Fashion Friday- Stella and Dot Giveaway!

Happy Fashion Friday! I'd like to start today's post with a quote:

"A Girl Should Be Two Things: Classy and Fabulous"- Coco Chanel

Now, those of us who can only be one of these two (what does "classy" mean, anyway?), being fabulous is easy when it comes to fashion- Accessories!!!!

My favourite addition to fashion accessories in the last few years has been the introduction of the statement piece: the statement necklace, ring, earring, or bracelet! The pieces that have come out have been absolutely gorgeous. I personally love a great statement piece with a seemingly casual outfit: a t-shirt and skinny jeans with a great statement necklace, for example!

Perfect skin, cheekbones, hair and makeup not included. 

I'm a believer of more is better when it comes to accessories, with a few exceptions. I love stacking bracelets (on both sides, even!), HUGE necklaces (the bigger the better... that's what she said), and to-your-collar-bone earrings. I'd suggest always rocking the bracelets, especially with a watch, and either rocking great statement earrings OR a statement necklace. People at work always tell me how dressed up I am and glamorous I look (alright... I stretched the truth on the last one a bit), but I'm certain it's mostly because of my accessories and not because I am wearing my wedding dress to work. 

There are many affordable options to add to your collection. Stella & Dot is a recent obsession of mine and I have been coveting many of their pieces as of late- mostly because I can barely fit into anything, but accessories are always the perfect size! Especially when they're huge. Here are some of the glam pieces I want to add to my collection:

Excuse my while I drool on my computer.

The necklace on the top left is what I am coveting mostly, and I love how it is paired with simple earrings!
Here are some other pieces from the line that I love!

The Bahari Necklace and my beautiful niece!

Capri Chandelier earrings in turquoise... a summer favourite! 

Oh, what's that now? You want me to give you some Stella & Dot earrings? 

Fine. How about these?

You can WIN these gorgeous Soiree Studs from Stella & Dot (retail value $26)! You can gain 3 entries by completing the following: 

+1 Like Stella & Dot Independent Stylist Jackie Rowley on Facebook- not only is Jackie stylish, fashionable, and beautiful to look at, she can get you some sweet jewels. That's the main reason we are friends. Tell her Fit In Heels sent you!

+1 On Jackie's page, post which Stella & Dot piece you'd most like to add to your collection!
+1 Share this contest in any way- your Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest, etc! Please tag me (click on each link) for each way you share so I can count your entry! Please make sure your shares are public so that I can count them!

This contest will close on Monday, October 22nd so get entering! 

Check out the rest of the amazing Stella & Dot line here and get yourself some baubles!!! I'm having a trunk show until October 31st so get shopping, peeps! 

October is Clean Carb Month!

Whaddup, peeps! We are halfway through October and it's time we talk good carbs vs. bad carbs.

Ever since the introduction of the Atkins Diet, people have been carb-haters. It drives me crazy! Carbohydrates are your friend, and should make up most of your diet- they give you energy for the day! They allow you to move, be active, be amazing!

Some people are surprised to know that before the Atkins Diet, there was the High-Carb diet. People would eat bagels, pasta, and bread to lose weight- why? Because most carbohydrates are naturally low in fat!

To get results- whether that means losing weight, maintaining weight, becoming healthier, having more energy, decreasing body fat, etc.- it's about being PREPARED and AWARE of what you are eating. The Eat Clean Diet integrates amazing, delicous, healthy meals with great nutritional information. This month, they are focusing on Clean Carbs- a topic that has many people confused!

Good carbs include ALL fruits and ALL vegetables, in addition to other power foods like oats, beans, quinoa, whole grain breads, Ezekiel wraps, and brown rice (interesting to note- very few of these contain gluten. Gluten-free diets are gaining popularity and people tend to think this means all carbs are evil- NOT TRUE!). Check out Tosca Reno's image of other examples of good carbs!

I know what you're thinking- alcohol?? I feel you, my friends. Tell you what. I'll go this entire month without drinking any wine. And, I'll even go all of next month.

Alright, fine. So I'm pregnant. But again- eating clean is about being AWARE of what you are putting in your body. This means being cautious and cognizant of the choices you are making. If you eat bad carbs, try to limit them- have a glass of wine on Friday nights when you want to unwind. The problem with bad carbs is that they make you crave MORE bad carbs, so your willpower is constantly challenged.

A few weeks ago, we hit up the farm and went apple picking with the family! It was so fun and I came away with a HUGE haul of Power Carbs- spaghetti squash, parsnips, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, yellow zucchini, and four kinds of local apples!

Being an ambassador for the Eat Clean Diet has been extremely rewarding for me- it is a program I truly believe in and have for years- and people are always shocked to see how vibrant and delicious the Eat Clean cookbook recipes are! A lot of people believe that eating clean means eating cardboard. Not so, my friends. Eating clean is about balance- it's not all carbs, it's not no carbs. It's GOOD, CLEAN carbs. Try it not just for the month of October, but fo' life, yo! You will feel better, have more energy, and look sexy.

Hot. 

I'm working on the "looking sexy" part.

Here are some great Eat Clean recipes featuring clean carbs!!!

Brown Rice and Apple Stuffing

Butternut Squash, Portobello Mushroom, Caramelized Onion and Hazelnut Pizza

You have a chance to win with October's Clean Carb Month- take a photo with Instagram showing how you're enjoying good, clean carbs and you could win a prize pack featuring David's Tea, Sweet Pure Honey and Oxygen Magazine!

Tell me your FAVOURITE clean carb!
This is too hard for me to pick. I lovelovelove a ton of fruit and veggies like butternut squash, apples, berries, carrots, parsnips, lettuce (to name a few), but I also love whole grain bread, wraps, brown rice, and quinoa!

Fashion Friday- Who Wore it Better?

One of my students told me that I looked like a walking Forever 21 advertisement the other day. Now, as someone who appreciates a good bargain (and someone who wishes she could actually look 21), I was thrilled with the comment. Though, as a self-proclaimed fashionista who has invested lots of money into clothing, jewelry, and footwear... I also felt a little insulted. Forever 21? Surely, you meant to say BCBG, Chanel, or Gucci, right? Dang.

It's one month until my 31st birthday, and this Fashion Friday post reminded me of when I was shopping for my party dress. Last year on my 30th birthday, I was on the hunt for a fabulous and glamourous dress to celebrate. What better way to ring in your 3rd decade than shoving yourself into a tight, too-short dress, wearing super high uncomfortable heels, three pounds of makeup, and drinking yourself into oblivion? Sounds like my kind of birthday.

I searched high and low for a ridiculous dress- I went to three malls and checked out my staple stores- Zara, H&M, the Bay, Mendocino- I found nothing. A few days before my big day, I went to the Eaton Centre and  snuck into Forever 21 with my hoodie up and my sunglasses on. I have nothing against Forever 21, by the way... but because I teach high school students, I would like to separate myself slightly. It also never fails that I run into my students when I'm trying on slutty clothes in the changeroom, and I get embarrassed.

Actually, they get embarrassed and usually run in the opposite direction. I dig that.

Surrounded by teens and tweens, I marched my 30-year-old saggy ass into the store, waited in line for the 15-year old to let me into the changeroom, and found my dress. I sent a photo to a 21-year-old friend of mine who reassured me that I could pull it off. It was $29.99, asymmetrical, silver, and had a cut out in the stomach. Totally too young for me.

It was perfect.

Then, this happened.

Yes, this is 17-year-old Selena Gomez wearing the same dress.

So, even though I know the answer to this, who wore it better? And please, let my 30-year-old wisdom versus Selena's 17-year-old immaturity guide you in your answer.

 My vote: Me.

I Hate Everything About You

... is the song that I listened to last night to help me get out of my rut. I've been MIA over the last week or so as I had a bit of a pregnancy scare and wound up spending some time roomied up next to a loud woman who snored and accepted phone calls in the middle of the night at the hospital. The joys of a semi-private hospital room.

Without going into much detail, the baby is fine. I am fine. It was scary, overwhelming, and exhausting- but I have an amazing husband, family, and friends who were so incredibly supportive of me. Also, I had Halloween candy. That sh*t can get you through anything.

After I got home (I was there for about 2 days), I found that I couldn't chill. I was with family over the Thanksgiving weekend, but I was down. Just out of it, and so incredibly irritable and exhausted. I know what you're thinking... "That's a regular Tuesday for me." Understood, peeps. This was like a hole I'd dug and couldn't get out of. Doctor's orders told me to relax, which I found so hard to do! I know I will eat my words when I'm getting 1 hour of sleep a night in about 2 months, but I like to be busy, to move, to be active.

I also got some stressful news at work last week which I believe attributed to this situation. It was a situation that I believe was handled terribly and unprofessionally, and caused a ton of unneeded stress! This was finally cleared up last night, but I still went home feeling overall BLAH.

After eating pizza and chocolate (don't judge), I decided to figuratively punch myself in the face and go for a walk. I took my iPod and blasted some serious hardcore music while I drowned out my thoughts. And when I say hardcore, I mean Carly Rae Jepsen, Demi Lovato, and Ke$ha's new song.

Sick. 

I came home and did 3 rounds of 20 squats, 20 modified push ups, 20 tricep push ups, and a 20 second plank. Then I put on the music and danced by myself in my house.

If you're still reading this, you are a good person. It changed everything for me. I felt better. I felt like me. I still took it easy (no pole dancing... yet) but it was what I needed to get me out of my funk. Tonight I'm going to get my first ever shellac manicure and probably continue to dance embarrassingly by myself. It's what the baby wants.

What do you do to relieve stress?

What song gets you out of your funk?

Under Armour- What's Beautiful Campaign

Warning: It's about to get cray cray up in hurrrrrr! I'm getting sappy with y'all, peeps!

I now promise to quit pretending I am young and hip. I also promise to not use slang. At least for this post. Yolo.

Let's talk GOALS. Two of the most effective things you can do in order to meet a particular goal:

1. Write it down.
2. Say it. I WILL.

Under Armour has an amazing campaign set specifically to the female athlete. And when I say athlete, I'm talking about you. Yes, you. We are ALL athletes. Whether we play football or practice yoga; whether we kickbox or whether we love to run. Whether we have ever picked up a piece of sports equipment in our lives, or whether we are experts in our fields; whether we are beginners in our pilates class, or elite athletes preparing for the Olympics. We all have goals, dreams, people who inspire us, and all have differing ideals of what we believe is beautiful. Under Armour's "What's Beautiful" campaign showcases and celebrates just that.

I LOVE their latest slogan: I WILL. This personal mantra will work for everyone. Whatever your goal is, say it to yourself! In the mirror! I WILL. Write it down. Put it on your mirror with lipstick. I have my students do this for homework sometimes.

I'm a really easy teacher.

I originally shared the What's Beautiful video on my Facebook page a few months ago as UA worked at redefining the female athlete. I found it so inspiring! What's Beautiful is a community of women, all with different goals, coming together to talk sports, fitness, food, and sweat. It is so amazing! People share their stories about trying battling ropes for the first time, crushing their PR at a race, mastering a yoga pose, or logging in a certain amount of laps in the pool.

The one step in the challenge is simple. You declare a goal. It can be anything from sweating once a day, to completing your first triathlon, to attending a 6-week yoga class! You are much more likely to follow through on a goal by writing it down... so DO IT! After 9 weeks, UA will narrow the field down to 20 participants. The final ten will be decided based on a mix of UA and the community! Winners will get to participate in Camp Sweat (in Florida!!), train with elite UA trainers and nutrition experts, and receive ridic spa treatments  (Sorry. I had to use slang there. Ridic is the word that needed to be used.).

I remember the amazing feeling of setting a goal, and following through with it. Even if it takes longer than you think. I set a goal to run a 10 km race when I was 12 weeks pregnant. No one knew I was expecting besides my immediate family, so my goal was to simply RUN. This was a hard goal because I couldn't go as fast as I wanted to. I couldn't kill my Personal Record time. I had to really listen to my body and potentially stop if I needed to.

People thought I was going to hurl.

It was the most rewarding, amazing feeling to cross that finish line. I wanted to hug myself. I didn't, as I knew people would stare (more than usual).

The What's Beautiful Campaign dishes out Under Armour swag (I can't stop the slang... it's an addiction) to those who complete their goals!

This challenge has special meaning to me as I actually used to work at Under Armour Canada- and besides staring at the hot athletes (Tom Brady, Georges St. Pierre, Heather Mitts, anyone?) it was inspiring and gratifying to work with like-minded individuals who valued men and women as athletes. It's awesome to see how far they've come specifically in the female niche.

So bring it, ladies! Declare a goal, win free Under Armour gear, and perhaps even win the most epic trip of a lifetime. Because YOU are what's beautiful. Say it with me: I WILL.

What's Beautiful is a contest open to residents of the U.S. and Canada over the age of 13. 

Fitfluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own. 

popchips+Katy Perry+loulou magazine prize pack!!!

So besides myself, there is another woman named Katy that you might know.

Aww, that's sweet for you to say that I'm the more "popular" Katy. In fact, I'm sure many of you have never heard of her before. Anyways, she's a gorgeous pop star and has a couple of songs that you may recognize. Nothing compared to the multitude of fans I have, but let me introduce you to her. 

This is Katy Perry. She's holding my favourite flavour of popchips. Biter. 

Katy Perry is the newest spokesperson for popchips! I mean, they offered it to me, but I was too busy blogging. I'm so thrilled because I usually love to stare at her while stuffing my face anyway, so why not with my favourite light snack?

popchips are naturally delicious, never fried or baked, free of trans and saturated fats, msg, and free of preservatives. They are also gluten free, soy free, and most flavours are dairy free. 

Why am I so excited that Katy Perry and popchips have teamed up? Because I love celebrities and indulging! Katy also has some wicked advice for working out and eating right on the road that you can read here. 

The amazing peeps at popchips have offered one of you lucky guys or gals this ridic prizepack, filled with my favourite things! 

Inside the gorgeous zebra box, you have a prize pack consisting of Lou Lou Magazine's latest issue (with the beautiful Blake Lively on the cover), Katy Perry's latest CDs, Katy Perry Lashes, and an array of popchips!!! 

Here's how to win!

+1 Follow popchipsTO on Twitter, and tell them Katy sent you! (The more popular one). 

+1 Follow FiH on Google Friend Connect (top left corner!)

+1 Comment below, telling me which popchips flavour best represents Katy Perry! (Check all the flavours out at www.popchips.com!)

+1 Share this contest on your blog, twitter (mentioning @fit_in_heels and @popchipsTO), or on facebook!

That's 4 possible entries, yo! Leave me a separate comment for each entry you make. If there are any issues with my comments, try using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser, or you can leave your comments on my Facebizzle. Good luck- contest winners will be announced Saturday, October 6th at 8pm EST on my Facebook page!

Side note: popchips and Lou Lou Magazine are teaming up at Gap on Bloor St. in Toronto next Wednesday, October 10th for Shop til you Drop! Think shopping and photo booths! Get the info here for your chance to meet Katy Perry!

Run Baby, Run!

Running in the third trimester...

Is oddly amazing. For me, at least. I will be 8 months pregnant this week and though I've decided that I'm done with running until this babe comes, I have to tell you my strange love connection with pounding the pavement.

Emily and I at the Terry Fox Run... this was during the race. You can tell we were trying to win. 

As a yoga teacher, many mothers have told me how great it was for them to practice yoga during pregnancy. Not only do you practice your breathing techniques and get in tune with your body, you get to work on your core strength and flexibility as well! Sounds amazing.

Except I found yoga to be the most UNcomfortable type of exercise during my pregnancy. Between my belly getting in the way, to feeling lightheaded, to modifying pretty much the entire class (no twisting, no inversions besides downward dog, no belly poses, no lying down poses), I haven't had my usual love affair with yoga while with child. That, and wine. God, I miss wine. Have I mentioned that before?

Soon, my friend. Soon.

Running, on the other hand, I have. I'm shocked at this because during month 5 I started feeling really uncomfortable when running, and figured I'd reached my end at the time. I began walking and using the elliptical, which are both fabulous alternates to running, but decided to try running again in month 6. I would run for 7 minutes, walk for 3- or some combination of run/walk (run for 6, walk for 4, run for 5, walk for 5... something like that). It felt awesome.

I read on the Hungry Runner Girl's blog (who ran, like, marathons throughout her pregnancy... ridic) about the Belly Bra. Think Spanx for your pregnant belly- just as um... "aesthetically pleasing", only without the flat stomach.

Hot. I know. I bought mine in beige. Bad call on my part.

To be honest, I was hoping for a little bit more from this product. HRG raved about this and I don't find a huge difference when I run with it, though it does give some great extra back support which is fabulous. The hardest part about running while pregnant is the constant pressure- basically, feeling like you may have wet your pants at all times. I thought the Belly Bra would help more with that, and I didn't feel that it did. Running first thing in the morning helped with this- Nicole from www.makinggoodchoicesblog.com recommended that I try this, and it was GREAT advice.

Emily and I completed the Terry Fox Run a few weeks ago, and it was the PERFECT day. Perfect weather, supportive people, great cause, and an amazing run!

Embarrassing woman? Check. 

I thought the Terry Fox Run would be my last as a preggo chick, until I felt freaking awesome while running it (Emily, I blame you). I needed to take my usual 2-3 days off afterwards (the pressure kind of sticks with you... um, down there. You're welcome).

Here's where strength training and walking have been fabulous. If I ran twice a week, I feel like a f*@!ing champion, and reward myself with donuts or cookies.

This happened.

In all seriousness, running 5km while 8 months pregnant is like climbing Everest. It's hard. But it's the best, most accomplished feeling I've ever felt. It's a time when I really listen to my body- if I get a cramp, I stop. If something doesn't feel right, I stop. If I see Halloween Candy on sale, I'll stop and get some. For the kids, of course.

Today was the CIBC Run for the Cure and my beautiful sister-in-law ran with me! My Dad's band was playing at the event (way to go, Pops) so it was ah-maze all around.

Remind me to put makeup on the next time I'm going running. I said it. 

I ran into fellow Sweatpink Ambassadors Michelle and Sarah!! 

Whew... running in these Uggs were exhausting.

I've decided to hang up my runners for now. I'm thrilled with how long I've been able to continue running, and I'm happy that walking and strength training are still options! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put my feet up and make my husband give me a massage. I just ran 5km, after all.