The Morrie + a $50 Giveaway!

Disclosure: I received a free meal at The Morrie in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Happy Tuesday Friends! I hope your week has been going well and you are looking forward to some fun events this week! Justin and I are hopping on a plane and heading to Florida tomorrow so I am looking forward to some warmer weather and a bit of relaxation!

For today's post, I wanted to share with you a little bit about The Morrie! The Morrie is a local Metro Detroit restaurant that I was able to try over the weekend! A group of bloggers and myself met up for brunch and I must say I was very impressed with the food.

I had never been to The Morrie before so I was very excited to try their food and check out the venue.  Upon my arrival, I was greeted by very friendly staff and an amazing atmosphere.  The venue is decked out with some awesome graffiti, Andy Warhol-esque artwork and tons of Vinyl records.  Since I love music, it was so much fun to look around at all of the vinyls they had on hand.  Plus it makes for a great backdrop for pictures!

They also had a stage in the back of the restaurant with some really neat graffiti.  They did not have any live music while we were there, but from their website, it looks as though they have shows at least every other night, if not nightly.  AND they hit a wide variety of genres of performers, so there is a lot to choose from.  I am thinking I might have to check out one of their shows next month.

For brunch, we all were given a choice from their breakfast menu.  They had a wide variety of options from the healthy egg bowl to the not-so-healthy chicken and waffles.  For my meal, I had the French Toast, thick-cut bacon and the sweet potato tater tots.  I also enjoyed a mimosa while I was there because what is brunch without a good mimosa?

My French Toast was so delicious! Not only was it thick cut, it was cooked on all side.  There is something so delicious about French Toast that is crunchy from all sides.  And their pairing with maple syrup made for a wonderful breakfast.

The bacon was your standard thick-cut bacon, so I enjoyed it very much.  But I have to say my favorite part of my meal was the sweet potato tater tots.  I have always been a huge fan of tater tots, so I was excited to see they offered them as a side.  I was even more excited to see they had a sweet potato option.  The tater tots were so good I ended up sharing them with everyone just so they could see how good they are.

From a price point, The Morrie falls on the pricier side (with some dishes hitting $20+), but I would 100% pay that much if I were to go there again.  Not only is the food wonderful, but the atmosphere and the service is excellent.  In fact, I'm going to see if my girlfriend wants to meet up there next month some time! We try to have brunch together once a month and this is a great half-way point for us both.

What dish or appetizer would you try at The Morrie? Click here to see the full menu.

The Morrie is located at 511 S. Main St, Royal Oak, MI, and can be reached at (248) 216-1112. Its hours are 4-10pm, Mon.-Wed.; 4-11pm on Thurs.; 4pm to 2am on Fri.; 12pm to 2am on Sat.; and 10am to 9pm on Sunday. 

Enter to Win $50 to The Morrie! 

{Michigan residents only please}

Giveaway runs 04.01.17 - 04.15.17

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See what my friends thought about The Morrie's Brunch:

Mom Among Chaos

Metro Detroit Mommy

I'd love to hear from you!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day + a Giveaway!

Happy Friday Friends! I hope this post finds you well and excited for St. Patrick's Day today! The past week has been a bit chaotic between 4" of snow on Monday and a crazy work schedule, but I get to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by going to see Beauty and the Beast with my girlfriend and i am super excited.  Tomorrow we will be cooking an Irish meal in honor of the holiday (I'm thinking Shepherd's Pie, but we might do corned beef and cabbage) and probably having a green drink of some sort.

In honor of one of my favorite holidays, I am giving away a $20 Amazon gift card to one lucky winner! To enter, follow the steps in the widget below! The winner will be announced on Friday March 24th, right here on the blog!

Enter the Giveaway Here:

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Question of the Day: What is your favorite Broadway show?

I'd love to hear from you!

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This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Amazon or Facebook.   

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

CycleBar Review + Giveaway!

Happy Wednesday Friends! I hope your week is going well so far and continues to get better the rest of the week!

Today I wanted to talk to you a little about CycleBar Troy! I was asked by the owners of CycleBar to come and check out one of their classes and I had so much fun! They invited some of the local bloggers to come and check out their studio and all that they offer.  And I was able to take a few friends with me and we participated in one of classes.  I had only ever done a cycle class once before so I really was not sure what to expect.

About CycleBar

In 2004, Bill Pryor and his sister Alex Klemmer decided to create one of the first independent cycling studios in the country in their Boston neighborhood. Both Bill, then a corporate executive, and Alex, a stay-at-home mom, recognized that there were three key ingredients to a successful indoor cycling experience: great instructors, great music, and a great environment. They opened their first dedicated studio a year later and have been perfecting their high-energy, cycling- focused concept ever since. Now, ten years later, Pryor and Klemmer have partnered with like-minded fitness enthusiasts to allow others to experience and benefit from the CycleBar experience.

CycleBar's Mission

• Create a fun and accessible experience for riders of all ages and fitness levels.
• Ensure every CycleBar ride is an unparalleled multisensory, intoxicating journey.
• Hire and retain the very best people.
• Fuel each ride with amazing music, energy-enhancing video graphics and rider-specific performance data in a state-of-the-art CycleTheatre™.
• Deliver concierge-level service and an exhilarating experience that goes far beyond a great cardio fitness workout.
• Rock the ride, each and every time.

My Visit to CycleBar

Upon arriving at CycleBar Troy, we were immediately greeted by several friendly faces that helped us check into the class.  They gave us a pair of shoes and showed us where to go to get changed and lock our items into a locker.  In the back of the studio, they have two restrooms and too shower rooms for anyone that needs to wash up after the class.  While we changed shoes and locked up our stuff, we were offered a bottle of water with the choice of chilled or room temp water.  They also had some bananas and apples available for us to eat either before or after the class. 

Once we were all set, they showed us where to go to get ready for the class.  When you sign up for the class, you pick the bike that you would like to sit at for the class.  They had an employee going around helping everyone get settled into their bikes as most of us had not done a cycle class before.  One of the nice things is they provide us with fresh towels to use for the class.  It was so nice to have such a soft towel available - often times the towels at a gym are not soft and are too rough for my skin.  

Once everyone was settled, the class got started and we took off! For me it felt awkward to be on the bike at first because I do not ride bikes all that often, but once we got going my adrenaline started pumping and I was ready to rock.  For this class we had TJ as our instructor and he was great! So high energy and so encouraging (plus his music choices were right up my alley).  

I also loved how high tech the bikes were - not only did you have the ability to set the bike exactly to what you need, the display had a wide variety of statistics available.  The last time I took a cycle class, I had not idea exactly what my resistance was and these bikes show exactly what resistance I was hitting, as well as my RPMs.  

The bike also takes your statistics throughout the class and throughout the class the instructors showed a lineup of how everyone was doing in the class.  It was awesome to see where I was placing in the group and actually helped me push a little harder to keep up from the bottom of the class.  The best part is after your class, you will get an email from CycleBar telling you exactly how you did at the class! I loved seeing how many calories I burned and my level of effort.  

So that was my time at CycleBar! It looks so much fun doesn't it? I've actually gone a few more times and have purchased a package from them to keep going in the future! I am hooked on the class.

 To kick off their grand opening, Cyclebar is offering free rides from now until August 7th. CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE YOUR FREE RIDE

Troy CycleBar
311 East Big Beaver Road, Troy MI
Follow on Facebook: Troy CycleBar
Go online to schedule a class: http://troy.cyclebar.com/


I am also HOSTING A GIVEAWAY! Enter to win one free ride, a shirt and water bottle from CycleBar!

Enter the Giveaway Here!

I'd love to hear from you!

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A Book Review + A Giveaway!

Hello Readers! I am so sorry that I have been absent for the last week! I came down with a bad cold and have been unable to do much besides work and sleep for the last few days.

Today's post is going to be entirely dedicated to reviewing, The 3-1-2-1 Diet: Eat and Cheat Your Way to Weight Loss by Dolvett Quince.

Synopsis from Amazon:

"Dolvett offers a dieting trifecta: easy, effective, and friendly to cheaters. He helps trick your metabolism into cooperating with his rapid weight loss formula for success." --Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Want to finally lose the weight and keep it off? Want to be able to eat the foods you love? Reaching your goals can only happen when you don't feel deprived and you continue to stay motivated. Now, celebrity trainer and star of the hit reality series The Biggest Loser, Dolvett Quince, tells you how to do all of that and more in his revolutionary program, THE 3-1-2-1 DIET.This 21-day program works by manipulating your body's natural tendency to slow its metabolic rate in response to calorie restriction. It takes a new approach to getting lean-one scientifically based on changing up food and calories to tap into your body's potential to burn fat. This unconventional plan results in greater muscle and less fat than any other diet you've ever tried. 

Dolvett's effective eating plan is as easy as 3-1-2-1: three days of clean eating, one day of cheating, two more days of clean eating, and one final reward meal at the end of the week. No foods are off limits and you will never feel deprived because the plan is flexible enough to fit into any lifestyle. You'll lose weight fast-10 pounds or more in just 21 days-and you won't plateau.
Dolvett's simple meal plans and delicious, easy-to-prepare recipes, together with his fast and effective workouts that combine cardio and body-shaping moves, will have you back in your skinny jeans in less than three weeks!

My Review:

Besides seeing people on The Biggest Loser, have you ever heard of someone losing 10 pounds in 21 days? Probably, but do you know anyone personally who has? Me either.  This book boasts on the idea that you can, in fact lose 10 pounds in 21 days, and to be honest, I believe that it is totally possible.

I appreciate that Dolvett decided to use a style of writing that makes you feel like he is sitting right there with you while you are reading the book and discussing these wonderful things with you.  The book starts out with Dolvett discussing the importance of eating healthy and exercising correctly which we all know we need to do, but the majority of us do not.  He then goes into the breakdown of how his "diet" works by giving the reader his ideal meal plan and his exercise plan.

I really appreciate that he gives recipes and cooking instructions for all of the recipes provided; however, I do not necessarily agree with the "removal" of certain foods in his diet that you can then turn around and eat on your cheat days and even on those cheat days you are limited to little "cheating".  Now, I'm not saying that his program will not work, because believe me when you begin cutting out sugars and carbs from your diet, you will likely lose a large amount of weight up front, but I do not believe that this lifestyle would be sustainable for me personally.  For some people, the absolute removal of certain types of foods is exactly what they need in order to be successful and that is wonderful, but for me.  Removing something from my diet gives me the feeling that I am punishing myself even though I did nothing wrong.  Just my two cents on that area.  

But to be positive for Dolvett's diet plan, he does give some several recipes for the reader to follow with easy substitutes in case you do not prefer the foods he suggested.  

My favorite portion of the book was the exercise portion.  One of my biggest struggles with reading exercise books and blogs is the fact that they never hardly ever show you the proper technique to do an exercise.  Well, not Dolvett.  He has pages and pages of his book filled with pictures of how to properly complete the exercises he would like you to do and for that I am very grateful.

Overall, I believe that someone who is very dedicated to making a lifestyle change can and will be successful with this plan and that if you are looking to shake things up a bit, this would be a great place to start.  The book is a quick and easy read while also very informative.  

Oh and I must warn you, there are several typos in the book.  So if that is something that drives you up a wall, just be prepared. 

Are you interested in reading this book as well, but have not had a chance to get around to order it? Then you're in luck! One lucky reader will win a copy of the The 3-1-2-1 Diet to read and enjoy! Just leave a comment on this post as to why you want to read the book and one lucky winner will be picked on Valentine's Day! 

Question of the Day: What is your favorite book right now?