Lunch with the Princpel

                  Growing up there was only my sister and me. We truly had the best child hood ever!! My parents were as good as they come. Loving, caring, hard working and understanding. Things were always very very tight at home. My mom was a Homemaker and my dad would sometimes hold 3 jobs to cover things. My family did not live an extravagant life. We never had cable and used make believe to pass our time. My mom packed my lunch until I reached Jr. high, there were 2 reason behind this, number one being cost. My mom did a lot of work to make menus, save money and prepare food for every one. Secondly,  if they had sent me to eat school lunch, I would not have eaten half of  the food on my plate.She would pack food we enjoyed eating and was beneficial to our health.
         I never really grew up thinking man" I wish I could eat school lunch. I feel completely left out." A lot of my friends did the same. We would all meet together, open our brown paper bags and nibble on carrots. Now that I've grown and have kids of my own, I have put a lot of thought into this subject. Life in general has gotten bigger. We have social media, sports, jobs and everything in between. We are surrounded with worries that were not present when I was growing up. As time has gone by I think there are some instances where health is not the number one concern when it comes to what is being fed to children in America today. I feel blessed to have grown up in a wonderful home where my mom took the time to make us all lunch's each morning including my dad. I am also grateful to have the knowledge to research this subject.
             I had a humbling experience this morning. Our daughter was chosen to eat lunch with the big guy! The principle!! I went shopping last night and had a plan I wanted to put into action! I woke up this morning 20 minutes before my kids needed to get up and get going. Thought that was plenty of time to whip up my master piece! But DANG it takes some serious time and dedication to make a healthy lunch your kids will eat. I still have some time until CapriLee is in full day school. Thank heavens! The reason I told you the whole back story, is because I think the experiences we have growing up help mold us into adult hood and parenting. The hardships and learning curves my family went through enforced a love to be a good parent with a health driven back bone.

I packed her a turkey sandwich, organic sweet potato and blue corn chips. Grapes, cantaloupe, pistachios, cheese and a juice.  She only had time to eat her fruit and cheese slices but gobbled the rest in the car on the way home. Being a mom is hard but so rewarding! Cheers to 27500 more packed lunches in my life time!

                     

Yo where you been fool!?

Oh my heavens here I am typing away, 8 months since my last post. Well let me explain. I was in the best shape of my life last year. I was training for a fitness comp and felt like I had a hold on my life. Well a little over a year later things have changed. I no longer have abs and a lot of times find myself guzzling a black death down my throat Ive gained weight and don't make it to the gym 6 days a week.
      Deciding not to compete was one of the best things for me. I slept, breathed and ate only fitness. It was becoming like a fog over my life. Since then I have competed in a half marathon and several other types of races. I am working on a  balanced life and have learned to accept that my body does not define who I am. And please understand it takes EXTREME dedication to train and compete in those types of competitions. I respect and look up to others who have so much hard will to do so. As for me it was not the path I wanted to go down.
               I stopped writing this blog because for a long time I felt like I was failing.I would compare myself to the old me. How could I write to others about health and fitness if I was struggling so much. Then I realized I'm not the only one. Life is hard. Its hard to get up in the morning and have every one out the door by 7:45. Its hard to remember to count to 10 while your children are toilet papering your living room. Its hard to try and be Christ like 100% of the time heck even 50% of the time. But we just have to remember its the hard stuff that makes us great. Its that dig deep in your soul and try to make gold out of that crappy situating. I believe that I am here on this earth to learn, to grow and to become better. So lets make a promise. Lets pinky swear to try. To not give up and to remember we have a sister hood where we are all doing the best we can. Besides in the end we all want to win together!!
                    I cant wait to keep up on this blog. I hope to inspire you along the way!
                                    XOXOX  Awnaliese

Chia Parfait

This is one Yummy healthy packed breakfast! I put 1 tablespoon of Chia seeds in 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt plus a bit of steveia. Then I  let it sit over night. That way the seeds have time to swell. In the morning all I did was layered the Yogurt then old fashioned oats and my favorite fruit! Strawberries, mango and blackberries. My kids also really enjoy this and it gives them lots of energy for the school day!

Im Back!!

Hi my dear readers! Its been almost a year since I have written. Seriously cant believe I fell off the wagon for that long. Life got crazy and lets be honest Im a granny when it comes to computer tech stuff so I always felt like I was trying to catch up on figuring this stuff out. Well a little while back I decided to read my blog and it brought back a lot of memories of way I started living this lifestyle. I've had a lot of hardships and experiences that have made me a stronger and better person this last year. I have so much to share with all of you and I'm so excited to get to it!! And even though I stopped writing I didn't stop working hard on my goals. Had a few set backs here and there what can I say I still LOVE me some Black Death every once and a great moon. I will be up loading some pictures here soon and cant wait to share with ya some Yummy recipes!!

Cheat meal turns into cheat day

OK I believe that all is good in moderation. But only to an extant. I still do not partake in soda or truly unhealthy foods. Even on cheat day. I give myself one or two cheat days a week. Sometimes they are planned out or spur of the moment. But some times cheat meals turn into cheat days. On Sunday my family and I had come home from church and I had not gotten to the store the day before to get food to prep or even get healthy snacks. So I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the thought of what to make for dinner or lunch.
      So being over come with hunger I fed my kids a sandwich and got them to bed. I walked back to the kitchen and saw a huge thing of pop corn from the movies from the night before. I had bought it to share and didn't feel bad about eating it since it was our date night and my cheat meal. I had maybe eaten four bites at the movies. So I took the almost full tub of popcorn down stairs with me along with some otter pops and a rice krispy treat. Dan and I watched Pretty little lairs and consumed way to much junk for me to even mention!!
             Around 6:30 I got horribly sick. I was shaking and  and had the worst migraine!
I went up stairs, got my hot pad out and sat there and bailed my eyes out for the next half hour.I remember thinking to myself I had done this. I'm the reason why my body is shutting down. My Husband came to check on me a long with my two sugars. My daughter tucked me in and gave me a soft monkey to hold. And in that instance I realized I could never binge eat again. It is to important for me to be there mommy and take care of my self. I felt guilty for over indulging to the point of completely sickness. My husband took the kids to see my mom so I could relax. ( oh how I love him!) I pulled myself together and walked down stairs to make a veggie omelet and some blue berries. I rubbed some peppermint oil on my fore head and finally fell asleep. I don't even remember my kids kissing me before they went to sleep.
           The reason why I am writing you this is because I am not going to give up and either should any one who falls off the wagon. Just because you hit a bump in the road doesn't mean you should throw in the towel for good. We've come way to far to quit. Im having a hard time passing on sweets and not caving when it comes to crap. But each day is getting better and better. I never want to feel like I did on Sunday again and even though it was the sickest I've felt since giving up caffeine. I'm glad it happened. Ive got some Major goals in mind and I'm not letting this set me back!!!

Mug Cake

I found this Amazing IG account and am loving all her stuff! Ive seen tons of these mug cakes all over fitness accounts that I follow and have always been interested in making one. So this morning I tried it. I was very pleased!! It was so tasty and I cant wait to make another one tomorrow!

1/2 cup old fashioned oats

1 tsp baking powder

1tsp cinnamon

1/2 Tbs Steviea

3 Tbs mashed banana

2 egg whites

2 Tbs almond milk
Mix in a blender then spray mug with non stick spray. Pour into mug and cook for 2 min.

Protein Fluff icing
All I did was put 1 cup frozen raspberries in my blender with 1 scoop vanilla protein powder. I also added a little milk. Blend for a few min till its fluffy heaven!! 

Protein Bars

Ok Folks I am on the hunt for the best Protein bar. I like to make my own so I know exactly what I'm eating. This is the first one I tried and it was pretty good.

1 cup oats
3 scoops Choc. Whey Protein
3 Tbs Nutella
3 Tbs coconut
2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa
4 Tbs Almond Milk ( I would be careful with this. It all depends on your protein. So add a little at first.)

         I wrap mine in tin foil and put them in the freezer till I'm ready to eat one. Mine came out a little soft to so it helped them set up.