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#ProgressIsPerfection [3 Simple Ideas to Reach Your Goals]

Whitney CarlsonComment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

You guys. We use Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk for ALL. THE. THINGS. You've seen it in our grocery store pictures and in our food prep pictures. From protein bars and shakes to oat bakes and casseroles, we use it on the daily. We used to buy it at our local grocery store but we did the happy dance when our Costco started carrying it in packs of three!

We've worked with Silk in the past and we are so excited to introduce you to their new campaign: #ProgressIsPerfection. Could the name be more perfect? I don't think so! You know we are all about NOT being perfect. We don't spend hours a day in the gym or running, and we don't eat within strict guidelines or completely eliminate certain food groups from our diet. Yes, living a healthy lifestyle is important but so is having a healthy relationship with food and living your life!

Speaking of #ProgressIsPerfection....believe it or not, we are halfway through March. Where does the time go? This is the perfect time to reflect on the goals that we set at the beginning of the month and even the ones we set at the beginning of the year. Since we started the Detox Your Life Challenge in January, where we focus on a different topic each month, it was easy for us to look back at the progress we've made on our goals.

  • January (Detox Your Fitness): hit those goals (and yes, we've even been doing yoga once a week!)
  • February (Detox Your Money): we hit most of those goals
  • March (Detox Your Nutrition): so far so good!

Over the years we've learned to celebrate the little successes and not dwell on the things that we didn't accomplish. Easier said than done, I know!

If you are still struggling with your goals, try to approach them with a progress mindset instead of always seeking perfection. Below are a few of our tips that are quick and easy and will keep you on the right path.

3 Simple Ideas to Reach Your Goals

1. Short Workouts

If you are pressed for time, your workouts don't have to be time consuming. Try this Short but Sweet Sweat Session during the day. It's only 4 minutes of work so you could do it every hour, during your lunch, or during your workout as an active rest. Also, taking on one of our monthly fitness challenges will give you a roadmap for the month and a sense of accomplishment each day! Just keep moving!


2. Easy Swaps

Swap out the sugar and creamer in your coffee and try Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk. Not ready to completely ditch the creamer? That's okay too. Swap what you normally use for Silk's Almond Creamer. If you are a cereal lover and not ready to give that up yet, look for a cereal that is low in sugar with no artificial ingredients and use Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk.

3. Easy Meals

Preparing food in advance is definitely how we have been able to maintain a healthy lifestyle for so long. Whether you do an entire food prep like we do or just make your breakfast in advance, it all adds up! When you have healthy food on hand it's much easier to stick to your goals.

One of our favorite easy recipes is chocolate avocado pudding. You could have this pudding for breakfast (add a little protein in the form of eggs, protein shake, etc.), a snack, or even dessert after dinner.

Easy Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Ingredients:

Directions:

  • Combine all ingredients in a blender.
  • Place in a mason jar to eat the next day or consume straight from the blender!

Tips:

  • This could be two servings, depending on the size of your avocado.
  • Add liquid egg whites or protein powder to add a serving of protein to your pudding. If you do add protein powder you will likely need more almond milk.

Reflect back on the last few months. What goals have you accomplished? Always keep in mind that small steps really add up and that progress is what we should aim for. You can do it!


Connect with Silk:

Your Genes Cannot Change, but Your Lifestyle Can

Whitney Carlson1 Comment

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Helix for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

results-helix-dna-fit-he-and-she-eat-clean

Whew! Can you believe it’s already February?! It feels like yesterday but it was last fall we introduced you to Helix and how easy it was to send in our DNA samples to be sequenced (read about that process here). Now it’s time to talk about the fun part…our results!

Just a quick recap, Helix is both a state-of-the-art lab that can sequence your DNA and safely store the data for you, and also a store for DNA products. The store offers many different apps and services powered by your DNA (like family planning and inherited cholesterol testing). Here's how it works: once your DNA is sequenced in the Helix lab, Helix safely shares just the relevant parts of your DNA with the partner whose product you bought so that the partner can generate the insights that you're interested in and share the report with you. You can come back to the Helix store again and again to get new insights from different products, without having to get your DNA re-sequenced every time.

We tried the Fitness Diet Pro product made by DNAFit and available in the Helix store. After mailing our DNA sample back to the Helix lab for them to sequence, it took me (Whitney) about four weeks to get my results from DNAFit. Scott’s first sample was unable to be processed, so he was asked to send in a second sample, but now we both have our reports back and we are excited to share! We received an email once our reports were ready. We were then able to log into the DNAFit website to get our results and reports. We loved how easy the website was to use and also that they offered the option to download the report. We decided to download the reports to our computers. They were very easy to read and described everything in just enough detail!

It was very interesting to see the results. Some we were surprised by, but some confirmed we’ve been doing a lot of things in line with what our DNA says. ;-)

Remember: Your genes cannot change, but your lifestyle can. <<< I absolutely loved that statement from the reports. It’s so true!

Below are some of the results of our reports:

Power or Endurance? What Do Your Genes Say?

Fitness Report

  • Power/Endurance Profile
  • Recovery
  • Personal Injury Risk

Whitney:

I had a pretty even split between power and endurance response…which is good because this is typically how I train! I’m definitely not a long-distance runner but we do hike some very long distances. When I do run, I typically only enjoy running distances of 3 miles or less. My recovery time was analyzed as very fast and my personal injury risk was analyzed as very low. Interestingly, my personal experiences seem to agree with those. I have to have a quick recovery time in order to take some of the two-week hiking trips we take where we hike over 100 hard miles!

Using this information, I will continue to train the way that I have been using our workout plans (currently using the She Sweats 12-Week Run Builder) because they already incorporate both power and endurance. Having everything already laid out for me ensures I will be getting a good mix of weight lifting, running, sprint training, AND rest days!

Scott:

My report came back that my genetic profile falls more into the endurance activity zone. Which, as Whitney stated, we already incorporate with our hikes and me with my road bike. When many people think of endurance activities they only think of long-distance running but it applies to many different sports. I’m jealous of Whitney’s fast recovery response though! Mine came back as a medium recovery time. As far as my injury report, the results didn't say that I would definitely experience injury, just that I may have a higher predisposition than other people. Considering the fact that I’m currently injured, I would agree with that assessment!

I have been doing our She Sweats 12-Week Transformation plan (yes, a man doing She Sweats…we need to re-brand and change the name!!!!) and will continue since it incorporates a lot of weight training and the cardio that my body needs. I will definitely take rest days more seriously and focus on proper warm-up, cool-down, and stretching to try and avoid injury in the future. Yoga/stretching was something that we had as a goal for our Detox Your Fitness Challenge last month and neither one of us did yoga once! After getting these results back, I think that’s going to change. It will become more of a priority in our lives!

Low Fat or High Fat? Low Carb or High Carb? What Do Your Genes Say?

DNAFit Diet Report

  • Carbohydrate Sensitivity
  • Fat Sensitivity
  • Detoxification Ability
  • Antioxidant Need
  • Omega-3 Need
  • Vitamin B Requirements
  • Vitamin D Requirements
  • Alcohol Response
  • Caffeine Sensitivity
  • Lactose Intolerance

Whitney:

This one, as you can see with the information listed above, had a lot more information included. I’ll hit on some highlights. I’m proud to confirm that I am lactose TOLERANT! It’s hard when you hear so many people doing all sorts of things with their diets…sometimes you think you should do the same things too. Just because someone else is dairy free, gluten free, carb free, fat-free, etc doesn’t mean that is right for you too! This just confirms that. The report did state that I should limit refined carbs and saturated fats. Since I already eat a clean diet (for the most part), I am already doing this but once again it just reinforces that I am on the right track. Overall, I learned that I could benefit from increasing Vitamin D, Vitamin B, and antioxidants in my diet. I absolutely loved the fact that the report listed real foods that help in these particular areas. Sure, supplementation is an option but trying to get these from whole foods is something I will try as well.

Scott:

As Whitney stated, we do eat dairy products. We try to only consume organic dairy but we definitely incorporate it into our diets in the form of Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. I was pleased to see that I am also dairy tolerant. My report indicated a medium sensitivity to fats, which means that I should watch the amount of saturated fat that I consume (which I already tend to do!). One result that stood out to me was the fact that I should add more cruciferous vegetables to my diet. I do eat a lot of vegetables (thanks to Whitney for making juice for me!) but I don’t eat very many cruciferous vegetables. I will be incorporating more of these into my diet. Unlike Whitney, my need for antioxidants, Vitamin D, and Vitamin B were not elevated.

We will take these results and make a few tweaks to our fitness and nutrition plans. For the most part, we have headed in the right direction already thanks to clean eating and a solid workout plan!

Next, I think we’re going to order the Food Sensitivity+ test from Helix partner EverlyWell! This one measures antibody reactivity to 96 foods (like gluten, wheat, and dairy) as well as genetic influences on lactose intolerance, caffeine, vitamin B12, Vitamin B6, and magnesium. It will be interesting to dig deeper into the food aspect of this and have more foods analyzed!

Learn more about Helix and Fitness Diet Pro so you can start exploring your own results! Use the code HelixcmrU for 30% off any purchase at the Helix store!

Visit Sponsors Site

Get Hooked on Vegetables

Whitney CarlsonComment
Get Hooked on Vegetables - Garden Lites

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Garden Lites. Thank you for supporting He and She Eat Clean. All opinions are my own.

Yes, the title of this is Get Hooked on Vegetables. Don’t think it’s possible? Let us introduce you to our favorite way to eat vegetables. Life has been busy and while we would love to have time to buy, wash, chop, and eat all of our vegetables raw that just doesn’t happen. Instead of buying vegetables only to have them go to waste knowing we won’t eat them in time, we’ve been chowing down on these Garden Lites Superfood Veggie Cakes.

You may have heard us mention Garden Lites before. We always post about them when we see them in Costco… they even had them all out to sample a few weeks ago. And we got a sample of every. single. one. And then bought a box…or two. ;-)

Last time we let you know about their muffins (specifically their chocolate muffins) and while those do have vegetables in them, these Superfood Veggie Cakes are PACKED with vegetables. I know what you are thinking because we were thinking the same thing… but never fear. THEY. ARE. GOOD.

We tried the Superfood Blend which is made with a blend of fresh carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, red bell peppers, and brown rice. They are vegetarian and gluten-free. In a perfect world, we eat green beans or brussels sprouts as our vegetable side dish but if we don’t have anything prepared we will heat up one of these and have it as a side dish. When I am on the road coaching, I’ll take one to eat in between classes to hold me over until my next meal.

Below we had these Superfood Veggies Cakes as a side with our Sweet-Sweet Potato Cubes and Clean & Simple Roasted Chicken. The entire meal was delicious!
Clean Eating Meal Idea with Garden Lites Superfood Veggies Cakes

Not only are they gluten free, dairy free, soy free, peanut free, and tree nut free… VEGGIES are the first and primary ingredient! One veggie cake is a serving which contains 100 calories, 6 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbohydrates, and 3 grams of protein. They are also 3 WEIGHT WATCHERS SmartPoints. We know you will LOVE them as much as we do! These are a great way for kids to get in their veggies but don’t forget that we need veggies as adults too! ;-)

Get Hooked on Vegetables - Garden Lites
As with many products in Costco, this product may not be available in every Costco and may not be available all the time. If you don’t see it in your store, request that they order it! You can also find a store near you that carries it using the store locator on their website (here and also listed below).