Vegan Restaurants in the Grand Rapids Area

by Jenni in

We are currently in the Grand Rapids, MI area for the next few days and have had the opportunity to eat at some fantastic vegan or vegan friendly restaurants. Whether you are a vega, are not a vegan but love the food, or hate anything vegan related- if you are in the Grand Rapids area, try these restaurants. There is a pretty high chance you will like something from at least one of these places, if not all of them.

Bartertown Diner

This restaurant is the only one on the list that is 100% vegan. It is also 100% amazingly delicious! Bartertown is all about local and only buys from local, organic small farms that treat the farm workers fairly. This makes the food incredibly fresh since the ingredients are delivered fresh daily, but it also makes everything taste better. Everything is also way more satisfying since your body will become full from fewer whole foods compared to processed.

Bartertown is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The prices are super economical and the servings are huge. Menus change from season to season and depending on availability, so anytime you go, you are bound to have something new. I would also highly recommend trying some of their desserts. All desserts are fantastic and vegan. Seriously, I never knew vegan could taste so good.  

The Village Baker

The hubs and I came across this place after taking our scuba refresher course in Spring Lake Michigan. Needless to say we were hungry and wanted a hearty breakfast. I was quite surprised with all of the vegan options this place had, especially considering that is is a bakery. The vegan asparagus soup and baked fritata with vegan cheese were incredible. Next time we go, I am getting the baked french toast, no question.

One of the coolest things about The Village Baker is the people who work there. The entire staff is super nice and crazy into their food. The hubs was taking some pictures of the restaurant and the owner came by, saw what he was doing, and gave him an impromptu tour of the entire restaurant- kitchen and all. We were able to learn all about the place and the baker who trained in traditional bread baking in Germany. He takes his bread serious and has a special oven for traditional baking as well. If you, like me, love your breads, go here. You will definitely not regret dining here or taking one of there pretzels as a post meal snack.  

The Corner Bar

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If you are ever in Grand Rapids Michigan, I would completely recommend taking a 20-minute drive north to the town of Rockford. This town is situated on a gorgeous dam and is one of the most picturesque places I have ever been. The Corner Bar, located in the heart of downtown Rockford, has plenty of food and some pretty fantastic veggie hotdogs as well. There are about 20 different hotdog options and all of them can be ordered vegetarian. Hotdogs can be ordered in the dining room, on the outdoor patio, or at the to-go window at the corner.

After eating here, you can walk across the street to Rocky's for some good, old fashioned ice cream, soft serve, and Dole Whip. Yep, I just created the best afternoon ever!  

 

Ten Minute Bum Routine

by Jenni in

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A great ten minute bum workout is something that can be tacked to the end of your pre-existing workout, or done one to two times as a workout of it's very own. This bum workout targets the inner thighs, outer thighs, all three gluteus muscles, and the hips abductor muscles. To complete this workout, do each exercise for one minute.

If you really want to get a bum that defy's gravity, reduce the amount of simple sugars and starches eaten in a day and replace them with complex carbs like spinach, beets, and asparagus. Increasing your lean protein intake will do wonders as well.  

Side Leg Taps with Straight Leg

My ballet instructor taught me how to do these as part of her floor barr series. Floor barr is one of the greatest forms of exercise I have ever experienced and this exercise is right up their as one of my floor barr favorites! 

Lay on your left side with your left leg bent and your torso lifted off the ground. Anything between the shoulder blade and the hip should be off the floor.  Lift the right leg off the ground and rotate the leg inward. Point and curl your right foot so the big toe is towards the ground. Begin by taping the right toe on the ground infront of you, then lifting the foot up at least one foot and taping in the center. Continue this taping in a front, center, back, center pattern for one minute.

Move on to the side leg taps with bent leg. Complete the two different forms of side leg taps for one minute each, then switch to the left side for one minute per exercise. 

Side Leg Taps with Bent Leg

The bent leg version will work all those tiny little muscles in the inner thigh and hip flexor region. Both of these exercises will also increase your core strength to boot!  

Lay on the ground in the same position as the straight leg side taps, being sure that hips are aligned and the torso is not touching the ground. Lift the right leg off the ground and rotate it outward. Bend the leg and flex the foot. Continue the taping pattern, but tap the heel to the ground instead of the toe. Continue the front, center, back, center taping pattern for one minute, then switch sides and complete both exercises on the left.

Your buns will be screaming! Mine are every time I do these, no matter how often.  

Bridge Pose

I love me some bridge pose! These will work the upper and lower bum, helping those muscles retain a nice rounded shape and reducing cellulite.  

Lay on your back with arms at your side, legs bent, and feet on the floor. Tuck your shoulders under and lift your hips and torso off the ground. Hold this position for thirty seconds, then slowly lower the bum so it is almost touching the ground, then rise back up. Continue this for another thirty seconds. Be sure that your hips stay even and you are lifting as high as possible during the entire exercise. You should feel beet after this.

Stay in bridge pose, there is more to come... 

Extended Leg Bridge Pose

I promise, I would not put these on here in such high quantities unless they did miracles for our butts! Since you are still in bridge pose, all you will need to do is lift the right leg straight into the air. Be sure to keep hips even and as high as possible. Toes can be pointed or flexed, it is up to you.

You can either hold this position (intermediate) or, to really get buns of steal, slowly lower your hips so they are almost touching the ground, hold, then rise back up. Continue this for one minute then alternate to the left leg being straight in the air.  

Plank Toe Taps

These will work your hip flexors, inner thighs, outer thighs, and abs. Get into lowered plank position with the elbows directly under the shoulders. Lift the right leg into the air about 45 degrees and extend it out to behind you, then to the left. Tap your toe on the ground, then return to starting. Continue for one minute, then alternate to the left side.

Curtsey Lunges

Curtsey Lunges are great for the upper and outer bum along with the outer thighs. Start with hands raised and feet hip width apart. Bring the right leg back and to the outside of the left foot, then complete a lunge in this position. Be sure that your front knee does not extend past your front toe and the back knee does not rest on the ground. Continue alternating legs for one minute.  

Health and Fitness Vocabulary Words

by Jenni in ,

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There are a lot, and I mean a lot of vocab words in the health and fitness dictionary. If your head, like mine, has been spinning with things like Paleo, gluten, tabata, and the like- worry no more, below is a complete list of health and fitness vocab words along with their definition. So, let's take a walk down memory lane together and feel completely reminiscent of our grade school Language Arts Classes. The only difference: now we actually want to learn these.... 

Paleo Diet  

Paleo is short for Paleolithic. This type of diet focuses on whole foods similar to what would have been eaten during the Paleolithic era that ended about 10,000 years ago. This diet is also known as the caveman diet or hunter-gatherer diet.

Foods that are on the "eat" list include organic, locally indigenous meats, legumes, berries, whole wheats, roots, fermented cod liver oil (yum!), raw and grass fed dairy (no processing or pasteurization here), and fruits and vegetables that are locally grown. Refined sugars or processed foods will definitely not fit the bill in a Paleo Diet.

Tabata

A type of workout created in Japan that uses high intensity interval training. Like Bikram, Tabata was created by one man and so, named after him. An entire Tabata session lasts 4-minutes with 8 rounds of 20-seconds of intense training and 10-seconds of rest. Tabata researchers found that this sequence increased both aerobic (by 14%) and anaerobic (by 28%) results. Usually, the workouts completed change during intervals.

An example workout would be: 

  • Sprinting for intervals 1, 3
  • Medicine Ball Slams for intervals 2 , 4
  • Squats for intervals 5, 7
  • Side Lateral Raise for intervals 6, 8

HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training

HIIT lasts anywhere from 4-minutes (Tabata) to 30-minutes and include a warm-up time, followed by 3-10 reps of high intensity exercise, then mid-range intensity exercises, and a cool down. The High intensity rep should be a 100% effort, followed by 50% effort of the same activity. This high/mid intensity switch continues for all reps. Time for high verse mid intensity workouts should be a 2:1 ratio with the high intensity lasting twice as long as the mid.

An example workout would be: 

  • Quick Warm-Up
  • 30-seconds of sprinting followed by 15-seconds of walking. Repeat this ten times.  
  • Cool Down and stretches

Another Example would be to complete these exercises for 30-seconds with 10-seconds of rest. Complete 8 reps, total.

  • Jumping jacks
  • Wall Sits
  • Push-Ups
  • Crunches
  • Chair Squats
  • Plank

Pescetarian

I am quite familiar with this term since I have been one for about five years. A Pescetarian diet is a form of a vegetarian diet where you do not eat meat or poultry but do consume fish. Pescetarians do not need to be quite as careful with where they get Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids or proteins compared to vegetarians or vegans. Since most fish have high contents of protein and healthy fats, the only main concern is fish availability, population and fishing control, and- of course- contaminants in food.

Everyone should be careful of what fish they buy, where they buy it, and how much they eat- especially pescetarians. Eating high quantities of predator fish could result in high levels of blood toxicity levels due to bioaccumulation. Read this to learn more about what you need to know when buying fish.

Gluten

Gluten is a protein composite used to thicken certain foods. There are many types of foods that have gluten in them, from breads that use it to increase moistness and that iconic springy texture, to gravy's that use it as a thickening agent. The protein composite, gluten, is formed during the processing of certain wheat plants including barley and rye. Foods do not naturally have gluten.

Some people (about 1% of the US population) either have a gluten sensitivity or Celiac disease. Gluten sensitivity has been on the rise over the past decade. This could be from an increase in knowledge with gluten-free being a trending diet, or because more foods are processed than were ten years ago. Those with gluten sensitivity are unable to eat it since ingesting it could lead to various reactions including upset stomach, bloating, vomiting, and more super fun things everyone wishes to have. Not.  

 

 


 

  

 

YouTube Ab Workout

by Jenni in

 As you may know, I have decided to do a complete ab overhaul in the next few months. This means that I will be working my abs into washboard shape every workout day of the week. The first day it was the Intense Ab Workout that I completely recommend everyone doing. It is intense and 100% worth it... Plus, that three workout cocktail will also tone your upper legs, inner thighs, and bum. Dreamy.

The next day I decided to forgo the usual yoga flow and go with some good ole' Pilates instead. Pilates, in general, is a major ab workout, so trading one for the other just made sense. For this Pilates class, I went with Cassey Ho's Abs on Fire workout. This is an intense 15-minute ab workout that is meant to kill us. Yea, my abs are feeling it.  

The Abs on Fire workout does some really fun exercises that I have never seen before. This was great since the same old workout gets boring and does not work your muscles quite as much as it did the first time around.  

If you really want to intensify your workout, double up with the Legs on Fire after the abs. This is another intense Cassey Ho workout. The workout is great and torches fat everywhere from the lower calf to the bum. Like the Abs on Fire, this workout has some newer exercises mixed in with the more known ones. Both of these workouts combined took me about 30-minutes and left me in a puddle of sweat on the floor.

To cap it all off, I did the Cassey Ho Corset Workout before bed that night. I know, it was an intense, Cassey Ho kinda day. The Corset Workout is about 8-minutes long and will target all the muscles around your waistline. I loved this workout. It is not quite as intense as the other two, so perfect as a before-bed routine, or added on to your usual daily workout. If you are really feeling insane, try doing all three as your day's workout. Those muscles will not know what hit them!