Save Yourself From Junk: A Shopping Tip

Here is two of the most important tips I have ever learned when grocery shopping or shopping in general:

#1: NEVER go grocery shopping hungry. Eat before you go. Hunger initiates wanting something quick. And when you’re surrounded by food when you’re hungry, chances are you will not make the best choices. Don’t allow the junk to take you over when you’re hungry. Eat before you go!

I’m sure you all know the feeling…

#2: PREPARE! If you know you’re going to be out for the day running errands or running to appointments, then pack some things to take with you. Pack water, nuts, trail mix, protein bars, protein mixes with a cup, veggies, fruit, dried fruit, things that are healthy but won’t go bad on you. There are so many options, and if you have prepared, they will be an easy thing to grab out of your purse or out of your car and eat right away. You can take off that starving feeling and feel better at the end of the day knowing you made good choices. 

Load up with HEALTHY on-the-go foods so that you can make great choices instead of bad ones.

These are the tips I’ve found help me the most, otherwise I am PRONE with a capital P to go somewhere quick and easy to get food costing more money than necessary and usually adding on way more calories than I need or want. 

Do you have any tips that you’ve found helped? Hunger is definitely a force to be reckoned with!

Date Night… It Has Been Awhile

Tonight I set the time aside, finally. My husband and I sometimes go out, but it’s always a spur of the moment thing and never a planned date. I’ve kind of missed that part of the pre-marriage state where we would sometimes have planned dates. Just because we’re married doesn’t mean we still can’t do that! Keep the marriage fun, keep it alive, go on those old-school dates!

Tonight we decided to do that. We both took showers and got ready this afternoon, picked out different clothes than I would wear normally. I put on his favourite pair of jeans that I own (still fit me for now… getting those fit girl jean problems), and a nice shirt, did my hair nice, make-up done right.

We headed to the mall. The best part about this whole thing was that we were not stressed, had no time restraints, just us and the night! So our first stop in the mall was to get his hair cut, something he’s been talking about for awhile. His hair got cut, he was looking all spiffy, and we began the shopping. Now the funny thing is, out of the ENTIRE mall, the only thing we (or I should say I) ended up buying was a tub of discontinued Syntha-6 protein (Caramel Latte, totally the best) and a chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar. Ha! Can’t escape the good tasting healthy lifestyle!

After some shopping, we went to Famoso. Famoso is not on the healthy lifestyle menu, but it was the first official date night, and a cheat meal every once in awhile is ok. The more you stress about food, the worse your body does it, so we decided to just have some fun!

If you’ve never been to a Famoso before, it is a classic Italian pizzeria! That thin crust with Italian toppings cooked in a fire oven. It’s delicious and amazing. You literally can order your food and get it in 5 minutes. So my husband ordered a Quattro Formaggi pizza and I got the BBQ Chicken (get in that protein). The pizza was delicious as always, and you can get cheaper movie tickets with your pizza (we wanted to go to a movie after). Not the waiter who alone was doing an excellent job serving us, but the manager came over a few times to check on our food and to make sure it was ok and cooked well. On his last trip to our table, he told us that he would give us each a scoop of gelato on him. There wasn’t even a single mistake with our order or anything. I’m not quite sure what singled us out, but this guy was definitely going above and beyond his call of duty. And so I indulged a little more than usual and had one scoop of salted caramel gelato. It was delish!

After sincerely thanking the manager, we left and walked some more of the mall. Stopping in my favourite places: Chapters, pet stores, supplement stores. Then we went to the theatre, got tickets to see the new Captain America, and went and sat waiting for the movie for an hour and half. We definitely were there too early, but got awesome seats considering the theatre was pretty much sold out. So in the end, I could probably say it was worth it to wait so long.

The movie was very good, very well written and put together. If you like the superhero type of movies, then this movie is highly recommended for you! We both left happy and satisfied with the movie. If you do go see it, don’t leave when the credits start. There is a substantial after-movie scene that happens with a huge tip towards what I’m assuming will be the next Captain America movie. Quite a few people got up and left when the credits started and missed it, so I’m warning you now. Don’t miss it!

Now we’ve driven home on mostly empty streets. We’re home, safe and sound. It was such a nice evening, just a way to relax and enjoy ourselves before getting ready to head back into a work week. Date night was such a good idea. If you haven’t been on a date in awhile, take a look at your schedule and set aside a night. You deserve it, your husband/wife deserves it. Instead of being a burden on your time, it will actually make you happier and more efficient at life. Try it out! And if you can, take your date to the extreme. Dress up. Have flowers. Have him open the door for you. Do all of those little things that may not happen everyday. Take a time to just love spending time with each other, and watch your love continue to grow.

Two of My Favourite (Healthy) Treats

When we were kids, the 6 cousins on my Dad’s side would always gather at my grandparents after church and my grandfather would give us each $2. We would then walk down the road to the Irving gas station (that sadly no longer exists there) and we could either get candy and a pop or chips and a pop. What a walk in memory lane… can’t buy chips and a pop for that anymore!

Now that I’m eating healthy, I view treats very differently. If I go to the theatre and buy the popcorn with butter, candy, and pop, I feel it the next day, and it’s awful. The damage you are doing to your body when you partake of these unhealthy foods is astronomical. And I notice it.

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t indulge every once in awhile. As much as I hate to say it, I do believe unhealthy foods have an addiction attached to them, just like a drug. Very seldom do we crave the healthy food we eat, and yet most of us can agree with craving unhealthy food a lot. I’m not so sure about what makes it addictive, but it’s definitely a battle of willpower to stay away and fight those cravings.

As much as possible, I try to find healthy things as treats. The best part is, I could eat them all the time if I wanted to (they are that healthy), but I don’t have the money to fund that indulgence. So I’m going to share with you my treat from yesterday and my treat from today. Two healthy treats that I definitely look forward to having whenever I can.

#1. Synergy Organic & Raw Kombucha Drink(s)

What a company statement, what a drink! I actually had the one on the left: Mystic Mango. The bottles are 480 mL (16 fl oz) and can you guess how many calories/carbs for the ENTIRE bottle? 70 Calories, 8g of carbs! Talk about a great option for sticking with diet restrictions! The Kombucha tea is cultured for 30 days before being sold. The health properties of this refreshing and tasty drink are numerous. I highly recommend you check it out! Just be forewarned, the smell of the drink is not the greatest, but don’t smell it and the taste is good! 🙂

#2. Quest Cravings Protein Peanut Butter Cups

(Thepennywisemam.com had the best picture. I ate mine too fast to take one… oops. Check out her blog while you’re at it! It’s got some really great stuff!)

These are absolutely AMAZING! Say good-bye to Reese’s! No more suffering calories for something delicious, we now have it in a healthy option! Clean ingredients, 17 g of fat (a little heavy on the fat), only 10 g of carbs and 20 g of protein! You won’t get that from your regular Reese’s cups. I was an AVID Reese’s eater. So these were a reason to celebrate for me. I do find them a little dry, so just make sure to have a glass of water, or as I do since I love being so healthy, drink my Organo Gold coffee drinks with it. What a match made in Heaven! Love it!

What healthy snacks do you like to eat? I love hearing about new things so that I can try them too! Food NEEDS to be healthy but it doesn’t HAVE to be boring! Enjoy the good stuff! And if you’d like to sample my absolutely delicious OG coffee and tea drinks, just let me know!