Happy Leap Day & Update

Good afternoon on this "extra" Leap Year Day!

To take advantage of it, I decided today I  am all about getting back on track with my healthy living goals, life and work. I just want to get back to what's important and that includes being more mindful & becoming more of a minimalist. I'm finding when you have less clutter in your mind, home and body it's amazing what that "space" can do for you. I have de-cluttered quite a bit around our home but still need to do more. 

After a longer walk/run this morning I went grocery shopping so I can menu plan. I'm still following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle and eating my Juice Plus everyday. My focus is on whole and minimally processed foods. I did gain a few pounds back the last few weeks and I want to lose them again ASAP. I want to continue to avoid gluten and dairy and have been trying to do so since I did The D14 back in December.  I plan to do another round very soon - stay tuned :)

Something else I added into our daily life last fall was essential oils. I still use them essential every day and am loving them with every use! I just ordered more of my favorite from Plant Therapy called Germ Destroyer from their KidSafe line. Between our Juice Plus and the essential oils I really feel that's why we've been staying as healthy as possible over the winter. 

Speaking of winter, I'm ready for it to come to a close and am very much looking forward to spring cleaning!

Enjoy the day!

~Carly

Recipe: DIY "Farmington Valley Salad" - THM (E)

Well helloooooo.

Yes, yes - I took another hiatus but I'm back and I promise you won't be disappointed with this recipe I've returned with! 

But first a quick update with where I'm at. I'm bouncing a bit weight-wise but still feeling really good. I'm taking my Juice Plus every day and using my Complete shakes sparingly as I'm going to do the D14 in a few weeks again! I'm staying as much gluten and dairy free as I can and I have to say it's keeping me feeling deflated most of the time which is great!! 

Ok enough about that. On to this new salad I'm obsessed with. Not sure I've mentioned this before but I grew up in Farmington, Connecticut. There's a bakery in the corner as you come into our town and it was called Ann Howard's. It's now called Truffles and they also have a location in Avon, CT which is where I first had the Farmington Valley Salad with my BFF, Dana.

It's delicious! And of course a salad made by anyone else but you always tastes better - am I right? Yes - it's just true. Since I live close to the area but not quite close enough to get this salad as often as I crave it I decided to experiment and create my own. 

Well, clearly certain ingredients aren't hard to re-create...ya know like lettuce. Heh. Sorry - I'm silly. However it's always the dressing that is the hardest to re-create. But thanks to the wonderful world of people on Pinterest I found a really great recipe for the balsamic dressing that I love!! Yay!

So here is the recipe for the dressing from Brianne at Cupcakes and Kale Chips.
 

I'm just going to tell you now to double the ingredients because you're going to be sad when it runs out. Trust me. Speaking from experience here :(

I used 0% plain greek yogurt and only had regular yellow mustard.  I added garlic powder to mine as well. I whipped mine up all in the food processor.

For the ingredients for the salad, you'll need:

1. Any kind of lettuce or greens you like.  Here I used romaine and baby spinach.  The salad at Truffle's comes with mixed greens so next time I will make sure I use those :)
2. Grilled chicken
3. A handful of red grapes sliced in half
4. A pinch of dried cranberries
5. A tablespoon or two of feta cheese or any other type of hard cheese (remember for THM it's an E setting so have to watch the fat grams!)
6. 1/4 to a half of a granny smith apple chopped
7. The delicious, glorious, creamy balsamic dressing recipe
Note: The original salad comes with sliced almonds but I omitted them because I had none and I kept the fat content down for the Trim Healthy Mama E meal.
 

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl to toss

 

All tossed with the dressing - snapped the pic while eating!

This salad is colorful, crunchy and just so tasty.  I will definitely be making this quite often.

For THM it's an E with the added fruit and the lower fat dressing.  Be mindful of the honey in the dressing, too.  I tolerate it well but you can add any sweetener of your choice if you do not wish to use honey.

There you have it - let me know if you make it and what you think!
~Carly

Ouch!

I'm so sore from legs day one of my BBG restart! 

I went for a walk today with my friend and our dogs for my LISS and my legs are sooooo sore! I've been ouching all day.

So I leave you with these funnies:

 

And a little Yoda :)

Sitting hurts. Stairs hurt - especially going down them and any sort of pressure on my legs hurts.

Call me crazy but I kind of love it!

Who am I?

~Carly

Sunday Musings

Good morning!

It's a dreary, rainy Sunday here in Connecticut but I will take it!

I am re-committing to a more active lifestyle and re-starting Kayla Itsines' BBG program and I did Day 1 today and woah. Sore already. I got to about week 5 last time I started but got sidetracked - always seems to happen. 

I'm not going to let that happen.

I'm going to clear my mind of can't.

I've accomplished a lot in these last 6 years of losing the baby weight and I'm still a work in progress. 

Another mantra of mine is a negative mind will never give you a positive life. 

I truly believe this. 

What are you ready to accomplish?

~Carly

Recipe: Chocolate Caramel "Crack" (THM - sort of)

Hello! Happy Tuesday night!

A few years ago, a neighbor made the most amazing creation she called "Christmas Crack" which was essentially butter, sugar, saltines and chocolate. What's the big deal with those ingredients. Don't be fooled - when combined it is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. For real. It's sweet, salty and crunchy. 

Fast forward to now and being on THM I haven't had it in a very long time. In fact, Ifortunately hadn't even thought about it until it started popping up in my newsfeed on Facebook and on Pinterest. Ugh. 

Then a few weeks back in the Trim Healthy Mama groups page the lovely Briana Thomas posted her own recipe. So immediately I pinned it and looked at it but honestly it was a little too involved for me and I moved on with my craving.

So tonight while grabbing some items out of the pantry I noticed a package of wasa crackers and I decided to experiment.

I grabbed some foil, the wasa crackers, my THM super sweet blend, a stick of butter and vanilla and went to work.

I quickly searched for a recipe and found this one from Smitten Kitchen - http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/04/chocolate-caramel-crackers/

So I followed the directions loosely.

I didn't make a full recipe so I halved it. I spread about 9 crackers on the foil and preheated the oven to 350. I added the stick of butter to a saucepan and added about 1/3 cup super sweet blend and stirred. However, it wasn't thickening or coming to a boil. Seeing as how the real "Christmas Crack" calls for brown sugar, I didn't have any or any THM brown sugar. So I cheated a bit and added two small teaspoons of regular real sugar. As soon as I did the mixture came to a rolling boil and simmered for a few minutes. Then, I added the vanilla and poured over the crackers and spread with a spoon and popped the tray in the oven. After about 8 minutes it was ready with the edges turning brown and I sprinkled dark chocolate chips on top. I use the Enjoy Life brand. However, I didn't have enough so I did use some Nestle tollhouse chocolate chips I had on hand to fill in some gaps. These are clearly not on THM (hence the name of the post) but I figure it's better to have a smidge of real sugar than to indulge in completely off plan foods.

After the chips sat on top and melted I spread them around with a spatula. I sprinkled the top with some coarse sea salt and popped it in the fridge to cool.

Then I proceeded to open and close the fridge numerous times waiting to be able to taste it!! 

Finally, after an eternity - or about 15 minutes - it cooled enough for me to taste to make sure it was going to be good enough to satisfy my craving.

Oh, you guys. It was AMAZING!!

I popped it back in the fridge to cool a bit more and then broke it into pieces. 

And of course I continued to taste test. Even my son wanted a piece. I'm not going to lie - I hesitated to share! Haha but like a good mom I let him have a piece (a small one). He loved it!

This recipe is definetly a keeper. And while I did use some off plan ingredients, this hit the spot and I don't feel bad at al for having this along with my S meals!

~Carly

The D14 Recap

Yikes! I completely forgot to post my recap from the results of The D14 program!

Overall I was down about 5 pounds and almost 8 inches! My clothes are looser and fitting well, I'm still very much not bloated and truly feeling great!

I'm back to eating Trim Healthy Mama style - not that I really stopped - but just continuing to eat well. I have been careful to re-introduced too many of the things I cut out. However, I have had some small amounts of cheese here and there but am going to try to avoid gluten as much as possible.

Since I was finished with my nutritional rebalancing I feel truly amazing and I encourage anyone who is looking to get healthier, maybe lose a few pounds or just detox a little bit if you're feeling sluggish, etc.

~Carly

The D14 Day 14

I made it!! I measured this morning and lost another inch or so for a total of 7 3/4 inches lost in 14 days! I'm still less bloated and feeling good. I can't believe it was so easy to cut out some things from my diet for these past two weeks and I'm so much better for it!

I really can't say enough good things about this detox. Whole food nutrition is so important and I really am going to keep what I learned about myself going forward. 

I started my dieting journey in 2010 by counting calories. While it worked initially it can be quite a pain long term - but when you find food freedom like I have with Trim Healthy Mama you can lose the numbers and measuring obsession.

~Carly