Fabulous Vegan Recipes

So I switched my blog to WordPress and HATED it. WordPress is cool, don't get me wrong, I use it for my yoga studio website but for this blog's purpose, I'm cool with Blogger. I blogged this fudge recipe last week but I improved it and made it coffee flavored so I'm updating this with the coffee version. Using Blogger. I feel like I'm home again 😄

When you reflect back on this year, what are the highlights for you? I think about how I completed my first marathon and how I got to run my first marathon in my most favorite city where I happen to live (NYC!!) I think about how much I love my yoga studio   and how many classes we have and all the new teachers that have booked the space. I think about how my niece is growing up so fast and how I became her godmother at the beginning of this month. So many things to be grateful for and so many new goals to work on for 2017.

I've been hitting the keys lately writing and blogging (I'm working on a fiction novel) and enjoying life in the big city. First off as you can see, I renamed my blog and I'm LOVING it! Fabulous Fit Food just didn't sit well with me, I found myself disliking it alot and the last couple weeks I have thought about what I want to rename this blog. I can't believe how many ideas I had and how many of my ideas were already taken by bloggers, Youtubers and health and wellness coaches. It got kind of frustrating so finally I just stopped thinking about it so much. I went home for my niece's 1st bday and just let go of the blog a little bit.

I hear so much noise in the vegan community about what to eat, how much to eat, how often one should eat, what exercises to do, how much macronutrients should be in your food etc etc. It's so overwhelming and confusing and it makes me tired. Instagram is a huge source of food information and recipes but usually from people like you and me who are posting what is working or not working for them. I see so many skinny, fit vegans eating tremendous amounts of food and not gaining weight. I see raw vegans, raw til 4 vegans, junk food vegans, it's just so much to take in. And I'm left with questions like: is all that fruit really good for weight loss? Is coconut just as bad as meat due to the saturated fat? Should I be eating so much rice? Do portions really not matter? Is it really WHAT you eat versus HOW MUCH you eat? And if you're one of those vegans who needs or wants to lose weight, where do we fit in with all of this? I went to a dietitian before I moved here two ye

Hello and thank you for checking out my blog! I want to give you a little background about myself and how I found a career in health and wellness. My background is in social work; I have my masters degree in social work and I am a licensed social worker in Pennsylvania and New York State. I worked with individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families for 14 years before becoming a health and wellness professional. Read why I left my job to move to NYC here . I'm a 200 hour certified yoga teacher and blogger. I own The Yoga Collective NYC , a yoga studio in midtown Manhattan that is available for rent. We offer the entrepreneur a space to teach their classes, workshops and trainings and have a full list of classes. My passion is helping people choose healthy, plant based food. My recipes are designed to be simple and delicious with easy to find ingredients. I lead a Mindfulness & Meditation training at my studio and teach corporate meditation sessions. Sign up

Well, tonight I'm still home in PA finishing up some business to close out 2015; I still have a condo in the suburbs and I need to sell or rent it. So I stayed home to clean it out, spend more time with my niece and enjoy two more days in the burbs. See ya tomorrow, New York City!

I first heard of Jordan and her blog via Instagram when she would post awesome, motivational pics. Her account was one of the fist Instagram accounts that I relied on when I first moved to NYC a year and a half ago. I signed up for a Juice Crawl in August and she was there also; needless to say I was so happy to meet her! She was so nice and we chatted about our blogs for a little bit before we silent clubbed around the city with headphones on and fabulous dance moves (it was a silent clubbing juice crawl haha). I was soon reading her blog and feeling relieved that someone else felt the same way about the fast paced life in this city. On her blog , Jordan mentions finding your skinny and I can completely relate; I compare myself everyday to other women on the street and worry so much about how I look, it's exhausting and a waste of time.

I love this quote! I'm always trying to make things perfect but it never turns out that way. For instance, I changed my blog name last night along with all my social media. I lost a good amount of followers on fb and got alot of feedback. I wondered if this was the right decision a few times but then always came back to why I'm doing this: it doesn't make sense to expand my blog and keep the old name. It's ok that people stopped following because new people will start following.