A KitKat a day keeps the Swimsuit away = The simple snacks that you will ALWAYS find in my fridge

Truth:  There was a time in my life when my standard snack throughout the day was the snack size KitKat bars like you pass out on Halloween.  I don't know what it was but they were my JAM!  (ok, I do actually know… #sugaraddiction) But it was one day, soon after having baby #3, that I finally came to grips with the fact that the KitKats had to go. I knew that if I was going to get anywhere with my weight loss, there had to be an overhaul of my nutrition --> meaning, lose the KitKats.

The KitKat Khronicles: 4 weeks post pardum after kid #3 in 3 years. Enjoying life but not feeling confident in my own skin.

I disposed of the remaining KitKats in the most reasonable way one can imagine: #eatthemALL, and then made a vow to not buy them anymore. Now here's the thing with such a "vow":  You have to REALLY want the results more than you want the KitKat... And I was certain at that point that I REALLY wanted the results.  At that point, I felt a complete disconnect from my own body.  When I looked in the mirror, I wasn't seeing who I felt I could be. It didn't feel like my body matched the spirit and energy that I had inside and I was willing to do the work to feel better about myself again.

60 pounds gone and Kicked the KitKat Habit. Boom! 

I'll tell you more about the structure of my weight loss nutrition and fitness regimen in future posts, but today I want to focus on what I used to replace my beloved KitKat snacks.  I realized that for me, my overhaul needed to be dramatic - as in - clean out the house and start fresh. I am fortunate to have an amaze-balls hubby who supported my decision to get rid of chips, pretzels, cookies and any other treats that were common-place around here.  I realized I needed to have quick, ever-present snacks in the house that would support my goals and satisfy.  Before I knew it, they were my staples - and many of them remain my daily go-tos over 18 months later.

Apples: My morning snack, I probably have an apple every single day. Somethin' 'bout that crunch. #Satisfies
Also, Grapes: Something that you can grab a handful of and get that "hand-to-mouth" eating satisfaction…(PRO TIP: Summer is coming…Freeze the grapes! Snack-a-licious.)

Between the kids & me, a 5-pound (!) bag of carrots and a giant tub of hummus usually gets us through a week…#thanksCostco

Carrots & Hummus: My afternoon Snack, savory goodness that might be on the shortlist for "if you have to pick just one snack for the rest of your life"

Dark Chocolate Chips: These were actually added to the snack list AFTER I was making good progress with my goals and felt that I could allow some treats on the reg. I still use a measuring cup to eat them out of so I don't go at them mindlessly.  Also, I keep mine in the freezer. I don't know why…

Hard Boiled Eggs: 2 whole eggs is generally considered a portion, and thats a hearty snack. Plus the protein will be effective in keeping you feeling fuller longer. I prefer them to be peeled and ready to grab. (#sundayprep)

I love both of these, but would not recommend eating them together. Unless thats your thing... #notjudging...

Cottage cheese: add berries in the morning, add veggies if I want savory, but eating it plain happens more often than not.

Pickles: Can't Stop. Won't Stop.

Gold medal: Cookie dough, Silver: Cookies & Cream, Bronze: Mint Cookie

Quest Bars: Now, these are not a daily snack for me, but its the thing I keep in my purse, next to my apple, so when I'm running around and need something to get me through, I've got an option ready to go. Chocolate chip cookie dough, anyone?!

I may or may not have an Amazon auto shipment of this stuff…by the case. #hubbysfavoritetoo

Popcorn: At the end of the day, sometimes you just want to munch. This is another snack that I added in only once I was seeing results and could practice will-power. Seriously!  Air-popping your own fresh corn in a bit of coconut oil on the stove top is super yummy, but when you can't wait, SkinnyPop is the BEST.

Take your weight, divide the number in half…thats how many OUNCES of water you should be drinking every day.  How are you doing??

Water! Ok, so maybe not a snack, but seriously: do you know that the same part of your brain is responsible for interpreting hunger and thirst signals…but many of us have trouble recognizing the difference. Try drinking a big glass of water before reaching for a snack, then wait 15 minutes and see how you're feeling. Water is seriously amazing stuff.

There's no denying there was a definite sugar addiction happening during my KitKat days and thats not an easy thing to break.  For me, it was a limb that I stepped out on at the time to try Shakeology, a protein shake, and that made a tremendous impact for me.  The chocolate shake totally helped me to wean off of the KitKats without suffering from night sweats*.

One of my favorite shake recipes has caramel and coconut extract plus the chocolate shake…think: Girl scout cookies!

*Dramatization

What's your favorite healthy snack? Comment below, I'd love to know what's keeping you on track with your goals too!

Mason Jar Food Prep: Southwest Ranch Taco Salads (21 day fix approved!)

When you're trying to balance healthy nutrition with a family's worth of busy schedules, work, and the day-to-day "must-dos," grabbing snacks and haphazardly throwing together a lunch are simple ruts to fall into. But then, weekly meal preparation can feel daunting.  The idea of preparing so many meals ahead of time seems like surely it will eat up my entire #SundayFunday and that is not a trade-off I'd like to make.  While there's no denying that meal prep takes a bit of time, when done right, it's consolidated, streamlined time.  What you can do in an hour of prep on a Sunday can eliminate 30 minutes a night (or morning!) while you're tired or rushed and not able to make decisions that are well-balanced and working towards your nutrition goals.  There are plenty of time saving tips out there but one that I've found to be especially useful are Mason Jar salads.  The beauty of these is that once you have the concept, they can be whatever you want them to be. Its really just preplanning your food and storing it conveniently (and in a "green" way!) in Mason Jars. The idea is you layer your salad ingredients with the dressing on bottom, heartier ingredients towards that bottom (think cucumbers or beans - things that won't get soggy in the dressing), all the way up to the lettuce which won't even touch the dressing until you shake it all out at lunch time. *PRO TIP: When you're shopping for your jars, purchase Quart Size WIDE MOUTH Jars… much easier to shake out the salad. #dontmakethesamemistakeidid! #liveandlearn

One of my favorite Mason Jar salads is Turkey Taco Salad with Southwest Ranch dressing.  The dressing I use even offers an extra punch of protein rather than an oil or healthy fat. And it's 21 day fix approved for anyone working with that program. #Bonus

To start, you'll just cook up a pound of lean ground turkey as if you're making regular taco meat.  You can always use prepackaged, lower-sodium taco seasoning, but I like to prepare a bulk amount of this Southwest Seasoning and keep it in the pantry for whenever my life needs a little fiesta, but margaritas aren't socially appropriate. #its5oclocksomewhere

Once the taco meat is prepared, 1 pound can be portioned into about 4, 3/4 cup portions. 

 The salad part itself is up to you.  Your choice of lettuce (I tend to keep spinach and kale on hand so thats what I used), tomatoes, black beans, cucumbers, sweet peppers, fresh cilantro…these are all excellent ideas to add into this salad!  

Start with your dressing.

The most important part is ordering the layers. Given the above ingredient ideas:  Start with dressing, then add beans and tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, taco meat, and once there's a good bit of distance from the dressing, add in your lettuce, herbs, and shredded cheese or avocado if you'd like!  Finally, if you want any crunch in your salad, the last thing you'll want to add are some crunched up tortilla chips.

Add your hearty veggies…like tomatoes...

…Cucumbers...

…and peppers.

Next add your protein.  I added some black beans to my taco meat as well.

Now its time for the stuff that you don't want to get soggy.  I added fresh chopped cilantro...

Baby kale, Baby spinach & shredded cheese.

Repeat this with all 4 portions of prepared taco meat and store in the fridge for the easiest grab-n-go lunch salad you ever did meet.  

Once you're ready to eat, simply open the jar, dump it all out onto whatever plate or bowl you've got handy in the office lunchroom and enjoy!  

It should be noted that since my "office lunchroom has been known to be my SUV in the carpool pickup line at preschool, I HAVE eaten it directly out of the jar.  If you're in this scenario, simply give the jar some really good shaking before opening to get the dressing distributed a bit.  Not as pretty but just as tasty and less cleanup!

Portions & Ingredients:
2T Southwest Ranch Dressing (recipe below)
1/2-1 C Vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc)
3/4 C Turkey Taco Meat 
1/2 C Baby Kale, packed
1 C Baby Spinach, Packed 
1/4 C Shredded cheese OR 1/4 Avocado
2T Crushed Tortilla Chips

Southwest Ranch Dressing
1/4 C cottage cheese
1T Plain Greek Yogurt
1.5T unsweetened, plain almond milk
1T Southwest seasoning
Combine ingredients and blend in vitamin/food processor to a smooth, dressing consistency.  Add up to another tablespoon of almond milk to adjust consistency.

If you see the park, you run the park.

In the infancy of my running life (yeah, yeah, we're talking last year here, people. But I'm now a toddler-runner, thankyouverymuch), I was following a friend on Instagram who was an avid runner and working towards some goals as she approached a milestone birthday.  I quickly noticed that she was posting a lot of photos of stairs. She shared that at some point in her running, she had called "NEW RULE!" and decided that every time she saw stairs while on a run, she would go to them and climb.  "If you see the Stairs, you run the Stairs." Some days her Insta-posts were super upbeat and enjoyed the view from the top, some days she cursed herself for ever making the rule. But either way, she made the rule and she climbed the stairs. I respected that and wondered if maybe I should get into stair climbing on my runs…

I have yet to embrace the stairs. Remember, I'm a toddler? The gates on the stairs are still up for safety.

But I DID embrace her mindset and one day, after running the same set route in my 'hood that I'd become really comfortable with, I approached a park and thought, "I'll just run a lap around this park to slowly increase my route distance." BOOM!  Instantaneously I realized THAT would be my new rule!"If you see the Park, you run the Park."  I live in a town with small neighborhood parks and large school playgrounds every few blocks so for me this could be ambitious. But I quickly realized that when 2 miles started to feel strong, but the leap to 3 miles would be too much too soon, I'd just add a couple park laps and then carry on my way. It was a simple and effective way to add .3 or .5 miles to a run without going off course or farther from home.  It made me feel safe to add a little distance on my runs.

Some days its a bit of a game too… "I want to run down THIS street, BUT theres a park on it…hmmm…" You find yourself making route decisions more carefully sometimes. But you also find great distractions in parks!  The lap around can be filled with watching the kids on the playground or a dog enjoying a game of fetch.  Before you know it your lap is done and the time passed much quicker than it would have on a quiet block that you've run a million times.

So if you're looking to increase distance, take my rule and make it your own!  If thats not your goal, take some time to identify what next steps you're looking to take and when you figure it out, be sure to call "NEW RULE!"

Let's get to know each other.

In the spring of 2014, 6 months pregnant with our third child under 3, my husband and I made the decision that was best for our family on all fronts – for me to finish off the school year as a middle school teacher, enjoy my summer with the girls, and in August when our son was born, I would begin a new adventure as a stay at home mom.  I was excited about this.  While I love teaching, and was at a great point in my career, I am someone who likes to do things all the way.  I like to feel like when I start something I’m giving it 100%.  Once I became a mom, that was my new thing. I wanted to give that 100%. But I wanted to give teaching 100% too. It’s hard math. Classic #momproblem. (I should point out, I know a lot of moms who manage and thrive at carrying both roles at once.  You are what I like to call The Rockstar Mamas and I raise my cold coffee mug to you.) In the end, for me, staying home was a possible opportunity and I wanted the gig and so I was excited to start.  Now, I could give the mom thing my 100% all the time and wanted to make the most of it. Another truth though, once a teacher, always a teacher… there were still lesson plans to create.  

Enter Mama's Blue Binder.

On a trip to Target (that was likely just for diapers and dryer sheets…which reminds me, I need some of those…) I wandered into the office supply aisle (#teachersparadise) and began to peruse.  I wanted a lesson planner for my new career.  Target doesn’t carry those, but they do carry really cute binders.  I bought a fabric covered binder with a blue floral print, a monthly calendar planner, dividers, and obviously, some awesome pens.  When I got home, I created our weekly meal and activity planner template and printed off about 20 copies (teachers brains live in weekly planning and in my mind I knew that many weeks would get me to Christmas break).

Ta-Dah!  Mama's Blue Binder was born. 

I love lists. And pretty pens. 

What’s in that Blue Binder, Mama?

Lists. Lots of lists.  I’m in the variation of our species that gets so much gratification out of making and checking-off lists.  (yes, there’s a name for that. Genus Type A.)  Grocery lists. Chore lists. Activity lists. Event lists. Things I’d liketodobutnevergetaroundto lists (that I just draw lines through arbitrarily to feel better sometimes). So.many.lists. And calendars. School calendars. Playdate calendars. Meal calendars. And more recently, mommy’s fitness calendars. So.many.calendars. They’re definitely not all necessary.  Some are created, just to be checked off.  It’s just a thing I do.  But it all helps me to feel like I’m staying ahead of things.  Not everything in our lives goes on a list or a calendar.  Spontaneity is fun! Live a little! But lists are cool too.

Mama, what are you working on with your ‘puter?

At the time, my two year old would see me with the computer and say, in her then broken phraseology, “Mama working. Mama ‘puter.” It was usually followed by, “Bean watch Tiger, mama ‘puter?”  She either wanted the computer to herself, or she wanted Daniel Tiger on the TV as payment for allowing me a few moments to work.  Either way, my now three-year-old is already working master negotiation skills. #mombrag

What I’ll share with you, while Bean is catching up on the latest Daniel Tiger (or realistically, watching the “Baby Duckie” episode for the 1,978th time), is what we do every day.  Well, not every day, some days are really boring. But we do some fun crafts, we eat some great meals, we do some yoga, we live our days as best and as full as we can. And that is what I’d like to share with you.