Don't say the "D" WORD!

Eliminate the D word from your vocabulary! What word were YOU thinking? I was talking about the word "DIET"! ;)

DIETING makes us think of depriving ourselves and eating rabbit food or food with no flavor. Let's make a LIFESTYLE change with our eating patterns and just make healthier choices instead of saying we're on that ugly "D" word. You can have everything in moderation. I noticed I was being too strict with my eating this week when I was craving EVERYTHING. I realized I was not eating enough carbs for the amount of exercise I was doing, so I made sure to refuel and give my body the sweetness it was craving, the CLEAN way.

I made Peanut butter banana ice-cream last night with only two ingredients!

• 2 Frozen Bananas
• 2 TBS Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (I use Trader Joe's brand)
• Thinly slice 2 ripe bananas and throw in ziploc baggy in freezer
• Freeze for about 1 hour
• Throw in food processor until it starts to become creamy
• Blend in 2TBS peanut butter
• ENJOY!

It definitely hit the spot! I couldn't even finish it, it definitely could be 2 servings. It was aMaZiNg! Seriously so much better for you than regular ice cream without all those mystery ingredients!!

Nutrition Facts if you eat all of it:

Calories:  400 calories

Fat : 16.8g

Carbs: 61g

Protein:  10.6g

Sugars: 29.8g

OR-- make 2 servings out of it and cut all the above in 1/2. Bananas are the most calorically dense fruit and all fruits are high in sugar, but at least it's natural sugar and the fat is coming from the natural peanut butter and it is the "good fat", i.e. unsaturated fat, which does not play a role in heart disease. There's also a ton of protein in our ice cream vs. store bought ice cream! So let's compare store bought peanut butter ice cream facts for HALF CUP serving. Our healthy ice cream results in more than double this serving if you eat the whole thing:
Calories: 160
Fat: 7g
Carbs: 21g
Sugars: 16g

Now who only eats 1/2 cup of ice cream? That's like one tiny scoop! So let's double that to make it more equivalent to ours, however it did result in slightly more than 1 cup:

Calories: 320
Fat: 14g (not the good kind)
Carbs: 42g
Protein: 4g
Sugars: 32g (not natural)

Not to mention there's about 25 ingredients in their ice-cream versus our 2 natural ingredients. It's not ALL ABOUT CALORIES. It's about what you're putting in your body to FUEL yourself for the day. Be sure to look at ingredients - if you don't know what it is- buy something more NATURAL!

Today for breakfast I had my usual overnight oats, but my peanut butter jar was left empty last night after this treat, so I made the oats in the peanut butter jar to get all the goodness out!

Overnight Oats:

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup almond milk

dash of cinnamon

sprinkle of dried cranberries, and slivered almonds,

sliced banana --> put in peanut butter jar - pop in fridge overnight --> AMAZING!

Lunch:

I'm listening to my body because I feel tired even though I got plenty of sleep. I know I am working out a ton and not eating enough carbs so yesterday I whipped up some basmati rice, sauteed spinach, and baked chicken and threw it all together to add to my lunch today. Here are the steps:

1. Heat 1 Tbs EVOO in skillet on stove

2. Add chopped garlic and finely sliced onions - sautee for a few minutes

3. Add 2 cups or more of fresh spinach (It cooks down a TON, this will not make that much)

4. Sautee until spinach is desired texture

5. Add a touch of fresh ground sea salt & black pepper

6. Prepare 1 cup basmati/brown rice according to package directions

7. Grill chicken with Mrs. Dash no salt added garlic & herb seasoning (or seasoning of choice)

8. Add it all together and make 2 servings out of it - NOM!

I used left over chicken I made on the George Foreman grill earlier this week added hot sauce to mine for a punch!

So, I had 1/2 of this rice with my salad and it was amazing!

Salad: Spinach, red cabbage, green peppers, portobello mushrooms, grilled chicken, and poppyseed dressing! YUM!

Dinner will be one of my meal prepped quinoa/turkey/veggie mixtures with roasted brussel sprouts from my previous meal prep post.

Enjoy your day, and always LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. You should not be restricting yourself so much that you feel the need to eat EVERYTHING! If I want to treat myself to frozen yogurt, do I?! YES! I adjust my meals throughout the day to be able to fit it into my day without going over on my macros "i.e. fats/cho/protein"

BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE, STARTING TODAY!

Xo - April