reading The Girls Guide to Homelessness. Really good.

finally hiking up to the Hollywood sign!

eating out like 10 meals in a row. BAD!

walking home from work in flats. I made it about 3.25 miles and then I had to call Richie to pick me up.

getting into my annual spring/summer raw food grove with dinner at Cafe Gratitude with my fave LA Blogger, Lynn.

creating really fun infographics at work.

taking a road trip to Vegas. One of the joys of LA is the endless amounts of road trips. We used to drive 4 hours to Wisconsin. Now we have our pick of Vegas, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Palm Springs, Big Bear…ok, I’ll stop bragging.

reading Unorthodox. Also very good.

attending my first Social Media Club LA function.

spending the weekend in Napa for a Science and Culinary Retreat: Plant-Powered Eating: The Role of Peanuts in Healthy Diets, put on by The Peanut Institute. It also meant I got to spend the weekend hanging out with Mercedes and finally meet Lori! You can expect many peanuts in your future.

my Napa trip included cooking at the Culinary Institute of America (squeel!) AND meeting some really great people. Like Alyssa. <– Really fun blog.

trying out Bludso’s (BBQ joint in LA) – it was wonderful.

trying out The Scientific 7-Minute Workout. Have you heard about it? I tried it on Saturday (2 times through) and am still sore. 

eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for breakfast – OBSESSED! (see peanuts, above)

 What’s going on with you? 

I’m currently a little obsessed with Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book It’s All Good. I’ve paged through it about 4-5 times so far. The recipes are great, the pictures are beautiful and she’s not bad to look at either.

I’m also coming off of a weekend in Vegas, a few days of being sick and eating out an insane amount of times. So I could use a LOT of “good” this week. Lots of good vegetables, protein, workouts and water. She is my inspiration this week!

am workout: 20 minutes of physique 57 (strength)

coffee: (duh) + 1/2 & 1/2 while I made my daily “to do” list. I never cross off as much as I would like to…

breakfast: One of Gwyneth’s (and co-author Julia Turshen’s) favorite breakfasts is avocado toast and even though it’s nothing new, I thought the addition of mayo (she uses vegenaise) was interesting. Verdict? Yes, I love it! I don’t know what it is that makes it so delicious but I’m hooked. I had a touch of vegenaise + a small avocado on 2 slices of sprouted bread.

lunch: salad (also from the cookbook) with a delicious vegan, creamy parsley dressing and all sorts of toppings: cucumbers + garbanzo beans + beets + 2  hard-boiled eggs.

snack: baby carrots + greek yogurt ranch dip

workout: 30 minutes on the elliptical + 40 minute walk (to/from gym)

dinner: While making dinner I snacked on a few olives + chips and salsa. Burgers weren’t on the original menu but they kept getting pushed back so had to be eaten tonight. I also had them last night at a family cookout and have a lunch date at The Counter tomorrow. Life could be worse and you won’t ever catch me complaining about eating burgers. Broccolini + onion & jalapeno on the side!

dessert: small handful of dark chocolate almonds

approximate nutrition stats: 1955 calories, 121 grams fat (53%), 145 grams carbohydrates (28%), 40 grams fiber, 33 grams sugar, 96 grams protein (20%). My Dad (who works in Cardiac Rehab) might fall over if he sees that 50% of my calories came from fat…

I know Gwyneth can be polarizing – love or hate?