Happy Friday to you all!
First things first, I want to thank each of you who entered my Heads Up Bands giveaway! I really wish you could all win!
I selected two winners using Random.org and here are the winners:
sarah July 9, 2013 at 10:43 pm
and
Britney Trone July 10, 2013 at 1:40 am
Congratulations! Please email me at happybeinghealthy@gmail.com and send me your address and the choices of the two Heads Up Bands you would like! So fun!
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I want to mention that this morning I was so happy to see that my blog was mentioned in a fun article on Mashable.com. The article was titled, “10 Mom Blogs Full of Inspiring Advice.” It was also accompanied by this image…
Isn’t that so nice!? I’m a mom of 5 kids, so I don’t usually consider myself very “Kick-A”, but I thought it was very sweet. Here’s a link, if you want to check it out!
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Well, I told you guys that Kev and I were going to eat “extra healthy” this week! I have to say it has not been easy, but I’ve loved it! I’ve felt really great and I’ve felt a lot leaner too. And, I lost 3 pounds! Woo hoo.
I’m sure most of the weight lost was water weight, but it feels good nonetheless!
The body stores glycogen in the liver to help break down carbs. When you don’t eat a lot of carbs, the body gets rid of the unneeded glycogen (which is also attached to water), so you lose weight and feel lean pretty quickly.
However, typically all the water weight is lost within 3 days. So, if you stick with it for more than 3 days and continue to eat a healthy diet, you will continue to lose real weight! AND, if you cut out processed foods and sugar, you end up eating a whole lot less in general.
You don’t have to avoid all carbs either. I just think it’s best to stay away from the refined and processed carbs. You can get plenty of good quality carbs from fruits, veggies and whole grains like oats, quinoa and brown rice. The body can digest these carbs a lot better and it doesn’t cause huge swings in the blood sugar, which can lead to sluggishness and overeating.
I decided to cut out all grains this week though. I think it helps to cleanse and kick-start the body.
I actually really like tightening up the diet sometimes. I know it’s good for my physical health, but it’s actually great for my mental and emotional health as well. When I eat really well, I feel disciplined and very much in control of my life. It’s empowering to me. It makes me want to make better choices in all aspects of my life and make my life what I WANT it to be!
Make sense?
I told Kev that I realized when I cut out grains and sugar from my diet, I essentially cut out 90%+ of all processed foods! Think about it….most of the processed foods out there are made from grains and/or sugar! AND, when I’m not eating grains or sugar, I stop eating convenient, processed foods which keeps me from mindlessly snacking. I also just eat a lot less in general. It’s great.
Healthy food is satisfying, filling and not as easy to mindlessly snack on! For example, I might eat a small salad or some fruit and when I’m done, I usually don’t go back for more. I’m satisfied with a single portion. However, when I eat crackers, chips, cereal, candy, bread, etc. I just want to eat MORE and MORE! It tastes so good and it increases my appetite for it instead of satisfying my appetite!
Weird.
I also told Kev (poor Kev has to hear about all of my healthy thoughts and ideas ALL THE TIME!) that I wouldn’t mind eating like this permanently except I would add cheese, oatmeal, brown rice and quinoa.
Oh, one more thing. I was very diligent on this diet most of the time, but I did snitch a little bit here and there! But, I liked snitching a little bit. It actually made the whole diet a lot more “liveable” and I think it helped me to stick with it. By “snitching” I mean that I took a very small bite of a brownie one night or I stole a very small handful of Cheetos another night. It was always very, very small portions, but they really helped me a lot. I didn’t feel as deprived, but I still felt in control.
I told you guys that we’re going to be spending the weekend with Kev’s family, so I won’t be able to be quite as strict. But, I plan to take a bunch of healthy snacks with me and I will still eat as well as I can. We’ll see how it goes.
Here are a few things I’ve been eating this week…
I had this for breakfast almost every morning and it tasted so good to me! 1 egg, 4 egg whites scrambled with spinach, peppers and onions and topped with some cheese and low-sugar ketchup. I had it with a side of yummy fruit. Oh, I was originally going to stay away from most dairy things, but I decided to allow myself to have some cheese too. I just put it on my eggs, ate string cheese as a snack and put a little feta cheese on my salads.
Here’s another version of one of my breakfasts…
I didn’t have any spinach (the horror!), so I just used onions and peppers in my eggs. I also had some cucumbers and pepper strips on the side.
I usually didn’t have an “official lunch”, I just snacked throughout the afternoon. I had things like nuts, string cheese, fruit, veggies with hummus, deli meat, protein shakes, etc.
Here are my favorite nuts ever…
These are both SO GOOD! The Toasted Coconut ones seriously taste like a treat. They remind me of a macaroon or something. Both of these nuts are sweetened with a little bit of sugar and stevia, but the nutrition facts are still great!
Here is a very yummy strawberry protein shake that I had yesterday. I think I’ll make me another one today!
I just put in: 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1+ cup frozen strawberries, 1 tablespoon stevia, a splash of vanilla extract, a sprinkle of xanthan gum and a whole heck of a lot of ice (15-18 cubes!) This was SO SO good! I would have added spinach too, but I was out!
On Monday night, Kev and I were invited to a fun Cafe Zupas VIP blogger event. It was so much fun! I just ordered a very yummy salad. I will do a separate post all about it soon!
On Tuesday night, our family was invited to a fun “New Owner meeting and dinner” at the car dealership where we bought our van. They served a yummy “fried chicken and all the fixins” type meal. It was great for the kids, but I only had a side breast of chicken (no skin) and I snitched a couple bites of baked beans and a small bite of a brownie.
After the dinner, we let the kids play on the most amazing Pirate Ship ever! It’s just on the showroom floor at the dealership. They loved it!
All my kids played on it! You can even see my little 14 year old’s face peeking out of the window on the door! It is an incredible pirate ship!
When we got home, I made myself a protein shake. Yum. It was a fun night.
On Wednesday, we had some friends over for dinner. We decided to make a lot of the same things we had on the 4th of July. We made chicken and veggie kabobs,
This picture was taken before they were cooked, obviously. I totally forgot to take a pic afterward! We also made some quinoa and Kev and I decided to have some because it’s technically a seed, not a grain. Yes, I found a loophole, my friends. 🙂 I also made the same Red, White and Blue salad we had on the 4th and we had some grapes too.
We also made some yummy zucchini, summer squash and onions on the grill too.
We just put everything in some foil, topped it with a little olive oil and seasoned salt, folded it up and cooked it up on the grill! It was SO GOOD and again, I forgot to take a picture of it when it was all done! So sorry. 🙁
Everything was so yummy! I also made cookies (my favorite!) for everyone afterward, but I only stole one very small nibble. Yay me.
For dinner last night, we just ate up all the leftovers in the house. Pretty slick.
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Here’s what I did for exercise this week.
On Monday, I missed my fav Bootcamp class because we were at the Cafe Zupas event. However, Kev and I decided to go to the gym on our way home from Cafe Zupas. I just did some upper body with the machines and weights and then hopped on the elliptical for about 20 minutes.
I wanted to take a picture while we were working out, but the gym was SO DANG busy! Sooo, I decided to resort to a cheesy pic taken in the locker room…
I also snapped a quick pic of Kev and I as we were leaving the gym…
On Tuesday night I went for a 5 mile run and it felt great!
On Wednesday I decided to skip my workout. I didn’t want to go on a run because I had just gone the night before and I was quite sore from my workout on Monday….so I decided to take a day off. Very nice.
Last night, I went to one of my favorite Muscle Works classes at the gym. My instructor just about killed me! It was awesome.
This morning, I went on another 5 mile run. I had a yummy half of a banana with some Justin’s Maple Almond butter before I left. SO DANG GOOD!
Just getting ready to leave…
And, would you believe that JUST AS I stepped out my front door, it started POURING rain! Ya. I sat there for a minute and wondered what I should do.
After I realized there was no lightening, I thought, “Well, it’s a whole heck of a lot better than the treadmill!” and I headed out the door. The rain was coming down hard and I looked like a drowned rat, but then the rain stopped! Then, I wished it would start to rain again! It actually felt good. 😉
Well, that’s my “healthy week” in a nutshell. I loved it! Well, I gotta go do a million and one things! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I love you all!
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