We never really did get a winter in Dallas, but no complaints here! We are all about the spring or summer weather, except for when we are literally dripping in sweat in the summer;) One of our favorite colors to wear all-year-long is blush. It is super flattering on everyone, and we love it especially for spring!This sweater is a GREAT option, and it comes in a ton of colors. We have it in the orange, too, and love the fit of it! We rounded up a few more blush sweater options for you all here:
These grey booties are a great spring bootie. They have a really cute cutout detailing on the ankle opening, and a great heel height. We really love grey for spring because it isn’t super harsh like black, but it is a a great neutral! You may remember this bag in tan a while back! We love this bag for everyday, and it is also a good bag for traveling, or a night out! It actually does fit a good amount in there. To transition your wardrobe into spring, we suggest going for pastel colors, like blush, and pairing it with a comfy pair of ripped jeans like these (SO comfy and stretchy, btw!) You can throw on a pair of booties or wedges, and you’re good to go!
I know we haven’t stopped posting these wedges, but they’re AMAZING! We got them last year in tan, and literally wore them all summer and fall. We got the black ones this year, and you will probably be seeing a ton more of them;) They are under $200, so yes, they are not super cheap, but let us tell you, you will LOVE them! They come in a bunch of different styles like peep toe, closed toe, etc. This v-neck is under $40 and super soft! You may remember us wearing it in grey and black a few times;) The green one is sold out, but we highly recommend getting it in grey! We are wearing an XXS for reference. These jeans are super stretchy, and we have them in black and white, too. The rips are perfect in these and we are wearing the 25×30 for reference. We are super short, like 5’1″! Also, this super cute twisted braid was done by our hairstylist, Viviana!
We had originally shared this post in December, but since we have gotten A TON more questions about this, we decided to re-share this post! We also wanted to share this article we read that really explains why we eat the way we do, and maybe it will be helpful to y’all!
This article shares 8 foods to avoid if you have a thyroid condition, like us. We follow most of these! It does a better job (than we would) of explaining why you should avoid these foods.
We wanted to open up about something that got us into eating healthy and working out so consistently! Many of y’all probably didn’t know this, but we used to be personal trainers a couple of years ago before we started this blog. As much as we love fashion and putting outfits together, we are also super passionate about healthy eating and working out. We both suffer from an autoimmune condition called Hypothyroidism.
It all started during our junior year of college. We started feeling extremely tired, sluggish, and bloated all of the time (yes, those are symptoms that you could have any day really, but ours were almost constant). This went on for another full-year. Finally, our senior year of college (about 4 years ago), we had had enough. We felt absolutely TERRIBLE. We knew something had to be wrong with us, and that we weren’t just imagining it.
Growing up, we did eat healthy foods at home with an abundance of fruit and vegetables. We were active and played tennis and were gymnasts. When we reached high school, our main food group consisted of fast-food, pizza, Mexican foods, desserts, pasta, etc. We weren’t as physically active in high school, but like most people that age, we could eat all of that and get away with it. Those were the days, right?!
When we started college, we contintued to eat the same way, except almost EVERY meal was eaten out. Nothing was prepared at home (how things have changed!). Eventually, this led us to gain weight (probably 10-15 pounds). This doesn’t seem like a huge amount, but when you’re 5′ 1″, it really shows!
We started to watch what we were eating, but still didn’t really know or understand what to eat and how much to eat. By the time we were juniors in college, we had started cooking more and eating out a little less. We started working out and lifting weights a little more, too. Although we felt like we were eating healthier and caring more about what we looked like on the inside we still felt so tired and sluggish. By 3 PM each day, we would be ready for bed, despite getting 8-9 hours of sleep each night.
We would workout, but often times we felt like we just couldn’t even make it to the gym. In addition to that, we felt “swollen” everywhere, our digestive system was out of whack and not doing what it was supposed to do regularly (yes, that part sucks!), our skin was very dry (especially our heels), our hands and feet would fall asleep a lot, amongst a bunch of other really odd symptoms. Fun, right?
After bugging our dad (who is a cardiologist), we finally got a blood test. It showed that we both had severe Hypothyroidism.
What Is Hypothyroidism?
Hypthothryoidism is also referred to as underactive thyroid disease. With this condition, your thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormone. Your thyroid does SO much for your body including controlling how your body’s cells use energy from food (metabolism). Your metabolism affects your body’s temperature, heartbeat, and how well you burn calories. When your thryoid is underactive, your body makes less energy, and therefore, your metabolism becomes sluggish.
What Is The Treatment For It?
The treatment for this thyroid condition is to take medication, which we take daily. We also check our thyroid every couple of months to make sure our levels are still normal.
How Do You Get a Thyroid Condition?
We still aren’t sure how or why we got this condition, but it can be due to a variety of factors such as heredity, sex, and age. We know that it is common to experience a range of food sensitivities, especially to dairy and gluten. The primary cause of Hypothyroidism is Hashimoto’s disease, which is an autoimmune disease that causes your system to mistakenly attack your thyroid.
What Should You Eat To Feel Better?
After reading the studies and articles, we decided to cut out some of our favorite foods like pizza, bread, pasta, cereals, basically everything we were used to eating on a daily basis, and eat a gluten-free diet. While this did alleviate some of our symptoms, we still did not feel completely relieved.
We read a lot about the Paleo diet, and how following it can be beneficial for those suffering from Hypothyroidism. The Paleo diet focuses on eating fruits, vegetables, lean meats, seafood, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. Compared to other diets, it eliminates dairy, grains, processed foods, legumes, starches, and alcohol. The goal of this diet or lifestyle is to remove the triggers that promote inflammation and intestinal permeability. The foods that are approved in the Paleo diet calm the inflammation in the gut and support healthy gut flora. We have also read that this can be benefical for others suffering from other autoimmune conditions.We ate strict paleo for about 6 months and felt so much better. Now, a a few years later, we eat about 80% paleo and grain-free. We allow ourselves to enjoy other gluten-free and dairy-filled treats occasionally!
In case you all have missed these posts, we have covered some of our favorite snacks, and some other great posts to help you all out;)
When we first laid eyes on this cardigan, we HAD to have it. It is the ultimate definition of comfy and cozy, and it is on SALE! YAY! This lighter gray color sold out, but it is still available in the dark grey in all sizes! This black criss-cross tee is another favorite from this past fall and winter. We have it in the short-sleeved version in two colors, and will probably be buying the light pink soon! It is SO soft and looks great with everything! The long-sleeve version sold out, but the short sleeve is available and can be worn under a cardigan like this into the spring! Also, we need to talk about these booties! If you buy ANY booties this year, get these ASAP. They are so comfy and have the perfect heel + peep toe!This adorable braid was done by our hairstylist Hair By Viviana, who also does our cuts and color in Dallas! Hope you all have a great Friday! We are driving up to Houston tomorrow for the Super Bowl, and can’t wait! Go PATS!
Happy Thursday, y’all! We wanted to starting to share some more personal posts with you all since we seem to get great feedback when we do so:)
We are usually pretty private people (yes, we know that makes ZERO sense considering our job, lol). We are both pretty confident people for the most part, and know what we want, don’t like, and do like, but when you have so much of your life and job focused on social media, it can be hard to share EVERYTHING. It does open yourself up to tons of criticism, and luckily, we both really haven’t encountered it that often, so thank you ALL for your constant support and sweet words. We wanted to share 10 things we would tell our younger selves. Some of these are still things we both work on a constant basis, but we thought they would be good to share with y’all!
Learn How to Deal with Criticism and Rejection
This is one that we have definitely dealt with in our 20’s, and especially more and more recently. This can be at school, at work, or in your personal life. It is totally okay, and part of life. As much as it sucks when it happens, it makes you that much stronger of a person, and you grow so much from it. You just have to tell yourself that things will play out the way they are supposed to, keep your chin up, and move on!
You Have to Be Your Own Top Priority
This sounds like a no-brainer, but really, you do. We will be honest and say, we both tend to be more selfish, and focus on ourselves first, rather than someone like our mom, who always will worry about others fist. Some people see it as selfish, but you really can’t be your best self if you don’t or can’t focus on your personal needs. We think this goes as far as taking care of yourself from a health perspective (cooking and eating healthier, working out, etc) to in other relationships, like sticking up for yourself and respecting your thoughts and opinions.
You Need to Become Someone You Can Love Before You Can Love Someone Else
This is a MAJOR one. It sounds so silly, but it’s true. You can’t expect anyone to make you love yourself, if you don’t to begin with. Loving yourself to us means caring for your own health and needs, and you can’t do that for someone else well, if you aren’t doing it well for yourself.
Learn to Stick Up For Yourself
Okay, sometimes we may be too good at this, as in, I (Alexis) will keep pushing and make it known that I was messed with, and it will never happen again;) While it is great to stand up for yourself and your worth, it is equally important to know when to see the other perspective. You should never let anyone make you feel “not worthy”, and you should always stand up for what you believe in, in a kind, respectful way.
Get Comfortable Saying No
Yes, this was on our resolutions, and one that we both struggle with A LOT. There will be times you feel like you have to do something you may not want to do to make someone else happy, but we both tend to over-commit ourselves, and in the end, we are the one’s upset and stressed out. It is important to really focus on the things that you want to be at and do, and kindly and respectively say “no” to the things that may not do much for you mentally and emotionally. When we have done it, it has felt so good!
The People You Surround Yourself With Should Be The Ones That Support Your Growth
This one is super important, and one that we are learning all of the time. We really do think who you surround yourself says a lot about yourself and what your values are. Of course, not every single person you are with will be exactly like you, haha. Even, we aren’t exactly the same and don’t see eye-to-eye on things. With that being said, though, it is so important to be around people that leave you feeling energetic and positive. People that raise you up and are genuinely happy for your successes. A lot of the times, it seems like people that can’t be that way for you are ones that are either jealous, or unhappy with the way their life is at that time. Either way, it works better for everyone if you surround yourself with people that support you and your dreams.
Try Something New Every Week or Every Day
Okay, another important one;) We are not the best and getting out of our routine and pushing ourselves to do something new and different. Example: I (Alexis) am extremely set in my ways and hate when I have to get off my routine. I like to be home and in my comfy pajamas by like 11PM, so if I am out later than that, I will probably complain nonstop;) I am really trying to work on this and push myself to be open to trying new things, even if it is roller blading and falling all over the place like an idiot!
Listen More and Talk Less
This is one that we are both trying to work on, me especially (Alexis) is being present, and actively listening aka not being on my phone when someone is talking to me. We are both definitely not people who like to be talking all of the time, rather, we would rather be listening, but if someone asks us a question about health or fitness, or even fashion, we could talk forever, haha. You can learn a lot more when you let others talk and share their stories.
Believe in Yourself
This one is a tough one and it is mentally testing every day. We both experience this a lot, especially when we left our corporate job. It can be so tough to doubt yourself, and convince yourself you will mess up or make mistakes, but you have to tell yourself you can achieve anything you think you can, and take the necessary steps to get there!
You Are Only Responsible For Yourself
We both tend to focus on why things went unplanned or wrong, but the truth is sometimes, you have to just focus on yourself, and what you can do to change the situation.
Let us know what you’ve learned or your thoughts in the caption! Xo
Happy Wednesday, y’all! In case you missed the first couple posts of this workout series we started this year, you can check out some of them here and here! Below, you will find videos, several of our workouts from the week, as well as a breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipe that we have tried or are planning on making this week!
As far as cardio goes,we will do anywhere from 30-45 minutes of cardio, usually on the stair master, followed by weight training (each muscle group a different day). Every body is different, and you definitely don’t need to do that much cardio each day, just whatever you feel up to, or feel like you can handle at this time! We used to do ZERO, so just find what works best for you!
We have been getting a lot of questions as far as what our cardio is, so we decided to put together a great cardio routine for you all to try. We usually will do steady-state, meaning the same level the whole time, but interval training is actually better for you!
This week, we are sharing a stairmaster workout, along with an arm workout.
This is the arm workout we just did yesterday!
Here is the stairmaster workout. To be honest, we haven’t tried this exact one, but we will definitely be trying out it out ASAP. We usually go a little bit faster than the levels shown here, but we still think this workout will be tough enough, even for a quick 20-minute one! You can also repeat this again for a total of 40 minutes, or however long you feel like going that day! ALSO, it is very important to note that, although we are doing levels 18-2o on some days, we are holding on pretty tight, and sometimes leaning a little too much, so don’t do that;) You want your legs to do the working!
Below are some workout pieces we are loving this week [click each item to shop it directly!]:
See videos for each exercise listed above further down in the post!
For ARMS:
Alternating Curls:
Hammer Curls:
Tricep Cable Pushdown:
Skull Crushers:
Cable Curls:
Overhead Tricep Extension:
In case you all did miss it in last week’s post, we have done some posts on what we eat in a day here and here! We are planning on doing an updated post soon:) In the meantime, we do eat mostly paleo due to our hypothyroidism condition. We are planning on doing another full post on that, and why we eat no dairy or grains this weekend, so stay tuned!
As far as cooking and meal prepping, we like to have some kind of protein prepped for the week, like grilled chicken or salmon baked in the oven. That way, we can just add it to salads or veggies for lunch or dinner in 5 minutes! Nobody wants to have to come home and make a full meal, right?
As far as meals go this week, we have gotten a few requests for some paleo meal ideas. We actually created a new Paleo Meal Ideas board on pinterest, in case you want more ideas!
These banana chocolate-chip pancakes are a STAPLE of ours. This is actually one of our own recipes! We are not joking, we literally eat these pancakes every single day for breakfast. Occasionally we will make an omelet or something more savory, but we always gravitate towards pancakes! You all may remember we used to have a baking mix AND ready-to-eat waffles. We no longer have those because we chose to focus on our blog full-time, but these pancakes originated from that mix!
Banana Chocolate-Chip Pancakes
Serves: 2 servings
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup coconut flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce, coconut oil, OR yogurt
This spaghetti squash chow mien looks amazing, and is a great option for when you’re craving chinese take-out!Spaghetti Squash Chow Mein
Serves: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS
1 large spaghetti squash
1/4 cup coconut aminos (or tamari if not paleo)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp coconut sugar
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper (or black pepper!)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, sliced diagonally
2 cups cole slaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
INSTRUCTIONS
Cut a spaghetti squash in half length wise and scoop out seeds. Lay skin side up in a 13 x 9 pyrex and pour 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of the pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until flesh is very tender. Once done, scoop out flesh with a fork so it breaks apart into strings, set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together coconut aminos, garlic, coconut sugar, ginger and white pepper; set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and celery, and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in cabbage until heated through, about 1 minute.
Stir in spaghetti squash and sauce mixture until well combined, about 2 minutes.
{ Blush Sweater | Ripped Jeans | Grey Booties | Black Chain Bag | Sunglasses | Nail Color | Lip Color “Life Of The Party” | BRACELETS: David Yurman Cable Bracelets here, here, and here and Pave Bangle | RINGS: David Yurman Ring here and here | Lightening Bolt Necklace and Hamsa Necklace Similar Here | WATCH: Michele Deco Watch }
We never really did get a winter in Dallas, but no complaints here! We are all about the spring or summer weather, except for when we are literally dripping in sweat in the summer;) One of our favorite colors to wear all-year-long is blush. It is super flattering on everyone, and we love it especially for spring!
This sweater is a GREAT option, and it comes in a ton of colors. We have it in the orange, too, and love the fit of it!
We rounded up a few more blush sweater options for you all here:
These grey booties are a great spring bootie. They have a really cute cutout detailing on the ankle opening, and a great heel height. We really love grey for spring because it isn’t super harsh like black, but it is a a great neutral! 
You may remember this bag in tan a while back! We love this bag for everyday, and it is also a good bag for traveling, or a night out! It actually does fit a good amount in there.
To transition your wardrobe into spring, we suggest going for pastel colors, like blush, and pairing it with a comfy pair of ripped jeans like these (SO comfy and stretchy, btw!) You can throw on a pair of booties or wedges, and you’re good to go!
Also, this super cute twisted braid was done by our hairstylist, 
We ate strict paleo for about 6 months and felt so much better. Now, a a few years later, we eat about 80% paleo and grain-free. We allow ourselves to enjoy other gluten-free and dairy-filled treats occasionally!
When we first laid eyes on this cardigan, we HAD to have it. It is the ultimate definition of comfy and cozy, and it is on SALE! YAY! 
Also, we need to talk about
This adorable braid was done by our hairstylist 
Hope you all have a great Friday! We are driving up to Houston tomorrow for the Super Bowl, and can’t wait! Go PATS!
Spaghetti Squash Chow Mein
