We absolutely {LOVE} green smoothies at our house! I love that both my husband and the kiddos enjoy them and I love that they are a quick and easy breakfast option that I can “eat” while I pack lunches, feed children, and just generally run around like a crazy person normal mom. 🙂 Plus, when it…
How Much is One Serving?
I often get asked for help with serving sizes, so here are some guidelines to help in each healthy food category. I hate to break it to you, but you can’t eat one baby carrot and call it a vegetable serving. 🙂 Fruits: One serving of fruit is 1/2 cup of fruit or 100% fruit juice,…
Celebrate EVERY Healthy Choice!
I stumbled across a blog post yesterday called Drops of Awesome. I highly recommend you take time to read it, but her basic point was that we should all celebrate our successes without diminishing them with guilt over past mistakes or worry over future failure. As I read, I kept thinking about the challenge and…
Healthy Homemade Chocolate
6 months ago, before we started trying to limit highly processed sugar, I was a milk chocolate lover {Read: despiser of all things dark chocolate!} 🙂 I honestly didn’t like the more bitter flavor. But, when milk chocolate became a rare treat (did you know sugar is the first ingredient?!) I HAD to find a…
Creating a Vision Statement
Okay, so I know this feels a little cheesy the first time, but stick with me – if you try and really use this, it is life changing! One of my all time favorite “self-help” books The Jackrabbit Factor by Leslie Householder (definitely recommended reading) taught me how to write what I call a “vision statement”. I…
Double Duty Foods
With all of the food requirements of the challenge – fruits, veggies, protein and fiber – I know sometimes it can feel tricky to fit in all those servings and still stick to your calorie intake goal. Don’t worry though, I promise it’s not as hard as it sounds! The trick is, to remember that…
The Best High Fiber Foods
One of the requirements of the challenge is three “servings” of fiber. Since it can be one of the trickier requirements to track and is often the subject of participants questions, I thought it deserved a post of its own. So, here you go…Everything you never knew you wanted to know about FIBER! 🙂…
Tomato Basil & Mozzarella Pizza {100% Whole Wheat Crust!}
I just realized I need to hurry and post this super yummy pizza recipe before the weather gets too cold for the garden tomatoes. We still have a bunch ripening, and I think it’s time for another one of these beauties. If you’ve only ever had pizza with plain-old white crust and typical toppings, you…
Why Should I Count Calories?
I know counting calories is extra work and no, I don’t expect you to count every calorie you put in your mouth for the rest of you life. That said, I include counting calories in the Feel Great in 8 Challenge for a reason. So, let me answer some common calorie counting questions… Why count…
DIY Microwave Popcorn
Did you hear about this guy who was just awarded 7.2 million dollars in a lawsuit against a microwave popcorn company and the store that sold it to him? He developed serious respiratory problems known as “popcorn lung” from inhaling the artificial butter smell of the microwave popcorn. This artificial butter smell and flavor comes…