So many photos!!! I was THE most annoying person at the restaurant last night haha… “GUYS DON’T TOUCH I NEED PHOTOS.” Sorrrrry friends. 🙂 All the photos were so worth it though, because this meal was unreallll.

We were at a place called Rajio Public House, which is a Japanese tapas-like place located in Vancouver, Canada. It was sooooo scrumptious. I plan on becoming a regular here very quickly. I honestly can’t even remember everything we ate, because we ordered so much food. Sometimes this thing happens when I eat where I literally can’t remember eating because it was SO good. It kind of feels like when you have had one too many glasses of wine, except I haven’t had any wine. Haha!

Since it was so delish (and because we ordered such an outrageous amount of dishes,) I will link you their menu here. Seriously recommend going here if you are ever in Vancouver. It is such a fun dining environment, and their decos are beyond cute.

x,

When it comes to sports, there are not many that I would say I am necessarily really good at. Skiing? That’s my jam. Back in the day, when I was just a young & delicate flower, I was faced with one of life’s many difficult decisions (first world problems.) Should I focus all my efforts on ski racing? Or, diversify my athletic portfolio and learn to do some other things. Naturally, I chose to focus all my attention on skiing. Because how could I not… it’s so awesome! Just to START bragging about how awesome this sport is… think about the travelling, dangerous high speeds, thrill of the competition, and the views. Ohhhh those gorg mountain views. Skiing is something you can do for your entire life, and it is such a great way to stay fit.

Anyways, the point of this post is to talk about maintaining your fitness by doing the things that you love. The gym is great for staying fit year round, but sometimes it can be nice to skip the gym and get yourself outside to do something that you love! 

This can literally be anything. Do you like walking? Get outside and walk! Do you like bike riding? Brush the dust off your bike and take it for a spin! It makes exercise so much more fun if you are just doing something you love. For me that is skiing, and oh sweet baby jesus do I love it. The best part? I am getting in a killer workout and not even thinking about it! 

So… tell me! What are your favourite ways to get active outside the gym?!

x,

Today I wanted to share my favourite tips on how to not overindulge at holiday dinner parties. The holiday season is such a wonderful time of year, because it provides us with the opportunity to spend lots of time with family and friends. I love it! Usually this quality time spent together is based around food — GOOD food. Because, tis’ the season! Every year even the healthiest of people completely abandon their regular healthy-eating routine and end up spending extra hours in the gym in January to make up for the excessive overindulgence. I don’t want you to have to do that! So, everyone, let’s remember the world balance this holiday season and keep ourselves in check… CHECK YO SELF! (Had to, sorry lol)

Appies will be the death of you during this holiday season. (<— seemed like an appropriate opening sentence.) Seriously they will! Think about it. At holiday parties, there are appies GALORE. You are so excited that all your favourite foods are in mini bite size form (because duh, everything is cuter when it is mini…) They look so innocent, cute and little. So you will casually have one bite, another, another, another, and ANOTHER. Because these seemingly innocent small bites are so delicious.

Nowww comes dinner. This is the moment when you usually realize how obscenely full you are. And it never makes any sense because everything you ate was so small! But, it adds ups my friends. Seriously. The applies will kill you. Having tons of mindless little snacks before a meal is totally unnecessary and will stop you from enjoying the best part of a dinner… the actual meal!

Here’s my philosophy. Skip the appies, and eat the damn cake. YES! Eat dessert! Having one reasonably portioned piece of dessert will be way less detrimental than an uninhibited amount of appetizers before dinner.

A few more tips on how to not completely lose it at a holiday dinner:

• Don’t go to the event starving! Have a healthy snack right before you go to dinner. Like this Peanut Butter Apple snack.
• Keep a glass of wine in your hand all night! That’s right everyone, wine in your hand, ALL. NIGHT. LONG. (lol) It will keep your hands busy and stop you from reaching for those tempting appies.
• Treat yourself, but only to your most favourite things. There is no point having a dessert if you don’t even like it. Don’t eat something just because it is there; eat it because you genuinely love it!
• If an event is “appies only” (no dinner portion,) same goes as above! Pick your absolute FAVE appies, and just eat those. Don’t try one of everything, because chances are you don’t even like half the food anyways haha. 
• Focus on your friends and family! After all that is why you are there. Make sure you are paying more attention to your conversations than your food. 

Keeping yourself Skinny Belle during the holiday season will allow you feel great while still enjoying all the best things about the holidays. The above tips are just my favourite ways to make sure I can enjoy all my favourite treats, without overindulging. After all, everything in moderation! You should be enjoying the holidays and all the fab things that come along with them, but not at the expense of your health. 

x,

Helloooo everybody! Would you LOOK at this beautiful coat?! I am obsessed with it right now (well, not literally obsessed but you get the picture lol.) It is made by SOIA & KYO and oh boy did they ever do good. It fits like a freaking glove! And there is still room to add more layers underneath, which is a total necessity when things get chilly here in Vancouver. Love love love it. 

Today was an all-leather kind of day. I went the whole 9 yards and paired my leather pants with leather boots. My life is CRAZY, I’m aware, thank you. 😉 The pants are from a local Vancouver store I love called Aritzia, and my gorg ankle boots are by Michael Kors.

Check out another one of my favourite winter coats here. Have a great Wednesday!

x,

Do these look delicious or what?! Well, they are SO delicious. And I love them. And I want to be in a committed relationship with them. (Are we still talking about scones?? Haha) Buttt these scones are definitely a once-and-a-while treat yoself kind of thing.

I am admittedly not a huge baker, mostly because if I bake I just end up eating everything I bake. Usually I tell myself I am making the goodies to share with all my friends, and it’s the BIGGEST lie ever haha. (Friends, if you are wondering why you have never received any baked goods from me… this right here would be why lol.)

But anyways, I do like baking every once and a while! There are things you can do and ingredients you can sub-out to make your treat a little healthier. This recipe was originally sourced from a blog called Roti N’ Rice. The original recipe had a lottt of butter in it so I made a more Skinny Belle version below.

What’s In it:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking power
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 cup chopped strawberries

Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees farenheight. Now, combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add in your coconut oil, and mix with a fork so that the flour is a chunky mixture and the oil is evenly spread. Gently mix in those strawberries! Combine milk and sour cream in a small bowl until smooth, and then pour into the large bowl and gently combine. Use your hands to shape the dough into balls that are just a bit smaller than the size of your first, and place out on a greased baking sheet (<– use coconut oil for this!) Bake for 15 mins! Voila!

Now when you pull these warm, delicious, bundles of joy out of the oven, you too will probably want to be in a committed relationship with them. Haha! But be good, everyone. Just have one (ok maybe two ;)) then wrap up the scones and share the love with all your besties. It is the holidays after all!

Enjoy the treat, you deserve it! <3

x,

Today I wore head-to-toe Urban Outfitters. Why? Black Friday made me do it. I swear! I definitely have some sort of problem, because when there are sales, I convince myself that by spending a bunch of money I am somehow actually “saving my money.” I know it’s a trap, I know I’m not ACTUALLY saving money… but I cave every time. Give this girl a good sale and I will be on it like a fruit fly on fruit. I kid you not. I can’t stop myself! Haha oh well… If impulsively buying pretty new clothes for a low price is my only vice, I’ll take it! I’d say that still sounds like winning to me. 😉

Anyways, back to this gorg outfit. I am in loveee with this outfit because I feel like it’s totally a classic “Robyn” look! Anything that is long and flowy is right up my alley. I always feel so elegant and glam when I wear outfits like this, which is probably why this is one of my go-to looks.

Check out these other outfits here, here, and here which have a similar feel!

Hope you all had a great weekend! 🙂

x,

Oh myyyy lawwwwwd is this post overdue! I cannot believe I haven’t written about this yet. Efficiency. SNOOOZEEEE… BORING! *You say.* I am going to have to respectfully disagree with you, because being efficient is probably the best skill of all time. WHY?? Well, because then you have time to fill your life with all the fabulous things you want in it!

There is a reason in lots of my food posts I talk about how quick and easy a meal is. Because I am the efficiency queen! ***Disclaimer: this is totally self proclaimed… just let me have it.. okay? haha 😛

When you are more efficient with your time, you can do all the things you want to do. Suddenly you will have time to see all your besties (because, we alllll need to see our besties on a regular basis! It is basically free therapy + the cost of wine LOL.) That hobby you wanted to take up? DONE. Want to get your Skinny Belle workout in? EASY. You now have time to do whatever your heart desires.

I am all about getting things done and not letting them dribble along so that I can get to my favourite things in life.

Another reason being efficient with our time is the BEST is because it will make us all queens. (Side note: I am over being a “boss.” I have officially decided that being a queen is far superior.) If you are efficient with your life and the things you wish to have in it, you will find yourself achieving all your goals faster than your ever thought possible. Is that the right path to being a queen? Yes. Yes it is.

Okay okay so enough of my blabber. Now that I have told you that being efficient will make you a queen, as well as make time for all your favourite things… HOW DO YOU DO IT?!

Here’s the skinny:

• Write it down!!! I like to make a “to do” list every night before I go to bed for the next day. This way, I can mentally be prepping myself for all the awesomeness I am about to fill my next day with.
• Take writing it down a step further… schedule your day! By this I mean write down about what time you will do each task throughout the day, and stick to it! If something is taking wayyy longer than necessary just move along and come back to it later.
• Get enough sleep! (<– post coming on this soon) Seriously this is so important. I am literally the worst when I don’t get enough sleep. So unproductive and just generally a grumpy-pants lol. 
• Find the time of the day when you are typically the most productive, and capitalize on this! (<– business school moment lol.) For me, this is first thing in the morning. I am a freaking rockstar queen in the mornings! Come night time… things get super sketchy for me haha. I tried to send an email last night and I cant be sure if it actually made any sense…

Those are my favourite tips for being productive, and eventually becoming a queen of life.

So now, I want to hear from you guys! Do you want to see more posts like this one? What are your fave kind of posts I do?! Telll meee! I love to hear your feedback, so throw a comment in the comment box below. <3

x,

Doing cardio is actually my favourite way to get my fitness in. I just love the feeling of running and find that it makes me physically feel the healthiest. For me, I do some of my best brainstorming or problem solving while running. It is a nice time where you can think and just focus on your strides. Anyone with me on this one?!

For all of my workouts I have posted so far (Sexy Booty and Legs Workout and the 12-Minute Total Body Workout) I do interval cardio training as my warm up. Sometimes I will do a longer cardio session (45 minutes usually) as my whole workout, but it depends on how I am feeling that day!

So… What is interval training you ask?? Basically it is alternating between period of high intensity cardio to periods of low intensity cardio multiple times during a workout.

My routine (which is just what works best for me) is to warm up power walking for about 10 minutes, and then do 3 minutes jogging, and two minutes power walking. Repeating the 3 and 2 pattern as many times as I feel like! Most of the time I will do these intervals for 30 – 35 minutes total. 

What are the benefits of interval training? Well… Here’s the skinny!

• You will burn more calories over a short period of time in comparison to steady rate cardio.
• Improved your cardiovascular fitness (AKA a healthier heart!)
• I find it makes a workout more interesting… and the time passes faster haha! 😛
• Interval training burns more fat than just traditional cardio.

And there you have it! So glad I got to get a bit of a run in and share with you my favorite interval routine. Do any of you do intervals in your workouts?!

x,

Breakfast is by FAR the best meal of the day. Sometimes when I go to bed at night I am thinking about how excited I am for it to be morning so it can be breakfast time again. No, I am not kidding haha.

Why do I like eating breakfast so much? First off, there are SO many amazing things you can eat for breakfast, for example: Breakfast Cake, Skinny Granola, or Pumpkin Pie Granola. Second, eating breakfast is a great way to make sure you are staying in the best shape possible. There are so many health benefits to eating breakfast it’s actually ridiculous! Now, what exactly are these mysterious health benefits?

Here’s the skinny:

• Eating breakfast controls your hunger later in the day, and reduces your chances of unnecessary overeating!
• Breakfast is associated with improved cognitive function (especially memory.) Who doesn’t want to be a smarty-pants! Gotta build our empires, right?!
• Your mood will be improved significantly! The happiest women are the most beautiful women. 🙂
• Having a morning meal also helps with weight loss. It will reduce excess snacking later in the day.
• And lastly, breakfast improves your strength and endurance (AKA you will have more energy to workout!!) After breakfast give the Sexy Booty & Legs Workout a try and see the difference in energy you have!

Now that you know allll about why breakfast is so fab, I will fill you in on that delicious breakfast I posted above. This was hot old-fashioned oats cooked with almond milk and my famous gingerbread spice mix (<– I will give you guys the recipe later!) I topped my oatmeal off will all the best treats. There was shredded coconut, prunes, gojji berries, mulberries, and chopped brazil nuts. Soooo delish. 

What are your favourite breakfasts to eat?! Let me know in the comments 🙂

x,

In the winter time I am totally guilty of wearing all black, all the time. It might also be a Vancouver thing because I feel like everyone here just wears black all winter long! I have been trying to switch it up lately and wear a bit more colour, but today I went back to my usual all-black ensemble and was loving it haha.

So it was the windiest day EVER when we shot these photos. For real. I was trying to be like Beyonce (in all her glorious fabulousness) with her constant wind fan, but my attempts were futile at best. I have got to hand it to the woman… HOW DOES SHE CONTROL HER HAIR with all that wind!! It was basically impossible, so I went for the “I’m going really fast on a boat” look with my hair. Not that I had a choice LOL.

Moving right along… Lets start with the shoes. Because they are beauuutifulll and I love them. Michael Kors made these bad boys, and I can’t get enough of their asymmetrical shape. So gorgeous.

My skirt (which is actually a dress, sneaky sneaky) is from Club Monaco. The dress’ neoprene material is super cool because it makes it hold a really nice shape. The sweater is from American Apparel and it is definitely a staple piece for me in the winter. Throw a nice big sweater on top of any outfit and I am one happy camper!

What are your staple clothing pieces for the winter time? Comment below and let me know!

x,