Late night snacking is a super easy habit to slide into, and can lead to negative health effects over time… mainly excess weight gain. Late night snacking is basically any food that you consume after dinner. For me, this usually used to be when I was lurking around the fridge with the door hanging open having little bites of everything haha! I was definitely guilty of being a serious night snacker! 😛

Getting into the habit of snacking at night is a dangerous cycle. As you are chowing down on your junk food of choice (rarely is a night time snack a healthy snack) you are getting fuller and fuller before bed. When you wake up in the morning, chances are you will still feel full from the night before. This will make you want to skip breakfast. Eating breakfast is soooo important for your overall health (<– post coming on this soon!) and skipping it will mess up your eating schedule. Bad news for everyone. So, how can you stop those nasty little (or big) late night snacks from happening?

Here’s the skinny:

1) Brush your teeth after dinner! This is such a simple little action but it seriously helps you think twice about reaching for the chips. This works for me mainly because I am lazy and don’t want to have to brush my teeth again (anyone else with me?! Haha)

2) Eat a good dinner. If you deny yourself during dinner time, it will just catch up with you later at night when you are reaching for the fridge doors in the wee hours of the night. So make sure you have a healthy filling dinner that wont leave you hungry an hour later.

3) Drink tea! I find drinking my favourite tea or hot water with lemon at night a great distraction from mindless snacking. The warm drink will satisfy you and keep your hands busy so you aren’t looking to grab some junk food.

4) Do something at night OTHER than watching TV. Watching TV at night can be a major snacking trigger. It is an un-engaging activity and many people find themselves craving treats while watching their favourite show. Try reading a book or doing another hobby you enjoy at night. It will keep you distracted and be way more enriching than watching TV anyways. 😛

These tips have worked great for me, and helped me stop my late night snacking habit! What do you do to avoid late night snacking? I would love to hear your tips in the comments below! <3

x,

The other day I found this cute colourful sweater at H&M! It is a great simple piece for fall. I am all about chunky sweaters in the fall season so this one was just perfect for me! My leather skirt (skort?) is from Zara in Prague. This is actually the first time I have worn it even though I got it a few months ago! Just didn’t find the right top for it until now. 😛 The sandals were purchased at Zara in Barcelona, aka my favourite place to shop these days haha.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I am off to make some dinner and have a cozy Sunday night in. 🙂

x,

Gold. I hit GOLD, everyone. Seriously I just threw this Pumpkin Pie Granola together the other day and did not even realize what sort of wizardry I was concocting. Then I tasted it…. The best. 🙂

I knowww that the official pumpkin-mania month is over, but you can still enjoy as many pumpkin flavored treats as you like! Not to mention, this skinny “treat” is super good for you! No guilt added here.

This recipe has no refined sugar, and every ingredient is whole and natural. The fiber in oatmeal actually helps with weight control as oatmeal makes you feel fuller for longer! So chow down my friends.

What’s in it:

• 2 cups raw, whole rolled oats
• ½ cup (or more, I definitely put more lol) chopped pecans
• ½ cup sultana raisins
• 4 tbsp real maple syrup
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• pinch of fine sea salt
• 3 tbsp pumpkin spice mix (I found mine in the bulk section of my grocery store!)

Mix all the delicious ingredients above into a bowl. Bake at 300 degrees farenheight for about 10 minutes! Enjoy on top of non-sweetened greek yogurt, and add some fruit if your heart so desires. Hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

x,

Did something a little bit different this weekend, we took a trip to interior BC and went off-roading up in the mountains! It was such a cool adventure. The foliage is quite different from Vancouver, and we saw so many beautiful lakes and mountains on our drive. It was also super chilly up there, so I was sure to wear my warmest coat! 🙂

One really interesting part of our adventure was this old run-down vacation resort that we came across. It looked like it had been a super popular lodge at one point, but now looked more or less abandoned. We went inside the main room of the lodge to check it out and actually ended up meeting the husband and wife team who have owned the resort for 40 years together. Totally different experience… I am so glad we went inside and explored!

x,

Okay so that title might have been a little bold, I don’t actually know if this is the best steak in the world because I haven’t tried all the steaks in the world…. But it’s pretty damn close if you ask me! Since the weather has been so great in Vancouver (these past few days,) I figured I would share my favourite BBQ steak recipe. I learned this recipe from my Grandma, and it is seriously unreal! So simple, and so delicious.

What’s in it:

• Beef tenderloin steaks (Costco sells great ones!)
• Mustard (Maille Old Style Whole Grain Dijon is my fave)
• Fresh pressed garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil

Start by covering your steaks in as much fresh pressed garlic as you like. I am really generous with my garlic because I find lots of it gets lost in the BBQ anyways. Next, generously cover those steaks in your mustard! The last step is to cover them in extra virgin olive oil. Let these babies sit on the counter and marinate for about 30 minutes, to get that flava flave right in there.

After your steaks are done marinating, fire up your BBQ and let it heat up. To make a great steak the BBQ should be really hot (around 500 degrees.) Once the BBQ is at the right temp, throw those steaks on for about 6 minutes per side. How long you BBQ them for really depends on how rare you like your steak and how thick the cut of meat is. So use your judgment on this one! Just make sure the BBQ is really hot so you get that delicious seared outside. Yum, yum, YUM!

I served my steaks with a simple salad and BBQ’d potatoes. For the salad I mixed together butter lettuce, chopped strawberries, sliced red onion, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil leaves. I served my favourite Yogurt Tahini Dressing as the dressing on this beautiful salad.

My potatoes are magic. I’m telling you… MAGIC! All you do is take some small potatoes and boil them until they are cooked. Drain the potatoes and put them in another bowl. Cover em all up in olive oil, and whatever spices you have in your house. Here I used dried basil, oregano, thyme, and parsley. Add some salt and pepper, and toss them on the still-hot BBQ! They only need a few minutes and they will brown right up and have that awesome BBQ flavour.

Brave the chilly weather and fire up your BBQ to enjoy a beautiful steak dinner!

x,