30 Day Whole Foods-No Crap Starts tomorrow!

I've been getting questions regarding the Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge.  Because a lot of us have families to cook for and some of us feel that menus will conflict.  Do your best on this challenge!   This challenge is not meant to cause you stress.  It is about making changes to  improve the way that we eat and start eating healthier.  Small changes in the way we eat make all the difference.  Make fruits and veggies your fast foods and stick to lean proteins.  Let your fat come from healthy oils, almonds and avocados and stick to one serving of this a day.  Don't freak out about the dairy and coffee restrictions, again do what you can. If you feel like coffee is a deal breaker for you not to do the challenge, please don't let that stop you from doing it feel free to have your coffee.  Trust me, those 2 things will be extremely difficult for me to move away from too.

All that I want to accomplish with this challenge is to get back to where I was when I started my journey.  Summer is pretty much over and in comes the holidays and the baked goods.  I want to train my brain and my body to crave healthy stuff not cookies, and junk.

With that said, you'll be seeing a lot of green juices from me for the next 30 days.  You'll also be seeing repetitive meals.  I work a full time job and have a family to take care of, so I will do what I can to change up meals.  Preparing my meals in advance is what works for me, so I plan to stick with that.   Just giving you a heads up.  I'm prepping some of my meals, mainly my protein in advance this Sunday to have for my salads during the week.

Below is meal sample:

Breakfast:
1/2 cup of old fashion oats cooked in water (follow instructions from package)
4 egg whites veggie scramble (1 cup of a variety of veggies)
1 slice of turkey

Snack 1:
a whole cucumber sliced
2 tbsp of hummus (check your labels, if you are using store bought)
12 almonds

Lunch:
2 cups of green beans
5 oz of a grilled chicken breast (no MSG for seasoning)

Snack 2:
a veggie juice

Dinner:
5-6 oz of grilled Tilapia
1/2 cup of brown rice
14 grilled asparagus spears

Post workout:
1 scoop of a plant based protein powder
1 cup of sliced strawberries
1/2 cup of U. Almond Milk
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of ice
**The post workout meal will depend on the time of my workout.

I included links to recipes on the original challenge post, click here & here for that.   Please feel to browse the Recipe label above for more recipe ideas.

As always I'll be sharing my meals and some more recipes along the way.

Hope this helps you a little. I'm so ready for tomorrow to come! 

Hope you all have a good night!

August Foodie PenPal reveal!

WooT August is already over????  OK! It is time to reveal who my FoodiePenPal was for this month! For those who do not know what FoodiePenPal is, it is a program that was created by Lindsay from the Lean Green Bean.  Basically, you get paired up with a person each month to send a healthy food package from anywhere in the US.  To sign up for the program you can click on the text links above or the box to the right for more details.  

To see my July's FoodiePenPal reveal post click here!

I received my box from Kiersten Pfeifer a fellow SweatPink ambassador from Maine.  Kiersten enjoys all kinds of active stuff such as running, biking, skiing and kayaking.  She is also a big time foodie who loves to cook (like me.) Kiersten is also the blogger behind Twenty-six for a twently-something.

I swear opening these boxes always feels like Christmas to me.  I can honestly say that all of the products Kiersten sent were totally new to us.  Needless to say: I was a happy camper.

From left to right:

Pure Hawaiian Spirulina Pacifica - If you have been following my blog you already know how much I love Spirulina.  However, this particular brand was new to me. ;o)
A cute card!
Blueberry pomegranate granola- Oh so Good!  This is Kiersten favorite trail mix. ;o)
Dark Chocolate Dove Bar
Renys Blueberry Jam
Marshmallow Fluff - My son has been enjoying this so much!

Disclaimer: This isn't my hand.  Christian dove in (no pun intended)  for the chocolate bar and devoured it 5 seconds after this photo was taken. 

So excited to try a different brand of Spirulina!  Already used it on my last green smoothie a few days ago! yummo!

 

This one is also a goner!  I love the fact that her favorite snack is gluten free and vegan!  I loved this trail mix so much!  So sad it's over...

We have also been enjoying the blueberry jam.  I love that she sent us something local!  Thanks Kiersten!

Another wonderful Foodie PenPal experience this month! Have you signed up yet?  What are you waiting for? 

OOOH!  I almost forgot to mention that I received a thank you card from Stephanie Diaz @ Confessions of a City Eater.  Stephanie was my FoodiePenPal "sent" for the month of August!  It was great cyber meeting you and shopping for you Stephanie! 

Thank you so much for the card Stephanie!  So sweet and thoughtful of you!  Enjoy the sunshine state for me!

I smell me some September... Who's ready for the Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge????

Are you ready?

A few things to consider for the Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge...

Firstly, I would like to thank you for doing this challenge with me!  If you decided to join-in I am thrilled for you and for the next 30 days!

 I want to remind you all that I am not a nutritionist nor a personal trainer and that everything I share on this blog is by personal experience only.  A while back I shared a post on here about my health tips check it out here. 

A few tips for the challenge:

• Stick to natural whole foods - What this means is cooking your meals, no MSG, using herbs for seasoning.  Not eating anything processed or prepackaged.  

• Stay away from artificial junk- Splenda, fat free, sugar free, sweet and low, etc. 

• Try to have a serving of healthy fats a day such as avocados, nuts, natural nut butter, organic coconut oil.

• Be sure that your meals all consist of servings of veggies, complex carb and protein.  Complex carbs are things like quinoa, beans, sweat potatoes, brown rice, oats, whole grain couscous, etc.  No white flour!

• Snack on servings of  raw veggies and hummus or natural almond butter and fruits. 

• Oatmeal and egg-whites or an egg are great combos for your breakfast. 

• Strive to have a salad for lunch with brown rice and a lean protein such as chicken, turkey, egg, white fish, tofu or tempeh and a similar meal for dinner.
• Dedicate at least 30 minutes for physical activity everyday
• Accountability - I highly encourage you to use the Facebook page for support and for workout and meal posting.  I created an album for you to share photos here.

My definition of eating clean is to prepare all your meals, cook them at low temperature to preserve the nutrients and eat as much raw food as you can possibly eat.  No need for calorie counting on this challenge. 

Although, I love to cook I am not a kitchen slave.  I love to prep meals in advance.  I always have hard boiled eggs at hand, and prep my oatmeal in my crock pot for the week.  I tend to have smoothies as meal replacements for breakfast.  Smoothies are great time savers because it only requires assembly.

I bake or grill my protein and freeze it so that it is readily available to pre-heat during the week.  I usually do this Sunday nights.  When I cook I make a lot to save to use as left-overs for dinners or lunches during the week. 



This is a win-win challenge.  Do your best and forget the rest!  I hope this helps you a little.  

 OK!  As for today, I had repeat of yesterday's b-fast: 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple.  For lunch I had this delicious chicken salad.

Grilled chicken, brown rice, jalapenos, onions, salsa and siracha over leafy greens.

Have a lovely night!  I'll tty tomorrow!

Today. ;o(

September is right around the corner (2 days to be exact).  Which means that it is almost time for the 30 day Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge! WoooHOO!

 Need accountability? I have created an album in the Facebook page for us to share our meals and workouts during the Challenge!

Our weekly menu:

Do you think is time for us to invest in some new markers?  Anyway, this menu is for our weekly family meals therefore, under lunches, the sandwich area are school lunches for my son Christian.  I will be having salads for my lunches.

We have decided on Insanity for our workouts during those 30 days. We will also be incorporating weight training into our workout routine. Shocking, I know...  Noticed I used the word "we", this is because my hubby is joining-in the challenge! Yey, for supportive husbands!

As always I will share what we do on here, Instagram, Facebook and twitter.  I encourage you to do the same!

Are you ready?  I can't wait to start, you'll see why in a second...

 

For breakfast today I had my latest "go-to" meal: 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple.  I swear hard boiled eggs and fresh fruit are my version of "fast foods".  Hard boiled eggs are such a great thing to always have in your fridge, great source of protein and the perfect pair to any salad or just to eat plain.

For lunch I had ground turkey over cabbage with jalapenos, brown rice, salsa and siracha.

I also had raw veggies, a laughing cow cheese wedge and a serving of gluten free crackers at work.

OK!  So here's where it gets ugly!  After what I call a "semi-stressful" day at work I came home to an empty house, hubby had gone out to pick up our FullCircle order and some groceries.  I have been craving carob chips all day and I could not wait to come home to have a serving of it. ;o)

 Then the unthinkable happened...

You see this lovely serving of almonds and carob....so simple and healthy looking, the perfect amount of sweet and fats...Well, it happened x 12!  I started with this hand and then went back for more, and then some more and then some more...Then I was craving something savory, so I grabbed a serving of gluten free crackers, hummus and veggies...WTH! But wait...

then...
I went for what was left of my plain Chobani (about a cup) with cereal, more carob, more almonds, cinnamon, sunflower seeds and almond butter.  I could only eat half of this and decided to call this meal "dinner".

My stomach is was in so much pain.  The last time I ate this much was probably a year ago.  I totally binged!  So disappointed at myself!  I tend to listen to my body, I eat when I'm hungry and stop eating when I'm full.  Not today!  

I'm telling you I can't even move.  Not sure how I found the energy to come up here and type up this blog post.  I had planed to take today off from working out, but I don't think I can afford to at this point.  I'm waiting to be able to walk for my stomach to settle back to normal status so I can get a workout in. 

I'm not proud of today, I am actually embarrassed.  Do you ever have days like this? 

Green Smoothie, Insanity's Fit Test & More Insanity

Hi!  I hope everyone had a great Tuesday. My hubby has been doing Insanity at work with his co-workers.  I was feeling inspired and since I had no plans for my workout yesterday I decided to give the old Fit Test the world.  Below are my results!

08/27/2012 Insanity's Fit Test Results:

Switch Kicks - 106

Power Jacks - 57

Power Knees - 95

Power Jumps - 33

Globe Jumps - 8

Suicide Jumps - 22

Push up Jacks - 33

Knee Obliques on Plank - 60

If you are not familiar with the Insanity Fit Test, it is a 25 minute test, which consists of a warm up, a 1 minute per exercise (above) and a cool down with a stretch. 

I also did Summer Arms from the Tone it Up DVD series.

For my workout today I did Insanity's Plyo Cardio Circuit.   More Insanity?  Are you shocked?  I am telling you, that no matter how much I think my fitness level has improved, this workout series always kicks my behind.  I am thinking of continuing with Insanity for my cardio....We'll see!  Should I decide to do another round, I plan on definitely incorporating weight training 2 to 3 times per week.

 Summer is pretty much over in AK (BOOOhoo)!  We have been having cold temperatures in the mornings however; that did not stop me from having a green smoothie for breakfast.

Excuse my nails, I'm in need of a mani-pedi, a massage, a hair cut and facial. LOL!   Loving my new reusable 16oz cup with a straw, though!  I picked it up in yellow and brown as well. 

In my smoothie:

1 tbsp. of spirulina

1/2 tbsp. of wheat grass

1 tbsp of PB2

1/2 of a frozen banana

1/2 cup of frozen raspberries

5 drops of vanilla stevia

4 ice cubes

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of U. Choco Almond Breeze

a pinch of cinnamon

1 pack of Perfect Fit Protein

 Perfect breakfast for next month's Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge!

 Delish!

Have a lovely night!

Sunday's Meals...

Coffee!

Breakfast!

I made breakfast in bed form my son's birthday...I just had to have a bite of one his gluten free waffle, with almond butter and chocolate chips...yummmo!

Lunch!

Dinner!

B-day cake!

Chocolate and banana cake, with choco and vanilla ice cream!

Now, who's ready for the 30 days Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge next week?  I AM!

PB2-Strawberry-Nana Smoothie & Pasta for Lunch

TGIF!!!!  Off to a great start today!  Had a great night sleep after my run last night and in order to avoid a repeat of yesterday's fiasco, I was up at 4:30 am ready to tackle my upper body weight training workout.  Something about getting up for a workout when everyone else is sleeping; feels very empowering to me!

I did  Insanity Upper Body Weight Training for my morning workout and made a PB2 Strawberry-Nana protein smoothie for b-fast!

Oh, so good!

In my smoothie:

2 tbsp. of PB2

2 tbsp. of Old Fashion Oats

1 cup of baby spinach

1 cup of Unsweetened Almond Breeze

1 Frozen banana

1 cup of fresh strawberries

1 pack of PerfectFit protein powder

1 cup of ice

5 drops of liquid vanilla stevia

1/2 cup of water

a pinch of cinnamon

For lunch I packed left-overs from last night's dinner: Namaste gluten free Pasta Pisavera!  This is one of the three packs Emily sent on my July FoodiePenpal box.

Delish!

I just followed the directions on the package and ate as is....

I have not had pasta in a while, definitely a treat I don't mind repeating 2 days in a row!  Thanks Emily!

As for the rest of my day, I have an 8 hour work day and going out to dinner with the fam later.  I'm planning to hit the sack early tonight as I have an early wake up call tomorrow for a trip to Fairbanks with my birthday boy.  I can't believe my son turns 11 this weekend, time truly flies when you are having fun!

What are your plans for today?  Share them below!

Late start, meals & Full Circle Order

How's everyone doing today?

I woke up super late this morning!   I had only 30 minutes to get in the shower, put clothes on, brush my teeth and cover my adult acne.  I still managed to pack a healthy b-fast and snack for work.  

No time for a morning workout, though! BOOOOH!

 My breakfast consisted of 2 hard boiled eggs and a pear.  Yey for prepping ahead!

Instagramed B-fast!

 BTW, this is a great breakfast option for next month's Whole Foods-No Crap Challenge!  

(Humble Tip to self: always keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge.)

I grabbed a laughing cow wedge and a handful of baby carrots for my work snack!

Instagramed snack...

 My lunch was a HOT but delish mess!

  

I found about a tbsp of peanut butter left in the container, so I decided to add plain Chobani, a plum, cereal, carob chips, raisins, sunflower seeds, stevia and cinnamon to it and called it lunch!

Travel friendly and delicious!

Below is my FullCircleFarm order for next week...

 I love getting order details from Full Circle, feels like Christmas every time.  Have you joined an organic produce coop yet?

OK! I am off to finally get my workout done for today.  

Hope everyone is having a great Thursday evening!

08/21/12 Workouts and Meals

Hola!  I hope everyone is having a great week!  Today was supposed to be an Upper Body Weight-Training day for me.  However, TOM arrived today and it was so hard for me to find motivation to do an intense workout this morning.  I ended up doing a 2 mile interval on the TM and Summer Arms from the ToneitUp Beach Babe DVD instead.  Total workout time 34 minutes.  Oh well!

For my breakfast I had a zucchini-turkey egg-white scramble, 1/2 an apple and a sprouted toast with a hummus spread and cucumber slices.

(YES! Siracha & Mustard over my eggs) lol

It was a little cold out today and the hubby requested soup for dinner!

I threw a bunch of stuff together and ended up with a Veggie Chicken soup.  Doesn't look very appetizing but it was delish!

To my soup went:
3 small zucchinis (from a co-worker's garden)
2 small squash (from a co-worker's garden)
1/2 of a diced (humongous) yellow onion
3 celery stalks
2 minced garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
1 bag of baby spinach (from a co-worker's garden)
1 1/2 of left-over grilled chicken breast
2 cups of organic veggie broth
2 cups of water
salt & pepper
1 tbsp. of fresh rosemary leaves (from my garden)
1 tbsp. of fresh thyme (from my garden)

This soup will be perfect for a dinner or lunch meal for next month's 30 day "Whole Foods-No Crap" Challenge! Have you scheduled your pantry cleaning day yet?

After dinner I had a slice of my Healthy Banana Bread and a glass of U. choco Almond Breeze...

I get intense lower-back cramps when TOM arrives, but I do my best to still be active with my workouts.  Do you guys take time off from your workouts during your TOM?

30 DAY "WHOLE FOODS-NO CRAP" CHALLENGE

I challenge everyone reading this post to a “Whole Foods No Crap” Challenge.  This means cleaning up your pantry and getting rid of all the junk to leave room for the good stuff.  This also means, cooking all of your meals, drinking ½ of your body weight per day in oz. of water and planning to dedicate at least 30 minutes to physical activity daily.

DETAILS:

NO TO:

NO DAIRY (no cheese, no yogurt, no milk)

NO CAFFEINE (no soda, no coffee)

NO TABLE SUGARS – (no Splenda, sweet & low, equal crap)

NO WHITE ANYTHING (no cakes, no white rice, no cookies, no white pasta, no white bread)

NO STORE Bought SALAD DRESSINGS

NO SALT

NO LITE, SUGAR FREE, FAT FREE JUNK

NO PROCESSED FOODS

NO CORN ANYTHING
NO ALCOHOL
NO MSG

YES TO:

LEMON WATER (daily detox) see my post on: Humble Tips for details on this

HERBS FOR SEASONING

APPLE CIDER, EVOO & BALSAMIC VINEGAR FOR DRESSINGS
COCONUT OIL 

STEVIA & TRUVIA

VEGGIES (all you can eat)

LEAN PROTEIN (chicken, white fish, turkey, egg-whites)

LOW GLYCEMIC FRUITS (berries, lemons, oranges, apples, grapefruit, pears)

AVOCADOS

BROWN RICE

SWEAT POTATOES

QUINOA

WHOLE GRAIN or Sprouted BREADS (1 serving per day)

OATS

NON CAFFEINATED HERBAL TEAS

WATER, WATER, WATER

UNSWEETENED HEMP, ALMOND, OATS milk

EAT EVERY 3-4 HOURS
8 HOURS OF SLEEP 

AT LEAST 30 MINUTES OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY EVERYDAY

For meal samples go to my On My Way Post (exclude the feta cheese on your salads) ;o)

Breakfast Ideas:
Overnight Steel Cut Oats
Healthy Pancakes
Healthy Frittata
Green Omelet
Scrambled Eggs

Snack Ideas:
Celery Boats 
Green Juices 
Hummus

Lunch:
Raw Salad
Brown Lentil Soup 
Grilled Shrimp Salad 

Dinner Ideas:
Chicken Cacciatore (substitute the wine with water or chicken stock)
Shepherd's Pie 
Taco Salad 
Shrimp Stir-fry

Salad Dressings:
Grapefruit Mint Dressing
Strawberry Vinaigrette 
Apricot-Lime Dressing 

Need Accountability & Support...
Feel free to share meal photos and workouts over the Facebook Page or tag me on Instagram @ahealthyfitrme.

WHO'S WITH ME????

Sugar Free Banana Bread

This recipe was inspired by a Banana Bread recipe written by my mother-in-law The Path to Our Table; a family recipe book.  

Isn't this cool?  My husband's mom, aunts and grandmother got together and made a recipe book for the entire family to enjoy.  I certainly appreciate that they put The Path to Our Table together.  They added old photos of family events, vacations and other fun memories.  So cute!  I find my self reaching for this book whenever I feel like recreating a childhood recipe for the hubby.

 As I have mentioned many times, one of my favorite things to do is to convert original (old favorite) recipes in to healthier ones.  This bread is one of my hubby's and son's favorite sweet indulgences.  They both love anything with bananas in it.  Who doesn't! 

Right?

 Ok! On to the ingredients...

Main Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of spelt flour
1/2 cup of melted organic coconut oil
1/4 cup of non fat plain Chobani
4 ripe mashed bananas
1/4 cup of organic apple sauce
a pinch of salt
1 t. of baking powder
24 drops of liquid stevia
1 cap full of vanilla extract
1 t. of cinamon
1 t. of nutmeg
about 1/2 cup of Almond Breeze unsweetened Coconut milk

Over top (optional)..
a handful of carob chips
2 tbsp. of raisins
2 tbsp. of sunflower seeds

Directions:
Mix all the "main ingredients" in a mixing bowl until well combined.  Place mixture in to a bread baking pan.  Place the "over top" ingredients over the bread mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until the center is firm.  Let the bread cool for about 10-20 minutes before eating.

YUMO!

Hope you give this recipe a try! ;o)

2 for 1: Chard Raspnana Smoothie & Chicken Salad

Summer is almost over!! ;o(

 I wanted to share 2 of my latest "go-to" summer meals...

Chard Raspnana Smoothie:

3 Chard leaves

1/2 cup of raspberries

1/2 of a frozen banana

1 PerfectFit Protein pack

1/2 cup of Almond Breeze Coconut milk

1/2 cup of cold Yogi tea (brewed and refrigerated)

5 drops of vanilla liquid stevia

a pinch of cinnamon

For lunch a packed 4 of these babies today...

What I used:

4 brown rice cakes

Healthy Chicken Salad:

1 shredded (cooked) chicken breast

1 tbsp of sour cream

1 tbs of non fat plain Chobani

a drizzle of Siracha

1/4 of a small red onion (diced small)

1 celery stalk

1/2 of a small zucchini (diced in small cubes)

salt & pepper to taste

Hope you give these a try!

What are some of your "go-to" summer meals?

08/14/12 Workout, Meals & Guest Post

Hi everyone!  I hope you are having a good Tuesday!  New school year starts tomorrow for us.  Needless to say, we've have had a busy week so far.  I managed to only get in a 27 minute workout this morning.  I started with a 11 minute interval...

and followed that with 16 minutes of Insanity's Cardio Abs.

For breakfast I had Overnight Steel Cut Oats .  I shared a photo of my packed lunch and snacks over the Facebook page last night.

 Did you guys see my guest post over at Mom's Little Running Buddy today?  Go check it out!

I'm off to pack our meals for tomorrow and get ready for Christian's 1st day of school.

Have a great night!

WIA this weekend & FullCircle Order

Saturday's late Breakfast

Saturday's Lunch/Snack

 Fage -yo!

Saturday's Dinner

Instagramed Sunday!

 Fro-yo!

My FullCircleFarm order for this week...

Hope everyone had a great weekend! ;o)