Well hello my friends! I hope you’re all enjoying your Friday.
I’ve been doing a challenge with some of my friends the past couple of weeks. It’s been a lot of fun and has helped me to get back on track after being a slacker for a month or so.
Health and fitness and living a healthy lifestyle is really all about digging deep, finding that motivation and committing and re-committing every day! It’s not about perfection, it’s about consistency.
That’s why I love to do challenges!
Even though I love and value healthy living, I enjoy crappy living sometimes too. Ha ha! Challenges help me to refocus, get a handle on my cravings, find my discipline again and just remind myself that life is much better when my health is a priority!
So, here we are.
I’ve done fairly well. I’m trying to stay away from sugar. It’s been a good thing. Folks, I was a full-fledged sugar addict for years! I didn’t eat tons and tons, but I craved it all the time and usually had some type of sugary thing almost every day.
I have a much better relationship with sugar nowadays. I still love it, but thankfully if I eat too much now, it makes me sick. I now enjoy having little tastes of sugary things here and there.
I like to buy Crumbl cookies and cut them up into pieces and share them with the fam. I love to buy my favorite candy bar (the big M&M candy bars are so friggin’ good!) and share them with the fam. I essentially still love to enjoy my favorite treats, but I try to be more mindful with the amount that I have!
This is a scary picture. Yikes.
I stopped by the store on my way home from the gym and bought myself this candy bar. Interestingly enough, the best time to have a little sugah is either before or after a workout. The body can actually use the sugar more efficiently!
It’s obviously best to just stay away from sugar, but if you wanna enjoy some, enjoy it around a time when you’re active!
There are only a few treats out there I can’t control myself around. Donuts (I like to have a half here and a half there, then another half and another half and hey, how ’bout a whole one!) and fresh chocolate chip cookies!
Love.
Anyway, so as far as staying away from sugar in this challenge…I’ve done a’ight. I’ve still had a little taste here and there, but I’ve done well. It really helps just to be mindful and hold myself accountable!
Another thing I’ve been trying to focus on is just eating better in general! I’m trying to eat more fruits and veggies and just higher quality food.
I made chicken and veggie kabobs for dinner the other night. It’s kind of a time consuming meal, but it’s one of my favs!
Sometimes I’ll marinate the chicken in my favorite chicken marinade, but this time I just marinated it in some Trader Joe’s Soyaki sauce. It was awesome.
For the veggies I just used zucchini, peppers and onions. The zucchini and peppers were from our garden. Yay! I prefer to add some fresh pineapple, but this time we just opened up a can of pineapple and added it to the mix. We served everything on top of jasmine rice and it tasted so good! We also had some fresh peaches from our tree on the side.
It tasted like summer!
I think I’ll make this meal again next week since we still have some zucchini and peppers we need to use.
A lot of times when I’m trying to eat well, I will just open up my fridge and eat up whatever needs to be used. I especially love leftovers and fresh fruits and veggies.
For this meal I had:
- Some leftover tuna (mixed with mayo and pickles) and had it inside a Joseph’s pita bread (Walmart.)
- Cucumbers and carrots from our garden (they were already cut up in the fridge.)
- Leftover hard boiled eggs
- Some apples that were already cut up too.
- I dipped some of the veggies in that Opadipity dip that I love. I buy that at Walmart too.
- Oh, and I had my warm lemon water on the side (warm water with the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.)
I love meals like this because they are super simple, yummy, filling, healthy and hey, it uses up the stuff that needs to be used up!
I’ve really been loving our garden produce this year. We’re almost to the end of the season and I’m going to miss it so much when it’s all gone. 🙁 I need to make some more fresh salsa!
One of the things that can be hard about eating well is finding things that are quick and easy to eat and that also taste good! Sometimes you just need something that tastes a little indulgent.
Here are some of my favorite “healthier” snacks that I’ve been enjoying lately….
Food Should Taste Good chips dipped in Avocado Salsa (Costco) or cottage cheese. I also like those Pop Corners chips because that little bag is just over 100 calories. I also love, love, love veggie straws! The serving size is like 32 or so! I usually only have 10-15 at a time and it tastes like the perfect salty snack. I love all of these snacks because they taste awesome, they fill me up and they are higher quality and/or lower in calories than other snacks out there!
I also gotta share that yesterday I cut up and froze a bunch of the peaches on our tree. These are perfect for smoothies and protein shakes!
In fact, last night I went on a little run with my kids while they rode their bikes. We ran to the park, played for a bit and then returned home just before it got dark. It’s starting to get darker much earlier now and I’m not a fan!
When we got home, I made myself a protein shake with some of the frozen peaches and it was bomb!
I just mixed:
- water (probably 2 cups)
- a couple big spoonfuls of plain Greek yogurt (I love Fage!)
- 1/3 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Isopure)
- Frozen peaches (probably a small peach)
- Chia seeds (I just sprinkled them in there!)
- Spinach (two giant handfuls)
- Ice
I hardly ever measure anything anymore! I just chuck it all in there and call it good! This tasted great! I loved the peach and vanilla flavor; it tasted like Peaches and Cream! Yum!
Some of the many, many, many things I love about homemade protein shakes is that they are so quick and easy to make, they are simple, full of so many good things and I can take them with me on the go if I need to!
I really love them and they’ve made eating well so much easier for me!
The funny thing is that I’m not much of a “drink person.” I usually just drink water and the occasional Diet Coke. I really don’t love soda, juice, smoothies or shakes. I also don’t drink coffee, tea or alcohol for religious and personal reasons.
I think of my protein shakes as functional and practical instead of indulgent. It’s more about quality and simplicity and less about yummy or enjoyment. I think of my shakes as fuel. I LOVE THEM!
I’ve still been loving all of my workouts. Ya know, I’ve been an exercise-ish person most of my life. I slacked off a bit when I was pregnant or when I had little tiny babies, but other than those times, I’ve pretty much been active!
I’ve learned that I’m much more motivated and consistent when I go to a gym or when I workout with other people around me (group fitness classes), so that’s what I stick to and that’s what I enjoy!
I also enjoy running sometimes because it’s so simple. I love getting outside and it’s so therapeutic for my mind to just wander and think about life. I love it.
I’m just grateful that exercise has become such a part of my life that I don’t even think about it anymore. I just do it. If I don’t do it, I miss it.
I’ve been loving teaching exercise classes twice a week at my church with my friends too! It’s been a great experience for me. I love to see all my friends and we get in good workouts too! Win, win, win.
I just wish healthy eating was as easy as exercising. I do enjoy healthy food, but eating well requires discipline, will power, planning and just ongoing commitment…all day long, every stinkin’ day!
It’s worth it though! I feel soooooo much better when I put decent food in my body!
Well my little friends, I’m going to end this post so I can go relax with my family on this beautiful Friday evening. I love the weekends and I’m sure grateful they come every week! Yay!
G’night! xoxo
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