Hi friends! How was your Friday?? I’m a little late posting tonight, because it was one of the very few times in my life when I wasn’t sure what to write about.

Of course I cried watching the Royal Wedding (as expected- so beautiful), went to work for a half day and ate some very usual things.

Something exciting?

Boxed organic egg whites – I’m so glad you guys told me about these! I’m no longer a yolk waster

The good news is that I got out of my standard-ness, to go out to dinner with some friends <3

We munched at Blue Willow, which is one of my Tucson favorites- TONS of vegetarian and gluten-free options, plus they serve b-fast all day. Anywhere that serves b-fast all day is a friend of mine

I had a lovely glass of Shiraz:

and instead of doing the b-fast thing, I got the standard: Greek salad with goat cheese instead of feta + blackened salmon

I was having a MAD hankering for blackened salmon, and this was everything I wished for.

And then the table shared these beauties:

chocolate crepes with strawberries.

A happy meal indeed

Well I’m heading home to make my meals and pack up for work tomorrow.

Have a great night! <3

xoxo

Gina

Show Me Your Fit:

Lauren: Here is a picture of me after a killer Turbo Fire workout!

Nicole: Hi Gina! I just got back from Italy and wanted to share this "show my your fit" pic! I stayed fit Italy by walking everywhere, indulging in everything, and doing an occasional yoga pose!

Monica: I do so many different sports and routines to stay fit what can I say, I am like you!  I bike almost everyday living in Sunny Santa Monica but I also come from a snowboard and skateboard background. I think that is the secret… to keep on changing things up! EVERYTHING should be fun not dreadful. I love how strong I feel after biking, or extreme sports, or a blissful yoga session, and strength training-I just feel alive! I Love my job as a trainer to encourage as many people as I can to feel and look their best.

Keri: Since I post a zillion running pictures on my blog, I thought I would show you something different. This is from a hike with a friend. She is a stunt woman and she tried to get me to climb up the tree. It didn’t happen but I tried!

Sandy: This jump is called a "crescent", I dance ballet, jazz, modern, hip hop and many others forms!

Something to think:

Something to talk about: I start teaching Zumba again in a week! Any fun new song ideas???

Morning friends <3 Hope your day is going well so far!

Since it’s Easter Sunday, I have to post my favorite Easter pic of Vies:

Yesterday ended up being pretty chill. We went swimming, I munched a couple of random snacks:

(veg with nutritional yeast and pineapple protein ice cream. I haven’t had pineapple since last summer… it tasted like tropical candy)

and then I got ready to go to a friend’s house for taco and Brad Pitt night.

Gifts for the hostess:

When I got there, I was so excited to meet the new member of their family: a baby Great Dane!

She doesn’t have a name yet, but Luna is looking favorable She was such a sweetie, and even at 6 weeks old, weighs more than Bella. She’s going to be a very big dog

The taco spread was glorious:

(Spinach, lettuce, tomato, cilantro, green onion, sour cream, cheese, salsa)

and tasted like my childhood. They were fried, the way my madre makes them, and so soooo delicious. I wasn’t originally planning on having tacos when I came over –figured I’d make myself a veggie taco or a salad- but they were made of turkey instead of beef, so I decided to roll with it. So. Insanely. Good.

After tacos, the Brad Pitt movie of choice was Snatch. I couldn’t understand a SINGLE WORD. Many unique and strong accents, combined with what was already not a Gina type of movie = snooze sesh on the couch with the puppy. I crashed out after about 20 minutes into the movie- party animal

This morning, we’re off to a legendary brunch at my nana’s.

Be back later with a re-cap

Have a very happy Sunday, and Happy Easter to those of you who are celebrating today <3 Thank you for being one of the many blessings in my life.

xoxo

Gina

Hiiiii Happy Saturday! How has your day been?

We started ours off by packing the Pilot’s stuff (mayjah sad face), and taking Bell for a little walk. The good news is that my roomies got back a few nights ago. They’ve been doing disaster relief overseas, and I missed their faces.

B-fast was simple:

Brown rice toast with goat cream cheese and wild blueberries

+ a Meyer Lemon Lavender macaroon

(Crunchy on the outside… soft and gooey on the inside)

Speaking of gooey (haha), we had a glorious dinner at Cheesecake Factory with some friends last night.

I started off with a glass of Malbec and shared two appetizers with the Pilot for our meal:

(*Sorry for the pic quality- I was playing sneaky blogger and used my iPhone)

Thai Chicken Lettuce wraps

(The Pilot made himself chicken lettuce wraps and I made myself veggie ones with all of the veggies, dipped them into the foodgasmic peanut sauce)

Ahi Carpaccio

and then THIS happened.

Godiva flourless chocolate cheesecake.

Just as amazing as it looks

We’re off the seize the day and I’m going to dominate my book proposal. The first two were cranked out pretty quickly (and were denied), but this one is taking forever. Maybe I’ll throw a party when I finally send it out

Have a lovely Saturday!

xoxo,

Gina

Last round of Show Me Your Fit! This is the last set I’m going to do for this week — thank you for your amazing feedback on it! I agree that it’s been so motivating to see others taking charge of their fitness, whether it’s through unique workouts, healthy eats, whatever they’ve found to work for them.

It will become a weekly feature on the bloggy, so if you’d like to be included, holler to fitnessista at gmail dot com, Subject “Show Me Your Fit.” Due to the incredible amount of pictures I receive, not all can be featured, but please don’t let that discourage you from sending a pic in!

Caitlin: I have a new love for weight lifting and am showing you my "super big arm muscles". I’m proud of how much stronger I feel!

I am woman hear me roar

Laura: I like to be fit, sister style! Last fall, my lovely sister Annie and I climbed Pikes Peak as part of a charity event. It was a grueling 13.1 miles, and my puny flat-lander lungs were not digging the elevation gain. It was an awesome experience and so cool to complete it together.

Here we are halfway up, via the Barr Trail!

Carolyn: "White Lightening" My new ride, designed to keep me active outside in the summer heat.

Ann: TLT (tempeh, lettuce and tomato!) open-faced sandwich. Delish and all vegan!

Jenny: With my favorite running buddy, my 1 year old pup Mosely. He reminds me that running and all exercise should be unadulterated fun!

Hi friends! Happy Saturday!

We slept until 10 this morning and I don’t even know who I am right now I always joke with the Pilot by saying he makes me lazy, because when he’s home I feel so comfy and content. When I finally rolled over and open my eyes, I looked at him and said “you did this to me.”

It felt soooo good to sleep in, and even better to wake up to lazy weather. Spring had un-spring overnight– it’s freezing and raining! I kinda like it

Lazy morning French toast:

Brown rice French toast with maple syrup and blackberries

Last night, we had a little date night together.

We put on REAL clothes and headed to North, which is a fun place to chill on a Friday night.

North is located at La Encantada, which is an outdoor shopping center here in T-town.

They have an open kitchen:

Modern atmosphere:

and on the weekends, they play club music out on the patio- it gets pretty packed

The food is amazing, which is also a bonus.

First we had some vino (white for him, Shiraz for me)

and they brought out some bread with sundried tomato butter.

For an appetizer, we rolled with the grilled artichoke hearts with sea salt and lemon aioli.

Yay for finger foods at swanky places
We had to ask our server how it was prepared, because it blew away out at-home artichoke experiences. She said that they steam the artichoke first, then brush it with butter, grill it for about 30 seconds and then sprinkle sea salt on top. The lemon aioli it was served with was so creamy and tangy, too. Ridic.

For my entree, I chose the salmon:

Few things in the world make me as happy as perfectly cooked salmon. It’s right up there with designer jeans on sale, finding money in a winter coat, and having just enough almond butter left in the jar that it would be silly to use it for anything other than a spoon dip

The Pilot ordered the pork tenderloin- he said it was also perfectly cooked and raved about the BBQ sauce that it was served with.

We’re off to see a movie. It’s that kinda day

Have an amazing Saturday and I’ll see you later!

xoxo

Gina

Something to think:

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”

Oprah Winfrey

Just for fun:

I was drinking water out of a plastic cup last night, since they were left over here from a get-together and all of our cups were in the dishwasher.

Bella kept biting at it and trying to knock it over… and then determined that it was the best toy ever. So much for her $9.99 Martha Stewart toys… hahah

Dinner with besties

Swankified Mexican food

Menu changes daily

According to freshness

Orange Vanilla Margarita

( x2    )

Just like nanas:

Spicy, buttery pescado

Goodbye forever, Detox.

Hey friends hey How’s your day going? Hope it’s been lovely.

Last night, we went to see Wicked again. A Friday night ritual, perhaps?

We had amazing seats,

but sadly this was my view for most of it:

Being very tall is a blessing I wasn’t bestowed with, but every angle of hair was teased :/ I spent the show peering to the side, but it was still incredible.

I just drank some vino and listened to the beautiful music:

This morning, I made some green juice:

Check out the cute twisted romaine! I only used half the lemon

(I make my smoothies in the Vita-mix, and juices in the juicer… which is not a picnic to clean, but worth it)

and had a b-fast from the swamp 

-Quinoa with Vega protein (which turned it green!)

-almond milk, cinnamon and Stevia

-a joyous blob of almond butter

It was uhmazing.

The plan was to go to Phoenix for a night of shopping and dinner, but my friends and I decided to lay low here and do dinner + movies instead.

What are you up to tonight?

I’m off to do a fun interval workout- see ya laterrrrr <3

xoxo

Gina

PS. My friend and I just signed up for a half marathon. What was I thinking?! I’m actually really excited because it will be my first race sans pressure. I’ll just have fun with it and walk if I need to.

Hi friends

Happy Monday! Thank you so much for all of your support and words of love about Vies going to college. Foxy lady is already settled and living it up with her new family in Phoenix <3

So, since I’ve gotten to Tucson, I’ve made up for lost Mexican food

Last night, we dined at Guadalajara Grill, where they make the salsa and guacamole fresh at your table (according to your spiciness preferences), give you magical sangria glasses that refill on their own

and warm tortilla chips that will envelope your soul in a warm sarape.

For my entree, I rolled with the guaco-tacos: homemade tortillas filled with fresh guacamole and lettuce, refried beans

and rice, which I subbed veggies for.

It was uhhhhmazing.

Since I’ve gotten to Tucson, I’ve also started to feel more adventurous with my food (hi, chicken), and am experimenting with foods and recipes that have always been on the backburner (pun?).

Like last night… this girl made muffins.

So I pretty much never make muffins, unless I make these blueberry ones for the Pilot. My carb of choice is either a doughy piece of bread or a gooey piece of cake. The muffin is like the middle man.

After perusing some recipes online, I remembered one was in my Babycakes cookbook and decided to give it a whirl.

Per usual, I didn’t follow it exactly.

I added lemon to the almond milk, to make vegan buttermilk (you can also use apple cider vinegar to do this), flour was Bob’s gluten-free baking mix, no agave in the casa (my bro made me throw it away since it was banned at Canyon Ranch) so I used Stevia baking mix, added some flax and mixed organic berries because I was feeling a little wild

Turned this:

Into this:

Mmmmm. Multi-colored lopsided muffins

Ewww. Haha P

I incorporated one of the culinary disasters into this morning’s Mexi-meal:

Leftover veg and frijoles, scrambled 2 farm eggs, topped everything with farmer’s market hot salsa

The muffin was ok, but I still prefer bread or cake

I’m off to walk Bella before yoga and then lots of work to do.

See ya laterrrrr <3

xoxo

Gina

Something to do: Sign up to follow me *here* for all of the sahweet OpenSky deals we’re offering. You’ll be entered in the Vita-mix giveaways that start this week- one lucky follower gets a Vita-mix every 10 days! When we get up to 10,000 followers, a winner will be chosen for a two-year supply of Sun Warrior.

Today’s workout jam: “Bring Night” by SIA – a fun, happy song for upbeat, steady state cardio. You’ll love this one

Heyyyyyy Happy Sunday! How’s your morning going??

We went to a gorgeous wedding last night. <3

I love LOVE and live for weddings, so I’ve been excited about this one for a while! Most of our military friends are married already.

The event was held at the Pima Air and Space Museum, which was such a cool venue. It was amazing to look at all of the old planes, especially the Pilot’s

The ceremony was in one of the hangars, underneath the plane “Sentimental Journey”.

After the ceremony (in which I bawled my eyes out), we went into a separate hanger for the reception.

Vino?

Don’t mind it I do…

Dinner was a simple salad:

Grilled veggies, mashed potatoes and wheaty bun

They also brought me over the vegan plate, which had roasted mushroom, tofu and more veggies.

I’ve been having a bit of a dilemma with the gluten thing lately. My doc said I’m intolerant so he told me to lay off the gluten, but it doesn’t really bother me that much and we all know I enjoy things with gluten in them. I decided that instead of avoiding it 100%, I’m going to roll with it on an occasional basis. Also, I don’t want to get to the point where a single crumb bothers me, ya know?

And then the best part of any wedding:

CAAAAAKE

I always joke that even though our wedding was an incredible day, cake tasting was the best day of my life Wedding cake rocks my universe.

Last night was filled with dancing (Cupid Shuffle is my jam, but apparently I need to learn the dougie? Off to YouTube…), chatting, cocktailing, enjoying.. but certainly missing my Pilot love.

(Foodbuzz dress repeater)

This morning, I’m off to pump some crazy iron and spin, then meeting my little nana for breakfast. <3

See ya later today! 

xoxo,

Gina

Heyyyyy Happy Sunday! How’s your day going?

Viesa is spending her morning curled up in a bed that is a little too tiny for her.

She’s cozy like that

Last night, I made a giant batch of my sweet potato black bean chili to go with the jalapeno cornbread from the Farmer’s Market.

Even the hardcore carnivores loved it, and the cornbread was RIDICULOUS.

+ salad beast

After dinner, I met up with my friend Michele for cocktails and a movie. We shared some Riesling and watched Social Network.

Source

It was so nice to have a girls night and the movie was amazing. If I can stay awake for an entire movie past 9pm, you know it’s a good one

This morning, my body is screaming at me from yesterday’s yoga class, so I’m thinking about taking it easy and walking the dogs around the p-a-r-k.

But first, breakfast

Have a great day and I’ll see you laterrrrr <3

xoxo

Gina

Something to think: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” Buddha