Striving for Health & Simplicity

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!

Hello readers! Thank you for your patience over the last few months with the silence. Towards the end of my Six Week Eat to Live Journey we found out we are expecting! There are still days that we find this hard to believe! The first trimester brought with it sheer exhaustion, plus the adjustment to having a puppy. Only when December came did I start to begin to feel more human, right in time for Christmas! Now that the Christmas celebrations have ended we're in full planning mode for a fun and busy 2018! Supplies are purchased & ready for assembly!  One of the ways we're getting ourselves organized is our Home Binder! The binder includes categories like: Budget Menu's Recipes to Try Coupon's Christmas 2018 Planning 2017 Budget & Actual Spend 2018 Budget 2018 Gift Ideas Important Information Birthday's Password Cheat Sheet Contact Information I love the outside of our binder!  Not including the ink for the printable pages i...

I don't know about you, but sometimes I have a really hard time staying on track with my goals! I need a good kick in the butt sometimes! Now is one of those times. This coming Monday to Friday I will be heading back to the strict eating. I ask you to consider joining me on this challenge, today is a perfect day to work towards tomorrows goals! My goal this week is to go completely refined sugar free. I'm going to provide you with the meal plan I'll be using for the week, along with some additional snacks that you might like if you're a snacker! Monday: Breakfast: Smoothie (1/2C Blueberries, 1/2 Banana, 1T Ground Flax & Chia, 1C Almond Milk & Handful of Spinach) Lunch: 6 Bean Chilli, Unsweetened Applesauce & 2 Clementines Supper: Vegetable Stir Fry with Bean Sprouts & Pork Chops Tuesday Breakfast: Smoothie (1/2C Blueberries, 1/2 Banana, 1T Ground Flax & Chia, 1C Almond Milk & Handful of Spinach) Lunch: Bean Chilli, Unsweetened Apple...

It's hard to believe that 6 weeks has come to a close! It's amazing how fast time flies. The last 6 weeks have had their ups and downs. They have been filled with both scale, and non scale victories. Non-Scale Victories: There were times in the last 6 weeks that I fell off the wagon, but it became so much easier to get back on! I might have eaten out a few times, but I always made sure it was close to guidelines, and my next meal followed the guidelines. Before the Eat to Live Journey I would often fall off the wagon and it would last a couple days. I can walk out of a store without a dark chocolate bar/bag of chips. I had gotten to a point in my journey that I would convince myself that as long as I had a dark chocolate bar, or the "healthiest" chips I could find that I was okay to buy myself a treat. Every single time I went to the store. I haven't done that once in the last 6 weeks!  Towards the end of our Magdalene Island trip(right before my 6 week jou...

Only recently did I remember that I hadn't posted week five meal plans, my apologies! If you've been following along since the start of the journey you most likely have noticed that I keep my meal plans pretty similar. We're starting our final week of our Six Week journey tomorrow! Hard to believe! Breakfasts:   M-F: Smoothies (1/2C Blueberries, 1/2 Banana, 1C Almond Milk, 1C Spinach, 1TBSP Ground Flax  Seeds & Chia Seeds)  Saturday & Sunday: Fruit Smoothie (1C Frozen Fruit, 1 Banana, 1C Almond Milk, 1TBSP Ground Flax  Seeds & Chia Seeds) Lunches:   Monday-Friday: Too Busy to Cook Vegetable Soup (Page 168 of the Eat to Live Cookbook), Fruit   Salad, & Banana  Saturday & Sunday: Split Pea Soup or Chicken Noodle Soup Suppers:  Monday-Thursday: Large Tossed Salad or Veggie Stir Fry (Same ingredients as salad make in broth) Two servings of fruit for dessert.   Friday: Vegetable Piz...