better choices

I've always heard the same excuse for eating junk , "I'm so busy, I don't have the time to eat anything else." well, that's a load of poo. (that's right, I'm callin' you out!) If you have time to watch a movie or one of the shows that takes almost as long, you have time to set yourself up with some healthy snacks that you can take with you to school, or work, or whatever the heck you're all doing to occupy your precious time.

Here' s what I do:

Once a week, or sometimes I can stretch it to two weeks. I go to the food store and I buy stuff. (in some cultures this is called grocery shopping.) Now, before you walk in to one of these "stores" I should warn you: the food there will usually take some effort before it is ready to eat. This is not a good place to satisfy our need for instant gratification.

When I am here I buy things like fruits, vegetables, cheese, wheat crackers. Believe it or not, I then take these home and turn them into snacks! All week long Ben and I take these and water or Green₂O to work and to school and often go ALL DAY without potato chips and candy bars and soda pop. Whoddathought?

When I get home I cut up all the fruits and vegetables and then put everything into snack sized baggies. Here's what I put in the last snack bowl (well, we have two. One for the fridge and one for the counter top):


Baggies of cucumber
Baggies of carrots 
Baggies of sugar snap peas
Baggies of wheat thins
Baggies of apple slices. (if you coat them in lemon juice they don't turn super brown and gross.)
Babybel cheeses (they were on sale!)
Fruit leather
Honey sticks (sometimes you just have a sweet tooth)
granola bars
Grapenuts peanut butter bars (shout out to Jon and Stacy for the tip. We used brown rice syrup instead of light corn syrup. Healthier? Not likely. But I can pronounce both of the ingredients.)
Simply go-gurt. (I freeze it. Then it's a cool pack I can eat later.)

All the best stuff is gone by now (fruit leather, and Babybel cheeses) but you get the idea.

As for "real food" sometimes that happens, sometimes it's just another run by the snack bowl or pasta (again). We have some crockpot meals in the freezer, if only we would remember to put them in the crockpot before meal time roles around... The point is eat better!

We also make an effort to work out regularly. Ben goes and lifts weights often and I go for a pretty lengthy run most every other day as well as try to pump some iron of my own everyday. 
Oh, here's a link to an interesting article I read recently about being fit vs. being skinny. 

So hopefully I've inspired at least one of you to re-up on the new years resolutions that may, or may not, have been neglected.  

{Moral of the Story}

Everyone can make their body better, why not start with what you put in it?