Healthy(er) Eating, Where I Started

You know why I started eating healthier? (This is going to sound weird and crazy) I have always wanted a great pair of legs - Lean, muscular, Miss America-like legs that always look good in a pair of shorts.

But, it's taken me until my 30's and two kids to get on track with healthier eating to (hopefully) get me those legs. Of course I think more about the long-term health benefits for myself and my family.

As I've educated myself more on the topic of health and fitness I found that there are 3 things that are really important. Here they are, in order:

1. Sleep
2. Eating good food
3. Exercise

I seriously thought that just exercise would would do it all. Turns out there is more to it than that. There are some easy changes that I started with and a few resources that keep me pointed in the right direction.

I started with making some simple ingredient swaps - iodized salt, sour-cream, and granulated sugar for sea salt, greek yogurt and pure maple syrup.

Sea salt is less processed than table salt and because it's less processed, it has more flavor resulting in the idea that you may use less. I also think sea salt has a better flavor.

Greek Yogurt is a really easy swap for sour cream.  Anywhere you use sour cream - tacos, fajitas, potatoes, dips - you can swap for greek yogurt. You can also find it in dressings, usually those in the produce aisle. If you are a fan of chip dip, make your own with greek yogurt.

Pure maple syrup  is a really good swap for white, granulated cane sugar. I use it in a lot of recipes and put it in my oatmeal.  There are some online resources that show you how to swap it for granulated sugar. Pure maple syrup does come with a bit of a price tag so buy it on a grocery shopping trip when your husband is not with you (I'm telling you this from experience.) Other really good sugar substitutes are raw honey or coconut sugar.

I've also found a few clean-eating cookbooks that not only have good recipes but are really good resources. I've been able to successfully make these for my strictly meat-and-potatoes and casserole liking husband.

My favorites are the Laura Lea Balanced Cookbook, Dashing Dish, Lexi's Clean Kitchen, and Nutrition Stripped.  The recipes are all pretty normal, run-of-the-mill dishes. They just have healthier ingredients. All of these authors have blogs full of recipes and really good instagram accounts that serve as really good resources.

Additionally I've tried to add a vegetable and protein to every meal, and eat snacks that include a vegetable or fruit, protein and healthy grain or healthy fat. Snacks are my biggest downfall - not because I eat junk, I just don't stop during the day to eat snacks which leads to poor meal decisions sometimes.  I also try to make something healthy I can grab for breakfast as I'm running out the door like these blueberry donuts.

Now that I've shared all of this, you need to know this one important thing about me. I'm a sucker for Cheetos (the Simply kind), Casey's pizza, and sweets (give me all the cookies and caramel m&ms).

However, I did find the perfect healthy cookie for you all (actually my sister found it and recommended it to me). I made these ones last week and they are SO GOOD! Here is the recipe.

Cheers!