Up and runnin’ + vending giveaway??

Hey everyone!

Happy end of the weekend! : ) Hope it was a good one!

On Thursday night after work I got to help Erik fill one of the machines. I had fun ; ) Of course I took pictures along with way to show you guys. This particular machines is in a middle school.

Programming prices …
The loot. Not gonna lie, Erik pretty much did all the work and I just stood there watching and sampling ; ) Towards the end, I did end up putting all the prices under the items so I worked “hard” for my Berry Berry Good Lemon drink! haha.  The box that Erik is holding is what the cash goes into.
And here are a few completely stocked pictures. Some of you have asked about what the prices are on our items. Basically, they range from $1 to $2.50. Only two of the items (Mix 1 drinks and Energy drinks) are actually $2.50 and the median price is probably about $1.60.
Here’s our “testing” stash at the bottom of the machine. Since we’re new to this, we had to test some items to make sure they wouldn’t get stuck on the way out when purchased.   It’s still early in the game, but so far Hansen’s sodas and white cheddar Pirates Booty are the biggest hits! We spent Saturday all over the KC checking our machines, stopping by Costco to see what kind of products they had and if we would benefit from putting any of them in the machines, and just hanging out : )

I really want to do an Originally Organics Vending Sample Pack giveaway soon!! Erik told me that if I did a giveaway I’d had to pay for the products, haha. :p Maybe if you guys let him know via commenting how much you’d like a giveaway he’d give in! (*cough*cough*hint, hint!!) ; )

Today we went to church, ate at Chipotle (we seem to be slightly obsessed with Chipotle lately :s), did some house cleaning, grocery shopping and laundry. And now … back to the work week! I wanted to work out today since I didn’t on Saturday but that just didn’t happen. Oh well … I’m always more hardcore about it on weekdays and allow myself slack on the weekends and I don’t mind!

What did you do this weekend?? Happy February and have a great week!! :)

Vending & Fitness Updates

Hello! :)

Random FYI: thus far, I love blogging less often! Ha. I’m sure my blogging amounts will vary from season to season but it’s nice not to feel like I have to blog and I’ve been enjoying life much more. Why do we always put unnecessary pressure on ourselves? (Or maybe I’m the only one who does that? ; )

I thought I’d give everyone an update on some of our life activities …

Originally Organic Vending

Upon getting the food for our 1st five machines, we quickly realized it was a lot more than we expected! We were going to purchase an enclosed trailer to haul with our normal vehicles. However, that wouldn’t allow room for growth (and we want to grow!) so we decided to go with a cargo van. We’re going to decal it and then pictures will follow!

Anyways, Erik is now driving around a white Chevy 3500 and he enjoys it WAY too much, haha. Maybe we should paint it black and put a red spoiler and stripe down the middle? ; )
Gettin’ the goods all ready to go … The most exciting update for the business is that the machines are here!! (3 of them anyways … still working out kinks with other 2 locations). Sad part is, I haven’t seem them in person yet!! : ( I had to live vicariously through Erik’s picture texts today. Here’s some “sneak peek” pictures via cell phone …

As soon as I can, I’ll get “real” pictures!
Fitness

We’re still going at it! Ha. We unintentionally took almost a week break as all our vending stuff has been unfolding, but we’re back …

Poor Erik always runs out of plates … maybe someday I’ll let him get more, ha.
I think I was trying to make a weird face … but I don’t think it turned out being a very good weird, ha. Oh well!  French Meadow Bakery

I received a package from French Meadow Bakery about a week ago and here is what was included …

• Hemp bagels
• Sprouted bread
• Gluten free tortillas
• Gluten free pizza crusts
• Tote and info

Though I don’t worry about eating gluten free, I appreciate the company’s many gluten free products.

We tried the tortillas and though they were good, they kinda majorly fell apart. Unfortunately, the pizza crusts got moldy in less than a week so I had to throw them out. (I should have stuck them in the freezer!!)  But hemp bagels … yes! I love the taste of hemp breads! And you all know I’m not one to turn down some good sprouted bread : )

Thanks, French Meadow!

And that’s a wrap! Hope your week is going well :D

Let the Children Play for Peace

Hey everyone! : )

First off, thanks for the all the positive feedback on our vending machines! We’re very excited to get it all up and running and I’ll be sure to keep my wonderful Lesley Lifting Life readers (YOU!) up to date ; )

Let the Children Play for Peace

I have something really awesome to share with you all for this post. I know it’s something all my readers will very much appreciate and be touched by. It’s called Let the Children Play for Peace.

We live in a world that is very divided, a world in conflict. We have divides of religion, ethnicity, nationality … but no matter what our religious, ethnic, or nationality divides, we are all human beings sharing a planet, we are all neighbors.

This morning in our church, there were two guests; Samuel Nachum (a Jew born in Israel) and Ahmed El Sherif (a Muslim born in Egypt). They were born on opposite sides of an ongoing conflict that as children, they could not control. They now both reside in Kansas City and have come together, despite their differences to form an organization called Let the Children Play for Peace.

“Let the Children Play for Peace is a global interfaith project founded in March 2009, by two men hailing from opposite sides of the Gaza-Israel conflict. These men felt compelled to help their respective homelands, and came together to realize their vision: a non-profit group whose mission was to help restore childhood to a generation deprived of it.

Let the Children Play for Peace delivers shipments of donated toys, sports equipment, and other children’s products to a site on each side of the conflict. We want to change the environmental cues around the children there to ones of optimism, hope, and joy.”

This morning in church, we got to hear about how they met, how they formed a friendship despite the fact that they’re from two opposing sides of the Gaza/Israeli conflict, and how their nonprofit organization, Let the Children Play for Peace, was formed.

Its aim is “to provide the children in this region [Gaza/Israeli] with some semblance of a childhood through toys and sports equipment.” 

Quoting their website: “As collateral damage in the conflicts of adults, the children in this region of the world are robbed of the sense of fun and discovery inherent in childhood. The foreign aid delivered to this region rarely includes toys or sports equipment, and the mission of Let the Children Play for Peace is to help replace the images of violence these children see with ones of creativity and imagination by providing those play items.”

I’m so thankful we got to hear about this awesome organization that’s doing a wonderful thing. It was extremely evident that Samuel and Ahmed were both such kind-hearted and sweet men and it’s great to be apart of it.  Here’s a picture of Ahmed, our pastor Brian Zahnd, and Samuel.

Muslim, Christian, and Jew

It was a very touching and emotional dialogue between our pastor, Ahmed, and Samuel. I left feeling like a wonderful thing had happened … something very pleasing to God … people with such different viewpoints coming together under common ground in peace and love.

Our pastor, Brian Zahnd, mentioned his three motives to Ahmed and Samuel for our church participating with this organization, and it was such a wonderful moment, I can’t help but share them. (To hear this dialogue for yourself, click here).

1. This organization is simply a good thing and we want to help with such a good thing. “To help give children a childhood in a place where war threatens to tear it away from them is a good thing and it needs no other justification.”
2. It represents ethnicities and religions who historically have not always been shown the best face of Christianity. We need to redeem the face of Christ from the ugly face of the Crusader. Christian is a word that means “Christ like”. As Christians, we have had very ugly moments in our past. During the Crusades, under the banner of the cross, and calling themselves Christians, the church murdered other human beings. There were church sponsored holy wars against Muslims and Jews. That was not the true face of the cross, and we want to show Muslims and Jews a difference face of Christianity. The face of Christ is a face of love, forgiveness, and mercy and we must show Jews and Muslims a different face. 
3. To show Christians a different face of a Jews and especially of Muslims. There’s far too many Christians that to them, the face of a Muslim is Osama bin Laden. We need to change that. All Muslims are not “thus and so”. Muslims are often presented in a dehumanizing, demonizing way and we need to change that.

Today’s service wrapped up with a Matisyahu video that everyone agreed, could be the theme song for Let the Children Play for Peace.

For more information, or how to donate and be apart of Let the Children Play for Peace, please visit their website, or Facebook page.

Have a great week!! : )

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”
-Stacia Tauscher

What 750 lbs of food looks like in a living room!

Hey guys!

Hope your week has been treating you well : ) We have A LOT of food in our living room right now (approx 750 lbs worth to be exact).

Remember how I said things were moving along with our vending machines? Well, we got all the food today!
I don’t know how much food for five vending machines looked like until I got home, haha. It was more than I expected!  At first we felt slightly overwhelmed and in over our heads but what’s to be expected? We’re new at this! It’s exciting … we just have to iron out all the wrinkles and get adjusted.
    One thing I know … it’s a lot of fun to have all this food in my house! We taste tested a few products. First, a Mix 1 Berry smoothie … … then a Raw Revolution bar.
And check out these little packets of Materne apple sauce …. love them!!  It’s such a cute and efficient idea … they’re squeezable and resealable.
While doing a little taste testing, we went through all our inventory and organized it a little better to make sure we had everything.
This part might be boring for some but some of you guys have asked what all we’re putting in the machines and to start out … here is our loot:

• Popchips
• Kettle Foods bakes
• Zen Soy, Soy on the go cappuccino
• Materine Applesauce
• Robert’s Gourmet Smart Puffs
• Robert’s Gourmet Pirate’s Booty
• Kettle Foods Chips
• Stacy’s Pita Chips
• Brother’s All Natural fruit crisps
• Stretch Island fruit leathers
• Barbara’s Bakery fruit and yogurt bars and snackimals
• Raw Revolution bars
• Clif Z Bars
• Late July sandwich cookies
• Back to Nature graham sticks and mini cookies
• Blue Sky tea soda
• Hansen’s soda
• Steaz energy drink
• Mix 1
• Horizon organic milk
• Imagine Foods Kidz smoothies
• Honest Tea juice
• Adina iced coffee
• Itoen iced tea
• Tazo iced tea

 

This is fun! : )  Erik’s going down to set up all the machines the middle of next week and as soon as I can, you know I’m going to take plenty of pictures at the locations to share with you!!

Hope you guys all have a great weekend!! :)

Originally Organics Vending update, grilled veggies

Hello! :)

Thank you guys all so much for all the nice comments about how often I blog. I feel so much better having taken the pressure off myself! In fact, I never meant to let it get there, it just kind of crept up on me … needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend! Erik and I got to spend a lot of wonderful and fun quality time together. I love my husband and life with him only gets better and better!

And thanks to everyone who joined in the protein discussion! ; )

Originally Organics Vending Update

I haven’t said much about our business lately because there hasn’t been much to say! Ha. The behind the scenes work was still being done but we’re very close to launching the vending machines! On Sunday after church, we took a drive down to the KC area to scope out the schools and locations our vending machines will be in.

The five starting locations include 3 schools and an ice arena. The machines will be arriving in about a week (hooray!) We’re so excited to get this going!

Since we were in the neighborhood we stopped at Whole Foods to grab some dinner and a few groceries.
As always … we ate good ; ) I tried a few salads I didn’t love (which doesn’t happen very often). But my meal was redeemed with rotisserie chicken, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and grilled onions …. I absolutely love grilled veggies! Erik probably won’t like this picture but I do ; ) 
We even got to eat by some lovely flowers. We had a great day and it was nice to actually see the vending locations up close and personal. Hopefully soon I can give you all a more detailed update!

It was just a little bit foggy on the way home, haha …

I took a break from lifting the past few days so that I go go back into it with a refreshed mindset. Tonight …. I relax and eat Amy’s pizza ; ) Tomorrow, regularly planned lifting will resume.

Hope your week is off to great start!! :)

In honor of Martin Luther King Junior Day, I’ll leave you with this quote:

"Justice at its best...is love correcting everything that stands against love."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Protein: How much is too much?

Hey all!

Have you ever done something you love so much, got stressed about it and felt like you had to do it so much that it wasn’t fun anymore? Ha. That’s what I’ve been feeling lately, hence why I haven’t blogged the past few days.  I sort of burnt myself out and needed a break!

Since I started lifting hard on top of work and blogging every night, my days have been jam packed, I haven’t been getting enough sleep, and I still haven’t been getting everything done I want/need to get done, and Erik and I haven’t been spending as much time together as we need. My evenings after work consist of two hours working out, then making dinner, and  then blogging and after all that, it’s already past my bedtime.

I really wasn’t thinking because sleep is even more important right now, as I’m exerting myself even more in the gym than my body is used to.

But, lifting and blogging are both things I love to do so of course I won’t be stopping them. I just need to figure out a better way of going about them. Therefore, I probably won’t be posting quite as often, as I don’t want to feel pressed to blog every single day (in fact, I’m not sure why I felt that way in the first place??)  I decided I’d rather have more quality posts not as often anyways … and this way I can breath more!  I’m sure you all understand ; ).
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Moving on ….  RE my last post …

Glad you found my current figure competition diet interesting ; )  And thanks for all your input!

A few questions came up along the way and I thought I’d post the answers for all to see:

Thankfully, somehow I don’t find it that hard to add foods and eat more. Honestly, I just love food and I love to eat it! Ha. If anything, I’ve always had problems eating too much food. And that’s a perk I find to eating clean. I’m able to eat more of it without gaining weight. If I ate a lot of “junk food” I’d be in trouble because I’m horrible at eating “junk food” in moderation. It’s sort of all or or nothing kind of thing for me. While some people can eat whatever they want in moderation and still maintain a healthy weight, I cannot! If I’m eating cookies, I don’t just want one! My body type gains easily and my appetite wants a lot of food ; )

As far as working out is concerned, yes, I do work out everyday but for the bulking phase, I have decreased my cardio significantly. I’m currently just doing 15 minutes of low intensity cardio before and after my lifting session. So far, I have no stomach complaints ; ) Other than feeling really full at times, everything is in order. With a high protein diet, I drinking plenty of water! However, with large amount of water consumption, I’m thankful for a job that allows me to easily use the restroom often! ;)

I find the easiest way to get in protein is meat. I eat a lot of chicken breasts and lean ground turkey. I plan on incorporating more fish into my diet as well. In most other meatless meals, there will likely be eggs or protein powder involved.

Last but not least … the issue of protein. How much is too much??

 
And anonymous responded with:

After reading both of these responses, it caused me to do some research of my own and I found this topic of protein can be very controversial. One article in particular that I found interesting was this one, called “High protein diets affect on muscle gain and weight loss” by Paul Johnson

Here is an excerpt from it that I found interesting:

The part most interesting to me is that half of the Polish powerlifters, when doubling their protein intake past the recommended daily allowance, were still not getting an adequate amount and still has a negative nitrogen balance.

All in all, it’s evident that bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other high intensity athletes do consume large amounts of protein, way more than the recommended daily amount.  And for those athletes, large amounts of protein are essential to achieve certain size/strength goals.

This is all very interesting to me because I’m currently consuming a little less than 1.5 grams protein per pound, which is definitely higher than the recommended amount. However, through research and looking at others experience and education, I don’t believe this amount is unhealthy due to the amount I workout, how hard I workout, and what I want to achieve.

And bottom line, I trust my husband (aka my trainer) because he has both done bodybuilding and trained athletes and I trust his judgment! : )

I’ll end with one more excerpt from “High protein diets affect on muscle gain and weight loss”:

The answer to a near optimum amount for muscle gains, yet still also being a healthy amount for the kidneys and liver, is probably somewhere in around the 1.5 grams per pound mark.

Hope all this wasn’t too boring and long! ; )

Any more thoughts on protein??

P.S. Have a fantastic weekend!! :D