Dinner Time.

Yay dinner time as a one-person family unit. Cooking for 1 is always something of a challenge. (okay really I feel like cooking for less than 4 has got to be complicated). Cooking after a day at work, for 1 = not as great of an option either! As I contemplated what to do for food tonight, thankfully I remembered that I pinned this recipe yesterday: Mother post. Decided tonight was as good of a night as any to try it out! Enjoyed it, easy to make and more importantly - easy to make in the quantity of 1. Happy eating :)

Stuffed Portobello

The ingredients:

• 1 portobello mushroom, stem cut
• 1 large egg
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• fresh basil (or herb you like)
• salt and pepper to taste (I used garlic salt)

Ingredients. Short list, yay!!

The how-to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Drizzle olive oil on portobello and add garlic salt to season
3. Place the mushroom on a small baking dish or a baking sheet (whatever you have clean really!)
4. Sprinkle the basil on top
5. Crack open the egg and carefully put one inside the mushroom
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes

Step-by-step

 Finished product!

Consistency.

Whew. So with all sorts of exciting NEW parts of life going on this last week-ish (auto correct wanted me to put 'weakfish' here - what!?!) my schedule has been way out of whack! Working out and eating have been all over the place. This is mainly because I'm so excited about internship & being engaged that I forget to do normal things like eat and run. As a result, my quality of sleep this past week was not so hot. 


All of that being said, my goals this week (which I'm sharing with all of you so I have a little help on the accountability end of things) are:

1. Eat breakfast everyday 

2. Make time to run Monday-Friday

3. Stop doing any homework/wedding related at least 1 hour before bedtime so my brain has time to wind down

So far today is off to a good start! Ran, had breakfast, and have already written a paper - so there is hope yet! Its always amazing to me how much consistency in basic things like eating & physical activity is so key to an overall healthy lifestyle. 

As I work on my goals, my encouragement for all of you is to do the same! Where do you need more consistency in your week? What can you do in the next 5 minutes to work on accomplishing that? Blessings on your Monday & week everyone!

Love, Kyla

Some inspiration!

So, what about the food?

My trip with my family to Argentina was now over 2 months ago - and its amazing how my food eating habits have changed throughout this time.

Now, I will begin this by stating that I am by no means perfect and that switching to healthier eating habits has and will continue to be a challenge - because lets face it: who doesn't love a little sugar?

Over the pat couple of months I would say I have faced two main struggles with making this eating change. The biggest part of this food eating makeover to deal with and adapt to has been eating with/around other people. If I just came in contact with myself (or other similarly nutrition conscious eaters) then I would probably be writing a post about how easy eating plant based and nutrition dense food is! Obviously though, I love people and God designed us to thrive in relationships WITH each other - so boxing myself into a perfect food eating bubble just isn't realistic.

My second food struggle has been not having my own kitchen - but visiting my family, Adam's family, and doing disaster relief all means eating food others have lovingly prepared. All of my friends and family have been very gracious and conscious of accommodating my eating needs - but its always hard to be around the possibility of eating non-healthy. It takes a lot of self-control to turn down delicious desserts and other meals - in contrast to having my own kitchen where I can control what is and isn't available for me snack on.

I have found it really encouraging to take time to read blogs of others who are making healthy eating choices as well as continuing to take and research healthy eating/living.

So bottom line: I'm still really positive about eating, and now I am working on how this will translate into my summer!

The next thing is how have I felt??

The more I eat lots of fruits, veggies, and nutrient dense foods the better I have felt - physically and emotionally. Days I don't eat well I can tell a difference in my mood - which is really encouraging to me that I am taking steps away from being so addicted to sugars and processed foods. :)

More importantly though - what about coffee??

I still LOVE the smell of coffee and know without a doubt that I would still love the taste if I was drinking it. That being said, I think I am through the worst of the battle at least with craving coffee all the time. I have come a long way in the area of being able to cope with mornings sans serveral cups of coffee and am working on being an avid tea drinker :) My favorites? Spiced chai or Mint tea! (Green tea would be a close 3rd)

I have appreciated all of the love, support, book/movie suggestions from many of you. Please continue to share - and I love sharing my food passion too :) and will continue to post updates on how I'll be making healthy eating work throughout my job this summer!

Unexpected.

True life: this morning I declined being offered coffee.

This was potentially one of the harder tasks to take on in these past couple of days. On top of declining the coffee I then had the experience of sitting in a meeting while everyone else (okay there were only 2 other people...but still) everyone else was enjoying their warm and soothing smelling cup of joe. I admit, I was possibly slightly overwhelmed by how great the coffee smelled. It smelled wonderful enough to make me forget about how much I loved breakfast this morning (a fresh fruit salad!) and also wonderful enough to make me consider dropping everything and sprinting to the closest Starbucks for some comfort drinking.

I was asked if I had given up coffee for Lent. My response was "No, I've given it up for life". What??? Yes. You can pick your jaw up off of the ground now if you like. Coffee isn't great for you, but man it smells awesome!

This is tough. But being healthy and conscious of what I am putting into my body, is still a great great thing. Unless the coffee is being held right under my nose (like this morning) - I really am still excited about my new changes in eating.

For this morning though, I just will keep reminding myself about how healthy my bones and heart will be from lack of downing cups of coffee every day. Because what I really want right this moment is a huge steaming mug of java.

It was an unexpected question this morning: Do you want some coffee?

And the person asking had no idea how loaded that question then became for me...But that is life I suppose. Full of unexpected moments that are defining of who we are and what we value.

The unexpected matters.