Healthy, Happy Gifts for Fitness Friends

My favorite time of the year is just around the corner and I have already started Christmas shopping. I have been brainstorming gift ideas for a while now and I have come up with some really great ideas for gifts that promote a healthy lifestyle. I think these gifts are not only good for those fitness junkies but also those who are a little intimated by the thought of getting fit or living healthier.

1. Hamilton Beach Personal Blender with Travel Lid  -  $14.85

A really great gift for those on the go. I love this for making quick and easy smoothies at work or on a road trip in a hotel.

2. Groupon
Don't forget to check Groupon for some really awesome activities that could be given as gifts. There's the typical things such as yoga or kickboxing classes and there's even out-of-the-box ideas like self-defense lessons or backpacking trips.

3. Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Slicer  -  $12.13
My new favorite kitchen tool. Veggetti spins vegetables into long pieces of spaghetti. I've used it for the typical zucchini but also for butternut squash. It makes a really great gift for those trying to cut back the calories or just love experimenting in the kitchen.

4. Fun Gym Tanks
Do you have a bestie that you workout with or just a good gym buddy? Funny and sarcastic tank tops are an awesome gift for any of the above. I am in love with these Mean Girls Quote Tank Tops  It's hard to go wrong with anything Mean Girls related.

5. Nalgene BPA-Free Water Bottle  -  $9.97
Who doesn't love a reusable water bottle? Nalgene water bottles are my favorite because they have the wide mouth that you can fill with ice. They also come in tons of awesome colors! If you want to go the extra mile you can get a vinyl monogram from Etsy ($5) to personalize the gift.

6. Fitbit Zip  -  $47.94

My favorite gift to give or get is a Fitbit. The Zip is the cheapest but does what most of the other Fitbits can; it's not only a pedometer but also tracks calories burned, miles, and distance. It syncs to other fitness apps like MyFitnessPal to help achieve weighloss goals. I love giving the Fitbit as gifts because you can compete with your friends and family to see who walked the most that day or week, turning it into a fun little competition. 

What healthy, active presents are you asking Santa for this year?

Being Healthy at the Movies

It's hard staying on track especially when I'm going out with friends. A couple days ago I went to go see Annabelle, which by the way was SUPER freakin' scary. I wanted to stay on track so I packed my own snacks and a big bottle of water.

I brought my bottle of water and a packet of Crystal Light just in case. I also brought a mini bag of Boom Chicka Pop and a little bag of organic gummy bears. I'm a gummy bear addict and these ones by YumEarth Organics are super yummy.

I've gotta say if you like horror movies Annabelle is a must see. I'm a bit of a horror movie junkie and Annabelle is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. I haven't been this scared in theaters since I saw Paranormal Activity the first time and Annabelle is probably 100x scarier than Paranormal Activity.

Getting Back On Track

I haven't posted in over a month and I have about a million excuses but I still feel really guilty. Back in the beginning of December I had finals that I was studying for and I started stress snacking. I know, I know I could have been snacking on good nutritious things but I sabotaged myself. BUT I will have you know that I did get all A's this past semester :) 

After finals it was the holidays and I love holiday treats. My holidays consisted of a smorgasbord of healthy nutritious foods and homemade sugary treats and of course copious amount of Champagne. My workout schedule dwindled down to nothing and now it's time to get back in the game.

For the past 2 weeks I have slowly been fixing my eating and going to the gym at least 30 minutes each day. 

Here are a couple of things I was eating last week. (top left to bottom right) 1.Cranberry walnut salad with feta, 2. Jimmy Dean's Breakfast Delights with the egg removed and two clementines, 3. grilled chicken and cheese quesadilla with grape tomatoes and cilantro, 4. brown rice with black beans, corn, and grilled chicken topped with guacamole, 5. cucumber and hummus.

It's been difficult to get back on track and I am constantly forgetting my lunch at home and having to improvise with what I have at work but I'm slowly getting back to where I was before. 

It's just a good reminded to always stay focused because it's harder to start back up than to just keep going.

Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride

I love Christmastime! But it's tricky staying healthy during the holidays because there are soooo many treats everywhere! I wanted to share this really great tea I found at the grocery store the other day. It's Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cooke Sleigh Ride. It's delicious! It doesn't quite taste like a sugar cookie but it does help when I have a sweets craving and can't afford to actually have sugar cookies. 

What is your trick to avoiding too many holiday treats?

How to Survive Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays! Food, family, friends, what more could you ask for? But it can be hard to stay healthy on a day that revolves around food. I thought I'd share my tips for surviving Thanksgiving. 

1. Remember to eat breakfast. I know it may seem like a good idea to wait until dinner to eat but by the time dinner comes you're starving and will eat everything. I plan on having pumpkin pie oatmeal for breakfast so that I can handle the rest of the day without going crazy at dinner time. 
2. Help with the cooking. If you can help cook than you should totally do it. When you're in the kitchen you will not only know what's going into the food but you may also have some say in making things healthier. 
3. Make a dish. To ensure that there are going to be healthy options I plan on making sauteed green beans. I'm also going to throw together a salad. This way I know I have something healthy to eat and I won't be entirely filling up on mash potatoes and stuffing.
4. Stick with the turkey breast. If your family is like mine we typically have several meat options, turkey, ham, roast beef. Try to stick with the turkey breast and remove the skin (the skin is the best part! but that's where most of the fat and calories hide). 
5. Eat dessert. Don't deprive yourself of dessert. Grab a slice of pie and enjoy. I will be enjoying my crust-less pumpkin pie with a huge dollop of whip cream.
6. Play Football. I've heard a lot of families play football after dinner. My family doesn't do this awesome tradition but I think this is a great year to start. It doesn't matter how many people you can gather to play as long as you can get outside and run around for a bit. 
7. Bonus tip! A friend gave me great advice a couple years ago about how to handle those AWFUL personal questions that family always seems to ask during the holidays. When are you graduating?, Do you have a boyfriend?... Respond to their question with a question. Relatives love to tell stories about when they were younger so if your aunt asks you about your last date turn it around and ask her about her best or worst date when she was your age. It works every time.

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! 

Do you have any tips for surviving Thanksgiving?

Evolution Fresh - Sweet Green with Lime

I hope ya'll had a wonderful Halloween weekend! I definitely did!

For my Halloween party I dressed up as one of the PNK monsters from Monsters University. 

I had so much fun but unfortunately I didn't eat all that great this past weekend. But this week I'm back on track and will push myself to throw in a couple extra workouts throughout the week to make up for it.

My new favorite mid-afternoon snack is Evolution Fresh - Sweet Green with Lime. It tastes amazing. Thanks to their awesome and detailed ingredients list its easy to replicate if you have a juicer. If you check out their website they also have a lot of other recipes for tasty and healthy juices. 

Check out these awesome ingredients.

• Celery 
  6 3/4 stalk
• Apple 
  3/4
• Cucumber 
  1/5
• Spinach 
  2 leaves
  
  
• Parsley 
  snip
• Romaine 
  3/4 leaves
• Kale 
  1/2 leaves
• Lemon 
  squeeze
• Lime 
  squeeze
  
  
  
  
• Parsley 
  snip
• Wheat Grass 
  38 blades
• Clover sprouts 
  snip
  
  

SerVING SIZE 8 FL OZ (240 ML)

SERVINGS PER CONTAINER ABOUT 2

Amount per serving	% Daily value*
Calories	50
Calories from fat	0

Amount per serving	% Daily value*
Total fat 0g	0%
Saturated fat 0g	0%
Trans fat
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 150mg	6%
Potassium 550mg	16%

Amount per serving	% Daily value*
Total Carbohydrate 11g	4%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Sugars 10g
Protein 1g

Vitamin A	8%	Vitamin C	6%
Calcium	6%	Iron	2%

INGREDIENTS: JUICES (CELERY, APPLE, CUCUMBER, SPINACH, ROMAINE LETTUCE, KALE, LIME, LEMON, PARSLEY, WHEAT GRASS, CLOVER SPROUTS).

 Source: http://www.evolutionfresh.com/en-us/juice/sweet-greens-lemon-juice

If you're not a fan of green veggies I would suggest trying another more fruity flavor but I love how healthy this one tastes plus its just slightly sweet. 

October Before & After

Just a quick post for today. I was going through my iPad photos earlier today looking for pictures of Halloween last year and I found this picture and thought "Wow! I don't remember being that big." I thought it would be a good picture to do a before and after. I just snapped a picture of me to compare and I think there is a pretty noticeable difference. (My hair is definitely not as cute as my before but whatevs).

It hasn't been the fastest journey ever but I'm working at it every day and I am so happy and so much healthier. 

What's New!

October is almost over and I have not been posting nearly enough. I just wanted to share with ya'll what I've been up too and what I've been eating lately. 

I have become addicted to the grilled shrimp tacos from Wahoo's. 146 calories for one taco and another 100 calories for a side of guacamole. The best thing about the tacos is that one taco comes with two corn tortillas so I always separate them and make one taco into two tacos! 

My snack drawer in my desk at work. It is definitely looking healthier in here. Apples, oranges, banana, carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, Luna bars, Sun Chips, and my peanut butter and banana sandwich in the Tupperware. 

My current favorite blog (www.gosupersisters.com) has these AWESOME monthly workout/goal calendars that I am in love with! 

What have you been doing to keep healthy this month?

Healthy Travels

I'm back from vacation! I went to Florida to visit my beautiful best friend and we went to Universal Studios. I finally got to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If you know me, you know that I love Harry Potter. We went to Halloween Horror Nights on Thursday and Friday night and got sufficiently scared by all of the zombies. I had so much fun! I want to go back right now.

Matching cupcake temporary tattoos because we're awesome. Yes, that is a zombie in the bottom corner.

I always allow myself to go wild on vacations. No counting calories for me! I mean c'mon I'm so much more active on vacations anyways since I sit at my desk ALL day long at work. Case in point, I wore my Fitbit around the parks and racked up over 30,000 steps each day, which is almost 10 miles per day. So I will allow myself a delicious Butterbeer without any guilt.

I will never say "No" to Butterbeer! 

But when it comes to flying I like to keep it clean. Since my parents live on opposite coasts (Mom's in California and Dad's in North Carolina. That's about 7 hours in the air, plus any time during a layover) I fly A LOT and the flights are always extremely long. I've gotten pretty good at packing exactly what I need on a flight so that I don't have to pay the $10+ for a box of crackers and cheese on a plane and I won't feel tired or gross when we land.

1. First, and most important, I always pack a reusable water bottle. Preferably one that has a built in filter so that you can refill it at the water fountains through out the airport.  In case you didn't know, TSA does not allow you to bring a full bottle of water through security. I refuse to pay $5+  for a bottle of water at the airport and the little cups they give you on the plane are gone in a sip. Flying really dehydrates you so it is important to keep water on hand at all times. 

2. Healthy snacks are key to any flight. I like to pack granola bars and prepackaged bags of almonds. Apples, Bananas, Babybel, or 100 calorie pack snacks would also be a great options.

3. Bring your own meal. A lot of people aren't aware that it is totally acceptable to bring your own meal to the airport. I love to go to the grocery store the night before a long flight and pick out a fresh prepackaged salad. Place it in a safe spot in your bag so that it doesn't get crushed and enjoy whenever you get hungry. This saves me probably over $5 since this Kale Crunch salad that I bought was about $4 and the salads at the terminals are about $10. 

4. Since flying completely dries out my skin I need to bring a thick body lotion and a good lip balm. Always remember to apply generously before you board and then keep it close at hand during the flight. I absolutely hate getting off the plane with chapped lips.

5. Hand Sanitizer and Anti-Bacterial wipes are super important when flying. This may seem crazy but I feel so much better if I just wipe down my tray table before I use it. I would rather look like a germaphobe than get to my vacation destination and be sick.

And of course magazines to keep entertained during the flight. I also like to download movies to my iPad the night before just in case they don't show any on the flight. 

If you do have a layover try to walk as much as you can during your time there. I know most people already have to run from one side of the airport to the other to catch their next flight but sometimes I have a layover that's 2 hours or longer and it's good to just walk and stretch my legs.

What are some of your tips for healthy travels?

Why Do Celebrations Always Equal Food?

This past weekend was the my birthday! :) I had a blast but I noticed something. Why do celebrations (birthdays, graduations, or anything really) always have to be celebrated with boat loads of food and typically it's junk food and the like.

Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate and I wanted to order a salad. I like salads but I was told that I should "stop dieting tonight and celebrate" my birthday. After going to dinner on Friday night and then going out and having a couple of drinks all I wanted to do on Saturday morning was have a bowl of Greek Yogurt with berries and then go to the gym. For some reason my family thought this meant I was punishing myself for the night before. They wanted to take me out to a big breakfast and that's awesome, breakfast is my favorite meal. But when I said "No" I was told I was being a "Party Pooper." I felt guilty so of course I caved.

Volcano Chicken at Johnny Garlic's (Spicy BBQ Chicken on a bed of garlic mash potatoes.)

As the day progressed I ended up eating even more junk. Later that evening we had a few people over and ordered pizza and bread sticks. (Mmmm carbs.)

Come Sunday I wasn't feel well at all. My stomach was upset from all the garbage and the total lack of any exercise. Now it's Monday and I'm still a bit sluggish and I actually do feel guilty for my behavior. But it really does make me wonder. Why do we have to eat poorly to celebrate an occasion? Isn't feeding our body properly a better way to celebrate, especially on a birthday.

Weightloss Weapons of the Week

Sometimes I find it really difficult to stay motivated. When I get that way I really need something extra to push me to get me outside and moving. Then I found Charity Miles and if I don't fit in my daily walk or run I feel super guilty. Charity Miles is great! I get the workout I need while also helping others.

"How it Works

It's as easy as this: get moving. Bikers earn 10¢ a mile and walkers and runners earn 25¢ a mile, up to our initial $1,000,000 sponsorship pool."

You can check them out here: http://www.charitymiles.org/ and be sure to download the app

I don't know about you but there are days I DO NOT want to count my calories and I just feel STARVING and I need to eat something! I don't get out of work until 6pm every day so waiting until I get home to eat is nearly impossible. I always need a snack around 3 or 4. When I get ravenous but it isn't quite dinner time yet I like to nibble on a Mini Babybel Light. They taste amazinggg, have 6g of protein, and keep me full until dinner.

What helps you stay motivated throughout the week?

Baked Veggie Egg Rolls

It's been one of those weeks. The kind of week that I'm mentally begging myself to just give in have the really bad food, the high calorie, greasy stuff. The week where I can't seem to motivate myself to hit the gym at all.  We've all been there right? I figured I would make a compromise with myself and make a treat. I've had a hankering for Chinese take-out lately, which led me to create my own so that I can conserve the calories. One of my absolute favorite things to order is egg rolls and most of the time they hardly ever make it home.

Ingredients:

1 Large Package of Coleslaw mix or 4 cups

2 Cups Broccoli

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce (or Low Sodium)

1-2 Tbsp Sriracha (Depending on your heat tolerance.)

1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 tsp ginger powder

2 Cloves of Garlic, minced

1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (Optional)

Spray a pan or wok with PAM, throw in the coleslaw mix and allow it to cook down on Medium heat. You could also add in water chestnuts, bell peppers, or whatever else you want in your egg rolls.

While the coleslaw mix is cooking down a little bit, chop up the broccoli, then add it to the pan and put the cover on. 

Let the Broccoli and Coleslaw mix cook down and mix together the remaining ingredients.

Wait until the Coleslaw mix and broccoli look like this.

Pour the sauce mixture over the veggies.

Stir it up until its all evenly coated and yummy.

I used these egg roll wraps which I found in the produce section of the grocery store.

Here's the fun part...

Lay the egg roll wrap down in a diamond shape, corner facing you.
1. Place the seasoned veggie mix in the center.
2. Cover the veggies by pulling up the bottom corner towards the middle.
3. Tuck in the right and left corners towards the middle.
4. Roll it the rest of the way up.

Spray with PAM and place in a 400 degree preheated oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Delicious and only 148 calories each! Yay!

The best part is, I was able to treat myself to the food I was craving and stay healthy. Plus, I saved money because I didn't end up at the Chinese Restaurant where I would have splurged and spent a bunch of money on food that would end of making me feel guilty.

I also wrapped these individually and stored them in the freezer, like my freezer burritos.  

                                                                    What is your favorite thing to order at a Chinese Restaurant?

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size One Egg Roll

Amount Per Serving

Calories 148 Calories from Fat 17

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 1.9g 3%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 7mg 2%

Sodium 623mg 26%

Total Carbohydrates 27.4g 9%

Dietary Fiber 2.0g 8%

Protein 4.8g

Vitamin A 6% • Vitamin C 59% Calcium 4% • Iron 9%

Nutrition Grade A-

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet