8 Tips for Enjoying a Healthier Thanksgiving

I can hardly believe that it's already October. The air is getting crisper and the sun is going down a whole lot earlier. The leaves are beginning to turn and I'm craving everything pumpkin! I busted out my legwarmers yesterday and have embraced the fact that I can no longer get away with just a jean jacket outside.

It is Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and I'm looking forward to spending some time with family on Monday. It can also be overwhelming to navigate a big meal with family when you're trying to embrace a healthier lifestyle. I've been doing some brainstorming and enlisted the help of some friends on Facebook and Twitter, and came up with the following list of tips to enjoy a healthier Thanksgiving meal.

1. Make great food choices leading up to the meal. Have a stellar breakfast and lunch or snack so you're not ravenous when you sit down for dinner. It will help you make better choices during the meal and ensure that you're eating to nourish yourself and enjoy the food, and not eating because you are starving!
   
2. Take the time to do a workout during the day on your own or take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather and take a nice walk or run. Getting some activity in will feel awesome and give your day some balance and 'you' time (which is especially helpful if you're having a lot of family time!)
   
3. If you're the one making the meal or can influence the chef, ensure that there are some awesome, healthy options included. Ditch the butter and cream. Have a selection of beautiful veggies, make a delicious fall-inspired soup or try some healthier alternatives to classic dishes like cauliflower mash, mushroom miso gravy, lentil loaf, a great shepherd's pie or vegan pumpkin pie. There are endless possibilities to what your meal could look like and it's a wonderful time to try something new, perhaps creating a new tradition.
   
4. When you're filling up your plate, make half of it veggies! You'll get a lovely assortment of goodness, while being able to feel great about your meal and still leaving room for more indulgent choices.
   
5. Be sure to enjoy your favourite parts of the meal. If you love stuffing, have stuffing! If you're a pie person, enjoy some pie! Practice moderation and work on enjoying your food rather than feeling guilty.
   
6. Skip the things that don't excite you and since you're an independent person, you don't have to eat certain foods just to be polite. Aunt Ida will forgive you. I promise.
   
7. Remember that it's not the last supper. For real. It's seriously just another meal and you don't need to eat everything in sight, just because it's there! If you celebrate Christmas, you're going to be seeing all of those foods in a month and a half anyway. There's also nothing stopping you from making/having pumpkin pie or stuffing on a non-holiday. Just sayin'.
   
8. Make it less about the food and more about giving thanks. Focus on the things in your life that you are grateful for and the time you get to spend with your family and friends. 

I feel thankful for so many things in my life right now: my incredible relationship, my wonderful friends & familia, my health and the opportunity to do so many things that I love! Life is pretty sweet and I'm looking forward to having some time to reflect on all of that this weekend. 

I hope these tips are helpful for you this weekend (and give my American friends a head start on their plans in November!) Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone xo

What are you thankful for?
What is your favourite tip for enjoying a healthier Thanksgiving? 

Why I Pin + Amazing Weeknight Din

"What's the point?"

This is a question I was asked twice last week about Pinterest and I found myself launching into a diatribe about my affinity for the social media tool I use to collect and organize all sorts of fun things.

I was introduced to Pinterest by my awesome friend Amanda. She was an early adopter (and beta tester I'm pretty sure) for Pinterest and I remember glancing over at her desk in the spring of 2011 and seeing this scrapbook-like page with all sorts of pretty things. I soon got myself an account and started pinning up a storm.

I started with pretty things and snazzy things since as we all know, I love all things pink, sparkly and dress-related. It gave me an opportunity to organize all the things I saw that I loved and sometimes coveted, and in some ways helped me to define my style. I started following some of my favourite bloggers and brands and loved feeling inspired by their pins.

I loved being able to pin photos of recipes I found while perusing blogs. No longer was I bookmarking random recipes in google reader and then going back to try and find a recipe based on its title, I now had an awesome visual to associate with each delectable looking recipe and started to create new boards with varying categories and silly names (like 'where are the boys I have a milkshake' filled with popsicle and ice cream recipes and inspiration)

Using Pinterest with my blog designer helped me define exactly what I was looking for when my blog got overhauled last year. I don't think I could have been as cohesive with my colour choices and look/feel without it.

It's also ideal for the quote lover in me.

Most recently I've been pinning up a storm with wedding and bridesmaid ideas as we approach sweet Lindsay's wedding. It's been a blast to collaborate with Linz and the other bridesmaids on our dresses and accessories and hair and everything girly. We've collected a lot of awesome ideas and it has made wedding planning even more fun.

Right now I'm feeling a whole lot of Pinterest love thanks to last night's dinner:

A roasted sweet potato stuffed with kale, white beans, shallots and garlic, thanks to something I pinned months ago. It was easy and delicious; the perfect weeknight dinner with leftovers for lunchy. Thanks Pinterest. 

Pinterest has become one of my favourite corners of the internet and all of the above are reasons why. It's a happy place. Even my sweet potato can attest :)

If you don't already, take a minute to follow me on Pinterest so you can keep up with all the fun!

Do you pin?
Who do you love to follow?
What are some of your favourite uses for Pinterest?

Pre-cleanse lovin' and the Ashleyx2 Bucket List show

It's been a really long time since I've blogged a day of meals, but it's about to happen thanks to day 3 of the pre-cleanse for the Fab Uplift Detox!

One of the things I've really been looking forward to for this round of Fab goodness has been to incorporate more superfoods into my diet. I found myself getting out of bed late on Tuesday night to go rinse and soak some Irish Moss so that I could make it into paste in the morning. What the heck is Irish Moss? Well, it's a sea vegetable that is super source of vitamins and minerals, it's fantastic for your thyroid and is also good for the tummy, thanks to its mucilaginous qualities. We had lots of sea moss in St. Lucia, and I was a big fan. It is awesome for giving smoothies, soups and desserts a creamy texture. I prepared my Irish moss and made it into a gel this morning, and into my smoothie it went!

Also in the mix: blueberries, cacao, hemp, ground chia, hemp, maca, avocado & honey.
aka heaven in a glass 
and a whole lotta superfoods!

I was a busy bee in the kitchen the other night, which meant that I packed a fantastic lunch for an Ashleyx2 planning meeting (more on what we're planning in just a sec)

A collard wrap filled with some cashew cheese, kale pesto & cucumbers, with some carrot sticks, a blueberry muffin (and one for Ashley) along with a green juice (celery, cucumber, collards, kale, broccoli stalk, pear & ginger)

what's not to love about a blueberry muffin? or awesome owl stickers

Collard wrap goodness

I fully spilled my juice on my notebook... 

I actually said something along the lines of "I am just fantastic" over the course of consuming my lunch - I couldn't help myself! It was all so tasty and easy to make and so much better than anything I could have bought. In addition to the superfoods and green stuff, I think the detox is reminding me how much I love to cook and how much cheaper and more awesome it is to make my own food. I fall into habits of buying food often because I'm on the go so much and yesterday made me realize that that doesn't need to be the case. It took me 10 minutes to make green juice and pack my lunch from yummy things that were in the fridge. I just need to get back into that habit!

Dinner was a modified version of an old favourite recipe - coconut curried chickpeas, cauliflower & spinach kale.

everything is better in an owl bowl (yes I love owls)

This recipe is so easy and makes a HUGE batch. I used kale instead of spinach and added some irish moss gel to the mix to make the sauce even creamier. I was reminded of it during the live stream class when Meghan was talking about cabbage. You think, really? Cabbage? Yes, cabbage has a lot going for it, thanks to the L-Glutamine, which has great healing and repairing properties for our digestive tract and it also promotes detoxification in the liver. Let's give cabbage a chance, shall we?

Definitely lots of good things happening in my kitchen this week, and keeping me excited for the rest of the detox! Tomorrow's plan includes another smooothie in the morning and some chickpea falafel bread making.

So about our meeting... Ash and I were discussing the logistics and running order for our upcoming show, There's Just Something About Ashley - The Bucket List.

If you're in the city next weekend, I'd love for you to join us for the show on either Friday October 5 or Saturday October 6 at 7pm at the Flying Beaver Pubaret. We're thrilled that Tara Litvack has joined us once again as our wonderful musical director & piano player extraordinaire and that Patrick Power is back to rock out on guitar. It's going to be an amazing evening filled with fantastic music, giggles and stories of what's on our bucket lists. I love the songs and theme we've chosen and it's always a blast to be onstage with Ash. Tickets are available online or at the Pubaret and it would be BRILLIANT to have you in the audience.

What's on your bucket list?