A Cheesy Thought + Healthy Food!

As I was driving to the gym yesterday, I had a very cheesy thought.

I actually felt overwhelmed with gratitude that I am able to exercise and that I have a wonderful gym to go to with wonderful instructors that I love!

Sounds cheesy, I know.

It really makes me happy though.  I’m just so grateful I’m able to go to awesome classes and surround myself with people who are all working hard and trying to improve in some way.

It’s energizing to me.

My instructors all push me so hard too!  I love it.  I know I could never push myself that hard on my own.  Never, ever, ever.

I know exercise is a sacrifice too though.  I always have so many other things I could be doing.  There’s always something to clean, someone to care for (which I love to do, btw.), grocery shopping to do, laundry to be done and a million other things constantly weighing on me.

My “to do” list is never done.

BUT….when I put all those things aside and take the time to exercise, I am a happier, better person because of it.  Yay.  It really is a stress reliever for me as well.  Love it.

So there’s my cheesy thought for the day. 😉

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I’ve been enjoying a lot of yummy, healthy food lately.  I can’t tell you how much BETTER I feel when I’m eating healthy food!  It’s amazing and I love it.  Here’s some of the things I’ve had the past couple days.

I changed my same old, same old breakfast up a bit this morning. 1/3 C. Oatmeal, 1/2 scoop Protein Powder, Strawberries and Chia Seeds! I had 4 scrambled egg whites on the side seasoned with Mrs. Dash and Low Sugar Ketchup! Yum!

Here’s a couple yummy snacks I’ve had:

Strawberry Chobani Greek Yogurt topped with 1 T.+ of yummy Pumpkin Flax Granola. This granola is SOOOOO yummmy! I really have to be careful or I’d eat the whole box!

A slice of toasted Ezekial bread topped with Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter, Banana Slices and Chia Seeds! YUM!

BTW, Ezekiel bread (made by Food for Life) is amazing!!!  It is so healthy, contains no flour, is a complete protein and is just so so awesome.  I’m so grateful for companies that make yummy, healthy products!  It makes it so much easier to eat well!  Click on this link to read more about it if you want.  I’m so impressed.  Oh, I bought this bread at Sunflower Market, but I know you can buy it at any health food store and I’ve also seen it at Harmon’s (for all you local Utah folk).

I bought the Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter at Sunflower as well.  It has no hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup.  It’s still high in calories (like all peanut butter), but it is so so so yummy.  I’ve loved it as a healthy “treat.”  I’m just hoping my kids don’t discover it!  So far, I’ve been pretty stealthy in hiding it.  Hee hee hee.  😉

Oh, and as you can tell, I’m a little bit addicted to Chia Seed lately.  I really really love them and have just been adding them to everything.  So awesome.

I’ve of course, been enjoying my protein shakes lately too.  I usually try to have one a day.  I made a yummy chocolate one yesterday and today.

Just 1 C. Unsweetened Almond Milk, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1 T. Cocoa, 1 T. Ground Flax seed, a little almond extract (love it!), spinach and ice.  It’s really really good.  In fact it’s so good that my baby commandeered it and would hardly let me take a picture of it!

 

For dinner last night, we had BBQ chicken, brown rice and stir fry veggies.  One of my favs!

 

I just marinated the chicken in BBQ sauce and cooked it up in a skillet on the stove.  For the veggies, I just pulled out all the fresh and frozen veggies I had and stir-fried them up with a little lite soy sauce and seasoned salt.  So easy, so yummy, and so healthy!  What’s not to love!?

Well that’s the latest!! xoxo

Random Healthy Food

I’m so sorry to report that I am still a very sick lady. 😦  I was doing a little better for a couple days and then I went downhill in a hurry.  I suspected I might have a sinus infection, so last night I dragged myself over to the Instacare and left with some antibiotics.  SoOoOoOoooo, I better get better soon!  I’m am not very good at being patient.

I gotta say I feel a little bit like a hypocrite writing on my “Healthy Happy Mel” blog.  Lately I’ve been more like “Deathly Ill, Mostly Miserable Mel”, but I am still trying to live a healthy lifestyle through it all.  Amazingly enough, there is some good that has come out of my little sick spell.

First off, I’ve decided that when I am well I WILL NOT take my health for granted.  I will remember that being able to exercise is a privilege and I will enjoy it even more!

I must also say that I’ve eaten pretty well this past week, but I have allowed myself a little more carbs than usual (I’ve needed the comfort food).  However, I just haven’t eaten a lot of food.  I’ve been mostly “out of it” and sometimes fixing food seems like too much work so I’ve just had a light breakfast, light lunch, light dinner and sometimes a small snack and that’s it.  I’ve lost 2 pounds this week!  Wa hoo!  2 pounds might not sound like much, but I’m trying to lose my last and final 10 pounds, so 2 is huge for me!  Yay!

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I had a very interesting breakfast today.  I was just going to have a bowl of oatmeal, but when I looked in my cupboard, I saw this gem:

Rokit Fuel!  I got this in a swag bag at one of my races and I’ve just hung onto it.  It’s meant to be used during a run to help to refuel (kind of like Gu gel).  You’re supposed to add a little water and then slurp it up.  But, the thought of eating/drinking/slurping this up during a run makes me want to hurl.  However, the ingredients are so amazingly awesome that I knew I needed to use it somehow.  So, this morning I decided to use it as my “oatmeal” and it was awesome.

First off, check out the ingredients in this baby:

Everything in there is real and awesome.  There is some pure cane brown sugar in there, which I wasn’t happy about (I would rather sweeten it myself), but overall it’s not bad.

So, I threw this in a bowl, added half of a chopped up apple and some water and nuked it for 2 minutes.

 

I served it alongside 3 egg whites topped with a little low sugar ketchup.

It was yummy and very filling.  Oh, and on the front of this Rokit Fuel pack it says, “Not for Wussies.  *Wussie (noun) A person whose pursuit of excellence is eclipsed by a total lack of discipline and drive.”  Love that!  I had to laugh.

I had an awesome lunch today too (had the same thing yesterday too!).

I made a couple lettuce boats; Romaine lettuce filled with deli turkey meat, tomato, avocado, olives and a little mustard!  Yum!  I served it alongside some Raspberry Chobani yogurt!  Delish!

I gotta say I’m not a giant yogurt fan.  I like it okay, but I don’t love it.  I know that Greek Yogurt is killer in the protein department though.  I’ve tried a few brands and liked them okay.  I kept hearing about how good Chobani was, so I decided to give it a try!  Holy YUM!  I think I found a new favorite food!  It was so thick and creamy and almost tasted like a treat! Chobani is a wonderful company too and they only put real ingredients in their yogurts!  Love!

Well, I’m off to get my hair done.  Yay!  I hope it turns out cute….I’m in desperate need of cute hair!

Hope you are all happy!