Girls Weekend

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Andrea

Last weekend I took a trip over to New York City to see some of my best girls. The health coaching school I’m attending had a weekend conference in the city featuring loads of speakers. The event was free for students and alumni.

I was able to get a direct flight out and stay with one of the ladies. Food and travel were really my only out of pocket expenses and well, I can’t pass that up.

Nor can I pass up a weekend in the city with 6 other lovely ladies.

When I started school I was feeling very alone and lost. It’s an online program which is perfect for me but I was looking for a little more interaction and connection with other students.

I struggled for a while as I tried to reach out to others and use the online forum to connect with other students. Nothing was working.

I was getting very frustrated.

Chocolate For Breakfast

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Andrea

When it comes to eating healthy and eating real food, I admit that I love smashing all the “rules” that are forced upon us from out of no where.

One of my favorite rules to break is the:

You can’t eat chocolate for breakfast.

Who started this nonsense? More importantly, why in the world do we listen to it?

Chocolate is a perfectly acceptable breakfast ingredient. It’s a nice little treat and a lovely little surprise to start our day.

It makes ordinary things a lot more special. And a lot more yummy!

While I admit that chocolate isn’t something I want everyday for breakfast, I certainly don’t think it should only be regulated to desserts or as an after dinner treat.

Chocolate can be used in a variety of ways and should be embraced a lot more openly!

We can have chocolate any time we want!

Some ways that we like chocolate:

Chocolate Coconut Oats

Food Can Heal: Lauren’s Story

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Andrea

Today’s post on how foods can heal is from Lauren who blogs over at Say What You Need To Say. Lauren posts about her daily meals and exercises along with discussing life and sharing all that it has to offer with her readers. She provides inspirational advice along with great motivation to eat well and live life to the fullest.

I’ve always had an adventurous spirit. It came without surprise that growing up, my exploratory personality ventured into my food choices. I remember specifically being the only 4 year old who would beg her parents every day to take her to Wendy’s, not for the chicken nuggets and fries, but for the salad bar.

I continued to develop a passion for food and cooking as I got older. I began to appreciate the aspects of cuisine and wanted to learn more about it. I fell in love with the kitchen and began designing and creating my own recipes on a daily basis.

Pizza Time

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Andrea

Hi gang! I realize it’s been a ridiculously long time since we’ve discussed pizza! We’re still having pizza on Thursdays over here at the HQ, don’t worry about that.

We haven’t been playing around too much with toppings or variations. Reflecting on that I realized that since we have so much going on here (lots of changes, revelations, and decisions to make) that we’ve been turning more to the familiar. The comfortable.

Veggies and occasionally some sausage are the main staples of pizza this summer.

This week I almost split up the pizza and made two of them, a his and hers. While Scott was in San Fran, I still made pizza for myself and even used the pizza stone!

It was easier with a smaller pizza and I thought that I might give that a shot this week. However both of us were really hungry and I didn’t want to have to wait through two pizzas cooking before I could eat.

New Kicks

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Andrea

A few weeks ago when I started this latest round of PT, the therapist told me that my current shoes were not working for me.

I was in stability shoes. I went to a running store and got fitted for them. I’ve been wearing stability shoes for the 3 years that I’ve been running.

The therapist told me that they were actually providing me with too much stability and that I really could benefit from a neutral shoe. Most neutral shoes provide some stability anyway (unless you go super minimalist) and that is all that I needed.

I waited on getting new shoes until I was up to running semi-regularly again. I’ve been bumped up to running 1.5 miles every other day and I figured this was a great time to go get some new kicks.

I got some earlier this week which was a process that we will discuss soon. Eventually I found a pair that fit my feet like gloves.

Triple Run

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Andrea

Last week was a turning point at physical therapy. I normally go on Tuesdays but last week because of other things going on, I had to go on Monday. Instead of being able to see the person I normally see, I had to see another therapist.

This was the best experience! She started the session with saying, “Let’s just check to make sure your hips and muscles are aligned right.”

And you know what? They were not! She did a few resistance moves on me to get my hips back to where they needed to be. I was amazed!

This is the first time someone has talked with me about hip alignment. I know my hips themselves are fine because I had Xrays done at the chiro. However, I did think that perhaps one of my tendons or ligaments around my right hip was out of place. So when I ran, it was being rubbed or irritated because it wasn’t in the proper spot. Especially since this is my right hip we’re talking about and it tends to be loose like that.

Kale Hash

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Andrea

Friends, what I’m about to share with you is one of my favorite meals. It came into my life not all that long ago and will be with me forever and ever, amen.

We all know that I love potatoes, right? So this dish is full of my favorite things.

Potatoes
Kale
Eggs

And it’s eaten out of a bowl

It’s heaven. And so easy! I was flipping through a Ray Ray magazine a few months back and saw the title, Kale Hash. I didn’t even read the recipe because I created my own right on the spot. I think I even made it that same night.

Kale hash is pure genius. It’s also purely delicious and completely perfect.

Life will never be the same again.

Andrea’s Kale Hash

2 Idaho Potatoes, scrubbed, and cut into bite sized cubes

1 Large bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped

1/2 Onion, chopped

1/2 Green pepper, chopped

4 eggs, beaten

Honey Face Wash Challenge – The Results

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Andrea

Hello my honeys! We are at the end of the two week honey face wash challenge and it’s time to talk about our results!

For those that are just see things for the first time, you can catch up by reading these posts.

Crunchy Betty’s Challenge

Crunch Betty’s Honey Face Wash Makeup Remove & Check-In

Food Embrace Takes The Challenge

Food Embrace’s Week One Check-In

Let’s talk about honey! I have been dutifully using honey on my face twice a day and I only missed one wash with honey during this whole two week challenge. When Crunchy Betty mentioned using Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) as toner, I have done that a few times as well.

With the makeup remover version, I found that the baking soda was actually a little bit too harsh of a scrub on my face. I also found that using a straight face cloth to wipe away the honey and to help remove the makeup was also a little rough on my face. Though that method is much preferred over the baking soda. It worked well enough but I may need an alternative method for makeup removal. This will take a bit more research on my part.

Angry Hip

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Andrea

I saw my physical therapist last week for a check-in and general update. He gave me more exercises to do for the hip which are a bit taxing and cause my hip to be fatigued.

I now have so many exercises to do that I have to alternate days. One day I do ABC exercises and the next day I do XYZ exercises. It is nice to have a break from the same old routine. However two exercises I have to do everyday and one of them I detest greatly.

Meh.

I have to remember that it’s all to help heal the hip so I’m trying very hard to be patient and suck it up.

My therapist gave me the go-ahead to try running this past weekend. If I ran, I had to alternate between running and walking. The standard beginner running routine, run for a minute and then walking for two. Rinse, repeat.

I can be really bad at following directions and running for a minute did not appeal to me in the least.

Do What You Love

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Andrea

Going to school and becoming a Health Coach has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me. As a Health Coach and owning my own business, I’m free to make my own choices and do what excites me.

I have the ability to do what I want to do.

There are two things that I love doing:

1. Teaching people how to cook.

2. Talking to people about how easy it is to better their health with real foods.

Being a Health Coach means that I can do both of these things! The freedom that comes with going your own way is pretty mind-boggling and also fantastic.

I can travel and do cooking demos for people where they learn not only how to cook but how easy it is to create healthy meals at home using real foods instead of relying on processed foods.

Cooking is great! It relaxes everyone and no matter what, everyone is happy whenever there is food involved, right?