No Excuses!

Do you ever struggle to get your workout in? Some days I just don't feel like it. Other days I wake up with exactly what I have in mind that I want to do that day. Lately I have been in a "I don't feel like working out funk". I am tired, G hasn't been feeling good, I would rather eat some pizza or I just want to sit on the couch watching tv. 

The problem is when I don't work out I don't sleep as good and I feel guilty at night. I also don't feel as bad if I eat a little extra that day if I got in a workout. G had a fever for a couple days. We had plans to do some fun things, which had to be cancelled because of the fever. I am not exactly sure what he had or why he had a fever. If he had some meds he was running around like crazy. I decided some fresh air would do both of us good. So I put G in the Bob and off we went. We ended up going for a 3 mile run. Normally when we get to the park G jumps out, plays and I sit there watching him. I decided to add a little extra to my workout. 

One of my friends posted the workout below. I thought this was perfect to do at the park while G played. At first I didn't think I could do pushups and crunches because the ground was wet after the morning rain we had. I decided to use the picnic table. I laid on the seat portion of the picnic table to do the crunches. I used the end of the picnic table to do a standing version of pushups. A little dirt doesn't hurt anyone, so I did my burpees and got dirty hands.  Let me just say that 60 second squat hold was a KILLER!!!! This was the perfect workout to add to the middle of my run. By the time I completed it G was ready to go. There are some big stone lions outsides one of the houses. He loves to go see them and have me stick my hand in their mouths. 

Some days a run sounds better than an aerobic workout. Other days a run sounds horrible, so I turn on Chris Freytag for a great sweaty workout. I really LOVE Get Healthy U TV. They offer discount memberships. I paid $10 for the year. You can find lots of free workouts on YouTube. I just really enjoy working out with Chris Freytag. I can't stand doing workouts where people don't workout along with you. When they constantly take breaks. Listen here folks I need you to workout along with me, so I push myself or I will want to take a break. I don't mind if they show you how to do a move or the proper form. 

How often do you workout? What is your favorite workout?

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post No Excuses appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant.  

Paleo Instant Pot Beef Stew

My mom makes this amazing stew that I love. It's so simple, but it's not paleo. I have been wanting to recreate it for awhile. The one ingredient I was stuck on was dry ranch dressing. Well I found a recipe online. I have been wanting ranch dressing to go with veggies too. I make this ranch dressing in double batches because we go through so much of it. I didn't take a picture of the stew from the other night because it was gone quick!

1 onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of tapioca flour
2 pounds of stew meat
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups of bone broth
1 tsp cumin
1.5 tbsp dry ranch dressing
1/2 small bag of baby carrots
1 small bunch of kale
4-5 small potatoes sliced

I sprinkled the tapioca flour all over my meat along with salt. I put a little oil in the bottom of my IP and turned it on sauté. I put the onion, garlic and meat in the IP to sauté for about 5 minutes. When it started to turn a light brown I turned it off. I then poured in the bone broth, cumin and dry ranch dressing. I turned it on high pressure for 30 minutes. When the timer went off I manually released the pressure. I put the veggies in the IP under high pressure for an additional 5 minutes. I manually released the pressure again.

It took about 60 minutes total to cook. It was AMAZING! We had plenty of leftovers too. The flavors were amazing! The meat was so tender it just fell apart.

You could easily make this in a crockpot. I would throw everything in the crockpot on low for about 6 hours

The flavors of this stew are just like the one my mom makes. I quickly wrote down all the ingredients I had used, so I wouldn't forget. I felt it was a very easy dinner to make. I love the IP! I love that I can throw things in there and go do something else while dinner is cooking.

Let me know if you try this recipe!

Disclaimer: This recipe was created by Becky Post. The post Paleo Instant Pot Beef Stew appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant.  

Happy Anniversary to Us!

 It's hard to believe it's been 9 years since we said I Do! Crazy how time flies and how much changes over the years. There are times it feels we have been married way longer than 9 years and other times it feels it has flown by.

I wrote a blog post a little over a year ago when we celebrated 10 years together. Marriage is a lot of work. We have some non-negotiables in our marriage. Two things were if anyone cheated or if there was any type of abuse it was over. Other than that you make it work. We have both put a lot into making sure this marriage works. We aren't going to just live as roommates. We will call the other out on their ish.

I love that I have blogged about our marriage over the years. I like to read back on the old posts. The 5th anniversary blog post is one of my favorites you can read it here. Right around that time is when I felt our family would never grow. 1.5 years later we would have a little boy. That little guy has brought us closer together and has made us each pull our hair out. lol

George will go through our wedding pictures pointing everyone out, but when he gets to me he says I don't know. If you ask him where is mommy he says gone. lol

Happy Anniversary!

100 Pounds GONE!

Tomorrow we will celebrate 9 year of marriage. It was a few years into our marriage I felt I needed to do something about my weight. I was unhappy. I wanted to buy clothes in regular stores. I decided to go a drastic route with my weight loss journey. I did the HCG diet for about 5-6 months. I dropped 80 pounds. I felt that diet really taught me how to eat and that I HAD to exercise to keep the weight off. While people will talk crap about the diet it worked for me. I lost 90 pounds in a year. I felt happy and so much healthier. I could run, exercise, buy clothes in normal stores and felt good about myself. 

To me it's unhealthy to be obese. I don't think weight loss surgery is the way to go. I think over time there will be studies about how unhealthy people are etc after the surgeries. That's just my opinion. For me the HCG diet worked. It was super freakin hard!! I honestly couldn't do it now with a toddler. My husband almost buried me in he backyard with all my crankiness lol I knew it was only for a short period of time, so I could do it. I never could eat that way permanently. For me I felt it was safer to do the HCG diet then to have any type of surgery. This was something I could stop if I needed. It wasn't permanent. 

Over the past few years I've had a lot of health problems plus I've had a baby. I put on weight, but I knew I could lose it. I hate having to lose the weight again. I also have given myself grace when I'm going through crap. My goal was to get the weight off and officially lose 100 pounds from when I got married. 

My goal for 2017 was to lose the rest of the weight to reach my 100 pound weight loss goal by our anniversary. I accomplished this goal a much healthier way. I ate a paleo diet and exercised. I lost the last of the weight and reach my goal before our anniversary!!! 

Picture on left: 4-12-08

Picture on right: 4-4-17

G doesn't even know I am from our wedding pictures. He will name my parents, sister, Art's parents and Amber. When he gets to me he says I dunno. 

It was a year or so after we were married we did a 5K walk. I could barely make the last 2 miles. It was awful! A few years later I ran the same 5K. Thinking back on how I ate when we were first married to now it's like night and day. Just from May 2017 until now I have lost 40 pounds. I haven't done anything crazy. I ate a healthy paleo diet and exercised 3-5 days a week. My goal is to teach G to be active, eat healthy and enjoy life.

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post Never Miss a Monday appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant. 

Never Miss a Monday!

I thought it would be fun to start a weekly blog post called Never Miss A Monday! Now that doesn't mean I won't miss a Monday posting these fun things, but I am going to give it a good try to be weekly! I am going to share 5 points each week. Some of them will be about BeautyCounter, Paleo, style, beauty, natural cleaning products I love and other random things.

1) I started using BeautyCounters Body Wash in October. The bottle lasted me from October through March. Art also used the same bottle of body wash. It costs $24 for a 10 oz bottle. It costs us $4.80 per month for this body wash for 2 people or $2.40 per person per month. That is the cost of a bottle of Suave body wash. BeautyCounter uses all safe ingredients in their products. I love that we don't have to worry about harmful ingredients!

You can find more about BeautyCounter's Never List and Story by clicking on the links. I am happy to help you start getting safer products in your home. If you would like to try any samples, please don't hesitate to email me. I send out samples often to people who want to try products prior to purchasing them. If I have the product I will happily send you a sample.

2) Purely Elizabeth came out with some grain free granola. There are times I miss granola and want to add some to coconut yogurt. I tried the original grain free granola. I really liked it! You can find it on Amazon and Whole Foods. Target carries the gluten free flavors, but I haven't been able to find the grain free ones at Target yet.

3) The weather has been warming up lately! We had a lot of rain over the winter. I felt we were bundled up with rain boots almost all winter long. We are loving the spring weather. I pulled out my Lularoe kimono last week to wear. It is perfect to wear over a tank on warm days.

4) I haven't listened to Podcasts in ages. Here and there I will listen to short ones when I go on a walk. Some other bloggers were commenting on IG that S Town was an amazing Podcast. I decided to listen to the first episode when I went for a walk. The rest of the day I spent it listening. I had a very productive day. My house was clean, cars cleaned, laundry done and I sat outside listening for a little bit. I just couldn't stop listening to it once I got started. I don't want to spoil it for you. It's a must listen too!

5) If you want to see more of what goes on in our daily lives follow me on Instagram BetterBeautyWithBecky. I post pictures from our day to day lives, safer beauty products, paleo food and whatever else is going on with me.

I hope everyone has a great week! Happy Monday!

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post Never Miss a Monday appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant. 

Mr. Fix It!

George is all about fixing things lately. Mostly his scooter and cards need their tires fixed. He says tire so adorable. He gets his bucket of tools and heads out to fix. 

He was trying to fix the tire on the car. He told me the tire was broke. 

He grabbed Art's tools and started fixing the fence and garbage cans. 

He loves to help us do things. Anytime there is something to fix around the house he has to help us. He grabs his tools and off he marches to whatever we are doing. 

Wordless Wednesday

OOTD

Pinterest Inspiration for the Win!

Tee: Target

Jacket: Gap Outlet

Jeans: American Eagle

Sandals: Amazon

Tank: Banana Republic

Cardigan: NY & Co

Jeans: Gap Outlet

Shoes: Lucky

I bought this sweatshirt from 1377Threads. It's a custom piece I asked her to make me. I saw the fabric in a child size and fell in love with it! I actually found 1377Threads at a festival in Mandan, ND when I was visiting my family this past summer. I ended up buying G some sweatshirts and joggers. She really had great quality and very cute stuff. 

Sweatshirt: 1377 Threads

Jeans: Gap Outlets

Shoes: Converse

I have been on the hunt for some white jeans. I bought  a pair of petite white jeans from Old Navy, but I didn't love them. I had to roll them up twice in order for them to be ankle length. I didn't like the look, so I returned them. The same day I ran to Nordstrom Rack and looked around. I picked up 2 pair of white jeans. This pair I am wearing are NYDJ. Originally $110 that I scored for $16.50!!!! They were exactly what I wanted. 

Tee: Target

Jacket: Target

Jeans: Nordstrom Rack NYDJ

Boots: Amazon

Sweater: Banana Republic

Jeans: Gap Outlet

Shoes: Lucky

George's New Job!

Art helped run an additional store for about 3 months. Poor guy was working 6 days a week for months. One Sunday G and I went to help him out for a few hours. I told him I could easily do data entry, filing or some type of clerical type work. Well he found a project for me - 13 pages of data entry to input! I loaded the tablet up with some shows for G to watch, packed snacks and off we went. 

George helped Art put stuff away on carts. 

Took some phone calls. 

Drove around the warehouse. 

and did some shopping. 

George LOVES to go to Art's work. We were there for a few hours and we actually accomplished a lot even with a busy toddler. Thankfully Art is now just tending to his own store. He has also been short handed since before Christmas. He hired a guy who starts very soon. The long hours are hopefully coming to an end very soon! 

Valentine's Play Date

I had a little Valentine play date party for G and a few of his friends. It turned out to be a lot of fun and really cute. I bought donuts from Krispy Kreme. Finding donuts that were not fried in peanut oil became my mission. I did not want to make donuts. I knew Dunkin Donuts didn't use peanut oil; however, they are over an hour away from me. 

I checked with our local little donut shop. They use peanut oil. I called Krispy Kreme headquarters to verify what type of oil they used. They use a vegetable oil to fry their donuts right on site. Perfect! There is a Krispy Kreme not far from our house. 

G and I headed there early before his party started. He of course needed to eat some of the donut as soon as we got into the car. I made a fritta and sausage to go with the donuts. I figured everyone would need something other than donuts. G wanted nothing to do with the other food. He just chowed down on donuts. 

I made cute little crafts for us to do. I bought some canvas from Michael's. I used painters tape for the LOVE. The plan was for the kids to paint the canvases, take the tape off and see LOVE. 

I bought the valentine plates and napkins at the Dollar Tree. 

After everyone enjoyed some food we pulled out the paints. The kids had so much fun painting on the plates and canvas. 

Then it was time to start to burn off some of those surgary treats! The kids played for a good 2 hours. Around 1pm G told everyone nite nite and headed to bed. He crashed for about 3 hours. Once he told everyone nite nite everyone decided to head home for nap time. It really was a cute day and a lot of fun! 

Wordless Wednesday

OOTD

I recently started taking OOTD pictures again. I need to start wearing all the clothes in my closet. I get in a rut where I just wear jeans and tshirts or sweaters. Our weather has been so beautiful lately too. This winter we had a TON of rain. I wore lots of cardigans with tees with jeans. Now that the weather has been in the high 60's or low 70's I have pulled out some skirts and dresses. This summer I want to wear more skirts. Sometimes it is hard to wear a skirt with a toddler. 

I spent a good portion of my summer at my parents last year taking care of my dad. I had a limited amount of clothes with me. This year I would like to wear more of the stuff I have in my closet. It also helps I have lost more weight, so all my clothes fit me again. I have actually had to get some newer things in smaller sizes. Skirts and dresses don't change sizes for me much if I go up or down 20 pounds. Pants on the other hand I have to change sizes. 

Tshirt: Target 

Shorts: Old Navy

Sandals: Birkenstock 

I recently got the tshirt at Target for $5. I really love their tshirts on the tables. They are reasonable and comfy. I don't feel bad if I ruin them because I get them for such a good deal.  The shorts didn't even fit me last summer. I couldn't zip them at all. I haven't lost that much weight since then, but I have lost a lot of inches. I bought the Birkenstocks last summer during Amazon deals. I had been looking at a pair on Ebay, but I found brand new ones on Amazon for the same price. 

Tshirt: Target

Jacket & Jeans: Gap Outlet

Sandals: Amazon

Tshirt: Gap

Vest: Old Navy

Skirt: Lularoe

Sandals: Target

Jacket, Tshirt & Shoes: Target

Jeans: Old Navy

Jacket & Shoes: Target

Top: Lularoe
Pants: Old Navy

Top: Kohls
Cardigan: American Eagle

Pants: Old Navy

Slippers: Amazon

I love this cardigan sooooo much! It is so incredibly soft. I recently discovered American Eagle clothing. I really love their jeans. They fit amazing. They also don't stretch out. I bought jeans, cardigan and a tee recently from them. They are my most worn items. 

Grief

I recently an article called Stifled Grief: How the West Has it Wrong. I feel I have had to deal with a lot of grief over the past years. I dealt with a lot of grief when I had multiple miscarriages. Sometimes that grief lasted a long time and other times it went away quickly. 

I remember when Adriana lost her mom. Her grief was so strong even months after losing her mom. She would talk to me about it often. It was hard for me to understand what she was going through. One conversation I remember us relating it to my miscarriages. I told her it wasn't the same thing as losing a mom though. She said it is similar because you loved that baby and wanted it so much. Part of me felt it still wasn't. Losing a mom that you have loved for years just isn't the same as having a miscarriage. There are such different parts of grief. 

Now that I have lost Adriana this is a whole new level of grief. I struggle with how long do you grieve and exactly how do you grieve at times? The article on Stifled Grief is really great. There are no guidelines on how a person is to grieve. I also never understood the grief she was going through after she lost her dad and mom so close together. She missed her mom horribly. I honestly thought time would heal her heart. Now I understand no amount of time can heal you after you lose someone. 

"Grief changes who you are at the deepest levels and while you may not forever be in an active mode of grief you will forever be shaped by the loss you have endured."

It is hard to believe that Adriana is gone. I have dreams often she comes back. Sometimes she comes back telling me she just had to get away for awhile. Other times we just pick up like she never left. It's only been 7 weeks yet it feels like 6 years. I really miss her! I miss her funny texts, snapchats, our conversations, our love of Chipotle and tacos, I miss texting her to set up a time to get together or sharing funny G stories with her. I miss sharing the bargains we found. There is just so much I miss. 

Wednesdays are hard days. I usually saw her every Wednesday. There are some days I just want to pop over and see her. Some days I go to text her only to see the last text I sent her "are you ok?" Ugh I hate seeing that one. 

"The reality is you will grieve in some capacity for the rest of your life. Once loss touches you-you are forever changed despite what society tells you. Stop looking at the expectations of an emotionally numbed society as your threshold and measuring stick for success. Instead, turn inward and look at the vulnerable reality of a heart that knows the truth about loss."

Wordless Wednesday

California Traveling

A couple of my cousins from ND came to visit. We traveled all over Nor Cal! San Francisco, Monterey, Yosemite, and back to San Francisco. 

Beach on 17 Mile Drive in Monterey

George had fun on his first trolley ride! He had to get on the side of the trolley like momma to hang off the side. 

Paleo Chili

I recently made a paleo chili. I have mentioned before how much I love soups. I usually can make the majority of soups paleo friendly; however, I struggled with chili. I had to just think outside the box. Instead of beans I grabbed a bunch of veggies. This is my version of paleo turkey chili. 

This picture doesn't do the chili justice. 

1 pound ground turkey 

1 pound zucchini cut into cubes

1/2 onion diced

2 cans of stewed tomatoes

4 cloves of garlic

1 bell pepper diced

3 stalks of celery

3 tablespoons of chili powder

1 teaspoon of salt

I cut up all the veggies and dumped them in the crockpot. I poured 2 cans of organic stewed tomatoes in, crushed my garlic, salt and chili powder in the crockpot. I didn't precook the ground turkey meat. I took the defrosted meat, broke it apart and mixed it into the chili. While it all cooked the meat cooked too. It really worked well plus saved time and dishes. You could use any type of ground meat. I happen to have turkey on hand, so that is what I used. I cooked it on low for about 4 hours. 

This was a really easy meal and very delicious! This would go great over a bake potato or some cauli rice. 

Hair Cut!

It was well over due for G to get another hair cut. I decided to take him to the place by our house. It was convenient and also only $8. I was worried he wouldn't sit there or would cry once they started. He sat in the chair like a champ. Never made a peep even when they used the clippers!