Tag Archives: healthy living blogs

Healthy Living Blogs

Posted on December 21 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

My list of top healthy living blogs

I think it’s safe to assume that we all want to live a happier, healthier life. Most of us need outside motivation to do so, and I am no exception. Since I do need so much outside motivation, I have many MANY blogs that I follow that are considered healthy living blogs, all of which have provided me lots of motivation and new ideas to live a healthier life.

Here’s my list of top Healthy Living blogs:

One of my all time favorite Health Living Blogs is, Another Mother Runner. The authors, Sarah and Dimity, send out almost daily posts about themselves as runners and support a huge community of mother runners. When I’m feeling low on motivation, I almost ALWAYS make a visit to their blog.
I’ve mentioned Carrots ‘N’ Cake many different times on Baby Doodah, but there is no end to the motivation that Tina provides me.
I love Anne from fANNEtastic food. Her posts vary from her delicious photos of her food and recommendations for a healthy diet (she’s an RD), to some motivating exercise posts. She’s always going on runs around Washington D.C. and sharing photos of her journey, they are beautiful!
As always, Healthy Tipping Point, is one of my absolute favorites. HTP made it on my mommy blog list, but also fits very well on the Healthy Living Blogs list, because Caitlin is both a healthy person and an awesome mommy.
Run Eat Repeat, is another top healthy living blog for me. The author, Monica, is a sassy red head who loves running and living a balanced life. I really love reading her blog when I want something light and fun to read.
Hungry Runner, is a fantastic blog full great food, and exercise ideas.

There yah have it, my top Healthy Living Blogs. I check each of them almost weekly, so go on over and check them out!

Your turn!

What are some of your favorite Healthy Living Blogs?

Filed Under: All About Me

30 Day Vegan Challenge – Week 4

Posted on July 20 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

This a week late, I apologize! There’s just a million things going on and that I want to write about, trying to get through them all leads to some articles being delayed.

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As you can probably tell from my most recent food posts, I’ve gone back to my old way of eating. Well, that’s not technically true, I’m aiming to eat less meat and dairy and stick to a cleaner (that is fewer processed foods) diet, but I have added some meat, dairy and definitely eggs back in.

You’re probably wondering if I feel any different or if it made me feel better or worse, right? If I’m being honest, when I stuck to the vegan diet religiously without any slip-ups, I felt really great. I could tell my blood pressure was normal (lack of a racing heart when I’d get stressed) and any excess water weight I’d been carrying around had disappeared. My clothes fit better, my rings circled around (I love when this happens) and overall, I felt really positive.

My guess is that you’re probably wondering why I decided to stop eating vegan and go back to regular eating if I’m talking about all those positives. That’s simple, I felt myself starting to slip. Towards the end all I could think about eating was an egg with a runny yolk being soaked up by bread. When I start getting consumed by those thoughts, I know I’m losing control and in order to maintain a healthy(ish) diet, I need to add those foods that I’m craving back in, just in moderation.

Do I feel like I gave my all to this challenge? In a word, no. I definitely did not give this challenge my all, my husband can testify to that. I complained constantly about not being able to have the delicious smelling chicken he had made for him and Emmett or about how I was getting bored of beans (though, I love beans and could eat them everyday). So all I could think about for pretty much the last 2 weeks was being done, and resuming my regularly scheduled diet and that’s not really fair to the challenge. The issue wasn’t with the challenge itself but with my inability to stick with anything.

[photo credit]

I want to try again, but I want to take a different approach this time. Cutting these items out cold turkey may work for some and maybe even the majority but I don’t succeed that way. I’m currently in the midst of reading Vegan Before 6, by Mark Bittman. From what I’ve read so far, the concept is pretty simple, you follow a whole foods plant based diet until 6 pm, and then for dinner you enjoy whatever kinds of foods you want. Just a side note, the time 6 is just a number, basically you follow a vegan diet until your dinner and then eat whatever you want. I will do a full review of the book once I’ve completed it and have put the diet into practice for a few weeks. While following VB6 (as it is often referred to), I won’t put a time limit on it. If I follow it and love it, then I’ll just keep on going. By putting the 30 days on something, I am telling myself that I can quit in that time-frame rather than sticking with it until it either becomes habit or doesn’t work any longer.

Do I recommend the 30 Day Vegan Challenge? Absolutely! I learned a heck of a lot through the entire month and I also experimented with different foods that I previously would have never tried. If you do well with cutting foods out cold turkey, then this will absolutely work for you and I 100% endorse the challenge and you giving it a try.

I wish I had a more positive final post for this challenge, but I’m working on it and little by little I will get to where I want to be. I’m just still finding my path.

Have you given any new challenges a try?

In case you missed it, you can read Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 here.

Filed Under: 30 Day Vegan Challenge, Food & Recipes

A Trip to Rochester and Other Friday Happenings

Posted on July 19 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

TGIF!

Am I right?

I really can’t complain, it’s been a pretty awesome week but I’m perpetually happy for Fridays and weekends with my family. Today started out bright and early because I needed to head out to Rochester for work. My company has offices across New York State, and today I provided some training to staff in our Rochester office.

I never mind my Rochester trips because I always get to see people I don’t see often enough, being in a new place (even if I’ve been there before) is always fun and their cafeteria is amazeballs! They have loads of options but not all of them healthy, however their salad bar is to die for. Don’t believe me, see below…

I think my favorite part about it is the different colored tongs, they each mean something different. Green means to eat liberally, yellow says that you can enjoy that option moderately and red is to use sparingly. I realize that most people can probably go to a salad bar and know which options fall into which category without color coded tongs but, now everyone can! As tempting as the sandwich bar was, I stuck with the salad bar and ended up with an absolutely delicious mix.

I filled my plate with romaine lettuce, baby spinach, shredded carrots, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, grilled chicken, black olives, raw sunflower seeds and a sprinkle of bleu cheese, for dressing I used olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Om nom nom!

My training went really well, which made me happy. As I was walking out of the computer room I noticed what an amazing view this building has, check it out.

That’s the Genesee River!

It’s probably a good thing I’m not based in Rochester or I’d be distracted by this view daily.

We don’t yet have a Trader Joe’s in Buffalo, so about once a month we try to make a trip. Since I was already out that way I decided to make a quick trip on the way home and grab some of our favorites, I sadly forgot to take pictures of any of my purchases. Sure I could pull it all back out but I just don’t have it in my tonight, sorry! Suffice to say, I had a full cart and now we have a full fridge and freezer.

After my stop to Trader Joe’s I snagged up Emmett from day care and we were on our way home. So. Much. Driving!

Once home, Seamus made us an extra yummy dinner with another one of my farmer’s market finds.

The noodles are from a little locally owned business called The Pasta Peddler, his pasta is drool-worthy! I’m embarrassed to admit this but I never realized that pasta could come flavored, I always just assumed it was plain or whole-wheat, but The Pasta Peddler has so many different flavors. In the picture you see garlic and herb and I would definitely recommend them to anyone! If you’re in or around the Buffalo area or want to have some shipped to you, I recommend you do so.