According to my screen-time record on my iPhone I spend 8 hours a day on Instagram (It’s my job, don’t @ me, mom). so its no shock I’ve run into so many of those Daily Harvest adds. During one of the adds, I decided to swipe up and take a look. Surprisingly, it’s pretty affordable for normal people! I got 9 cups, weekly, for an intro cost of $45 ($65 after your first order). These are marketed for breakfast or lunch, but I’m mostly using them for dinner. I got a couple breakfast options, but prefer a savory breakfast and smoothies/ oatmeal just ain’t gonna cut it. Here’s what I ordered in my first box:
The best stuff:
Coconut Lemon bites: Not a huge fan of coconut that isn’t sweetened but wow yes to this. Great when you just need a quick little something sweet
Sweet Potato + Wild Rice hash: So good. We’re in a committed relationship now
Cauliflower Rice + Pesto: I’m not a pesto person, but this is amazing.
Mulberry + Dragon Fruit: This was an oat bowl and I’ve never had either of these fruits (cause who’s confident enough to pick up one of those dragon fruit things at the store?). Still not 100% sure what Dragon fruit tastes like, but love mulberry.
Everything I ordered was surprisingly pretty tasty good. For someone who literally only makes food for one person, these are fantastic. The serving sizes are great and everything you need to make it is already in the cup, just add water. Another great thing is it’s all plant based meals, which can be hard to make without buying a million different ingredients that go bad in 7 seconds. Truthfully, I will probably do this about 2X a month so that I have a variety of meals and I’m not overstocking my tiny fridge. Trader Joe’s freezer section has some competition.
Some real wild ones this week so let’s dive right in!!!! No time to waste:
I’m gonna go ahead and say you will never get an Uber with this guy.
Big words from a guy who literally took the time to put his own Zodiac in his bio.
This guy matched with me while my job title clearly states that I’m in Social Media?
I don’t know guys, I don’t think he’s gonna find anyone for his niche interests.
These were funny in 2014 for 5 minutes.
When your friend is way hotter than you so you have to cover his face with an emoji. I get it, I see you.
Even the Bumble bio has it’s limits.
Mystery, ladies, you ever heard of it?
And lastly, our Absolute Gem of the Week. I’m bestowing this honor on this guy for not taking the 7 seconds to google Shawn Mendes and then matching with me after I was incredibly snarky. God speed, king.
This week features a man that is definitely wearing a toupee and a new segment I’m calling “Absolute Gem of the Week.” Let’s get started:
Idk if my standards for men are too low, but I have never seen a drunk guy wash his face before bed. Let’s be honest, I can’t really recall a time I’ve ever seen a guy wash his face.
And on today’s episode of “holy shit, is that a toupee???”
Wow what a mystery, I’d love to be that lounge one day.
Ladies, red flag or deal breaker? This dude has absolutely no brain, but is probably a fun time.
Ugh, guys it’s fine. They’re just homies!!! Also probably the thing he’ll say after the 5th time he cheats on you with her.
I’m just gonna leave this one here. His entire profile was just pictures of food. Can’t bear to make fun of it, just bums me out. I hope he finds his food queen.
And last, but not least, this week’s #1 Absolute Gem. He deserved an entire screen recorded video for his profile. I can’t believe he’s single.
After doing a little research (I googled it), I’ve found some pretty conflicting info about how much you should be washing your hair. Apparently, how much you wash your hair depends on your hair type. If your hair is dry, no more than twice a week. If it’s oily, everyday is fine. If your hair is thick, once a week. If you’re a brunette, no more than twice a week. But what if you have oily, thick, brown hair? Good luck.
The censuses seems to be, less is more. The less you wash, the less you have to style it and the less chance for damage. My hair is naturally very oily or “greasy”, as I fondly, (not fondly), refer to it. Before the beautiful invention of dry shampoo, I used to just put on a headband and wash my hair every other day. Needless to say, I was first-world suffering. Since adding dry shampoo into my life, I’ve been able to wash my hair less and less. I try to go at least 3-ish days and day three was a bun day for sure. Recently, a combo of laziness and honestly just seeing how long I can go, I’ve been going longer and longer between washes. I’ve been doing a wash on Monday and then another towards the end of the week so I can appear to be fresh on the weekends. This past week, I went an entire 7 days without washing it. Here’s my true hollywood story:
Headbands are back and my dirty hair is thriving in the Blair Waldorf of it all. I recently got a bunch of really cute puffy velvet headbands and have been utilizing them to the max. Do they hurt? I’m not gonna lie to you, they give me headaches. So do a lot of other things: people who don’t text back fast enough, when its randomly 40 degrees and you wanted to wear shorts and a light jacket, when the subway doors don’t open for a long pause so you just stand there brimming with anticipation, someone taking a call on speaker in a public place etc. This headache is self-inflicted and I will endure pain for beauty!!
Dry. Sham. Poo. Obviously if this did not exist, I could not not wash my hair. It would drive me nuts. I will say after like day 3, you don’t need as much because it doesn’t, like, evaporate. It sticks around. My favorite is Dove, but it’s all about preference. Gives me the most volume and smells good.
Have good shampoo for when you do actually use it. I’m gonna level with you, my shampoo right now is crappy. It was cheap and I really needed some so I took what I could get. I have a very itchy scalp and dandruff issues, (TMI?) so I really need to switch. Thinking heavily about Function of Beauty again, but tbd.
On that note, probably also get a clarifying shampoo. What the heck is clarifying shampoo, Katie? Well I’ll tell you, dear reader. I discovered it the last time I went to get my hair cut (10 billion years ago) and I told my stylist that my hair looked so gross even though I had washed it that day. Apparently, jus regular ole shampoo doesn’t take all of the stuff out of your hair, so you need to use a clarifying shampoo. Go figure.
If you’re trying this, now is a great time. Hair + cooler weather = gorgeous hair for days. I don’t know what it is about fall/winter weather, probably the fact that you aren’t sweating anymore, but good hair is imminent. On day six of this journey it was about 40 degrees outside and for some reason my hair looked amazing (its also my featured image in the post thank you very much). If you’re even thinking about washing your hair less, this is a fabulous season to start. Also hello hat season!!!
Start slow. Go an extra day every now and then and work up to a full week without washes. Embrace a ponytail, a bun, a cute puffy headband. It’s better for your hair, better for good ole mother earth and saves some money.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not coming for people with tiny boobs. We’re all given a certain amount and we may increase or decrease to our leisure, if you’re willing to pay for it. I would also like to point out that it is 10000X easier to add boob (pushup bra) than take boob away (there’s no “take boob away” bra).
However, when it comes to fashion lately, smaller boobs are more “stylish”. I can think of so many times where I’ve said, I can’t wear that because I have big boobs. I recently watched a IGTV video from an unnamed magazine company where they talked about trends for fall or things that they’re loving as far as clothes go. I would say about half of the things we’re very specifically tailored to people with absolutely nothing up top.
It seems that we always want to add more boob, but in clothing lately it’s trendy to just not have any boobs at all. Here’s some examples:
Sweaters with just one button to close it, cute! On me? Suggestive.
Imagine trying to wear a bra with this–comical.
The trend here seems to be tiny strings to hold your top closed. God forbid your boobs fall with gravity and aren’t inline with your eyeballs.
This started trending on Instagram as everyone saying, “look at Katie Holmes being an influencer! So chic!” Instead of how it would be framed if she had my body which would be, “Katie Holmes wardrobe malfunction! Seems a little sloppy.”
Another trend I’d like to point out is the androgynous dressing, which basically means baggy-suit-wear-so-you-look-like-a-guy. A little easier to pull off, but I’m definitely still gonna look like a girl.
Without getting preachy or talking about something I very much don’t know anything about, this is part of larger issue with fashion. Everything is always made for people of a certain body type and looks wonky on anyone that doesn’t look like that. That’s why it’s cool that some brands now show you the same article of clothing on different body types. But of course, high fashion and trends really aren’t there yet. Anyone who isn’t rail thin really isn’t considered in designing clothes, it’s always just made bigger in order to fit more bodies. And “thats the tea”, on that.
I’m Stanford!!!! This is the first time I’ve written in months and if you’re wondering why I’m writing this, of all things, I have no answers. I do, kinda, have a reason for this post.
So let’s go back, why am I re-watching Sex and the City for the 16 billionth time? I started listening to this new podcast called The Bradshaw Boys. It’s 3 straight guys watching Sex and the City for the first time (mostly) and then discussing it. Super hilarious and fun, highly recommend. At first, I wasn’t going to go back and watch the series with them since I’d already seen it multiple times. As they started going through the episodes, I really just couldn’t help myself and jumped in around Season 2.
One of the surprising things is the newfound annoyance with Carrie. I mean, come on girl, how are you trying to make this relationship with Big work if you never tell him how you feel about things? Every fight they ever have is about how she needs/wants something from him emotionally and is too scared to ask for it. This leads to her inevitable explosion and makes it a giant deal. I don’t wanna say the Big is innocent here, not at all. Anytime she does finally ask what the deal is, he’s usually super vague. I don’t, by any means, think their relationship is something to strive for. I do, however, get where she’s coming from a little. Personally, I find when I really like a guy; I hate bringing up any relationship talk. If you’ve been dating around a while, you sort of get the clue that when you bring that stuff up, it can blow up in your face. You either hear something you don’t like, or get rejected, and so it ends up just nagging you until you explode. I will say that sometimes when she does explode on him, it gets her the results she was looking for. For instance, when he doesn’t tell her he loves her in Season 2, she gets pissy and leaves him at a party. The next day, he actually says it over the phone. Thus, starting the cycle of silence, fight and reward. This is extremely toxic and pretty immature behavior, but I’ve been there. Should they have ended up together? No. You cant allow someone to treat you a certain way for X amount of months and then be surprised when they don’t get the hint that it’s not actually what you want.
I’ve never really been “big” on Big, but on the “Big vs. Aiden” debacle, I’ve always been Team Aiden. He was so sweet and soon much better than Big! I would argue Carrie was over correcting. By that, I mean she hated how badly she was treated by Big, so she went super left field. She needed the opposite of Big and she definitely got it. I always thought he was great, but in actuality, he’s kinda blah. He’s just there all the time. In her space and her life, but doesn’t really add anything. I don’t think he could ever actually hang out with her and her friends. He immediately tried to change her with the smoking thing. Literally all they do is lounge around her place being boring. We give “nice” guys such a huge pass, simply because they’re nice, but let’s please up the bar ladies. Maybe if we did, there’d be more nice guys to go around! Nice should be base level, what else does he have besides nice? I think Carrie stayed with him half of the time, just because he was nice, and then the rest of the time, just because she felt bad for him because he was nice. Think about when she first said, “I love you” to him. She said it right after he did and she had just cheated on him with Big. She didn’t love him, clearly. Also, they just truly did not mesh well. He didn’t like smokers; he liked the outdoors and loved staying in with his dog. She liked to party, smoke and be glamorous. She literally never went to a single party or outing when they were together, I mean what up with that? At least Big could keep up with her, her friends and her lifestyle. I get it nice is so refreshing. Dating a bunch of crappy dudes will really have you reaching for some boredom in your love life. It’s easier and you think that’ll mean predictability and that it’ll work out better. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. Nice just translates to “I’m saving myself from getting hurt this time” which isn’t always the case, especially with Carrie.
It’s probably true that every time you watch a series again, you get something different out of it. You hopefully have different experiences all the time, so you watch things though a different perspective. I know Carrie’s overcorrecting because I’ve been there myself. On the Big vs. Aiden thing, I’m neither. I’m more of a Harry-Smith-Steve gal myself.
Since I mostly live in comfortable clothes now and like the occasional workout class, I needed some new leggings. And by need, I mean just convinced myself I needed them. I’ve been wanting to try Fabletics for a while now, but got spooked by the V.I.P system. Basically, this charges you 50 bucks after the 5th of every month unless you buy something or skip that month. I’ve been burned by forgetting to skip my Hello Fresh before (literally woke up in a cold sweat after sleepily seeing my PayPal charged 60 bucks one morning), but really wanted the discounted leggings. My bank account be damned, I signed up and walked away with the cutest spring leggings.
I have two favorite pairs of leggings. One was bought for maybe $25 at Forever21 and the other was a very spontaneous Lululemon $98 purchase after feeling very good in them in the dressing room mirror. The price is obviously wildly different, but they do have a few things in common. 1. Super mega high-waisted. 2. The perfect length aka no bunching at the bottom and not too short. 3. Thin enough to breathe but thick enough that there isn’t any weird see-through areas. It also helps that they’re both a cute print and mostly black.
I’d say the key to finding good leggings is trying them on. I’ve bought way too many online that were either thicker than I thought or didn’t come up high enough—which it needs to be at least over the belly button no question. Fabletics opened a pop-up down in SoHo so I was able to try a few on. Wouldn’t say there was a huge selection, but decent enough. These are what I tried on and what I ended up getting. 2 for $24, ya can’t beat that.
So the question is, do these measure up to my favorite leggings? Let’s get the not so great out of the way, as usual:
I think because these leggings are light colored, the sweat marks show. Kinda gross, but crotch sweat is real and I don’t need it seen.
THICK! The fabric is super thick. I dont hate it (I bought them full-well knowing that), but kinda hate the “front wedgie” that gives me. Am I right ladies?
Okay now for the good stuff:
Great price. I mean $24 dollars for two is great. After the intro price, it’s $50 if you’re VIP which is still better than Lululemon
The perfect length. Not too long and not too short.
Holds your shit in TIGHT. And super high-waisted
The colors are just so pretty and make me feel cute while sweating my ass off
Did I say price already cause it’s good
Overall, 10/10 would buy again. Might try a few other styles that may be less thick in the future, but definitely worth the hype! If you’re in the market of new ones, I recommend the mint because the color is wow. Let me know if there’s something else you want me to cover in the comments!
Starting a new series today, whoop! I was trying to do what I did with the “Sunday Summary” that I used to do, but maybe make it less lame? Trying new things is my favorite thing so this is more of an in-depth at the stuff I like. Enjoy, nerds.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a workout person for about 10 years now. I’ve done pretty much everything from pilates, weight training, running, back to pilates, cardio HITT, and back to weight training. A couple of years ago, I started trying workout classes at my college gym. I started with a 7 AM cycling class and pretty soon I was doing any one I could fit into my schedule. Who knew I would like sweating with other people? Luckily for me, that gym was in my tuition and so none of those classes ever cost me an extra dime. Unfortunately, you can’t stay in college and live the good life forever.
Since moving to the city, I didn’t have the luxury of a free gym with free classes. Gym memberships that included classes were a little steep for me, so I stuck to taking about one workout class a month. Your basic first time class at an NYC studio is around 30 bucks a class–sometimes free if you’re lucky. Every place will have some sort of package, but the only way to get an unlimited amount of classes is to pay upwards of $300. That cuts right into my booze and outfit money, so, hard pass. Also you can only take that certain class–cycling, barre, yoga etc.
ClassPass, here to solve all of your problems. It’s a place where you pay a certain amount a month, which gives you a certain amount of “credits” to book any kind of workout class you can dream of in the city. I have the lowest plan where you pay 50 bucks a month to get 27 credits. I usually can book around 2-3 classes a month since most classes are 10 credits. You might be saying, wait only 3 classes a month? That’s nothing. Yes, Deborah, you’re right that’s not a lot, but keep in mind I was spending around $30 on one class. In my research for this I also discovered you can get a Blink all access gym membership (which is the gym I go to) and get 45 credits a month for $94. Which I’m switching to as soon as my membership runs out this month, spoiler alert. I’ve done HITT classes, barre, yoga sculpt, cycling and I’m trying boxing this week!
So let’s be real: If you love going to workout classes and hate spending a trillion dollars, yes! I wish I would’ve done this sooner
Raise your hand if you’ve resolved to be healthier in 2019?
I’d consider myself a pretty decently healthy person—who’s addicted to sugar and will not apologize for it. I’ve recently, in the last 6 months, gotten used to eating a serving of vegetables a day. May not sounds like a lot, but you gotta start somewhere, right?
I’ve never been a huge fan of vegetables, because ew. I usually struggle with them unless they’re drowning in some sort of sauce (ranch?). I somehow found a way of making them taste amazing and, almost more importantly, ready very quickly. I’ve never been the kind of person who can sit and wait for food to cook for an hour. I thought I’d share my go-to in case anyone was looking for a quick recipe! I’m by no means a recipe expert and you can totally tell because my pictures are very basic, but you get the idea.
Note: You can use ANY vegetables, I’ve just been really into asparagus and sweet potato lately.
That’s literally it. I know turmeric seems weird, but its so good mixed with all of the other things.
How I do it:
Grab a skillet and oil it with a decent amount of whatever oil you chose
Put your veggie of choice in there and cook it on medium heat
Flip them after about 5 minutes and add spices( I like mine very brown, so maybe flip them earlier if you don’t)
Turn heat on low and add juice from the half lime
EAT
I added chicken because it goes really well with all the other spices, but you can use whatever you like! I’ve noticed if you don’t have a gas stove, they may take longer to cook, just an fyi. I eat this all the time (ask my roommate) and I love it!
I wanted to do this wrap up of the stuff I really loved this year that I didn’t talk about and/or barely talked about. Sort of like a giant Sunday Summary, A.K.A that thing I don’t do anymore (but can still be viewed if you’re into that).
Best Hair Product of 2018:
The Tragic Before
Technically, this isn’t a product. HOWEVER, I discovered this dry shampoo blow drier trick and it is a game changer. Had bun hair all day and then someone wanted to hangout (and i did not want to have bun hair) so I tried this trick. Here’s the post I did and how it ended up going for me, but spoiler alert, it works.
Best Book in 2018:
If you need to know anything about me, it’s that I love to read. I’ve been slacking slightly with how much, but I’ve been picking up major speed with it lately. I’ve read roughly 20-ish books this year, which is kind of a lot. Trying to narrow it down to the best was hard, but some of the books I read just sort of ran together. Really thinking about doing a monthly post about the books I read the month before (mostly just to push myself to read more). OKAY on to my actual pick: You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero. I know what you’re thinking “Self-help book? That’s for sad weirdos.” Here’s the thing: You’re right! BUT, I’d argue that everyone is kind of a sad weirdo sometimes! I read this when I really needed something to give me things to do after I quit my job and when I needed a distraction from going down the “what if I have to move home because I can’t find a job” hole. I would honestly read it again, that’s how much I liked it. If you’re stuck in place in your life where you have no idea what you’re doing, read this. If you wanna make a crazy change, read this. It’s 2019, the year of making goals and gettin’ bread—as the memes say, so read it!
Best Makeup Product of 2018:
Okay I almost put something else for this that was expensive and to be fair, very good. I feel that I should instead pay homage to a brand who had my back when I was too broke to go to Sephora and get new stuff. That’s right I’m talking about ELF. You wouldn’t think with $1 brow pencils and $3 concealer would be worth putting on your face. I’m here to tell you, your assumptions are wrong. My brows are perfectly filled and my pores CONCEALED! Was actually not a fan of the bronzer cause it was too glittery for my tastes but that doesn’t mean it’s not quality! Okay done with my spiel.
Best Skincare Product of 2018:
Spoiler alert it’s like 2 dollars. Spoiler alert again, it’s lemon juice. I started using it and it felt like a miracle. Then I stopped for a few weeks recently, because I’m skeptical person and sometimes I don’t feel like buying lemons ya know. Started using them again and wow I forgot how good they are. My skin just has so much less redness and blackheads! It’s so great and so cheap.
Best Movie of 2018:
I know you all want me to say A Star is Born, but I’m sorry I can’t. The music is amazing, yes. Bradley Cooper is hot, yes. I absolutely knew what was gonna happen at the end and so I didn’t like it as much. Maybe if there was a world with no spoilers and people wouldn’t have talked about how amazing it was and subsequently ruining it. I also really don’t watch movies in theaters that much. I’ve seen maybe 3 movies this entire year, so I fell like I can’t say what the best movie this year is. I can say what the best movie I saw this year. It’s not new, it’s just new to me. Okay, it’s Steel Magnolias. This is a weird pick for me, since every time anyone would bring this up I’d immediately think “How can that be good? It sounds so corny.” It was on Netflix a few months back and it was a rainy Saturday, so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s set in a small town in Louisiana—hence the name. The thing about movies centered around the South is they’re always over exaggerated. Every other word is “crawfish” or “gumbo” or “pea-can pie!” I get it, its a movie, but that why I never really like them. This one doesn’t do that. Overall, its pretty reflective of life in smaller southern town and I loved it. I cried, I laughed and now I know why it wont so many awards. It’s not on Netflix anymore, but find it somewhere because it’s so good.
Best Show of 2018:
Okay this is so hard because I’ve seen so many good shows this year, but there’s only one that filled me with the most joy every time I turned it on: The Great British Baking Show. Am I late to this game? I really don’t know but this show is so good. I really loved watching to the point of watching two seasons in a about a week. I did it in a weird way where I watched seasons 5 & 6 first and in my humble opinion, those are the best seasons. After that, they change the hosts and Prue isn’t one of the judges and I need her color coordination in my life. I love the accents, the stuff they come up with and Paul Hollywood is a cutie, I’m just gonna throw it out there. Really into shows that make me laugh and aren’t super dramatic lately and this one definitely fill that for me. I even watched it twice, so if you haven’t yet, here’s your notification.
Best Clothing Purchase of 2018:
This was the year I bought so many clothes, it’s obnoxious. Trying to “re-vamp” my wardrobe and also buying things for a 9-5 job was tough. I think the best purchase and the thing I got the most use out of were my Lululemon leggings. As you know, I’m more of a quantity over quality gal. Trends come and go a lot for me to be buying something that I may not wear in a few years that costs an arm and a leg. Also let’s keep it real, I’m still washing my clothes in a laundry mat for god’s sake. I’m in no place to be buying anything over 50 bucks. I completely believe in a good splurge for things that may be expensive, but you’ve been lusting after for a while. Hence, my purchase of these leggings. I really wanted to see if they are so different from the $20 Forever 21 leggings and I’m here to say yes they are. They fit like a glove, the length is always perfect (aka no bunching at the bottom) and they stay in place when I’m running. I still only have one pair so far, but 2019 I’ll be getting some more and really coming into my basic white girl form.
Best Workout of 2018:
So, I’m splitting this up by home workout and workout class, okay great:
Best home workout is always Tabata with Raneir Pollard hands down. He’s so fun and at the same time, the workout is always intense. It’s always my Monday go to for a good strong beginning to my week. Also, they just uploaded a new one!
Best workout class I’ve been to in the city is Yoga sculpt at Corepower yoga. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, If I were a richer woman, I’d be doing yoga twice a week at minimum. This particular class is not only yoga, but a little bit of cardio to satisfy my needs. They have them all over, so check them out if they’re near you!
Cheers to 2019! Can’t wait to make many more posts and let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see more of on the blog 🙂
Sweaters with just one button to close it, cute! On me? Suggestive.
Imagine trying to wear a bra with this–comical.
The trend here seems to be tiny strings to hold your top closed. God forbid your boobs fall with gravity and aren’t inline with your eyeballs.
This started trending on Instagram as everyone saying, “look at Katie Holmes being an influencer! So chic!” Instead of how it would be framed if she had my body which would be, “Katie Holmes wardrobe malfunction! Seems a little sloppy.”
I Don't Even Have a "Pla" 