Healthy Lifestyle Update

Hello! Long time no talk! I have some pictures to show you from this past weekend with our Sunday adventures and also pet sitting Cici but I can't load them at the moment, so I'll save that for the next post. In the meantime, I just thought I'd fill you in on some changes I've made about my diet and working out.

One thing I have given up is milk. Not 100%... yet, but slowly but surly. As you know I now live in the country and there are cows just about everywhere. I'm a very visual person and so it hurts my heart to see a calf taken away from it's mother within it's first hour of birth just so we can have her milk. It's just kind of mind blowing that we are the only species that drinks another mammals breast milk. Which got me thinking, mom's produce milk for their growing babies. Key word: GROWING. I don't know about you, but I don't need to grow anymore. I won't go into too much detail right now about it, but if any of this sounded interesting to you, I recommend looking it up.

So yes, I have been without milk for about 2 months. I use almond milk now. And I actually really enjoy it. Especially when I put it on a pile of granola with chia seeds and coconut flakes and covered with blueberries, raspberries and banana's. YUM!

Something else I have become obsessed with is smoothie bowls!! Talk about delicious! My most recent one was a banana strawberry smoothie blended and then poured into a bowl (ha that's kind of self explanatory right?) Anyway, then I topped it with slices of banana's, strawberries, chia seeds, coconut flakes and then drizzled with agave nectar.  People confuse me, if you tell them to eat more fruit they think it's healthy but full of sugar, which yes, there is natural sugar, but there are also so many other vitamins, minerals and nutrients in fruits that help prevent against high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, heart attack, cancer and much more. It's a natural advantage over table sugar without a doubt.

Another thing I've been working on is getting outdoors and walking a lot more. I'm extremely out of shape so running or jogging is currently out of the question haha! But I walk Zoey a mile every morning. I'm trying to incorporate a 5 mile walk in twice a week right now. Saturdays I like to walk Zoey 2 miles at the state park and on Sundays Jerry, Zoey and I usually go out hiking through the woods and fields so we definitely get our workout in that way. 

I picked up one of these Ello water bottles at Target a few weeks ago and I am in love! There are so many weird chemicals in plastic water bottles that can seep into your water if you let it sit too long or if it's exposed to heat. No one quite knows the side effects and I personally don't want to put my body through that experiment. So these water bottles above are made of glass and have a rubber material along the outside so it helps keep the glass safe. It can hold 20oz of water so if you're trying to reach a water intake goal this is a great way to do it. My goal is to drink about 60 oz of water in a day even a little more if I can. It's just really good for you. Also something to note: always hydrate before you caffeinate in the mornings.

That's pretty much my update on getting into the groove of a healthier lifestyle. It's a work in progress, I'm sure more things will change for the better this year and I'll be sure to share what I learn along the way.

Have a wonderful and beautiful day!

Taryn