#momlife.  A simple hashtag….a crazy lifestyle.  In the spirit of it being International Women’s Day, I wanted to lift up my fellow mom’s out there.  This life can be straight up CRAY!!!  From the complete hectic-ness of first bringing home a baby who, let’s be honest, you have no idea what to do with to operating motorized vehicles and dangerous kitchen utensils on less than 4 hours of sleep to “drowning out”, I mean handling, the 5th meltdown by your toddler in an hour because you won’t let them play in the glass Pyrex cabinet to never again leaving the house without 7 bags, 14 variety of snacks and 3 changes of clothes – it brings about a whole new level of crazy-making you didn’t even know existed.  Motherhood is not for the faint of heart.  While I only have one kiddo (and another on the way), I can say that I have felt more emotions, more insecurity, more scrutiny and more fear than I’ve felt in my whole life.  On the flip side, I’ve also felt the most love, joy, pride and awe that I’ve felt in my whole life.

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Momming is Hard

How To Pick The Right Exercise For YOU

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I know you may not want to hear it, but exercise and movement is an extremely important part of staying healthy and feeling vibrant.  I know the word exercise may make you cringe, but that’s mostly because you are thinking about it and going about it in the wrong way!  🙂  Exercise and movement is supposed to be enjoyable (for the most part) and is supposed to provide you with energy and vitality.  Every day life (i.e. stress, hard work and over-thinking) create tension in the body which can lead to chronic aches, tightness and exhaustion.  Many people then try to alleviate these symptoms with that 3:00 sugar fix or evening glass (or 4) of wine which only perpetuate the symptoms even more.  Exercise is an easy and affordable way of releasing a build up of physical tension and exhaustion leaving you feeling, looking and LIVING in a much more balanced and comfortable way. Read More

But What Do All The Food Label Claims Mean??

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Let’s be honest…when you walk around a grocery store it can be overwhelming.  Especially if you are in there with the intention of choosing healthy, nutritious items which you may or may not be familiar with.  You walk in and are immediately surrounded by shiny, bright colored packaging and tricky, catchy phrases that marketing departments spent hours creating to get you to notice and hopefully buy their product.  But can you really trust them??  That’s a whole different story and probably best saved for a different post.  😉

However, I do know when your are trying to do your best to eat healthy it can be frustrating not knowing what the different claims mean and whether or not you should buy one item over another because of said claim on the package.   Read More

Cinco De Mayo Crockpot Chicken (or pork) Tacos

tacoHappy Cinco De Mayo!!!!  One of my favorite days of the year!  Why?  Because I love Mexican food….like a lot!  So to celebrate, I’m sharing one of my favorite, easy and quick weeknight recipes with you.  Heck, you can even whip it up today to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.  However, in my book I don’t need a certain day to enjoy delicious tacos 🙂  Enough chit chat….here’s the goods!

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Confession: Body Image & Pregnancy…

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I want to preface this post with stating that this will be a more vulnerable and honest post than any of my other ones.  This is more of a journal entry style post that I feel called to share this week.  Truth being told, a big part of me didn’t want to post this, but I know that other women (pregnant or not) struggle with body image and that, ultimately, my own struggle with it is what led me to become a Health Coach in the first place.  So because of that, I want to do better at being open and honest with you all about more personal areas of my life in hopes of encouraging you in your own journeys.  There is no “black and white” or quick fixes when it comes to body image, diet and exercise – but I truly believe that how we respond to our internal conversations and thoughts can be so powerful and telling.  So here we go…. Read More

When Life Gets A Tad Bit Overwhelming

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We’ve all been there.  You wake up and all of a sudden it feels like the world is crashing down on top of you.  All you can think about is the long list of things that “need” to get done and how you have no time to get them done and the next thing you know, you are completely and utterly overwhelmed.  The crappy thing about being overwhelmed – it often forces us into a state of paralysis where instead of taking strides towards marking things off of that list, we do nothing and then the guilt and stress of it all continues to build up and boil up inside of us.  I think we can all agree that this is not a great feeling.  We can also probably agree that Read More

My ‘Blue Apron’ Review

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A lot of you have been asking what I think of Blue Apron, so I’m going to do a review today.  Steve and I have had two Blue Apron deliveries so far, which is a total of 6 meals.  We are on our third week now and have not had any of these meals yet (one is on tap for dinner this evening).  I want to start by saying that this post is not sponsored by Blue Apron and all of my comments are solely based on my own experience and thoughts/feelings.  Now that that is out of the way, let’s get to it… Read More

My Gift To You: Free ‘Master Your Mornings’ Guide

 

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I’ve been working on something special for you guys and it’s finally ready…and I am SO excited to share it with you all!  It’s a free guide focusing on how you can begin to ‘Master Your Mornings’!  Truth being told, creating a morning routine for myself and sticking to it was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.  When I was seeking freedom from my unhealthy relationship with food and trying to figure out what it meant to have ‘balance’ in my life, my morning routine was what really set the tone for it all.   Read More

4 Ways To Get More Sleep

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SLEEP!!  Who doesn’t love to sleep?  Have you ever talked to those people who don’t like sleeping…you know, the ones who brag about how little sleep they (think they) need and how they survive off of continuous stream of coffee and/or caffeinated pop?  Yeah…those people are weird.  And those people are also making their lives so much more stressful and groggy than necessary.  Sleep is awesome.  Sleep is SUPER important and I’d be willing to guesstimate that 7 out of 10 Americans aren’t getting enough of it.   Read More

My Current Prego Workouts + a PRE-Prego Workout

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So I have been ITCHING to get back to my old workout routine!!  I know it will be awhile before I’m fully there again after delivery, but MAN am I looking forward to working out without feeling like I can’t breathe and without the horribly uncomfortable feeling of pumping pounds of extra blood through my body.  To me, pregnant working out is a GREAT motivator to stay in shape and never get to a point where working out feels like that because of a hiatus or laziness on my part lol.

 

For those of you who are curious what my workouts have looked like during pregnancy – here is a typical week: Read More