Overstfuffed Sweet Potatoes

As promised I am posting the first of two yummy recipes today. If you like sweet potatoes this is the recipe for you! I got the idea for this recipe from an Instagram post by Justine Moore and after making it for the first time I was already thinking, "when can I make this again?" yeah it was that good. Finding new healthy recipes you actually love really excites me, especially if they are easy to put together like this one.

What you Need:

• 4-5 ounces pre cooked chicken (I used 4 next time I think more would be better)
• 1 medium sweet potato
• Roasted red peppers
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup spinach
• 1 laughing cow cheese wedge

What to Do:

• Bake Sweet potato at 375 degrees
• Sauté garlic, spinach, peppers and chicken in a pan until garlic is browned and spinach is wilted
• Cut cooked sweet potato in half and fill with chicken mixture, top with the laughing cow cheese cut into pieces and pop back in the oven to melt and brown the cheese
• Enjoy!

I hope you like this recipe as much as I did, stayed tuned tomorrow for my healthy protein packed pizza recipe!

Fitness Victory

I know my posts have been less than consistent lately my schedule has just been all over the board for the last couple of months. In an attempt to get things back on track I am currently writing out several posts for this week that I have been meaning to get around to. So up first lets talk about a little fitness and health victory. 

 

As I'm sure you can tell from many of my posts I try to actively pursue a healthy lifestyle. I try to eat right as much as I can and exercise regularly. However sometimes I feel like I don't make any progress towards my goals. Accessing your own progress can be tricky for many reasons. The first being you look at yourself constantly so you may not notice small changes as they happen, also of course everyone is their own worst critic. That's why it is important to track your progress in other ways such as pictures, measurements and the scale. 

So last week feeling a little like all the work I was putting in wasn't showing I decided to retake my body measurements with a tape measure. The last time I measured was March of this year. I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had lost 5 total inches and 5 pounds. For me I thought this progress was huge and I was thrilled this was exactly the motivation I needed to keep going harder each day. In addition to this metric progress I notice increased muscle definition and strength.

Since March I have been hitting the gym 5-6 times a week spending 90% of my time in the weight room. I love weight lifting it is a challenge, it keeps me interested, and I don't dread it like I do with cardio. I have noticed bigger changes in my body through weight lifting in a shorter period of time then anything else I have ever done. I supplement my exercise routine with good nutrition. I base my diet around iifym most of the time. I wont lie and say I followed it for the whole time period because I did not, I fell off tracking many times but still applied the general principals I learned through iifym about portion size, macro makeup and getting in enough protein. I have recently started tracking again in hopes of reverse dieting to get my carb intake up. I have big fitness goals for next year and I am excited to see what I can accomplish.

Stay tuned because tomorrow and the next day I am coming at you with the recipe for my healthy protein packed pizza and over-stuffed sweet potatoes!

Returning with some Rocky Road Proyo

I feel like I have not been spending nearly enough time on this little space on the internet. I apologize my recent work schedule was crazy and limiting my free time quite a lot. I had five week long out of town trainings within the last couple months and now that I am finished I hope to restore some normal into my life. I finished up my last training on Friday in the Windy city and definitely enjoyed some time there.

With all the traveling I was forced to eat out basically all of my meals.... something I would never do under regular circumstances and I honestly didn't enjoy it one bit. I really have come to enjoy a much healthier lifestyle, getting in my workouts and eating healthy meals as often as possible. I felt uneasy about the situation since I really had to no choice but now that the trainings are over its time to jump back into healthy. I have vowed to myself to spend the month of November eating as healthy as possible.

I started last night by doing some major meal prepping. I made breakfast and lunches for the week. For breakfast I made a large batch of pumpkin protein pancakes, new recipe coming at you later this week (I swear I have about 100 recipes I want to share so I may just flood you with them) and for lunch chicken veggie stir fry.

I felt so good about getting that all ready last night to set myself up for success this week so at the end of the night I rewarded myself with some healthy but super yummy rocky road "ProYo" I posted this picture on instagram and got several texts and questions asking what it was and how to make it so it seemed pretty clear a post on it today was the way to go.

ProYo has been flooding my instagram feed from fitness accounts for some time. Most people make it with Greek yogurt but since I am somewhat lactose intolerant I take a slightly different approach when making mine. Its very simple and may I add Finance approved so you know it doesn't taste too healthy.

What you need:

• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1.5 TBS Sugar free chocolate pudding mix
• 1/4- 1/2 cup almond/coconut milk
• 1/2 banana
• Optional Rocky road toppings: mini chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, marshmallow bits, fat free cool whip  

What you do:

• Blend up protein powder, pudding mix, milk and banana until smooth
• Poor into bowl and freeze for 1.5- 2 hours
• Top with goodies and enjoy

Obviously this is very simple to make a good alternative to ice cream or dessert at night to keep you on track and get in some extra protein. Let me know what you think :)