February Challenge: Love Your Body by Eating Clean(er)

A year ago,  February 2014, I challenged myself and all of you to find something you loved every day. I managed to get 25 out of the 28 days with the chalkboard art graphic of something I loved.

This February I am going to kick off another challenge!

February is a shortest month of the year so why not use it as a trial for healthy living!?!

Last year I did a lot of exercise and I'm feeling great. This year I think it's time to challenge myself to make even more changes, specifically in the everyday foods I eat.

Despite all the exercise I've done and my overall daily healthy eating, haven't lost that last 10 pounds of baby weight that I want to get off of me. (Although I know some of that is gaining muscle and losing fat from running and all that kind of thing…)

But after lots of reading and investigation I've come to a realization that I've crossed that threshold into the mid 30 range and it's not just about exercise our calorie consumption (a.k.a. quantity). I really think it has to do a lot with quality. 

I'm really thinking at this point I need to seriously think about metabolism and hormones and overall healthy body balance. 

I've talked before about feeding our kids good food and organic versus healthy versus junk food I think it's time for me to really step up the game and see how much of a difference clean eating makes.

So here's what I'm going to do. I am going to take the month of February and challenge myself to gradually switch my family over to eating high(er)-quality food thought the entire month of February.

Over the next three weeks I'm going to do a series of posts about healthy eating geared towards moms who cook for kids and families. I will also setup a basic framework for the February healthy eating challenge.

I would love to challenge you to join me. No need to jump on the organic or vegan bandwagon, just make some small steps to making your families eating a little more healthy. 

Let's get together, share some tips, recipes, resources, and most importantly encouragement to love your body by eating cleaner and healthy.

Let's make February the eat healthy and love your body month! ❤️

Meatless Monday: Greek chickpea salad

We have decided ( read  that as "I have forced"😀) my family to join the meatless Monday  movement. 

Here is our first main course. A Greek chickpea salad. Inspired by a pin test recipie but I have thrown own little twist in and made it my own.

I started with the core ingredients:

cucumber diced 

red onion diced 

red pepper diced

1 can of chickpeas

A good sprinkle of oregano

Next add 1/4 cup white wine vinegar and 2 tbsp olive oil and toss well.

At this point I taste tested and decided it just needed a bit more. I added a good squeeze of Romaneo Basil Vinegarette dressing and also diced a large tomato from my garden.

Perfect! And even better after it sat overnight in the flavors really had a chance to meld together.