Coconut Oil Latte – Yum!

“Large Carmel iced coffee light with half and half and 3 sugars.” This is how I used to order my coffee every morning at Dunkin, lets just take a second to break that down.

Large French Vanilla Iced Coffee with Half and Half – 340 calories, 12g fat, 54g carbs, 49g sugars

Plus another 3 packets of sugar which is another 45 calories, 12g carbs, and 12g sugar!

Holy Crap!

I recently did some research on healthier ways to make coffee and found a really awesome recipe involving coconut oil which has so many great benefits and uses (I’ll make a separate post for all that info lol)

Coconut Oil Latte

• 1 cup coffee
• 1 tbsp coconut oil

Put both in a blender and pulse once or twice – all done! Sometimes I get fancy and froth 4 oz of almond milk to add and sprinkle some cinnamon on top – and if you need to add some sweetness a dash of organic stevia will do the trick but I think its awesome plain!

2 – Ingredient Pancakes!

The biggest reason I decided to lead a healthier life is because I wanted to set a good example for my daughter to follow. Can I make pancakes with white sugar, flour, and loads of butter, topped with chemical filled syrup? Sure, I can. Am I going to choose to do that? Heck no!

A healthy-minded momma, good friend of mine offered me this recipe and at first I figured these were going to be pretty gross, but they actually turned our really well, and my daughter LOVES them. She is about to be a year old so we can just hand her a plain pancake to nom on and she eats the whole thing – nothing more satisfying to a momma than seeing your little one LOVE the healthy food you give them. I figure if she grows up eating the healthy version, she wont feel like she’s “missing out” on something. These do come out thinner than a pancake but thicker than a crepe. Top however you please, I usually us some plain greek yogurt, a drizzle of honey, and some fresh berries!

Enjoy the recipe!

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2-Ingredient Pancakes

Ingredients: 2 eggs, 1/2 banana

1. Peel and cut banana in half. Mash the banana in a bowl   
2. Separately whisk the 2 eggs. Combine with the banana and mix together. *you can add an 1/8 tsp of baking powder here  to make them a little bit fluffier    
3. Each pancake should be about 2 tbsp (Don’t mind my 1/4 cup scoop)      
4. Cook each pancake over medium heat until golden brown and then flip. This usually yields 5 silver dollar pancakes for me.   
5. Add your toppings and enjoy!

The best time to start was yesterday, the second best time to start is right now

If I gave you access to 30 minute home workouts and color-coded food containers – would you be willing to try it?

You can put off taking the first step until you’re “ready” a million times, but it is never going to take you to the place you want to be in your life until you say “Enough. My time is NOW.”

I can’t tell you how many times someone brought me an opportunity to lose weight, even if it was just by the means of advice, and I wouldn’t take it, I just wasn’t ready yet. In April 2015 a good friend introduced me to the opportunity of being an online health & fitness coach, I signed up and bought a program and then did absolutely nothing with it – as I sit here now I promise that I wish I had started sooner.

Finally, in November 2015 I got tired of feeling awful, I wanted to be better for my daughter, I needed to pull myself out of debt, I had all these goals and zero positive outlooks on my life. So I took the plunge and made small goals for myself both physically and financially – and even if I didn’t lose the weight or I didn’t make any money, the positive outlook I have made on life through the personal development I have been enough to make my investment worth while.

There is never the perfect time to start, but as soon as you have that “ah-ha” moment and you realize that you need to make a change in your life you wont wait until the new year to better yourself, you wont wait until Monday to change your diet, you will start at that very moment.

If you’re looking for a motivation to get yourself moving, PLEASE contact me, the most fulfilling thing of all is helping others achieve their highest potential. If you’re looking help others better themselves, live healthy lives, and to make some extra money doing it, PLEASE don’t hesitate to contact me.

There’s an opportunity knocking on your door – are you going to answer it?

To IUD or Not to IUD? That is the question.

As some of you may have noticed, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl 8 months ago (almost to the day) – and I chose the recently more popular IUD as my post-partum birth control. I’m horrible with remembering a pill every day and I’m really not into the idea of that birth control they imbed in your arm (way too syfy for me!), so I chose an IUD (Mirena) – have it put in and don’t think about it again for 5 years when I have it taken out (or when we wanna have baby #2 – whichever comes first). GREAT! I was thrilled, untilllllllll I’ve been busting my booty to lose this baby weight and it. will. not. budge. AT ALL. In fact, I keep gaining.

Now I’m no fool, as you can see in my last post, I’m well aware that I don’t eat perfectly – but I do go to the gym and eat 2 scrambled eggs with sprinkle of cheese for breakfast, grilled chicken and broccoli for lunch, and usually some form of meat and veggies for dinner, all properly portioned out, so my snacks here and there should really not be preventing me from total weight loss. I hold myself entirely accountable, every cheat goes right into My Fitness Pal, so does my fitness (connected via Apple Watch) so I see what my weekly calorie deficit is and it is almost always over 3500. So, WHY have I fluctuated by only a pound on rare occasion?

So one day my husband sees me getting super frustrated that I cant find the problem and says “hun, do you think it could be your IUD?” and after all it really is the only thing different from my pre-pregnancy life (other than me eating way better and exercising more which does not = weight gain). So I dove into some research and believe me when I say there are HUNDREDS of message boards about women who experience extreme weight gain or the inability to lose weight, I mean we’re talking women who have gained 30 lbs in under a year, all the way to 65 lbs over the length of 5. I swear to you if I didn’t need a doctor to do it I would have taken the damn thing out right then and there.

I wanted to lose weight long before I had a baby, so now instead of  30 lbs I want to lose 55 lbs. Believe it or not I’m not afraid of the journey but, I am terrified of not finding the right combination of fitness and nutrition to succeed. I get discouraged pretty quickly – the gym was way outside of my comfort zone and to put myself out there and still feel like a failure makes me really upset.

I’m having this sucker removed next Thursday – here’s to hoping that it’s the answer to my prayers!

Food Addiciton is Very, Very, Real

Today I came to a pretty startling realization. I have spent a lot of time and money on attempting to live a healthier lifestyle, to eat better, be more active, and truly nourish my body. I recently began a rigorous workout trainer (Pipehitter) designed by fitness star Ashley Horner, and it is by far no joke and contains a pretty strict meal plan. And I’ve been kidding myself into thinking that just because I’m not following the meal plan verbatim, that I am still watching closely what I eat.

This past weekend was a pretty big wake up call for me. I had finished the first week of my trainer and was just starting to get back use of my legs (seriously, leg day is not something for the faint of heart), and despite the agony I had put myself through at the gym and soreness in my legs, I was still eating crap. It was late and I was helping family prep for a wedding to take place in that back yard on Saturday and I intended on running to the supermarket to get a rotisserie chicken and frozen veggies to eat for dinner but, the store was closed. So, with a lack of truly healthy options at my disposal, I grabbed pizza. Normally, I wouldn’t really shun myself for this – one bad meal won’t make you unhealthy the same way eating one salad won’t make healthy – but it had more to do with what I ordered and the manner in which I ate it. I ordered two plain slices, a rice ball, and 3 squares of pepperoni bread. To make it worse, I was so embarrassed by the size of my order (and that fact that my cousin-in-law who was helping me with my trainer at the gym was inside the house) that I proceeded to eat half of my food in the car before entering the house. I was officially sneak-eating. That was when it hit me, I sneak eat all the time. Somewhere along the way I was introduced to potato salad at a BBQ and fell in love. Sometimes when I go to the grocery store I buy a small container, eat it, and then hide it under other garbage in my trash can so my husband doesn’t say anything to me. Or I’ll buy my husband snacks that he can eat (cookies/chips) since he has an incredibly fast metabolism, and then when he’s napping or not home, I’ll indulge. And then, like I have no idea what is happening, I will freak out when the scale doesn’t budge – or worse – it goes up.

I don’t know exactly what it is that triggers it, boredom, stress or laziness. But whatever it is, it is 100% the reason why I can’t lose the weight I’ve been dying to see melt off. I’ve been reading the book It Starts With Food by Dallas Hartwig and Melissa Hartwig, not necessarily with the intent of starting the Whole 30 diet, but because the book discusses the mechanics and psychology of eating. In a brief two page excerpt, Dallas & Melissa Hartwig explain the psychology of stress eating and suddenly it made all the sense in the world why I can’t seem to walk past that potato salad without taking some home. There’s nothing wrong with me and it is extremely common: my brain has a chemical addiction to food.

With a little bit of online research I found that food can be as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Highly palatable foods: those rich in salt, fat, and sugar, can make the brain release the same feel-good hormones (like dopamine) as addictive drugs. So, potato salad which is high in both fat and salt is a prime example of a food that could release a potential “high” for someone addicted to food.

Deciding to use the word “addict” to describe myself is a pretty big deal, but it also helps me understand why eating something so horrible for me can somehow make me feel so good, but that first step of eating something bad is the trigger of a very unhealthy cycle. Gives into bad food -> creates feelings of stress and guilt -> bad food releases feel good hormones -> therefore eats bad food all over again. What is the very first step of the 12-step program used to help drug addicts become sober? Admitting you are powerless to your addiction and that it has become unmanageable.

In an attempt to regain some control of my relationship with food, I purchased the book Food Junkies: The Truth About Food Addiction by Vera Tarman, MD with Philip Werdell. I can only hope that having a better understanding of my unhealthy relationship with food will eventually allow me to live a healthier life.

Skipping the Sugary Drinks

My husbands really awesome and HUGE family gets together almost once a week to jump in the pool and BBQ which means lots of beer (my favorite), iced tea (also my favorite), beans, potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. (okay, so they’re all my favorite – but can you blame me?) Basically, sugar, starch, carbs and some more carbs – NONE of this is weightloss friendly.

Normally my first choice would be Arizona’s Raspberry Iced Tea, which is of course sold in those monster sized 23oz. cans. The nutrition facts on the back don’t seem horrible when you read that it contains 22g of sugar, until your realize that is for the serving size of 8oz – meaning that single can contains 63.25 GRAMS OF SUGAR! Um, I’ll have a little tea with my sugar please? My second choice would have been Snapple Apple, a 18oz bottle contains 47 grams of sugar.

According to livestrong.com’ article Does Sugar Turn Into Fat?, sugar is a form of a carbohydrate which can be used for energy, but if it is not used as energy shortly after consumption the body will store it as a fat. Now lets be serious for a second, who brings Iced Tea on a bike ride, a run, or a hike? No one. We pack water or a sports drink like Gatorade – which while it contains sugar and carbs, it also contains electrolytes that are naturally created by your body, like sodium (helps your retain hydration during physical exertion) and potassium. Gatorade is usually recommended for high-intensity activities for long lengths of time or in high-temp environments. (Drinking Gatorade vs. Drinking Water).

So, to avoid the temptation to pump my body full of more crap I’ve turned to infused water or flavored sparkling/seltzer water. Infusing water with flavor is really as simple as putting fruit or herbs in your water and letting them sit for a while – I’ve found that using frozen fruits releases the flavor faster. You can do this in any water bottle, but I would recommend a reusable water bottle (without a straw) or you can buy an infusion water bottle (which is what I have) made specifically for this purpose. Infusion water bottles usually come with a small plastic insert with holes for you to put your fruit into, however I like to use A LOT of fruit so I usually don’t use it (as you can see below), and it has small openings at the top that allow the water but no fruit to get through. I like to use a mixture of berries (usually raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry) and lemon.

As for the sparkling/seltzer water, it has taken me some time to get used to it, but its a great way to enjoy carbonation without the sugar content of soda. While I haven’t tried it yet, I see no reason why you couldn’t infuse fruit with plain sparking/seltzer water (maybe I’ll post an update on that later). So far my favorite flavor has been the Canada Dry Peach Mango flavor 🙂 Be sure to check the ingredients when choosing sparkling/seltzer water, I’ve found many that contain the artificial sweetener Aspartame that is no good for you (more on that later).

As I’ve said before, planning ahead can completely save you from the temptation of food that really isn’t very good for you. I haven’t quite gotten into the swing of prepping meals to bring with me on summer days, but it’s a work in progress. As far as avoiding the sugary drinks, it’s as easy as stopping in and convenience store and grabbing the seltzer over the iced tea. It’s all about making better choices.

I Ran My First 5k & Didn’t Die!

In my attempt to find a cardio activity that I would actually enjoy doing, I decided to join a program called RunStart that a local running group, Greater Long Island Running Club, has run for the past four years. It’s designed to encourage newbies to learn the proper way to become a runner – we meet once a week for an hour and are taught how to stretch before and after a run and then we run for about 20 minutes, all while seasoned runners critique our posture and form. They broke us down into three groups – beginner, intermediate and advanced – and since I’m brand new to this I’m a “beginner” or affectionately called the “run/walk” group because we do intervals of running and walking. The first week was 60:60 seconds run/walk then, 90:60 seconds run/walk, and last week was 2:1 minutes run/walk.

I am definitely struggling in some aspects, but my goal is to simply finish even if that means not making it through the whole run interval. Usually after the first minute of the run interval my “run” turns into more of a “jog/shuffle,” but I get it done. Amazingly (or stupidly – your choice), I decided to register for the Runner’s Edge – Women’s 5k this past Saturday and attempted to do the 2:1 run/walk interval. While my intervals really turned more into running as long as my body would let me (at some points only 30 seconds) and walking until I felt strong enough to run again – I finished (and thankfully not dead last). My time was 51mins 30.9 seconds and I was seventh from the bottom, but the biggest goal achieved was that I stepped WAY outside of my comfort zone and just got it done.

This is my “I ran my first 5k and didn’t die” selfie!

My knees cracked for three days and my attempt at a run on Monday was a bit of a joke (completing one mile in 20 mins) but I cant say that I wouldn’t do it again, or that running wont be a part of my life. I’ll just be adding a whole lot more stretching and bit more practice, even if that means going back to 1:1 minute run/walk. Practice makes perfect – right?

 

Where Has the Time Gone?

I cannot seem to fathom that my beautiful little girl is already 6 months old – I mean, all I did was blink! She’s teething, scooting across the floor, getting herself into trouble, and giving Momma a heart attack!

I feel like so many people have asked me what to do when their baby wont stop crying or how to get babies to sleep through the night and they seem extremely surprised when I tell them that I have no idea. Lina has been an absolute dream, so much so that I’m just waiting for the day that she starts crying and I literally have no idea what to do – I’ve gotten a little taste of this since she has begun teething and waking up in the middle of the night, but even that hasn’t lasted past much more than a few minutes and then she’s right back to bed.

                                           

Now I understand when people say “I love you more today than I did yesterday,” in the beginning she was this beautiful little creature that I didn’t know a thing about – except that she was mine to care for and nourish. But now, she is the thing I cannot wait to come home to after a long day (except my husband of course, well he works an opposite schedule as me anyway so I don’t get to come home to him anyway). Pictures and videos of her laughing and giggling are what gets me through my day at work (I’m currently temping at a pharmaceutical manufacturer).

I love this little girl more and more with every passing day. Lina Grace, Momma and Daddy are so proud to call you ours, I cannot wait to see all the wonder that you bring  into the world.

 

The Struggle Is Real

Okay, so I may or may not have (I definitely did) fallen off my own bandwagon lately. It is MUCH easier to stay dedicated to a meal plan and preparation when you are not running around like a crazy person and returning to work after my maternity leave, and about to change jobs has got me all mixed up – which has resulted in lots of not so healthy eating, lots of things coming out of obnoxious crinkly packages, and lots of no feeling so good. Oh! And Easter baskets and desserts just did not help.

Needless to say, making the decision to get back on track is still something I so badly want for my family, but my slip-up means starting over. Like I’ve said before, preparation is key – making a big enough dinner to have left overs, and packing the night before are all great tips – but who the hell wants to cook a huge dinner after working for 8 hours and being away from their perfect little baby for even longer?! Not this girl – nope not one bit.

But, my body has absolutely been paying for it. I’m sluggish, not sleeping well, the furthest thing from regular (sorry for the TMI), and absolutely feel like I’m in a funk and I 100% blame the junk food.

Next week I begin a new job that includes a commute via train and subway, to work at a hospital that the closest thing to eat is really just the cafeteria and I’m uncertain if I will have access to a fridge to store my lunch in – so this whole thing could be getting a little bit tricky, but that is no excuse. There is a solution to every problem right? Say a little prayer for me.

P.S. I promise you at least two posts a week – I’ll do my very best not to break it.

Fail to Prepare or Prepare to Fail

I’ve officially been eating “clean” for two weeks, or as close to clean as possible anyway – with only ONE cheat meal! My biggest piece of advice? PREPARE. That one cheat meal happened only because I didn’t have a healthy/clean meal prepared ahead of time. Our fridge has been running a little bare lately and we haven’t had much time to run to the supermarket (remember that whole thing about having a newborn?) and we didn’t have one piece of meat to prepare, nothing but a box of cherry tomatoes and half a bell pepper for vegetables. So what kind of food is fast? Fast food. And my body is paying for it today.

Is it tedious? Yes. We have a small kitchen, so I’ve been preparing all of my work meals the night before in order to avoid using what feels like a thousand food-storage containers to be cleaned at the end of the week. Seriously – if you’re a salad eater, find yourself an awesome to-go lunch/salad container, it will save your sanity.

However, most people I know prepare their meals for an entire week ahead of time. If you have the time (time? newborns don’t give you any time) and the space (SMALL kitchen) then I would say this is probably your best bet at making sure you wont fall of the bandwagon. Remember, their are items that cant be prepared ahead of time, in my opinion anyway. For example, I wont make my breakfast the night before. I might portion my yogurt out occasionally to make mornings extra easy – toss in some fruit, granola and a dash of cinnamon and you’re good to go, but if do that before hand, lets just say – who likes soggy granola? I’m also not a fan of reheated fish, but for every other meal I think this is the most effective way to do it. Besides, having a delicious batch of veggies to snack on is a whole lot healthier than anything that comes in a noisy-crinkly bag. (Tip: if you ever get to that frantically hungry state, snack on veggies because they’re pretty hard to over eat since they’re so good for you)

My usual meal prep for work. Yogurt for breakfast, grapes for a snack, and a salad – mixed greens, grilled chicken, tomatoes, peppers, and homemade Honey-Dijon dressing for lunch.

Successful Tips for Me – So Far:

1. Seriously, I meant it when I said get yourself some awesome containers. I’m currently used Rubbermaid TakeAlongs which work really well and are very inexpensive as far as storage containers go. However they are not airtight and have leaked on me once or twice, so if you travel to and from work and don’t mind investing in your storage containers a little bit I suggest Snapware. We have a few pieces of Snapware in my kitchen (don’t ask me where they came from) but these are the pieces I prefer to take too and from work because they have latches to keep the containers closed, are airtight, and leak-proof. I just invested $39.99 into Snapware’s 42-pc set, that’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. For those of you who are klutz-proof and prefer glass over plastic, they have 16-pc glass set as well.
2. Make sure you pack certain ingredients separately. For example, in the above picture I have my mixed greens in one container, salad toppings in another, and dressing the little one – you cant have all these items sitting together in the same container for a week before eat it, it will be one big soggy mess. Same goes for my breakfast, which is usually plain greek yogurt, granola, cinnamon, honey, and fruit. I mix that all together in one container before work in the morning to keep the granola from getting soggy.
3. If you’re going to meal prep for an entire week at a time, don’t try any new recipes for a whole weeks worth of food. I read about this on Organize Yourself Skinny and was kind of surprised that anyone would prepare a weeks worth of food before trying the recipe first, but some people think differently. I experiment cooking food differently all the time, whether its a new seasoning, different way of cooking (oven/crockpot/stovetop, etc.) or just a new food in general – make sure you like it before you potentially prepare a weeks worth of food you’re not going to like eating! In fact I would say try it a few times before dedicating a week of your diet to it.
4. If you DO have the time, maybe try making two different meals for your week so you can alternate – my biggest woe of dieting was being bored of my food. Maybe a salad three days a week and grilled chicken and veggies for the other two, it keeps your taste buds and mind from getting bored!
5. If you really DONT have the time – invest in a crock pot (make sure it has a timer!) Combine your ingredients in the crockpot, set your timer and forget about it. How beautiful is that? Click here for some great clean-eating crockpot recipes.
6. Always have some snacks portioned out for yourself – it will keep you from getting hangry (angry because you’re hungry) and keep you away from binge eating something bad for you.

Here are a few wonderful blog posts/articles that I’ve been using for my journey in to meal prepping:

Organize Yourself Skinny – A Beginner’s Guide to Meal Prep – Take a look at her weight loss story and all of the other helpful goodies from her website, especially her eBook!

 Lean It Up – Meal Planning In A Flash