Category: Uncategorized

How To Kick Your Sugar Addiction

Sugar!! Why can’t we quit you! Once we establish the habit of cutting sugar out our desire for it lessens because we’ll feel the benefits such as increased energy, better mood, healthier skin & teeth and healthier organs.

Here are some tips to help reduce your added sugar intake.

1. Baby Steps! Start slow by eliminating obvious sources such as sugar in your coffee or tea, candy, soft drinks and baked goods like muffins and cake.

2. Read labels! Many foods have naturally occurring sugars so it’s more important to check the ingredient list when looking for added sugar. There can be so many hidden sugars in the foods you never thought would have them. Added sugars have over 50 other names so look for ingredients that end in “ose” & “ol”.

3. Fill up on whole foods such as Vegetables, lean meats and poultry, fish, nuts/seeds, whole grains and don’t forget fruit for your sweet tooth.

4. Drink at least 64 oz of water Per day. It helps those sugar cravings that may actually be a sign of dehydration. Add lemons, limes or other citrus to jazz it up!

5. Pre-plan your meals! You’ll be able to avoid easy sugary snacks if you have nutritious choices on hand!

After some consistency, really pay attention to your body for your rewards. You will be amazed at how quickly you start to feel good and you may even shed a few pounds.

Once you make these changes please let me know how you do!

How To Handle Saboteurs!

Tell me if these phrases sound familiar while you’re trying to change your habits for a healthier lifestyle!

“You look fine, one piece isn’t going to hurt you.”

“They spent hours on this, don’t be rude”

“What’s wrong with you, You don’t come out to dinner anymore”

“There’s one left, eat it”

“You’re doing amazing, take a break”

Whether it’s your friends or family or even yourself sometimes consciously or not we all have to deal at one point with saboteurs! There’s a whole slew of reasons too lengthy to cover here as to why this happens but here are some quick tips on how to deal.

Just say no! Easy but not so easy especially if you’re a people pleaser. You really don’t owe anybody an explanation so a simple no thank you should suffice. Sometimes you might even have to say it twice.

If saying no isn’t an option you can always accept the food but wrap it up to go. That way you can avoid confrontation and toss it out later.

Try these phrases-

“No thank you, I’m stuffed”

“No thank you, I have some dietary restrictions”

“Thank you for offering, looks delicious! I’ve been feeling so great following my meal plan for my healthier lifestyle. So, I prefer to stick to that.”

If none of these tips works just smile and ignore the comments. Try to avoid getting defensive. They might not even know what they’re doing so try not to take it personal.

If it’s your loved ones or even yourself doing the sabotaging remember not to be too hard on yourself. Avoid the guilt and focus on your end goal!

First & foremost be kind to yourself!

What To Do When Those Binge Watching Snack Cravings Hit!

Let’s talk about late night cravings/snacking! What’s most important is trying to identify whether it’s a true hunger or just boredom. Here are some tips!

  1. Water! Being dehydrated will often confuse those craving signals. What your body really needs is to be hydrated. Even just one glass of water can sometimes help curb the craving. You can always grab some sparkling water add some lemon and limes and ice and throw it in a wine glass. It tricks your brain.
  2. Distraction! If it’s safe enough go for a quick walk. Or help de-stress by filling the tub with bubbles and having a nice long soak!
  3. Go to bed! Staying up later & longer increases your hunger and cravings. Decreasing the amount of necessary sleep messes with your internal clock resulting in more stress. Sometimes eating healthy all day and exercise will come to a halt if you’re not getting enough rest. So, turn off the show you’re bingeing it’ll be there tomorrow!
  4. Pre-planning! Include a high fibre low calorie snack into your evening with a cup of decaffeinated herbal tea. It’ll help satisfy the craving and fill your belly!
  5. My favourite and go to tip is brushing my teeth and putting my retainer in. You know, because I’m lazy and don’t want to brush my teeth twice in one night! 😂

We’ve all been there on these evenings especially this past year where we succumb to boredom or emotional eating. Hope these tips help!

How To Handle a Long Weekend!

Happy Long Weekend!

Or as I like to call it day 436 of our incarceration! No matter where you are or what you’re doing whether for work or play you’re probably going to be a little bit busy! Here are some tips on how to stay on track this long weekend!

1. Have fun, relax & drink at least 64 oz of water

2. Pre-plan! I know I always mention this but this really is the key to making sure you stay on track with healthy choices. Because when people are tired and hungry they don’t always make the best choices!

3. If you’re going to anyone’s place(post lockdown of course 😉) Bring a veggie tray or a fruit tray so you have healthy choices to munch on!

4. Go for a walk! It’s an easy activity and great for stress!

5. Pick up pre-made salads, pre-cut veggies, rotisserie chicken or a couple of healthy frozen meals! They come in handy when the family wants crappy takeout or I need something quick. Sometimes I will sprinkle some Parmesan and add more broccoli or zucchini noodles.

Remember to enjoy yourself, stay safe, stay healthy and be kind!

How to Re-gain Your Focus!

Ever have one of those days! I literally woke up in a “F*** it mood!” (Hence why it’s 9 a.m on a Sunday and I’m still in bed🤨) Waffles smothered in whip cream and strawberries with a side of bacon & a mimosa sounds a lot better than boiled eggs, plain oatmeal & plain yogurt no matter how I try to spruce it up with my blueberries!

But as I pull up my SkipTheDishes app I see the wallpaper pic of myself with my boys. It is a reminder of what’s at stake if I don’t get my health under control. So, I’m going to finish my tea, restart the kettle and get back to staying on track! Here are some other quick tips to help if you ever find yourself less than motivated to continue to make healthy choices!

1. Forgive yourself! Keep your expectations realistic. Life happens, you can’t be perfect 100% of the time. Staying healthy is a lifelong journey!

2. Focus on the reason why you want a healthy lifestyle. Think about your end goal. Visualize what that will look and feel like!

3. Go for a walk! Activity will help with managing your stress, fighting boredom and is a healthy distraction.

4. Variety! Try to pre-plan and mix up your meals to avoid the monotony of eating the same things. Balance and moderation are keys to staying on track.

5. Get Support! Sometimes making lifestyle change is challenging so it always helps to have that little extra lift or push to make things more enjoyable and successful. Find a partner to challenge & cheer each other on.

Happy Sunday Funday!

Enjoy today! 💕

Did someone mention drinks on the patio?

Speaking of summer and tomatoes one of the favourite drinks of Canadians is a classic Caesar(in a week it’s actually National Caesar day) What’s great about this is that an 8 ounce glass is a fun way to get two servings of vegetables in! Throw in a couple celery stocks for garnish and take care of a third! And it’s also socially acceptable to have this at any time of day! 😂

Stick to low sodium ingredients when possible. Vodka is also optional! But if you’re watching your waist line keep in mind the cons of alcohol when losing weight!

Please excuse me, after writing this I’m going to have to go enjoy this out of my deck now! Have a great afternoon/evening! 💕

-8 ounces of Clamato juice or low sodium V-8 juice (jar not can for best results)

-2 dashes of low- sodium Worcestershire sauce

-1 dash of Tabasco (or more depending how spicy you’d like)

-celery sticks

-celery salt- optional (I know I said low sodium but what’s a Caesar without this!)

-a lime (cut one half & the other half make 2 wedges)

-black pepper

Some recipes will say shake up all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker then pour but I actually prefer the ingredients layered.

-Rub the edge of a glass with a lime wedge and dip the rim in celery salt and set aside

-Fill your glass with ice, add Clamato or V8 juice, add squeezed juice of half a lime, then Worcestershire, then Tabasco, pepper it up to preferred taste. Garnish with remaining lime wedge and Add celery stocks

-Enjoy

Tip: get creative with different vegetable garnishes & olives(healthy fat)

What are some of your favourites??

Let’s Get Take-out!

Happy Friday! For many, weekend’s tend to mean dining out or take out!

For the most part dining out is more about the people you’re with and the experience than the actual food.

(Pre/post lockdown of course)

Here are some tips to help with healthy choices.

1- Pre-plan! I find this the biggest help! Thanks to the internet you’re able to go online and check out menus prior to the day your plans are. Choose something you can build your choices for the rest of the days meals with.

2- Order sparkling water in a wine glass with lots of lemons & limes. Sometimes chatting with company, mindless drinking & eating happens so it definitely tricks your brain holding a wine glass instead of one of those boring regular water glasses.

3- Stick to protein & vegetables and 1 high calorie carbohydrate such as either the cocktail, bread, potato or dessert but not all four. And don’t be afraid to order a lean cut of steak with a side of vegetables. Sometimes those meals can have the lowest fat and calories on the menu.

4-Ask for a to go container at the time you place your order so when your meal arrives to the table you take half of it and immediately put it away to avoid that mindless eating.

5- Don’t forget to drink extra water that day and the next not just because it’ll keep you full but also to help with the extra sodium that tends to be in restaurant food.

6-Most importantly!! Give yourself a break & don’t stress about your meal. Enjoy each bite & each conversation! Life is strange these days so you never know when you’ll get a chance to savour these moments. Start fresh your next meal! 💕🍴🍛😋

Broken

So, this happened at 630 am. The perfect start to my day. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. At that moment, I sit there on the floor, legs crossed amongst the mess feeling a lot like that broken bottle. The amount of red hot sauce that had spread to reach more corners of the kitchen floor then what possibly was left in the bottle and that shattered glass seemed to be a perfect symbol.

I had two choices. Number one, I could do nothing but sit there amongst the mess I made wallowing in the misery, focusing on how long it will take to clean up, how late the start of my day would be or how I might even cut myself. Of course, also, what could have been with all the uses of the hot sauce that will never happen now.

Or choice number two, take a deep breath, stand up, grab some paper towels & a mop. Stop wasting time and clean my mess up!! Start fresh and move on!

Oh, and next time don’t place glass bottles so precariously on a shelf!

The Day The World Will Never Forget #911

To my civilian friends who say “I will never forget” that day…
It was a different kind of memory for those of us who lived on military bases with our families working that day. While folding laundry, talking to another military wife friend on the phone who lived in Ottawa being complacent about the security of our lives we turned the tv on. We both went silent and had to say goodbye while seeing the horror because we knew what that meant for our serving friends and their families. All kinds of things were happening at once I’ll never forget and too long to explain here but my fellow military wives “will never forget”.


My husband was a Sergeant in the Canadian Forces and was working that day. When he was finally able to call it was just to say… “We are on lock down” he couldn’t talk any further and didn’t know when he would be able to. My son Connor had just started his second week of first grade at an off base school 10 minutes away but at that moment it seemed like the other side of the world!!


I’ll never forget that day… Keeping a brave face in front of our children and spouses while being terrified of the immediate change in our way of life. This is something the wives mastered. Keeping s*** together when the s*** was coming apart and too often doing it alone.

When you say “I will never forget”— Please while remembering those souls stolen from the world that day also remember the families of the victims, the soldiers in our countries fighting the evil in our world and their families too! And Spread a little more kindness each day!