Showing posts with label Healthy Living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthy Living. Show all posts
Oh my goodness, y'all. I put my midriff out there for you and held my breath. Thank you so much for the questions and comments that you've forwarded my way! I've had lot of questions about the food plan, which is also the #1 topic that my friends have approached me with.

So, there is no great secret here. Portion control and clean eating are key. The advantage of this plan is that the authors have laid out a solid 28-day schedule of food and exercise for you. You don't have to think about a thing! And the recipes are really, really delicious. Here are a few of my family's favorites (no time for food styling!):

Doughettes... just like eating cookie dough. Peanut butter, dark chocolate, oatmeal... gah!!! I want to eat them all.


Fitnana Split, plus dark chocolate granola...


Brunch for dinner...


Sushi Undressed...


So, you may be thinking, "That's a lot of kale, Rachel. Um, no, thank you!"

Three-fourths of my family happens to like kale, but you could sub it out for whatever green works for you. All of the recipes are customizable based on your preferences. Don't let ingredients hold you back.

This is where the Instagram community shines. It's inspiring to see how the women in my "tribe" customize their menus to their tastes. I have a lot of "ah-ha" moments.

One major advantage to clean eating is the amount of time you save in the grocery store. You spend so much less time on the aisles because your best food comes from the perimeter of the store - dairy, meats, produce... I'd never thought about before. I've always hated grocery shopping, but I find that I don't mind it as much anymore. I feel good about what I'm loading up my cart with.

One more accolade - the food is so good that my parents wanted in. So, I prep their lunches with my own 5 days a week. They were grabbing takeout most of the time and this one small change has made a huge difference. My mother told me recently that she's lost 8 pounds! Just from eating the lunch I'm packing her... how crazy is that?

Fit Girls Guide offers a free app that includes their entire 28-day exercise plan and sample recipes for you to check out. No reason not to download that immediately.

Again, I'm not affiliated with Fit Girls Guide. I have nothing to gain by sharing my experience. I just hope that the right person might be inspired at the right time to take control of their health and that he or she will have the same awesome experience that I've had so far.

Next, I want to tell you about the running. Ahhhhh!!!! The running story is awesome!!!

Like the genre of this blog, I've always considered myself a work in progress. Never satisfied my current state. Be kinder. More attentive. Less distracted. Healthier...

My health has declined in unexpected ways over the past few years. Nothing life threatening, but in ways that have affected my outlook and spirit. The doctors blame it all on stress.

Stress.

Well, that's not going away anytime soon so... what's a gal to do?

I decided last summer that I really, really needed to start taking better care of my body. Garbage in, garbage out. Laziness yields more laziness. I could go on forever.

I thought I was watching what I ate. I joined a gym. I began **trying** to run with my husband a few times a week. We'd head down to our neighborhood track. I'd run a lap, then walk a lap, run, then walk. It was pretty monotonous and I felt like I was just as lethargic as ever. I just wasn't getting anywhere.

(Running is an important part of this story, but I'll return to that in a following post.)

In January, I was introduced by a small, targeted Instagram post to Fit Girls Guide. I didn't know that in that moment, my life would change. I spent some time exploring the online Fit Girls community and I was so inspired. I felt so hopeful that real health change could happen in my own life.

I took the $20 plunge and downloaded their 28-Day Jumpstart book and prepared to join in the next group challenge. But I really had no high expectations.

Before I tell you more about this amazing, life-changing plan, let me be clear - I am not selling anything... I have absolutely nothing to gain from sharing this story. I am not affiliated with Fit Girls Guide at all.

I am simply a girl who has come face-to-face with her rock bottom and has finally taken control of her health. I'm inspired!! I'm healthy!! And, I hope that the right person reads this and leaves inspired, too.

Here was my monthly progress over the course of five months:


And a side-by-side comparison:



The 28-Day Jumpstart is a guide, delivered as an e-book, that lays out an entire eating and exercise plan for four weeks. Fit Girls Guide encourages its participants to start each 28-day challenge with the international community that they have cultivated via Instagram. This helps to provide daily support from among other women (and men) who are going through this shared experience. It's actually more effective and inspirational than you could imagine.

The plan is easy. It's fun. It's silly. Obviously, it's rewarding. The hardest part is mustering your personal commitment to see it through. You definitely get out of it what you put in.

I knew I could stick to any personal commitment for 28 days. Beyond that, I was unsure.

That was 205 days ago. And, I'm still feelin' the love.

Beyond the physical transformation, I have a mental clarity that had been missing for some time. My relationship with food and exercise has changed. Between all of my work and life demands, I'm busier than ever, but the stress has not impacted my well-being.

It's kinda awesome.

So. I have a few more health-related posts that I'd like to share with you, but - never fear - this will not turn into a health-focused blog. Please bear with me as I fill a few pages with my overflowing enthusiasm.

And, then a return to all things creative. Hopefully a little bit more than you've seen from me in the past few months.

Maybe a sprinkle of healthy nuggets here and there... but mostly sewing, knitting, crafting, DIY home projects, etc... promise.

Have a great weekend ahead!!

Repeat after me.

"I will never make a yoga bag out of oilcloth."

Trust me. It's for your own sanity and the health of your sewing machine.

Having said that, look at how cute this turned out!


My friend, Kellie, and I have joined a yoga class that meets during the work day. Neither of us has ever participated before so everything was new to us! We didn't want to invest in our own mats until we knew we were going to commit.

Well... we committed, bought our own mats, and now we feel like proper yogis. That is... until we fall down during practice, start giggling uncontrollably, or go on strike during the moves that are waaayyyyy too advanced for our novice status.

I'm sure we're the instructor's worst nightmare...

We were due for a sewing date so we decided to make the Nigella Yoga Bag, a free pattern designed by Amy Butler.

We had a lot of fun digging through my fabric stash. I settled on oilcloth for the exterior of my bag, paired with a cherry print cotton for the lining.


Kellie found some a cute decorator-weight fabric and elected to use the same for the inside and out.


We didn't deviate from the pattern so I won't provide you with a step-by-step, but I will tell you what I would have done differently.
  1. No oilcloth! The pattern requires you to turn the bag right side out, inside out, and right side out again. In addition, there are steps that require you to sew through several layers of fabric. The oilcloth made these steps much more difficult. The round bottom nearly broke me - but I persevered!
  1. Pocket depth. I'm not sure what you can really put in these pockets. They are too tight for flips-flops and too deep for a cell phone a keys. If I was to make this bag again, I'd build in more give to the pockets and make them shorter.

Otherwise, this is a great bag and simple to construct... And a huge "Thank you!!" to Amy Butler Designs for providing this free pattern.

Now, Kellie and I can focus on becoming the serious yogis that we're meant to be.

**giggle**

Namaste.


And I'm not talking about personalities.

{Which, of course, is ABSOLUTELY the case... just not for this post. **wink**}

We completed our veggie garden this week! We finally got those plants in the ground! Tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant, radishes, watermelon, squash, zucchini, and more!

Just in time for three days of soaking rain, too.

Here's where we started:


Here are a few of the photos that I pinned for inspiration:


{Oooooo...}


{Ahhhhh....}


{Ohhhhhh...}

And here's the reality of our {almost} finished project:


Yeah. We discovered that buildin' fences is 'spensive. It would have taken nearly $1,000 to build a pretty wooden fence around our 24' x 36' garden! I thought that was a bit much for such a small space.

So, we decided to simplify and focus on what's really important - the homegrown veggies!

I'll confess that I'm a {tad} disappointed that it's so plain. Just a tiny little bit. We still have to add boards to the bottom of the fence (to mirror the top frame) and stretch the wire taut, but we were in good enough shape to get the plants in the ground.


I expect a bounty from this garden. My husband is a very patient and gifted gardener. His green thumb never ceases to amaze me {and he's so humble}.


Right now, I have my eye on that board above the gate. It needs some whimsy, don't you think? Any ideas?