air frying 101

Today I’m talking about one of my favorite tools in the kitchen, my air fryer! Since the New Year, I’ve gotten about a dozen messages about the air fryer. Is it worth the money? Is it easy to use? Is that much better for you? The answer is yes, yes, and YES. I got my…

sydney tries: bounce + sculpt

People always talk about finding "the one". It's this mission that feels unattainable, imaginary almost. The idea of completely being yourself, investing whole heartedly in the process, and loving so much that it actually consumes your thoughts seems impossible. So, you walk around life "trying on" all these different ones, hoping that it's THE one and…

sydney tries: restorative yoga {& briefly adopted a new dog}

With Classpass I get 5 classes a month to explore new workouts in Nashville. I never dreamt that I would spend one of those classes on restorative yoga. The reason being, is that typically these classes offer little to no activity. It's more of a stretching/breathing place. However, after I single-handedly took my life from…

cravings: hibachi

When I was in college there were probably 6 or 7 places in town that you could get hibachi style food. You could get it in a drive-thru. You could get on a college budget. You could get it anytime. Surprisingly, in Nashville, the selection simply does not exist. I've looked everywhere for a casual, quick,…

sydney tries: Spin + Sculpt

I got sucked into Classpass because a few friends from work kept raving about it. The flexibility of getting to go to classes all around the Nashville area was something that really intrigued me. So, on Tuesday night Katie and I went to Studio 51st for a spin + sculpt class. Let me start by…

sydney tries: pure barre

To be honest, I thought that I was done blogging. It was never my  intention to keep this thing going, or to even be still this focused on weight loss. The truth is, that i'm days away from my year anniversary and let me say... THIS HAS BEEN A TOUGH YEAR. In 2016, I started…

buffalo turkey meatballs

When I first started S&L I only wrote about my day-to-day experiences/triumphs/embarrassing stories. I never really planned to pack the blog full of recipes, but the more time that I invested in weight loss/strength training and challenges, the more I realized that food was a HUGE part of this journey. So, I began to post…

something better than being skinny…

My apologies for being a little absent around the blog lately. The Paige Hathaway challenge (#fitin5) is proving to be more tough (and time consuming) than the WLC through Orange Theory. The diet is extremely strict, so food planning, shopping, prepping, cooking and organizing takes up a good amount of my energy. That however, is…

rotten produce, cultural stereotyping, and a mental breakdown (a grocery store rant)

I’m one week into this FITin5 (weeks) challenge and am already about to lose my mind. I was prepared to part with my lunch dates to Chuy’s and the occasional cupcake from the (cupcake) ATM. But I was not prepared to say “C ‘ya later fruit” or “Sweet Potatoes, you’ve been fun”. The first week…

a salad that makes you want to STAY IN on a friday…

There are some weekends that I feel like getting dressed up, buying fake eyelashes, and drinking one or two (or five) vodka soda’s. There are other weekends where I skip the Nashville social scene and become a recluse in my own kitchen. A few weeks back, I picked out a cookbook from the Library and…