Looking For a Juice Cleanse?

Hey hey hey! 

Let me start by saying, this blog post will be about my experience with a juice cleanse I bought. This doesn’t guarantee that your experience will be the same. The company has not hired me to share any information with you. Last but not least please consult your doctor to confirm that doing a cleanse is right for you.
Okay now that we got that out the way. Let me tell you about my cleanse. 

I’ve been wanting to do a 3 day juice cleanse for quite some time.But the opportunity to stop eating yummy food never really presented itself. 

For example I could eat this yummy taco right here or go on a juice cleanse. Tacos always won.

So when I found out that I had to get my wisdom teeth removed. I thought to myself this would be the perfect time! I can’t eat anyway. 

Another internal battle I was having was should I buy the produce and juice it myself or buy should I buy pre-made juices. There are benefits to both. I decided if I was going to do a juice cleanse, I wanted to maximize all the nutritional benefits. 

I knew the fresher the juice the more beneficial it would be. However I knew I was too lazy to buy all the fresh produce and juice it myself because I was having surgery.

So I started roaming the internet.

My requirements were: 

• No added sugar
• 100% plant based
• 100% raw 
• No GMO
• Under $200

Eventually I stumbled upon RawGeneration.

Not only did they check off my list,they also had a high protein plant based cleanse.

When I brought my the protein cleanse RawGeneration was(and still is)having a sale for 70% off any cleanse.

I brought two 3-day cleanses $60 each + $38.30 for shipping.I ordered on a Thursday the juices came on a Saturday. They came frozen and I immediately put them into my freezer.

RawGeneration provides great instruction on how to preserve your juices and perform the cleanse so no need for me to dive into that. But I had a throughly enjoyable experience using their product. All the juices were yummy ( I should preface that by saying that I’m used to eating fruits and veggies). 

My favorite was:And my boyfriend, bless his heart decided to do the cleanse with me, his favorite was: This was a close second for both of us: And the juices that we thought were going to be gross but were surprisingly tasty: The boyfriend and I survived the cleanse. We both had craving here and there but never really felt hungry.

As for wisdom teeth extraction. I survived that too. I had no problems taking my med, no nausea, and no pain. Now that I’m done with the cleanse I’m exploring all my mushy food options.

Now go be great 😉

DC Dinêr en Blanc 2016

On August 27th 2016, DC looked a little different. Thousands of people dressed in white walked to a secret location. The occasion? Dinêr en Blanc.

What is Dinêr en Blanc (DEB)?

It started 30 years ago in Paris. The concept is an elegant picnic located in a secret location in the city.

DEB Feels?

To be honest I was a little overwhelmed with the process of preparing and a little underwhelmed when I finally made it to the event. I thought it was bougie AF but it was picture perfect. Overall I’m glad I did it. At the end of the day it’s about creating memories. I can now say, me and 3000 of my “closest friends” had an all white picnic by the Lincoln Memorial. Rise and Revel, Right?

How can I make attending DEB an easy process?

I’m going to provide you with 10 tip to make sure you’re not overwhelmed like I was.

10. Age group: 21 and over and no pets

9. BYOE: This event BRING YOUR OWN EVERYTHING (BYOE). I would be prepared to spend some cash.

8. Entrance fee: It is $37 per person + $8 membership + $8 transaction fee. You CANNOT purchase a single ticket, meaning, you have to bring a date. Total amount $90

7. Alcohol: Okay so remember when I said you have to bring everything, well everything except alcohol.

• You are prohibited to bring alcohol on site, instead you have to purchase it through a DEB vendor. Sorry it’s not free at least $16 per bottle.
• They do check bags at the entrance and confiscate bottles that obviously look like alcohol. However you can bring your own water and juice 😉😉.

6. Supplies: Gotta be all white.

• Table has to be between “28 and 32”. It okay if it’s an inch or two bigger.
  • This can be rented from DEB or purchase on Amazon
• 2 chairs
  • This can be rented from DEB or purchase on Amazon
• Picnic Basket or White Bag
  •  This can be purchased at  Bed Bath and Beyond ( luckily I had one at home )
• Table cloth
  • This can be purchased at Ross, Amazon or rented from DEB
• 2 Napkins
  • This can be purchased at Ross, Amazon or rented from DEB
• Food 😋
  • DEB provides the option to purchase a catered meal ( I opted out )
• White table decorations
  • This can be purchased at Michaels, Ross or rented from DEB
• 2 white non disposable plates
  • This can be purchased at Ross, Amazon or rented from DEB
• 2 sets of non disposable cutlery
  • This can be purchased at Ross or rented from DEB
• 2 wine glasses or champagne flutes
  • This can be purchased at Ross or rented from DEB
• Bottle opener for wine
  • This can be purchased at Ross
• Bottle of water
• Trash bag
• Ice or chiller aka ziplock bag and some ice
• Cart to carry supplies

My table decorations

5. What doesn’t have to be white: 

• The table  ( it will be covered with a white tablecloth)
• The picnic basket or bag ( hide this under the table)
• Cart

4. Dress Code: Elegant all white outfit and no accents (they’re pretty strict about this). You can get costume-y if you like

3. Groups: You will be assigned to a group and each group has 2 leaders. On the day of DEB you will meet the leader at a designated location. They will guide you to the event’s secret location

2. Travel: Be prepared to walk with all of your stuff. I ubered to the group leader’s location. The walk from that location to the final destination was about a mile.You have to carry everything to the site even if you rented. So I recommend wearing comfortable shoes

1. Volunteer: If you love planning events and organizing, you should definitely volunteer. As a volunteer you and your date get in free and a fee bottle of wine. Two of my friends volunteered and their task included: providing information to guest via email, answering questions regarding the event, sending  reminders and guiding a group to a secret location. Once they made it to the site they  were free to party.

Here a link to the official video for DEB DC 2016

Well that’s all folks Au Revoir

Revelation 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;

 

Women and the Plight of Pain

Does society ignore women’s pain? Do women ignore their own pain? This is a conversation that  I think warrants a discussion. There is an underlying theme that women should and will experience a great amount of pain at some point. There is one organ in particular that is definitely associated with pain. And that is the vagina.

Yes, this post is going to be about the vagina. The love below, natures scared purse, lotus flower bomb,  the va-yi-nya ( broad city pun). One of the things I noticed is that vagina is kinda thought of a burden to most women. I mean it bleeds once a month, it secretes randomly, and it’s super sensitive.  There are some days when it seems like it’s 4 5  seconds from a yeast infection and always the fear of a smell. But Can I tell you, I love my vagina. It’s pretty effing amazing. Lets just start off with the obvious, it partners up with the uterus to produce a whole human being. It’s strong as AF, and that secretion is it’s ability to self clean (can we say independent woman).

But the reason I think this precious little organ gets a bad rep is because of the pain association.  I have tons of friends who experience cramping during their period. Which has been an accepted fact…periods pretty much equal cramping. Period cramps can be very very very very painful. Now the pain does range from person to person. For example some of my friends and family experience little to no cramping at all, some are bed ridden, some get dizzy and light-headed, and have even passed out (okay that last one has happened to me). However we all seem to get the same cocktail if we complain about pain ; ibuprofen and birth control, which may or may not help.

Something just doesn’t seem right. Isn’t there another answer?

I do want to bring light to this issue. Pain is your body’s way of saying something is not right and we as women should start addressing our pain. Also it needs to be address with a little more than BC and ibuprofen. We are NOT sensitive, hormonal, crazy and erratic. We’re in pain. So Ladies fight for yourself. If you don’t think it’s right, it probably isn’t;r talk to you doctors.

With that be said, I stumbled upon this podcast called Another Round (new fav) and they did an interview with Padma Lakshmi host of Top Chef and Author of a couples of books. She talks a little bit about her journey to understand why she was in pain during her period. I thoroughly enjoyed her story and her take on women’s pain.

Check it out

 

Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”

Goodbye My Old Friend: An Open Letter to Shonda Rhimes and Grey’s Anatomy

People who know me well know that I probably take the TV shows I invest time in a little too seriously, and a little too personally. I started watching Grey’s Anatomy the day before my 14^th birthday. I was a freshman in a high school that I didn’t feel particularly loved or comfortable in (does anyone in high school feel particularly loved and comfortable???). Anyway the show began right around the time when my closest group of friends began to circle each other like a great bar against all senses of evil and darkness that would come our way. I called my best friend my person, my Die, just like Meredith did with her best friends. The show was a weekly beacon for us to watch and connect and imagine our lives would shape into (my best friend eventually going to med school to be a surgeon the likes of the character I’d always called her by). Sure, it was a primetime soap that often saw bombs and car accidents and lots of different forms of sadness along the way, but the relationships between the characters always felt like this tangible proof of long term friendships and hope—hope for human understanding, hope for happiness, and (maybe) most importantly hope for love.

The years have seen characters come and go, but Meredith and her love were always a rock for the show to come back to, and for its audience to feel trust in. It seemed that’s where the show started—in a living room on the floor—and that’s where it would end.

On this week’s episode, Meredith and Derek’s story came to a close when his car was hit by a truck in an awful car accident. The ending felt weak and cheap and rushed. It felt like there were forces happening behind the scenes that made the ending so abrupt.

I know it’s a TV show and I really shouldn’t care. These aren’t real people and with all the live, actual bad things happening in the world, it’s tough to feel empathy or mercy towards someone who has time to feel sad about the end of a character on a show that’s been on way longer than it needed to be. But I’m still going to say this anyway: Derek’s death meant a lot to me. Yes, he was a character on a show, but he was also more than that. Over a decade’s worth of watching him, he became a symbol for good at the end of the day, for hope for those that are less than optimistic.

It’s the end of an era, a decade of something unreal (in a very literal sense) and yet still very present in my life. This will be my last season watching Grey’s Anatomy. I have loved every break up and make up, and fake surgeries that could never happen. I’ve loved even the plane crashes and the unnecessary deaths. As Shonda Rhimes is queen of doing, she’s impacted my life with her fiction in a way few writers ever do. And I’ll forever be grateful.

Goodbye, my old friend. I will miss you so much.

I’ve been dating since I was 15!

One of my favorite scenes from Sex and the City is when Charlotte has a melt down and says …

You know what the GIF doesn’t do it justice here’s the whole scene

I know how Charlotte feels. My hair hurts too! Being my own “White Knight” sounds super depressing when I grew up with subliminal messages telling me he’s out there. Aka, I hate you Disney…sike I’m just kidding…but forreal though you kinda screwed me over.

I, Katiya, literally hate dating.  Plenty of fish gave me anxiety; so I deleted it, I only used tinder for thumb exercises; so I deleted it, and I still haven’t mastered the technique of looking available but not thotish on instagram; I still have a instagram (@Katiyaj). Any way, I say all this to say, I’m not quite sure how I’m supposed to find “the one”, if I don’t date. I’m not quite sure if “the one” really exist.

Growing up in a Christian household I was told to bring all of my concerns to God . So I ‘ve been talking to God about my frustrations with dating, men, love, and my ovaries. I’ve asked him several times how will I become a successful woman with a great career, a wonderful husband and beautiful kids, if I can’t find somebody who I’m compatible with.

Today I came across this video ( Thanks God).  It made me feel a lot better about myself and my current singleness and I hope it does the same for you.

Here are the main points of the video:

1. You’re a person of great worth and potential.

2. You’re a work in progress.

3. The key to becoming is beginning at the right place.

4. Having a life story IS BETTER than a love story.

5. Having a purpose fuels everything, and it will end up fueling who you marry and why.

The video is a little long but it’s worth it.

“My Everything” is Pure Pop Perfection

Ariana Grande’s ‘My Everything’ is pop magic. Sweet and spicy—a wonderful mixture of 808s and simple but not dumb lyrics. It’s the kind of album you’ll want to sing along to in your car and your shower and while you clean (essentially everywhere).

It’s sexier than last album but not dirty. It feels like the natural progression of someone collaborating on songs from the age of 17 to 21.

Grande is the best of everything that’s on the radio right now: EDM with Zedd, hip-hop features with Childish Gambino and A$AP Ferg, and all without straying away from her constant throwback to old Mariah feels.

In a time where there is so much chaos in our world, it’s refreshing to be reminded the kind of escape music can be.

Favorite Tracks: the sexy “Be My Baby” feels like 90s R&B re-imagined; “One Last Time” is pop perfection. 

For your listening pleasure… Ms. Ariana Grande

DIY Pineapple Plant

Just in case you wanted your very own pineapple plant…..

Step 1: Buy a pineapple yay!

 

Step 2: Cut the top of the pineapple, cut about an inch below the leafy area of the plant.

Step 3: Remove the fruit from the core of the pineapple, and peel away the bottom 3 layers of  leaves.

Step 4: Once you have the core exposed, gently scrape the core of the pineapple.

Step 5: Get a cup of water and place the pineapple core in the water. Make sure to place the pineapple directly in the sun.

Step 6: Check the plant weekly to make sure it has enough water and remove any excess fruit that might still be on the core. The  pineapple core will take about 2 months to take root.

Step 7:  Yay! If you made it to this step your pineapple has taken root! Now its time to find a super cute pot, grab some soil and plant your pineapple head. I chose a small pot, but if you don’t feel like transferring your plant late buy a rather larger pot.

I only water the pineapple plant when the soil feels dry. It ends up being about every week and a half. I also pour the water directly in the center of the plant.

 

Well happy planting and remember don’t forget to eat your pineapple!

 

 

 

About Alex: Flawed but oh so Captivating

“There are three stages to finding friends in college: the first is desperation, the second is panic, the third is fate—when you wind up at the same table together, somehow and your real life begins…”

Such are the starter words to writer Ben’s (played by Nate Parker) first published piece. It’s a piece that led to his full time career in writing, and captured his friendship with his five closest friends from college, which include merger and acquisition lawyer Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), philosopher and resident douche bag Josh (Max Greenfield), investment banker Isaac (Max Minghella), Ben’s girlfriend Siri (Maggie Grace), and devoted loner Alex (Jason Ritter). Ben’s words were scribed ten years ago at a time where the bond between these six people was all consuming. About Alex, however, brings us into the future where the only thing that can bring these reluctant friends together is Alex’s attempted suicide. The friends, along with new addition Kate (played by Jane Levy), spend a weekend at Alex’s house trying to avoid everything from the bathroom Alex slit his wrists in, to the unanswered question of what happened to their friendship.

The trailer for About Alex boasted a review that it is The Big Chill for millennials and that influence and idea is easy to see when watching the film. Although the editing is sometimes choppy and I’m never a fan of background music that is so loud and intrusive it is basically telling the audience, “This is when you should feel sad,” there is this connection and a familiarity to the film that makes it hard to stop watching. There are so many different complexities to all of these relationships within the friend group, and if you are a fan of New Girl there is a glimpse of Schmidt somewhere in Max Greenfield’s performance, but it is the relationship between Ben and Alex, so flawlessly developed by Nate Parker and Jason Ritter, that makes this film worth watching. There is a desperation and a lost-ness between the two of them that shines in particular that gives the movie its feet.

As someone in a group of six friends who has obsessively been involved with each other for nearly a decade now, I actively search for and dismiss all movies that have to do with a group of friends who come back together and face a crisis. But About Alex is charming and warm. It’s the kind of film that you can watch again and again and relearn something about each character or scene without boredom.

About Alex is not a perfect movie. But getting the chance to see those six friends become who they were just by sitting at a dining hall table left me in both sad and happy sobs. I’m sure if you see the movie, it’ll break you just the same.

You can find About Alex on VOD and in select theaters starting August 8, 2014.

Cava Mezze in Capitol Hill

Nestled among the dozens of international cuisine restaurants located in Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market is Cava Mezze- a Greek inspired tapas style restaurant.

The interior is dark wood and dim lighting, making for a casual, but romantic atmosphere, depending on how many penny mimosas your neighbors had during bottomless brunch.

The complimentary starter is a basket of  pillowy warm pita and bowls of delicious harissa, olives, and oil  to dip them in.

pita and dip

Since sharing is suggested we split three dishes between the two of us, and none of them disappointed.

Lamb chops marinated in lemon and olive oil, served atop crispy potatoes (read: seriously delicious french fries) .

lamb chops and crispy potatoes

Lollipop chicken legs fried and drizzled in honey and walnuts. Hands down my favorite and a good choice for anyone who enjoys foods describes as: sweet, savory, crunchy and awesome.

lollipop chicken with honey and walnuts

Mini gyros with tzatziki, tomatoes, onions and fries inside ( yes fries inside)

mini gyros

Also don’t miss the Saganaki, aka Flaming Cheese dish, which is brought out in two small cast iron skillets, then set ablaze table-side and put out with lemon juice.

flaming cheese

 

Tip:When the weather is nice you can request to sit on the rooftop and enjoy a nice view of the city

Cava Mezze Capitol Hill, 527 8th St SE, Washington, DC

Alley Fun

Tucked away in a Philadelphia alley is a swanky little restaurant/bar called Sampan/Graffiti bar.

entrance of the bar

Me and my classmates went to Graffiti bar after we finished the first year of our masters program. You literally have to walk down a dark alley to get to graffiti bar but you are pleasantly surprised with great appetizers, the best music play list ever, and oh how could I forget, the fish bowls!

Happy Hour Menu

Shrimp fried rice with a sunny side up egg

truffle edamame dumpling… sooo yummy

My classmate Keyuri Joshi tagged me in this awesome picture

During happy hour all appetizers are $4 and the fish bowls are $20.

I took a peak inside the restaurant and it also looked pretty cool.

If your in Philly you should check it out! It’s located on 124 S 13th Street.

Here is their lovely website

And if you are new to the city, every Wednesday all summer long, there is a event called Sips. Center City District bars and restaurants offer $5 cocktails, $4 wine, $3 beer and half-priced appetizers. Click the link below for all the restaurants that participate.

SIPS