I don’t think I have mentioned before that I am an Ambassador for the Ellie clothing company. I’m sure a lot of you have heard about this (AWESOME) website and I can assure you that their fitness clothing is not only top notch in quality, but so cute and comfy. I have been able to try out a few pieces so far, including this top and bottom from this month’s line: Coral Crush:

It Takes Two Top and To Dye For Capri

You see, each month they put out a new line of clothing and when you sign up, you get to pick out a top and bottom piece of your choosing from the collection to have sent to you. I can dig this concept. Also since I am an ambassador, you all can get 20% off using my referral code! Click on the link below if you’re interested. (link is also on the right side of my blog) Its pretty sweet.

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On the food front, my diet is still being tweaked and I received some information from the naturopath doc that did not make me a very happy camper. Guys, I can’t have….EGGS.

Wahhhhhh!!!!

Sure, take away the gluten…remove the dairy….no soy in sight. But you want me to give up EGGS TOO?! Ugh.

Okay. complaining done. Moving on.

Basically a strict diet is very important right now otherwise if I eat something not ‘approved’, it can figuratively knock heads with the natural herbs I’m taking to heal my insides. Gotta do what you gotta do though. Eggs, while one of the most nutritious foods you can give your body, can sometimes be problematic when your stomach isn’t in tip top shape. I am hopeful that I will be able to add back in eggs at some point, so the important thing to remember is it’s only temporary…and hey, if it works, then I can’t ask for more than that.

Somebody eat a peanut butter cup for me.

I have been on a bit of a smoothie kick lately so I thought I would share a few of my most recent blends that all turned out really delicious. They all are pretty similar bases, just switching up the flavors depending on the mood I’m in.  I have been adding in either fresh lemon or lime juice or apple cider vinegar to get their alkalinizing effects. Also, no dairy for me currently so I’m using and loving my tried and true Sun Warrior protein. These have really been hitting the spot! So grab your blender and lets get drinkin’.

Lemon Berry Blast

• 1/2 squeezed lemon
• 1 cup frozen blackberries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 1/2 cups milk of choice (I use almond or coconut)
• 1 serving protein powder (I use Sun Warrior rice protein)
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 5 ice cubes

Chocolate Cherry Delight

• 1 cup frozen dark sweet cherries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 serving protein powder (I use Sun Warrior rice protein)
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 1/2 cups milk of choice (I use almond or coconut)
• 5 ice cubes

Creamy Pina Colada

• 1 cup fresh pineapple
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2 fresh squeezed lime
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 cup coconut milk (or almond)
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1 serving protein powder (I use Sun Warrior rice protein)
• 5 ice cubes

Cleo has really been wanting to make another blog appearance. She poses for the camera at least several times per day so I figured I better sneak one in of her with today’s post…she will be pleased.

She plays outside whenever possible and is the queen of the back yard. This pup does not tire…ever! And she likes to wake up at 5 a.m. We are working on that one…

Other notes worth mentioning:

• I will put up a post soon about some tips on ditching the sweeteners/ taming your sweet tooth as some of you expressed interest in that. Give me a bit; I’ve got online finals to study for this week!

• I am probably going to be posting more on Instagram now. I’m really liking the ease of being able to quickly post bits and pieces since I just can’t seem to find a lot of time for blogging like I used to. We’ll see how it goes. Follow me HERE!

• I am undergoing more testing to get to the bottom of my stomach/colon/intestinal issues so any prayers or good vibes would be greatly appreciated! I am still in a great deal of pain and unable to sleep flat; I’ve been in a recliner for over 4 months now. Truth: I miss my bed. A lot.

Okay that’s it for today! Have a good one!

Kristi

And I strongly recommend cutting out the sweeteners for a period of time to re-set blood sugar levels and tame your sweet tooth! I am amazed at how SWEET things taste all on their own after you get that under control. Amazing. Give it a try. It’s not fun at first, but very well worth it.

Tibits of my eats lately have including some of the following:

Breakfast

soft boiled eggs, avocado, and sauerkraut

Snack

afternoon smoothie: 1/2 cup frozen cherries, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 scoop plant fusion protein powder, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 cup coconut milk, 1 tbsp coconut oil, ice, hemp hearts on top

Lunch

spinach turkey olive salad with the most amazing and easy tahini dressing

More Snacks

almond butter with banana and strawberries

pineapple and sweet potato muffins (made without the stevia) with grass-fed raw butter

Dinner

spiralized roasted zucchini, avocado cream sauce, and tilapia

Dessert

Yes I still have dessert!

These little guys are awesome and so simple. Just combine equal parts coconut oil and dark cocoa powder and pour into silicon muffin tins. Set in the fridge/freezer to let harden and walah! Instant chocolate cups! You can add honey, stevia, etc if you want but I’m eating them bitter and delicious.

Kristi

I’m stopping by to announce the Albion Giveaway winner:

Vicki Howes!

Please email me to claim your prize!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Kristi

Albion’s grape colored long crew with thumbholes

I had to go with the purple. I am a wildcat, after all.

This first thing I noticed when I opened up my package was how soft the material is! It is light weight but oh so soft and silky. It would be great for working out, or just for lounging around the house. I have been using it more-so for the latter and have enjoyed it quite a bit for that, haha.

It was hard to choose just one item though, because several others caught my eye:

Good thing Sweetly Fit readers can get $15 off any purchase of $50 dollars or more, now through 4/4/13 with code sweetlyfit15. Woohoo!!

But Albion was nice enough to also offer for one reader to receive the same grape long crew shirt that I picked out!

How to Enter:

#1: Like Albion on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did so

#2: Pin your favorite Albion clothing item on Pinterest and leave a comment telling me you did so

I will pick a winner on Friday!

xo, Kristi

Well I officially lose at keeping up with the blog. But hey, that’s okay! I’m re-evaluating my priorities in life and I have decided that cutting down on my computer time does a lot of good. I am currently doing some online classes (since I moved back home for the semester) so I already spend enough time starring at the Mac screen as it is. With all that has gone on over the past several months, blogging just doesn’t seem like a priority anymore. I’ll still be around, just probably not as often. Instead, I’m going to be busy LIVING LIFE. The way it should be!

Anyways, I did want to do a little update on how the “new diet” is going.

In short: It rocks.

At first, I didn’t know what to do with myself. No grains? No dairy? No sugar? How will I survive?!? That lasted about a day. I soon realized that there are in fact plenty of ways to be perfectly satisfied on a Paleo (ish) diet. In fact, once my body adjusted to the new changes, I started craving only those nutrient dense foods and not really even caring about the ones I eliminated. Only 2 1/2 short weeks ago, I ate a diet heavy in grains and dairy and sweetener (ehhem, stevia). Now I am currently free of all three. WIll it be forever? Not entirely. For the foreseeable future, yes. My insides are very inflamed (from infection) and I am in need of healing foods. I will do whatever it takes to get back in good health, so that’s that! Once this whole health mess is behind me, I do plan on most likely sticking with a lot of the changes I have made, just a little bit more relaxed. Grains and dairy were unknowingly causing me a lot of problems and now that I know how good I feel without them, I will definitely use moderation with them in the future if I do introduce them back. Another plus is that once those things are eliminated, you have a lot more room for other delicious, nutrient dense foods…foods that your body is begging you for!

Notes:

• my sweetener addiction is broken = cravings have decreased
• my fat intake has doubled
• I usually end up eating 4-5 whole eggs a day
• I cook everything in lots of coconut oil or grassfed BUTTER
• my fruit and veggie intake has increased
• my skin is so SOFT and CLEAR
• no more energy slumps

So yes, food: my diet is heavy on grassfed meats, eggs, nuts & seeds, avocado, butter, all things coconut, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, and a few baked treats when I’m feeling creative. And you know what? I am not bored one bit. I still love and enjoy everything I eat, except now I feel a lot better. Win, win.

Here are a few plates I have enjoyed lately:

strawberries, 3 egg spinach-garlic-daiya dairy free cheese-omelete cooked in butter

omelete and bacon

noatmeal: 1 mashed banana, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup almond mlik, 1 tbsp coconut flour, 1 tbsp ground flax, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla extract cooked on the stovetop. + almond butter

lunch bowl: romaine, cabbage slaw, avocado, sardines, coconut oil roasted butternut squash

dinner plate: shredded brussel sprouts cooked in butter and mixed with pulled pork + avocado

chocolate pudding: mashed avocado, mashed banana, and cocoa powder. topped with cashew butter. Avocado is amazing for desserts!

pumpkin micro-muffin: 2 tbsp coconut flour, 1/3 cup pumpkin, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1 egg, dash of baking powder, pinch of sea salt, cinnamon, vanilla extract and butter extract.Topped with canned coconut milk (aka the most amazing whipped cream).

I am having fun experimenting with new foods and new recipes on this new way of eating. It’s good to switch things up occasionally, so I have decided to embrace it. I’m slowly but surely getting back on my feet, and my diet is a large part of that. Ultimately, YOU decide what you put into your body…and I’m not going to kid myself anymore. I am focusing on real food and my body is thanking me for it.

That’s all I’ve got! However, DO check back soon for a giveaway opportunity that you will not want to miss!

Kristi

I know I have been very vague about what has been going on health-wise with me since the beginning of the year and the main reason is because for the majority of the time nobody KNEW what the heck was wrong with me. Through this experience, I have definitely lost a lot of faith in medical doctors and if I’ve learned one thing it is that you have to trust yourself. I was told I just have anxiety…or depression…or I’m just playing it up in my head. And if none of those, well then I surely had an eating disorder.

After months of struggling, and having to drop out of my classes for the semester (yup), I finally started to get some answers which led to two things:

1. surgery to remove my ill-functioning gallbladder

2. being diagnosed with a gastrointestinal disease

Had we figured out #2 before doing #1, I may not have had to go through surgery and be gallbladder-less for the rest of my life. That was thanks to trusting our so-called medical professionals and doing what they thought would “fix” things. Oh well, can’t look back and regret.

So I begin some treatment prescribed by the doc, taking a STRONG antibiotic for starters, once again killing off my beneficial bacteria and only making my stomach issues worse. After running around in circle after circle with general doctors who seem baffled by what is going on inside my body, I recently decided to try a different path. I went to an alternative medicine practitioner. The day of that appointment was the first time I felt hope. He was able to make completely perfect sense of EVERYTHING I have been experiencing. He didn’t look at me like I was crazy. He knew exactly what to do. This was extremely comforting…and it didn’t hurt that he was an incredible sight to look at. Blonde, strong, and a brain to go with it?! Okay I’m getting side-tracked.

So to make a long story (slightly) shorter, I have begun an herbal medicine and healing diet plan under his instructions in order to take care of this infection and heal my suffering stomach and colon. So what exactly does this diet entail? Well some of my Pinterest followers may have noticed my new paleo board….

The Healing Diet, in a nutshell, is basically a paleo way of eating. It eliminates  all sources of irritants (at least initially) including:

• grains
• dairy
• soy
• sugar AND alternative sweeteners (yes, that includes stevia!)

I focus on these:

• proteins! eggs, all cuts of chicken, beef, lamb, pork, etc
• fats! everything coconut, heart healthy oils, nuts and seeds (not peanuts, at least initially), avocado, and real butter. mmm.
• veggies! Lots and lots of them. have them as much as possible and eat a rainbow!
• fruits! in moderation

This aims to re-set your blood sugar, detox you system, and get your cravings in check. After 2 weeks, you can begin to play “detective” by adding in one single thing at a time to see if it causes anything unfavorable. Then you know that’s a no-no. Today is Day 3 and honestly, I’m feeling pretty great. I am by no means back to normal yet, but I feel that I am at least on the road to recovery now.

I intend to start loosing documenting my food and experience with this new lifestyle change so be ready for the blog to take a new turn! I never thought I would catch on to the whole paleo movement, but here I am; totally on board. Again, I just have to laugh at how quickly things can change!

Last but not least, thank you again to all of you who have been there supporting me! Things have been tough, but if you have friends, family, and God with you, nothing seems impossible.

Kristi

Congrats to RunServeCook!

Please email me to get your goodies!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Kristi

I know…who am I? I am very sorry for my sudden disappearance from the blog world but well, you could say I have a good excuse. For whatever reason, God has decided to challenge me by presenting some very unexpected obstacles regarding my health. A lot has changed in the past few months and it has definitely not been the way I envisioned starting off the new year. Through this I am reminded that He is in control and what I have scheduled on my plan for life may not be what is in HIS PLAN for me. Sometimes when you’re not listening to what He wants, He has to take bigger measures to get his message across. It is actually kind of amusing to think about all that I had planned out, things that felt so set in stone, and not even thinking for a second that any of it could possibly not happen. Talk about a reality check.

So now I’m on a different path; one that I have no idea where it leads. But that’s okay. I guess the morale of the story is to just live life TODAY. Be in the present and stop worrying about the future or having a plan…because let’s be honest, chances are those plans are going to change anyways. Now i’m focusing on keeping my head up and taking one day at a time. It will all work out.

You know what i feel like doing TODAY? Hosting a giveaway to best blog readers in the world! Sound good to you? Alright then.

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Several Conscious Box giveaways have already been held on Sweetly Fit, thanks to the awesome company founder, Jameson Morris. He recently launched their brand new site so he wants us to help him celebrate!

Like I have talked about before, the concept of the Conscious Box is all based on eco friendly, health conscious products delivered monthly to your door; a new box for each month! In the past giveaway, winners received 1 box for whatever month we were in. However for this giveaway, the winner is going to receive a 3 MONTH SUPPLY OF CONSCIOUS BOXES!!! Is that awesome or is that awesome?

You can leave a comment for any/all of the following to be entered:

1. Like Conscious Box on Facebook

2. Go to the new Conscious Box website and make yourself a profile (it’s free!)

3. Tell me about a time in your life when things didn’t go as planned

4. Subscribe to Sweetly Fit (on the right-hand side of main page—>)

5. Tweet this giveaway

I will pick a winner on Friday, March 8th!

Thing #1: Latest Pup Pics

Cleo went to her very first dog spa appointment, aka the groomer. She got all decked out with a scarf and two bows. The scarf lasted about 10 minutes. We are currently down to one bow. But hey, it was cute while it lasted.

Thing #2: Sweetly Fit got featured as a 2012 Golden Heart Award Winner

accessrx.com just put out a list of the top bloggers of 2012 in weight loss education, in which I was included on! Although I don’t think my blog is geared specifically towards weight loss, and instead more of a healthy approach to life in general, I was nonetheless honored to be next to blogs that have inspired me all the way back to when I first discovered this community. I use this blog to share my adventures and passion for health, fitness, and food, and if others can enjoy or benefit from it, then that is all the motivation I need to keep things going.

And now, some food for the party.

egg white oatbran with walnuts and maple syrup

spinach salad with roasted kabocha, eggs, and peanut flour sauce

roasted kabocha squash, beans+cheddar+crackers for dipping

pumpkin baked oatmeal with cottage cheese and banana

chocolate covered pretzels, persimmon, greek yogurt

roasted broccoli slaw pasta with marinara and chicken, buttery baked potato love

some chocolate covered pretzels and some cheesecake. Typical.

Plus much much more of course, but things have been kept pretty simple and a lot of repeats due to to still not feeling too great. I’m still battling some health issues right now and am hoping to get some answers from my doctor soon so I can things back on track with life. Thanks to all who are supporting me through this not so fun time right now. Love you all!

On the exercise front, I have been completely sedentary since January 1st. Kind of ironic how the majority of sedentary people are currently kicking it up a notch per New Years resolutions, while me, the very active person, is taking a total break, haha. It’s interesting how things work out sometimes. Anywho, a break is always good for the body and hopefully I’ll be nice and recharged by the time I’m back in good health. With exercise being a huge part of my stress relief, it’s been tough to be away from it. However I know it will be beneficial. Whenever I take a break, I’m always that much more pumped up when I get back to it.

School-wise, I have until next Tuesday before I jump back into things. I’m savoring the time I have left with no schedule. That part has been oh-so-nice.

I hope YOU ALL are doing fantastic and have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Kristi

Ingredients:

• one serving pretzels (mine were 24 pretzels per serving)
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt
• splash of milk
• a few drops of butter and/or almond extract
• a pinch of stevia

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together protein, yogurt, milk, extracts, and sweetener. Lay out a piece of wax paper sprayed with cooking spray. Begin dipping each pretzel piece into chocolate mixture and placing onto the wax paper. Once all pretzel pieces are coated, transfer to the freezer to harden for at least 10 minutes.

*Note: These are ready to eat right away, after the brief time it takes to harden in the freezer. They can stay in the freezer longer than that, but should be eaten within the same day that they are made, otherwise the pretzels will get soggy. That is why this is a single serving recipe, so you can eat it all up while it’s good and fresh!