3 Day Refresh Results

My 3 Day Refresh results are in and I'm SO EXCITED! These are great results. In just 3 days I was able to lose weight, gain some energy AND lose some inches! Woohoo! I was expecting only half the results that I did get, so this was a crazy surprise. The best part: it wasn't hard at all to stick with it! I was able to eat real food while doing a cleanse! Crazy right? But possible! If I can do it, so can you.

Check out this video for my results and my experience during the 3 Day Refresh:

And of course, some more info. about the Refresh:

If you're interested in trying the 3 Day Refresh out for yourself, feel free to ORDER HERE or contact me via Facebook or email (use the tabs at the top of this page) or comment below :) I would love to add you to my next challenge group and help you start seeing results in just 3 days! Like I said, if a busy mom of two like me can do this (all while still cooking and feeding her family and running around as usual), so can you! 

Clean Eating Chicken & Veggies

Roast Brussel sprouts (halfed), red bell peppers (cut into bites), and baby carrots tossed in EVOO and sprinkled with tumeric, black pepper, garlic powder & ground ginger on a baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-35 minutes. 

In the meantime, marinate chicken breast in EVOO and roasted garlic and herb seasoning such as this one below or make your own:

Bake (I like to elevate mine by taking a cooling rack and setting it over top of a baking sheet and placing the chicken on the rack so it cooks evenly- be sure to spray with non-stick cooking spray of you choose this method!) at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. 

This yields an easy, clean dinner that's delicious! Note: I prefer to use organic ingredients as much as possible, especially for my veggies! 

Post-Halloween Planning

Halloween is fast approaching and we all know what that means...CANDY! I don’t know about you, but once my kids hit the streets for trick-or-treat, my house will be loaded with chocolatey goodness that is nearly impossible to resist. I can already feel the pounds packing on as I think about the chocolate that I will probably consume. This is an especially hard temptation right now as I am in the middle of The Ultimate Reset and have had no sugar since the start) and it ends on the 30th. So what is my plan of action? I plan to minimize the damage that I will do from eating candy and keep my results from the reset by doing the following: Step 1: Eat some candy (hey! Ya have to live a little). Step 2: Start a new support challenge group November 3rd to get back on track. Step 3: Stay accountable and motivated by focusing on helping my challengers reach their goals. This 3-step strategy is really all I can do! And since I mentioned that step 2 is starting a new challenge group, I would like to extend an invitation for YOU to join me! If you’ve been eating poorly and want to get back into healthier habits...if you have a few pounds (or maybe 15 or more?) you want to lose...if you’re tired of being tired ALL THE TIME and want to get your energy back before the real holidays come knocking...and if you’re ready to look your best this holiday season...then JOIN my online support group and you will get yourself back into gear and ready to take on the world! Apply here: Fill out my form! and let’s do this! I can’t wait to hear from you and help you get started!

My Ultimate Reset: Week 1

Week one of the Ultimate Reset has been great! I have been on this journey with my husband and today is day 7. I must confess, my husband is doing the full-on reset and I am doing a modified version. Since I am still breastfeeding, I cannot take the supplements. Detoxing will release toxins into my breastmilk (yuck) and so I can’t nurse Sophia AND take the pills. I will do the reset WITH supplements once she is done nursing. For now, I am sticking to the exact schedule as far as food and water intake and following all other instructions. I believe it is still working to rid my body of the junk that has been building up and I am leaving behind bad habits, which is my ultimate goal. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ***Let’s talk SCHEDULE: The Ultimate Reset is demanding! Plain and simple- you need time each night (or a whole day on Sunday) to prep your meals for the week. The recipes are easy, but they are complicated because they require multiple steps and a lot of chopping veggies and fruits and measuring things. You have to be precise on the reset and you can’t “eyeball” your measurements. This is a change for me since I’m so used to just dumping stuff in and then tasting as I go when I cook. In addition to the food prep, you need to be able to set yourself up for success. My husband and I set our phone alarms to go off when we need to drink water (and he needs to take the supplements). These are precise times because certain supplements need to be taken a half hour before a meal, two hours after a meal, etc. You also need to make sure you are getting in enough water each day- about a gallon for me a day! And, the water needs to be DISTILLED water! I found gallons of distilled water at Target for 88 cents a piece, so that’s not bad since I need 21 of them and my hubby needs more PLUS we need some for cooking! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ***Let’s talk FOOD: You will eat strange foods. Period. You may or may not have heard of all of the foods on the grocery list they provide- but be open-minded and give them a shot! I am now a fan of so many new foods and I now have an arsenal of recipes that I plan to make regularly even after our reset is over. My husband, who grew up a meat-and-potatoes guy, is also surprised at how many of the recipes he likes. I am now a huge fan of tempeh and plan to incorporate it into my dishes beyond the reset. I will also be adding in a “meatless Monday” to my life after the reset because that will give me a chance to eat my favorite dishes from this program regularly. Here’s a pic of some of the food I’ve been eating this week:

I also want to share my favorite dressing recipe and my favorite recipe from week 1. Check them out!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ***Let’s talk MOTIVATION: Believe you can and you will! You CAN do this and you can be successful. If my husband can stick to this, without cheating (even on his BIRTHDAY!), then so can you! No excuses. This is going to be so great for our health, we already feel so AMAZING, I am going to be raving about this for a while. That is motivation enough! Trust me ;) However, if that’s not enough, Beachbody provides an Ultimate Reset private Facebook group for all participants to help each other with questions and encouragement. You also can sign up for daily emails explaining information about the phase you are in and get support through the online portal they’ve created. It’s literally AMAZING support! PLUS, there are plenty of YouTube videos to help with questions, reset cooking tips, etc. These are GOLD! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let’s talk CONFESSION: Bless and release. It’s a good motto to have...and during the reset you need to let go of any anxiety and negative feelings you are holding onto towards yourself and others. Also, if you slip up (it happens- I slipped and had a bite of a cookie and a sliver of birthday cake), you can’t freak out and beat yourself up about it. I felt bad, but I realized that what’s done is done and I need to move forward. I am pledging to no more slip-ups from here on out and I KNOW I will succeed because of the support I’m getting and the determination I have. Also, I have to say, I have lost my taste for those treats anyway. When I ate the sliver of cake, the aftertaste was HORRIBLE. It tasted like CHEMICALS! I could immediately tell it was highly processed and full of preservatives and toxins and I DO NOT want that going into my body ever again. In fact, after the reset I will probably be making my own desserts from here on out and only using clean ingredients (the blog Chocolate-Covered Katie has some great recipes for this if you want to check it out!) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Let’s talk about YOU! If you think this is something you want to try because you want to experience these benefits, feel free to find me on Facebook and shoot me a message, or email me, or just order now HERE! I would love to help you through this amazing experience!

My Grocery Staples and Upcoming Reset

My husband, Brian, and I are planning to start Beachbody’s Ultimate Reset on Friday. If you haven’t heard of this program, you are missing out on something serious for your nutrition! The Reset is a way to detox your body without starvation (I can think of a few other detox/cleanses that require you to eat literally nothing for days...this isn’t the same thing!). It is a three-week long program and it’s intense because it requires that you eat at certain times, drink distilled water at certain times and also take supplements at certain times to reset your body back to it’s natural, “factory” settings (<-- haha). While some people might find this to be crazy (I mean, what’s the point, right?), I find it to be exciting. I am excited for the benefits of this program- I am basically promised better sleep, better eating habits moving forward, possible weight-loss during the reset, and increased health among other benefits. My current eating habits aren’t too far off from the foods that I will be eating during the reset, other than the fact that I normally will allow myself a treat (none for the three weeks of the reset!) and I eat meat (on the reset, I won’t be after the first week). This will be something new for me, but I am looking forward to how I am going to feel once I am eating vegan. I have a suspicion that I will feel a lot better. Here’s a look at my current grocery list staples that I always seem to get:

A lot of these items will be allowed to stay on my list during the reset, so I’m excited about this! I also know that I will be adding new items to my list like seaweed, so that will be something different- but I am open to change and experiencing new things! Here’s to hoping that my reset shopping experience goes well tomorrow and prep equally well on Thursday. I will keep you updated and blog about my reset experience during my 21 days.

Sometimes You Just Have to Eat Well

Sometimes, you just have to eat well, ya know? This week my aunt and I hung out for a movie and dinner night. At the movies, I ordered this kids box which came with a super small popcorn, fruit snacks (which I saved for the girls), and a small drink. I shared a little bit of my popcorn, mixed in some raisinets, and enjoyed the movie (The One Hundred Foot Journey- I highly recommend it if you have not seen it. It's clever and has a ton of food porn in it! I was starving afterwards). When the movie let out, we headed over to a local restaurant that serves an amazing menu of seafood, among other things. This place does not disappoint! What did I order that was so fabulous? You ask. Everything! Especially the beet salad. I would and could eat it every day of my life and be extremely content and happy. As if that weren't enough, I tried some shrimp with biscuits, asparagus soup, bread dipped in olive oil and sundried tomatoes, and then my main course was a portobello mushroom ravioli in a goat cheese cream sauce served with roasted asparagus and carrots. It was to die for and I did not regret a second of it. Nor do I regret the glass of champagne and glass of wine that I consumed. 

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Usually I am conscious of what I order when I am out. I try to eat clean and healthy most of the time; but ya do have to live a little, ya know?! What I am trying to say is love your life; be healthy, but still live your life! 

And now that my night out is over, it's back to eating clean and exercising and not making a one-time indulgent dinner turn into a bad habit. 

Food Addiction

Recently, I’ve been working with some challengers who struggle with food addiction. I, myself, definitely struggle with an addiction to sugar, so immediately, my heart goes out to them. Food addiction is definitely REAL and is being recognized by the scientific community as a real addiction that needs treatment, in some cases. Many people who struggle with food addiction fall victim due to the sugar, salt, and fat in the foods they like to eat. Of course, this makes sense, since sugar, salt, and fat = taste! A WebMD article on “How to Break Food Addictions” explains why this addiction is real. "Barnard, the author of Breaking the Food Seduction and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, says that these foods contain chemical compounds that stimulate the brain's secretion of opiate-like, 'feel-good' chemicals like dopamine, which drive our cravings for them.” ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ WebMD explains one way we can help ourselves if we are food-addicted: "How to break the cycle? First you have to pinpoint which feelings trigger overeating. To figure this out, create an 'emotional eating record,' suggests Edward Abramson, Ph.D., author of Body Intelligence. Take a three-by-five index card and write down four headings: TIME; LOCATION; FOOD; EMOTION OR THOUGHT. Put the card in your pocket so you can keep track of any unplanned snacks. After a few days, you'll be able to decipher which emotions and situations triggered eating binges.” <--of course, once you know this, it will make it easier for you to avoid the emotions/situations that trigger you! Don’t be fooled, either, by thinking it’s only when you are sad/depressed that you overeat. Many people overeat in happy situations or reward themselves with food (a very, very dangerous habit). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Peeke explains in her article, “6 Ways to Beat Your Food Addiction,” that this is powerful stuff! "But wait, there’s more: At the same time your reward center is being hijacked, the brain’s CEO, the prefrontal cortex (tap your forehead and that’s where the PFC is located), is becoming damaged and impaired. The PFC can no longer help you rein in impulses or stay focused and vigilant. That’s why, when someone is in full-on addictive mode, moderation is a moot point. Revolutionary and groundbreaking new studies funded by the National Institutes of Health funded have shown that the brain scans of food addicts show the same changes and damage as those of a cocaine user. And, for your information, research also shows that table sugar (sucrose) is more addictive than cocaine.” See the full article HERE! She also explains ways to kick the addiction for good! It’s definitely worth the read. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Something else you can do if you also struggle? Find a community of others who feel the same way, and support each other. A challenge group can do that for you, or you can form your own Facebook group or find one to join. Whatever option you choose, make sure that your loved ones know about your efforts so that they can support you as well. Some of my other recommendations- in addition to what’s above- (I am not a doctor, this is just my personal opinion based on research I’ve done on my own: Replace your “bad” habits with good ones. Instead of rewarding yourself with food, reward yourself with a shopping spree or a date with a friend to go see a movie. If you need to talk, or want to know more about what I’ve researched, please don’t hesitate to ask. On my reading list this week: The Hunger Fix: The Three-Stage Detox and Recovery Plan for Overeating and Food Addiction, Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings---And 7 Steps to End Them Naturally, and Food Addiction: A Proven Plan to Overcome Food Addiction for Life. I’m also going to be ordering Made to Crave and the workbook to go along with it. I will be starting an online book study (in a private Facebook group) for anyone that’s interested. Let me know!

Quick Dinner Solution

Busy moms, listen up! I've re-discovered an easy dinner solution that allows me to put fresh, healthy meals on my dinner table in MINUTES! What is it? You ask. It's made by Ziploc and it's called Zip 'n Steam. 

Your veggies, potatoes or protein can be ready in minutes by putting them in the bag, adding a tablespoon of water, adding seasoning, and popping it in the mic for anywhere from 2-6 minutes, depending on what it is and the portion size.

I'm steaming some broccoli and carrots tonight to go with my crock pot chicken leftovers. Dinner is ready in 4 minutes! It's definitely a lifesaver with Sophia crawling around and wreaking havoc. 

I hope you enjoy cooking with this in a pinch as much as I do! Enjoy!