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Hope you all are having a great weekend! It is spring time, so we wanted to share this cute date outfit idea with you all. For a first date, or any date, you want to feel confident and cute, so we wanted to give some tips on what to wear and feel like your best self in!
When you go on a date, you want to feel cute, but not overly dressed up, and not too revealing! You want to leave a little to the imagination 😉
We recommend going for your favorite color because that makes you feel most confident. For us, we like to go for a coral color, or black is always classic. Black is usually a color that looks good on any skin tone, and it is chic. We love doing a monochromatic black look, or even white when you’re more tan!
Another tip is to choose something that looks effortless, but put together. You want to look cute, but not like you spent a ton of time figuring it out. An easy dress or some jeans and a cute top is always a good go to!
We found this cute little black dress from Express, and at first we weren’t sure about how tight it was, but we actually really ended up loving it on. It is figure hugging in the right spots, and is perfect for date night or any spring travel coming up. We are wearing xs in it, and the length hits us a little longer since we are so petite, but on someone taller, it would be right below your knee!
We paired it with some wedges and a cute round bag. We love that Express has so many options for all body types: petites, taller women, and curvier women. Their pieces are all at a great price point, which we love! If this black dress isn’t for you, we also love this black romper and this black maxi dress!
**PS- You can save $25 off your order of $100 or more in store or online with code 8144.
Happy Saturday! A little late for our second round of Friday FAQ’s, but better late than never! In case you missed last week’s post, you can read it here!
If your question wasn’t answered, be sure and send us a message on Instagram, or email us at doubledoseblog@gmail.com
DO YOU USE BOTOX? I DIDN’T REALIZE HOW COMMON IT IS NOW AND HOW MUCH PEOPLE LOVE IT!
We have only done it twice, and saw great results. We honestly didn’t do a ton of units, and we only did it between our eyebrows and on our foreheads. It definitely can make a huge difference!
HOW DO YOU DO YOUR HAIR WHEN YOU GO TO SLEEP?
That is a great question! So, no matter what our hair length is, we always put it in a low ponytail, just so it is not all over the place. We use these elastic hair ties that don’t dent or damage your hair. This way, your hair kind of stays in-tact, and doesn’t end up in a huge mess when you wake up, haha.
This black pair is a new favorite of ours (we got size 25 short). We also just got this pair of ripped jeans and love how they fit us– perfect length (we got size 25 short)!
HOW DID YOU START BLOGGING AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING FOR?
We have been doing it for over three years, and are so grateful! We can’t thank you all enough for your support! See the question below to read more about our journey!
WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE BLOGGING?
We both moved to Dallas to work in public Accounting. We did different things (one of us worked in Fraud Technology Consulting, and one of us worked in IT Auditing). We did that for one year before pursuing personal training for about 8 months. After that, we launched a waffle line that we literally did EVERYTHING for. It was our baby. We also launched our blog at this time– talk about being a stressful time! We look back and wonder how we did it ALL sometimes, but when you want to succeed, you will do whatever it takes, right?
Ultimately, we had to let go off the waffle line because although we loved it, we had a long way to go to really “make it”, despite having tons of orders (thanks to those of you who supported us and loved our waffles as much as we did!). We ended up going full-time with our blog, and have been doing this ever since! Thanks for all the support, we love you ALL!
HOW DID YOU GROW YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE? DID YOU USE ANY AGENCIES?
We did not use any agencies. We have been doing it for 3+ years, and we definitely grew very quickly in the first few years. We feel like it is harder to grow now, but we would suggest posting consistently, being true to yourself and what you want to share–not what you “think” you should, engaging with other accounts like yours!
HOW LONG HAVE YOU AND YOUR BOYFRIEND BEEN TOGETHER?
Samantha has been with her boyfriend for almost two years! Time has flown by. Alexis is currently single :).
C E L E R Y J U I C E / H E A L T H:
HAS YOUR DIET SWITCH BEEN HARD AT ALL? DO YOU EVER HAVE A “TREAT’ OR ANYTHING OFF THE PLAN?
It was definitely more difficult in the beginning, but over the six months we have been doing it, it has definitely gotten so much easier, and more of a lifestyle for us! We do eat some stuff that is not “plant-based” like desserts with dairy and gluten in them, gelato, and stuff like that! We truly feel our best eating this way and love cooking, so we don’t mind it. We also will eat fish sometimes, too.
THIS IS PROBABLY WEIRD, BUT HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH GAS/BLOATING WITH EATING SO MANY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES?
Not weird at all! A lot of people have digestion issues but nobody talks about it. Before we got diagnosed with Hypothyroidism 7 years ago, there would be days and weeks of no bowel movements, which is NOT ok. Even until we started eating plant-based, we depended on coffee to go, haha #realtalk. Ever since we started eating plant-based and drinking celery juice, our digestion has never been better or more regular.
As far as the bloating and gas, there are days that are better than others. If we eat a HUGE serving of salad, which is a regular thing, we are definitely more bloated, but we can say that even with eating a ton of veggies and fruits, we feel better than ever. It does get better with time, and your body just may need to heal. Stick with it!
I SEE LOTS OF VEGGIES FOR MEALS, BUT WHAT DO YOU SNACK ON? LOOKING FOR IDEAS BESIDES ALMONDS.
We honestly snack on TONS of fruit. Not joking when we say we eat 4-5 apples a day, in addition to other fruits! We also love dates and baking some sweeter desserts/snacks from Medical Medium’s website, or from online!
We shared what we eat in a day in this post last week!
WHEN YOU LIFT, WHAT TYPES OF EXERCISES DO YOU DO FOR DEFINED SHOULDERS?
We haven’t been doing a ton of lifting weights as we used to, but we recommend:
DID YOU HAVE ANY SYMPTOMS WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED CELERY JUICE, AND HOW LONG DID THEY LAST?
Yes, we did. We had a lot of bloating for a couple weeks to month in the beginning, but it is definitely getting better. It is totally normal to have symptoms, and some will last longer than others, but don’t give up– it means you’re healing!
PS-if your question wasn’t answered this week, be sure and check back next week for more! Xo
Can you all believe that Christmas is only 4 days away?! And, NYE is only 11 days away. December and the holiday season is flying by! We are probably going to be in our sweats for most of it, but we will probably get a little dressed up for some of the holidays, and will be wearing something comfy, but cute like this outfit from Express— loving these black joggers!
Y’all already know we are obsessed with everything they have, and what we love especially about them is that they have so many petite options!
And, while we are on the topic of the holidays, we wanted to give you all three easy tips you can do to stay healthier during the holidays. We know it is a crazy busy time of year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, and still stay on track, without totally falling off the wagon!
Get in a quick 30-minute workout at home– use Youtube or check out some of our workouts here.
Sip on healthier cocktails (some ideas here) and drink LOTS of water in between to stay hydrated!
Have a light snack before heading out to a party or event, so you don’t arrive HANGRY! haha. Check out some snack ideas here.
And, if you all are still looking for some outfits for NYE, we have a few ideas below:
Happy weekend! It is the last weekend before Thanksgiving, and we know it can be a really busy time of year (and it is just getting started!). With all of the holiday parties coming up, and more and more holidays and get-togethers, it can be difficult to stay healthier, and not just throw your routines out the window! Even we live a very regimented and healthy lifestyle, but with stress and lots of family and friend time, it can be tricky!We wanted to share 3 things we are doing this Thanksgiving (more tips in this post), plus some plant-based recipes we will be trying out!To be honest, we will be wearing something like this super comfy outfit for Thanksgiving. Of course, it is fun to get all dressed up, but since we are usually working a lot during the week of Thanksgiving (and eat a tonnnnn of food), we like to keep it casual. These Adidas PureBoost Sneakers are most definitely our favorites right now. We shared more about them in this post, but we have them in THREE colors, and haven’t stopped wearing them since we bought them!They are lightweight, great for running, training, lifting weights, or walking, and that is why we love this pair! No need to switch out to different types of sneakers for different workouts with these. We honestly wear these straight from the gym to errands or lunch.
We wanted to share three things we are doing to stay healthier:
STAYING ACTIVE: we may not make it to the gym, but we will definitely be going on walks with our families throughout the week. If it is too chilly, we love walking in a mall while we browse around!
DRINK LOTS OF WATER AND HOT TEAS: when we are busy, we tend to not drink enough, or stay hydrated. We are going to be sipping on lots of water and hot teas. The more you drink (in between meals) the fuller you will feel, and less likely you will be to drink liquid calories from cocktails or other things! If you are going to be making cocktails, try to drink a lot of water with them!
GET SAUCES AND DRESSINGS ON THE SIDE: this is a game changer. Sauces can be super yummy and flavorful, but it is also a lot of hidden fat and extra calories. We always get ours on the side and use as much as we want with our forks, rather than dumping ALL of it on our plates or dishes.
We also found some plant-based recipes we will be making that we wanted to share with you!
Happy Wednesday! We know we have been talking about our health struggles in our podcast and in several blog posts, and since we have gotten so many questions from you all on what we are doing, how we are feeling, etc, we thought we would share a little update with you all! Before we get into the update, we HAVE to talk about this perfect fall transitional look with the best accessories from Sole Society. Let’s start with our favorite part of the outfit: these studded mules! They are AMAZING and look great with everything from jeans to shorts and dresses. We are wearing a 6.5 in the Antique Green color for reference.We paired them with this grey studded bag and this marled knitted cacoon wrap, which is SO comfy! It is light enough to wear over a dress right now, or into fall with some jeans and a white tee, like how we did!So, now about our health update: As you all know, we were struggling with Hypothyroidism for a while now, and for the past two years, dealing with a range of issues such as hormonal imbalances, weight gain, inflammation, food intolerances that we had attributed to Adrenal Fatigue and Leaky Gut. We have done every test under the sun, haha, and have seen pretty much every kind of specialist, and are honestly feeling pretty frustrated. Not only have we spent a lot of money, but also a lot of energy and time. For any of you that have experienced health issues, or are going through something right now, we totally understand what you are feeling. We had a few of you all reach out and suggest that it could be related to our breast implants. We did read up on it, and definitely recommend checking that out if you do have implants. Fortunately and unfortunately for us, our symptoms started way before we got our implants put in, so we don’t think it its connected. We are not saying that it hasn’t contributed to us not feeling our best, but we don’t think it is the main cause. As we mentioned, we have seen several specialists and functional medicine doctors, and while they have helped a little bit, we don’t really feel that much better. We went through some really strong, medical-grade heavy metal detoxes that left us feeling even worse than we did before we started that, which is super frustrating. Of course, not many of you all would realize we aren’t feeling well (and pretty much like crap most days) because we don’t vocalize that daily, but it is tough. We have both gained at least 10-15 pounds, and honestly, just feel puffy and inflamed. Nobody ever wants to experience that. We were also SUPER low on energy, so working out was extremely challenging. We honestly went from working out/running 5-6 days a week to maybe 2 or 3. We would just honestly get to the gym and not be able to do anything. What used to be a typical workout for us, felt like a marathon that we just couldn’t finish.
So, you’re probably wondering what we are doing now, and where we are at health-wise. Well, we stumbled across the Medical Medium. We have been reading his books, listening to his podcasts, and following his Instagram. We initially started drinking celery juice and using this juicer to make it every morning. In combination with that, we drink hot lemon water and make his Blueberry Detox Smoothie
In addition to that, we have been eating mostly plant-based (mostly raw veggies and fruits) with some wild salmon some meals. To be honest, any time we had heard about eating plant-based or vegan, we immediately shut it down, but after feeling like CRAP, we were both open to trying it out. We are both so used to eating protein with each meal (animal protein), so it has been a huge adjustment for us. We also weren’t eating a ton of fruit recently because we were advised to limit our intake for all of our issues. After doing some research and reading his books and articles, we were up for this switch!
So, now after almost two weeks of eating this way, we can definitely say we have a ton more energy during our workouts, which is a great sign for us. We are hoping it means we are on the way to feeling better overall, and truly healing our body naturally. We will definitely keep you all posted on our journey. We are planning on eating chicken and other foods eventually, but just want to focus on feeling better first!
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;)