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All Posts, Dear Diary, Health & Fitness, Meal Prep

Meal Prep Tips

October 30, 2015 Leave a Comment

What better time to share some meal prepping for clean eating tips than the day before everyone overdoses on Halloween candy, right? 😉 I started meal prepping for the first time a little over a year ago. It was part of the fit girls guide challenge I did in November of 2014 for twenty-eight days. Although it was a lot of work, it definitely helped save time throughout the week, as well as, have no excuse to grab unhealthy food. However, when I first started meal prepping it was more time-consuming than need be because I hadn’t figured out how to make it easiest just yet.

I have been consistently meal prepping for about 6+ months now and it takes me half the time to meal prep, three times as much food, from when I first started. I have had a lot of people ask me about good meal prepping food and resources which I shared in a blog post back in September. Click here to read it. I have most recently been asked about tips and tricks to make meal prepping a little easier for those who are just getting started or beginners. I’m no expert on meal prepping per se, here are three helpful tips for your next meal prepping session:

Prep in Steps:

Instead of doing EVERYTHING for your meal prep on the same day, break up what you can into different steps. For example, one of my favorite meal prepped combinations is the baked chicken, green yellow and red quinoa (rice) and a veggie of some sort. To do this prep I always cook my quinoa and/or rice the night before and keep it in the refrigerator overnight. While my quinoa and rice is cooking, I season my chicken and place it in the refrigerator overnight as well. The following day while my chicken bakes in the oven, I chop up my vegetables that go in the quinoa/rice combo as well as my vegetable that will serve as my side. Although it takes two days of prepping, it allows you less time in the kitchen overwhelming yourself all at once.

*Cold quinoa/rice is easier to mix in to your cooking vegetables in the pot for meal prep which is why .

Double the Recipe:

Most meal prep recipes are for about a weeks worth of food. However, when making certain foods, you can double or triple the recipe and freeze what you don’t need right away. Look up the guidelines regarding how long certain foods last in the refrigerator and freezer to be sure you’re making sanitary choices. I always prepare two weeks of lunch at a time to save time on doing it all over again in another week.

*If you have a favorite recipe that uses a certain measurement and mix of spices, using a smaller Tupperware container, triple or quadruple your mix of spices and it saves you time for your next 3-4 meal prep sessions by not having to measure each ingredient.

Switch Up Choices:

Besides being time-consuming, another reason people lose interest in meal prepping is because they get tired of the same foods. So switch it up! There is no rule that says you have to meal prep the exact same food for two weeks straight. Who wouldnt’ get tired of that? Instead meal prep at least two different meals to alternate each day. Once you’ve gotten better at conserving your time and meal prepping quicker, make as many different meals as you choose. Believe it or not, being excited about eating your food helps motivate you to find the energy to get in the kitchen and meal prep in the first place.

*If you don’t know where to start for multiple meal prepping recipes and sites, Pinterest and Instagram are great resources. Or you can refer back to my link at the beginning of this post for more meal prep resources.

Hopefully these meal prep tips make meal prepping for you first timers, and beginners a little easier, and less frustrating. If you have any other questions regarding the tips or extra advice, please feel free to comment below or send me at email (info on my page). Happy meal prepping and clean eating! 🙂

Brie <3

[10.30.15]

All Posts, Dear Diary, DIY, Holiday, Toddler Activities

DIY Salt Dough Pumpkin Prints

October 24, 2015 Leave a Comment

I have had quite a few people ask me how I made the salt dough hand print/footprint pumpkin craft for my little one, and I wanted to share the very easy process with all of you. I got the idea from @jessiebroad’s Instagram page who made almost the exact same craft with her children. The only thing I did different was a few extra colors and details. Here is the step by step process for making the little print pumpkins.

You will need:

1 cup salt

1 cup flour

1/2 cup water

2 oz. orange paint

2 oz. black paint

2. oz brown paint

Parchment paper

Rolling pin

*optional* liquid glitter glue

Combine your salt, flour and water in a bowl. Knead together until combined as a smooth dough.
Place your salt dough in between two pieces of parchment paper on the counter. Using your rolling-pin flatten you dough until it is about 1/2 an inch thick.
Take your little ones foot and with a little force press down on the left side of the flattened dough to make a distinct enough imprint. You will do the same with their hand on the right side of the dough. However, aim for the middle part of the dough for each side so you have enough room to cut around the foot and hand print.
Using a sharp tip knife, cut around the foot and hand print in the shape of a pumpkin. Make sure to include the stem in the cut out. Once the pumpkin has been cut out place it on a cookie sheet.
Heat your oven to 200 F and place your salt dough in there for an hour. Allow about 30-minutes to an hour of cooling off after it has baked for the hour before moving on to the next step.
Paint your pumpkin orange using multiple layers if necessary to coat the entire pumpkin properly. Give the orange layer(s) a few minutes to dry.
Using a smaller paint brush, using the black paint, outline the foot and hand print. Once you have outlined the prints, fill them in with the black paint using a slighly larger paintbrush to save some time. Using multiple layers if need be to completely cover the prints.
Lastly use your brown paint to fill in the stem of the pumpkin. Once the brown paint has dried if you decided to buy/use the optional glitter glue apply as much as you want to the stem. Let the pumpkin completely dry for an hour and you have a lovely Halloween keepsake for your little one!

She your pictures of your little ones masterpieces below 🙂

Brie <3

[10.24.15]

All Posts, Dear Diary, Health & Fitness, Meal Prep, Workouts

My Go To Clean Eating & Workout Resources

September 14, 2015 Comment : 1

It has almost been a year since I have seriously started working on living a healthier lifestyle. I am by no means anywhere NEAR my health and fitness goals, but I am A LOT closer than I have been in years. I have tried the “healthy” lifestyle on multiple occasions prior to last year, but I was not as dedicated and educated on living a healthier lifestyle until I did the 28 Day Fit Girl Jumpstart Challenge in October of 2014. Since then, I have slowly been taking baby steps to teach myself the difference between diet fads and unnatural weight loss schemes, to the actual act of changing my lifestyle, and making cleaner eating choices and committing to working out regularly.

Clean eating is not a diet. I actually have learned to despise the word “diet”, and understand changing how I eat has to be a lifelong commitment. The changes will not happen overnight, but it will definitely start to show in the long run. The biggest fact I’ve learned about clean eating is, at no time should you starve yourself. When you’re hungry, you’re supposed to eat. You’re just supposed to eat healthier food vs. junk food, or not eating any food at all (leads to bingeing on unhealthy foods). In terms of working out, I learned any activity is better than no activity. You also don’t need an expensive membership to a fancy gym to stay fit either. There are so many at home or outdoor workouts available these days, which makes getting fit a lot easier.

Below I will share my favorite websites and social media people who got me started on my journey, kept me motivated on my journey, and continue to teach me how to do better along the way.

Jersey Girl Talk is a website I discovered through Pinterest while searching for lifting routines. I had been reading up on the benefits of lifting for women, and wanted to jump into it. I had lifted all through high school while running track, but it has been quite some time since I’ve lifted weights and wanted to find a beginners program of some sort. I stumbled upon Adrienne’s (the website owner) lifting for beginners pin, and really liked the sound of it. I’ve loved it ever since. I also follow her on Instagram and Twitter, where she is extremely personable, and responds to your tweets and posts if she is mentioned in them. I haven’t tried any of her recipes yet, but will be giving them a try sometime soon!

I found Fit with Curves through a friend’s post on Instagram. She had re-posted one of the exercises Tatiana (the blog owner) had shared on her own Instagram page. I’m all about seeing people doing healthy things so I clicked on her name to check out her page. I instantly loved the page, and not only because of the workouts. I loved seeing her acknowledge being fit means different things for different people. A woman with curves who is fit will not look like a woman who is fit without curves, and that is okay. Embrace it, and focus on how to become healthy in your own body. I enjoy some of her mini workout videos, and have occasionally added a workout here or there to my routine at the gym. She also has clean eating recipes on her blog I have not tried yet, but plan to in the near future. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter as well.

I’m actually not too sure how I found out about Get Fit with Nic, but I’m happy I did! I do know it was through Instagram somehow. Either way, if you’re looking for great at home and/or outdoor workouts, she is the person to follow. Gym memberships and/or finding the time to go to the gym can often be unattainable for some people. Her works are perfect for those of you who run into these issues. She often posts mini-videos of her workouts, which are perfect for those of us needing the extra “umph” to get our butts off of the couch in general. She has recently started a traveling workout session in major cities for a low fee of $10 which is pretty awesome. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

This is my FAVORITE meal prepping website at the moment. I found this gem of a website while searching for clean eating meals on, Pinterest. My Body My Kitchen, has SO many delicious recipes, broken down into separate categories, to make it easier to search for the type of food you want to eat. What makes this website the best for meal prepping is the amount of food options (so you never get bored), the amount of flavor used in the dishes (to keep you coming back), and how much he loves to make food spicy. If you aren’t a huge spicy food fan, just omit the use of the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes in your recipes. My husband HATES spicy food, so I modify his meals, and he still loves them. You can follow this page on Instagram as well.

This is my number one go to resource for clean eating and working out, because this is what got me started on the correct path to making healthier life choices. My friend Charelle told me about it back in September of 2014, and her, my Grandmother and I did the month-long challenge. The results were unbelievable for it to have only been a month. For anyone else looking for a great jumpstart to their healthier life goals, I suggest you start with the Fit Girls Guide. The major take back I got from this challenge was how to measure my food and calorie intake, correctly. Did I mention not only is the food really good, the exercises are extremely easy, and can be done at home. You can find the Fit Girls support groups on Instagram and Twitter as well.

If you decide to give any of these resources a try, I hope they are beneficial, enjoyable, and fun to do! Also, let me know what you think about them and what you like and didn’t like. Good luck on your journey and I hope these resources are helpful to someone out there. 🙂

This picture shows my results of the 28 Day Jumpstart Challenge last year.

Brie <3

[09.14.15]

All Posts, Dear Diary

Modern Day Celeb-session

January 21, 2015 Comments : 2

It doesn’t matter if I turn on the television, open one of my countless social networking applications, or walk past the magazine section in any store, it is damn near impossible to avoid seeing headlines about celebrities. I’m not talking about headlines such as “______ gives money to save school from closing” or “_______ tells us about the importance of education and family,” I’m talking about headlines such as “______ joins Twitter!”

SO. THE. F. WHAT?

I like to call this the modern-day celebrity obsession or “celeb-session” as I have personally named it. What worries me about this ridiculous obsession is the fact that people ACTUALLY care about what these celebrities are doing. And I don’t mean caring about them being awesome people, I’m talking about them caring that they use the bathroom and eat food like us regular folk. You know, because it really shows how down to earth these celebrities are when they sleep in beds, and pump their own gas just like regular old me! [I’m currently rolling my eyes]

I remember going back home to Illinois a few summers ago to visit, and watching the 6pm news with my Grandma. One of the big news stories was “Katy Perry visits Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL.” At first, I thought, “hmmm random that she is in IL to go to Six Flags, but Six Flags is awesome, so sure.” Once they went into detail of the story, they elaborated on her being there for a concert for her biggest fans. No big deal, but I get why they would mention it at the end of the 6pm news hour. What ended up making me realize how sad people are was HOW they ended the segment. After giving details about happy fans enjoying the concert, they ended the segment saying something along the lines of “after the concert, Katy got on rides, and even enjoyed a plate of funnel cake just like the rest of us.” [insert corny new anchor smile and fake laugh here] I just stared at the screen and was trying to figure out why Katy Perry eating food and getting on rides painted her as a “human being.”

I had known for some time the obsession with celebrities was going waaaaay overboard in my generation, but it has become even more evident, today. A few months back, I remember getting on Twitter during my lunch break at work, and seeing people retweeting and/or personally tweeting that Rihanna had joined Instagram again. Oh, and don’t let these celebrities announce pregnancies. A new king or queen is being born to some of these folks the way they react. A simple “congratulations” doesn’t suffice anymore. Now, it’s “OMG! So-and-so is pregnant! They’re going to have the greatest baby in the whole world and nobody else better hate on them.” You know, because women don’t have babies everyday, but whatever. One of my favorite examples (favorite as in the terrible way) was a story about two weeks ago. There was a picture going around of Beyonce and Jay-Z taking pictures with their phones of some scenery while they were on vacation (I’m assuming). I-kid-you-not…the caption read “look guys- Jay and Bey are tourists just like us!” If you think that’s bad, the comment section made me want to throw up. “They are so real and down to earth,” or “see I knew I was like Beyonce somehow lol.”

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

Does my generation (and younger) seriously lack THAT much self-esteem? Do we lack real life hobbies? Do we lack the understanding that we were created to be our own person and not imitate someone else? Do we lack being able to see these PEOPLE who just happen to be rich as regular people? Do we lack knowing the difference between being a fan of someone’s talent vs. worshiping said person with the talent as some deity? I see these little girls trying SO hard to act or be like Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry, or the Kardashians (this one STILL blows my mind), that they are going broke trying to live a lie. I know so many young people who don’t have enough money to live on their own or pay for necessities without the aid of their loved ones, but they would sell their blood to buy concert tickets or spend $300 on shoes and/or a purse because someone famous has their name on it. Don’t get me wrong, these are tough times, and there is nothing wrong with needing help from others, but it becomes an issue with your personal goals and priorities when you’re more worried about a celebrity vs. getting your own life on track.

I used to go crazy for celebrities when I was in elementary and middle school. You know, the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, B2K, and Lil’ Bow Wow days. Or when I was “young and dumb” as they like to say. At 26 years old, if any of you EVER see me talking or putting these celebrities on a pedestal for simply existing, you have my permission to slap me and tell me to act like a grown woman with common sense. I have heard people say “well so-and-so wears this brand” or “so-and-so likes this color” so naturally they have to as well. Maybe it’s just me, but when people say these things out loud, I immediately feel sorry for them, because that is an exhausting and mindless way to live.

I can’t be mad at the people who report the stories, because they are only reporting what is in demand. They are only telling what people actually want to hear. All I’m asking is we all become better at educating ourselves on what really matters in the world, because knowing every single detail of some celebrity’s life isn’t it.

End rant.

Brie <3

[01.21.15]

All Posts, Dear Diary, Health & Fitness, Physical Health

#28DayJumpstart Challenge Results

November 24, 2014 Comments : 2

Twenty eight days ago, I started the #28DayJumpstart challenge from Fit Girls World Wide. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, or how much I would enjoy it, but because I had people to participate with me (Grandma, Charelle, and my friend Charna later on) it was easier to stick with it.

I AM SO HAPPY I DID!

It is insane the change I have seen in my body in only twenty-eight days. The challenge food (for the most part) was SO good, and extremely filling. The exercises were very doable. Although I added on extra exercise throughout the challenge. And it was the first clean eating/workout plan that I ever enjoyed doing. All of the help and encouragement from fit girls all over the world makes it even easier to stay on track. They are doing one more #28DayJumpstart challenge before the end of the year, starting December 1st. If you would like to join, you can contact me for the information, or go to the website http://fitgirlsworldwide.com/.

If you would like to continue watching my fitness goal journey, you can keep following me on Instagram at “bjamieson88” or on Twitter “@BrienneJamieson”. (Both links or both accounts are listed on my main page. Just click on the icon) If you aren’t already following me on my public Instagram and Twitter accounts- you should 🙂

Happy and Blessed Monday!

-Brie <3

[11.24.14]

All Posts, Dear Diary, Health & Fitness, Physical Health

#28DayJumpstart

October 26, 2014 Leave a Comment

So… As you all know, I had a baby a little over 4 months ago. I’ve been telling myself since I was pregnant I would start a strict workout routine once I went back to work. *insert an image of me hysterically laughing at myself* I didn’t even gain a full 20 lbs during my pregnancy, but as you can imagine I’m a little “flabby” in certain areas that I would like to be more tone. Working out takes time and commitment that I sorta kinda am too ~~tired~~ lazy to give.

Then earlier this week, my wonderful friend, Charelle, recruited (demanded) me to be her workout buddy for a “get fit” challenge she discovered. She had her little one last December, and we’re both in the same “trying to lose baby weight” boat. I then decided to recruit (demand) my friend Kasandra to join the challenge with us too. I know, I know, we’re really caring and awesome friends ;-).

The 28 day jumpstart challenge is by Fit Girls Worldwide, and consists of workouts and fairly strict eating habits. Because I love food, and particularly not so healthy food, this is really going to be a challenge. But at least we have each other to help keep the other on track. Wish us luck, and pray we stay on track for the next 28 days, because we all know how easy it is to stray away. If you would like to follow my daily progress, meal plans, and workouts you can follow my brand new, just for the #28DayJumpstart challenge, public Instagram account at “bjamieson88”. I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes and workouts on my blog as well. If you would like to join the challenge- you can get more information at http://fitgirlsworldwide.com But hurry up and do it soon, because the challenge starts tomorrow! (10/27)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Brie <3

[10.26.14]