agave nectar

Four Easy Ways to Kickstart Your Morning!

April 24, 2015

Not everyone is a morning person. I know most people feel like waking up at the last possible minute, throwing some clothes on, and running out the door, however that leads to irritability and unproductiveness. Waking up a tad bit earlier to dedicate some time to yourself and your physical and mental well-being would be a step in the right direction of starting your day off right. Not to sound like your mother, your mother's mother, and your mother's mother's mother, but breakfast is the most important meal of the day! If you skip breakfast, you'll only be focusing on how hungry you are during class, not the content. Here is what I do every morning to prepare myself for the day. If you don't do all of these, try implementing at least one!




1. Make yourself a nice breakfast
In the mornings, I like to treat myself to a wholesome breakfast of flaxseed waffles, greek yogurt with honey and fruit, or cereal. Treat yourself to whatever breakfast you like! If you're one of those people that can't eat too early and only grab a coffee, at least have a granola bar or a banana.. your potassium levels will thank you later!


2. Make yourself look great!
My roommate and I religiously follow the rule "dress well test well". I live and breathe by my mantra: if you're confident in your outfit, you're going to perform better in your classes, meetings, work, etc. "Look good, feel good" Either way you spin it, it's harder to fall asleep in dress pants and a button-down than in a sweatsuit. 

3. Look up mood-boosting Spotify playlist!
This is a new ritual as of this semester. I've recently become acquainted with Spotify because I love "collecting" music. The bigger my music library the better. Some people make origami and cookies.. I make playlists. I digress. Spotify has playlists for every genre and mood every time of the day. Every morning they feature playlists such as "Mood Booster", "Feel Good", "Happy Hipster", and "Acoustic Morning". Listening to them not only inform me of top hits and new songs, but also boosts my mood in the morning.

4. Be a little productive
If I have time in the morning, I either do a little blogging, schedule out tweets, talk on blogger network pages, or maybe even do some homework. My favorite mornings are when I get a good run in, get a coffee, and do a few errands. I feel like a "real adult."



It can  be hard to leave your comfy bed sometimes. How do you pump yourself up in the mornings?




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LIFESTYLE: HOW MUCH CARBS DO I REALLY NEED? #MacrobreakdownMania

October 13, 2014

It's time for the second of three installments of the #MacrobreakdownMania, where I, the nerdy Nikki tell you the bitty gritty of exactly how much of the three macronutrients (carbs, lipids, and protein) that we really need to survive. However, carbohydrates (CHO) seem to have the worst rep. Little do most people know, they're actually the most vital macronutrient out there. Where would we be without carbs? We'd be energy-less, tissue-less, and motion-less.



Carbohydrates consists of CHO (carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen). It's functions are to make energy to preserve tissue, and to fuel your central nervous system. So, next time you're feeling sad about eating that last bread stick, think of it this way: would you feel sad for not fueling your metabolism or your central nervous system?

Carbs give us energy during workouts/activity by producing ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which kickstarts your metabolism to give off energy essentially. Not only do we need carbohydrates to fuel our workouts, but to replace the tissue lost in our workout if our workout was high duration or intensity.


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Part of the reason that carbs get a bad rep is because the composition does break down into sugars. Simple carbohydrates inclue monosaccarides and disaccarides (single and two sugars). These easily break down, so if you don't use them ASAP they will store as glycogen in either muscle or tissue. These are found in processed foods, table sugars, fruits, and milk products
However, polysaccarides are complex carbs, which don't break down as easily. They include starch and fiber. They're found in vegetables, potatoes, rice, and whole wheat pasta and bread.

I can't tell each and every one of my readers exactly how much carbs you need (unless you e-mail me), however I can say that the recommended daily value for carbs is 45-65% of your calories. That's a big percent, more than the other two macronutrients combined. So, long story short, don't sweat it! Unless we're talking about exercise, then in that case, yes, sweat it. Happy carbo-loading, lovelies!


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RECIPE: NO POWDER SESAME CRANBERRY PROTEIN PANCAKES!

July 13, 2014


I've been desperately trying to perfect my protein pancake mix. My protein pancakes have gone on their own little revolution throughout the years. I started off with Cassey Ho of Blogilates' one banana and two-egg mix. Then, I added tone it up Perfect Fit protein powder to it, however it made them gritty. Then, I started adding all-natural peanut butter to it and it was deeeeee-lish.
However, come my mother's birthday I bought her a new, powerful blender. With that old blender leaving so did the perfect consistency of my old protein pancakes and "nice" cream. So, I thought up a new pancake recipe with a bit more gusto. This recipe is clean, protein-filled, all-natural, and tasty! Try it topped with either greek yogurt, fresh bananas or blueberries, and/or agave nectar or honey! Talk about Breakfast at Nikki's!

RECIPE
Ingredients (makes about four pancakes):
  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup almond milk
  • 2 tbsp. Wild Friend Sesame Cranberry Peanut Butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp greek yogurt (optional)
Directions:
  1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender until they make a pancake batter consistency.
  2. Grill them on a heated pan or skillet that has been greased with extra virgin olive oil.
  3. Flip every two minutes or so until both sides are brown.
  4. Continue step 4 for all of the pancakes you make
  5. Stack them. You can layer them with greek yogurt, or you can drizzle honey or agave nectar. Either way sliced strawberries are delectable on it!

Enjoy! Pin this recipe if you loved it, and send me pictures on instagram and twitter (n_vergak) if you tried it! Give it the hashtag #BreakfastAtNikkis.