Monday Musings: Muffins!!

Hello all!

Please excuse me for my absence this past Friday. I thought I would try to make it up to you all with a delicious Monday Muffin recipe. This recipe was inspired by the delicious recipes on blogilates.com.

Alrighty. Here we go!

What you will need:

2 cups oatmeal

2 over ripened bananas

2 eggs

2 TBS light agave syrup

1 TBS vanilla almond milk

Your favorite berries (I used raspberries and blueberries. Yumm)

*Preheat your oven to 350º

*Add your ingredients other than the berries to medium mixing bowl

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*Blend ingredients together until smooth. You want to get out as many of the banana chunks as possible, but the mixture will still be fairly chunky because of the oatmeal.Chopping up the bananas may make this easier if you don't have a stand mixer. :)

*After your muffin mix is smooth, spoon it into a greased muffin pan. Fill them about 1/2-2/3 of the way full. I use a small ice cream scoop to dollop cookies and mix into pans. It gives you even portions and makes the process a lot easier. 

*Now its time to add the berries! Add your washed berries to each muffin.

YUMMY!

*Put your muffins on the middle rack in your oven and bake them for 12-14 mins. 

*Check them to make sure the middle is cooked thoroughly. Let them cool 10 mins and then enjoy!

(If you want you can also sprinkle a little Stevia on top as they come out)

And that's it! Totally easy and totally delicious. Let me know what you guys think!

Thanks for reading!

Monday Musings: Fooducate

Hello all!

It's Monday again and I thought I would do a review of one of my favorite apps in regard to my health. Before we go any further, though I'm sure you already know this, I'm not being paid by anybody to review this app. I just really like this app and I thought I would share it with everybody. :)

Okay, so this app has a ton of great features and great options to help you track your health. You can change the settings to make it specific to you and your needs/goals. I've provided a few screenshots below to help give you a small tour of the app and how awesome it is. Let's begin!

When you open up the app, this is one of the first things you will see. It is the home screen and it is pretty self explanatory.

From the home screen you can open this little side bar which allows you to do a ton more stuff. You can track what you eat and how much you exercise with you health tracker. You can set your own goals. You can personalize what you want the app to check for and notify you of such as GMOs, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, and gluten free.

This is the second part of the side bar menu. Here you can make your own lists of products you like or favorite, your own shopping lists, and you can check for products you have searched before. Pretty cool right? It gets better!

This is what the scan screen looks like. You place the bar code in that little frame. Yes, that is a blanket that I'm "scanning."

Here I scanned some Stax. I think this screen has some of the coolest options. Here it shows you what the overall food rating is of this product according to your interests, how many people like or recommend the product, the nutritional values...etc. It also shows some of the major points, good or bad, about the product. For example, this product has a high probability of GMOs so it is the first thing listed as that is one of the criteria I personalized the app to search. You can also rate this yourself (whether you like or don't like), add it to you shopping list, AND see alternatives if it isn't the best version of this type of product.

These are the Stax alternatives, They normally provide better alternatives.  Yummmm.

This is just a screen shot of the health tracker. Depending on how you personalize it, the app with give you a goal of calories. Then you can add what you have eaten, what you have drank, and how much you have exercised. This is like MyfitnessPal a little bit.

Then, if you don't have a bar code or are just curious about a certain food, you can just browse through foods, or search for something. :) So cool! AND to top it all off.....this app is FREE! YES! FREE! Woah! What more could you want?

So that's about it. Some more in depth info on my favorite little helper. I hope this inspires you to go check it out and make your own opinions on it.

Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for reading!

Foodie Friday: Chocolate!!

Yeah you read that title correctly. Chocolate! And not just any chocolate, but clean chocolate! What?! I know!

I know the ladies out there often have a craving for this sweet and tantalizing treat especially around shark week. I can tell you now that chocolate is probably my best friend around that time. So I was sad when I couldn't find really any chocolate that met my standards of clean eating. I had to find another way. So what did I do? I made my own! And the following is the delicious outcome. 

Here is what you will need for your clean chocolate:

3/4 cup coconut oil (I use LouAna thanks to Megan! :D)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup honey (I buy local honey)

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp freshly ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

1/8 tsp freshly ground sea salt

Extras: Smart Balance creamy peanut butter, organic milk+, almonds

*In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients (except extras). You want to get out as many
clumps as possible. I try to warm up my coconut oil a bit to make it easier to mix.
*When everything is thoroughly mixed, spread mixture evenly out over a baking sheet lined with waxed paper.
*Next comes the extras. I sometimes like to sprinkle unsalted almonds over the cookie sheet to make almond chocolate bars, but the peanut butter was the biggest hit with my family. After I spread the chocolate out I took 2 TBS of the Smart Balance creamy peanut butter and dolloped it on top of the chocolate. I then took a butter knife and swirled the PB into the chocolate (like making a marble cake).
* Next, put the chocolate in the freezer overnight.
*Once frozen, cut up and enjoy!
+This chocolate is very dark. You can optionally add a splash of organic milk to the original mixture to make your chocolate a little less intense. 

This chocolate is very soft so I recommend cutting it and then putting in a seal-able container that you can keep in the freezer. This is because there is no paraffin in this chocolate to keep it hard at room temperature, we alleviate this (sorta) with the coconut oil. The chocolate will still melt quickly, but that shouldn't be a problem as I'm sure you will gobble it up lickety-split!

That is all for now! Let me know how your chocolate turns out!

Thanks for reading!

Monday Musings: 3 Months

Hello All!

It's a wonderful Memorial Monday and today also marks about 90 days that I have been on my fitness journey. I'm in shock at how much I have accomplished in the last 3 months and I can't even believe that my body is actually mine. I have completely transformed my lifestyle to one that has made me much happier and healthier in the long run.

I thought I would just try this for a few months and see where it left me or I would just drop it within a few days, but the results I've seen and the knowledge I've gained has invaluable. This has been an amazing learning experience and the knowledge I have will stay with me forever. I only hope that I can continue to learn more about my own body, my limits, my strength as well as teach others who wish to learn. This journey is not over by any stretch of the imagination though i think now this is almost purely just my lifestyle. I no longer believe that this is a "plan" or a "diet" or anything like that. This is just me.

I don't think i will always be training as diligently or as often and I don't think I will always be as strict with my nutrition, but I do think I will stay healthy and not allow myself to ever go back to the unhealthy life I was leading.

Well, I have a personal announcement to make. I'm done with my 90 day journey, but that doesn't mean I'm done. I could just stay healthy, but I'm setting some new goals for myself. Here, today, with all of you as my witnesses. My goal was to always be in a size twelve. I wanted to be in the average. The normal. Well, I'm pleased to announce that I made that goal! I went from a size 16/18 down to a comfortable size 12! Though I know this isn't the best way to track your progress, it is a good way for me to track my progress without using the number on the scale or using super expensive equipment to track fat loss.

I know I'm never going to be stick thin. I enjoy my curves and I'm so much more confident in my body. Hourglass figure. Check. No thigh gap? Don't care! I'm just happy I'm healthy and I'm so happy that I'm setting my new goal! Are you ready for this? Okay.....

I've always said I wanted to be a size twelve. Well, I'm there. So what's the next step? A size 10! Oh no! Craziness! Yes, I'm going to do it! My goal is to be in a size ten before I go back to school in August. That is about three more months from today. You think I can do it? Well I dropped almost 3 sizes in the past 3 months, I think I can go one more in the next 3. I'm a goal oriented person and I think keeping this goal will even further set my clean lifestyle and help me keep going. If I have something to work towards, I know I'm not going to be lazy. I know I can do it. Can you?

I sure think you can! I challenge you to do it with me! Set yourself a goal of one size difference or a couple inch difference or even just a piece of clothing that you want to fit into and feel fabulous. Make it a goal that you want to reach by the time school days come again. Make it a reasonable goal and then let me know what it is. We will do this together and end up more fabulous and confident than we already are!

I will keep you up on my progress and you can do the same with me. If you set yourself a goal, let me know what it is by leaving a comment below, tweeting it to me, or send me a shout out on Instagram. I'm hoping that your goals will motivate me and my goal/progress will do the same for you.

So go out and grab life by the horns. Let's do this!

This is me as a new Leah:

Thank you guys for reading!

Foodie Friday: Meal Prep Madness

Hello again everyone and welcome to yet another Foodie Friday! 

I know...you were waiting all week just for this moment. Well its here and today I'm going to be sharing with you some of my recipes and tricks for my meal preps. Leggo!

1. Chicken

Ok, so chicken is a major part of my nutrition. I love it and eat often. I'm also one to get bored easily so I need to have options. Normally I will defrost all my chicken for the week and then split it up. I usually take half and marinate it with one of my delicious chicken marinades that I talked about during our first Foodie Friday. You can find those recipes HERE. I will take the other half and season it with my spicy taco seasoning. I grill all of my chicken now that it is summertime because I love the flavor that the grill gives.

2. Sweet Potatoes

I LOVE sweet potatoes and I love to have them at least once a day. They have great vitamins and minerals, they are lower in starch than normal potatoes, and they satisfy my sweet tooth. Well they don't freeze well so to make them freezable I turn them into twice baked sweet potatoes. They are delicious and nutritious! 

3. Green Beans

Gotta have those veggies. I don't enjoy too many of them so green beans are my go to. I buy a large portion of them and cook them for the week in some water and low sodium veggie broth. Then I store them in the fridge for the week. Easy Peasy.

4. Awesome Flax seed Pancakes

Gotta have these things too! I love them and they are the perfect touch to my egg whites in the morning when I'm not feeling oatmeal. Topped with a bit of PB2 and organic strawberry jam they are perfection. I usually make a double batch and freeze them. Pop them in the toaster when I'm ready to chow down.

5. Rice

Make it with chicken broth to give it a little extra flavor.

Here's a BASIC run down of my daily meals:

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*

*

*

That's it for now! If you have any questions, leave me comment. :) Let me know what you think of the new look. I'm trying to make it all easier to navigate.

Thanks for reading!

*All recipes I didn't link will be posted later today under my recipes tab and then linked back to this post. :)

View Megan's Foodie Friday post HERE. 

My Choice: Why I Hate the Word "Diet"

Hello all!

So this is going to be a tiny bit of a rant. If you don't like that then hide yo kids, hide yo wives, cover your ears, or just skeedaddle. 

I'm not going to go into the dictionary definition of anything, but I will talk about how I perceive the word "diet." In the last few months I have come to abhor the word diet. It is used as a dirty word in our society in regards to every day human interaction. It has a bad connotation and most other people cringe at the thought of what the words entails: counting calories, bland food, constant hunger, no fun...etc. This is the complete opposite of what I'm doing so I got a little pissed  frustrated when someone told me that what I was doing was a "diet."

I'm getting flustered just thinking about it. First off, let's get something straight, diets DON'T WORK. Diets ALWAYS FAIL. If what you are doing is a "diet," you are setting yourself up for failure. So, when someone says I'm on a diet or that all this change is my diet I perceive this as that person expecting me to fail/does not have faith in me to succeed. Do you see where this can get messy? I already am succeeding and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, so right off the bat they are W-R-O-N-G.

"Diet" implies that what you are doing is something that differs from your normal way of life. Thus, at some point you will have to go back to your normal way of life and your "diet" will have failed. If you go on a diet and stop, you will gain the weight back. If you change your nutrition and lifestyle to lose weight, you will keep it off because there will be no stopping. You will maintain a healthy body AND mind which adds up to your healthy lifestyle.

What I'm doing is my new lifestyle. I'm NEVER going back to all those junky processed foods as the main source of my food intake. Yes, I will indulge every now and again. This choice doesn't mean I can't have any fun. It doesn't mean I can't go out with friends. It doesn't mean I have to "give up" anything except the things that were weighing on my body and health. In fact, this choice hasn't limited me at all. in fact, I feel more free with my nutrition and like I have been opened to many more delicious foods that my taste buds would have previously rejected. Sure I may not be eating this many meals a day or the same things everyday like I do now, but I will maintain a healthy and clean lifestyle.

I also got asked what the good is in clean eating because it seemed to this person that my working out was the only thing that was giving me results. There is no specific ONE thing that clean eating helps. Basically it helps your whole body help itself. Your body was made to process natural foods, not preservatives, artificial colors, and artificial sweeteners. By eating clean, you allow your body to work more efficiently and give you the results you want and work so hard for.

I honestly can say that explaining all this is very hard and I don't think anyone will totally understand it until they go through the same process of changing. If you want something badly enough you will work for it. It could be as simple as changing your perspective. If you think that all this is just a diet, maybe seeing things from a different point of view will help (and make your friends like me, or anyone else who has seen progress through eating clean, happier).  

So, to wrap things up, THIS IS A LIFESTYLE CHOICE! Understand it, accept it, live it. You may not be able to do all of the things I just listed, but doing one can help a ton and make someone (or yourself) go from a 

grump

to an un-grump. C: 

See? All about perspective. 

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend! :D

Bye for now!

Foodie Friday: Cookout

Hello all!

It is time for another Foodie Friday to satisfy your taste buds! It is getting close to summer time and one thing I know I love are the cookouts I have with my family. Unfortunately, some of those cookout foods can be hiding something more sinister and can be quite tempting. So here are a few recipes to clean up your cookout and satisfy the whole family

Clementine & Spinach Salad:

This salad is soooooo good! I absolutely love it and it is an amazing side for those summer cookouts. It is fresh and satisfies both the sweet and salty cravings you may have. Here is what you will need:

2 lbs clementines, peeled and sectioned                                     2 TBS red wine vinegar

32 oz baby spinach                                                                  1/4 cup olive oil

4 medium stalks celery, thinly sliced                                          1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 cup red onion, thinly sliced or chopped                                  1 clove fresh garlic, minced

1/2 cup unsalted walnuts                                                           1/8 tsp Stevia

1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries (optional)                          Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

§In a large bowl toss rinsed spinach, celery, onion walnuts, dried fruit, and half clementines. Spread remaining clementines across top of tossed salad.

§In smaller bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic, Stevia, salt, and pepper. When ready to serve, pour whisked dressing over salad and serve immediately.

I don't have any pictures to show you guys, but I assure you this salad is amazingly satisfying and so pretty with all the different colors.

Cheeseburger Roll-Ups

For those of you who don't have a grill, too bad no problem! You can still have delicious cookout foods without the hassle. These babies are super good and super easy to make. Perfect for picky little ones and all those kids at heart. Here is what you will need:

2 lbs lean ground beef (I get mine from a local butcher fresh)

3/4 cups soft bread crumbs (I like to make my own bread and crumble it up)

1/2 cup red onion minced

2 eggs, beaten

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (Or use Mrs. Dash C:)

12 oz shredded white cheddar cheese*

§In a large bowl combine beef, bread crumbs, onion, eggs, and seasonings using clean hands (My favorite part. :D) When mixed thoroughly, pat out onto a large cookie sheet covered with wax paper roughly leaving a 3/4 inch border around the edges (Kind of like pressing out a pizza crust). 

§Sprinkle shredded cheese over the surface of the meat until desired coverage is achieved.

§Then, start at one end of the meat and start rolling the the short side in a jelly roll form towards the other short side.

§When the meat is all rolled up, bake the roll at 350 degrees for an hour (make sure the internal temp is appropriate. 160 degrees). Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes.

§Slice the meat to your desired burger thickness and serve on homemade bread or buns of your choice. Top with your favorite condiments (Remember to read the label or make your own C:)

I hope you guys enjoy these recipes. I will try to get some pictures up of each as soon as possible and will notify you when I do. Let me know what you think and what you would like to see next. 

You can find Megan's "Foodie Friday" entry at her website HERE.

Thank you so much for reading!

Bye for now!

*Did you know that nowadays, most cheeses that are orange are dyed to that color? Cheddar especially. "Yellow" cheeses used to be naturally that color because of the enzymes found in the food that cows were eating. Such a grass. Now, it is often too expensive to just let cows graze on grass so they are fed supplement foods like corn. So, the cheeses that cows milk produces are very rarely naturally "yellow" when they are made and often cheddar cheese is the most common form of cheese that is made. So, when you see "natural" yellow cheddar cheeses in the store, take a closer look. The color may not be natural at all and it doesn't have to be labeled as a color. It is normally labeled as an "enzyme." Your best bet is to go with natural white cheeses.*

Monday Musings: Confessions

Hello all!

Well it is another Monday and I feel like I really need to get something off my chest. Last week was a terrible week for me when it comes to my fitness journey. To put it in perspective, I usually weigh myself at the beginning of each week just to get an idea of where I am (not as my measurement of progress) and this week I am afraid to.

This past week has been full of early mornings, late nights, working hours, bad news and skipped meals. Even when I tried to keep myself on track it just felt like I would fall off the cart as soon I got on. I worked out 3 times this past week when I normally workout 6 days a week. One night I only got 3 hours of sleep before I had to go to work and then followed that up with a 4 hour sleep night to go to work again. Working strange hours threw off my eating schedule. Working in an ER makes it hard to squeeze in those scheduled eating times. Don't get me wrong,I  absolutely love the fast pace of my job, but it doesn't always allow for me to follow through with all my healthy choices, even if I had everything planned out. One day I only ate two meals.....Yikes. The rest of the week was not much better.

Not to mention some bad news, some anxiety attacks (yes, I battle with these), crying, and attempted retail therapy (not always the best choice), and bad food choices. Can anyone say sweet tart gummies? (which did not help the sluggish-ness). I think I was chugging more coffee than water. *face palm* Every time something bad happened it would make me more discouraged and angry with myself just adding to my stress level and generally making me more exhausted. I felt so bad yesterday because I felt like I ruined everything I had worked for in one week.

Then I went to sleep...

This morning I woke up after 10 hours of rest and I felt great. I took a look at everything around me and realized that it was okay. I looked in the mirror, i still had the start of my bicep muscles, my butt was still more lifted and toned than when I started, my legs still looked more toned than when I started, I still looked taller, my face still had more definition, and (to top it off) the bags underneath my eyes were pretty much gone. I was smiling too.

What's the point? Everything was and is still good. I didn't ruin everything. This is a lifestyle, not a diet. I will have bad weeks and really bad weeks, but I will also have great weeks! Life throws some punches and I will have to roll with them so I can't give up on myself for trying to persevere through all that (even if I crash and burn). I want to be honest with everyone and tell you guys that I am human. I think at some point I started to believe I wasn't and this week was a way of showing me that I still was. It was a way of humbling me and letting me share that with other people. I make mistakes. Everyone will make mistakes, but you just have to learn from them and move forward.

I want to thank everyone for reading this and supporting me. Thank you for all your positive and comments because they make me feel like what I'm doing is really important. I hope it will continue to be important and I will continue to feel your love and support.

So thank you all!

bye for now!

Foodie Friday!!

Hello all!

Alright, as you may already know me and Megan from "from flab to fab" are going to be linking up to do Foodie Fridays every Friday. So what is Foodie Friday? It is the day where Megan and I share our delicious, clean recipes with you all. You can see Megan's Foodie Friday recipe HERE.
 Without  further ado, I hope you enjoy this week's recipe!

So what is the theme this week? Chicken! And, what better way to kick it off than with some kickin chicken marinades.I'm obsessed with marinades and rubs! They are amazingly versatile and with just a few tweaks, you can change a marinade to fit any occasion or any side dish. I thought that I would give you two of my favorite really easy marinades to try out where one is pretty set in stone and the other is a very basic marinade guideline for you to tweak and make it fit your specific tastes. Here we go!

Italian Chicken Marinade

This marinade is amazing, easy, versatile, and a life saver when you are in a time crunch.

As you can see I need to make some more. :) Yes, this is a dry mixture which is awesome because you can just make a bunch of it and just store it away in a tight container until you are ready to use it. Plus, it is made from ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboard. Awesome, right?! Okay, here is what you will need:

1 TBS garlic powder                                                                    1/4 tsp thyme

1 TBS onion powder                                                                    1 tsp basil

1 TBS white sugar (you can also use stevia for this)                       1 tsp parsley

2 TBS oregano                                                                             1/4 tsp celery salt  

1 tsp ground black pepper

Place all of your ingredients in your air tight container, close the lid, and shake to mix everything together. It's as easy as that! Here is what it looks like all mixed up:

Mmm. It smells amazing! When you are ready to use it this is what you need:

2 TBS of your dry mix

2 TBS water

1/4 cup white vinegar

2/3 cup olive oil (you can also use canola oil if you prefer it)

Whisk it all together and, Voila! Italian Marinade. This marinade will marinade 4-6 medium sized chicken breasts or 8-10 breast tenders. What's even better about this mix? It doubles as an Italian dressing! It is so light and fresh that it goes great over spinach or romaine. This mixture could also, in theory, be used as a rub for grilled chicken as a dry mixture. I haven't tried this yet, but if you wish to try go ahead and leave me a comment about how it turns out. :)

Ok, next!

Basic Kickin' Chicken Marinade

This one is amazing because it works with just about any person's tastes. The ingredients are interchangeable and leave room for your own exploration and creativity. What does this mean? I'll show you...here is your recipe:

1-2 TBS vinegar

2-3 TBS Mrs. Dash (any kind, or you can use dried herbs of your choosing)

1-2 TBS mustard

1-2 tsp garlic or onion powder (this is totally optional)

1/4 olive oil

Sea salt and Ground pepper to taste

So now you can see what I meant by basic. This recipe is great because whenever I'm feeling bored with food and want to change it up, I can just use this guide to create my own flavor according to what I'm craving. For example, here are some options I like:

Depending on what flavor you want, you could use any one of these. If you have more in mind, go ahead and try them or leave me a comment telling me what kind I missed. For a smokey flavor, try malt vinegar. For a crisp flavor try apple cider or red wine vinegar. I have also tried sparkling white and red wines instead of vinegar. Yummm.

I personally love using Dijon or Honey Dijon mustard in this marinade, but there are endless options for what mustard to use. 

I don't have them pictured, but the people who make the original Mrs. Dash also have other Mrs. Dash spice combinations. Other than the original, I enjoy the Caribbean Mrs. Dash blend and the Tomato Basil Mrs.Dash blend. 

As soon as you decide what flavor combination to try, put all your ingredients in a big plastic bag, seal it, and shake to mix everything. Add your chicken, seal, and shake again to coat all the meat. Then let your bag sit for roughly 3 hours or longer if you wish. Because of the mustard and vinegar, you can also freeze this marinade for 2 weeks! Just thaw when you need it. :) This marinade is also good for 4-6 chicken breasts or 8-10 strips.

I know this was long, but hopefully now you have some inspiration to go cook a chicken masterpiece of your own! If you try any flavor combinations, I didn't mention or have not tried, leave me a comment about them and I will try it out. Also, if you liked these recipes and want to see more marinades, dressings, or packaged spice mixes made from scratch, let me know what you want to see and I will attempt to recreate your store bought must-haves with a clean twist.

Thank you guys for reading!

buh bye!

P.S. I'm now on bloglovin! :D 
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My Plan...

Hello all!

As some of you may know, I posted some of my progress pictures yesterday. As a result, I got an overwhelming response from people asking me what I am doing to lose and keep off the weight. As I have said before, there is no magic or miracle involved in what I'm doing. There should be no mystery to the whole weight loss thing and it is not just one thing you can do. It is a lifestyle choice.

Before I go any further, I should put the disclaimer on this that I am NOT a doctor or a nutritionist and I am not a trainer. Every body is different and mine is no exception. So though this works for me, you may have to tweak things for it to fit you, if you so choose to do anything. 

Now that is out of the way, I feel that I should start out with my workout. I have been using the workout calendar from blogilates.com. This website is run and updated by a pilates instructor named Cassey Ho. She posts a free calendar every month with what exercises to do every day and she posts her workouts on youtube. So I usually just make a playlist of videos to do everyday and just do them. Her attitude is great and her personality is so infectious. I never get bored with her workouts and she kicks my butt. I love it! You can visit her website here. I figured I would also save you some time and post this month's workout calendar:

Because it is summer, I have also decided to add in some biking during the week or other forms of cardio during the week. This is inspired by lovemeganalexis and also the fact that since school is over and I'm not dancing anymore on a daily basis, my largest source of cardio is gone.

Ok. Now that the easiest part is over (and yes that is the easiest part to explain) it is time to talk about clean eating. What the heck is it? Well in the simplest terms it means you are trying to get as close to the food source as possible. This is really difficult to do in this day and age sometimes as many things are very processed before they hit store shelves. So, needless to say, the food I end up buying goes through a vigorous test before it ends up in my cart. Here are the criteria that my food has to meet before I eat:

• I have to be able to read most everything that is on the label: Honestly this is a little vague for my liking, but it is the simplest way I can state it outright. If you're like me, you can read everything on the label, but that doesn't mean you can understand what all of it is. So, I have to be able to read and understand what exactly is in the food I am buying based on the label. If I don't understand, I can usually search really quick for what it is.
• I can't have any artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, msg (monosodium glutamate), artificial preservatives (especially benzoate preservatives like BHT, BHA,...etc) and I have to try to stay away from genetically modified ingredients (GMOs). This is really difficult because companies are not required to list any GMOs that might be in their products. Thankfully, I have an app called "fooducate." It scans barcodes and tells you if there are artificial colors, sweeteners, preservatives, and GMOs! It is very handy and I recommend it to everyone.
• If I can make it, I try to do so (I say this because it does not always turn out the way I want it especially on the first try. I tried to make mayo and the first time, i failed miserably). So I make my own Italian dressing, marinades, soups, sometimes bread...etc. They usually turn out better than store bought things. It goes without saying that there are some things that are non-negotiables because of convenience. Like OJ. I can't live without it and juicing oranges every morning is exhausting (and now mayo. I've given up). But I try to stay away from too many things like that.
• All-in-all everything I eat must be minimally processed (the fooducate app also tells if something is highly processed. Awesome, right? I know).
• I also try (notice I say try because it doesn't always happen) to eat roughly six meals a day. I do eat every 2-3 hours.
• I also have a cheat day once a week. This is important. You should not be afraid of eating. It is fun and necessary for life. If you allow yourself a cheat meal or some chocolate every now and then, it can jump start your metabolism and keep you from going crazy. 

This is all daunting. I know. To see it written out is scary to me too, but the first step is the hardest. After you take it, everything eventually becomes second nature and you just do it. It becomes a chore no more. I started out by using Cassey's 90 day meal plan. Note that I used it as a starting point and I do not follow it exactly. Because every body is different and every life is different (I will say it till I'm blue in the face). I have changed small things to fit my own life and my own tastes. :) If you would like to start with that, I have provided the link below:

Blogilates 90-day meal plan 

*you will have to download the plan. It is an excel spreadsheet and has multiple pages. I just printed it out and hung it on my fridge to refer to C:*

I honestly do not count calories. I tried it. It is exhausting and I hated every minute of it. AND I didn't see any results. I am more free and happy with myself. I see more results and it doesn't feel like work. It just feels like life. Thus why it is a lifestyle choice NOT a diet. 

I know I wrote a lot, but there still probably a million questions floating around out there. So if you have any, please do not hesitate to comment and ask me. I will answer you as soon as I can and to the best of my ability. Plus it is always great to hear from people.

Okay, now that all of that is written out I challenge you to go out and do it! If you want it, you gotta do it and remember the first step is the hardest. If you take it, you are already one step ahead of all those couch potatoes. Drink more water, eat more veggies, and change your life! 

buh bye for now!