{Supplements}

Hello cupcakes!

I have gotten a few questions about supplements that I take, so today I am going to share those with you. Let me first start off by saying supplements are not the quick fix answer to losing weight. Supplements are just as the name states, they are used to supplement eating healthy and working out. Nothing is going to work better than cleaning up your diet, eating correct portions, and getting in a good workout.

First I am going to list the supplements I am currently taking followed by some that I recommend or have used in the past. 

L-Carnitine

I just started using this supplement about 1 1/2 months ago. I use the liquid form because it is absorbed better by the body. I take a Tablespoon full of this right when I wake up in the morning. L-Carnitine may help: convert fat into fuel, support enhanced fat loss, and improve workout performance. I have personally noticed a difference while taking this supplement. I have noticed decreased fat especially around my mid section (I've also increased the intensity of my workouts and have been tracking my macros, so it is the combination of these things that are the key).

BCAAs

BCAAs stands for Branched Chain Amino Acids. They may help: promote workout recovery, encourage muscle growth, and support strength and power. I take this powder form. I take 1 tsp and place it in my protein shake to drink post workout. If I could only recommend one supplement, this would probably be it. I have noticed a huge difference in the recovery of my muscles post workout. Before taking this supplement I would be sore for days after my workouts (especially leg day). Since I started taking BCAAs, I am hardly sore at all after workouts. This is my go to and favorite supplement currently. 

Protein Powder

Protein powder is a great source of fuel post workout. I've gone through many protein powders to try to find one that fits my lifestyle as well as my stomach issues. Nuzest is the only protein powder I have found that does not upset my stomach or cause me to bloat up. I use this daily after my morning workouts. I add 8 oz of unsweetened almond milk to my shaker cup, 1 tsp of BCAAs, and 2 scoops of this protein powder. Currently, vanilla is my favorite flavor but I just ordered a few containers of chocolate. This is a clean protein powder & is gluten and dairy free! I also like this because it is sweetened with monk fruit. I also have a discount code, use: "ToriF" for 15 % off your order.

I also love that I can bake with this protein powder. Here are some pictures of some healthy treats I have made using Nuzest. You can search under the tag "Healthy Treats" on my blog for these recipes. 

Fat Burner

I have been taking this supplement for about 1-2 months now. I bought this supplement from Bodybuilding. They are still having buy one get one free on this supplement right now. Here is a link if you are interested: Lean Mode . I take this supplement 1-2 times a day. I take it every morning when I wake up after my L Carnintine. I will also take it 30 minutes to 1 hour before dinner when I remember. It's intended to support: fat loss, appetite control, metabolism, mood, and antioxidant levels. It is rated 9/10 on Bodybuilding by customers. I personally like this fat burner because it is stimulant free. Some of the active ingredients include: Garcinia Cambogia Extract, Green Coffee Bean Extract, CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid), Acetyl-L-Carnitine, & Green Tea Leaf Extract. 

CLA

I am not taking this specific supplement at the moment, but it is one of the things included in the fat burner I am currently taking above. I have also taken this supplement in the past. CLA stands for Conjugated Linoleic Acid. CLA may help: support lean muscle, support healthy weight loss, and promote exercise recovery.

Beef Liver

I recently listed the benefits of this product in a previous post: Beef Liver

Daily Vitamin

If you do not eat a wide variety of fruits, veggies, carbs, or protein it may be a good idea to take a multivitamin. This one is made specifically for women. Basically any multivitamin will do!

So this is always awkward for me to post my progress photos. I think it's awkward because I feel vulnerable and exposed, but I like to be real with you guys and help you to realize you can love your body at every stage. I love taking progress pictures for myself. For some reason I always measure my progress by my stomach definition. Below is a picture of my current progress. 

This was a while ago when I had foot surgery and couldn't workout as much. 

This was pre surgery. 

Sorry if these photos make anyone uncomfortable. It's funny to me because I wear bikinis to the beach and don't feel as vulnerable or exposed, but for some reason when I post stomach photos or progress photos I feel like I'm exposing too much skin. I think this is part of the process of learning to love myself and being proud of my hard work and dedication. Does anyone else feel this way? 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away."

{Chocolate Bombs}

Hello cupcakes, 

Sorry I have been MIA, but grad school is getting super busy with group projects and I don't have much free time. I am hoping to share some new and exciting recipes with you this weekend. I am also starting to search for jobs in California. I am also thinking about holding off on counseling for awhile to pursue some other career options. I know two of my passions are fitness and nutrition, so I am purse some certifications in those areas this summer. I am also looking into different organizations to utilize my planning and organizing abilities. If anyone has any connections in California or job ideas, feel free to comment below. Anyways, here is a easy little recipe I created last week. I used a food scale to measure the ingredients (this makes it easier for me to calculate the macros at the bottom).

Ingredients:

102 g dates

48 g almond butter

70 g gluten free rolled oats

10 g cocoa

52 mL unsweetened almond milk

Directions:

In a food processor, process dates until a they form a ball/paste. Next, add the rest of the ingredients and process until combined. Refrigerate the dough for 1-2 hours. Once chilled, roll the dough into 6 balls. 

Each Chocolate Bomb-

Calories: 164

Fat: 5.9 g

Carbs: 24.2 g

Protein: 3.9 g

I hope you all have a fantastic day! Feel free to ask any questions you may have below in the comments.

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away."

{Protein Brownies}

Ingredients for brownie:

64 g almond butter

154 g banana (weighed in peel), then peel banana and mash

53 g egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

30 g cassava flour

16 g arrowroot flour

40 g coconut flour

20 g coconut sugar

55 mL unsweetened almond milk

20 g dark cocoa

Ingredients for topping:

2 container of So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk Yogurt

2 scoops of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides

4 scoops Nuzest Vanilla Protein Powder 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients for brownies in a food processor. You can also mix by hand, but I enjoy using my food processor. Once combined, grease a small baking pan. Scoop batter out & into the baking pan. Place brownies in the oven and bake 30 minutes or until cooked through. Take the pan out of the oven and cool completely.

Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the topping. I also used my food processor for this part, but you could mix by hand. Once the brownies have cooled, spread on the topping. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Once chilled, cut into 8 pieces. 

Each brownie with topping (recipe makes 8 servings)

Calories: 185

Fat: 6.7

Carbs: 24

Protein: 11.1

{Healthy Mint Cookies} + Motivation Monday

Hello Cupcakes!

Today I am linking up with a my friend Maddie Butterfield for another edition of Motivational Monday.

I had a fun weekend baking up all kinds of new goodies to share with you. Today I want to share my recipe for Healthy Mint Cookies. I fell in love with the thin mint oreos over Spring Break, so I wanted to try to create a healthier version. I am still macro counting, so the recipe ingredients are measured using a food scale. You could probably use an online converter to convert the ingredients if you do not have a food scale. 

Ingredients for cookies:

104 g. lactose free cottage cheese

46 g egg whites

1/8 t baking powder

1/8 t peppermint extract

10 g cocoa

36 g coconut sugar

48 g almond flour

11 g arrowroot flour

11 g coconut flour

15 g cassava flour

Ingredients for filling: 

2 scoops Vital Protein Collagen Peptides

2 scoops Nuzest Protein Powder, vanilla

unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the ingredients for the cookies in a food processor and mix until combined. Next, grease a small baking pan. Scoop batter out & into the pan. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the batter is no longer runny. When you touch the top it should feel "springy." Take the pan out of the oven and let cool completely (about an hour). 

Next, combine the collagen and protein powder in a dish. Add a few splashes of almond milk and stir until combined. You can always add more almond milk, so start off with a little and add more until it reaches a frosting consistency.

Once the cookie part is cooled, use a small tupperware to cut out the cookies. I used a small, round condiment container. It is probably about the size of a half dollar. You can make these bigger if you would like, but the nutritional info will not be the same from what is listed below. My cut out was pretty thick, so I sliced the cut out into two pieces and put some frosting in the middle. I ended up with 8 cookies. 

Nutrition for one cookie:

Calories: 102

Fat: 3.6g

Carsb: 10.2g

Protein: 8.4g

These are so stinkin' cute and they definitely help with my oreo cravings. You could make these plain by omitting the peppermint extract.  

Also a little tid bit for you. If you would like to find out your macros, follow this link: Jen Heward Macro Calculator

Follow the prompts to enter all of your data.

You will end with a screen like this. It will tell you the number of calories, fat, carbs, and protein you should eat in a day. 

I use the app on my phone called MyFitnesspal. It is free to download. Here is a link to their website: MyFitnessPal

When you enter all of the food you eat during the day, you should be close to these macros. I will share some little tips and tricks to calculating macros later. 

Let me know if you have any specific questions I can answer regarding macros in a future post. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day! 

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away." 

{YAI's THAI} -Whole30 approved

Good morning cupcakes! 

I hope you all are having a fantastic weekend. One of my best friends and I are going to meet for vegan doughnuts tomorrow and I am so excited. I haven't seen this girl since Christmas, so tomorrow will be some much needed girl time. I will let you all know more about that in a blog post later. Today I meal prepped, did one hour of cardio, experimented with some new recipes, and tried out some new products. One company I want to share with you is called {YAI's THAI}

If you get a chance, go check out their website! Also, if you are doing a round of Whole30 or plan to do one in the future, all of these products are Whole30 approved. This is a very new company. It was started in 2015 by founders Leland and Sarah. They get their inspiration from Leland grandmother (Yai is Thai for grandmother). To read more about their story, follow this link: {YAI's THAI Story}

"Everything we make is low calorie, low sodium, cholesterol-free, gluten-free, vegan, Whole30 approved, paleo-friendly, and has no added sugar or anything artificial."

I want to personally thank Sarah and Leland for creating these products with consumers health in mind. There are so many products on the market that are full of things I do not want to put in my body. Just check out the ingredient list for one of their products and you will find there is nothing but simple, healthy ingredients. Thanks again Sarah & Leland. You have a truly amazing company!

Now let me explain four different products to you...

Thai Salsa-Hot

If you like things super spicy, then this is right up your alley. I can't wait to put this on my eggs this week. Their label is no joke, this is so spicy. I took a fork full of it to try it out, and it cleared out my sinuses. My boyfriend would love this! It has hints of ginger and lime! Follow this link to get some for yourself: {THAI SALSA HOT}There are some ideas on how to use this salsa on their website. 

Spicy Thai Relish

I also tried this relish with a fork. I love the combination of sweet/spicy! I am still brainstorming a recipe I can make using this stuff. YAI's THAI recommends it for hot dogs, sandwiches, stir fries, or with crackers. YUM! I think I would use it on a burger... for sure! Follow this link to get some for yourself: {Spicy Thai Relish}

Chili Garlic Hot Sauce

Talk about HOT! This stuff was smokin'. If you don't think frank's is hot enough, this one is a total game changer. I would love to add this to my omelettes! I also think it would be bomb on some sweet potato fries. The combo of the sweet from the fries would balance the hotness of this sauce perfectly! Follow this link to get some for yourself: {Chili Garlic Hot Sauce}

Chili Lime Hot Sauce

I added this to my meal last week that consisted of green beans, sweet potato, & chicken. It added so much flavor to my meal! If you are bored with your prepped meals, try adding some of this hot sauce to it. The chili lime hot sauce will completely change the flavor! YAI's THAI recommends it with guac! WHAT!? Game changer! Follow this link to get some for yourself: {Chili Lime Hot Sauce}

If you would like a sample pack, there is one with all four of these products for $24 dollars. To check it out, follow this link: {YAI's THAI Sampler}

Here is a link to some recipes using their products: {YAI's THAI Recipes} Here is a hint... there are recipes such as Chili Lime Chicken Wings, Thai Jalapeno Poppers, Thai Taco Salad, & Thai fish tacos just to name a few. 

Here is a list of all the locations & online stores: {Find YAI's THAI}

How would you use these products? Comment below and let me know.

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away." 

Friday Favorites: {No Bake Protein "Cheesecake"}

Hello Cupcakes!

Today for Friday Favorites I am linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals.

I want to share one of my new favorite recipes with you... NO BAKE PROTEIN "CHEESECAKE" 

Let me start off by telling you this has no dairy in the recipe! Score in my books. I also used a food scale to measure everything since I am currently counting my macros. It also made it easier for me to figure out the correct nutritional value of a slice of this.

Ingredients:

57 g chopped pecans

79 g dates

6 g dark cocoa powder

7ml coconut oil

1 container of trader joes vanilla coconut milk yogurt

2 scoops {Nuzest} smooth vanilla- use code "torif" for 15% off your order

Directions:

In a food processor, blend dates until they form a paste. Add pecans, and pulse until combined. Next, add the cocoa powder & coconut oil to the food processor. Blend until combined. Scoop this crumble out on to a small dish. Push down to form a crust. 

Next, add coconut milk yogurt & protein powder to the food processor and blend until combined. Spoon on to the top of the crust. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. 

Pretty Simple!

This recipe makes 4 larger servings or 8 small "bite size" servings. 

For 4 servings: 1 serving size:

193 calories

10.3 g fat

21.9 g carbs

7 g protein

For 8 bite size servings: 1 serving size:

97 calories

5.1 g fat

11 g carbs

3.5 g protein

* I used Myfitnesspal to create the nutrition. This app is so handy because I can create a recipe and tell it how many servings & it will give me the nutritional stats! I also did this for my {Protein Puppy Chow} recipe. 

I hope you all have a fantastic Friday! 

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away." 

{California Adventures}

Hello cupcakes,

All I have to say is... WOW.. California is awesome! Words cannot even do it justice. I am going to try to walk you through some of the cool things I got to do while I was there.

The first morning, my boyfriend drove us to Oceanside to get breakfast out over the ocean.

There were so many people surfing!

The beach was beautiful and the people were all so friendly. This was as we were walking on the pier towards the restaurant.

And here is the cute little restaurant. It had a cute 80's style diner feel. It was kind of weird because as the waves were coming in you could feel the restaurant sway slightly.

Here was my bomb breakfast. I got egg whites with spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms. It came with an English muffin and fresh fruit.

Next, we drove to Torrey Pines. I think this is a state park if I remember correctly. The view was amazing! It was cool because you could walk out on this cliff and it overlooked the ocean.

My foot was a little sore still from getting released from my walking boot (not even a week before my trip). We had to take it a little easy, but I cannot wait to hike around this area more!

There were little walking paths every where!

After site seeing a little bit, I had my boyfriend take me to a vegan doughnut shop called Donut Panic. Here were the donuts we got...

The guy we talked to in the shop gave us a free cake doughnut to try. The cake doughnut was my boyfriends favorite!

After getting doughnuts, we drove to some other towns. This place was a little more mountainous. Oh and we also picked out a couch!

Here was my breakfast one morning: Gluten free oats with egg whites, 1 egg, & coconut oil.

One night we met up with my friends to do a wine tasting. One of our friends took some pictures of Cory and I...

The wine tasted so good! I loved trying all the different kinds. We started with more dry wines and moved to red wines and ended with sweeter wines. All together we got to try 6 different kinds. Here is a picture of us girls!

Here was our selfie as we were driving to the wine tasting.

One night after Cory was off work we went and had Mexican food. This was hands down the best Mexican food I have ever had! We ordered table side guacamole as an appetizer and the waiter made it fresh right in front of us! Sooo good!

We also split the fajitas. It was so cool because the waiter poured tequila over the fajitas and lit it on fire right in front of us. It came with shrimp, chicken, and steak!

My last day there we drove to meet some of our friends near Manhattan Beach. Here was our car selfie for that day...

That afternoon we were all starving, so we walked to Hermosa Beach which was actually closer than Manhattan Beach for us.  We ate at a really cool place called American Junkie.

I ordered shrimp tacos and they can with chips and salsa. 

After eating lunch (at 3pm haha) we ended up going to the beach closer to where our friends were staying. We brought a football with us! We also got to watch the sunset on the beach. I will share those pictures in another post. After the sun set, it started to get colder and we were not dressed appropriately. I had on a dress. So we decided to walk back and waited for our other friends to join us. We got to catch up with all four of them & it was a blast! 

Cory and I had a little drive ahead of us, so we decided to take off around 8pm. To get an idea of where we were at, here is a map. We were at Hermosa Beach and we had to drive back to Vista. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes. We stopped at In & Out Burger for my first In & Out experience 

Since I cannot have dairy, I ordered a hamburger and shared some of Cory's fries. When I got the burger, I realized it had their sauce on it. I did not know if it contained dairy or not, so I ended up just eating one side of the bun and the burger. The tomato, lettuce, and other half of the bun had the sauce on it. Next time, I will know what to order though. I am going to order double meat, no cheese or sauce, and protein style. Protein style means instead of buns, they wrap the burgers in a huge lettuce leaf!

We ended getting back to Cory's apartment around 11pm and I had to be up at 5am to get ready for my flight back home. I was pretty sleepy!

Here was a picture from my plane ride back to Indiana. The time changed on Sunday and I had to travel east, so I ended up losing four hours. The jet lag is starting to catch up to me. 

Overall, this trip was a blast! I cannot wait to go back and visit in May & eventually move there at the end of July! 

If you have never been to California, you must go!

Later Taters

"It's a beautiful day, don't let it get away."