Our “gym”, the two greatest veggies

So glad it’s the weekend! I’m hoping to have a productive one, especially since the husband will be working most of it and I’ll be all alone.

First up in exciting news …. this is what I’m now doing my morning cardio on : )

We have been eyeing this very simple but cute little elliptical for awhile at our MC Sports. I’ve wanted one ever since we decided to cancel our gym membership and start working out at home.

I like my treadmill but I find that I feel like I get a better workout on an elliptical because it’s low impact and I can “run” as much as I want with no problems. For whatever reason, I also just find the elliptical more exciting and entertaining.

Do you work out at home or go to the gym??

I think there’s definitely pros and cons to both scenarios. We’re collecting quite a “gym” at our house and we’re now up to:

• Boflex Blaze (used mostly for exercises where you need cables)
• Bench press with leg press/preacher curl attachments
• Dumbbell set from 5lbs to 50lbs
• Treadmill (though technically my MIL’s ;)
• Elliptical

I’d say we’re set for awhile! To us it’s worth the initial investment because we get use of it everyday and will save money and time in the long run. 

Our plans are to make our unfinished side of the basement into the official “gym” but we’ve got some painting and cleaning up to do! As soon as we do that I’ll have to give you all the official online tour ; )

Dinner was quick tonight and the star of the show was asparagus.

I love asparagus! It’s one of my favorite veggies. Probably falls right after Brussels. Haha. I’m quite sure I could eat either of those every single day and never tire of them.

What’s your all-time favorite veggie?

Erik’s currently singing to me making up a song about how he’s ready to leave so I’m out … have a great weekend!!

 

-Lesley

 

The Green Bible

Hey everyone!  : )

I don’t know about you but I am so glad the weekend is almost here! (Erik has to work which is sad buuut otherwise, I’m excited for it to be here).

I’m tired. Tonight I plan on hanging out with Erik for awhile and then reading some of this:

All throughout Jr. High and High School (and even after really up until I got married) I’ve always loved to journal. Every single day I would journal and write my thoughts, my prayers, my worries, my feelings, everything. It was always such a great release and way to focus myself on what’s really important.

Life gets more hectic and busy when you get married and have a full time job so I haven’t journaled in such a long time. I’ve been feeling like doing so more and more lately so that’s what my plan is for tonight along with reading my Bible.

I got this Bible about a year ago and I love it. It’s called “The Green Bible”. As the website says,

“The Green Bible will equip and encourage people to see God's vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. With over 1,000 references to the earth in the Bible, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love, the Bible carries a powerful message for the earth.”

I truly believe that. God cares about the Earth and his plan is to restore it to all it’s goodness. 

About The Green Bible

(from their website)

The Green Bible is the definitive movement Bible that shows that God is green and how we can care for and protect God's creation.
Featuring:

• Green-Letter Edition: Verses and passages that speak to God's care for creation highlighted in green
• Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Essays by Brian McLaren, Cal DeWitt, Barbara Brown Taylor, Pope John Paul II, Ellen Davis, N. T. Wright, Ellen Bernstein, Matthew Sleeth, James Jones, and Gordon Aeschliman
• Inspirational quotes from Christian teachings throughout the ages
• A green Bible topical index
• A personal green Bible trail study guide
• An appendix with information on further reading, how to get involved, and practical steps to take
• Recycled paper, using soy-based ink with a cotton/linen cover

I will leave you all with some quotes from the forward:

(This Anne Frank one is my favorite!)

Don’t forget to stop for a moment and pay attention to the beautiful fall leaves and feel the crisp autumn air ; )

 

-Lesley

Working out, leftovers

Ha, so apparently we were all crabby yesterday! ; ) I was glad to hear I wasn’t the only one. Lu said it must have been a terrible Tuesday or something and I think she might have been right. Maybe it really is the weather … either way … today was a new day and I was happy! :)  Were you?? I hope so.

Fitness

Even though working out is a big part of my life, I rarely talk about it. I think it’s because of lack of pictures and I’m usually just focused on working out when I’m working out, ha. I’d like to talk about it more in the future but I’m not sure how to work that yet.

Here is what I just got done drinking after working my back tonight. 

Since I decided to start lifting this past March, I’ve really grown to love it. My goal in the beginning was to tone up, get strong and be challenged. I’ve come a very long ways doing just that but I’m still going at it.

I’ve thought about working towards a fitness competition but we’ll see what time brings. I not sure that I really want to compete but I think it would be a fun experience that would really challenge me. 

Food

Sorry, I have no exciting food pictures. Today is leftovers. I made quite a bit of chicken last night and Erik’s been gone most of the evening helping his dad.

So that’s it! :)

Hope you’ve had a wonderful & happy day!

 

-Lesley

Crabbiness, organizing & normal dinner

Today was one of those days. For whatever reason, Erik and I were both crabby. We made for an interesting pair. But after we argue I’m even more aware of how great of a husband I have. It’s sooo wonderful to have the assurance that he loves me. He always makes me feel loved just as I am & no matter what … and he always will : )

When I got home from work I did some dishes and decided to organize the cupboard a little bit. Here is the finished product:

Okay, it might not look that organized, but you should have seen it before! ; )  (as you may  be able to see, we have this “problem” with opening a new peanut butter jar the jar before is all the way gone. But I eventually use it for oats in a jar so it’s okay:) And if you’re wondering why we have 4 boxes of Ezekiel cereal, it’s because we stocked up while we were in KC last weekend because it’s cheaper there.

Dinner

After eating cereal for dinner last night, I was ready for something warm and “normal”. Broccoli & peas …

… Annie’s mac n cheese for Erik. (I ate more carbs than normal today so I tried to stay away from Annie tonight) …

… and Smart Chicken on George. Mmm.

It’s Tuesday night … guess what we’re doing now? Ha … yep, Biggest Loser. It’s also a nice way to relax and wind down.

What’s your favorite way to wind down?

 

-Lesley

Bison, cereal & hemp milk ice cream

Happy Monday : )

First up … Sunday’s dinner. We got some ground bison at Whole Foods this weekend and had it with some sort of spinach pasta and delicious sauce that Erik made topped with 1/3 less fat Parmesan.

Rainy Days

Right as I was getting off work it started raining and it’s been a gloomy evening. When I got home Erik and I ran and grabbed a few groceries. Since it was raining we decided to have a “chill” evening and we’re watching a movie. 

For dinner, Erik had some leftovers and I decided I really wanted some cereal.

I had a big bowl full to the brim of puffed grain cereal that I talked about yesterday with:

• a banana
• cinnamon
• stevia
• almond milk

Erik made fun of how full my bowl was. Oh well. I love cereal … especially when it’s not high in calories, really sugary or full of sodium ; )

Dessert

We recently discovered some new (to us) ice cream – Living Harvest Tempt mint chip -- that Erik was eating tonight made with hemp milk. I don’t know how fond I am of hemp milk on its own but in this, it was delicious.

I’m loving all these new ice creams lately made with coconut milk and hemp milk!

Here’s the nutritional stats … for ice cream, not too shabby! And tastes great.

Now I’m off to read blogs, and do nothing the rest of the night : )

Hope all you lovely people had a wonderful Monday! : )

 

-Lesley

Lotsa pictures weekend

Hello!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather has been beautiful in MO : ) I just finished writing an Examiner article on sodium and now I’m having some relaxing “me” time doing one of my favorite things … blogging!

Here are some highlights of our weekend …

I discovered a new bar (made by Mrs. May’s Naturals) at my grocery store. A Trio bar … very similar to Kind Bar, tastes great, and only 99 cents a bar!! I’ll take that, thank you!

As we often do, on Saturday we went to Kansas City. The weather was so beautiful and we spent some time simply driving around, windows down, while people watching.

Dinner

We decided to eat at Bristol Seafood Grill (pictures are little dark because by the time we got there, well … it was dark, ha).

We ate outside and it was so neat. The weather was absolutely perfect, lighting just right, and wonderful atmosphere. To top it all off, there was an open fire outside and we got to sit right below it (that’s what’s glowing above Erik’s head). It permeated the perfect amount of heat to counteract the small chilly breeze.

We started out with shrimp cocktails which tasted great. I love shrimp cocktail.

I had the king salmon with grilled asparagus and mashed sweet potatoes. Again … YUM! It just doesn’t get much better than grilled asparagus, sweet potatoes and salmon.

 Whole Foods Pick-up

Some random things we picked up at Whole Foods (because we can’t go to KC without stopping there;)

Some bars to try …

Puffed cereal. I love this stuff because it’s only around 60 calories for 1 cup, no sugar and no salt. Unlike most other cereals that have a lot of sugar, I can eat a huge bowl full with some fruit, stevia, cinnamon, almond milk and feel great about it ; )

And some hemp seeds.

When we got home we watched a movie and doted on our dogs for a little  bit.

 

What did you do this weekend??

 

-Lesley

 

Butternut & Sleeping in

Happy Weekend!!!

Does anyone else feel like they’re the only one that’s not at the Foodbuzz Festival this weekend? Haha, I would love to be there. Oooh well.

Either way, I’m so happy it’s the weekend.  I love sleeping in (aka 7 or 8) and being able to hang out with Erik all weekend.

I cooked a butternut squash last night that had been in my fridge for a long time! My mom gave it to me from her garden a long time ago. (Good thing they last awhile).

So today for lunch, I had half of it with:

• ground turkey
• balsamic vinegar
• Mrs. Dash’s
• sea salt
• pepper
• reduced fat Parmesan

I would have liked some other veggie in there (like peppers) but I didn’t have any and my lunch break is short.  It was still pretty tasty though! : )

 

Weekend plans: work a little, workout a little, bake a little, eat good food, do whatever I want, and have fun with Erik ; )  I’m quite sure we’ll take a trip to KC at some point this weekend.

Have a great weekend … do something that makes you smile! : )

 

-Lesley

 

What to eat when you’re out of everything

Are you tired of hearing dog stories yet? Ha. I’ve got another one.

Here is what Erik found when he got home today … can you guess the culprit?? (hint: he’s right there)

Thankfully, Bubba rarely ever gets in the trash but for whatever reason, he decided it looked like fun today :p I think we need a lid, ha.

We are pretty much out of everything right now so dinner was “be creative” night.

I toasted some Ezekiel bread and ate it with hummus and zucchini.

It was very flavorful and surprisingly satisfying.

I then ate an apple that I chopped up and microwaved with:

• a little pb
• a little almond milk
• allspice (I was out of cinnamon)
• stevia in the raw

I’m glad tomorrow is Friday!

I’m excited for the weekend because we have nothing planned : )

Happy Thursday Day/Friday!

 

-Lesley

 

The lion and the lamb together

Happy Hump Day! … I’m glad it’s getting closer to the weekend! I love weekends.

 

The Lion and the Lamb

Yesterday I came home from work to see the unthinkable. Erik had Bubba and Adrian outside walking them TOGETHER.

(In case you missed it, Bubba is my father-in-law’s 150 lb Akita that we’ve had for over a month now while he’s in the hospital/living community. He is not known for being a nice dog and hasn’t been around other dogs before and he could easily eat both of our dogs. When Bubba met Adrian a month ago he immediately growled at her and did not show affection for her in any form).

So … Erik somehow whipped out his Dog Whisperer skills and now they magically get along! It’s like a lion and a lamb laying next to each other (well, sort of?)

Adrian has always been very submissive to other dogs though so if she does something to make Bubba mad she’ll just submit to him.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get Rocky and Bubba to get along because Rocky would NOT submit to Bubba and would totally be up in his face. (I told Erik I don’t want to be around if he attempts that :s)

This has solved some of our Adrian problems (aka digging out of the yard all the time out of boredom) because now she can come inside with Bubba. Hooray … my husband is good at everything!

Ha, so thank for listening to my dog story of the day and looking at my poor quality pictures.

Food

I’ll be totally honest here and tell you that I had the exact same thing for dinner tonight as last night. A lot of you commented and said you were going to eat an egg sammie today  because of it and so I just kept thinking about it and I couldn’t resist! ; )

Fitness

45 minutes on the treadmill this morning (walking on incline).

Tonight I did chest and Erik did tris. I basically just benched really light weight (well, just the bar) and I did:

• warm-up set of 12
• 2 sets of normal grip to failure
• 2 sets of wide grip to failure
• 2 sets of close grip to failure
• 2 sets chest flies

I focused on my chest muscles and made really slow movements to really focus on feeling it. By my last set I literally had to have Erik’s help to get just the bar back up :s. Haha.

The end! : )

How do you stay motivated to workout and eat healthy in these holiday and cold-weather filled months ahead?

 

-Lesley

 

An old favorite

I had all intentions of making this post a plea to Cesar Millan to please come to our house and help us with our dogs, ha. (Let’s just say I chased Adrian up and down our block in my work clothes this morning 5 minutes before I had to go to work when I hadn’t eaten yet or gotten my stuff together). 

Ha, but I don’t feel like doing that anymore because I’m tired. Maaaaybe tomorrow ; ) We’re probably going to spend a large portion of the weekend cementing underneath our fence so that she can’t dig out anymore.

Anyways … back to regular scheduled posting … I worked another 10 hours today and came home tired. So … I went for a fast old favorite I haven’t had in awhile … egg sandwich.

Consisted of:

• 1 egg, 2 egg whites beaten together and cooked atop coconut oil
• 2 slices toasted Ezekiel bread
• 2 % cheese
• cottage cheese (spread on bread … I prefer Laughing Cow but we were out)
• Ketchup

Speaking of ketchup …

We usually use Heinz less sugar ketchup but Erik found this and I love it! Ketchup with agave nectar … that’s my kind of ketchup!

For the duration of the night, we’re going to do nothing and watch Biggest Loser.

Good night, all : )

-Lesley

Lots of water, easy dinner & cheesy smiles

Monday is over.

Okay … so first off, I’m still not used to it being dark out so early and bright out so early! I woke up on my own at 3:38 a.m. wide awake (since I’m used to getting up at 4:40). Needless, to say, it was nice to sleep another hour!!

My Monday went by pretty fast and that’s always a good thing. I decided to paint my nails black to go with my dark hair, ha.  (TLC on in the background … anyone watching Kate’s interview tonight? I might if Erik doesn’t protest, ha).

I proudly drank two of these babies full of water today (104 ounces). Needless to say, I had to go to the bathroom constantly. Ha, but since I just type all day long it’s oddly enough a nice break ; )

(insert cell phone picture)

I worked 10 hours today and came home and did a light back workout. (That was after chasing my escaped dog, Adrian, down the busy street that is right in front of our house).   The dog drama never ceases.

For dinner it was ground turkey with Mrs. Dash, pepper, sea salt mixed with Brussels, peas, 2% cheese and balsamic vinegar. It may or may not look gross but I enjoyed it!  It could also be known as I-don’t-feel-like-cooking-and-this-is-really-easy : ) Either way … it satisfied me!

Then I tried to take a picture of Erik and myself …  and ended up with this cheesy, fake smile picture.

That’s all for the night at the Lesley Living Life household … hope you all have a great night!! : )

P.S. Thank you all for the wonderful and nice compliments about our house! It made us (or least for sure me) feel special ; )

Love, (yes, I love you all!)

 

-Lesley

 

Welcome to my house & my Sunday

Happy Sunday!!

Even though it means Monday is fast approaching, Sunday’s are seriously one of my favorite days of the week. I love sleeping in (a little) and then taking my time with breakfast and lounging a little before going to church. This morning I had an oatmeal protein powder pancake (a little too well done :s)

It’s beautiful here today!  It’s been cold and rainy lately and fall has been acting an awful lot like winter … but finally …. a beautiful fall day! It’s about 70 degrees and I’m loving it!

I’ve so far spent a lot of time playing with the dogs. (Read: throwing Rocky’s stick a million times for her to go fetch and petting Adrian non  stop). Ours dogs are so different. Rocky only wants to go chase her stick and Adrian only wants to be doted on.

I opened all my curtains to let all the sunshine in and decided to take some pictures of our new furniture. (Ha, and they’re kind of ultra bright, aka too bright but oh well!)

First up … couch and chair in the living room

All together with a bonus of Erik flashing by …

This drafting table is what I got Erik for his birthday in September.  And next to it is his signed Johnny Cash guitar.

And some new bedroom furniture.  (Please excuse the current lack of art and accessories throughout as well as the ultra bright sun).

And, yes, as you can see, we have a very odd shaped bedroom. There are little nooks with dormers that are virtually good for nothing on both sides.

And I couldn’t forget the old man of the house … clearly he has a pretty rough life. (He’s also on a doggie diet! haha. But for 13 years old and 150 lbs, I’d say he’s doin’ pretty good).

And that’s all. I now “have to” go to Target to get some dog food among other things and Hyvee for a few grocery items.

How was your Halloween and weekend??

 

-Lesley