7 Day healthy food picture challenge: day 3

Hey guys! 

So here is my day three of my healthy food picture challenge! Hope you dig it! 

 
 So for breakfast you will never guess what I had…a smoothie. This particular combination of smoothie is bananas, cherries, and water. This was surprisingly delicious (I was a little bit apprehensive about trying cherries in my smoothie) and it was exactly what I was craving. 
  
After my workout I was hungry. Very hungry. So I grabbed the first thing I could find which happened to be a bagel. Not the best choice out there but it did the job. 

  
For lunch I made a vegetable medley consisting of one chopped sweet potato, I small russet potato, peas, carrots, and bell peppers. The only seasoning I used was a little salt and pepper. This was so delicious…loved this combination of foods! 

  
In between lunch and dinner, I may or may not have drank an iced coffee. #caffieneaddict #oops 

  
For dinner, I was too lazy to make more food so I had some left over carrots and russet potatoes. This time I topped it with BBQ sauce. You think this would be gross, but the nuetral flavor of the potatos blend perfectly with the sauce. 

Later that evening I got a little hungry again, so I grabbed a banana. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it, but hopefully you all have seen a banana before. 

Ok, well that about wraps up day three! It wasn’t perfect but I feel pretty good about myself overall 🙂 Be sure to check back later for day four! 

SarahBeth

7 DAY HEALTHY FOODIE PICTURE CHALLENGE

Hey Guys!

So, as you may have noticed, I love taking pictures of my food, especially if its healthy and looks super delicious. I love sharing what I eat and I thought it would be kind of a fun project if I were to share what I eat every single day through a series of pictures. This is beneficial on two fronts because a. I get to show you what I eat every day and inspire you to create your own healthy recipes and b. I keep myself accountable for an entire week to only eat healthy and clean foods. These reasons and a few others are why I decided to blog pictures for each day for a week.

Hopefully, if all goes well, at the end of the week, there will be a total of seven posts, each showing what foods I ate the day before. (Kind of like an online food diary in picture form) I am super excited for this project because I think it will really inspire me to blog more and to eat clean. I really want to create some healthy habits this summer before school begins again in the fall. 🙂 Before I leave you all to enjoy your Friday evening, I want to share some goals that I hope to stick to through this photo challenge:

1. Everything that goes in my mouth must first be pictured and dutifully posted

2. Foods I consume must be clean, whole, and unprocessed (this is a health blog after all and I want my food to reflect the lifestyle I promote)

3. Macros will not be counted, but the overall calories may be listed if y’all are curious. I am normally not an avid calorie counter just because I’m too lazy and have never been able to stick to it, but I think it couldn’t hurt for one week just to see where I am at in relation to where I need to be.

4. Food must be somewhat aesthetically pleasing to the eyeballs. That is all.

Ok guys! That is all for today! I will see you soon with my first photography collection for the day.

SarahBeth

Where have I been?! Update on Life, Future Plans, and Fitness Goals!

Hey Guys!

Ok, so I know that I have been a little AWOL recently. Actually, scratch that. I have been extremely AWOL. I want to apologize for not blogging in so long. Chances are, if you have been reading my previous posts at all you will know that my spring semester started and while I tried to stick to my schedule the best that I could, it was definitely more than I can handle. So that leaves me here in the middle of April, trying to get back into the habit of blogging. I will try and stick to my three post per week goal, because this is something that I love doing and it is a great way for me to relax or de-stress from the other things going on in my life.

So what has exactly been going on? Other than school, which has consumed its fair amount of attention these past few weeks,I have been crazy busy applying for summer jobs. (insert cheering here) This summer I plan on hopefully becoming a personal trainer. Its insane yet surreal that I am finally getting to apply my skills, and help other people with their fitness goals. I remember when I first decided I wanted to become a personal trainer. I was 16 years old, had only been working out consistently for a year, and I had very little knowledge about other forms of exercise other than plyometric/HIIT training. Even though my original goal was to become certified as soon as I was old enough, (18 years old) It took me an additional two years to fully accomplish this goal. But you know what, I don’t even care, I am finally able to put my skills to use! Nothing feels better than to know that dreams can become a reality. I say this in hopes that I may be able to encourage some of my readers who are struggling with their goals. Whether it is fitness and health related, academic, career, or personal goals, I just wanted to say that if you are willing to work for it and push through the rough patches, it will totally be worth it in the end.

Speaking of goals, the time has now come for me to update you guys on my personal fitness goals. Overall, I have been able to keep a decent regular workout schedule. I have to say that it has been an improvement since the last time I reassessed my fitness journey. Although I have to admit, Spring break through me off my game a little bit, however, I kind of planned it that way since I really just wanted to take some time to relax. One area that I desperately need to work on however, is my flexibility. I don’t know why this is such a problem for me to take 10 minutes out of my evening routine to stretch. At any rate, I think I might start an actual challenge for daily stretching. (future post hint hint) In terms of my diet, It has stayed relatively clean, which I am proud of myself for. Contrary to popular opinion, I find eating clean at college is actually easier than when I am at home. Maybe it is the readily available healthy food at each meal, or maybe its due to the fact that I just want to watch Netflix and eat when I am on break. (Because who doesn’t) Whatever the reason, I am proud of my progress and I hope I can set some good habits that I can maintain over the summer.

Also, I wanted to say that I have been reading up on the raw vegan diet recently. I find it fascinating that these people eat so many fruits and vegetables, like 15 bananas a day sort of quantities, yet still remain fit and healthy looking. I will probably never actually go raw vegan. Partly because I don’t have the quantities of food available to me and partly because I have a soft spot for bacon. But I think I want to incorporate more raw fruits and veggies into my diet. I sometimes find myself gravitating towards a very high protein fat heavy diet, with a lot of meat, peanut butter, and heavenly trail mixes. While I am not saying that these are strictly bad foods, these foods easily will crowd out any stomach space for veggies and fruits. My goal is to put a heavier emphasis on making veggies and fruits the base of every meal, and protein, fat, and starchy carbs as complements.

Alright, well if you have made it this far in this post, you deserve a medal of achievement. Basically, I just wanted to give you guys an update of what has been going on and to apologize for not blogging in several months! I plan on having a new post out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. (thats the goal at least) As I said earlier, I love blogging and It makes me rather sad when I get out of the habit of doing so. So let’s not be sad, Ok?

See you all soon!

SarahBeth

I shall now leave you with a lovely car selfie. Enjoy my face.

Food Favorites: Chase Away the Salad Blues

Hey Guys!

Happy Monday! I hope that your weekend was super restful and you are ready to tackle this week with full vigor.

Today I want to discuss with you something that I have struggled with in the past: The Salad Blues. Salad tends to be viewed as the iconic healthy yet extremely boring food option. However, people forget is how many different varieties of salad you can make and how many different flavors are possible. Salads don’t have to consist of just lettuce and dressing. Salad can have no lettuce or greens at all, or maybe it has nuts and raisins, perhaps it has some different seasonings or different forms of protein. There are dozens of different combinations, dressings, and toppings that you can add to mix up your salad.

Personally, one of my favorite ways to mix up my salad is to add fruit with my veggies. You might think that this is a little off-putting, but I can personally attest that if you combine the right fruits with the right veggies, the flavors meld together perfectly. For example, strawberries are a pretty versatile fruit that can go with just about any salad combination. Berries and grapes are also good options to pair with neutral tasting veggies like, cucumbers, carrots, and even tomatoes. For dressings I will normally choose a poppyseed dressing, a berry vinaigrette of some sort, or just plain lemon juice.

I love adding fresh fruit to my salad because it not only spices up the flavor but it also gives my salad visual appeal. (and lets be honest here, visual appeal of food gives it half the joy of eating it)

The reason people get tired of eating salad is because they are not creating different tastes, so it is like they are eating the same thing everyday. So the next time you find yourself feeling blue about eating salad, add something new, take something out, play around with different combinations of fruits and veggies. Just like your hair or your wardrobe, your salad also needs revamping every once in a while.

Stay heathy and mix up your salad!

SarahBeth

30 Day Paleo Challenge

Hey guys!

So I realize that it has been a full week since I last published a post, and I apologize for that. I just started a new semester, (after completing what we call Jterm for the month of January) and let me say, I have been a wee bit stressed out. Lots of classes with lots of things to remember about the classes, and lots of frantically finding my books in order to do homework for these classes. It has only been three days and I am ready for the weekend!

Anyways, I decided that today I absolutely had to post because A) I told myself I would post three times per week and I have recently missed two, and B) its totally therapeutic for me! For some reason, I forget how relaxing and good it feels to sit down and write about what I am most passionate about. So let’s jump right into today’s topic of discussion now shall we?

Because I want to dedicate my life to giving advice to other people about health and fitness, it is very important for me to stay on top of certain trends and ideas that are popular. The health and fitness industry is constantly changing and there are dozens of opinions and ideas as to what it means to eat “healthy”. I try my best to form my own logical and solid view on these ideas. However, sometimes I don’t feel like I can give an accurate review unless I try it out myself. That is why today I am announcing my latest phase of my fitness journey which I am titling: the 30 Day Paleo Challenge!

Now for any of you who don’t know what eating Paleo consists of, let me enlighten you. The Paleo Diet is based off of the idea of eating as close to our roots as possible. In this case, the “roots” are our primeval stages of humanity, aka cavemen/cavewomen. This diet is founded on the belief that we were once meat hunters and plant eaters, therefore, the basis of our diet should reflect this lifestyle. If any of you know me personally, I am a creationist so I don’t believe that humans evolved from any other creature. That being said, that doesn’t mean that the principles that this diet is founded upon is completely bogus. I think there may be a lot of validity within this thinking. I don’t believe that humankind has evolved from another species, however, I do believe that the early humans who lived approximately 6000 years ago ate quite differently than the average American. You might be asking, “why do we want to eat closer to our roots anyways?” Personally, I think that we were created a certain way to eat certain foods. If we can get back to eating the way we were created to eat, then I believe that we could all be healthier. Do I think that the paleo diet is the final solution to this? Heck, no. But I do think that this diet has some pretty interesting and thought provoking principles that are worth looking into. That is why I want to give it a go myself and record my personal experience with eating Paleo.

So now that I have told you what idea the Paleo diet is founded on, I guess it would be a good idea to tell you the specific guidelines that encompass eating Paleo. Here is the basis of what to eat and what not to eat when on the paleo diet:

Diet Eats:

Grass-produced meats

Fish/seafood

Fresh fruits and veggies

Eggs

Nuts and seeds

Healthful oils (Olive, walnut, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, coconut)

Diet Don’t Eats:

Cereal grains

Legumes (including peanuts)

Dairy

Refined sugar

Potatoes

Processed foods

Salt

Refined vegetable oils

This is an extremely simplified version of what to eat and what not to eat on the Paleo diet. If you would like to learn more about what basic principles are considered “Paleo”, check out: thepaleodiet.com for more specifics. Obviously, my personal opinion varies from these guidelines…(I don’t think following a strict diet that has “off limit” foods are a good idea longterm) BUT, I do like the emphasis on fresh and clean veggies and meats. I think that this is fundamental to clean eating (although not all inclusive), and can have some serious health benefits.

Starting today, I am challenging myself to eat Paleo of 30 days. At the end of these 30 days, I will give my personal impression and review of how I felt during the paleo, the results of eating paleo, and how affective this diet is for furthering my fitness goals. I am going to be painfully honest and say that this is going to be quite a challenge for me, not only because I freaking love my sweet potatoes, but also because I don’t fully believe that cutting out whole food groups is the best method for your health. Nevertheless, my curiosity overpowers my hesitations and I am going to give this diet a try. Will I stick with this longterm? meh, probably not. Will I learn from this? Most definitely. If you would like to see my food diary each day of the journey and help keep me accountable, feel free to check out my tumblr here.

I do have one confession to make: I kinda, maybe already ate a chocolate bar today..( in my defense it was an Awake bar that had a much needed caffeine boost. Also, it was before I decided to eat Paleo today) so today won’t be perfect, but from here on out I hope to follow these guidelines as close as possible to ensure the most accurate results.

Today is February 4th, which means that the last day of this challenge will end on March 6th. Ready, set, Go!

Alright folks! That is all for today’s post! Check back Friday for new content!

Stay healthy!

SarahBeth