Healthy Happy and Free

Need a quick, delicious snack? Try this flavor combination! This is a great pre-workout snack. It has fast digesting carbohydrates to give you energy!  Ingredients: 1-2 cups ice 1/4 cup cashew milk (may substitute milk of choice or water) 2 Tbsp powdered peanut butter (I used Crazy Richard's Pure PB) 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup  1 banana 1 scoop Slap Nutrition Salted Caramel BCAAs (may omit or substitute caramel flavoring and sea salt or salted caramel protein powder, additional peanut powder, etc.) Directions: Add ice, milk, powdered peanut butter, half of the maple syrup, banana, and BCAAs to your blender.  Blend until smooth.  Pour into a glass, top with remainder of maple syrup and some peanuts if desired. Drink up! I love the salty sweet flavor combination and this was a delicious, fun snack that's super easy to make! Let me know if you try it or what your favorite smoothie is!

Sunday Funday! It might be fall, but here in NC, the weather is still quite warm. It was 90 degrees this past Sunday to be precise. We took advantage of the sunny weather to get a nice hike in at Crowder's Mountain State Park. The park is pretty close off the Interstate. It's located in Kings Mountain, NC. The park has a few hiking trails, camping, and canoeing. The trail we did Sunday is the trail we do most often, the Pinnacle Trail. It begins at the Visitor's Center and goes up to King's Pinnacle. It's 4 miles round trip and rated as strenuous. It's basically uphill the entire way up, obviously. It's steepest the last half mile and you have to climb up some rocks to get to the real pinnacle, but most people manange it fine. There is a warning sign so climb at your own risk. The view at the pinnacle is fantastic and there's plenty of rocks to sit and take a break at the top.  Overall, I really like this hike because it's a good d...

Ice cream, ice cream, we all scream for ice cream! I am so in love with ice cream, I don't think I have a limit. Thankfully, Halo Top Creamery makes it possible for us to enjoy an entire pint of ice cream for a snack! Their pints range from just 240 to 280 calories and boast 24 grams of protein! It sounds too good to be true, right?! It is true, though! They also happen to be insanely good, in my opinion. They freeze hard because they use organic stevia and erythritol to sweeten it. They're low sugar, low fat, gluten free, kosher dairy and are made with milk, cream and eggs! Let them defrost a bit to get that perfect creamy texture or I've done 15 seconds in the microwave on the defrost setting. The classic, vanilla, is so perfect. It has a rich vanilla bean taste and perfect texture when you let it sit out. It clocks in at 240 calories, so of course, I load it up with toppings.   I've only had the privilege of trying Mocha Chip once and mine was sadly lac...

I've recently decided to attempt to make my workouts more effective and focused so I'm focusing on specific muscle groups and using supersets to make this happen! Why? Because there is life and responsibilities apart from working out! Now this particular workout actually still took me forever because my head was not focused and I was super tired so my breaks between sets were a bit too long lol! Let me know if you give it try or if you have any advice to make it a more effective workout! Warm-up: Arm circles 4x12 band assisted pull-ups superset with 4x15 hanging leg raises 2x30 prone lateral pull down superset with  2x30 single arm dumbbell rows (15 each side per set) 4x10 lateral raises superset with  4x10 front raises 4x15 upright rows superset with  4x15 dumbbell shoulder press 4x15 bent over rows superset with  4x15 rear delt raise 4x15 decline flys superset with  4x15 lightweight lateral raises 4x15 dumbbell external rotation ...

I recently had the privilege to try samples of the Detour Simple Bars in Salted Caramel Cookie Dough, Chocolate Chip Caramel, and Caramel Peanut. Bring on the caramel! I also tried the Smart line including: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Blueberry, and Apple Cinnamon so far.  The Simple Bars were all coated in chocolate which is a win in my book. They all tasted pretty similar in my opinion. The peanut one had chunks of peanuts and reminded me of a Snickers bar! The caramel flavor was a little bit stronger in the Salted Caramel cookie dough and the Chocolate chip one was studded with chocolate chips per the name. I really enjoyed all of them to my surprise. I didn't have high expectations. Now, they don't taste exactly like a candy bar, but they're close!  The macros are fantastic to boot! 110-120 calories 2.5-4f/11-13c/10p They're a little on the small size as the calorie count reflects but they're great for a little sweet snack or topping on yogurt, oatme...

I thought I would share some products, foods, recipes and things I'm loving right now! Nut Butters - The love affair continues. Current favorites are Epic Spreads (Discount code: epicmeg), GButter ,  especially brownie batter, sugar cookie and cinnamon bun (Discount code: gbuttermeg), nuts n' more (I've only tried toffee but it's amazing), you fresh naturals hand crafted coco nut butters and muscle frostings Protein Bars - Quest ies never fail me and I'm in love with the new flavor, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, Savi Crisp bars are a delicious light protein bar, G2G bars, Bia bars, Combat crunch , oh yeah! one bars, Square Bars , Raw Rev Yeah, I like a lot of protein bars! Breakfast: Oats with nut butter are my go-to! Kodiak Cakes pancakes, or egg white french toast are other fun, delicious options Other food products: Purely Elizabeth Granola, Walden Farms products, Fruity Crisp Oreos, Halo Top Ice cream (check out my giveaway on instagram!), Barnana, ...

Yum. The end. Okay, I'll delve a little deeper. The Savi Crisp is a natural version of the Ooh Snap bar which is like a candy coated (bottom only) rice kripsy protein bar. So good. It's a light bar with no weird protein taste. It's perfect for topping oatmeal, protein fluff, or yogurt. The Savi Crisp version is gluten free with no artificial sweeteners, flavors or colors. However, it does use a blend of soy and whey protein which may be a drawback for some who try to avoid soy. The protein blend also employs caesin and egg whites so you get a little of everything! These bars have a great crunchy texture. I tried the salted caramel flavor and thoroughly enjoyed the sweet and salty flavor! I'd say give this bar a try for something a little different! Macros: 150 calories 5f/18c/15p Visit them here:  https://savant-naturals.myshopify.com/products/savi-crisp-salted-caramel