Back from NYC!!

I'm back from my trip to the Big Apple! Totally loved every minute of it!
While typing this, I have a huge lack of sleep (I kind of skipped a night, since my flight was at night and I couldn't keep my eyes closed for over an hour) but I still don't feel too bad. I just wanted to share my stories, food finds and pictures with you all.

To summarize our trip: eating, walking, shopping, eating, walking, shopping, eating, walking, sleeping.. Etc.. Oh and some sightseeing too.
Both my mom and me had a really great time in New York City!

I could finally share my love for the Whole Foods Market with her, and she fell in love with it immediately. It's so hard to explain the joy (and greed) that came over us when seeing all those food options, food we could actually eat, just like that, without having to cook or bake it into something. Wonderful!
And their buffets.. Yum!! We had breakfast over there every single day (except for Sunday, we just bought that the day before, still at WF), and most of our lunches and dinners too. In between, we snacked on cookies and bars we'd bought over there. Or we just went over there for some coconut ice-cream (yes, a whole pint each).
We ate a LOT of food, especially me. I felt like eating all the time and that's exactly what I did. Not the best move I ever made, but I really enjoyed it, and now that I'm back home I'm also going back to eating strictly Paleo again. That will help my body deal with the stress that has built up during my trip.

We did a huge amount of walking by the way, we walked between 15 and 20km daily! We think taking the subway isn't the best way to enjoy everything the city has to offer, so we simply walked everywhere. For people who know their way around New York; our hotel was based in Chinatown, and we walked all the way to Columbus Circle and back. Quite the distance! (so we also needed those huge amounts of food ;))
My legs weren't exactly used to doing that amount of walking, and my shoes weren't either, so I ended up buying new shoes (my feet hurt too much, so I bought a pair of Nike Free training shoes, grey with orange, and will be using those at the gym in the future). I also had a few blisters, extremely sore muscles in my calves (they still hurt) and my knee doesn't feel too good either, but it's already improving again, luckily. I was almost afraid I wouldn't be able to run for a while, but I guess I don't have to worry about that.

We saw so many places in New York! We liked Union Square best, the Greenmarket over there was really nice and the stores and athmosphere around it were so nice. There's a huge Barnes & Noble over there where I got myself the 'Primal Blueprint cookbook'. I had been thinking about buying it for a while, but in the Netherlands no stores carry it, so I could finally browse the book over there and liked it a lot. There are some great recipes in it which I can't wait to try!
We also walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, through Chinatown, Battery Park (with a view on the Statue of Liberty of course) and walked all the way up to Chelsea Market through Hudson River Park. Very nice, especially because of the beautiful weather. Chelsea Market was really nice too! As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, we were planning to go there and visit One Lucky Duck, which we did. We didn't buy anything though, because we figured 15 bucks for a tiny piece of raw tiramisu was kinda over the top.
I did buy a wonderful piece of vegan, gluten-free, agave sweetened banana bread at Babycakes though. Soo good!! We wanted to go back before checking out yesterday morning, to get ourselves something nice to enjoy at the airport, but they weren't opened yet. Such a shame..

Let's see.. Foodwise, we loved a few products best:
- So Delicious coconut milk ice-cream, I especially loved their vanilla bean flavour without added sugar. It didn't spike my blood suger at all, so I've been enjoying this flavour a lot!
- So Delicious coconut milk yogurt, it had been years and years since I last had some yogurt, and now we found this coconut milk based yogurt. Very delicious! Had it every morning with my breakfast!
- Caveman Cookies, paleo cookies! Yummy paleo cookies. Don't know what else to say, just try them.
- Mrs May's crunches, I found these at the airport before going home, so of course I had to buy them. I went for the Cran Blueberry crunch and loved them. Perfect on-the-go snack! Of course trailmix would be a better paleo option, but these are a fancy alternative.
- Liz Lovely's Gluten Free Chocolate Fudge cookies, very tasty cookies. They do contain grains and lots of sugar, but they have a great texture and a wonderfully rich chocolate taste. Yum!
- Rishi chocolate chai tea, I haven't tried this yet but I bought a can to enjoy at home. Right now I'm way too tired to put some effort into making tea, and since this should be made with milk (coconut milk for me) I don't feel like I'm up to it yet. Will try very soon though! It looks really promising. (and if the tea tastes bad, I'll still have a nice can, right?)

Shoppingwise, I found some wonderful things!
I fell in love with Lululemon Athletica (I'm so glad my mom spotted that store at Union Square!!) and bought a sports bra, a top and running shorts. I wish I could've bought a whole lot more though.. They had so many great items!
I also bought a simple black running T-shirt from New Balance.
Let's see, what else did I buy.. Some Burt's Bees products (a small travel kit, and an 'essentials' kit), new sunglasses, UGGs (I got the sand coloured ones), Roxy jeans (at Times Square, of course), something from Victoria's Secret, a t-shirt from American Eagle and a tanktop, a knit sweater, yoga pants and shorts from my all-time favourite store; Abercrombie & Fitch!
I also bought some stationery from a huge Japanese bookstore, and a new lipbalm too. And a new book called Something Borrowed, it's been turned into a movie which will be coming out soon. I saw the trailer on tv and figured it would be a nice book so I spent my last couple of dollars on a book at the airport. My favourite way to spend time at the airport is browsing for a good book.
I guess that's about it.. As you might be able to imagine, my suitcase was much heavier when I went home!


When arriving at the airport, my dad was already waiting for us. And he had brought us a wonderful gift: 2 dark chocolate easter eggs from our favourite chocolatier! Yum! So nice of him!
This afternoon I was so tired that I enjoyed some of it already, really good :)
I'm going to have to go to work again tomorrow, unfortunately, because I feel like I could really need some more rest. But I'll survive, I'll just get to bed early tonight!