Striving for Health & Simplicity

It's hard to believe Christmas is almost here! Christmas is a time to be spent with family and friends. A time when I don't want to worry or obsess about my waistline. I'm aiming to have my full plan put together before Christmas in hopes of being 100% prepared Below are the resources that I'll be using for my Healthy 2018 Eat to Live Challenge! Hello Nutritarian Website Eat to Live Book Eat to Live Cookbook Pinterest! Eat to Live 6 Week Guidelines In addition to the above resources I will also use a spreadsheet to create meal plans, a weight loss map to track how much has been lost, and a measurement tracker all of which I've created myself. If you would like to receive a copy of anything above please let me know! 

It's hard to believe that it's been six months already since our bundle of joy came into the world! He's changing each and everyday. It's amazing to watch the different skills developing. The time is just flying by! Prior to getting pregnant I succeeded in loosing a very large amount of weight. It was the first time for as long as I can remember that I was happy in my own body. I felt confident in how I looked, my skin was in the best condition it's ever been, my emotions were the best they have ever been, and the number on the scale was just a bonus! During my pregnancy I gained 60+ pounds, my emotions and skin were a mess. I unfortunately had the mentally that I was pregnant and could do whatever I wanted to. That was wrong, I've been paying the price since giving birth. My struggle with body image in the last six months has been at one of the highest points since I was a teenager. When life gets chaotic or messy we all seek comfort in something, unfortuna...

It's often said that the days are long but the weeks and months are short. This is very true for the last six weeks! It's hard to believe that I jumped back on the healthy bandwagon six weeks ago already. Instead of putting all my energy and time into the number on the scale for these past six weeks I wanted to focus on six specific non-scale items. Other then on one occasion I was able to keep these goals as my primary focus. In the last six weeks I have acheived being able to wear my wedding bands again, facial hair growth has decreased significantly, I am fitting into pre-pregnancy clothes more comfortably, and my emotional health has improved dramatically. I will be continuing to work on the reduction of PCOS symptoms and expanding my cooking/baking skills. I am extremely happy with what I've accomplished in the last six weeks despite not following the strict six week plan. I hope that I will be able to put my focus into another six weeks and follow it strictly once...

Do you ever end up with a bunch of leftover produce at the end of the week? I never know what to do with this! It seems as though there's always more then needed to make a salad for dinner, but if it isn't used it goes bad which creates waste! Thursdays are often that slump where you're tired of eating the same thing for dinner and you want a little something different to get you through that last bit before the weekend. In an effort to reduce our food waste as much as possible I started experimenting with some recipes. Thursdays have become our Egg Bake days lately, boy are they ever yummy! The wonderful thing about this recipe is that all the ingredients(other then the eggs) are optional! You can add more or less depending on your preference. Egg Bake Recipe 6-8 Eggs Spinach  Tomatos Mushrooms Green Pepper Onion  Broccoli  Italian Seasoning Mrs Dash Seasoning Shredded Cheese  Preheat oven to 375. Mix everything minus the shredded cheese in a bowl. ...

Three weeks have flown by! It's hard to believe that on Monday I finished Week 3 of my Eat to Live postpartum journey. When I began this journey I didn't realize the number of events that we had going on through the first six weeks(when I'm strictest) of my journey. There have definitely been difficulties in regards to ensuring I stick within the six week guidelines, but I've managed to do it with only a few pieces of meat thrown in! I promised myself that for the first six weeks I would focus more on the non scale victories then the numbers on the scale. In the last three weeks I've noticed and celebrated the fact that: I can wear my engagement ring again!  I've been able to pull some more clothes out of storage & they have been fitting better!  I'm crying significantly less! My moods have improved greatly! I have a lot more energy! I feel pretty awesome that in just three weeks I've been able to accomplish these non scale victories! I...

September is often treated as another time to make resolutions and goals. It's the time of year when we are settling into new routines. One of the new routines that's often started is eating healthier. It was my original plan to join those in starting out a new routine in September, things change and I started changing my eating habits two weeks ago. Restarting my Eat to Live during while there were still a few weeks of summer left was difficult. Many opportunities to stray from my guidelines presented themselves, each time I was successful at avoiding them though! One of my biggest challenges in terms of eating within my guidelines right now is eating out. I thought that trying to stay within my guidelines while being home on maternity leave would be difficult. It hasn't been as hard as I imagined, thankfully! I've watched the scale drop 6.8lbs and 4.25" in the last two weeks, that's enough motivation to keep me going! 

One week ago I had no desire to begin the Eat to Live 6-Week Journey before Labour Day. I wanted to enjoy the final weeks of junk food before getting serious about my nutrition again. My mind and body had other thoughts. I will be beginning the journey once again on August 20th. During the six weeks I hope to focus on the below goals, instead of the number on the scale. Wedding Bands-Be able to wear my wedding bands again. Facial Hair- Decrease amount of unwanted facial hair. Clothes-Fit into Pre-Pregnancy clothes more comfortably.  PCOS Symptoms-Reduce the symptoms from PCOS(hair loss, irregular cycles, etc). Emotional Health-Reduce anxiety and regulate postpartum hormones.  Cooking/Baking Skills- Expand skills and knowledge to include healthier alternatives.  I will once again post my weekly menus, weekly results, and recipes that I find helpful that aren't in the Eat to Live cookbook. I hope you'll join me!

The first week of our Summer Edition of Eat to Live is complete! I managed to have salads with both lunch and supper every night, have zero treats from Tim Hortons, and increase my water consumption. Those are all the things I was targeting for last week! Let's hope I can keep it up this week. Groceries are bought and week two meals will be prepped tomorrow! Monday: Breakfast: Smoothie(1/2C Frozen Blueberries, 1C Almond Milk, 1/2 Banana, Handful of Spinach, 1T Ground Chia Seed, & 1T of Ground Flax Seed) Lunch: S: Chick Pea Salad & Unsweetened Apple Sauce R: Leftovers from Sunday Supper: Tossed Salad & BBQ Steak Tuesday: Breakfast: Smoothie(1/2C Frozen Blueberries, 1C Almond Milk, 1/2 Banana, Handful of Spinach, 1T Ground Chia Seed, & 1T of Ground Flax Seed) Lunch: S: Chick Pea Salad & Unsweetened Apple Sauce R: Leftovers from Monday Supper: Tossed Salad & Bean Chilli Wednesday: Breakfast: Smoothie(1/2C Frozen Blueberries, 1C...

Despite having access to fresh locally grown food summer can often be the hardest time to eat healthy. Since giving birth to baby E five weeks ago we have been in survival mood with meals. It's been a combination of the frozen meals I prepared/we bought and take out. That combination doesn't help with our emotional, mental, or physical health. It's time to get back on track! The groceries are purchased and the food is ready to be prepared for Week One of our Eat to Live Summer Edition! If you'd like to know what we are doing differently for our summer edition of Eat to Live you can find out in the previous post. Below is what's on dock for meals this week. Monday: Breakfast: Smoothie(1/2C Frozen Blueberries, 1C Almond Milk, 1/2 Banana, Handful of Spinach, 1T Ground Chia Seed, & 1T of Ground Flax Seed) Lunch: S: Chick Pea Salad & Unsweetened Apple Sauce R: Leftovers from Sunday Supper: Tossed Salad & Chicken Legs  Tuesday: Breakfa...

There are seasons for everything in life. Whether it's extra curricular activities we're involved in, projects we have on the go at home, or what's going on in our career. Our eating lifestyle should be a consistent but is often a season that comes and goes. The goal when I first became pregnant was to continue our Eat to Live lifestyle. Unfortunately with pregnancy exhaustion and pain quickly setting in this was the first thing to be dropped. It began taking too much time and effort to not only think of meals but prepare them. We never did pick the pieces back up. The weight gain from pregnancy shows that I let myself fall off the bandwagon. Individuals would say that's okay because breastfeeding helps to burn so many calories. For a variety of reasons E isn't a breastfed baby, although heartbreaking at first I've come to find great peace in this. Robin and I are gearing up to once again begin the Eat to Live Challenge. We will be making adjustments for the...

We are a society of individuals that are extremely busy. On top holding down the fort at home and work we have extra curricular commitments. Although these commitments often bring us joy in the moment there is stress leading up to actually getting there. Our food choices are one of the major things that suffer when we get extremely busy. Instead of going home and preparing dinner it's often much easier to run through the drive through before an event. There are great resources out there to help us with easier week night meals like Epicure, Thrive, and Hello Fresh. Personally, I like the old fashioned go to the grocery store, pick up my ingredients, and prep them to create meals I want to eat. For our family we find that the benefits of meal prepping include. Saving Time: An hour or two once a week to wash, cut, and store all my veggies/fruit often ends up saving me 20-30 minutes on the actual night that I'm cooking a meal. If we're having a simple piece of meat and sa...

Baby Munroe is definitely a carbs baby! I have unfortunately fell into the carb way of life once again. I believe it's a combination of being pregnant which is causing me to crave carbs, and the fact that craving carbs is one of the side effects of PCOS. Needless to say, it's been a difficult journey to remember that I don't need to stuff my face with carbs everyday. Somedays are definitely easier then others. Unfortunately I've been dealing with severe back pain, and crazy swelling for the last number of weeks. This has made it difficult to ensure I'm making smart food choices, and getting enough exercise in. My goal for the upcoming week is to ensure I walk daily again, and cut the carbs during the week! One of my weakness' lately has been ice cream. I love a big bowl of ice cream! Which is not healthy, at all! After asking the Facebook world for suggestions I combined a couple and made the below delicious smoothie which is now my evening snack if I'm ...

I know it's been quiet around here lately, more on that in another post! I wanted to put together a list of just a few of my favourite healthy recipes. These are recipes that I found had wonderful taste, they could even please a crowd! Salads: Chick Pea Salad Spinach Salad Main Meals: Lentil Soup Easy White Bean Soup Whole 30 Lasagna Taco Pie Slowcooker Hamburger Stew Sheet Pan Fajitas Anything Oh She Glows  Baked Goods: Banana Muffins Chocolate Chip Cookies Strawberry Banana Oat Bars Banana Bread I cannot take credit for any of these recipes! They are all created by extremely talented people, and I've been blessed to find them!