Pictures

Just for fun ... a few pics of Erik and Lesley living life.

Their wedding in June of '07

The dogs ... Rocky & Adrian

Just goofing off

Where We Workout (aka our “raw” basement) Disclaimer: Erik can lift a lot more than this ... he was simply warming up ; ) haha.

Some More Randomness

My Husband’s Story

My husband, Erik, and I have been married since June of '07 and I am so blessed!

He's the reason I got into living a healthy lifestyle and through him, I realized how fun and achievable it could be to loose excess weight, gain muscle, maintain a healthy weight, and eat great food!  With a past in personal training, bodybuilding, and a Masters in Exercise Science, he’s very knowledgeable and has helped me and taught me very much.

Overall … these pictures sum him up pretty well: 
On slightly more serious note, he's had a pretty interesting life and sometime in '05 or '06, he put together a YouTube video of a part of his life.

First his description of the video ...

"I had a rough time as a kid. So all my life I tried to find things to heal the pain I had inside of me. I partied, I slept around, I had lots of money, I dieted and got skinny, lifted got huge, and just about any and everything else the world told me would lead me to happiness. But nothing ever took an ounce of pain away from me and in fact it only made me feel worse. I'd put all my hope in what I would do at the time and tell myself this was going to be the thing that heals me. That truly makes me happy. But I never found that. Everything I always found faded away usually in a matter of weeks. Until one day when Jesus Christ radically crashed into my life and in one instant took every ounce of pain that had ever been stored away right out of me. From that moment on I decided to live for the only thing that ever healed me, the only thing that ever made me happy on the inside. He loved me when I didn't even love myself. This is a short video of one of my fruitless searches. "

I love him!

Welcome

Welcome to The Purple Carrot!

Welcome to The Purple Carrot, “where the art of real food grows”!

To quickly sum it up, we’re a food blog with a healthy twist.

What will you find at The Purple Carrot?

• Food.  The Purple Carrot is dedicated to quality, sustainable food both local and organic. That being said, we love food, and we love to eat it. This involves a lot of time and fun in the kitchen at home, as well as dining out.
• Health.  My basic health motto is “eat close to the ground and move”.
• Kansas City.  As a Kansas City based  blog, we like to brag about all the good things happening here in KC, both inside the food scene and out.
• Originally Organic Vending. In January of 2010, my husband Erik and I started Originally Organic Vending, a health food vending company serving in and around Kansas City.

Thanks for reading!

      

Welcome to our life, and thanks again for stopping by!!

Welcome

Welcome to Lesley Lifting Life!

First off, thanks so much for stopping by! : ) Lesley Lifting Life was created to journal my health & wellness journey as I blog about food, fitness, and the challenges of every day life. 

Why Lifting Life?

“Lifting Life” symbolizes many things to me:

• Facing every day life obstacles that come my way and finding a way to overcome them in a positive, uplifting and healthy way.
• Finding out how to just by myself.  We’re constantly bombarded with messages, hints, magazine ads and commercials telling us how we should live, what we should look like, how we should act. My goal is to lift myself above what everyone else says I should be and just be who God created me to be!
• In the literal aspect, I love to workout and I find great satisfaction in bettering myself physically and emotionally by lifting weights and staying active.   

A Few Words From Lesley ...

Upon starting college and getting married, I slowly but surely gained about 15 pounds and found myself very disappointed that I was having to buy new jeans and feel bloated all the time. Erik (my husband) finally convinced me to start going to the gym with him. Before this, eating healthy, my weight, etc, never concerned me because I had always just considered myself thin and was happy and content.

At the age of around 19 and 20 came around and the weight started adding up a realization occurred: I cannot keep eating anything I want with no exercise and not gain weight. However, I was always intimidated by going to the gym, and all things working out because I felt "bad" at it and felt like I didn't know what I was doing.

So, my husband became my personal trainer, showing me what I should be doing at the gym, teaching me about what foods are healthy and which ones actually aren't. Surprisingly to me, I began to really enjoy going to the gym, and I was astonished at how much better I felt eating healthy foods. I began reading tons of articles on health and nutrition, reading from my husband's nutrition textbooks, and really enjoyed it. I wasn't sluggish anymore, had way more energy, and a lot more confidence in myself. Around a year went by and I found myself almost 20 pounds lighter than before.

Now, I've actually gained that weight back (and more) but this time it's muscle, as my husband and I really enjoy lifting together ; ) We continue to love living a healthy lifestyle, working out, cooking and eating healthy.

We are very active in our church, and stay busy with work, our dogs, and lifting life!

Feel free to comment or contact Lesley at lesleyborger@gmail.com

Purple Monster & Apples Galore!

HAPPY FRIDAY! : )

Hooray for another weekend! Thanks so much for all the comments and feedback lately, you are all wonderful, and shout out to all my newest blogging friends!! : )

I found out today that my parents are coming down this weekend. I haven't seen them since Christmas so I'm excited! (We live 6 hours away from each other). Therefore, I will probably not be around the blogging world very much this weekend ... but I'll do my best to keep up with your blogs (just don't get mad at me if I don't comment much this weekend ; ).

So, yesterday I decided to make a green monster with some flowering kale ... and since some of the leaves are pink/purple it ended up being a purple monster!! haha.
I used almond milk, little bit of water, flowering kale, a banana, and 2 packets of Truvia. This is my first time using kale, and it was really good! Problem is, I drink these right up way too fast! haha.

So today as I was picking up the kitchen, I noticed some of our apples going bad so I decided to make something with them. I just kinda threw somethin' together not knowing how it would turn out. Basically, I just chopped up four apples, mixed them with about a cup of original Ezekiel cereal, some agave nectar, some almond milk, and some cacao nibs and baked it for about 25 minutes. It turned out too dry, but would taste very good with some greek yogurt!

So, how many apples is too many to have in a household of two people??? haha. We have this habit of buying a bunch of apples when they're on sale and apparently they've been on sale a lot lately because we ended up with way too many! I'm not even sure how it happened. But as I was going through apples, here's the pathetic outcome of apples in our house ...Plus ...Plus one more bag just like the white one above equals approximately ... 65 apples! Ha, I had no idea we had that many until I actually roughly counted. (Though I must add Erik typically eats around 4 apples a day and I eat at least 2, sometimes 3 ... therefore, they will not go to waste!)

I told Erik to guess how many he thought we had and he said "30" ... ha, just a little off ; ) Good thing we both love apples!

Here's a random quote for the day that I liked ...

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves. "
Andre GideFrench critic, essayist, & novelist (1869 - 1951)

In giveaway news, Erica at Itzy's Kitchen is giving away some homemade Cinnamon Sweet Bread in honor of her one year blogging anniversity ... yum!

And just out of curiosity ... What's your absolute favorite fruit?

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Friday and weekend ... sorry if I'm not around much! : )

Honey Mustard Glazed Mahi Mahi and Roasted Veggies

Good day to you all!

Weird that this week is already halfway over ... where does the time go?

I realized that when posting my food and dinners I really haven't been writing down the actual recipes (minus the past few days), and for my own reference and others, I'm going to start doing that more often. (Ha, but not everyday like recently ... I'm just in the mood lately!)

Last night's dinner was Honey Mustard Glazed Mahi Mahi Fillets over Roasted Vegetables Mahi Mahi Fillets:
-After letting them defrost in the fridge overnight, marinate in honey-mustard marinade in the fridge for a couple hours prior to cooking, either in a bowl, or a plastic bag.
-Over low to median heat, cook fillets in a pan over stove top until done (when starts to easily flake apart)
Marinade:
- Mixture of honey mustard, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, sesame seeds, and a little bit of olive oil

Roasted Vegetables
(before):

Ingredients:
-Olive oil cooking spray
-3 cups chopped Brussel sprouts
-1 large zucchini chopped
-Half of large red bell pepper chopped
-Half of large tomato
-Sesame seeds
-Sea salt, to taste
-Pepper, to taste
-1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
-1/2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
-Preheat oven at 425 degrees and mist baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray
-Spread veggies out onto baking sheet and season with salt and pepper.
-Roast for around 25 minutes tossing once or twice
-(In the meantime I heated up some premade brown rice in a large bowl that we had in the fridge already)
-When veggies are done, transfer to the large bowl with rice in it, add tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil and toss and sprinkle sesame seeds over top And dessert was a Frozen Strawberry Cereal Bar leftover from the other day (we're still finishing them off) : ) And last but not least, Thursday (the 5th) is my friend from work's birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENN!! : ) (she's nice and reads my blogs ;)

Aaand the forecast for Thursday is a high of 67 degrees and I'm THRILLED!!!

A couple reminders: Don't forget to turn your recipes in for the blogger cookbook by the 15th! (ha, I'm reminding myself, too, because I still haven't done so ... but, Abbie, they're coming soon! ; )

--Olga at Healthing It is having a sweet giveaway in celebration of her new and improved site in which you get to create your own cereal from [ME] & Goji ... how cool is that??

--Angela at Oh She Glows is haveing a giveaway of Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred Workout DVD

Turkey-Bean Tacos and More Kale Chips

Hello all!

How's the first part of your week going? The weather is slowly getting nicer each day, and that makes my week good right there : )

If you haven't been able to tell, I've been in the cooking mood more than normal lately and have been having fun! (Unfortunately, I think it's also put me in eating mode, too, as I've definitely been eating way too much in between lunch and dinner :s and I really must stop soon, haha).

Last night's dinner was Turkey-Bean Tacos.

Ingredients:
-Tortillas
-1 lb. extra-lean ground turkey
-1 15 oz. can pinto beans
-1 Tsp olive oil
-2 Tbls Chili powder
-Chopped mushrooms
-Chopped red peppers
-Spinach leaves
-Greek yogurt (if desired)
-Brown Rice (if desired)
-Pepper, to taste
-Sea salt, to taste

Directions:
-Saute mushrooms and red peppers in olive oil
-Add turkey, beans, chili powder, pepper, and sea salt to taste and cook until lightly browned and cooked through.

**We used Food for Life Rice Tortillas, though we normally use their Ezekiel regular Whole Wheat Tortilla Wraps (they were out).I topped my tacos with some brown rice, tomatoes, greek yogurt, spinach leaves, Parmesan cheese, and some salsa. Yum! And then I used some leftovers to make a spinach leaf taco salad for lunch today : )

I then made some more kale chips last night with the remainder of my flowering kale. Here they are pre baked:Isn't flowering kale pretty?? One of my newest blogging friends, Lauren, said she loves kale chips with ketchup (we share a love of ketchup, haha) so I tried a few of them with ketchup and I must say I think it was pretty good!

And now I'll leave you with a C.S. Lewis quote that was challenging for me that was on my iGoogle today:

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. ~C.S. Lewis

Wednesday is my long day, so I'm not sure how much I'll be around tomorrow, but I'll be back whenever I'm back : ) Anyone else have a particular "long" day in their week?

Have a WONDERFUL day! : )

March, Chicken Parmesan Fettuccine

I haven't yet said it, so Happy March!

I seem to have noticed over the past few days there's a lot of March birthdays ... and I'm pretty sure it's because March is a good month!! Ha, if you haven't guessed it, I also have a March birthday : ) So shout out to all of the other March birthdays! Anyone else's on the 18th??

Here's last nights dinner and dessert as promised ...

Chicken Parmesan Fettuccine

Ingredients:
-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
-4 oz whole-wheat spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine (I used Ezekiel Fettuccine)
-2 cups mixed frozen vegetables
-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
-1 tbsp sesame seed oil (or olive oil)
-your favorite tomato sauce (I made a tomato puree by blending together two tomatoes, chopped with some dried garlic, oregano, minced garlic and a little bit of ketchup)
-chopped mushrooms
-fresh ground black pepper to taste
-sea salt to taste

Directions:
-In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat up sesame oil and saute mushrooms for 2-3 minutes.
- Add garlic and chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through.
-In the meantime, cook pasta according to the package directions. Stir in veggies around 5 minutes before pasta is cooked.
-Drain pasta and veggies, leaving a little bit of water. Immediately add pasta and veggies to chicken mixture, tossing to combine. Add more of the pasta water, if desired.
-Top with desired amount of tomato sauce or puree, and Parmesan cheese, then enjoy!

The above bowl of pasta was mine and here was my husband's plate ... And for dessert we had Frozen Strawberry Cereal Bars. This recipe was adapted from a Frozen Berry Granola Bar recipe found in Clean Eating Magazine.

Ingredients:
-1 cup Original Ezekiel cereal (or your cereal of choice)
-2- 2 1/2 cups fresh chopped strawberries
-2 1/2 cups Greek yogurt
-1/4 cup agave nectar
-1 tsp real vanilla extract

Directions:
-Using an 8-inch baking pan, sprinkle the cereal on the bottom and set aside.
-Using a blender, blend together strawberries, yogurt, nectar, and vanilla.
-Pour the blended mixture over the cereal, cover with foil and freeze until firm. Keep frozen until serving.

Unfortunately I don't have a very appealing picture of these, but here's the best I've got. And I promise they taste better than this makes them look! Tune in tomorrow for Turkey-Bean Tacos.

Hope you all have a great Monday night/Tuesday!! Don't forget to give me a shout out if you have a March birthday! ; )

Kale Chips & Greasy Food

The weekend went by quick! But for some reason, I don't even mind that tomorrow is Monday and it's back to work. It was a cold weekend, too and it's supposed to warm up this week. This is the kind of weather I'm ready for:I reminded myself this weekend, on Saturday night, why I enjoy eating healthy so much. Ha, my husband and I literally really haven't had any greasy, processed or fried foods in over six months. So last night, we were planning on cooking pasta but my husband really didn't feel like having it so we decided we would go out to eat instead. Well, for some reason we decided to splurge and eat bad. We're really not even sure why other than we felt like it. So, we went to a Chinese buffet. And we ate way too much and of course it was all really greasy, and fried and processed! Since we were eating bad, I just really went for it and I made two trips to the food bar and even had some nasty buffet dessert (but it tasted good at the time, haha).

Upon waking up this morning I learned my lesson. I felt stuffed, gross, disgusting, and extremely lethargic.

What I remembered this weekend that somehow I had forgotten due to simply being used to eating healthy:

• Eating healthy makes me feel great.
  
• Eating healthy gives me energy.
• Eating healthy makes me feel better about myself.
• Eating greasy/fatty foods make me feel gross.
• Eating greasy/fatty foods makes me feel fat.
• Eating greasy/fatty foods makes me want to be lazy and lay in bed all day.

Go figure, right?? haha.

Moving on ...Today was a great day! We started our day off by going to church (the very best way to start off a good Sunday : ). We came home, ate a little bit and then went to Starbucks and drank some tea and talked. (We have a gift card there to use up;) We then went and bought a few groceries. One of the things I came home with was some flowering kale. Yum! So, I decided to make kale chips for the first time, and was not disappointed. I sprinkled some olive oil and Parmesan on them and put them in the oven on around 375 for about 15 minutes. At first it was kind of weird, because it's really just like you're eating crunchy leaves ... ha, but they're very good crunchy leaves and very good for you, too! : )

Tonight, we had chicken Parmesan fettuccine and frozen strawberry cereal bars for dessert ... with pictures coming tomorrow!

And now I'm sipping a cup of sugar cookie Celestial tea about to get ready for bed.

Anyone excited for Monday?