Category: This healthy life

January 19, 2023 – Craft therapy

Rough week? Find something that will feed your happiness. After a few rough days, I picked up a project I had started working on before Hurricane Ian. Crocheting is relaxing to me and keeps me from smacking people. Today I finished two of these sea turtles.

Find your bliss.

Thanks for reading!

January 18, 2023 – Stress and self-care

Stress relief and self-care is very important in my wellness journey. Probably yours too. Yesterday was extra busy, lots of phone calls, but it was not that rough. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. That probably didn’t help things when today got crazy and a bit rough. Not only were there a lot of calls but so many of the callers were borderline abusive. Let’s just say that I am currently suffering from a bad case of compassion fatigue.

Photo by Pedro Figueras on Pexels.com

Stress causes me to eat comfort foods. I had the presence of mind to NOT fall into that old trap today. Instead, I removed myself from the situation for a mental health break. I went into the lunch room and did 15 minutes of yoga. I felt better afterwards but I still needed something.

Photo by Madison Inouye on Pexels.com

My Apple Watch came to the rescue. The mindfulness app (formerly Breathe) is a gem. Three minutes of guided breathing helped a lot. If you find yourself in a stressful situation at work, try the 4-7-8 breathing technique. Sitting in your chair, place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. Take a deep breath for a count of 4. Hold that breath for a count of 7. Then, as silently as you can, exhale slowly for a count of 8. Repeat as needed.

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Tonight, I am going to do some yoga and then put my headphones on and listen to a relaxation recording to help me let go of the knots in my shoulders and back. I hope this helps me get a good nights sleep.

I hope you all are doing well. Remember to be kind to yourself, especially when others aren’t.

Thanks for reading.

January 17, 2023 – Successful food prep lunch

Yesterday’s food prep made me be able to easily pack this healthy lunch. Sautéed chicken breast (3 oz.), quinoa (1 cup), roasted cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potato and butternut squash (1 cup). I’ll be drizzling with 2 Tbsp of Bolthouse Farms Classic Ranch.

492 Calories, Fat 11.4 grams, Carbs 57.2 grams, Protein 38.5 grams

Roasted veggies, chicken breast and quinoa – It’s what’s for lunch.

Reheated in the microwave for two minutes. Delicious!

Do you have any good food prep recipes you would like to share? Please comment and share.

Thanks for reading!

January 16, 2023 – Food prepped and ready to go!

It’s been a few days since my last post. Work and home have been busy. It’s been hard to eat healthy when so busy so we came up with a plan to get our weeks food ready to go on the weekend. Today was our food prep day. We are trying the mix and match type of lunch food prep. We cooked:

  • 2 large chicken breasts cubed and sautéed in a pan. Let cool and put in container in the fridge.
  • 2 cups broccoli florets and 2 cups cauliflower sprayed with olive oil spray and seasoned with salt and pepper. Roasted in the oven 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Let cool and put in container in the fridge.
  • 1 sweet potato cut up, sprayed with olive oils, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then put in the air fryer at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Let cool and put in a container in the fridge.
  • 2 cups butternut squash, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted in the over at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Let cool and put in container in the fridge.
  • 2 cups of small potatoes cut up, sprayed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. Cooked in the airfryer at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Let cool and put in a container in the fridge.
  • 2 bags of boil in bag brown rice, cooked, cooled and put in a container in the fridge.
  • 2 bags of boil in bag quinoa, cooked, cooked, cooled and put in a container in the fridge.

Mike and I will be mixing and matching these foods for our lunches. He can come home and throw his in the microwave. I will pack mine in a container to bring to work.

Photo by Ella Olsson on Pexels.com

If you have any suggestions for easy mix n match food prep lunches, we’d love to hear them.

Thanks for reading.

January 10, 2023 – Healthy substitutions

One of my go to healthy substitutions is to slice cucumbers and use them like chips or crackers.

100 grams of plain, unsalted potato chips has 536 calories.

100 grams of crackers (Ritz in this case) has 492 calories.

100 grams of sliced cucumbers has 15 calories.

See how many calories you can save by switching?

This little guy love cucumber slices.

Smart swaps are your friend.

January 7, 2023 – Small victories!

How to not go on a binge? Find ways to treat yourself that won’t break the calorie bank. Today we went to Krispy Kreme donuts. They all looked delicious. However, they were 280 calories for one donut. YIKES! Then I spotted the mini donuts. At 90 calories each, I was able to have two minis for less than the calorie “price” of one regular size. Small victories!