How to Eat Healthy the Easy Way

Have you ever gotten busy and let yourself get too hungry? And then when you ate you either felt way too full or not satisfied or just didn't feel good for the rest of the day? I do too sometimes. Yesterday, for instance, I was out of the house for a few hours between 11 and 3 and since I was away this weekend, I didn't have any snacks in the house to take with me.

This brings me to the single most important (in my opinion) aspect of healthy eating:

                                

                                           BEING PREPARED!!

It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I think that was Winston Churchill but correct me if I'm wrong! Anyways, being prepared meaning having food ready to eat is such a HUGE part of eating healthy. It makes it so much easier to stay on track. Getting hungry is a recipe for disaster. Last time I let myself get too hungry, I went and got a burger. It was gross and I threw it out after a few bites and I was mad because it was expensive and I make better ones at home. It made me resolve to try harder to not let that happen.

Here are a few tips that have helped me and also my husband, who greatly benefits from my planning and preparing meals ahead of time.

1. Make big batches of your healthy staples. Mine are chicken, brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta for my husband, and tuna (a tiny bit of light mayo with diced pickles)

2. Make a big pot of clean something! It's still raining in most parts so get your soup/stew/chili eating time in now. If you use a slow cooker, it takes minutes to prepare lunches for the entire week. See my recipes tab for my fave recipes. Also what I love about this is soups and stews are so filling!

3. Make some homemade protein bars! They are filling, nutritious and help you get in extra protein without yet another chicken breast! Plus they hit the sweet spot!

4. Hard boil eggs. If you pop out the yolk or just eat one, they are high in protein and low in calories and fill you up fast. It's a perfect thing to pair a piece of fruit with.

5. Speaking of fruit: buy some. Wash it. Put it in your fridge in a pretty bowl so you see it when you open the door.

 6. Also, veggies. I find having pre-cut veggies helps me a lot because I never feel like cutting them when I'm hungry.

7. Store everything in glass containers. They are a great investment for your health since they are easy to clean and won't contaminate your food.

These are President's Choice Containers

8. Have a nice big pitcher of water in your fridge at all times. I have a Brita, and for some reason I just drink more water if I can pour myself a nice cold pure glass. I also like adding slices of lemon.

9. Have a nice reusable water bottle (or a few, just in case) so you can leave the house with a full bottle of water at all times.

10. I also got my husband a shaker cup and stocked up on 1L containers of almond milk so he can have low calorie protein shakes at work whenever he gets hungry. We scoop out servings and put them in baggies so they're ready to go.

 I hope you liked my tips, they have certainly made eating clean easier for me! I'd love to hear your tips too, so leave them in the comment section!

Taren

Crushing Your Cravings: Breaded Zucchini Sticks

I think we can all agree one of the hardest parts of following a healthy lifestyle is the crazy cravings that can happen. You may be eating clean and loving your diet, but sometimes you just want something really, really bad. I'm not going to tell you that it's okay, eat whatever you want. That can get out of hand VERY quickly! First it's just a slice of pizza, then maybe a class of pop and while your at it you might as well have a slice of birthday cake, you don't want to be rude after all. This downward spiral is very familiar to me. However, I have found certain things that help me cut the cravings.

First of all, don't eat the crap!! It's scientifically proven that when you have sugar or fat in your system, your going to want more. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Cut the junk and within a few days you won't want it nearly as bad. I have a good personal example of this. My husband and I have a serious weakness for Coca-Cola. You don't have to tell us it's practically poison, we know. But it's so damn good!! Around Christmastime we had it in our house a little bit because it was a special occasion. But what happened after Christmas was bad news. My husband was in trade school for 7 weeks  and was spending every night studying in our 700 square foot apartment. It was stressful and we were in survival mode and we had ourselves a wee bit too much Coke. Okay, a lot too much. Also chips and salsa. They were bad delicious days. Anyways, mid February my husband finished school (with wicked grades, I might add) and we cut the crap. Cold Turkey. Honestly, I don't even think about drinking Coke now. There might be a time later where I get a weakness for it again but as long as I can stay away from it, I know I won't have cravings.

Here's another example of me cutting my cravings. I used to work in an office that was super close to a Starbucks. It got to the point where I was craving Earl Grey Tea Lattes on a daily basis and BAD!  I wasn't gaining weight but they have sugar in them and it just was not a good situation at $5 bucks a day. So what I did was bought a tin of the Earl Grey Tea and as soon as I got to work I would have a cup just with a bit of milk and Splenda. As soon as I had some warm Earl Grey in my tummy, my desperate need for Starbucks went away.

I have realised that I can have a healthier version of something I love and when I do, I won't crave the fatty/sugary version. Awesome!!

Now a lot of the things that I love are some kind of bread/pasta/tomato sauce/cheese type things...I don't need to tell you I can't afford to eat like that! So I don't bother with the bread most of the time, and I make my own whole wheat pasta with a few different variations. I recently came across a recipe at one of my favourite sites EVER, Skinny Taste, that had me drooling so I decided to give it a whirl and I'm so glad I did because they were fantastic. I honestly felt as satisfied as if I had a big bowl of pasta!

                                            Skinny Taste's Breaded Zucchini Sticks

Note: I was lazy and cut mine too large. Don't do that!

Ingredients: 

• 3 medium zucchini sliced into 3" x 1/2" sticks
• 1 large egg white
• 1/3 cup seasoned whole wheat bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• cooking spray
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  
• salt
• fresh pepper

Instructions:

In a small bowl, beat egg whites and season with salt and pepper. In a ziplock bag, place breadcrumbs, garlic powder and cheese and shake well. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.

Dip zucchini sticks into eggs then into bread crumb and cheese mixture, a few at a time and shake to coat. Place the breaded zucchini in a single layer and spray more cooking spray on top. Bake at 425° for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with 1/2 cup marinara sauce for dipping.

SkinnyTaste has a super simple recipe for Marinara along with her breaded zucchini stick recipe, so check it out here. I didn't have any canned tomatoes so I just used jarred tomato sauce, obviously homemade is always better if you can.

Enjoy!!

Taren

We All Need a Little Motivation and Inspiration..

I'm so sorry for taking so long to post again, I've been very busy with all my plans for the next few months, lots of exciting things coming! Today, I'll be talking about motivation and inspiration, the thing we all need to get our butts in gear!  One thing I'd like to talk about today is celebrities after having babies. The last few years there has been a huge baby boom in Hollywood and celeb moms are watched like crazy after the baby is born to see how fast they'll lose the weight. I feel bad for these moms, because they deserve to have the time to spend with their new baby and not have to worry about being scrutinized. The problem is, there are some celebs that seem to pop out the baby and be as skinny as ever! That's not how it goes for most people!


There are two celeb moms in particular that have been publicly open about their struggle to get back into pre-baby shape, and both are just doing absolutely awesome. Yes, I'm sure they have trainers and nutritionists, but we all have access to the same information, don't we? All it takes is moving your butt, and these women have been working theirs off!


Alison Sweeney
I have always admired her and have watched her on Days of Our Lives for years and years. She struggled with her weight quite a bit and then one day she realised she just needed to DO SOMETHING about it! She got in great shape and everyone who watched the show noticed. She also is one of the hosts of the Biggest Loser, and she says being on the show has taught her everything she needs to know about health and being in shape.
Here's a pic of her prego in 2008:

She just bared her awesome bikini bod in a photo shoot  with People Magazine:

Pretty amazing if you ask me! She also wrote a book called the Mommy Diet which I actually want to read (I know, I'm not a mommy, but I am interested in helping women get back in shape after babies!)


Another new mom who has publicly struggled with losing her baby weight is Kendra Wilkinson. Now, you gotta remember, she used to be a PLAYBOY MODEL! I watched one episode of Kendra where she was trying to do her own Girl's Next Door workout video, it was hilarious. But the struggle for her was not fun, especially when her own wedding ring didn't fit and the tabloids reported that there must be trouble in paradise. Jerks! Anyways, here is a pic of Kendra when she was pregnant:

And this is her now with her adorable little guy:

Also, she is currently on Dancing with the Stars, which has whipped several celebs in shape! In case your interested, here's Kendra in one of her DWTS costumes:

And if you need further motivation from a REAL person as in non celeb, a friend of mine named Sara recently got her success story featured on the Eat Clean Diet website. I highly recommend you go check it out! This girl is dedicated to her fit and healthy lifestyle and it definitely shows!

So I hope you've gotten a little bit inspired from these amazing women! I will be doing regular posts on motivation and inspiration so stay tuned!!

Taren