From smoothies to corn on the cob, and all the IKEA veggie balls in between. Check out the food I ate today on fun family weekend day in July!
Here's a preview of the day...
Heading to Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping!
The girl's lunch: vegan grilled cheese (baked in the oven because I was feeling lazy-lol), Vegan Rob's Brussel Sprout Puffs, baby carrots, Hampton Creek's Just Ranch, and organic strawberries.
Dessert after dinner: Almond Dream vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and Ah!Laska non-dairy chocolate syrup...yum!
Ikea Veggie Balls with what turned out to be a not gluten-free or dairy-free meal ) : see below.
Check out the full day of food here...
And if you got a little hungry, here's the Vegan Cheesy Casserole recipe I had for dinner!
⭐️ PRODUCTS USED IN THIS VIDEO ‣ http://shwv.co/~/fRLp-kITYc8
IKEA food update: Apparently what I ordered at IKEA was officially called: "Veggie Balls w/Thai Coconut Curry, Brown Rice Blend and Seasoned Bean Blend (8 pc)" and now I know thanks to checking their menu online after I got home, that it contained milk and wheat. Bleh. No fun. ) : Next time I will just order the veggie balls plain...and check the menu ahead of time before I go. Don't you hate it when the menu changes!
Mornings are my favorite part of my day. The things I do in that narrow window of time from the time I get up until I I drive to work, fuel me to help make it through my day as a teacher, mom, wife, blogger and Youtuber. I use this time to incorporate many of the healthy and green tips I've learned and shared with you in the past few years, and together they make...
Now if you're like me, you read healthy living tips and wonder, "Okay that's all well and good, but how do you make that work in your daily life? Or do you even do it daily?" So this post feels like a summary of many of my other blog posts and videos, and hopefully in a way that you can relate too since I'm a working mom like so many of you.
So let's get started with my morning routine...
During the week I always get up at 4:45 AM. I'm sure that seems early, but my husband gets up at that time as well to go to his heating and cooling job, and in order for me to get everything done before I go to work, that's time I need to wake up.
Each day (that we use an alarm clock) I wake up to my Wake Up Light alarm clock that gradually starts lighting the room at about 4:15 AM and gradually gets brighter by 4:45. At that time, the sounds of birds chirping wake up officially.
From there I get up, change into my workout clothes, and put my contacts in.
Next up I do tongue scraping to clean my tongue after a lovely night of sleep.
Followed by my "Stretch Routine." I've been doing this routine that lasts 2-3 minutes for several years now and I love it. I do it when I wake up, before I go to bed, and after my daily workout. It decreases tension in muscles, and keeps my back and neck happy.
Then I have a seat at my "Morning Desk" as I call it (the chair I sit in to get ready for the day), and I get out my journal. In my journal that I started using thanks to Jim Rohn and Darren Hardy I do several things. First up, I track my sleep. My nightly goal is to get 7 hours of sleep, some days I'm higher, some days I'm lower, but I always feel my best if I get 7 or more. Something about charting it each day helps keep me accountable, knowing that if I stay up late I'll mess up my whole graph with a low point!
From there I check in with my "Rhythm Register" something I learned about from Darren Hardy in the book: The Compound Effect and I see how I'm doing on the little goals I've set for myself during the week. I usually fill in how I've done for the day at night before bed, but sometimes I have some insight I write on the second page (for reflecting) and I make any other needed notes. Some of the things I track on a daily basis in my Rhythm Register are: tidying each evening before bed (Thanks Mari Kondo!), spending quality time each day with both my girls and husband, whether or not I arrived on time to work, if I listening to something inspirational that day, and even if I jumped on my rebounder.
I'll be share more about my Rhythm Register and The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy in a future post.
During this time I also take a look at my schedule for the day/week and make note of my to-do list for the day. I also write down my dreams when I do remember them, and any other ideas I have.
Then I'm ready to head downstairs and make some lemon water. Drinking a glass of warm lemon water (water that has been warmed + the juice of one lemon) is my favorite way to start each day.
I usually drink this while I am preparing my food for the day. I usually pack the following: a fruit snack for the morning, morning snack #2: sweet potato biscuits or pancakes, my leftover lunch of dinner from the night before, a chia seed drink, and afternoon snack (roasted veggies or baked sweet potato).
Two days of the week I prepare a snack for Avery to take to her preschool where she goes half-day, two days a week.
I also get Avery's breakfast ready. She usually wakes up before I am up from working out so I get her a Larabar and a glass of Rice Milk. She is independent enough (thank goodness!) to get herself dressed for the day, eat her breakfast and then she gets to watch her Kindle until I come up.
Next I do the neti pot. While the saucepan was still hot from warming up my water for the lemon water, I pour in 1 cup of distilled water and bring it to a boil for 1 minute. Then I set it aside and let it cool. It takes 15-20 minutes to cool and when it's ready I take it to my little half-bathroom here and pour in some neti pot salt, and start to rinse my nasal passages.
I like to do this once a day in the morning, I feel like it cleans my nose out from the night before and gets it fresh and ready to start the day.
By this point I've finished my lemon water and I try to wait 5-10 minutes or so and then I have my pre-workout snack. This is usually either a slice of gluten-free toast and organic peanut butter or this Peace Quinoa Chia Crunch cereal with Rice Milk.
While eating this I finally turn my phone on and check social media. I like to have plenty of time to wake up, journal, talk to my husband, and prep my food for the day before I open myself to my technology and social media. From there I check my Facebook, Instagram, and emails, and my Google Calendar (which is the only way I survive these days!). During this time I usually don't reply back to emails though, if it's school related, I wait until I get to school, and if it's blog related I wait until Wednesday or Sunday to reply, my set days for emails.
After that I go upstairs and brush my teeth to prepare for my workout.
Not to be TMI, but this is often the time that my "Squatty Potty" comes in handy. Something about the combination of warm lemon water and my pre-workout snack usually help to keep my system pretty regular. So if you struggle with that, you'll want to give some lemon water and the Squatty Potty a try!
I then head downstairs and start my workout. As you've seen in my previous post: "My Workout Routine" I rotate 3 types of workouts: Treadmill (running/walking), Pilates, and Yoga. I workout in my basement on my treadmill or to workout DVDs. I try to workout each day for 50 minutes at least. If for some reason my workout gets cut short in the morning, I finish it when I get home from work, which isn't my favorite time to workout because my girls are there and not always helpful, but if I need to get another 15 minutes in to get my goal of 50 minutes that's when I do it.
Here I am doing a 50 minute treadmill workout today. For this workout I do 2 minute running intervals, nothing fancy, just run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes. I start with a lower speed and by the end of the 50 minutes I have a faster speed.
During my treadmill workouts I always catch up on my TV time. I've kind of cut TV from my evenings most nights so I can spend more time with Brandon or just sleeping, so this is when I catch up on my favorite shows like The Walking Dead or Downton Abbey, nice combo right?!
While on the treadmill, you can see I still have my journal handy. This is one of my favorite times to come up with ideas about future videos, budget ideas, or plans for my lessons at school.
After my workout, I come upstairs and get ready to take a shower. Before I do that I do some dry skin brushing to wake up my lymph system and help exfoliate my body.
Then I jump into the shower with my filtered shower water, a key aspect of helping me to maintain healthy, not dry, skin and hair.
During this time I also listen an audio book. Jim Rohn is one of my favorite motivational speakers and that's who I was listening to today. If you haven't read or listened to anything from him, I highly recommend it.
Next up, I fix my hair with my flax seed hair gel.
Then I'm off to go get Mila (it's about 7:20 by this point). I change her diaper, clothes, and get her ready for the day. Then I head downstairs to make my morning smoothie (my breakfast) while they both get a few minutes on their Kindles.
As you can tell by this point in the post, I'm a creature of habit and the same is true for my morning smoothie. It's the same smoothie practically every day, here's what in it: Sunwarrior Chocolate Warrior Blend, Vitamineral Greens powder, Trader Joe's Rice Drink, 3 frozen banana halves, and 5 frozen strawberries, and a handful of spinach.
I blend it all up and pour it into my mega mug and leave a little in a bowl for Mila to have for her breakfast.
When I come back upstairs, I help them brush their teeth.
And work on their "pouty face" for the day...
Then we do some songs together to connect before I head to work. I use a curriculum/behavior management philosophy in my classroom and with my own girls called Conscious Discipline and one aspect of it is to make time to connect with your children daily through short little connecting songs called, "I Love You Rituals". Here's a youtube video where you can learn more about it.
Now we look all cute and happy here, but like most families not all mornings are like this. We have our fair share of fits and tantrums, but ending the morning with these little songs helps us come together in a happy way before I leave.
After this I leave for school and wave goodbye to my girls. Three days a week my aunt comes to our house to watch them (like she did today) and the other two days they go to my mother-in-law's house.
See ya Mom!
As I drive to school I usually do oil pulling and continue listening to my audio book.
So there you have it, my morning routine. It's funny, it never seems like much when I live it out, but when I type it up like this it seems long, complicated, and kind of OCD...but it works for me. I love knowing that I've fueled my body with some nutritious food, I've had time to write and reflect, and my muscles are a little sore from a workout, I'm usually flying pretty high by the time I walk in the door at work and I love it.
Tell me about your morning routine, what's the important parts that you have to do daily to feel your best? Do you do any of the same things that I do? Or do you have some different aspects to your morning routine, share them below, I'd love to learn about them. See you next week part two: "My Healthy & Green Bedtime Routine."
Several years ago I used to do a post every Wednesday, recapping the food I had eaten that day titled, "What I Ate Wednesday." It was a fun way for me to share some of my favorite foods and recipes, as well as document my adventures with Avery, back when it was just her. But it became a little cumbersome to post weekly, so I had to take a break from it (for 2 years!). But after several subscribers have requested to see what I eat in a day, I'm bringing it back. I plan to do a video/post once a month featuring what I ate for one of the days. So let's get started with my first post on the topic for the month of March...
If you've read my blog for a while now you know I follow a gluten-free, vegan diet. So here's my food for the day:
No time for the video? Here it is in picture form:
5:00 AM Warm lemon water: 8 oz. warm water + juice of 1 lemon
5:20 AM: Pre-workout snack: peanut butter on toast
Workout: 50 minutes on the treadmill, intervals 2 minutes running, 2 minutes walking, repeat. And as you can tell from the picture below, someone decided to join me this morning. Ironically the one morning I decide to film, Mila wakes up at 5:30 AM, when she usually sleeps until 7. Guess she just wanted to be a part of the video/pictures. So she entertained herself with her old bouncy seat, that we call her "Baby Lazy Boy", one of her favorite movies (Barbie: Princess and a Popstar) and some books as you can see in the video.
6:45 AM: Breakfast smoothie. I make one smoothie and share a portion with Mila (as Avery is not a fan).
By that point I usually head upstairs, take a shower, and get as ready as I can before Avery gets up.
Then Mila gets her smoothie.
This pic is blurry, but that face cracks me up!
8:45 AM: Morning snack #1: Fruit bowl, 1 orange + 1 banana. Other than my smoothie in the morning, this is the only fruit I eat all day as it seems to mess with my digestive system if I eat it later in the day and combine it with other food.
1:00 PM: Drink up time: Daily Chia Seed Drink: 2 cups water+ 3 Tbs. chia seeds + 1 packet of SweetLeaf Stevia + juice from 1 lemon. I drink this from around 1:00 to 3:00.
2:30: Afternoon Snack: Tres Pupusas Corn tortillas stuffed with black beans and corn) no-gmo and gluten-free.
5:15 PM Green Juice: Time to make green juice with my helpers/snackers
Green juice recipe for the day: 3 stalks of celery, 3 leaves of "red kale" which gave it that more brown hue, 1 gala apple, 1 knob ginger, 1/2 lemon (all organic).
6:30 PM Dinner: Chipotle! After a busy day and being short on the ingredients we needed for the dinner I originally planned we decided to get a crowd pleaser: Chipotle To-Go. When at Chipotle I get: brown rice, Sofritas, guacamole, grilled veggies, mild salsa, and corn salsa. I skip the chips there and instead use Sprouted Blue Corn Tortilla Chips from Trader Joe's (as seen in the video).
I usually eat about 1/2 of my meal and save the other 1/2 for leftovers the next day. The girl's usually have a quite a bit of leftover guacamole, so I borrow their's for my leftovers too.
Then I'm done for the day. I try to stop eating around 7:00 or so and I got to bed around 9 or 9:30 PM. Unless I'm up late finishing a blog post (like this one) and in that case a second round of pancakes may be in order!
Did you see any food you like or currently eat? Share below and look forward to seeing you all for next month's "what I ate" post!
