New passion: Running

I've been running like crazy lately. No really, it's my new passion :-)
I was one of those girls who always said that running was not her thing. I always said that I'm not build to run. Despite everything I said, I'm running anyway. And I love it.

I just finished 5k and I've just started a new schedule for 5-10k. It's weird to notice how my muscles are changing and developing. I must say that it's kind of addictive too :-)
Are you running too and how do you feel about it?

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Holiday chores and laziness

I'm almost halfway my 3 weeks of holiday, and loving it! We are not going to some distant bounty beaches this year, but instead doing some chores in and around the house, like painting and redecorating. 
It's so necessary and blissful to spend some quality time with my family, and isn't that what free time is all about?
In the meantime, I love to play around with my new iphone and discover fun apps, such as Instagram and Hipstamatic. Being a lover of lomography, these are musthaves for me :-)

It's been a while...

I've been on a long break from blogging. I guess everyone goes through a time of struggle every now and then, and I'm in such a phase right now. For some reason, blogging started to feel a bit like an obligation, and that didn't feel right. Taking this break helped me remind that I'm free to blog or not blog whenever I want to :-) 
I built in all these features, like Tattoo Love Tuesday, but the chances are that these will not return every week, but only when I feel like it..letting that go, gives me more freedom to express myself, depending on how I feel that day and is also a part of stepping away from that obligation-feeling.


Ok, on to some music! I would really love to share this totally AWESOME cover of Lykke Li's 'I follow rivers' by Belgian rockband Triggerfinger, played during a Dutch radio show. I actually think it's even better than the original and check out the cups and knife in this video :-)

Back again and new hairdo

I did it! Finally dreads in my hair! I'm oh so happy with them and I already love the process of seeing them mature :-)

I haven't changed anything about the layout of my blog yet, but this will happen somewhere in the upcoming weeks.

I've figured out why I want changes here; I'm actually quite spiritual and also very earthy, but this both comes up way too little in my blog posts. I've realized that it's so easy to just do what everybody does, but it takes a lot more to make my blog a place that really reflects pieces of myself.

Having said that, you'll understand that my blog will be more personal, but that's a good thing I guess :-)

Changes and thoughts

I realize that I've been kinda absent lately, but it all has to do with the fact that I want some changes here at my blog, but I'm not sure where to start..I want my blog to be more 'me', it's really hard to explain, but I hope you understand what I mean :-)

Next week will be a week of vacation for me, also a week off blogging. Time to gather inspiration, make new plans and then, hopefully, I'll be back with new, fresh ideas and a new and improved blog :-)

Have a great weekend and I'll be back soon!

 

Tattoo Love Tuesday; Hindu tattoos

I'm sorry for my absence, I've been kinda busy the past few days..

I've been collecting bronze Hindu figures forever, because I love the diversity of the Hindu pantheon. Maybe it's fun to show pictures of them someday :-)

Anyway, a lotus tattoo is still on my wishlist and I also love Hindu tattoos, so here are some of my favorites!

I'm still eating lowcarb and sugarfree and I've lost almost 7 pounds so far! My plan is to stick to this schedule for another week and then slowly build up the carbs to my diet. I'm not sure if I'll add sugar back to my diet...it feels pretty good to take no sugar into me and I haven't had a headache since I've been on this diet, while normally I get a bad headache every  weekly or sometimes daily.

  

You are what you eat

Ever heard of whole food? It seems to become more and more popular these days, but we have been eating whole food for years, so it's nothing special in our house really :-)
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible, before being consumed. Whole foods typically do not contain added ingredients, such as salt, carbohydrates, or fat (I found this description on Wikipedia). It's also called 'clean eating'.
Diseases like cancer, diabetes or obesitas became more common, since everyone is eating too much processed food which contains too much sugar, fat, white flour, and  provides little or no nutritional value.

I don't know how supermarkets in other countries are arranged, but here in the Netherlands you can find most fresh foods or unprocessed foods in the outer line of the store and all processed foods are in the middle of the supermarket. Simply avoiding the middle rows in the supermarket helps a lot to not buy processed food, or, if you really need something in the middle part of the supermarket, then simply read the label!

I love the website http://www.damyhealth.com/, it has such wonderful recipes and so I thought it would be great to share one recipe here :-)

Raw lime mousse pie

Makes 1 8-inch Pie for Entertaining (Serves 8-12)
Crust Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Raw Cashews
• 1 Cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
• 1/2 Cup Pitted Dates
• 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tbsp Lime Zest
• 2 Tbsp Lime Juice
• Dash of Salt
• 4 Packets of Stevia
• 2 Tbsp Agave (You can use maple syrup)

Mousse Ingredients:

• 4 Large Ripe Avocados (Pealed and Pitted)
• 1/2 Cup Lime Juice
• 1/4 Cup Lime Zest (You’ll need 6-8 limes for this entire recipe)
• 1/4 Cup Agave (or maple syrup)
• 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• Dash of Salt
• 8 Packets of Stevia

Directions:

1. Place the crust ingredients in your food processor and blend until dough-like.
2. Spray your 8 inch spring form pan with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Using your hands press the dough evenly into the pan.
4. Place all mousse ingredients in your food processor and blend until smooth (stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides).
5. Pour mousse over-top of crust.
6. Chill in your refrigerator or freezer (depending on your desired texture) for at least 3 hours.
7. Cut and serve immediately.
8. Enjoy!

Do you eat clean too? And if not, what's keeping you from buying natural, unprocessed food?