Fiori: A Lifestyle Blog: December 2014

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Blog Explanation

Why is the blog called Fiori?

Fiori is Italian for flowers. I studied abroad in Italy and still try to keep up on my Italian as much as possible. I chose this specific word because my last name is Flores (Spanish for flowers) and I have always loved how girly and sweet flowers are.

Why are you blogging?

I wanted to do something more creative with my time. I have always loved bloggers like Lauren Conrad and figured I would follow in those footsteps. I am also working with Chloe + Isabel currently and thought this would be a good platform for my business.

What's different about this blog?

It may be my obsession with Legally Blonde but I have always felt the need to empower women. I personally enjoy being very feminine and I think sometimes we associate femininity with frivolity. That's why I'm committed to including a discussion of serious political, social, or philosophical issues in with the discussion of fashion, fitness, and beauty. The two are not mutually exclusive and I want women to really be able to embrace their hobbies without feeling the need to sacrifice or hide their intelligence.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Feminism

I cringe at the fact that I have to explain this but despite your possible hesitation, you are most likely a feminist! Stop denying it, it's true. Do you believe women should be able to vote? Should women be paid the same amount for the same jobs? Do women deserve the same amount of rights as men? If you answered 'no' to any of that please reevaluate your life but if you answered 'yes' then that means you're a feminist!

"But I don't hate men!" "But I like the traditional gender roles!" "But I'm girly!" "But I want a man to pay on a date!" "But I like when men open doors for me!"

Don't worry! Liking that a man pays on a date doesn't mean you're not a feminist. I absolutely love a lot of things about traditional gender roles and think being a housewife would be a great job but I realize that this is not for every woman and it is not my job to enforce my ideal on other women.

Feminism is like this radical relativism when it comes to degrees of femininity and masculinity to which we choose to subscribe. I personally am very feminine in how I dress and behave but I am also very career driven, study philosophy, and enjoy movies like Fight Club. I won't let anyone tell me that watching violent movies is unladylike or that if I care about fashion I can't also care about philosophy. I have the ability to define what ladylike is for myself and what interest I choose to take up.

The thing about feminism is that men absolutely have this right too! A man can enjoy baking and watching sports and should not be chastised for either interest.

I know a woman who would absolutely hate if a man paid on a date. I hate when a man doesn't. Each of us are our own individuals and are entitled to feel either way about dating. We are not in competition with one another. If these differences are frustrating for a man, then he probably does not care about who the person is that he is dating but just wants to categorize all women as the same object.

It may take some conscious effort but feminism requires that you stop judging other women and men because their interest don't match what you think they should be and to realize that not all women or all men will be exactly the same in any way.

This is of course just a very fundamental view into feminism but I think once we get this down, we open ourselves up to further discussions.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Buffalo Tofu

I know people are afraid of tofu so I hope this post will help clear up some misconceptions.

1. Tofu is not bad for you. All those studies on soy being bad for you are based on processed soy (the stuff that makes up chick'n and other fake meats). Tofu, edamame, and soy milk are not considered processed. Granted if you have a soy allergy, obviously, still avoid these three.

2. Tofu does not taste like meat. So if you're expecting it to, be prepared to be disappointed. It is it's own unique food. As mentioned earlier, when it does taste like meat that usually means it's bad for you.

3. Tofu has a weird texture. It can, especially if prepared without fully cooking it or without drying the tofu first.

Now that those three things are cleared up, here's a good recipe to try for anyone who is new to tofu. It's great on it's own or on top of a salad and isn't that hard to make. I usually make a big batch on the weekend and eat it throughout the week. Since I'm vegan, this is a good way to get some protein in that I really crave.

Buffalo Tofu

Ingredients

1 Block of Extra Firm Cubed Tofu (the type of tofu matters!!! If you can't find cubed, extra firm is fine, you'll just have to cube the tofu yourself)

1/4 cup of Frank's Red Hot Wing's Buffalo Sauce (you can get Hot Buffalo or regular depending on how much heat you want)

1 tbs. Olive Oil ( I recommend California Olive Ranch because it's the only olive oil I've had that tastes like the olive oil in Italy)

*Preheat your oven to 400F

Directions

1. Cut open your block of extra firm cubed tofu and drain out as much of the water as possible.

2. Set out two small towels and layer two sheets of paper towel folded in half on top.

3. Pour the tofu onto one of the paper towels and put the other paper towel/towel combo on top. Press down lightly to squeeze out any excess liquid. (Be sure to press lightly, tofu breaks easily)

4. Put the tofu in a bowel and pour 1 tbs of olive oil and 1/4 a cup of buffalo sauce over the tofu. Mix up (again mix carefully so you do not break the tofu). You can add more buffalo sauce if you want it to be spicier.

5. Once mixed, spray a cooking sheet and pour the tofu out on the sheet. (I make big batches, so this picture includes 5 blocks of tofu. Feel free to do as many blocks as you'd like at once)

6. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Then remove the tofu and flip as much of it over as you can. Bake another 15 minutes. (If you do big batches like mine, I'd recommend adding 5 minutes to your second round of baking. The tofu shouldn't be crispy, except a few around the sides, but it also shouldn't be watery).

7. Enjoy a bit by itself or on top of a salad! Save the extra for later in the week. This reheats in the microwave really well.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Fitness - 30 Day Challenges

Disclaimer: Fitness is not the same as weight loss. If you find yourself obsessing over your weight, workouts and the food that you eat, please seek medical attention or at least help from a friend. I struggle with this myself and I will always try to focus on how my body feels and how much stronger it gets instead of focusing on a scale. Do not compare your journey to others. You are only in competition with yourself. I only share this information as a way to express my experience and hopefully give people new ideas for their fitness journey. If you ever feel like my words are triggering in anyway, please let me know. It's very important to me that everyone feels empowered by fitness and not demeaned in anyway.

My New Year's Resolution

Like many of you, one of my resolutions is to continue getting healthier. I feel like each year I make some small steps towards this goal and I'm happy to be continuing that.

I have decided it would be fun to do a different 30 day challenge each month this year. I figure I can do anything for 30 days and if I like it, it only takes 21 days to build a habit.

January will be my 30 day yoga challenge. I have always loved yoga and actually started this challenge before (can't remember why I stopped). The videos are less than 20 minutes which makes them an ideal place to start. As Chris Powell says, take it slow when you start out so that you can stay motivated.

I already started (I have the week off and figured starting early will help if I need a break). I'm on day 4 and it just feels really good to stretch out every morning and take a little bit of time for myself.

If you haven't tried yoga, I recommend it. It may seem easy (because it isn't a big cardio workout) but it has so many benefits.

(I found this infographic on pinterest but couldn't find the original creator. Just know the original creator is unfortunately not me!)

Since yoga isn't a big cardio workout, I'm thinking of including something else along with this. Most of my 30 day challenges won't be too long of workouts (squat challenge, splits challenge, plank challenge etc.) So, if you didn't guess, I love Chris Powell and want to try out his month-by-month plan that lasts for the whole year.

It looks like there are three days a week of weight training (that doesn't look too complicated) and two days a week of cardio. I do highland dance once a week so I really just add one more cardio to my week which I plan on mixing up quite a bit (tone it up workouts, cardio kickboxing, cycling, hula hooping, etc.) I'll keep you updated on what I like and what I don't.

The key to this for me is that it doesn't seem overwhelming. I'm not committing myself to hours of working out intensely everyday forever. I'm taking it 30 days at a time and that keeps me sane!