I made a batch of these to share with my coworkers along with a batch of regular oatmeal raisin cookies. I was pleasantly surprised when the staff raved about BOTH of them.

Apple Cinnamon Oaties

Adapted from HEAB’s Oaties

1 cup toasted oats (spread on a baking pan and bake at 350°f for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally)

1/2 cup almond butter (I like Trader Joe’s raw variety)

1/3 cup agave (or honey or maple syrup)

1/4 cup Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder

1/4 cup almond flour

1 medium apple, finely chopped (roughly 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or nut of choice)

1/4 cup raisins (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon anise extract (optional, but adds wonderful flavor)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325ºf.

In a large bowl, stir the almond butter and agave together until completely combined. Add the vanilla extract and anise extract and stir. Add in all of the remaining ingredients and stir until just combined.

On a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet, drop by tablespoons. I like to have them look like little round golfballs. Bake for 14-15 minutes and allow to cool on the baking sheet.

They are perfect to enjoy with a cup of coffee in the morning!

I wanted to let you know that I’ll be taking a break from blogging. I’m not sure how long. It might be a few weeks, it might be for the summer and it might be indefinitely. I always listen to me heart and lately it’s been telling me that I need a break from blogging and social media. I love sharing my healthy tidbits of information with you, but right now, I want to focus my time and energy on other things. Preferably, getting outside and enjoying the beautiful place that I live. I hope you can understand.

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll try to pop in on twitter and Facebook occasionally.

Love,

Kilee

Today I thought it would be fun to share some items with you that I’m really enjoying right now. I filmed a video with them last night:

You can find more information about them below:

1. Energy Medicine for Women by Donna Eden

2. Physicians Formula “Nude” eyeshadow palette

3. Bubbie’s Pickles

(Random fact: I sometimes call Layla “Bubbie.” I don’t know why or where it came from)

I’m off to get ready for work, do my workout this afternoon and take Layla for a walk in the sunshine.

Please share with me – What are three things that you’re loving right now?

Today, I thought it would be beneficial to our health if we spent some time talking about the importance of sleep and ways to get more of it.

(source)

This article on Health.com covers 11 different benefits from getting a good nights sleep. I encourage you to read it, but have also highlighted the points below:

Benefits from getting a full night’s sleep:

1. Improved memory

2. Possible longer life  & more importantly, higher quality of life

3. Curbed inflammation

4. Heightened creativity

5. Improved athletic performance

6. Higher grades in school

7. Sharper attention

8. Healthier weigh

9. Lower stress level

10. Lowered risk of car accidenent

11. Lower risk of depression

What is a full night’s sleep? It differers from person to person. Some people may require only 5-6 hours a night, while others need a good 8-9. Experiment by keeping track of how many hours of sleep you get each night over the course of a week or two and keep track of when you feel your best. This is your bodies optimum nightly sleep requirement.

I don’t sleep as well when Blake’s off working, so I have made up a little night time routine that helps me fall asleep much faster. I eat my dinner earlier than I used to (6 or 7 instead of my preferred 8 or 9.) I clean up the kitchen, prep my meals and coffee for the following morning and then work on the computer for a little bit. Around 9 o’clock I’ll make a cup of decaf tea or mix up a serving of the calcium-magnesium drink, Calm.

I have made a promise to myself to turn off the computer and go to bed to read at this time. I sip my tea or Calm drink while reading in bed. Right before I turn my light off around 10 or 10:30, I’ll take Layla potty so she doesn’t wake me up in the middle of the night. Blake is usually able to call around that time, so we’ll say good night and then I’ll drift off to sleep. It all sounds so peaceful doesn’t it?

Not watching TV before bed, keeping the lights dim in our bedroom and reading for an hour before I turn my light off are the easiest ways for me to fall asleep early at night. If I get started on a Bravo TV marathon, there’s no way I’ll stop watching! These tips work for me. I encourage you to play around with techniques that help you fall asleep faster at night.

Here’s another Health.com article that gives 7 Tips for the Best Sleep Ever.

Are you sleepy yet? What are some of your tips for getting a good night’s sleep? Please let me know!

I’m still going strong on my 90-Day Challenge after taking a break from it in Mexico. Smoothies and workouts are back into my daily routine and I am loving it! My regular blog posts are going to focus less on what I’ve been eating and more on healthy lifestyle tips and recipes. Sorry if you liked seeing what I ate every day, but I’m bored of that blog format and want to focus on more fun things. Like, what I’m loving right now!

What I’m Loving on this Monday Funday

1. Walks in the sunshine with Layla. I really missed our daily walks while I was on vacation. It gives me a chance to chill out and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and it gives Layla a chance to get out of the house and have some fun. On the weekends, we usually run into her little friend, Gigi, and she gets so excited to see her. For awhile, I was choosing to leave my phone back at the house while I walked so I could totally disconnect for awhile, but the I realized it was safer if I had it with me. “Careful, cautious Kilee” is always thinking of things like this!

2. Celery with almond butter and raisins (aka ants on a log) for my afternoon snack. This snack is the perfect little mix of carbs, proteins and healthy fats to keep me fueled through the afternoon and as a pre-workout snack. I always try to remember to drink a water bottle full of water around the same time so that I stay hydrated. I’ve found that a snack + water keeps my energy levels up and helps me push through my late-afternoon workouts.

3. Ashley Conrad’s Facebook Fan Page. I stumbled upon celebrity fitness trainer, Ashley Conrad, while watching a television special on how stars get into tip-top shape. What impresses me most about Ashley is that she is very dedicated to sharing as much information about health, diet and fitness with her fans. She is currently teaming up with Adidas to film some sort of exercise video and is tracking her preparation for the shoot with videos and check-ins. So far, she’s one of my favorite fitness trainers to follow. (Besides my Tone It Up girls of course!)

4. Iced peppermint lime green tea. Ahhh, it’s so refreshing. I made this little concoction up myself because I refuse to buy overpriced iced tea from coffee shops. In the evening I’ll bring 8 cups of water to a just below a boil. Then I’ll add 4 green tea bags and 4 Trader Joe’s peppermint green tea bags (I don’t know how I still have any of those guys left from Christmas time.) I place the tea with the tea bags in the refrigerator overnight. The next day I’ll squeeze the juice of one to two limes into the tea and add a little stevia if I want to sweeten it. I keep a pitcher of the iced tea in the fridge and pour a glass over ice to enjoy with my lunch. It usually lasts me about 5-6 days. It’s so refreshing!

5. Pinning wedding inspiration on Pinterest. Now that I am legitimate a bride-to-be, I am pinning inspiration photos onto my new wedding ideas board. We don’t have a date set yet and we’re not planning on setting one any time soon, but it’s still fun to look at different wedding and reception ideas. Feel free to follow my board and let me know if you like/don’t like any of them.

Well, I’m going to finish my coffee (with NO coffee creamer. More on that little change later) and head off to work for awhile. I’ll see you again tomorrow morning. What are you loving right now?

Have a great day,

Kilee

(source)

Our goal for the trip was to fully enjoy our time together there, so we chose not to use our cell phones or the internet while we were there. It felt so good to fully unplug from technology and just focus on having fun together. We also knew that Blake would be leaving for his Summer season up in Alaska the day after we got home. I tried to keep that thought out of my mind and stay present while we were there.

The resort had five different pools and we laid out at the infinity sky pool the first day. We were really careful to use high SPF and not stay out in the sun too long because we didn’t want to get burnt or sun sick. This was probably my favorite of the pools. It had a beautiful view and a swim-up pool bar. I brought lots of fun magazines to read and soaked up the warmth of the sun while we laid out.

The second night that we were there was our “going out on the town” night. We rode the resort shuttle into town that afternoon and rented a moped for a few hours to go explore. The moped seat was too small for Blake, myself and my big handbag plus the hot sun made it kind of sticky. It was a great way to check out where everything was in town in a short amount of time. Blake is a big Sammy Hagar fan, so ee was determined to find the Cabo Wabo restaurant and I wanted to scope out the good-looking Mexican restaurants. After our moped ride around town, we hung out at the pool of our resort’s sister hotel, Pueblo Bonita Rose. We needed that time to recharge for our big night ahead.

Our plan for that night was to have a good dinner, drink lots of margaritas and catch the 10:30pm shuttle back to the hotel. We accomplished two out of the three goals. We had a good lobster dinner at Lorenzillo’s, which is a fancy seafood restaurant overlooking the marina. Blake got a large lobster plate and I got the lobster tortilla soup. The rest of the night was split between drinks at Cabo Wabo and Squid Roe. I think the margerita’s at Cabo Wabo were my favorite. They also had live music playing and lots of dancing. Squid Roe felt like the party spot in town. They had 80′s music playing and the employees were playing drinking games and encouraging us to dance on top of our chairs. However, we missed our 10:30 shuttle back to the hotel and caught a cab home instead.

My favorite part of Squid Roe was that they snapped a photo of us and five minutes later plopped a souvenier bottle of tequila with our photo on it onto our table and said it was $20. Who could say no to that cute bottle? It was a good sales idea because we would have said “no” if they asked us if we wanted to buy one beforehand.

The next day was kind of shot. We just lounged around and rested after our big night out. The following morning, we booked the shuttle into town and had an hour to kill before we needed to be in the lobby. Blake suggested that we walk down to the beach below our resort because we hadn’t been down there yet. We walked along the beach and took some photos before Blake PROPOSED! I was shocked. I couldn’t feel anything because I was too stunned to process what was happening. I remember being blinded by how sparkly and beautiful the ring was and not being able to believe that he had picked out such a beautiful ring for me. We hugged and Blake took some photos of me with my new ring. Then, he informed me that we had about 15 minutes to catch the shuttle. We ran up to the room, put the ring in the safe and rode the shuttle into town.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach. We rode jetskis, stand paddle boarded, ate yummy fresh fruit, bought some souvenirs and enjoyed a plate of shrimp ceviche poolside. I was having fun, but kept wanting to go back to our room so I could put my ring on.

Later that night we celebrated our engagement by going out to dinner at one of the resort restaurants. We split coffee Häagen-Daz (our favorite) for dessert and had the waiter take our photo. It was such a special night and I feel so lucky that we got to celebrate our engagement in such a beautiful locale.

Wow! That was a lot to cover in one post. We had an amazing time on our trip. Blake is now up in Alaska and I’m just starting to settle into my Summer routine. It’s always a little rough the first few days that he’s gone, but I make sure to plan fun things to do, keep myself active and healthy and lean on friends and family for support. I took a break from my 90-day Challenge while I was on vacation and am really enjoying my smoothies and healthy meals now that I’m back home. Our fridge was bare when I got back home, so I went to Trader Joe’s stocked up on fresh produce and lean proteins.

Have a great day and I’ll see you again on Monday. It feels great to be back and sharing health and happiness with you!

Xoxo,

Kilee

Hi everyone! I’m very sorry that I’ve been neglecting the blog these past few days. I’ve been kinda wrapped up with Blake being home, his family came and stayed with us, packing for Mexico and Blake’s humungous bag for Alaska, fitting in my “beach babe”  workouts, working and making sure Layla is properly cared for. Whew! I’m ready for vacation.

We will have very limited internet access, so I’m leaving my lap top and ipad at home and enjoying five nights of pure fun and relaxation. I’ll be back to regular posting next week once I’m settled back at home.

Thanks for hanging tight and I look forward to catching up with you once I’m back. Have a great week! Remember to focus on your health and happiness! Adiós amigos! Hasta la vista :)

Hi! How is your Monday going so far? Our weekend was so nice. We fit a tons of things into the 48 hours. We went on walks, laid out by the pool, did our workouts, went for drives, got frozen yogurt, barbecued, ran errands, stocked up on travel-sized toiletries, watched movies, ate microwave popcorn, had long talks and laid in bed with our coffee in the morning. It was wonderful!

Central Oregon had it’s first super sunny weekend. I took full advantage of the afternoon sunshine by painting my toe nails and letting my hair dry in the sunshine. I made sure to stay extra hydrated with lots of lemon water and grapes.

When the temperature rises and the sun is out a lot more I crave salads. Huge, fresh salads with tons of vegetables, dressings and sea salt. I made the salad on the left for me Saturday night and showed Blake how good it looked. It was music to my ears when he asked me to make him a big salad too! We both had big salads with some grilled mahi mahi for dinner Saturday night. Don’t worry, we capped off that healthy meal with frozen yogurt afterwards. I wasn’t planning on having any before Mexico, but I’m too easy to talk into things. All Blake had to say was, “But you love frozen yogurt. We should get some.” My response, “Okay!” I didn’t get a chance to snap a photo of my tropical fruit fro-yo because I forgot my camera at home.

Saturday afternoon I had a mad craving for Acai bowls. We used to order and make them a lot when we lived on Maui. It’s basically a blend of frozen fruit with the super fruit, acai. Then, you can top it with fresh fruit, granola and honey. We didn’t have any of the frozen acai packets, but we did have an organics superfruit blend of frozen fruits from Costco. I put about a cup of the frozen fruits in our blender with Vi-Shape mix, coconut water and half a frozen banana and blended until it was smooth. I dished it out into two bowls and topped with with fresh banana, strawberries, blueberries, flaxseed, bee pollen and agave syrup. It was just what I was craving and tasted amazing after my Sunday morning Insanity workout. Later in the morning, I made Blake eggs benedict with homemade hollandaise sauce. I had never made that type of sauce before. I used the Vitamix and could not believe how much butter the recipe called for. If I had made the full recipe, it would have been an entire stick of butter! I am happy that hollandaise sauce has never been “my thing.”

We also went to Whole Foods for a snack while out and about Sunday afternoon and I was so excited to have my beloved Passionberry kombucha. I have a hard time finding that flavor, but the Bend Whole Foods keeps it in stock. Blake found some dark chocolate with honeycomb and I had to do a quality taste-test. We agreed that we both like the chocolate-covered honeycomb from our home town better. It was still fun to try this new kind though!

After running tons of errands and starting to pack for our vacation, I made an epic dinner Sunday night. We started with a simple Greek salad of grape tomatoes, chopped cucumber and Kalamata olives drenched in balsamic vinegar, followed by garlic roasted brussels sprouts and baby bella mushrooms and a filet roast that Blake grilled on the barbeque. I stuffed myself with so many vegetables that I barely had room for the steak. Fine with me, I love vegetables! I used Ina Garner’s roasted brussels sprouts recipe found here and added sliced onions, garlic cloves and baby bella mushrooms.

Can you tell I was excited about all of the fun foods I made and ate this weekend? I felt like I needed to cook really good meals while Blake’s home because he needs as many nutrients as I can stuff in him before he heads up to Alaska after our Mexico trip.

Well, I’m going to get ready to head to the office, try to find some Banana Boat After-Sun lotion and fit in a workout. We should have plenty of left-overs to hold us out until we leave. Have a great day today!

Peace,

Kilee

I’m trying not to stress about my eats and exercise before Mexico and stay relaxed. I had some of my favorite corn tortilla chips before dinner the other night and went out with co-workers for lunch yesterday and had fish tacos and a margerita. Who’s ready for Cabo already? Me! I can’t help it. I just adore Mexican food and if it’s there, I’ll eat it and love every bite!

My eats over the past two days have included protein shakes for breakfast, lots of fruit for snacks, lean proteins like chicken, quinoa and eggs and a few treats like microwave popcorn with our movie the other night, tortilla chips and a margarita with yesterday’s outdoor lunch. My goal has been eating protein-rich meals with lots of fruits and veggies. Oh, and an emphasis on not stressing because stress increases cortisol, which increases belly fat. My friend, McKenzie, taught that to me a few years ago and has always stuck with me.

We already had our two cups of coffee this morning in bed and took Layla for a little hike out behind the house. Now we’re eating our eggs and applying SPF before laying out by the pool. These super white bodies need to see a little sun before hitting the beach in Mexico. Luckily the weather is absolutely gorgeous here in central Oregon this weekend! I actually burnt my chest while we sat outside during our lunch for two hours yesterday. That was a nice little reminder of how important sunscreen is. I think I might look for a tinted moisturizer with SPF before we leave. I read to Laura Mercier, Aveno and Physicians Formula all have good ones. I also need some tinted lip balm with SPF. My favorites for those are Burt’s Bees and Khiel’s.

What are your plans this weekend? Remember to think positive thoughts, get outside and exercise and treat yourself to healthy, delicious, whole foods. Have a great weekend. I’ll be back on Monday!

Love,

Kilee

Cranberry Almond Quinoa Salad

Serves 4-8 as side salad

2 cups cooked quinoa

2 cups spinach leaves, sliced into 1/3″ strips

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1 1/2 Tablespoons applc cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon agave

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Combine the quinoa, spinach, dried cranberries and almonds in a large bowl. Mix together all of the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss the salad until the dressing is evenly distributed and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving. Will keep in the refrigerator about four days.

We are so excited because we booked the resort for our trip to Cabo. It looks beautiful and one of my friends stayed at the resort last year and loved it. Poor Layla looked so depressed the whole time we were planning and booking our reservations. Don’t worry, she gets to stay with Blake’s mom and they adore each other.

Blake and I are doing a parasite cleanse over the next two weeks. With his job, he handles a lot of different animals out in the wilderness. The biologists that he works with run all types of tests and blood work on the animals. Blake has been told numerous times about the widespread amount of parasites found in the animals that he works with. Therefore, we want to be safe and do a little cleanse while we’re home together. We did the DrNatura, the Colonix® Advanced Internal Cleansing Program a few years ago and had good results. However, this time around, we wanted to try something a little simpler and less expensive than the DrNatura. This Parastroy supplement kit came highly recommended by users and was much less expensive ($15 on iherb.com.) Even though parasites are gross to think about, we all are hosts to these little buggers. I promote doing an annual parasite cleanse to help rid your body of them. It’s normal to have them, but sometimes they can get out of hand and cause health problems or you can contract a deadly type of parasite. I’ve tried different types of cleanses from making my own tinctures and chewing a 1/4 cup of raw brown rice every morning to purchasing packaged kits like the one above the taking the encapsulated herbs with my meals. Feel free to ask for any recommendations :)

Yesterday’s workout kicked my butt! I did the month 2 Insanity Plyo Circuit DVD. Anyone who has survived that hour-long workout knows that it’s tough. I told myself that if I completed it and did my best, I’d never have to do it again if I didn’t want to. I’ll probably end up doing it again in the future, but not during the next week. After my workout, Blake did his arm wrestling workout (no, I’ve never done one of those before) while I made an epic dinner. Blake is pretty spoiled and is used to me making big, delicious dinners whenever he’s home. When we lived on Maui, I made a full fledged, restaurant quality dinner each night. I also used a lot more butter, glutenous ingredients and rice. Last night’s dinner was really good and helped our muscle’s recover from our workouts with lots of protein and healthy carbs.

Day 38 Eats & Exercise

Breakfast: Coffee & Peanut Butter Banana Shake: 2 Scoops Vi-Shape Mix, 1 Tbls peanut butter, 1/2 frozen banana, 4 ice cubes, 8 ounces of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Lunch: Cilantro Lime Chicken Wrap

Snack: handful of pistacios

Workout: Month 2 Insanity Plyo Circuit DVD

Post-workout shake: 2 scoops Vi-Shape Mix with 12 ounces of coconut water , 1/2 tablespoon raw cocoa powder and 1 dropper full of NuNaturals Cocoa stevia

Dinner: mixed greens salad, roasted chicken & mushroom, broccoli quinoa risotto

Post-dinner: walk with Layla

We watched another documentary “Born Rich” last night. It was produced by Jamie Johnson, the great-grandson of the founder of Johnson & Johnson. He was exploring the notion that the top 1% of the nation’s wealthiest people account for 90% of the nation’s net wealth. It was interesting to see how uncomfortable some people are about talking about money.

Today is going to be a day to get stuff done around the house and start digging my summer dresses out of storage. I’ll check in on Facebook and Twitter. Have a great day everyone!!!

Love,

Kilee