Health is WEALTH but so is BALANCE

Hey Balanced Beauties!

I want to thank everyone who has been contacting me via instagram with special requests for my blog posts. This is such a great help and I am literally loving the engagement and feedback. It makes me so happy! You guys are making this “blog life” so much fun and I love how engaged you are. Keep all of the requests coming and I promise that I will get to them all.

One of my biggest requests this far was food suggestions/my diet. I figured I would give you guys some suggestions and provide you with examples of foods that I eat almost everyday! I mentioned in my previous post that I am a pescatarian. For those of you who don’t already know, a pescatarian is someone that does not eat meat but eats fish as their main source of protein. So these food suggestions are just foods that work within my pescatarian diet. This is what works for me/my body but remember that everyone is different!

I have been a pescatarian for two years now. I actually really loved eating chicken and ground turkey at the time I chose to cut out meat from my diet so this was hard for me at first! Why did I become a pescatarian in the first place? Well, it all started once my mom was diagnosed with stage one lung cancer about two years ago. She needed a major surgery to remove her left lobe, so she decided to go completely vegan before and after her surgery for health and healing purposes. My sister and I joined her in the process and went strictly vegan for about 5 months. Once my mom was in remission and cancer free (yay <3!!!), we decided to introduce fish back into our diet for more nutritional value. This was mainly because when we were vegan, we started reaching for more breads/pasta and actually ended up losing more nutrition value than gaining (once again, just my personal experience!).

Even though I consider myself a pescatarian, right before my wedding I introduced eggs back into my diet. I still eat eggs and this was a life saver! I used to eat them all the time and since they are quick, easy and healthy I was happy to add them back to my diet.

Now let me let you in on a secret…. I have an obsession with the word “balance” because it truly describes me in every way, specifically with my diet. Monday through Friday I am normally strict with my diet, and typically choose healthy foods to eat. HOWEVER, I do indulge in some dark chocolate at least twice a week for dessert. I say “at least” because sometimes I will have it 4 or 5x a week. It truly depends on the week! Now I am not sitting here eating reeses, but I try to choose the healthier dark chocolate bars that have a higher percentage in cocoa.

I also have one big cheat day a week. Yes, I said cheat DAY and not cheat meal. This is mainly because once I eat something like pizza as a cheat meal, I can’t just have a salad after that. So basically, once I eat something not so healthy, my day is out the door. Do ya feel me? or Maybe that is just me?!? STRUGGLES. So this cheat day usually occurs on a Saturday or Sunday for me.

I believe that when you are working out and eating healthy most of the week, you deserve to splurge and indulge to treat yourself one or two days out of the week. I am in better shape now more than ever and the funny part about this is that I used to ALWAYS skip meals, including breakfast. I used to eat literally two HUGE meals a day, and believe it or not, it was when I was at my heaviest. Now, I actually eat a full breakfast and put more in my body more than ever. I have at least 3 or 4 smaller meals a day. My body needs fuel (food) to be energized, and truly needs frequent meals to help stimulate my metabolism. Side note, I am not a certified nutritionist and everyone’s body is different, but this lifestyle truly works for me! Ok, so to the point 😉 This is not really a diet, but more has become a lifestyle for me. AND what works for me, may not work for you. Just like my husband can eat all of the food in the world and somehow still look fabulous! Here are a list of foods that I eat daily:

Breakfast Ideas:

• Rice Cakes with or without flavors (I’ve been loving the organic honey nut flavor) I will add almond butter OR peanut butter, banana, honey and cinnamon
• Kite Hill Almond Milk Yogurt (plain) and mix with peanut butter, honey & any kind of gluten free granola (I add dark chocolate chips to this from time to time): PS. The plain is absolutley disgusting (to me) if I don’t mix in these things.
• 2 or 3 scrambled eggs with goat cheese
• Ezeckiel Toast (cinnamon raison flavor) with vegan butter
• Gluten Free oatmeal with peanut butter or almond butter: I sometimes will add cinnamon, honey, apples or blueberries

Lunch Ideas:

• Avocado toast on Ezekiel bread. I will add olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder (sometimes I will add an over-easy egg, tomatoes or feta cheese on that)
• All natural tuna or salmon in a can (I will sometimes add veganaise, olive oil or white vinegar to the tuna) and sometimes I will put it on one slice of Ezekiel Toast
• A Salad (of any kind) I mix it up all the time! Sometimes I will put a piece of salmon or grilled shrimp on this. I also use balsamic vinaigrette or apple cider vinegar for the dressing.

Dinner Ideas:

• Red lentils/red lentil pasta (add any sauce that you like) PS. I weirdly crave butter so I’ll put a little vegan butter on there….I know my husband makes fun of me for this one because it’s actually one of my favorites
• Red lentil pasta or regular red lentils are SO good for you and are an awesome source of protein
• Salmon burger with a side of quinoa, wild brown rice and a veggie
• Tuna steak (any fish you like) with a side of sweet potatoes and quinoa
• Organic frozen (or not frozen) veggie burgers depending on what you find: I mix these veggie burgers up. I personally like mushroom veggie burgers or california veggie burgers: SIDE NOTE: be sure to read the ingrediants in these and make sure you like everything in it because some veggie burgers are NOT yummy.
• Lettuce tacos!!! Since I don’t eat meat, I will add quinoa rice, beans, olives, tomatoes and ALLLLLL the toppings (guac & sour cream are my weakness)
• Vegetarian Lentils/Chili (I just pull recipes off Pinterest)
• Butternut squash soup (I just pull recipes off Pinterest)

Favorite day or night (Healthy) snacks/dessert:

• Honeycrisp apples with peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and oats (Sometimes I warm this up in the microwave for like 10 to 15 seconds max)
• Any kind of hummus and guacamole with carrot sticks/rice crackers
• Dark chocolate with almond or peanut butter on top
• Favorite Shake: Peanut butter, banana, blueberries, ice, almond milk (I cut out all protein powders and bars because they hurt my stomach)
• Sometimes I will put hot sauce on celery sticks, carrot sticks and cucumbers (this sounds gross but this girl in college got me into it and it’s worth a try!)
• Rice crackers (any flavor!)
• Oatmeal no bake balls (oatmeal, peanut butter, dark chocolate chips, honey, vanilla extract) My husband loves when I make these bad boys. This is also on Pinterest!
• Almond or coconut ice cream if all else fails…

 

Outfit Details:

Fall has really become the new “wedding season”. With that being said, it gets expensive buying all new dresses! Realistically I only wear the dresses once and then end up selling them. Before my engagement photos, I came across The Stylist LA. 

This is where I rented my dress for our engagement pictures and continue to rent there for other occasions. They also send you a free mailing slip and a bag that allows you to ship it back for free. I am wearing an XS in this dress but I think I could’ve used the small if my chest area wasn’t so small. Anyways, read the reviews and look at the sizing charts before you rent anything! I hope this helps with options before you attend an event. <3

Enjoy and have a well-balanced day!