Motivation Monday!

What motivates you? Cheesy as they may be, quotes and motivational images really keep me focused on my goals and the dedication that's needed to get there. Motivation Monday is all about things that helped me keep chugging along this week. 

"Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding." - Jim Valvano

Recipe Rave

Homemade Salsa & Tortilla Chips

A friend of mine recently turned me on to this homemade salsa recipe that she found on Pinterest. I don't love that it uses canned Rotel and tomatoes because they are more processed than I would like (I'm going to attempt it in the future with fresh tomatoes, but alas, I have yet to test that out). Regardless, it is very easy to make, and also quite delicious.  I put loads of cilantro in mine and we've been eating it on everything. It's excellent on baked potatoes! 

The other night we were craving chips to eat with it so I decided to try my hand at making my own tortilla chips. I didn't want to use any oil or salt to keep them as healthy and simple as possible, so I didn't really follow a recipe except to get an idea about how long to cook them. I used a pizza cutter to cut up a few whole wheat tortillas, put them on a greased cookie sheet, and baked them at 350 for 7 minutes on each side. In my opinion, they taste similar to Wheat Thins (without the salt) and are the perfect healthy companion for my delicious salsa. 

Ever since I made this combo, I've been a little obsessed with it. Today for lunch, I made these chips and mixed some salsa with black beans, corn, and avocado. Then I proceeded to dip and eat the entire batch myself. It was quite delicious, and husband informed me that I'm not allowed to make it in the future when he's at work. We'll see about that... ;)

Tips to Get Your Kids to Drink More Water

Like most kids, mine will always choose juice or milk given the chance. I've discovered a few tricks to cut back on the junk and get them to drink more water.

• Stop buying juice: This might seem harsh, but we don't keep juice or other sugary drinks in our house. If we have it, they want it (NONSTOP). Store bought juice is mostly sugar and unhealthy additives, so we make sure that it isn't an option at home. We do treat them with juice on occasion when we're out somewhere or at someone else's house, but not at home. That's half the battle.
• Hide the sweet stuff: We don't buy regular milk anymore, but we do buy unsweetened almond milk and vanilla almond milk on a regular  basis. Given the opportunity, my kids would choose vanilla almond milk first, then the unsweetened, and then water. Because of this I sometimes keep the vanilla almond milk in the fridge in our garage so they don't know we have any. We use that milk as a treat for them, and for when we make "banana ice cream" or other dessert type smoothies. 
• Fill their bellies with water first: To limit the amount a regular almond milk they drink, and to push water, I often restrict milk to mealtimes and don't offer it until they've finished the water I gave them. 
• Educate them: When they fuss about it, I explain to them how important it is for our bodies to drink enough water and how healthy it is for us. My five year old is very interested in science and how our bodies work. I talk to him about how our muscles and bones work together and how water is essential to keep him growing big and strong. 
• On the rocks: For some reason, ice makes water much more appealing to my kids. If I give them the choice between "water" or "ice water", they will always enthusiastically pick ice water. It's like I offered them mud or chocolate. ;) 
• Make it hip: All three of us drink from water bottles during the day that we refill. I have much greater success getting them to drink water if I put it in a fun cup or bottle - or if I add a straw. I also let them help me refill it when the time comes. My two year old loves the refilling part. Occasionally I will let them get a new bottle or cup if we find a good deal and they need a little motivation boost. They were super excited about these new bottles the other day and have been drinking water like champs all week. :)

It's so important to teach our kids good, healthy habits at a young age. Get them started early while they are still little sponges who soak everything up! :)


In other news:

The New York Times published a story yesterday about two recent studies where researchers reported a link between the food people eat, specifically red meat and eggs, and an increase in the risk of heart attacks. Check it out! I was excited to see this kind of news being discussed in mainstream media.

I'm still ALIVE and going (plant) strong!

Sorry for my dreadful inability to stick to blogging... I. will. be. better.

I'm feeling just as passionate and renewed about our plant strong diet as ever and I'm actually even exercising now too. I've been doing Lindsay Brin's CFS method for retraining my abs for about six weeks now. I can't say enough great things about this program. It's super easy - takes less than 10 minutes - and I'm already seeing a difference. It's especially great if you've had a baby within the last few years, have diastasis recti (which I do - here's what it is and how to test), or haven't exercised in a long time. I've also added in a slew of other exercises most days of the week: jumping jacks, squats, lunges, lung holds, push ups, and misc cardio. See my fancy color coded workout calendars:

For cardio, I usually walk about 3.5 miles pushing a stroller, or lately I've started playing tennis with my husband a couple days a week. Did you know I loved tennis? Me either! It's a great workout and super fun - even though we're not very good. :) The kids generally come with us and run around the court and chase the extra tennis balls - so it's great exercise for the entire family!

As far as nutrition goes, we've been sticking to my plant based diet and we're juicing about every other day lately. We found a fantastic source for juicing recipes where you put in all the fruits and vegetables in your fridge and it lists the different recipes you have the ingredients to make. It also lists the top health benefits for each recipe, so if you're looking to boost your immune system, you can search by that benefit. Or if you need to lower your cholesterol, or are looking to lose weight, etc... It's been a fantastic resource and we've found several new recipes we really liked. We took advantage of making recipes that helped boost the immune system when one of our kids got the stomach bug. I was pushing juice like crazy, but (knock on wood), it seems like we were able to avoid passing it around.

Cooking plant based seems to get better and better. We've learned to "wing it" and also some fast, easy meals that work for us so that we're not spending our every waking minute in the kitchen. This improvement has made the whole thing seem much more sustainable. I've also found that you have to keep the motivation going on a daily basis. Motivation is not just a one time thing - I have to continually find things that motivate me to keep going. I read about health and nutrition constantly, watch documentaries about food fairly often and I also search the Pinterest "health and fitness" category on pretty much a daily basis. For some reason, that keeps me fired up. You just have to find what works for you so that your fire doesn't fizzle. :)

In weight loss news, husband is still losing weight right and left (he's down to 197 lbs - the lowest he's been since we've been together - and he's just started working out a little in the last couple weeks) and I've lost another pound or two. Weight loss is very slow for me since I'm already pretty small, but 2 lbs is a noticeable difference on my frame. 

Lastly, I decided this week that if I could afford to go back to school and change careers, I would totally become a nutritionist, specializing in plant based nutrition, and a certified personal trainer. Maybe someday. :)