
  • the third juice was the worse (we thought that the juices would get better as the day progressed…it didn’t) it was called 12 unity. all i know is that it had all of the ingredients of the first one plus carrots, ginger, lemon, and cayenne. this was the worst.
  • the fourth juice was another green one. again, not too bad.
  • the fifth one contained beets…ehh.
  • the sixth one was literally called chlorophyl. water+chlorophyl that you had to drink all throughout the day.

day 1: i felt very weak all day. it didnt help that we were running errands all day.

day 2: i slept all day because i had no energy and felt really hungry.

day 3: starting feeling sick, my tongue was white, my taste buds gone. it was time for me to stop. i had to eat dinner that day since i felt like i almost couldnt be at work because i was a wreck. (i didnt make it through the whole day three).

did i feel healthier? not really. did i lose weight? yes, but not a sustainable weight (we knew that going in). would i do it again? i am confident when i say never. i have a great appreciation for those who do/did it for as long as you did without complaining as much as me. anyway, things are back to normal and we have been on plenty of food adventures since then (to be posted soon).

happy monday!

By | July 9th, 2012 | Food, Life | 5 Comments

short NYC trip – part I

its good to be back home. i had a few meetings in nyc on tuesday so i decided to make a weekend of it with the hubby! we were debating whether or not to do it since it was so last minute. but! the stars aligned perfectly and it turned out to be a very opportune time for us to go: katy (best friend. known her since i was twelve) was there for a couple of days (she has been out of the country for a month now), two of my cousins recently moved to nyc (move motivated by amazing job opportunities), contiki friends were going to be there (these are awesome people), and kyle’s cousin was in town…i’m telling you. perfect alignment.

we were only gone for 3 days/3 nights but we came back (i) 5-7 lbs heavier, (ii) with a combined total of 17 mosquito bites, (iii) with a whole lotta food pictures, and (iv) happy to have seen friends, family, and the city.

part I

meet our gracious host, lauren. it was her birthday early last week and it just so happens that all three of us love lobster. naturally, we went to luke’s lobster on the upper east side to celebrate. how did we find this place? yelp (have i told you how obsessed we are with this site? huge advocate. yelp, linking foodies together one review at a time) a combined 1300 reviews (multiple locations in manhattan). 4 solid stars. we needed to try this place.

verdict: bomb. everything on yelp is true. get “noah’s ark” – lobster roll, crab roll, shrimp roll. it’s pricey, but worth it. make sure you grab a blueberry soda or the mandarin orange soda!

i had to write a special caption for this photo. kyle is strutting my new camera bag (case logic, review to come) around upper east side. reminds me of the brawny man (slightly).

happy birthday, lauren.

By | June 27th, 2012 | Food, Friends, New York, Photography, Restaurants, Travel | 7 Comments

Friendship Sessions

meet david. a few fun facts about my friend david here. i’ve known him since 6th grade (more than half my life). obviously he’s one of my closest friends. his nickname is dlow. we used to carpool in high school. we live less than 5 miles away and we barely get to see each other. he loves movies. the end.

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its all true…when people say that as you grow up, life gets in the way of some (most) things. here and there i get advice like “dont forget to slow down and enjoy.” i have been in investment banking for four years now (four years in 2 days) and there hasnt been any of this “slowing down” business. however, in the rare and quick moments that i do stop, i always find myself asking where has time gone? i get lost in work (erratic work hours), keeping my life (house) organized and together, family obligations, etc… life happens. although i denied it before, i now admit that more and more, its becoming harder to stay in close, close contact with friends whom i had the privilege of seeing and talking to every single day (yeah, they are pretty awesome and know who they are). insert: my 2012 resolution. be better about keeping in touch.

with that said, i’m lucky to have amazing friends who i am still close with since middle school/high school/college. its amazing knowing someone for that long. they know you and have seen you through your many phases, through your relationships, embarrassments, rough patches, etc. currently, my way of keeping in touch is via happy update emails, monthly dinner dates, random movie dates, birthdays, and holidays…not as much as i would like. to be honest, i wish i saw them every day…had coffee and a muffin with them every day.

ok, back to david. we have not seen each other since march and have been planning a dinner since then. it finally happened and we had a 2.5 hour catchup session. best two hours spent, duh. seeing him prompted this post. he’s the kind of friend who you dont see for months and when you do, its like no time has passed at all. i love it. anyway, i am heeding the advice of others and taking the time to enjoy my life and everyone in it (as my friend pmoney would say, YOLO). to all my friends reading this post, even though i cant give you a hug every day (you know i would if i could), i love you and think you rock. expect a call from me.

xoxo

 

By | June 20th, 2012 | Friends, Life | 0 Comments

sugarfish and pies.

jen and i were really excited for sugarfish to open up in studio city…we have been talking about it for a month now. saturday (last minute) we made it happen! k and i got the nozawa special, which was perfect for two. fish was fresh. everything tasted amazing. we would definitely recommend the blue crab roll. this was also my chance to test out the new 24-70mm lens. so here are a few test photos from us playing with the camera. lighting was a bit dark in the restaurant, so you can tell when we played with the white balance and the ISO settings. after some beers, we continued the night at republic of pie (they have live music every saturday).

banana cream pie, chocolate pecan pie, and coconut cream pie… with coffee and tea. overload.

By | June 17th, 2012 | Food, Friends, Restaurants | 5 Comments

“We Won in Friendship” Part II | Napa Valley, CA

our napa itinerary:

  • mumm napa – sparkling wine. since it was memorial day weekend, we actually couldn’t get a full tasting. instead we just enjoyed walking around with a just single flutes. mumm is beautiful.
  • farmstead – we couldn’t get over how cute this place is! there is a little winery on the back/side. we spent quite a bit of time here since they had 2 for 1 tastings! highly recommend.
  • castello di amorosa – this is a castle. enough said.
  • bouchon – pastries / macaroons! score.

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van, check (oh yeeah, thats how we roll). wine, check. awesome weekend, check. wine is good… but even better when with friends. a few of the pictures we took on this fabulous day: (current obsession: benches and shoes!)

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By | May 30th, 2012 | California, Food, Friends, Life, Marriage, San Francisco / Oakland, Travel | 1 Comment