script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"> google.com, pub-0949974396517105, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

How to Make Choosing a Healthy Breakfast Simple & Delicious – #BreakfastLove

“Life is complicated, so we’re making healthy simple.” – IHOP… I am LOVING the new Simple & Fit menu from IHOP. It can be tough to make the healthiest choices when dining out, since you don’t always know how things are prepared, or how many calories a dish really has if it’s not listed. So it’s awesome when a restaurant cares enough to simplify it all, and clearly list the healthier options, and the details of what they include. Check out the new Simple & Fit line-up {and keep reading to win a $50 IHOP gift card too!}…

Simple & Fit Breakfast meals

These are just a few of the incredibly yummy choices available, you can see the rest of the under 600-calorie breakfast choices on their site. And this is NOT like most of the “healthy options” sections of a menu that you’re used to, where you’ll find a small handful of choices. No way mister – IHOP has created 30 new delicious meals for you to pick from. Want to see my personal fave?? [Read more…]

signature
Posted by on October 16, 2012 Filed Under: Food | 127 Comments

Let’s Get Our Kids Playing Outside Again – #TogetherCounts

“Adopt the pace of nature:  her secret is patience.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson… I am very much an outdoorsy type of person. I love to spend time in nature, even if that’s just an afternoon spent working on the patio, surrounded by our trees and garden. So I’m very lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, where there are amazing natural places to visit. Just an half hour drive brings us into the woods – with pine trees, rivers and lakes, mountains to climb and trails to hike. And, after having my nephews living with me over the past couple of years, I’ve realized how very important it is to get kids out of the house, away from the video games and TV, and out breathing fresh air and running wild – in the wild.

Boulder Cave, Washington

“The woods were made for the hunters of dreams” – Sam Walter Foss

The kids love this place – Boulder Cave, in Washington. There is so much to see and do, and they have a blast. I never even hear any whining about video games the whole time, lol. Whether it’s here, or camping, or fishing, or a day out boating with friends, time spent outdoors really helps all of us relax and refresh again.

Boys catching frogs

“Climb up on some hill at sunrise.  Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you’ll find it there.” – Robb Sagendorph

Things like this totally make me happy – the boys out by the water, catching frogs. Reminds me of when I was a kid. I feel old to say stuff like this – But “when I was a kid,” we spent all day playing outside. Riding bikes on our quiet street, building forts in the back field, or driving my Barbie dolls on a “Safari” through moms vegetable garden. I hate that so many kids have become so un-used to the outdoors, that they don’t even know how to have fun out there anymore. They’re totally missing out. So we’re celebrating Take it Outside Week October 14 – 20, which I am totally excited to learn about. I found this info on a seriously amazing site called Together Counts. Learn a little more:

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

Together Counts is all about getting kids outside and active, eating better foods, and building healthier families. The principle behind their program is Energy Balance, which means balancing the calories we eat with the calories we burn. The idea is to get more families eating and getting active together, with a message of moderation – not “good food vs. bad.” I’m very much an “everything in moderation” style of mom. I do my best to keep our house stocked with healthy fruits and veggies, and good snack foods. But I like to bake cookies and cupcakes too. As long as we’re active, and trying to keep a good balance, I feel good about our choices. So I love that Together Counts is realistic, and has tips that fit into a real mom’s life.

Together Counts is a first-of-its kind coalition that brings together more than 195 retailers, food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, sporting goods and insurance companies, trade associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and professional sports organizations. Learn more and sign the pledge on TogetherCounts.com.

You can also learn more by following them on Twitter and Facebook, where you’ll find loads of great tips and ideas to use. Or enter to WIN big for your kids school – There are several contests and prizes, like a $30,000 grant and a brand new playground for the winners school. How cool is that, right? The whole site is filled with an uh-may-zing amount of information, resources, and tools – for everyone from parents, to teachers, to students. Love it.

Let’s Chat: What do you think of Together Counts? Are you interested in finding creative new ways to keep your family healthy? Share in the comments!

  And mark your calendars – Join Together Counts at a Twitter party on 10/17 from 8-9 PM EST in the hashtag #TogetherCounts! Hope to see you all there!

{Disclaimer: I received compensation for sharing my honest thoughts about the Together Counts campaign with you. All thoughts, photos, and opinions here are 100% my own.}

 

signature
Posted by on October 15, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution, Giving Back | No Comments

The Easiest Diet Ever for Crazy-Busy Moms #diettogo

“Don’t dig your grave with your own knife and fork.” – English Proverb… Being a mom is a tough job, am I right? You try to write down your daily to-do list, but get so tired by page 76 that you just give up. {That’s only slightly exaggerated.} So, taking care of ourselves so often gets pushed aside, while we instead care for everyone else in our lives. And speaking of pushing – I’m sure I’m not the only one who still needs to lose that “baby weight” – but now has a toddler. Planning, shopping for, and preparing healthy balanced meals for a specific type of diet plan can be waaaaay more work than most of us have time for. Which is why I was really interested to try out this diet delivery service, and see if it was really as good as it looked. Well, I’m in love, and think you ladies will love it too…

diet to go dinner

Mushroom Chicken with Wild Rice Pilaf & Italian Veggie Blend

[Read more…]

signature
Posted by on September 22, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 1 Comment

Real Food for Real Kids: Smart Snacking Guide

As I was saying yesterday in my post about my new favorite on-the-go snack bars, eating healthy does NOT have to mean sacrificing taste. When you’re at a grocery store, there are so darn many products marketed as “kids snacks” – covered in cartoon images, and packed full of sugar, coloring agents, and yucky additives that your kids sure don’t need. But there’s an easy solution – if you take just a little time each weekend to plan and prepare snacks for the week ahead, you can feed your kids REAL foods that they’ll love to eat, and you’ll love serving.

smart snacking for kids

Exploring new tastes

I printed this out to go into my Meal Planning binder, so I can put together great snacks for Abby and the boys each week. I seriously love these ideas – there are a ton of traditional snacks that are fun for kids, like ants on a log, creative healthy alternatives to things like sugary fruit roll-ups, and new tastes that kids will love trying out like hummus and baby carrots. You would be surprised by how many great “real” foods kids will love – they don’t have to survive on just chicken nuggets and candy-like fruit snacks. They’ll love experiencing new tastes like edamame, or popcorn with lime juice, cumin, and garlic powder! The earlier you start giving them cool new things to try, the more adventurous eaters they’ll become as they get bigger! {Abby loves salmon, sugar snap peas and ranch, and eggplant!}

California Raisin cartoon

California Raisins’ Let’s Keep It Real Healthy Snack Challenge

California Raisins are an all-natural, no-added-sugar snack you can feel good about giving your family, and are a perfect fit for daily snacking. To help more moms discover what a great choice they are for kids snacks {and for you, too!} they’re running a super fun promotion: California Raisins is asking you & your family to pledge to enjoy all-natural, no-added-sugar snacks – like California Raisins – for one week.

Sign up for the Let’s Keep It Real Healthy Snack Challenge on Facebook and you’ll be automatically entered to win one of five prize packs that include $1,000 in cash and other goodies to get your healthy snacking on. How awesome is THAT?

How do you incorporate real foods into your snacks while still trying to save time and keep it simple?

I admit it, there are many times that I buy those big boxes of pre-packaged bags of chips for the kids, or other unhealthy junk. But I’m getting better all the time at stocking up on healthy stuff. Here are a few of my best tips on building better snacks:

  1. Snack Ideas: Print out this great snack planning chart on the page, and get a fun book like Healthy Lunch Boxes and Snacks to inspire some really great daily snack ideas. You’ll also find loads of ideas on my Fun Kids Snacks board on Pinterest.
  2. Perfect Portions: My absolute favorite containers are the EasyLunchboxes Bento Box Set! They’re BPA free, really sturdy, and make it so easy to build great snacks for the week. Instead of buying Lunchables that are packed full of sodium and fat – make your own little snack packs with California Raisins, cheese cut into fun shapes or cubes, and celery with peanut butter!
  3. Choose Real: If the only options in the house are good, healthy, real foods – that’s what the kids’ll eat! Make a snack box in the fridge, and another box in a cupboard – buy a few Itzy Ritzy Baby Reusable Snack Bag, or some of the fun new Ziploc bags with cartoon characters, and fill ’em with healthy snacks. Then the kids can just grab a great snack each day when they need one – and you know that they’re getting the good vitamins and stuff that they need.

So – If you’re ready to take the California Raisins’ Let’s Keep It Real Healthy Snack Challenge on Facebook too – join today! And I’d love to hear your best snack tips too – share ’em in the comments!

 {Disclosure: I participated in this campaign as a member of One2One Network and am eligible for a prize drawing. All opinions stated in the post are my own.}

signature
Posted by on May 4, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | 5 Comments

Why this is the perfect snack

Convenient doesn’t have to mean unhealthy. And healthy doesn’t have to mean sacrificing taste. So – If you’re looking for a super simple snack, that’s healthy enough that you feel like a great mom when you feed it to the kids, while being tasty enough that YOU enjoy eating it too – You’re totally in luck. I have another great Busy Mom Solution product for you – PROBAR Fruitrition snack bars. Sooooo good.

PROBAR Fruitrition

“The greatest wealth is health.” – Virgil

I used to rely on granola bars for the kids snacks – But then I realized that honestly, they’re just not much better than a candy bar. They’re so packed full of sugar and corn syrup and chocolate chips – They are not a real great choice. But they’re yummy, and they’re simple to grab and go. Then I went looking for some good Gluten Free snacks to have in the house, since during the summer we have a TON of kids here all the time using the pool – and I wanted to make sure we have snacks to fit all of their different dietary needs, you know? When I tried these great Fruitrition bars, I knew we’d found a winner! Seriously – this chocolate orange flavor tastes like a gourmet chocolate from my favorite candy shop. Uh-MAY-zing. Best part? They have a full serving of fruit in each bar, and are only 160 calories – meaning they can fit into my Nutrisystem diet too!

Gluten Free Snack Bars

“If I’d known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” – Leon Eldred

If you want to upgrade your snack foods too – You totally have to check out these bars. You should be able to find them at some of your favorite local stores – but if not, you can order online too, AND I’ve got a sweet savings discount code you can use too:

Visit theprobar.com,  and enter code “BLOGGER” at checkout to save 40% off your order! Awesome, right?

My favorite is by FAR the Chocolate Orange – but there’s also a ton of other goodies to choose from – strawberry bar, but you can’t go wrong with peach, cherry, lemon, blueberry, strawberry and cran-raspberry. So whether you’re buying these as a healthier alternative for the kiddos, or for a way better snack choice for yourself, you’ll find a perfect flavor. And hey – It’s not just me saying that they rock, they just won an award from Prevention Magazine too – check it out, and have another reason why these are a total must-have in any snack cupboard this spring!

Wanna try ’em for FREE?

Of course you do! So use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form below to enter to WIN a case filled with ALL of the new PROBAR Fruitrition bars – this is an almost $40 value, which is a LOT of snacks. So cool. Then when you’re done, check out the list of other sweet prizes that I’m giving away this month too, over in the sidebar. The more you enter, the more chances you have to win!

Have Fun & Good Luck!

[Read more…]

signature
Posted by on May 3, 2012 Filed Under: Giveaways | 2 Comments

New Campaign Supports Busy Moms & Healthy Families


Source: aubutfamily.com via Sunshine and on Pinterest

So true, right?

If you’ve read this site for very long, you know a few things about me – That since the day I found out that I was pregnant with Abby, I started on a journey to making my life cleaner & greener. That no matter how hard I tried, I was not able to lose the baby weight {or do I call it toddler weight now?} on my own – until I found the Nutrisystem plan. That a healthy lifestyle has become so much more important to me now that I’m the role model for another little person, who for whatever crazy reason, thinks that I’m the person to look up to. So, while I am FAR from perfect, I am proud of the fact that I am consistently making small changes that move me towards a better life. Like this quote says – No matter how slow I go, I’m doing better than all of those people who don’t even start. And to me, that’s what’s important – the journey!

 

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”  – Jim Rohn

If you’re like me, and doing your best to move towards a better, healthier, more exuberant way of living – You will probably be as excited as I am to hear about a really cool new campaign to help motivate families towards healthier lifestyles called Together Counts. I’ll let them tell you a little more about themselves –

“Together Counts is a nationwide program inspiring active and healthy living. The principle behind our program is Energy Balance, which means balancing the calories we consume with the calories we burn – {which is the smartest way you can live!} – It’s a first-of-its kind coalition that brings together more than 195 retailers, food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, sporting goods and insurance companies, trade associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and professional sports organizations.”

What I really love about this campaign is the focus on moderation. We all know that our lifestyles have room for improvement. {Ok, so there’s probably a 1% of you out there drinking a celery smoothie while doing Yoga with your toddler and not relating. But this is for the rest of you, lol} We are also all super busy Super Moms who are doing out best to juggle those crazy demands of life/kids/spouse/work/home – and that causes us to sometimes feed out kids chicken nuggets or mac and cheese from a box. That doesn’t make us bad moms, and advice that causes us to feel that way usually just gets ignored – for good reason. But no, this campaign is all about finding realistic ways to make positive changes to balance your family’s life. You will LOVE the tips, ideas, and resources you’ll find!

If you’re ready to get your family movin’ together, and eatin’ healthy more often, then join the party online!

There are tons of super fun ways that you can get involved in this great campaign, and they can provide you with loads of resources, tips, support – and even fun prizes! – to help you and your family get on a path to better living!

  1. Together Counts is holding a fun sweepstakes on their Facebook page   to celebrate their first anniversary. Prizes include gift cards, George Foreman Grills and a membership to Anytime Fitness. Super cool stuff for summertime!
  2. You can also follow Together Counts on Twitter for fun daily updates and tips, and find some AWESOME ideas on their Pinterest boards, like this super simple fruit palm tree that totally encourages kids in a fun way to try new foods!
  3. Join Together Counts as they celebrate Child Nutrition Month at a Twitter party on 4/3 from 8-9 PM EST. Prizes include $50 same-as-cash gift cards. For more information and to RSVP, visit ResourcefulMommy.com.

Now that you have some awesome tools to help you, you’re ready to make this summer a season of fun, fitness, and fantastic fresh foods. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this too – What are the biggest obstacles to your family in being healthy? What are your biggest successes? Do you have tips to share? I love hearing from you guys!

signature
Posted by on April 1, 2012 Filed Under: Busy Mom Solution | No Comments

Nutrisystem Week 3 – Getting Closer! #NSNation

nutrisystem, nsnation

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.” – Jack Dixon

This quote is posted on my fridge. It’s to remind me NOT to think too much about results yet. Losing weight can be so difficult – and when I think about trying to lose 40-50 pounds – Holy heck, that feels so overwhelming! But, I try to remember – every goal is reached in small steps. So each day I focus on making good choices, and changing more of my bad habits. And I am SO proud of myself already, because I’ve made some awesome changes!

How About Results??

I know, I know – What you guys all really want to know is, “How much have you lost so far??!!” I know this, because it’s what my friends and family keep asking too. But, I’m sorry to disappoint you – I don’t have a number to give you yet. I did weigh myself when I started – But our old scale is really unreliable. After a ton of research online, and asking friends for suggestions – I just ordered the EatSmart Precision Digital Bathroom Scale. It definitely seems like the best one in my price range. That way, I’ll be able to truly track my progress. But – here’s the good news… Our old unreliable scale weighs me differently 4 times in a row. BUT – it’s now weighing me at lower numbers than I’ve ever gotten before. That’s VERY encouraging and motivating!

Almost the One-Month Mark

Next Sunday will mark my one-month mark on the Nutrisystem program. So, this weekend I’ll have my new scale, to finally get firm numbers of what I truly weigh. AND – I’m going to retake all of my measurements. Since I took a very full set of body measurements before I started, and logged them all in my personal Nutrisystem online journal system – I am incredibly excited to see what kind of results I’ve gotten!! Watch for the big reveal this Sunday night….

Until then, remember…. “You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.” – Jim Rohn

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or by visitingNutrisystem.com!

signature
Posted by on March 19, 2012 Filed Under: Nutrisystem | No Comments
« Previous Page
Next Page »