It is the last day of August! Wow.
I’m a little sad to see summer ending, but I’m really ready for it to not be so HOT. I hope you’ve all had a fantastic summer!
In my last post I told y’all how I was feeling a little bit poofy since my sister had been in town for a few weeks and we pretty much ate food and treats the entire time! Gah!
Well, I’m happy to say I’ve been eating much better since she left, but I haven’t been totally hardcore. I’m still up about a pound or two.
It’s a’ight though. Such is life.
I’m happy to say that I organized a “healthy challenge” with some of my friends that we will be starting on Tuesday (the 3rd), the day after Labor Day. Woot! It’s just what I need right now!
It’s just going to be a 30 day challenge, but I may just keep on doing it after we’re done. We’ll see. We are going to be focusing on:
- Eating good, clean, healthy food
- Tracking our food intake and staying within a calorie range
- Getting 7+ hours of sleep every night
- Practicing self-care every day (doing something you love and that relieves stress)
- Drinking water (100+ ounces a day)
- Exercise (4-6 days a week)
I hate to admit this out loud, but I think I will cut out sugar for the month as well! It’s always so nice to just get it out of my system for a while. I always feel so good, lose weight, have more energy….and then when I do have it again, I have a much better relationship with it. I actually feel sick if I have more than just a little bit. I love my sugar, but it really is a good thing for me to just cut it out sometimes. Thirty days seems ’bout right.
Soooo, I guess I won’t be wishy washy about it….I AM going to cut out sugar for one month starting on September 3rd.
Ok, now it’s official. 😉
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Well, I thought I’d just share a few random things today! First off, we’ve been loving our fresh garden produce lately. I’m so so so so (to infinity!) grateful that Kev knows how to garden and that he does it for our family every year!
I served these veggies on the side with dinner a few nights ago and they tasted soooo good to me! There is nothing like fresh garden tomatoes and cukes.
We’ve also been loving the zucchini, bell peppers, peas and carrots. We planted a peach tree last year too, so we’re looking forward to some peaches soon!
I love to make yummy wraps with some of our garden veggies on Flatouts or other healthy wraps….
We’ve also been making a TON of fresh salsa lately. I love this stuff so much! You can click here for my recipe.
We’ve also been making a lot of guacamole. I wish there was a way to grow avocados ’round here, dang it. You can click here for my guacamole recipe!
We’ve brought both the fresh salsa and guacamole to several parties the past few weeks and everyone has loved them! They just taste so fresh and flavorful!
We also made grilled zucchini pizzas a few days ago.
Folks, these are bomb. Really. Like, I could eat the whole batch! I have experimented with making these in the oven, but they really MUST be done on the grill. It makes them so dang good.
I think I’ll probably make some more tomorrow. Oh, and you can click here for the zucchini pizza recipe if you want it!
I love all the fresh produce in our garden AND in the stores this time of year! It really makes it so much easier to eat well and get a lot of fruits and veggies in the diet!
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Well, I’ve still been teaching some exercise classes twice a week at my church with my friends. It’s been a lot of fun and has been a great experience for me! I was originally just going to do it for the summer, but I’ve decided to continue doing it. Yay.
One of these days, I’ll share some of my workouts with y’all. For now, I will say that I love, love, love strength training/weight lifting. If you want to lean out, tone up, strengthen your body and really change your physique, strength training is where it’s at!
I’m also a huge fan of HIIT workouts because they are so efficient. You just combine intervals of strength training with bursts of cardio and very short breaks. When I workout, I do it purposefully and I give it my all! You get a lot of bang for your buck with HIIT training.
Anyway, I will share my favorite post-workout drink concoction. Whenever I finish a hard workout and have fatigued my body and muscles, I like to replenish and refuel my body. I shared this on my Instagram this week…
I love to fill up one of my giant (40 oz) Contigo water bottles with ice water and then I mix in a teaspoon of Glutamine, a teaspoon of BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids) and a little bit of True Lemon drink mix to make it taste good! Sometimes I’ll add a packet of Emergen-C as well. Kev and a couple of my kids have had colds, so I decided to add one in this time!
I really, really love those True Lemon and True Lime drink mixes. They are so good and all natural. I just buy it at Walmart. They come in little individual packets that are meant for those 16 ounce water bottles. I use about half of one of those packets in my big 40 ounce water bottle. It just lightly sweetens my post-workout drink and gives it a little flavor. It tastes so yummy and refreshing to me! It’s like a little reward after my workout.
Glutamine is one of the very few supplements that I swear by! Glutamine is a naturally occurring amino acid that our body produces. It’s also found in foods like eggs, beef, rice and corn. It is a building block of protein, it strengthens the immune system and it helps our bodies to recover.
Sometimes when we work out hard (my favorite way to work out!), our bodies can’t produce enough glutamine to recover as well. When we take a glutamine supplement after tough workouts, it just helps our muscles to recover, strengthens the immune system and supports healing.
Whenever I take glutamine after a tough workout, I’m significantly less sore the day after. I also don’t feel quite as tired and run down. When I forget to take it, I’m always a lot more sore!
If I remember to, I like to take another dose of glutamine right before I go to bed on the days when I’ve exercised intensely.
BCCAs supposedly help and support the body as well, although I haven’t ever noticed the benefit like I do with glutamine. BCCAs can strengthen the immune system, protect the lean muscle you already have, promote muscle growth and improve recovery after a workout.
Sometimes I’ll take BCAAs during a workout because I’ve heard it gives you a little energy and helps you to workout harder. Who knows?
Anyway, I enjoy my little post-workout concoction and I really do think it helps my body to recover and perform well! Oh, and I buy my glutamine at Walmart or Amazon and I buy my BCAAs on Amazon.
Well my friends, I think that’s all I will say today! It’s been nice to have the kids back in school and to get back to a regular schedule again. I’m also so happy to be starting my little “healthy challenge” next week.
I love goal setting, working hard and accomplishing the things I want to accomplish! It makes me happy! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend!
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