Favorite Healthy Westside LA Restaurants

1. Flower Child
Flower Child comes from the creators of True Food Kitchen and is meant to be a fast/causal spot that features super healthy dishes. They have salads, bowls, wraps, breakfast, smoothies, etc. They also have grass fed protein, which is a huge plus. I'm pretty excited for this new addition to Santa Monica!

2. Kreation

My sister and I live about a stone's throw from Kreation so we go there very often. I'm a huge fan of their meltdown Kleanse, which I am currently on (pray for Clare), that features 6 green juices a day. They're not messing around. None of their juices go through HPP so they are super healthy. I love their all-day breakfast. Big fan of the Monaco, which is the eggs, prosciutto, feta and spinach and I love their smoothies, avocado toast, kale and quinoa salad and their chicken kabob with hummus. Their hummus is probably the best I've ever had. They have multiple locations throughout LA. 

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3. Beaming

My sister and I frequent Beaming on Montana not just for its proximity. They have unbelievable  make your own overnight oats bowls and their smoothies and acai bowls are delish. 

image via LA Eater

4. Bondi Harvest

Bondi Harvest touts itself as casual, healthy eating. They focus on locally sourced food and seasonally appropriate ingredients. They serve breakfast and lunch and their salads are amazing.

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5. The Butcher's Daughter

I went here the other weekend for brunch with my younger brother and it was divine. The kind of place that only after we were leaving did we realize they didn't serve bacon or sausage for breakfast. Don't get me wrong, I love eating healthy, but sometimes it's nice to feel like you're not eating healthy even when you are. Know what I mean?? This NYC transplant also has beautiful decor and great mimosas and lattes. We ordered the best egg sandwich (really, that's what it's called), the pancakes and the surfer's breakfast. I can't wait to go back. 

Which Westside LA healthy eating spots are your faves?

Have a Healthy Weekend!

It usually takes me about 3-4 days to really commit to a diet/health kick. If I cheat on day 2, I am so far gone I have to wait another month to start again. I am on day 3 right now and am feeling great. I picked up a Green Guru smoothie from green&tonic in Greenwich, which was delicious! If you haven't been, there are locations in Greenwich, Cos Cob, Darien, Mamaroneck and Armonk and they have 4 options for cleanses and one includes food (score!). They have chia puddings and salads and soups and great cold pressed juices and smoothies. Are you guys fans of green juices? I may be a total weirdo because I love them...  Below is the recipe for the one I had today - you have to try it! I'd love to hear from my readers your favorite healthy recipes and favorite places to get healthy smoothies and juices - help a girl out!

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Green Guru Smoothie

-Green Tea (matcha is an easy way to add potent green tea powder to smoothies)

-Coconut Water

-Lemon

-Spinach

-Banana

-Green Apple

-Ginger (not my favorite but tasted great in this!)

-Mint

Happy Friday

Happy Friday everyone! I am heading up to Queechy Lake with a bunch of friends for a weekend of boating, booze, fun and sun. I've been on BluePrint Cleanse all week so I'm prettttty excited for my mom's cooking this weekend (and a margarita! or two!). Hope you all have a nice weekend!

My mama with the pups. This photo made my day : ) 

Quote of the Day - something I'm always working on...

Image via sevenly.org

Tuesday Treats

Hi everyone! Hope you all had an amazing long weekend. I was starting to get nervous on Saturday that the whole weekend was going to be a wash but Sunday and Monday were gorgeous and I even got sunburned. Yesterday we picked up our new puppy, Olive, and she is absolutely adorable.

 Me with the pup before Memorial Day bbq

Riley with Olive right when we picked her up

Pixie seeing what Olive is all about. Olive is actually Pixie's niece!

If you're like me and ate a bit too much this weekend (and during the month of May), it's time to get back on track for June. Starting Saturday, and for this rest of the month, I am going gluten-free. I have a feeling it will be a bit harder this time around considering it's summer and I love a cold beer and all the BBQ fixin's but I am determined to get back to not eating everything in sight. I went gluten-free for lent, which is six weeks, and lost seven pounds and felt great. 

I have a few friends who did the Clean Program by Dr. Junger, that Gwyneth is a fan of but 21 days of 2 shakes a day and one small salad is way too restrictive for the most social months of the year (for me, at least...). I like the ideas behind the clean program (no coffee, alcohol, gluten, dairy, meat, processed food, etc.) so I went on the website to see if there were any other options. The Clean Program has a one week "refresh" cleanse that I'm hoping to try to get me on the right track for the summer. Refresh is a week long and you have a shake for breakfast and other healthy foods for lunch and dinner. You can have eggs, fish and grass-fed beef (hugeeee for me) but still no coffee, alcohol, gluten, dairy, etc. I think coffee may be the hardest to kick but I'm excited to feel great and it's just a week.. how hard could it be..??

In honor of my last 3 and a half days of eating whatever, I leave you with some pictures that will certainly tempt me for the next month!

*Images from sweetsugarbean.com, foodiecrush.com, mybakingaddiction.com, simplydelicious.co.za, vanilla.com, sugarintherain.tumblr.com, marthastewart.com

Glowing Green Smoothie

During the holidays, it's hard to stay healthy. With the abundance of finger foods on hand and glasses of champagne floating around, it's really difficult to count calories and stick with your diet. I (unsuccessfully) tried a soup cleanse the other week and I found it too restrictive. As I've said in the past, it's much easier for me to add things to my diet than subtract them. What can I say, I'm a real foodie! 

I've seen Hillary Duff post about a "glowing green smoothie" that she prepares and I decided to check out what it was all about. I'm  a big fan of Blue Print Cleanse's green drink but at 10 dollars a pop, it's not very economical. Hillary and other celebs are a fans of  Kimberly Snyder's "The Beauty Detox Solution." Snyder has easy to follow recipes and her philosophy on healthy eating is less about restricting yourself and more about clean, healthful eating and restoring the body's natural systems. Although I'm not a fan of omitting things from my diet, the green juice should be used as a meal replacement because it provides enough calories, carbs and nutrients for a meal. I'm dying for a vitamix so I can try her easy to follow recipe below. Apparently it totally resets your system and you feel healthier, more in balance and like your skin is glowing. 

Snyder also has other great recipes on her website and tons more in her book (I bought it on my iPad). She mostly prepares gluten free, dairy free and meat free recipes. She doesn't generally give a calorie count and focuses more on the vitamins and nutrients in each meal. Below is the recipe for the Glowing Green Smoothie. 

Health Post of the Day: Cleanses

I've pretty much tried every diet in the book and most last less than a day. I've done the blue print cleanse, which was an awesome 3 day juice cleanse, the dukan diet, a diet consisting mainly of protein, and many more. This week I'm embarking on a farm fresh soup cleanse journey with two of my co-workers. The Splendid Spoon is New York's first farm fresh, organic soup cleanse. Basically, you make your own breakfast (I decided to have a strawberry/orange smoothie with organic vanilla protein powder) and then you have two soups (one for lunch and one for dinner). A soup cleanse is the winter answer to a juice cleanse because sometimes you just need to eat something hot in December. I'm a little nervous that I'll be hungry, as the soups are under 300 calories, but a 3 days cleanse is just what I need right now after Thanksgiving and before Christmas (not to mention Mexican night last night). 

The soups today are spicy sweet potato and mushroom barley. The cleanse is vegetarian, dairy and gluten free so I decided I'll make my breakfast gluten free and dairy free, as well. I put unsweetened almond milk in my coffee this morning instead of the regular skim milk I use. Yes, you can drink coffee (a must for me). A couple hours in and I feel okay but who knows how long I'll last... At least the Victoria's Secret fashion show is on tomorrow. It will be a much needed push of inspiration as my diet starts to slip!