I wanted to do a blog post summarizing the jist of my food and fitness schedule because some of you love it, and I love to talk about it and love it if it helps! I also get tips from other bloggers like Cella Jane blog and Cara Loren, and it helps so much to get some inspiration. Plus with two kids I try to make things super easy and simple, and who doesn’t want that?! I’m going to list out my go-to healthy food staples, my healthy recipe board I cook from weekly, what workouts I’m doing at home during this quarantine and more!
Mindset
After I had my second babe, I had a light bulb that went off in my head and I thought “I need to make an actual lifestyle change here. I’m in my 30s, won’t be able to workout everyday with two kids and I want to look a certain way”. I knew right then that the pizzas, pastas, whatevers had to stop! I made the decision to eat all healthy meals, three a day, even if I was at a restaurant, and be relaxed about snacks and treats. This means when I go to a restaurant, I go straight to the salad menu, or lean fish or protein section. I don’t even look at anything else. I don’t do sauces, butters, oils, or anything on my protein. I do drink wine, and clean alcohol, say tequila with lime and soda water. Houston is a HUGE foodie town and we have great healthy restaurants so this is easy for me to do. Yes, lots of times I want the pasta, but it’s a lifestyle change! I think that your body is 70% what you eat and 30% what you do as far as workouts. It took me 7 months to see a good change, and 1 whole year to get me where I wanted to be. But, since it’s a lifestyle change, there are no yo-yo diets, no on and offs, just good clean eating, and I actually really like all the food I eat. I’ve done the bodybuilder’s diet where you weight your 6 oz of chicken and eat it plain 3 times a day. That’s a horrible way to live! I eat lots of yummy concoctions that I have listed below for you. If you can follow the healthy meals everyday then when you do go on a trip or have a pasta meal it will be ok! I find that the meals are easy to follow if I can have my treat at the end of the day or a scone at brunch or whatever!
Also, I know that with different seasons, we all ebb and flow. I haven’t always worked out as much as I am now. I’ve always worked out, but some years way more than others. When I had Finley I ran 2 miles at a time and lifted weights only once a week. When I was pregnant with Foster I think I worked out once a week and ate goldfish for every meal. I get that. I’m able to workout often now because my husband and I switch off with the kids, and we both get up every morning early to do 530 am workouts. It’s a mindset, it’s a lifestyle.
Food staples in my fridge
- lots of fruits and veggies
- Siggis 0% milk fat greek yogurt
- Garden of Life protein powder
- Chia seeds
- Almond butter
- One protein bars
- sliced almonds
- salmon to cook
- lean turkey meat 80%/20%
- chicken breast to cook
- ezekiel bread
- eggs
- Dole salad kits
- Granola
- Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice ( in a box with three bags)
- Everything but the bagel seasoning from Trader Joe’s
- Salad dressings from Trader Joe’s, I try a lot of them but the Cilantro lime dressing is my fave
Go to recipes
Here are my basic food recipes and what I eat everyday:
Breakfast: eggs scrambled or over easy with one piece of raisin bread ezekiel bread. I drink 1-2 cups of coffee from my keurig with this protein creamer
Snack: greek yogurt topped with granola or apple and protein bar, or my homemade chia seed pudding (recipe below)
Lunch: Dole salad kit topped with a protein or a brown rice bowl (see recipes below)
Snack: one of the above for snack as well. I do still eat crackers as well, just love my specific ones like Cheeze-Its, so I could eat these now with something else.
Dinner: Dole salad kit topped with a protein or a brown rice bowl. If I had a salad for lunch, I’ll have a brown rice bowl for dinner or vice versa. Chicken recipe, Turkey recipe, Salmon recipe.
Snack: I’ll have a glass of wine (or two) and my cheeze-its here or something sweet-I love the mini mint ice cream sandwiches from Trader Joe’s or if I haven’t had a yogurt with granola I’ll have that. I do eat what I want for snacks, and don’t get super strict with sweets as long as breakfast/lunch/dinner have been healthy.
All my recipes are here
Favorite easy recipes I eat everyday:
Yogurt parfaits: Siggis yogurt topped with sliced almonds, granola, and fruit
Chia seed pudding: 1/4 cup chia seeds, 3/4 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup water. Shake and put in the fridge until the next day. Top with almonds, granola and fruit.
Chicken: I buy chicken tenderloins, trim the fat off and then bake it in the oven just topped with garlic powder, pepper, oregano, whatever I want. Cook for 20 min in the oven at 350 degrees. It will be very plain, but cubed and topped with salad dressing is delish!
Salmon-put in tin foil pan and top with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and drizzle light honey. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min, then turn oven to broil. Broil until the top is browned.
Turkey Meat-I make my own taco seasoning and use this in my brown rice bowls, or just make turkey burgers.
Salads: Dole salad kit-add dried cranberries and nuts and a protein. I find that chicken is way easier to eat if I cube it.
Roasted veggies: cut up broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and butternut squash and place on a large cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. SO GOOD!
Brown rice bowls: there are so many variations here, you could go crazy! Here are a few I eat all the time, but I’m always coming up with new ones, and I post them to my EATS highlights here.
- brown rice, turkey meat, sweet potatoes, “everything but the bagel” seasoning
- brown rice, chicken, dollop of hummus
- brown rice, sweet potatoes, two eggs over easy, “everything but the bagel” seasoning
- brown rice, roasted cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts and butternut squash (recipe above).
At home workouts
When we aren’t in quarantine this is my normal workout schedule: 4-5 times a week: running, bootcamps, soul cycle, and lifting weights myself at my gym.
Right now I’m doing lots of BBG workouts seen here, and running a lot( 4-5 miles a few times a week). I work out right now 6-7 days a week, because, quarantine!
Here is an example of what I’m doing at home right now:
This would be one workout total. Not necessarily all together. I’ll do the pushups whenever I get a chance, sometimes lift weights outside with the kids if they let me and then once they’re in bed do a serious, timed workout like this 30 minute workout below.
- 100 pushup challenge for time. Time yourself everyday and do 100 and then each day try to beat your time.
3.