Friday Favorites – May 27th, 2016

dance dance

 

Happy Friday! Are you guys doing the long weekend dance yet?  I have just a few more hours of work before we head up to Vermont for the weekend. My family has a home in Manchester Center, Vermont which is the perfect place to visit when we need a weekend out of the city.  We are doing something new this weekend and spending a bit more time in town enjoying some new restaurants, workouts and shopping. While we’re not in town we’ll be hiking and breathing in the fresh, clean air and enjoying the warmer than normal weather.

I hope you guys enjoy a wonderful, long weekend. Please take a moment to remember the reason and history for this long weekend as it isn’t just about cookouts and welcoming Summer. So since there is very little time between now and the weekend, let’s dive into this week’s edition of Friday Favorites, including recipes, articles, posts and other things that caught my eye this week.

  • How can I not address this week’s opening picture. Wedding dancing is definitely one of my favorite things as there is nothing more fun than our group of friends, great music and a huge dance floor. This picture was taken two hours into the reception and what you can’t see is that I was dancing barefoot and sweating profusely. Can we have another dance party soon guys?
  • Thank you Time.com for this explanation of  why Memorial Day is a three-day weekend.
  • I finally caved and ordered my first off-the-shoulder blouse. Miraculously, both Bo and I find it flattering and fun. I’m going to wear it to dinner tonight with my new sandals, white jeans and simple gold earrings.
  • I loved this OPI nail polish so much that I bought it at Rite Aid following this week’s manicure. It’s a bright, cheery pop of pink that coordinates with almost any color or skin tone.
  • If I’m craving something other than an apple and almond butter for an afternoon snack, I’ll turn to this popcorn. The hint of olive oil and sea salt gives it a rich, delicious flavor while still only being 24 calories per cup! There is nothing artificial or crazy on the ingredient list just popcorn, sunflower oil, olive oil and sea salt!
  • Earlier this week I had the opportunity to hear two employees from LinkedIn talk about the perfect profile. This graphic easily helps anyone take a lackluster or non-existent profile and quickly transition it into a profile that will get attention and build your equity online. As they reminded us during the speech, a profile isn’t only important for job-seekers but also people who manage others as these days employees go directly to LinkedIn to learn more about future employers or team members.
  • While I take a pre-natal vitamin daily, I think it’s very important for people to understand more about vitamins. This quote articulated the importance of understanding the why and aligning it with your doctor.  There are only 13 vitamins, which are essential for health, compared to over 85,000 dietary supplements for sale in America.

Have a great weekend friends! I’ll check in from Vermont with some of our adventures but until then, I hope you enjoy some rest and relaxation.

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Making It Through the Holidays Healthy

It’s that time of year. In between the fun of holiday parties and the stress of work and hosting loved ones, I inevitably start to feel run down and exhausted. Two years ago I found myself in bed with flu and a fever for more than half of holiday vacation in Savannah. In order to prevent that from happening again, this year I’m taking proactive measures with help from my friends at Pure Encapsulations.

sick in savannah

After the vitamin deficiency issues I experienced while living in Geneva, I’ve been an advocate of supplements such as a multi-vitamin and biotin in order to ensure my body is getting the vitamins and minerals it needs.  Until recently I wasn’t brand loyal to a particular supplement. I’d peruse websites or the aisle of my local drugstore, letting the promotional price determine that month’s selection.  I thought all vitamins and supplements were created equally, only differing by whether they were liquid, gummy or a traditional pill.

When Pure Encapsulations reached out to me, I immediately wanted to understand what set them apart from the hundreds of other vitamins on the market.

I quickly learned that that all vitamins and supplements are far from being created equal.

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Did you know that many vitamins on the market aren’t tested by the FDA? Any supplement or vitamin that Pure Encapsulations sells on their site has been tested to ensure that nothing is included other than what the label says.  They use the purest of ingredients in their production facility, ensuring that we the consumers, ingest the most quality product possible. The industry leader in manufacturing excellence and quality control, they even allow consumers to visit their production facility in Massachusetts via their “open warehouse” policy which allows anyone to stop by to visit and tour the facility.

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Over the past few weeks I’ve had the chance to take their O.N.E. Multivitamin as well as their Best-Rest Formula.

The Best-Rest formula helps improve sleep quality as well as make it easier to fall asleep due to the melatonin, chamomile, valerian and other ingredients.  During stressful periods, I have a hard time turning my brain off which often results in horrible sleep or not being able to fall asleep immediately. Since taking this supplement nightly, my sleep patterns, as tracked by my Misfit Shine, have improved to more than ¾ the night being restful sleep.

The O.N.E. Multivitamin, perfect for adults over the age of 18, only requires one capsule per day and provides me with a great blend of vitamins and minerals as well as MicroActive Q10 and lycopene for heart and cell health. In addition, unlike my prior multivitamin, none of the Pure Encapsulation products contain fillers, preservatives, artificial sweeteners or colors.

If you’re interested in learning more about how vitamins and supplements may help you, check out their website or have a conversation with your doctor. The more you know, the better preventative measures you will be able to take for your health.

Your turn: What vitamins and/or supplements do you take on a regular basis?  

While this is a sponsored post, via Pure Encapsulations, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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A Little Extra Nutrient Support

It’s FRIDAY!!! Can you tell I’m a bit excited? It’s been quite the action packed week filled with my first Organic Avenue juice cleanse, a great yoga class and dinner date with my girl Liz, Spirit of the Marathon 2 movie with local running friends, lots of work, and an Uplift Friday class that is always a great way to kick off the weekend! The best part is that there is blue sky and sunshine in Manhattan right now which is such a treat after all this rain!

Week of 6.14

Since I have so much to share with you guys, there will be more than a few posts going up this weekend. I’m going to be super cool tonight and spend the evening blogging while Bo is running errands for his scuba adventure tomorrow.

While I was on the Organic Avenue 3 day juice cleanse, I thought a lot about the way I eat each day on a regular basis. I’m not perfect by any means but I definitely have done well sticking to the 80/20 rule over the past year which is one of the things I attribute to the way I feel right now. But, as my sister-in-law, who also did the juice cleanse, and I talked further about the things that make us feel good on a daily basis we both couldn’t go without mentioning vitamins. It sounds so silly. Really how much can a few little pills do for someone?

While I know the debate is still out and everyone has differing opinions, I see a big difference when I take vitamins on a regular basis. The top drawer of my office desk is a bit of a health and wellness cabinet filled with teas, snacks, medicine, lotions, and vitamins. What can I say? When you spend at least 10-12 hours a day at the office, it’s nice to be prepared! Yes I believe that it’s best to get nutrients and vitamins from whole food but vitamins just feel like a little extra nutrient support.

For the past year I have taken the following vitamins on a regular basis:

  • Multi-vitamin
  • Calcium
  • Hair & Nail

Therefore, when my friends at Fitfluential offered me a chance to sample VitaFusion Multivites the answer was easy! Heck yes! When it comes to vitamins, I’m 29 going on 6. I can’t handle horse pills or anything that leaves a bad aftertaste.

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Since receiving these last week I’ve started to not only look forward to taking my vitamins but even thinking of them as a fun after lunch treat. I am often tempted to take two servings since they taste like candy!

If you find yourself forgetting to take your vitamins or dread the huge pills, give gummies a try. They are like Flintstone vitamins of 2013!

Do you take vitamins & supplements or do you get all your nutrients from whole food?

This post is sponsored by VitaFusion through FitFluential.  All opinions expressed are my own.

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