Would you rather count chemicals or calories?

Hello cupcakes!

So would you rather count chemicals or calories? 

I can tell you personally, I used to count calories. In high school I would try to find foods with the least amount of calories. I remember eating bars and cereals that I thought were healthy simply because they had less calories. I can't believe how much I have learned since high school. Fast forward five years later and now I would so much rather count the chemicals in my food. 

What do I actually mean by counting chemicals?

This means when I look at a food, I am looking to see the ingredients. For example, I needed cooked shredded chicken fast a few days ago. I went to the canned food section and found canned chicken. When I held up the first can I could not believe how many weird ingredients were included. No way was I going to put that into my body. I finally found one can that only had "chicken breast and sea salt" on the ingredient list. I try to eat food as natural as possible. I have recently started shopping at my local farmers' market and I am in love with how fresh the food tastes. I highly recommend checking out your local farmers' market. 

I think when people eat food with less chemicals it offers hundreds of benefits. Personally, I feel like I have more energy and I am happier in general when I eat foods with no chemicals or weird ingredients. Pick up a carton of unsweetened cashew milk from the grocery and tell me how many of the ingredients you actually know. CRAZY RIGHT? I think it's time for people to stop counting calories and actually count chemicals. 

Okay.. rant over. Now time for FOOD!

Tonight I made some homemade cashew butter. It's very simple: soak cashews for 2-3 hours in purified water. Take out of water and pat dry. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees until dry. Once the nuts are dried and cool, process them in a food processor until creamy (this can take a while and you have to be very patient. I promise it will get smooth eventually). Once the mixture is smooth add a tablespoon of coconut oil. 

Here is a variation of the cashew butter. This is my pumpkin cashew butter. This is just dates, cashew butter, and pumpkin. Here is the recipe: Pumpkin Cashew Butter . The recipe link has a few other ingredients, but if you don't have them on hand then don't worry it will still turn out wonderful!

Here is a picture of my lunch yesterday. Don't mind my browning avocado. I am in love with this meal right now. It's so simple, but so delicious.

I bought these cute little red bananas today. Has anyone ever had these?

This is a picture of the empty gym I took a Monday morning for my 6am cardio session. I love morning workouts. It helps me wake up and it sets my mood for the rest of the day. I love listening to my Spotify playlist and just taking my mind off everything. What is everyone's favorite workout?

I hope you all had a fantastic hump day and remember "It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away."

Later Taters xoxo