30 day fitness challenge results

nothing like being a week late posting this but hey better late than never right! Before we get to the pictures how about the fit test results...
Squat jump
Day 1 : 26
Day 30 : 30

pushups
Day 1 : 15 (some on knees)
Day 30 : 20 (all on toes)

burpees
Day 1 : 10
Day 30 : 16

high knees
Day 1 : 60
Day 30 : 100

switch lunges
Day 1 : 16
Day 30 : 30

tuck jumps
Day 1 : 5 (not even able to tuck, really just a weird jump)
Day 30 : 16 (good form tucks)

sit ups
Day 1 : 15 (horrible form)
Day 30 :19 (form improving)

huge results! And I could have pushed harder but I was worried about disturbing my downstairs neighbors! Based on those numbers alone I know I got stronger how about some pictures though??

Before:



















After:



















Before:



















After:




















notice the cinched waist, more toned abdomen, perkier butt, and legs not touching as much anymore. Time for another month of body blasting! Join me?

Sugar free Dairy Free crustless pumpkin pie

Well I thought I would let you guys know I made it through week one of my bodyrock workouts. I lost 2.6 lbs and my body is already looking better! I am still sore today and hoping I feel better before tomorrows workout. Anyway I thought you should know if you didn't that I absolutely love pumpkin! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes etc you get the idea. Around thanksgiving I created a crustless pie I could eat. It was divine, even my fiancee liked it and he isn't a pumpkin fan. Anyway I thought I would share it with you guys and I just may make one this week as a post-workout treat. I like to bake it in little ramekins but I have baked it in a regular ole pie plate as well. I havent figured out a home-made crust I feel good about yet that is actually worth making so if you have a crust recipe that is DF, SF & Fake ingredient free please do tell! I have been making mine crustless and I still love it!

SF DF Crustless Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:
1 can of pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I make my own mix but you can use a store bought mix if you prefer)
1 tsp salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup agave
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup coconut milk

Directions:

In a large bowl mix pumpkin, spices, & salt. Beat in eggs, honey, almond milk & coconut milk. Pour filling into ramekins or pie plate. Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 min (closer to 40 for ramekins & closer to 50 for pie plate) or until a knife inserted into the center of pie comes out clean. cool and eat! Enjoy hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do

30 day fitness challenge

So January was a month of focusing on my eating habits and healing them after all the holiday food. February is my month to maintain my healthy eating and get fit. I decided after looking at several options that where quite honestly ridiculously expense that I would try the 30 day body rock tv challenge. Here is the link .

Body fit is an online community of people and its a workout you can do in your home for free. No expensive DVDs no expensive gym membership or personal trainer. For me trying to save money where I can it seemed like the perfect starting point. I decided I would commit to it for 30 days. Last night was my first night and that was the fit test you can find on the page I gave you the link to. The fit test was 7 minutes long and I was gasping for air after the first 50 seconds, maybe I have gotten out of shape. I will try to report in once a week to let you guys know I am still sticking to it but feel free to ask my at any point in time if I am still doing it and how I like it. If you would like to join me in this adventure then please let me know so I can also encourage and support you. Here are the results of my fit test each move was performed for 50 seconds and then there was a 10 second rest before the next move...

Squat jump 26
push ups 15
burpees 10
high knees 60
switch lunges 16
tuck jumps 5
sit ups 15

One of my good friends came over tonight so I put on my bikini and took some before pictures to post. I know I am not fat I am just trying to get more fit so please keep that in mind. I will give you a front and a side, guess I should have done a back shot too but she is gone now so maybe next week. Here they are....

All natural sugar free dairy free peanut butter freezer pie

Ok I confess I am maybe a little more than completely obsessed with Pinterest. There I said it I am addicted. As a result of this addiction I accidentally stumbled across a picture of a decadent peanut butter freezer pie. It kinda even made me sad because I am currently doing a detox cleanse so I am limited on what I am able to eat. I know that often these pies have an oreo crumb crust or a store bought chocolate crumb crust, can anyone say dairy, sugar, fake ingredients and trans fats? In addition to that they also often have cool whip and cream cheese again a slew of fake ingredients or dairy. Despite the obstacles I decided I had to at least attempt to make a clean version of this dish. With my mouth still drooling from the picture I had seen earlier I set out to make my healthy peanut butter pie for dinner. Fully expecting it to fail miserably since I would have to change multiple elements. This was an easy pie to make but it had to be made in different steps so keep that in mind.

Chocolate crust

1 1/4 almond meal (this is just almonds ground up to a rough powder)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
pinch of sea salt
1/3 cup agave
1/3 cup water

Mix all together and press into a pie plate. I did half this recipe but it made for a pretty thin crust, in the future I think I will keep it this way. Place pie plate in a food dehydrator or oven on lowest possible temp with door cracked until ready to use.

Peanut Butter Pie filling

1 cup creamy no sugar added peanut butter (I would tell you to buy all natural but there are no government regulations on the label all natural, therefore companies can and do put all natural labels on almost everything even if it isn't. Your best bet is to ALWAYS read your ingredient label)
1 cup agave
1 can coconut milk
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or 1/2 tsp lemon juice
5 packets of stevia

In a bowl mix egg whites and vanilla on high until the eggs become foamy and then add the cream of tartar or lemon juice (cream of tartar will probably work better, I had to use lemon juice. You have to use one of these to help the eggs keep their fluffiness when you are done beating them so they can fill the void of the cool whip). Beat until soft peaks start to form and add the stevia (you could possibly omit the stevia all together and I think the pie would still be sweet enough. Continue beating until hard peaks form. Place in fridge.

Mix together peanut butter, agave, and the hard part of the coconut milk (when you open the can there are 2 parts a hard part and liquid part, just use the hard part since this is the substitute for the cream cheese.) Once that is well combined fold in the egg white mix until combined and pour into the chocolate crust and throw in the freezer. Lick your peanut butter batter spoon and do not for any reason touch your pie within the next 3 hours. After that enjoy it is rich, decadent, smooth and sweet! My taste buds were totally fooled into thinking I was eating something super bad for me! At first I thought it was just me but then my fiance tried a piece and kept saying "babe this cant be good for you". He still doesn't believe me that it is healthy and that is fine by me. :) Here are some pictures make this you wont regret it I promise and it is loaded with protein and healthy fats for your body as well as sweetener that is low glycemic so it wont cause the spike in your insulin levels that leads to diabetes and other serious health conditions.

Christmas and a pillow

Yeah Yeah I know its the end of January and here I am talking about Christmas but hey that's what you get. I know I have been absent from here for a bit and there are several contributing factors to that. Factor number 1 was that I was crazy busy working on all my Christmas crafts I needed to get finished so I could give them as gifts. I really wanted to blog these as I was making them but some of the gifts were for some of you fine followers so unfortunately I couldn't. Anyway did you have a wonderful Christmas? I cant even begin to explain how wonderful mine was! My whole family was together on Christmas day with not a single person missing which is unusual these days with everyone being married with kids etc. At my Grandma Browns it was warm enough to linger outside and chat with my awesome cousins, aunts and uncles. I even got some very thoughtful sweet gifts I will cherish forever! After staying there and not wanting to leave (I hate leaving my family because I love them so much), we finally headed to my Granny and Grandads. Now my Grandad had a stroke about 10 years ago and it has tremendously changed his life in so many ways. Because of this it is hard for him to play with kids because of is disabilities now. Usually young kids have a hard time bonding in these situations but I was so blessed to see my niece (3yo) and nephew (2yo) talking to him and giggling and making him smile. Truly one of the most precious memories of my life seeing them reach out and include him and love him just as I do. My nephew had to show him every single one of his new tractors before they could leave, I know those moments were so special to my Grandad just as they were to me and I am so grateful that God gave us those moments.

In January we found out some news that made that Christmas even more special. We found out my Grandad has a blood clot that is slowly plugging the artery running to my Grandads heart. Due to the location they cannot operate and they cannot get the clot to dissolve. We now know that it is likely that Christmas (2011) is the last we will ever have with him. Cherish your family folks, love them every moment you can, treasure them and most importantly pray for them and constantly show them and tell them of your love for them. Every time I get to tell my Grandad I love him I consider it a gift because any breath could very well be his last according to the doctors.

Reason number 2 I haven't been blogging is that I am planning a wedding silly! So I have been really busy working on wedding crafts and unfortunately doing a horrible job of taking pictures as I go. I will try to get better about that.

Reason number 3 well after all of my holiday eating (ok gorging) I felt awful! I knew I needed to get back to eating healthy so I decided to do a detox. Its pretty strict especially the first 2 weeks so even though I was trying a ton of recipes I wasnt sure about posting some of them. Now I am at a stage in the detox where I am able to be a little creative with food and I am really liking it. In fact I made a divine peanut butter pie yesterday that I will share with you. But not in this post. In this post I want to show you what I made my Mom for Christmas. So without further ado.

My sister found this ratty old OLD hand crocheted pillow cover that one of my Great or Great Great Grandmas made. It was in bad shape and we couldn't figure out how to recreate/save it. It did have some gorgeous hand crocheted roses on it that were still in great shape however. Finally my sister came up with the idea to cut off the roses and sew them to a pillow case. Enter me, she had the idea, I did all the work. First I bought pillow forms from Walmart, then I used some burlap I had to sew a pillow case for the pillow forms. I then sewed on the roses and realized something was missing, LEAVES! I custom made some felt leaves and stitched them in place. Something still wasn't quite right and finally I realized the roses needed some little fake pearls sewn in the center. The finished product is absolutely gorgeous and guess what my Mom loved her new old pillows. I know she will treasure them forever and one day my sister and I will get to treasure them too. Here are some pictures!

Dairy Free Sugar Free Ice Cream

So I saw this posted over on
http://erinschubert.blogspot.com/2011/03/recipe-healthy-all-natural-ice-cream.html

and immediately knew I had to try it! Today was the day my banana was frozen so I mixed this up and let me tell you this is going to be a staple in my house from now on! I am a sucker for ice cream but it doesn't really agree with me because of all the dairy and sugar. Not to mention I always feel guilty when I indulge because it is so unhealthy! Now I can have ice cream whenever I want quick and easy (took maybe 5 min to whip up, minus the freezing the banana time). I added 2 spoonfuls of nothing added almond butter and just a drizzle of agave because the banana I had used wasn't quite ripe enough to be sweet enough. It was cold, creamy and deliciously sweet! And with those healthy ingredients I didnt feel guilty one lick! Ok go on over there and get the how to with great pictures. Here is the link again :)

Burlap Candle Holders

Today I made these adorable candle holders. It really was an experimental thing at first but I think they turned out adorable! I will definitely be keeping any glass jars coming out of my fridge to turn into these adorable candle holders for my wedding coming May 2012. Without further adieu lets get to the DIY (do it yourself-but you probably already knew that)

Step 1. Save the glass jars coming out of your fridge that used to hold your condiments etc. Run them through your dishwasher or hand wash them. If there is a label still holding strong then soak it in water to loosen the stickiness. Then use something to scrape it off (I used a plastic kitchen thingy I have for scraping messes off my counters) leaving none of the label but its ok if the sticky stuff remains.













Step 2. Cut a small circle of brown or white felt and about 15 circles of burlap all the same size. The first circle of burlap you will pinch the 4 sides in then hot glue the tip and stick it standing straight up in the center of your felt circle (it wont stay straight up but just do the best you can, the important thing is that its in the center).




Step 3. The remainder of the burlap circles you will fold in half and then in half again. Hot glue the tip and stick it as close to the base of the first burlap piece as possible. Continue this until your burlap flower is full to your liking. I think it took me about 10-11 burlap circles, but always best to have a few extras than need one in the right size a little to late.






















Step 4. Cut a strip of burlap to fit around the jar and cover up whatever stickiness is left. Hot glue the first end down and then pull the burlap tight and hot glue the other end. Put hot glue in a circle right at the seam and press on your burlap flower and TA DA! Enjoy!




I also made my own wedding garter but silly me forgot to take pictures as I worked so I cant give you the DIY. Anyone needing a cute rustic wedding garter? Buy the materials and I will DIY it for you so I can take pictures to post the DIY on here. Here is how my garter turned out I love it!



Food.Exercise.Life

God Bless, I love you!