Quick and Healthy Breakfast

by Rachel A.

In an effort to lose a few extra [extremely stubborn] pounds of baby weight, I've been really watching what I eat and have been trying to find ways to make what I eat more healthy.  With two little kids running around, eating healthy can be a challenge. Here's one option for breakfast that is super easy to put together, tastes good, and leaves me with lots of energy to chase those kids around.

First, I start with about eight ounces of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Next, you'll add your dry mix-ins. Most of these can be measured out and put in a sandwich bag ahead of time, for more time-saving. I typically use the following combination, but feel free to use your imagination. If something seems like it would taste good - try it out!

Mix-ins:

Chia Seeds - This is the one essential mix-in to this drink. When soaked in a liquid for more than 30 minutes, the Chia seeds form a gelatin shell, which makes the liquid more yogurt or jello like. Chia offers many health benefits including being a great source of Omega-3 and helping keep you hydrated. However, claims regarding it's ability to aide in weight loss have been disputed. Regardless, I love the stuff! I usually put about 3 TBSP of Chia in my 8-oz glass of almond milk, and let it sit for an hour or so (this takes a bit of forethought), if not overnight.

Slivered Almonds

Cinnamon

Unsweetened Coconut - make sure it's unsweetened!

Fruit - In the picture above I show dried cranberries (make sure they are simply dried cranberries—most brands are loaded with extra sugar), which is one of my favorites, especially in the winter when fresh berries are hard to come by. This summer I've been using blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and even nectarines. I imagine frozen berries would taste great too, but I've never tried it. The fruit adds the sweetness you may feel you're missing with all the other unsweetened ingredients.

Other ideas:

Stevia - On days that I'm wanting a little extra sweetness, I'll add in a small squirt (a little goes a LONG way) of this Stevia sweetener. It doesn't quite taste like traditional sugar sweetener, but it is so much better for you to avoid the sugar!

Flax Seed - Lately I've been throwing in a tablespoon or so of flax seed, which is being called one of the most powerful plant foods around. This does add a bit more grit to the drink, but if you can get past it, the health benefits are huge.


Once you have all your ingredients together, throw them in your almond milk and stir it up. If you haven't let the Chia sit in the almond milk yet, you'll need to let the whole mixture sit for a little while to set up. I usually put this together as soon as I wake up, then help my kids get breakfast, or jump in the shower and it's ready by the time I am done.

As a heads up: I usually get hungry a couple of hours after breakfast when this is what I have. If this happens for you too, be prepared with a banana or LARA Bar (I'm a new lover of LARA Bars thanks to my friend Kristie Belliston of The Belly Fit Club) to hold you over until lunch.

Let me know how you like it! I'd love to hear if you have more ideas for mix-ins, or if you have other quick & healthy meal ideas.

A Glimpse

by Rachel A.

photo credit: Nubia Allen

When we decided to move to Big Sky country, I knew the summers would be incredible. Nearly every week we've been packing up and heading for the hills on Friday, then spending all Monday trying to recover. Our kids are getting some great cousin and grandparent time in, and we're all soaking up the outdoors life we were missing back East. It has been amazing, but honestly, I'm exhausted! 

Two weeks ago, we traveled to my husband's uncle's ranch, just outside of Lewistown, Montana (pretty much the center of the state) to help with a cattle drive. Every summer a bunch of family and friends gather at the ranch to move cattle from the lower pasture to an upper pasture, where they'll spend the summer getting nice and fat. It's a unpredictable 30 mile round-trip process, with the first 15 miles taking about twice as long as the second... those horses know they're headed home!

Having grown up in more urban areas, and especially being so far removed from this type of environment for the last several years, this event really feels like you get to take a step back in time (aside from the LARA Bars, Camelbaks and 4-wheelers). I'm not sure I would have survived back then, although I'm pretty sure my husband was made for it.

During the drive I had several moments when I realized how lucky I was to be able to participate in this unique event. It may be a bit self-indulgent, but I thought I'd share a peek into the life I get to enjoy now.

Many of the photos were taken by my amazing photographer cousin, Nubia Allen. I love her and how the world appears through her camera. Enjoy!

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

photo credit: Nubia Allen

 

 

Authenticity, honesty and transparency

by Rachel A.

If you’ve been following this blog at all, you’ll know that we’ve tried to create a place where life meets reality. We try not to sugar-coat things or take ourselves too seriously. Authenticity is a word we think a lot about as we decide what to write, and is the theme we've chosen for the month.

Authenticity is one of my favorite traits to discover in a person. I love and respect people who unapologetically embrace their true selves and aren’t afraid to introduce that person to the world. I think I love it the most, because I know it isn’t easy. Like Mother Theresa said, this openness can really make you vulnerable. However, I believe that that vulnerability opens doors to healthier relationships, increased self-worth and confidence, and contentment with life decisions.

In my professional life, my colleagues and I encourage organizations to embrace and practice transparency and authenticity. Why? Transparency elicits trust - this goes for individuals too. If you are honest about your true self, others know what they can expect from you, what you value, and they don’t have to guess what you’re not saying (I am not suggesting you shouldn’t filter what you say – please don’t go tell your boss what you really think of them in the interest of being honest, transparent and authentic).

So does being authentic mean you embrace all of yourself, even your faults? Does it mean you shouldn’t try to change less-desirable traits? Those are good questions. My initial reaction is to say no, but I suspect the answer depends on the motives, as well as what those less-desirable traits are. I don’t think being authentic means to stop trying to improve yourself, but I do think it means that you have to celebrate the person you are, accept that person's faults, and then transform that person in a way that feels natural.

This is a bit of a tough topic, and I’d love to start a discussion. What does being authentic mean to you and how do you embrace it? Have you found being authentic beneficial or detrimental? Why is authenticity important (or not) to you? How do you move pass the discomfort of vulnerability to embrace a spirit of honesty and transparency?

A Practice in Self Confidence

by Rachel A.

In October 2005, I embarked on a crazy social experiment that changed my perspective—or at least gave me some unique insight—on how appearance affects both the way you're perceived, as well as how it can make you feel about yourself ...  if you let it.

At the time, I was working as a graphic artist in a marketing department of a large company,  surrounded by really creative people with crazy ideas and discussions flowing through our group almost daily.

One Friday morning, my boss arrived at work with a list of 30, or so, arguably outrageous things a person might do (go skydiving, get a tattoo, shave your head, take an illegal drug, etc). He asked us to each look at the list and tell him, not which ones, but how many of these activities we would do for $100 each.

One by one, we each reviewed that list and subsequently revealed our number. Some people were quite conservative, identifying only 4 or 5 of the activities, while others numbers were well over 20. I don't remember what number I had, but it seems like it was somewhere on the upper end of average.

After a few hours of hearing our colleague's numbers, my boss wondered aloud how our numbers would change if the question was not just a hypothetical, and $100 was actually offered. Boldly, I declared that I was pretty sure my number would stay the same. Almost immediately, he responded, "you would really shave your head for $100?!" (Shaving my head happened to be one of the activities I had listed.) With only slightly wavering convictions, I again agreed that I would.

Before I knew it, five 20 dollar bills and a pair of scissors were on my desk.

What had I done?

I put on the brakes slightly, saying that I needed to make sure my husband wouldn't be upset. (Anyone that knows my husband knows that he would never be upset about something like this, in fact, he had been trying to get me to shave my head for a few years.) I also wanted to donate the hair, so at our lunch break, I went home to talk with my husband and wash and prepare the hair for donation.

When I returned, the $100 was gone, and my boss had taken off for an early start to the weekend. Without the money in hand, I decided there was no way I would go through with it. So, I spent the next few days going back and forth about whether or not to go through with this bet. I had many fears, but most of all, I was worried about what I would look like with no hair. Images of the Coneheads were not far from my imagination.

On Sunday night, as I was preparing to go back to work, my husband suggested I look at the challenge in a different way: instead of fearing what I might look like without hair, I should "view it as a practice in self confidence" and learn to find more confidence within myself, and not the way I appeared to others.

I should note: I don't mean to suggest I was lacking confidence at the time, or that I was all consumed by my appearance. However, a bad hair cut or hair day would easily derail my mood. Having had bad experiences with hair dressers in the past, I was always really nervous when approaching a new hair cut.

The "fuzz" stage: 2 months later

To make a long story short, on Monday, near the end of the work day, my coworkers crowded into a conference room and watched one of our colleagues shave my head. Watching their faces as I lost my hair was priceless. The photo above was taken immediately after the haircut—I hadn't even seen myself yet. And the money? I don't remember what I did with it ... we probably used it to buy some Christmas gifts that year.

While the most immediate difference I noticed was temperature (I don't suggest doing this on the cusp of winter), it was fascinating to see the difference in how people reacted to me.  An elderly (also bald) man in the grocery store got a huge grin when he saw me, rubbed his head while looking at me and declared, "Isn't it GREAT?!" Conversely, in the same grocery trip I got some pretty judgmental and ugly looks from several middle-aged women. The kids who hung out by their cars in parking lots, wearing non-conservative clothes, sporting various tattoos and piercings, who you always assume aren't looking at you simply because they have other things going on, suddenly acknowledged me. They would nod at me, as if I was now one of them, or that they approved of my new style. Finally, many, many people thought that my missing hair indicated that I was sick. For that one, I felt horrible. Even more horrible when I would get sympathetic smiles from those actually sick.

One of many experimental stages of regrowth

Looking in the mirror was a bit of a shock for the first several days, and I learned that, more than anything, hair covers up a lot of skin. Suddenly I felt like I had lots and lots of exposed skin, and it was hard not to feel like I had gained 15 pounds overnight. Friends were not shy about telling me how odd it was to see a girl with no hair, and for a while it took a lot of effort not to feel down about the way I looked. After a short time, and with a lot of encouragement from my husband, I stopped focusing on how I looked like a teenage boy, or how no skin flaw could be covered up by a sweeping bang, and instead focused on finding beauty within myself. I may not have looked like a traditionally attractive person, but I had much more to offer than looks.

As I now struggle with losing post-baby weight and the [very] early signs of aging ("No," I just told my husband, "not dementia"), this is a lesson I'm happy I've learned. I am certainly not suggesting everyone go out and shave your head, or that you shouldn't take pride in your appearance and try to look your best, but I think it's worth everyone's time to introspect on where you derive your self-confidence and self-worth, and (as cheesy as it may sound) try to find "beauty" within yourself.

How have you overcome times of limited confidence? How do you try to find beauty within others? I'd love to hear your experiences!

National Pi(e) Day

by Rachel A.

When I was young, I used to watch the the digital clock in my bedroom as I fell asleep. I would wait until the clock read something like 7:35 or 8:16 to try to slam my eyes closed and fall asleep in that minute. You see, those numbers seemed to fit together (7X5=35 or 8X2=16 ... hopefully that makes sense), and somehow that made falling asleep at that time magical. Even better was if the numbers would divide out to equal the time I was supposed to wake up. For example: 7:49pm would look like 49 was being divided by 7, which equals 7, and therefore I could wake up at 7am and the whole night—and probably next day—would be perfect. 

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On Transition, Clarity and Luck

by Rachel A.

If you’d have told me a year ago that in just twelve months my life would look like it does now, I probably would have laughed…or let’s be honest, maybe cried a little.

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Rachel A.

I’ve always had a hard time writing a bio.  It’s probably a fear of commitment – or a sign that I am still very much in the midst of defining who I am. At this point of my life, the most obvious, but also most important label I can assign myself is mother (or “mama” as I prefer my kids to use… “mom” just doesn’t sit as well with me). My beautiful daughter made me a mama three years ago, and her sweetest little brother made me more fully understand the juggling act the job requires. He also made me a stay-at-home mama – before his arrival several months ago I worked at communications consultancy in Washington, DC. It was my dream job and I often found myself wondering what the rest of my career would look like, since I had really only set my sights on the job I currently held.

Along with becoming a stay-at-homer when the little man arrived, I also became something I didn’t ever anticipate: A Montanan. Our little family recently relocated to a small-ish town in west central Montana, leaving behind a life, family and friends we love, for other family, new friends, and a change of pace, scenery and temperature (among other things).

A little background:

I grew up as the oldest child of a couple (I could say father, but let’s be honest: both parents were involved in this process) who was in the throws of pursuing a PhD and then establishing themselves professionally, so we moved a fair amount. I learned to love making new friends and exploring new places. Now that I’m older, I’m not sure I love those challenges as much – but most of the people that know me best will say that I’m always up for an adventure.

In my non-existent spare time I love to spend time with friends, ride horses, rock climb (or do most things outdoors), paint, draw, go to a good museum, play games, bake, catch up on TV shows that I always seem to miss, read good books, travel, dance (when no one is looking), eat frozen yogurt and dream about what my house would look like if I could just decide how I want to decorate it.

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