Category: Lifestyle

Why is sugar so bad? Sugar is not your friend

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Well guys , it is the holidays and Christmas is literally less than four days away Whew! I know with everything that has been happening in 2020 we are looking forward to the holidays. One thing some of us look forward to is having our SWEETS! Yes I said it SWEETS. For most of us it all really starts with Thanksgiving, and we are not usually working on our summer bodies at this time. I always have a sweet and a lot of the time I have to remind myself to get that under control and not go overboard. With that being said now I will let you know all the reasons why sugar is not your friend:

1. Too much sugar consumption leaves the door open for many diseases and disorders

2.  Too much sugar in diet can cause you to crash and feel sluggish

3. Too much sugar in the diet opens the avenue to Type 2 Diabetes due to an excess in sugar in the body can lead to insulin resistance

4. More prone to cancer

5.Weight Gain

6. Heart Disease

7. Arthrosclerosis and so much more

Now that you know why sugar is not your friend , how are you going to work on limiting it in your diet? To start always read your nutritional facts label that is where you will find out how much sugar is in your food. Also keep in mind if a food item is more than one serving and you eat more than one you will consume more sugar per serving. Try other alternatives to sweetening your food such as honey, agave, and stevia. I’ve even heard now that there is coconut sugar ! It is recommended that men should have 37 grams or 9 teaspoons of sugar a day while women can have 25 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar a day according to the American Heart Association. Now that is not a lot so you can see why controlling our sugar cravings is so important. Make sure this holiday not to splurge to much sweets but also enjoy what can in moderation. Happy Holidays! Stay Safe

Check out my Youtube Video on why Sugar is not your friend

Watch Now!

The New Normal Exercising At Home

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Our physical health is so important and this is no surprise. Exercising has many benefits it keeps you fit, contributes to weight loss, helps you to get stronger and build muscle, and is beneficial to our mental health. With everything going on in 2020 with the pandemic and stay at home orders exercising at home is becoming the new thing. Even though many people were exercising at home way before things changed for us our homes are going to become our new gym.

I will admit I was never into exercising in the past because I always felt like my weight was stable for many years and I didn’t need to lose any weight. I thought exercising was all about weight loss but it isn’t theres so much more to it and it makes you feel good. These days with being a mom and into my first year of motherhood I am still working on time management and fitting in time for myself to get things done but below I will share with you some the exercises I am doing at home.

After giving birth I lose a great amount of weight going from 162 pounds down to 146 pounds. Most of my weight was baby weight! But as time went on and I started getting my appetite back I was eating pretty much anything and then when quarantine started I gained all my weight back. It has been a struggle for me to shed the weight but I am trying very hard to get it under control.  Right on my main focus is burning calories and cardio exercises.

Here are some of my favorite cardio exercises ( and I’m sure some of your favorites too!)

1. Jumping Jacks – jumping jacks is one of the most classic exercise moves I know. I remember doing jumping jacks in Kindergarten! when we had gym and pretty much all through elementary school during gym time. Jumping jacks are fairly easy but you can get tired easily. But I love it because it is a quick calorie burner and depending on your intensity and how many jumping jacks you can do, you can even burn more calories. Start off with a set number and gradually increase the number. So first start off with 50 then increase to 100 then 150 and so on

2. Burpees – I don’t know if this is a favorite of everyone but I love doing burpees. For me it’s a better alternative to doing push ups and allows for full body movement. Depending on the intensity of this you can also burn some calories really fast.

3. Squats – Now I know this is a sure favorite for everyone. They are easy to do but they do hurt after a while  lol my legs get tired easily but I love how versatile you can be with a squat doing it in many different ways for example a jump squat

4. Jump Ropes – This is my new favorite thing and I should have purchased one way before this. Jump roping is an instant fat burner and you can literally burn 150 calories in 11 minutes so imagine how much you can burn doing twenty minutes of jump rope probably close to 400 calories!

5. Side to Side High Knees – The way I do this is a run side to side doing high knees and increase the intensity as I go along

For now those a my top 5 calories burners but I will be adding many more to the list. Leave a comment below and let me know your favorite stay at home workouts!

Be well and stay safe.

I was a little late on getting my workout equipment since when quarantine had started I had so much trouble finding workout jump ropes in stores. I was able to finally get one through Amazon. Click the link below if you are looking for a nice workout jump rope


 

Planning A Party During COVID-19

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Photo by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.com
Hand washing station
DIY Canvas
DIY Babyfirst Banner using banner paper
DIY caketopper using cardstock paper designed using phonto app on android and iphone
My husband and I had the special task of planning out a special day. My son’s first birthday party! The challenge was how were we going to do it in compliance with all the Guidelines for COVID 19.

The good thing was that we had planned to have it outdoors at a park so that was perfect for social distancing,  which we visited before hand so we could know how much space we were working with. We couldn’t actually reserve any spaces so we just had to hope that the section we wanted wouldn’t be taken the day of the party ( which it wasn’t thank goodness!)

All DIY

We decided on a DIY babyfirst themed party because my son loves babyfirst tv. We didn’t want to have to spend such a large amount of money so we decided to do things ourselves.  Supplies was pretty simple because most things we already had on hand such as crayons , markers,  and pencils. Other supplies we needed were canvas holders, canvas, black printer ink, and color ink. Ballons , food trays, cupcake holders,  hand sanitizer,  napkins, paper towels, and cardstock paper. We also got banner paper to create our own banner. We went to stores micheals crafting , dollar tree, and amazon online for supplies.

We wanted to keep things pretty much contact less so there was too much touching going on and everyone had the option to take their food tray home or their cupcakes home.  We also reserved a table and set up a handwashing station so that everyone was able to wash their hands. For this we used hand sanitizer , hand washing soap and a spray bottle filled with water to wash off the soap and paper towels.

For the desserts I made the cupcakes myself and was able to put each cupcake in a cupcake holder so that they were not left out in the open. We pretty much kept the cake covered until it was time to cut the cake.

For food we kept it simple and only had six dishes rice and beans, chicken party wings , fried chicken, mac and cheese, fried fish, and salad which my family was able to help me prepare. As for drinks they were served as is we did not have cups to minimize contact and touching.

All in all the party turned out great and everyone was able to social distance which was a relief for me. We had the right number of people and were able to carry out the party safely.

Below I will share links for items that I used ( these links are affiliate links )

Stay safe everyone!

Canvas Pack on Amazon

Cupcake Holders

Balloon Stand

Food Trays ( I got mine from family dollar but saw something similar on amazon)

Balloon Stand Center Piece

Acid Re-flux Update

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Hey guys how are you all doing? I hope you are doing well, staying safe, and healthy during these times. 

I just wanted to update on my acid re-flux.  To start I can say it has almost been a full year since I have taken any acid re-flux medication. I stopped taking prilosec when I found out I  was pregnant and even after giving birth last October I never continued with prilosec and zantac was being pulled off shelves due to that fact that it was found it could cause cancer.
Even though I haven’t been on any medications does not my re-flux has resolved. I still get re-flux symptoms but they have been stable and mild. If you have acid re-flux it is important to make sure that you don’t sweep it under the rug. That’s what I did many years ago and then it just kept getting worse and worse from that point. I haven’t had a major re-flux episode (acid hitting my throat) since 2017 and I want to keep it that way. I also want to continue to help you all on your journey. 

The re-flux journey is not an easy one but it takes a lot of time to get better and you must evaluate the foods the you are eating which are your trigger foods. As we know many foods are acidic then alkaline so you have to find the right balance in order to minimize those symptoms. 
I am excited to be back and to continue to help you all on this journey!

The ” Weight” of Pregnancy

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Pregnancy is one the most exciting times in a women’s life. To experience the joy of bringing a new life into this world. Throughout the stages of pregnancy and three trimesters the body will go through a series of changes one of the most notable things being weight. That may be the one part women dread the most about pregnancy the weight gain that comes with it. Then you start to think will I be able to lose this weight after?

For me weight gain was not a major issue in the beginning of my pregnancy. During my journey I was not able to eat much at all. Once the nausea started it pretty much stayed with me throughout my whole pregnancy and never went away. For most women nausea usually goes away by the second trimester. It was a tough battle to tackle the nausea and dry heaving on top of already having a history of acid reflux. Most days I didn’t even feel hungry I had no appetite because of the nausea but I still made sure to eat anything I could of course not anything but nutritious foods for me and the baby. Then eventually as time went on I had to drink ensures for extra calories.
My weight pretty much stayed stable until about  25 weeks of pregnancy. I started weighing 138 pounds and by the end of my pregnancy I was 160 pounds. Not bad right? A month after giving birth I weighed in at 146 pounds. Now today I am 156 pounds so I am almost back to my end pregnancy weight. Even though I instantly lost weight I seemed to gain it back. Even though the pregnancy is over the real work has just begun and postpartum weight also counts.

How did I get back 156 pounds ? Well the good news is that it wasn’t instantly but gradually. During postpartum you go through a whirlwind of emotions.  Your getting used to having a new baby, juggling bottles, diapers, pumping, or breastfeeding and no sleep is not easy! And in between all of that you have to figure out when will you have time to eat and do you even have time to cook?
For me, I just pretty much ate anything whenever I could. Most days I wouldn’t eat until at 4 PM.  I ate a lot of chips , chocolate and anything that was easy fast food. It seemed as though all my healthy ways of eating had gone through the window.

Now to this present day I am getting back on track with how I used to be I am eating healthier, meal planning, and even exercising something that I never was really used to doing much at all. I am making sure to drink a lot more water and not beat myself about my current weight. 
The point of this post is to tell you mamas out their not to be upset about weight gain and to embrace it.  The post postpartum journey is not easy but once you ease into a routine and also fit in time to take care of YOU, everything will fall into place.