Delicious Salad

I know I haven't posted in awhile but I had to share a salad we had for lunch today. I love the superfood salad at whole foods. I made a similar version of that.

Greens (I used the green mix from sprouts)
Carrots cut into small sticks
Fresh blueberries
Pomegranate seeds
Cashews
Pepitas
Sunflower seeds
Avocado
Onion
Celery
Bell pepper
Blue cheese

Then I made a dressing with apple cider vinegar, oil, lemon, agave, dijon mustard, salt and pepper.

The salad was amazing. I plan on making it again very soon.

Then Taylor wanted me to share our pre-Christmas Christmas dinner. We got a charcoal grill as a gift so we made a whole chicken on the grill. Taylor butterflied it, added oil, salt, and pepper to the skin. We cooked it on the cool side of the grill for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Then you put it on the hot side for about another 10-15 minutes to get the skin crispy. We served it with a grilled vegetable pack with brussel sprouts, butternut squash, onion, asparagus, and bell pepper.

We have to eat good because delicious sweets are EVERYWHERE. Do all of you feel it to? I am surrounded all of the time by chocolate, cookies, candy, pie. It is everywhere. Not to mention my addiction to ice cream.....Tis the Season I guess. Have a great Christmas~!

Struggling

Lately has been emotional!

We haven't been home at all and when we are not at home both Taylor and I eat horrible. We both eat so much that we feel gross. I hate that feeling yet do it all of the time. As we were driving home the other night I realized that I was so focused on calories and not giving my body enough attention. I have learned all of the things that I "shouldn't do" but I have fallen into those habits. I want to start changing my idea of health and eating and body weight and focus on being healthy and eating what my body needs and not looking at calories. It is really hard and I still have that mentality but hopefully by working to change my habits I can be freed of this food addiction.

I took a nutrition class and one book we read is called Intuitive Eating. I really want to focus on that and eat when my body is hungry and stop when it is full. I want to be able to eat a hamburger and not feel guilty. I want to be able to eat a handful of candy and stop instead of eating so much more that I make myself sick.

The journey will be hard but I pray that God can get me away from the addiction so that I have more time to spend with Him. If there are others out there that have these same issues; pray God will help you through. We can help and encourage each other to overcome addiction.

On the bright side Taylor and I went on a run this morning. It is always so hard to get going but it feels good afterward. It is getting cold here and we had to wear gloves and ear coverings today. Then I have the problem my hands either being really hot or really cold....what to do?!

Time for bed! Nothing too exciting for food this week. Nothing is sounding so great. I feel like I am in a bit of a food rut. Any ideas?

The Binge

So...I am not really a "binge" eater but when we go out of town I eat so much! We were away this weekend and Friday was ok but Saturday was worse and by Sunday I was eating so much junk food. Do you ever have that problem or is it just me? I eat fine at our house but as soon as I go somewhere, all walls are broken down and I eat and eat and eat.

Any tips on how to avoid that? I feel so gross afterward and then when I get home I just want more sweets. It is awful!

On the bright side, it is nice being home and getting back to a normal eating schedule. I was looking for some recipes tonight and I found a few that I can't wait to try. Here they are

Club Reuben
Taquito
Protein Bars

We are also trying some new recipes this week so I will let you know if I find anything really good.

Now I am ready for bed!

Do you ever just wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Well that's what happened to me this morning. I woke up and was instantly grumpy. It stayed with me through out our workout at the gym. As we were walking home I heard God tell me that even when our life isn't perfect or what we wanted we still have His salvation that we can be joyful about.

No matter how bad our life gets or what circumstances we face, God is with us and we still have his face to look to and His promise of heaven for believers. It calmed me when I remembered this and after some relaxation with Taylor I was much better.

Today at the gym consisted of 7-21's, planks with leg extension, squat with side kick, dips, rows, lunges, and sit ups on the Swiss Ball. I am already feeling the lunges this evening!

Last night we tried tempeh for the 1st time. It was pretty good! I am not a big fan of tofu because of the mushy texture but Tempeh was much better;it reminded me more of rice. We used the recipe from Veganricha It was really good and I am excited to try more recipes with it. Plus it has a ton of protein! One pack has 40 g of protein. If you haven't tried it I encourage you to do so! After dinner is also had Baskin Robbins ice cream which was also delicious :) Have a good night!

Taylor and I have been trying to cut out the amount of sugar we eat because both of us want a sweet treat EVERY night after dinner. This week has went well. I still want a treat but have opted to eat apples and peanut butter, cereal, homemade quick bread or something similar instead of ice cream and chocolate!

We did reward ourselves though and both got a piece of cake from Gourmandise on Thursday. If anyone lives in SLC you should give it a try!

On to the other meals we have eaten this week. We tried Bobs Red Mill 10 grain cereal mixed in with regular oatmeal. It was good! We also made some steel cut oats with almond milk, cinnamon, brown sugar, and a peach. It was good. I am not a big fan of mushy oatmeal so I really enjoy steel cut oats.

We have been so busy with both of us working and Taylor going to school so I have been trying to find healthy but quick options for dinner. We made a Butternut squash Skillet for dinner. Sorry there are no pictures. I got off of work at 7 and had somewhere to go so Taylor brought me dinner and I ate it in the car but trust me it was delicious! I got the recipe from http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2013/01/butternut-squash-and-black-bean-enchilada-skillet/

I adapted the recipe a bit to use some extra vegetables we had on hand. We added corn, cilantro, zucchini, and some swiss chard, and.....

We also made our own enchilada sauce. I had never made it before and I couldn't believe how easy it was! We already had everything on had and it doesn't have all of the sodium that other canned goods do. I was delicious.

On the agenda for today is running to farmers market...and then walking home because I lost my bus pass. So sad! Then I am going to get help with my essays for PT school. The deadline is October 1st. EEEKKK Then going to church tonight. We love the Rock. It is an awesome church especially if you love good live music. Other than that hopefully we will relax because I have to work tomorrow.

Hopefully everyone else has a great weekend!

Day 1

Created a blog! Woo. After reading blogs for quite awhile now I thought it was time for me to start my own. I get inspiration and recipes/workouts all of the time from other personal blogs. People ask Taylor and I all of the time what we eat and what workouts we do. I wanted to start this blog to let others see "what we do." It is hard to tell others about it and much easier to show it, so hopefully this blog will be inspiration to those looking to lead healthier lives.

We mostly cook all of our meals at home and from scratch. I love cooking meals from scratch and have recently made things like ketchup, enchilada sauce, chutney, tator tots, etc etc. It is fun to see what you can make at home that you always thought you could only buy from the grocery store. I usually don't make up my own recipes but I often find them online and then adapt them according to what we like and have on hand. I will be posting links to recipes that we have tried and that I think are worthy for others to make.

As for workouts we usually run 2-3 times a week and go to the gym 3 times a week. I will be posting some workouts that I think rock and that other people should do too!

Leading a healthier lifestyle is a long process and I think the easiest way to achieve that is by taking little steps instead of trying to do too much at once. That is how we slowly changed our diet and in the last 5 years our diets have changed a ton! We feel much better about ourselves and have much more energy by eating less processed foods and eating more fruits and vegetables. Of course I still LOVE sweets...especially ice cream but I have been working on consuming those less.