MOODY GIRL IN STYLE

Moody Girl Eats: Avocado and Chickpea Salad

I love finding quick and easy side dishes that are both healthy and flavorful. And this one is the perfect mix because it’s loaded with avocados, which I love. This salad can also serve as a main dish since the chickpeas are a good source of protein and rich in both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber. And although avocados may be fatty, that doesn’t mean that they are bad for your health. In fact, avocados are full of healthy good fats, they are rich in vitamins K, C, E and B and they also have healthy dose of dietary fiber. Anyways, this recipe takes less than 15 minutes to make especially if you are quick on the cutting board. I doubled up the recipe so I eat it for the rest of the week – it’s reflected in the pictures below. Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Avocado and Chickpea Salad

[Inspired by this avocado chickpea salad from Once Upon a Cutting Board.]

Ingredients:

1 medium ripe avocado

1/3 cup red onions (diced)

1 can chickpeas, drained

1 lime - juice

1-tablespoon olive oil

⅓ cup fresh cilantro

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Salt and pepper for taste

Directions:

Makes 3 servings.

1. Add diced onions, cilantro, and chickpeas in a bowl.

2. Slice avocado in half, carefully scooping out the inside, and dice the avocado into cubes.

3. Place avocado in a bowl with bean mixture.

4. Whisk together the dressing ingredients: lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

5. Add the dressing to the bean mixture and toss until the avocado and beans are coated. Chill until ready to serve.

Moody Girl Runs: SeaWheeze Half Marathon Race Recap

There aren’t too many races that will make me stop what I’m doing to sign up and register for a race, but this one gets me every time.

The 2014 Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon took place on Saturday, August 23^rd Vancouver, BC. This is the second year in a row that I ran this race and unlike last year, I’m finally getting around to sharing my race recap. This race was extra special to me because my mom came along for the fun to complete her very first half marathon. She did an awesome job and I’m so proud of her – Go Mom! My dear friend, M, my mom and I arrived in Vancouver a couple days before the race. As soon as we got settled in, we could feel the energy for this event throughout the city. It was pretty easy to spot the SeaWheeze runners because they were dressed in full Lululemon gear wandering the streets of Vancouver.

PRE-RACE EXPO

On Friday morning, we arrived at the Vancouver Convention Center around 10:00am to find a long line stretched halfway around the building. Luckily, there were two separate lines for both the race packet pickup and the special SeaWheeze Showcase Store. (This is where Lululemon sells a line of SeaWheeze-branded clothes, which exclusively made for the race.) We decided to let the line to the store die down a little and went to pick up our race packets first since there was a shorter line. The packet pickup moved pretty quickly. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of not getting to the convention center earlier in the day, because the store was a complete zoo by the time we got in. We waited in the store line for about 45 minutes and there was hardly anything left.

Workers were removing empty racks and shelves throughout the room as dozens of women buzzed around trying to find their sizes. It was very clear that they were not going to restock anything at this point. I grabbed a bunch of clothes in my size so I could try them on. Luckily I was able to find a few things in my size that were placed on wrong racks, so I was pretty happy about that. However, there were a lot of people that weren’t so lucky. After a few hours, the only sizes left in the store were size 2s and 4s and eventually they sold out everything by the early afternoon. Normally, the showcase store is opened on both Friday and Saturday, but they officially ran out of merchandise and closed up early on Friday. If you want to see what so many people missed out on, check out Lululemon Addict's blog (here) for most of the merchandise sold.

We grabbed a few snacks at the pre-race expo outside of the convention center. The pre-race expo also included hair braiding, manicures, spray-on tattoos, cotton candy and yoga. The festivities went on all day, but we decided to skip out on some of the fun. We grabbed lunch at nearby restaurant and bought tickets for a bus tour around the entire city. The weather was gorgeous during the whole weekend and despite missing both the nooner and sunset yoga sessions, I’d say that Lululemon did an excellent job on the pre-race expo this year.

RACE DAY

The morning of the race, we were pretty relaxed and quiet in our hotel. We woke up around 5:15am so we would have enough time to get ready. I ate a cup of yogurt and a SimplyProtein® Bar (which kept me full during the whole race). Our hotel was about a 10-minute walk from the race start line so we decided to head down to make it for the Sunrise Warm-Up stretch. However, we thought it started at 6:30am and we ended up missing the whole thing. We did our own warm up and stretch after I dropped of my bag at the gear check. We started to make our way to the corrals around 6:50am.

I didn’t have a major goal in mind for this race considering I didn’t train as hard as know I should have. My main goal was to beat my time from last year, which was 2:16. M and my mom didn’t have a goal in mind either so we decided to line up in the 2:30 corral. The race started promptly at 7:00am and I finally started to get a little nervous. We waited for about 30 minutes before we got started because of all of the groups of waves before us. There were so many people waiting to run. Lululemon capped this race at 10,015 people this year. I’m not sure how many people actually ran the race, but this was the largest half marathon that I’ve ever participated in.

When it was finally our turn, I wished my mom and M good luck and I took off. I wanted to find my pace and move away from the crowd of people as quickly as possible. The course worked its way quickly through downtown, over the Dunsmuir Viaduct into a small part of Chinatown before getting to False Creek. Immediately, there were all kinds of entertainers and cheer stations along the way. I typically don’t take pictures while I’m running, but I’m really wishing that I had.

We eventually worked our way over to the Burrard Street Bridge and crossed into Kitsilano and returned back on the Burrard Street Bridge. It was a real treat to see Lululemon Corporate offices along the way. Shortly after we headed back into the city, we moved our way towards the Sea Wall and I tried to stay focused from there to the end of the race. I had already passed the 2:30 and 2:20 pacers, so my goal was to either catch up to the 2:10 pacers or not let the 2:20 pacers pass me.

I eventually crossed the finish line with a time of 2:11 and I couldn’t be any happier. I got an awesome medal and grabbed some water to cool down and stretch my legs. I’m still trying to figure out what the medal is (if anybody knows what it is, please comment below). I didn’t leave the finish line area because I wanted be there to watch my mom and my friend M finish the race. I was so excited to see my mom cross the last mat. She was so happy and proud of herself. She really worked hard for this race and now she knows that she can do it again if she had to. She had so much fun and she’s still talking about it to her friends. I have a feeling that she’ll be signing up for more races in the near future.

After my mom and M finished, we all made our way through the finish chute to get some food from the Runner’s Brunch. The volunteers clipped on a small bag of roll-on essential oils from Saje Natural Wellness, handed us a bottle of Whistler Water, a bottle of Zico coconut water, and a cold wet washcloth to help cool down from the run. We also got a black Lululemon baseball cap, which was an unexpected bonus. The Runner’s Brunch was pretty awesome because they served Belgian waffles, blueberry compote, yogurt, fresh oranges, grapes and watermelon, my favorite.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to shower and get a little rest before dinner. We all decided that we needed to reward ourselves with a nice meal and cocktails for all of our efforts. Last, but not least we took one of the shuttles over to the Sunset Festival at the Brockton Oval in Stanley Park. The evening began with an incredible yoga class led by Eoin Finn. There was food, wine and beer and even a trapeze swing set up for guests to explore a life as a trapeze artist. The year’s entertainment was headliner, Capital Cities (check out their newest single “One Minute More”) and opening act, The Colourist. We listened to The Colourist, but we missed Capital Cities because we got too tired, so we left early.

THOUGHTS

All in all, the SeaWheeze race weekend was an awesome experience and one of the best-organized events that I’ve attended. This was definitely more than a race; it was a yoga, run, party. If you’re looking for a new race to participate in, then I highly recommend the SeaWheeze Half Marathon. I’m not sure if I’ll be back next year, but I will certainly run this race again in my lifetime.

Did you run SeaWheeze this year? If so, what were the biggest highlights for you?

If you are thinking about attending next year, then here are some of the details. SeaWheeze 2015 takes place on Saturday Aug. 15, 2015. Registration is Sept. 10, 2014 at 10:00am PDT. This race will definitely sell out quickly, so pay attention to the date and time and get ready to run! Good Luck!

Check out what went down at last weekend’s Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon in this great recap video above.

Moody Style: Fruity Fashion

As many of you may have noticed this summer on the fashion blogs and Instagram, fruits on clothing commanded our attention this season. In particular, pineapples were the “it” fruit and they have never been so chic. I’m not sure why pineapples reigned supreme as the summer fruit over strawberries, cherries or even watermelons, but it sure has made this summer more playful. I personally have fallen in love with this summer’s fruity trend. I found myself buying at least a couple of pineapple shirts and I can’t get enough of them. What do you guys think about this fruity trend? Have you fallen in love with any other fruits this summer? Let me know in the comments.

{Top: Old Navy Slub-Knit Tanks;

Skirt: J.Crew Cotton Pencil Skirt;

Necklace: GroopDealz Rosette Statement Necklace;

Watch: Coach Boyfriend Bracelet Watch (here);

Bracelet: J.Crew Factory Square Stone Bracelet and Coach Bangle

Shoes: Coach Bailey Heels}

What I Wore to BlogHer14

As you know I attended BlogHer ’14 conference at the end of July. Check out part 1, part 2 and part 3 for the recap of my experience during the conference. I made sure that I dressed in layers and I brought a jacket along just in case the conference rooms got too cold. I loved all of my outfits, but my shoes were a different story. If could do it all over again, I would have brought my flats with me to each of the sessions. At the end of cach day, my feet were screaming in my heels. Well, here is a quick recap of the outfits that I wore during my trip. Let me know what you guys think!

Thursday, July 24^th