These are a few of my favorite things.

Well the holiday season is in full swing with Christmas baking, Christmas parties, Christmas baking, Christmas turkey, Christmas baking...It can be hard to keep those pounds from creeping up. It's true that the month of December most commonly packs a few pounds on us but take heart, it doesn't have to be that way. Finding a few calorie free indulgences can really help to boost your willpower when your faced with that cookie tray.So here are a few of my most favorite treats recently...

I'm loving this new coffee by Presidents Choice...

It's the perfect flavored coffee and because it's decaf you can drink it after dinner instead of dessert. Yes it is that good. Only $4.99 too!

Next up is any nail product by essie

Bobbing for Baubles is my current favorite. You can also find this at superstore for around $8.00 a bottle. It's the perfect non-food reward for sticking to your fitness goals:)


And lastly I LOVE epicure selections cocoa powder. I add it straight to hot milk without any sugar and it's a beautiful guilt free low calorie treat. You can pick this up from yours truly if you want to give it a try.

Have a fantastic night,
Sarah

Move It Monday!

It's a wet and cold Monday so let's beat the winter blah's with a new exercise. This move target's your entire body. It take a basic butt lift to a whole new level by engaging your core and shoulders. Try adding a few sets of these into your workout to change things up!

Start on hands and knees and draw your stomach into your spine. Keep your head in line with your body.

Dig in with your toes and lift your knees up off the ground. Notice how my back and neck are still in line.

 Lengthen your leg back out and up

Notice how there is little/no arch in the lower back.

Return to the starting position, making sure not to drop your knees.

Repeat this sequence 10 times on each leg to complete a set. Aim for 2-3 sets. For an easier variation. Perform the same move but don't lift off of your knees. 

Have a great night and thanks for dropping in!

Sarah

Go Green Part 2

 So here I am, watching the snow fall outside my window. The snow invariably makes me think of soups,chili's, earthy and warm flavours. Unfortunately it's well after lunch time and a bowl of hearty soup would probably send me to the couch in a carb induced coma. So why not whip up some Coconut Curry Kale Chips. (I almost had an alliteration there!) These are soooooooo easy, have healthy coconut oil, tummy warming curry, and an awesome crunch. In other words,the perfect snow day snack:) So here you go!

Coconut Curry Kale Chips

4-5 Large Kale leaves

1.5 tsp coconut oil (melted)

1 tsp of curry powder (I use epicure's curry dip mix)

Preheat your oven to 450. Tear Kale into bite sized pieces. Only use the leaf, not the center stalk. In a bowl, microwave the coconut oil until liquid (about 30 seconds) stir in the curry powder and add salt if you'd like. Pour coconut mixture over kale and toss. Spread out on a cookie sheet in one layer and roast for 5-8 minutes. This is the critical part. You want the leaves to be starting to brown but if you wait to long they will burn to a crisp. Make sure you start watching after 4 minutes. Let cool and enjoy. Let's be honest here though, this is Kale and not Pringles so your expectations have to be adjusted accordingly but this recipe is a great way to get some extra greens into your family's diet. 

 

 Cade gave them a try and decided to give them a thumbs down, but after the camera was put away, he polished off half the plate:)

Have a great evening everyone!
Sarah

Hello Wednesday!

So having given up on prescheduled posts for this week, you'll have to rely on my shoddy memory to get these up and running:)

Here's our next challenge. It's raining in Vancouver today but I'm still going to head out onto the patio and get my workout in so be sure to carve out 15-20 minutes and get this challenge in.

Isaac and I are in the hospital and I'm still working out so you have no excuses challenge #2

Upper Body Time Challenge Blast

warm up with some jogging on the spot and arm rotations for a few minutes. Set your stopwatch and see how fast you can complete the following two exercises alternating between each exercise.

5 sets of 10 reps of push-ups (wall, knees, or toes)
5 sets of 10 reps of pike presses (see pictures)

 Start on all fours with arms and legs slightly wider than shoulder width apart

 Slowly start to bend at the elbows and lower head towards the ground. Your goal is to touch your head to the ground but go down only as far as you can bring yourself back up.

 Once at the bottom, reverse the motion back up. This is one rep.

 Side view: Make sure to keep your abs engaged and back as flat as possible. The closer your arms are to your feet, the more challenging the exercise.

See how fast you can get through all 5 rounds of each exercise and let me know your time!

Sarah

Back in the hospital so here come the challenges!

Hmm, so I tried  the scheduled post thingy on here but I appeared to have an operator error since I've looked now and it's not here! So anyways, this is what should have posted yesterday!

Isaac and I are stuck in the hospital and I'm still working out so you have no excuses Challenge #1

Make sure you warm up for a few minutes before begining. Set your timer for 10 minutes and perform as many rounds as you can manage. Make sure to grab a scrap of paper and record your #'s

1. 30 jumping jacks
2. 20 crunches
3. 10 push-ups

Time to cool down and stretch. Easy but you'll be sweating I swear!

Have a great night!

Lets do an exercise challenge!

It's Tuesday and I think all the kids are heading back to school this week. Sydney my middle kidlet is heading off to Kindergarten and is beyond excited. All of this translated, means a tight squeeze for time and fitting in exercise. It's amazing what mini exercise sessions can do. So be on the lookout this week for my mini exercise challenges. Each one will be 5 minutes long and designed to give your metabolism a boost. Make sure you do a light warm-up before beginning and a stretch after.

So here's your exercise challenge for today...

Duck-Unders!
Set your timer for 5 minutes and complete as many reps as possible during the time with proper form. If your form starts to slip, take a small break and then jump back in.

So here's what they look like. Also get used to seeing this outfit over the next few months. I convinced my WONDERFUL husband to head to the park with me and take pictures of different moves so I'll have lots to show you over the fall and winter:)

Imagine there is a pole to the left of you and your job is to squat down and shift under it, standing up on the other  side:)

Start in a standing position

Start lowering into a squat while at the same time, shifting your weight to the side.

Once thighs are parallel to the ground, shift the weight onto your other foot.

Slide your body so your weight is completely on the other foot.

And finish in the stand. Repeat this sequence going the other direction. 

Going Green...

Good morning. What a beautiful Sunny Day we're having. I'm trying to cherish every last one before the fall officially arrives. So today's topic is all about going green. I'm not referring to recycling, composting, or reusing. What we're touching on today is the glorious, wonderful, mind blowing goodness of green drinks! It can take awhile to get your head around chugging back something that looks like this...

Even the rose doesn't help to make it look all that more appealing:) I promise though, once you start experimenting with green drinks, you'll grow to adore the beautiful hue!  

Here are a few reasons why you should consider adding some green drinks to your diet...

1.  Increased fiber. Because your blending your fruits and veggies instead of juicing them, you get all that good for you fiber that is easy to miss out on. Read: Weight Loss Aid!

2. Energy in a glass. Blending your food will make the minerals and nutrients more readily available to your body. Smoothies are easy to digest and much quicker than sitting down and eating a salad.

3. Drinking your greens instead of eating them  greatly reduces the high amounts of added unhealthy fats and sodium found in salad dressings and condiments.

4.  A SUPER EASY way to dramatically increase your consumption of fruits and veggies. The more you consume green drinks, the more your body will start to crave good for you fruits and vegetables.

5. Improved skin and hair. Not that vanity is why you'll do this, but because your increasing the amount of produce in your diet, your skin and hair will start to look great from the inside out. Much better than expensive face creams:)

6.  Green smoothies are FAST. Only minutes to make and you'll be sipping back delicious, nutritious, veggies and fruits all day.

I honestly could go on and on about the multitude of benefits to green smoothies but there are a ton of sites that can expand on them much better than I. Here's a great one with a ton of different recipes to get you started.

While there are a ton of different ways to make your smoothies, here's how I do mine.

Step 1. Add your fruits and veggies into a blender with about a 50/50 ratio to begin with. As your taste buds adjust, you can decrease the amount of fruit. I suggest starting with spinach as it's flavor is easily masked by pretty much any fruit. For this particular smoothie, I used 1 banana, 1 large nectarine, and 1 small bunch of kale.

Step 2. Add anywhere from 3-4 cups of water and 1 cup of ice. I usually aim to make about 1.5 liters of smoothie for each recipe, so I just top up my water to around that mark. I also add 1 tbsp of a good quality omega 3 oil. I really find that this cuts down on the foam that can occur.

Step 3. Blend away! I know not everyone can afford an awesome blender like a vitamix or a blendtec but if you can, I HIGHLY recommend them. If your using a basic blender, just make sure your adding your fruit and veggies in stages so you don't jam up your machine.

Step 4. Drink Up! I make a big batch, drink a glass, share with the kids and then pour the rest into a wide mouthed drink bottle to enjoy for the rest of the day.

Cade guzzled his back in about 60 seconds flat!

Despite how these look, they are really good. So give one a try and let me know what you think!

Happy Sipping,

Sarah