NYE!

I really wish all of you guys a happy New Year of 2012.

Let's make it the best yet.

xoxo

♥

via

Aspartame

Source

I'm sure most of you out there have bought a diet/light product at least once in their life so this post will be of great value for pretty much everyone.

Diet coke (aka Cola Light) or sugar reduced yoghurt, who can seriously say they never tried it? I mean, that's what health-conscious people buy, right?

WRONG!

Turns out that not everything that's sugar reduced/sugarfree is actually good for you, so you better stop buying it, STAT!!

According to sources, aspartame is the number one dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods. It can lead to numerous side effects including migraines, nausea, anxiety, irritability, palpitations, and many more. It's known for a fact that it can affect every organ of our body. Also the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by aspartame consumption:

• brain tumors
• MS
• epilepsy
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• parkinson's
• alzheimer's
• mental retardation
• lymphoma
• birth defects in unborn children
• fibromyalgia
• diabetes
• ....

Scary, huh? But what's even scarier is the fact that aspartame can be found in thousands of products, starting with sugarfree chewing gum to soft drinks, to pharmaceuticals, pretty much everything that has the lightest sweet taste :-(

There is a reason why it is nicknamed "the sweet poison".

I know, you might remember "my" saying the dosage makes the poison, but in this case: poison in moderation is still poison.

Among other components, that I won't bore you with, aspartame is metabolized in the body to formaldehyde, which is stored in fat cells and what it does is, it basically conserves your fat. I think there might be a good reason why formaldehyde is typically used to preserve cadavers for anatomy lab....

just some food for thought on this Wednesday night.

Next time you go and open that can of soda, think twice!

My personal challenge of the remaining days of 2011 and the upcoming year of 2012:

Avoid all diet/light/sugar-free/sugar reduced products.

Check for aspartame on the label/ingredient list.

Easy on the sugarfree chewing gum (I am an addict, but I am trying)

Source

..so this was Xmas 2011

Merry Xmas!

I hope y'all had a wonderful time among your loved ones. I most certainly did. However - my Christmas mood did suffer from the lack of snow, which was a real bummer :( There is absolutely nothing like a white Christmas!! But you can't have everything I guess.

After splurging and relaxing the past couple of days, it is time to get back on track, be it work- or diet-wise :) What can I say, the cookies were calling my name...

I really gotta go grocery shopping today and my goal is to not buy anything with artificial sweetener in it, meaning no diet/light products whatsoever!! Read about the dangers of artificial sweeteners and why they are actually making you fat in my next blog post!!

xoxo!

Tips on how to stay healthy throughout the holidays

Source

With the upcoming holidays inevitably approaching, I wanted to give you a quick && easy guide on how to survive the next couple of days without throwing your healthy living habits over board.

Rule No 1: Eat breakfast

Don't skip the most important meal of the day. Ever. You might be invited to a dinner party or a ginormous feast in the evening hours and you might think "saving the calories" would be a good idea. Well guess what, you thought WRONG. By the time dinner approaches you will be absolutely starved and it will take a lot more of your self control to not scarf down everything in sight. If you're standing in front of a huge buffet and you're one hungry wolf, you will be less likely to make smart choices regarding your diet. Keep that in mind, always. Also, you can make sure you have a healthy snack before you leave the house almost fainting.

Rule No 2: Moderation

Standing in front of the cookie tray, wanting to devour every single one of those sweet temptations, just make sure you pick something you really like and then just have the damn cookie and enjoy it. No regrets whatsoever. You could have ten snickerdoodles//meringues//etc and they will never leave you feeling satisfied when all you actually wanted was that giant gooey chocolate cookie. Find out what you really want and then go for it. It's absolutely fine to indulge once in a while, especially when it's the holidays :) Life is too short!!

Rule No 3: No slacking!!

Okay, so it might be the holidays, you might be wearing a big comfy sweatshirt with an embarrassing Christmas pattern and "cookie pants" (pants with an elastic waist to accomodate an expanding stomach) under the tree but that is still no reason to skip your workouts!! This is your time!! Don't skip your training. It doesn't matter if you run, do home-workouts, yoga, make a trip to the gym. Just do something. Anything is better than doing nothing really. Don't sit on your butt the entire day stuffing yourself with cookies. Pick up on your New Year's resolutions right away. Which brings us to the next rule:

Rule No 4: Resolutions

See, if you're dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle and constantly -forever and always- training for a life well-lived, then making those god damn New Year's resolutions won't be such a dreaded task. In fact , you won't even have to make any. Fitness is a way of life and not a goal!! Constantly making healthy and sensible choices will take you a long way but it will definitely pay off in the long-run. Once you realize it's not important to fit in your jeans by Friday and once you learn to listen to your body again and give it what it craves without feeling guilty, then you are on the right track.

Rule No 5: Easy on the C2

I know I know, this might be the hardest task for some, especially for myself. But I won't be the one to judge since I ♥ my red wine more than anything and I actually think it might do me more good than harm. At least I prefer that way of thinking ;) However, unlimited amounts of eggnog etc might not be the best way to go. In fact, too much alcohol of any sort leaves you feeling gross, bloated and inhibits fat burn. In fact, I also happen to have the perfect joke for this occasion:

A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch. "I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?"
"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise."
"That's amazing," said the woman, "how old are you?"
"Twenty-six," he said.

Laugh away, my friends!!! Hihihihohohoho

Rule No 6: "Umm..excuse me, could we take this slow?"

It's basic. Everyone knows it. Unfortunately the fewest among us actually practice it in everyday life. In our fast paced lives it's becoming more and more difficult to take our time to actually indulge in our meals and cherish our food. Next time you catch yourself licking your plate clean before you even had the chance to really savor a single bite, think about this. Digestion starts in your mouth after all!!! And deep down we all know that the first bite is always the best. Always!

Punsch & Glühwein at Christkindlmarkt

Christmas is almost here... I don't know why the weeks right before it go by so quickly, when they used to go so slow when I was a kid. Oh well. I haven't done any of my Christmas shopping yet and time is flying!! All I hope that I get them before the 23rd...because nothing is worse than having to buy gifts in a complete rush in the last hours before the showdown

-.- blaaaah

On a much more positive side, I have already enjoyed quite a couple of Punsch and Glühwein. I love all the Christmas markets in Vienna, they are so cheerful and happy (...but unfortunately very crowded bohoooo)

Last week I found a really cool place at the Weihnachtsdorf Altes AKH. They had the best punsch with organic raw cane sugar, fresh coconut, pureed mango etc. ♥ Highly recommended!

another thing I love about Christmas time are all the treats ... Christmas cookies-baking && eating them is one of my favorite pastime these days. A new recipe will be up soon.. as I am currently baking up a storm for a little homemade Glühwein session I'm hosting tonight. The weather is so nice out, I hope I can squeeze in a quick run in the sun ... doesn't feel like December right now at all! Can't believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away.

final yoga recap

So my 10 day Bikram's hot yoga challenge turned out to be more like a 6 day challenge.

I had to take rest days in between classes or otherwise I would have been miserable. If I didn't really feel like going to a class after a long exhausting day in school I didn't force myself to do so. Instead I cuddled up at home or met up with friends at the Christmas market to drink some Christmas Punch ♥

I can't stress the importance of listening to your body enough. What's the point of dragging yourself to a workout you really don't want to do? You just don't feel the same every day, your body changes constantly. If I don't feel like doing a workout I'm not gonna do it just for the sake of it. Exercise should be a fun part incorporated in your life in the long run.

"fit is not a destination - it's a way of life."

It took me quite some time to finally realize this but once I did, everything just seemed to fall into place :) Now that I am done with yoga I will start focusing more on HIIT à la bodyrock, since I completely omitted those workouts for the past 14 days. If you eat that many Christmas cookies you just have to balance it out ;) ..damn you, cookies!! ^

For the green monster in the first picture I just mixed bananas, baby spinach, a kiwi, flax seeds and honey with water...so yummy!

And here are some pics from the brunch I was invited to. Of course no brunch would ever be complete without champagne - unfortunately I forgot to snap a picture of it.

more Kunsthalle

Kunsthallen Café at Karlsplatz is definitely underrated. They have amazing food there for a reasonable price and I don't know why I don't go there more often since it is quite close! They have the best breakfast, lunch, dinner!! Also they offer lunch menus every day during the week - vegetarian or with meat (incl. soup/salad/dessert) for a good price.

Last time I was there I got the salmon filet on a base of vegetables, my mommy got grilled feta cheese on a bed of prunes and lentils which was soooo good! There was definitely some gingerbread spice in it and we all know how much I love gingerbread muhahahha!!

P.s.: Xmas is so close and I can't bring myself to go shopping for presents :(

Question of the day: How is your Christmas shopping coming along??

quick morning update

6 days later after start of my own personal challenge, I already completed 4 hot yoga classes. However, over the weekend I kind of fell into a hiatus. Every bone/muscle/tendon in my body hurt and I could neither move nor find the motiviation to drag myself to class. But now I am back on track and determined to make the best of the remaining 4 days. We will see how many of them I will complete successfully, I will definitely listen to my body and am not afraid of taking it slow or taking breaks. On the positive side I am already feeling some of the benefits: more flexible, more calm, more muscle definition.

Last night at home we had white wine after my yoga class, I immediately googled "alcohol and yoga" to see if this would diminish all the benefits I just acquired... of course I didn't find anything useful, and then I just remembered that I had to stay hydrated ...so wine should be okay, right?

P.s.: On the picture above you see KOKO ♥ ..my kitty that I am going to pick up in a couple of days and that is going to live with us... I. CANT. WAIT.

PATARA

We finally made it to PATARA, a fine thai cuisine restaurant located in Vienna's first district! We have been wanting to go there for a really long time and our anniversary (♥♥♥) finally seemed to be the perfect occasion for it. Definitely a lot more exquisit than our usual go-to places, it was a great evening with good food. I am very picky when it comes to my food, so I would have to lie if I'd say that it was utterly outstanding or anything..... because it wasn't. I have definitely eaten better before, especially for this price. So if you never get a chance to go there you're probably not missing out on anything.

I know I know, my verdict might seem a little harsh but my expectations were high and naturellement therefore I was a little bit disappointed. But I quite liked my green vegetable curry with extra cashew nuts, although I was kind of disappointed of the portion size. It was very small and I was very hungry. Like I said mentioned before all I wanted after my really hard hot yoga class was to stuff myself with food ..and lots of it! Luckily I could steal some of J♥'s pad thai, which he really loved (just to be clear: he loved the food itself, not so much the fact of me stealing it^^) He said it tasted exactly like the pad thai you can get in Thailand from the street vendors for uuumm...converted ..uumm.. 1 Euro! In comparison, Patara's pad thai was exactly 21 times more expensive :(

Once we were seated the waiter started us off with crab chips in peanut sauce and two glasses of Thai bellini which was basically prosecco with passion fruit puree. We shared pla hor bai toei as an appetizer: marinated organic salmon bites, baked in pandan leaves. Tasted really great!

All in all a nice evening for an even nicer occasion. When we left, J♥ had to promise me that we would make a trip to here soon. What can I say, I am badly obsessed.

Yoga recap

...after my first hot yoga class in an awful long time...

Two hot yoga classes later I am already strongly debating not going to today's class. I am a mess. Every muscle in my body is hurting right now, even my chin from some of the floor poses.Everytime before class I literally have to drag myself outside in the cold or otherwise I won't ever make it there, but once I am in the cosy warmth of 38°C the 90 min class goes by rather quickly.

I am just really unsure whether I should skip today or not, since I am feeling VERY sore. Also I am not so sure if it's even healthy to do it every day, you do loose a lot of water after all. To avoid dehydration you really have to load up on fluids before and after class. Organic coconut water is isotonic, which means it provides great balance between the electrolytes and assists your rehydration perfectly.

After yesterday's exhausting yoga, J♥ took me out for dinner at PATARA, a restaurant of fine thai cuisine in Vienna's first district. All I wanted was to stuff myself with yummy food really ... a review will be up next!

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.s.: Time - 8days

P.p.s.: Do you think hot yoga is healthy? How much is too much??? Is it safe to be done every day??

Happy 1st of Dec!!!

Well hello there!! ♥

First of all I'd want you to know that I am really kinda sorry I was MIA the past couple of weeks. My life was/is really stressful and to be blatantly honest I just didn't have the time (or the nerves) to blog about anything. Now in December I really want to post on a regular basis, and I am also starting with a 10 day yoga challenge. Bikram's hot yoga to be exact. I'll let you know how it goes.

The motto of my next 10 days will be:

"Better to suffer for 90 minutes than for 100 years"

First class starts today and I am excited and scared at the same time. At least it will be hot in there since the outside temperatures right now are killing me.

ALSO I will be posting about cookie baking and many other pre-Xmas festivities along the way. And now if y'all excuse me - I have a cupcake to devour :)

Question of the day: Anyone ever tried hot yoga before?? How did you like it??

P.s.: What I just saw: I cant believe I still have that many daily views after not blogging for over a month...holyfuck... you guys are stalkers ^^