Healthy Tipping Point

First thing first – I’m going to see my friend’s new baby today!  So excited to shower that baby with love – and momma with food.  My personal rule is to never show up to a new mom’s house without a dish, and I always bring Santa Fe Casserole.  It’s always a hit.

I made a few modifications.  I have made this recipe so many times that I can just eyeball it and mix it up.  This time around, I added spinach.  Yum.

Second thing… My workout for yesterday was hauling this cutie around the neighborhood.  OOF.  He is getting heavy in the backpack!!!  Talk about strength training, huh?

Favorite part – when he kept screaming in my ear, “GO FASTER MOMMY!”  Hahaha.  Thanks, dearie.

And last, but not last, COLORS.

I read an article recently about how coloring can be a form of stress relief and figured that I would give it a whirl.  I keep trying to practice meditation and mindfulness and epically failing – I’m driven to distraction no matter how I try to focus – so I thought coloring may be up to my speed.  Here’s why it works:

“The practice generates wellness, quietness and also stimulates brain areas related to motor skills, the senses and creativity… When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala. “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.””  (Source)

I bought this book and have been loving it!  It’s crazy how I lose sense of time as I color… I actually have to set a timer on my phone to ensure that I don’t color too long and miss bedtime.  It’s really relaxing, too. 

Tell me three fun things about your day! 

I’ve written two posts on Vegetarian Whole 30 (here and here, definitely recommend reading them if you want to know more – Vegetarian Whole 30 is NOT regular Whole 30). Lots of people requested a “day in the life” wrap-up of eats on the plan, so here you go.  I ate Vegetarian Whole 30-ish on Sunday and photographed everything (you’ll see why I say “ish” later).

Well, actually, you’ll see some of the “ish” right away – I had coffee with half and half and Stevia.  On Whole 30, I drank my coffee black or with coconut milk (the actual stuff in a can, not the processed creamer).

As a side note, I try really hard to drink a glass of water BEFORE I start chugging coffee every morning.

Breakfast:

This was a scrambled mess of three eggs, peppers, onions, spinach, and artichoke hearts.  I love artichoke hearts in eggs!  Plus grapes and roasted potatoes with mustard.  Another thing I liked about Whole 30 was it encouraged me to eat bigger meals.

Snack:

Official Whole 30 rules is against snacking, but I can’t do that with workouts.  I had some almonds after my workout – I did 2.0 miles of speedwork followed by some lifting. 

Lunch:

A stir-fry of tofu, onions, broccoli, carrots, and cashews with a side of watermelon.

Snack:

A cheese stick (another “ish” – full-fat plain Greek yogurt is okay on Vegetarian Whole 30 but cheese is not) and an apple. 

Snack:

Okay, CLEARLY, peanut butter cups is not on Vegetarian Whole 30 (no form of added or artificial sugar is!) but in the name of transparency, I had a few peanut butter cups while “supervising” the Husband and the kiddos build a fort.

Dinner time for the munchies!  We eat breakfast + lunch together as a family (Henry will eat some of what I do on Vegetarian Whole 30, but in typical preschooler style, foods must be separated – so the eggs and peppers and onion scramble was cool, just not all together).  For dinner, we usually eat after the kids are in bed – they eat too early for me.

I snacked on more almonds while they ate (my chair was missing because it was part of the fort, hah).

Dinner:

Lentils + tahini sauce, more potatoes, tomatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts. 

Plus frozen cherries while watching the series pilot for Fear the Walking Dead (which was awesome!).

Frozen cherries is a pretty bomb snack, by the way.

So – that’s a typical day of Vegetarian Whole 30 eats!  Other snacks that I’d commonly eat include edamame, macadamia nuts, and Greek yogurt (I usually had Greek yogurt every day).  And I ate a LOT of eggs – I wouldn’t have tofu every day but would often eat two rounds of eggs.  My favorite thing about Vegetarian Whole 30 was how much produce I ate on the plan – I ate at least 12 servings yesterday!  Pretty awesome.

What’s the best thing you ate this weekend?  That artichoke scramble was epic!

You guys know that I love my tea – and today, I have an awesome giveaway for you!

Celestial Seasonings has unveiled a fresh new look and feel, including completely redesigned tea boxes and a new logo.  They didn’t lose the key elements for which the brand’s packaging is known (that wonderful art!) but now the boxes are more contemporary and simple.   Don’t worry – the Sleepytime bear is here to stay.

Inside these pretty new boxes are the same high-quality tea that my whole family has always loved – there have been no changes to the recipes.   But aren’t the new boxes so stylish?  I love the design.  I was pretty partial to the old boxes, so this says a lot!  One of my favorite elements is the thoughtful quotes on the boxes.  Obviously, I love great quotes! 

Get excited – CANDY CANE LANE season is coming soon!  That means that it’s almost time to make Candy Cane Lane Cupcakes again! {{Throws teapot shaped confetti into the air}} 

And the new boxes continue to be earth-friendly (100% recycled material for the boxes; no strings, staples, or individual wrappers for the bags, which saves 3.5 million pounds of material from landfills every year!).  I am always so impressed that those little changes make such a big difference environmentally.  Every time I drink tea with strings and tabs, I always feel so wasteful now!

On that note… Who’s up for a tea party?  Henry and I cordially invite you to one!  I can’t promise that you won’t get tea spilled all over your lap, though…

Very Berry Tin Tea Set

Want to win a box of each of these teas, plus a travel mug?

Lemon Zinger

Candy Cane Lane

Morning Thunder

Authentic Green

Sleepytime

Sleepytime Extra

Simply leave a comment letting me know your favorite type of tea!  I’ll pick a winner next Friday. Good luck!

This post is sponsored by Celestial Seasonings.  Thanks, as always, for supporting my blog and my family by reading sponsored content!

I confess. I totally played hookie yesterday…  I really needed a mental health day.  So I left the kids with the sitter and did fun things ALL BY MYSELF.  It was weird, quiet, and glorious… But then I really started to miss everyone and raced home.  Funny how that happens, huh? 

Anyway – I got my nails done.

I also bought some new flats.  Does anyone else do this?  I always get a new pair of flats before the fall, wear them to death and destroy them, and then toss them out when the winter season is over.  My shoes see a lot of playground action so they are never nice enough to keep longer than a year.

Anyway, aren’t these Katie & Kelly shoes cute?  I liked the bling. 

Also, they were the first and only pair that I put on my feet and didn’t immediately want to rip off (how can some flats be SO uncomfortable?!) but only time will tell if they are truly comfy…

And I went to a consignment store and tried on a bunch of clothes that I have no practical use for, like evening gowns and fancy dresses.  Hah.  It was fun.  I loooove consignment shops because you never know what you will find!  I wish this dress wasn’t so small – I really wanted it!  But couldn’t breath or sit down in it so… no go.

After my solo adventure out, I spent my evening working and trying to catch up on all the things that I was supposed to have done during the day.  Still – WORTH IT.

Hit the gym this morning and did a little strength training.

Do you guys remember how my knee/leg was bothering me before my triathlon? Well, I went to the chiropractor before I left town for the race, and he did some Active Release Technique on me – which made it feel WAY better.  It only started to bother me towards the run of the run, so I was very grateful because a few days before, it hurt even to walk around my house.  It was sore after but never as bad as it had originally been.

But all the sudden, it hurts again!  Boo.  So I’ve been laying off the running and doing other stuff, like boot camp ab day and rowing.

Holy hell.  We did SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY different ab moves during that boot camp class.  My stomach is soreeeeeeee.

And last, but not least, a yummy snack:

Question: If you had several hours to yourself, what would you go do?