My Advocare Supplements

Since I've been done with the 24 Day challenge for about a week now, I have been looking for supplements to take regularly. Advocare is great for promoting balance and helping your body get nutrients that are hard to obtain simply through diet. There are so many options depending on what you feel you are lacking, here is what I am taking now:

Everyday I take:

KEY BENEFITS:

• Superior source of omega-3 fatty acids
• Plays an important role in the transport of nutrients*
• Helps support normal blood flow*
• Promotes cardiovascular health in combination with a healthy diet and exercise*
• Support healthy blood pressure*
• Helps promote healthy metabolism*
• Helps maintain a healthy immune system*
• Promotes maintenance of healthy skin, hair and nails*

KEY BENEFITS:

• Helps maintain normal beneficial intestinal microflora*
• Supports healthy intestinal function*
• Enhances weight management*
• Improves nutrient absorption*
• Aids in good digestion*
• Provides immune system support*
• Helps relieve symptoms of occasional constipation*
• High amounts of friendly probiotics, including:
• Seven different strains (compared to two in the previous ProBiotic Restore)
• Six Billion cfu (compared to two billion in the previous ProBiotic Restore)

A few times a week I take:

KEY BENEFITS:

• Innovative weight-loss enhancer*
• Supports the body’s ability to convert fat into energy*
• Promotes a healthy metabolism*
• Helps suppress appetite*
• Contains oolong tea and sage extracts
• Can be used in conjunction with the AdvoCare Metabolic Nutrition Systems

Prior to/during exercise:

KEY BENEFITS:

• Helps maintain muscle mass during exercise and weight management*
• Helps support post-exercise muscle repair and recovery*
• Aids in preserving muscle and energy levels during times of calorie restriction*
• Supports mental energy and focus*
• Contains branched-chain amino acids and L-glutamine, L-arginine, betaine, and taurine

KEY BENEFITS:

• Helps facilitate the body's use of oxygen*
• Helps restore vitality and liveliness*
• Helps the body adapt to stress*
• Increases oxygenation to cells*
• Helps increase and maintain energy levels*
• Supports muscle building and recovery*
• Provides antioxidant activity to counter the effects of free radicals*
• Supports the body's immune system*
• Contains easily digestible whey protein

Have any questions please feel free to ask! I feel so great and am working towards a consistently healthy lifestyle.

Order from me on Advocare at: https://www.advocare.com/140159981

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a silly made up holiday that doesn't actually mean anything blah blah blah. I've heard it, I get it and though I don't obsess about it like some girls, it still warms my heart when flowers arrive at work from my fiance. Although, the best kind of flowers are the ones that arrive not on a holiday or after an argument and I'm lucky enough to have received those as well.

As always, the card is the best part:

When my flowers arrived, the buds were not opened, at all. I could not even tell what type of flowers they were. I brought them home, cut them, and put them in water in a vase. When Jesse came over and saw them he was really upset that they looked that way and I told him not to worry about it.

I put the vase of unopened buds by the window in my kitchen. Each day they have opened more and more. I realized that I was so grateful the flowers came the way that they did.  I would much rather nurture something and watch it grow, then receive something beautiful only to watch it die. Maybe that's just me, but now I kind of hope they always come that way:) Thank you Jesse James Johnson, you never cease to make me feel loved and give me just what I need, even if it's unintentional!

RECIPE: Quick & Delicious Mexican Dinner!

Grilled chicken with peppers and onions in a McCormick's Grill Mates Mexican Fiesta marinade packet. I made some Mexican rice on the side and added peas, carrots, and corn to it and tossed everything together, ate with some blue corn chips.
My fiance Jesse used the veggies and the marinade but grilled strips of steak and put everything in corn tortillas with queso, salsa, and hot sauce for homemade spicy tacos!

RECIPE: Northstar Sweet Basil Burrito Inspired Dish!

MMM this was delicious! Grilled chicken and peppers in basil infused oil, made some brown rice, added pesto and voila! So good, my homemade version of the sweet basil burrito from Northstar. 

Fresh Herbs Forever!

Keep your favorite herbs fresh by cutting them, fill an empty ice cube tray with them and fill with extra virgin olive oil and freeze! Whenever you are cooking drop a cube in and voila oil & herbs, I used basil and oregano.

Engagement Photos!

We just got our engagement photos back from our amazing wedding photographer Henry Photography! This was the last thing we needed to do before I could start making our wedding invitations so I'm working on that now. Luckily I have the software needed on my work computer and my fiance is great at graphic design so I'm hoping between the two of us we can handle at least the design portion of the invites ourselves. If you need a photographer check out www.henryphotography.com!

Here are a few of my favorites:

RECIPE: Zucchini "Pizza" Bites!

Soo I have been avoiding gluten to the best of my ability since July 2013 and the search for pizza options is always on my mind. If you live in Columbus, Harvest Pizzeria and Spagio have awesome gf pizza. I’ve also made my own dough before and was pretty successful. When I came across this recipe for pizza toppings on grilled zucchini slices I could not wait to try it!

The recipe called for an 8-ball round zucchini to have larger slices for the base, but as I mentioned I was eager and couldn’t find one at the store so I just picked the biggest zucchini I could. The recipe is really simple and flexible, I cut up the zucchini, sprayed a skillet with olive oil and grilled the slices on one side. Transferred the slices to a sprayed cookie sheet grilled side up. I added Prego to half and Kirkland (Costco brand-the best pesto oddly enough) Basil Pesto on half. Sprinkled a little mixed Italian cheese, put a piece of turkey pepperoni on the prego ones and  cut up small slices of cherry tomatoes and onion for the pesto pieces.

Baked it for about 7 minutes and that’s it!

The recipe I was working off of put the slices on an actual grill, grilled one side, flipped them, added the toppings and continued to grill. I liked the idea of baking them more and the topping/sauce options are endless! Be creative!