Working in corporate America, it is always interesting to me to see what people eat for lunch. There are the people who always bring their lunch from home and there are the people who go out to lunch every single day. Besides the fact that eating out usually isn’t healthy, it also is a drain on the wallet so it is something I try to avoid. I mostly bring from home now but I didn’t used to be like that. When I first started in the work force, I would go out to lunch most days (and my wallet and wasteline suffered because of it). My favorite lunch places were…

Weight loss magic sauce doesn’t exist. When people hear that Ryan and I have lost over 150 lbs between the two of us, people ask how we lost all of our weight and actually keep it off. They are always expecting us to say some crazy diet or workout that we did to lose weight. Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble here but IT DOESN’T EXIST. There is no magic sauce for weight loss. I’ve tried magic sauce, and I’ve seen others try it, and it doesn’t work for long term weight loss. To lose weight and keep it off, you need to do two things: Have a plan Be consistent…

When I go on vacation, my diet goes out the window. Ok, that’s a little dramatic but I do become much more relaxed about my food consumption during vacations because a girl can’t just eat kale, almonds and avocados all day, everyday. It’s all about the balance, right? I just wrote about how we went to wine country and you better believe it that I indulged in wine during our trip, drinking more than the doctor recommended one glass a day and I had no regrets. Well maybe the next morning when I was a bit more thirsty than usual (maybe with just a slight hangover) but besides that, no…

I love breakfast, it is my favorite meal. Actually brunch is my favorite but I don’t get a chance to partake in that meal much anymore with work and kids so now breakfast is where it’s at :). Breakfast has become my most important meal of the day, and not just because it’s my favorite. Many studies have shown that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. These studies usually claim similar reasons as I do on why breakfast is so important: It gives me energy for the day. I don’t like to run on empty (although I will admit that other studies have shown the benefits of…

With losing weight, you usually have a number in mind that is your “goal” weight. This number may change throughout the years (as it has for me) but there is usually always some magical number you have in your head where it is your “ideal” weight. Although, when I started out losing weight, I didn’t have a number in mind. I just knew that I weighed too much because I was having to buy larger and larger clothes and was low energy every day. I would be out of breath doing everyday things like walking up the stairs. I knew I needed to lose weight but didn’t have a “goal”…

Counting calories has become a taboo subject on the internet and amongst the wellness world. It used to be praised as a great way for weight loss but now is seen as the incorrect strategy for weight loss because it doesn’t work for everyone and because not all calories are created equal in everyone’s bodies. There are many blogs, articles and podcasts that say you should focus on macro nutrients or intermittent fasting or a number of other diet strategies. Let’s be real here though..no weight loss strategy or diet is going to work for EVERYONE. You have to find what works best for you and your body. It may…

Everyone has their favorite cooking tools and gadgets and mine is the crockpot (i.e. slow cooker). I love the crockpot. I use it almost every week in the winter. But I don’t discriminate with the seasons; I will bust out the crockpot in July as well because the convenience of it is applicable all months of the year. There are several brands of the slow cookers but I prefer the 6 quart crockpot. I have a slightly older version but the features are the same where you can set a specific time in 30 minute increments and it automatically goes to “warm” when it is complete. One word of warning:…

I fell ill on Sunday and thankfully Ryan was cool with me retiring to bed at 6:30; little did he know I wouldn’t get up until the next morning 🙂 It was well needed rest but I still couldn’t sleep because I was developing the world’s worst cold ever (ok I am being dramatic here). I basically had two days straight of feeling like someone was literally plugging my nose; it was horrible. It’s felt like a long week. I think it is because I was sick for a good chunk of it with a bad cold so I slept horribly most of the week. Not sleeping makes for long…

A key component to our weight loss success and on-going maintenance is meal planning and prepping. Planning out meals is a way to set ourselves up for success for healthy eating because we have a plan on what we are going to eat for the majority of our meals (we do usually plan to eat out once a week). When we don’t plan ahead, we find ourselves going out to eat or ordering pizza because once we get home from work and school, we are starving and tired and we barely have motivation to cook, let alone figure out WHAT to cook! To ensure that doesn’t happen, here are a…