Being Mindful & Taking Care Of My Body

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

If you remember, at the beginning of this year I decided to take a break from running. It was no longer bringing me joy and I was totally burned out. It was a tough choice, but more and more I’m realizing it was the best one for me.

Just because I don’t run doesn’t mean that I have totally given up on working out. In fact, I think my workouts, and overall health, have improved vastly by taking a step back from running. Adam and I have been following along with Fitness Blender’s workout programs and they’re no joke! They incorporate strength, flexibility, HIIT, yoga, pilates, kickboxing, plyometrics… anything is fair game in their workouts and it keeps my body and my mind engaged in what I’m doing.

Last Friday, as we were finishing up our workout, Kelli (one-half of the husband/wife duo behind Fitness Blender) mentioned lifting a weight that’s heavy and challenging for you. She also said that it was totally ok to drop the weight completely and just use body weight and that it was important to listen to your body. After hearing this Adam quipped, “Unless you’re Katie, then you just keep pushing through the pain.” He was mostly kidding and I told him I don’t always do that but then I started thinking about my runs. Being Mindful & Taking Care Of My Body | Life Healthfully Lived

No matter what, I always pushed through my runs. The only time that I didn’t was when I hurt my knee and physically could NOT run. Other than that, I ran and there were definitely some times that I should have stayed home. Pushing through those times is probably what led to me being burned out on running. It’s probably what made my body tell me that I had to stop or something worse than a slight knee injury was coming. Being Mindful & Taking Care Of My Body | Life Healthfully Lived

I’m not saying pushing through a tough workout is a bad thing. It’s important to go a little outside your comfort zone and push yourself in order to become stronger, faster, and better. But it shouldn’t come at the risk of your overall health. If your body is telling you it has to stop or it’s going to completely give out, you should listen to it.

Which is part of what I have been doing the last few months. There are days when I am raring to go on my workout, where I feel so strong and can lift heavier than I ever have before. Then there are days when I’m more tired and can’t go at 115% the whole time. That’s ok. Before I would have thought I was just being lazy. I would have said you have to push past this and keep go, go, going. Now I pull back and listen and realize my body knows what’s best. Being Mindful & Taking Care Of My Body | Life Healthfully Lived

It’s kind of a relief, for both my mind and my body, to know that I don’t have to go all out 100% of the time. It’s ok to pull back a little and adjust to what you need in that moment. Health is a series of ups and downs. You hope and work for the best but realize there are going to be times when you have to give in and take the down. It’s a part of life and it’s all good! Being Mindful & Taking Care Of My Body | Life Healthfully Lived

The Power of Your Mind

April 25, 2016April 25, 2016 / ktbuchs87 / 2 Comments

Do you ever feel like you get trapped in your own mind? It sounds weird, but the mind is a pretty powerful thing and mine can be my worst enemy sometimes. The Power of Your Mind | Life Healthfully Lived

I feel like I’ve been in a little bit of a funk lately and my mind is largely to blame. It keeps telling me things that aren’t true and it’s tough not to believe them sometimes. Like, I’m not good enough, strong enough, creative enough, special enough, healthy enough…. the list honestly goes on and on. Every time I try to be positive, the little voice in my head has to bring me down. The Power of Your Mind | Life Healthfully Lived

Of course, it isn’t constant and I do have my good moments or days where I feel completely in control, but that voice is just lurking back there waiting for a moment of weakness to pounce. What’s worse is that I know how easy it would be to just give in because I’ve done that before. It’s pretty simple to let your mind tell you you’re worthless. To tell you that you don’t measure up to everyone around you. To convince you that you are just an average, mundane, run-of-the-mill human being. There’s almost a weird comfort in knowing that you can never be great because then you don’t have to try. The Power of Your Mind | Life Healthfully Lived

But as much as I want to just let my mind take over and go on auto-pilot, I’m going to fight it. Because I’m NOT just an average, mundane, run-of-the-mill human being and neither are you. Don’t let anyone, even yourself, tell you that. It’s tiring to struggle with something that is so internal, something that you can’t see, but every ounce of effort you put into that struggle is completely worth it. The Power of Your Mind | Life Healthfully Lived

Some of you reading this might have no clue what I’m talking about. You might think I’m a little strange for going to battle against my mind but the people who needed to read this will understand. They will get that fight and I hope this encourages them to know that not only are they not alone, they’re strong enough to keep going. To keep fighting. And to one day…

Win. The Power of Your Mind | Life Healthfully Lived

My Thoughts on Being a Health Hypocrite

April 18, 2016April 18, 2016 / ktbuchs87

So yesterday I did something I rarely if ever do.

I spoke up.

If you know me at all, I tend to be a background type person. I don’t like confrontation and it’s really hard for me to be the center of attention. Like impossible. But there are times that I have some sass in me that I make known and yesterday was one of those times.

I had to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things that I had forgotten. I was in the baking aisle looking for some almond flour and two ladies walked up behind me and were looking at the oil.

My Thoughts on Being a Health Hypocrite | Life Healthfully Lived

The offending coconut oil

“Oh my gosh. Look! Crisco is trying to get into the healthy fats game by selling “organic” coconut oil.”

“Like anyone would buy coconut oil from Crisco. Don’t they sell vegetable shortening and all that other bad fat?” My Thoughts on Being a Health Hypocrite | Life Healthfully Lived

As I was listening to this conversation, I almost started to agree with them but then I stopped. We all complain that we want more affordable healthy options. We push big food companies to listen to us, to give us the good food we deserve without charging and arm and a leg. Then when companies, like Crisco, try to give us what we’re asking for we disregard them. Does selling organic coconut oil instantly make Crisco the best and newest healthy company? No, but it shows they’re listening to us. And what do you think happens if we all ignore them because they’re Crisco and “sell vegetable shortening and all that other bad fat?” They pull that affordable organic coconut from their line and someone who maybe couldn’t afford the other brands suddenly can’t buy coconut oil anymore. My Thoughts on Being a Health Hypocrite | Life Healthfully Lived

I don’t know what made me do it, but I had to respond to this whole incident. So I politely said excuse me and reached for the Crisco organic coconut oil between these two ladies.

“Thanks. You know it’s really great that there are some affordable coconut oil options now. Those little $13 jars never seem to last!”

I smiled and then just walked away. Was it a little snarky? Yeah, but I did my best to not make it about shaming these women because that wasn’t my goal. We have to do a better job of working with what food industries are giving us. It’s going to take a lot of time and it isn’t going to be perfect. We need to work on not being snobs about our healthy products and realize if someone is choosing the Crisco coconut oil over things like vegetable oil or canola oil or corn oil then that’s a small victory. My Thoughts on Being a Health Hypocrite | Life Healthfully Lived

Please, don’t be a health hypocrite. If you can afford to buy high-end all organic food and products, that’s great but not everyone can do that and the fact that there are more and more options for those on a budget is awesome. Let’s support those people and those companies that are making an effort and maybe one day EVERYONE can afford the high-end all organic food we deserve.

Attitude of Gratitude

April 11, 2016April 10, 2016 / ktbuchs87

Anyone else feel like there is A LOT of negativity floating around lately? No matter where you look, something is making someone upset or someone is doing something horrible or the world is just falling apart.

Attitude of Gratitude | Life Healthfully Lived

How I feel if I pay attention too much to what’s going on in the world.

Yeah, me too.

So while the internet can be a dark whole of anger, madness, and craziness, I’m turning my tiny corner into one of happiness, rainbows, and sunshine. There might even be a unicorn or two and there will definitely be cats.

Cats riding unicorns? Definitely part of my happy world

Without further ado, here are things that made me happy this weekend:

Spending some much needed time with this guy. I was in Sycamore for the past week or so and finally got home Tuesday afternoon so this weekend was all about being together.

Back off ladies… This one is mine!

We got him new glasses, which won’t be in for two weeks but I can tell you they’re pretty spiffy. Then on our way to get him some donuts because he did such a good job at the eye place (yes, he is like a small child in that sense) I found $20 on the street. Like no joke, 20 bucks on the street. We asked the people standing near us if it was their’s and they said no, which side note gives me hope for the human race because they could have easily lied and said yes and gotten a free $20, so there we were with an extra $20. I don’t know what to do with it because I feel like it’s not mine but how do you return it when you have no clue how long it was on the street or where it came from? Maybe I’ll donate it or give it to a charity or something.

Banana bread and hamburger buns thanks to avocados. Recipes soon!

Anyway’s, I also had some nice successes in the kitchen this weekend and it was all thanks to avocados. I k know you can bake with avocados, and I’ve tried it a few times but I decided to go all out and try hamburger buns. While they still need some tweaking they came out really well and they’re gluten-free, egg-free, and dairy-free so be looking for those in the near future. I also tried out some banana bread with avocado and while I haven’t eaten it yet, it smells amazing.

Adam’s pretty sourdough loaf

Adam even got in on the kitchen action and turned out some awesome loaves of sourdough. He has been telling me for years that he wanted to start making his own sourdough bread with his own starter and everything. Well after we watched the Cooked documentary on Netflix (HIGHLY recommend) he made his starter and gave it a go. The first two had some…. troubles, but this batch is pretty good and I’m excited he is making his own stuff!

Meet Inara, our newest kitty addition!

And of course, my cats always make me happy. Inara, our newest addition, is starting to feel more at home and actually plays with Olaf our still very kittenish cat. This is a good thing because Dot our oldest wants nothing to do with play time and Olaf has a lot of energy to burn. So thanks Inara for playing with your new brother!

Olaf and Inara… slowly becoming best friends.

That was my weekend in a nutshell. Full of good things, even if they are just simple things. What about you? What made you happy this weekend?

These two definitely make me happy!

Happy Monday and happy Cubs home opener! Go Cubs Go!

Easter Sunday Best

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016 / ktbuchs87 / 2 Comments

Hello and happy Monday! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and if you celebrate Easter I hope you had a hoppy…. I mean happy one!

Easter Sunday Best | Life Healthfully Lived

Please ignore my horrendous growing-out-my-pixie hair! We clean up pretty good

My weekend was a little busier than usual because I’m actually coming to you from Sycamore right now. I’m house/dog-sitting and get to romp about in my old town and enjoy the slow pace of “country” life. In case you were wondering, the minute you move to any big city like Chicago every other town becomes “country”. Yes, it’s snobby and pretentious but what did you expect from city-folk?

My sister always looks like this as she sets the table

Mom & D actually setting the table

I actually love coming out here not just because I get to cuddle and hang out with an awesome golden retriever but I get to take food pictures in natural light! There are like a gajillion windows here and when you’re used to two interior facing windows that maybe get 2 hours of sunlight a day, you revel in the natural light goodness. Expect beautiful food pics in the near future.

Cooking up the sweet potato hash

D cutting up the Easter ham

Speaking of food, my family had some good stuff at Easter brunch. My sister made this awesome quinoa/broccoli/cranberry/candied walnut salad that I could have eaten until my stomach burst. I need to replicate it like immediately. I made my sweet potato hash because everyone really liked it at Christmas plus it’s a good dish to feed a crowd. I also tested out some muffins on everyone and the feedback was pretty good so you should see those soon. There was also fruit, Irish soda bread, ham, hard-boiled eggs, deviled eggs, pasta salad, and mimosas. I don’t think anyone went hungry….

Jodie excited about the ham…

Me excited/terrifying about Easter

And Andy just excited about food

Overall, it was a great weekend and I’m glad that I got to spend time with my family. Now I’m looking forward to some good blog work and more spring-like weather!