{Product Review} Lifeway Frozen Kefir

Summer and ice-cream go hand in had to me. They are a perfect duo and few things say summer more than enjoying some ice-cream on a hot summer day or night. Okay, so a juicy burger and a cold beer in the yard say summer too, but I digress.

Recently, I was asked by Influenster to participate in a review for Lifeway brand Kefir. I had seen and heard of kefir before, but I had never tried it, so I figured why not?!

Never heard of kefir? I’ll let Lifeway describe it for you... “Kefir is a cultured probiotic beverage similar in taste and texture to drinkable yogurt, and made from milk fermented with kefir cultures. Originating over 2000 years ago in the Caucasus Mountains-where many people live well over 100 years - kefir has been associated with a long list of health benefits.” 

I saw that they made a frozen kefir and since I love me some ice-cream, I decided that I would try that over the smoothies they offer. I've also been opting for frozen yogurt instead of ice-cream lately, so I figured the kefir would be similar. Thankfully, one of my local grocery stores had it. They didn't have Mango, which was the flavor I had my heart set on, but they did have Pomegranate so I grabbed a pint of that and headed to the check-out with my voucher.

Before cracking open my frozen treat, I flipped it over to see what the ingredients and nutrition info was and it wasn't awful. The sugar was higher than I would have liked but compared to regular ice-cream, I thought it had a decent ingredient list.

Each of their frozen kefir varieties feature all-natural ingredients and 10 probiotic cultures. Each flavor has only 90 calories per serving, 1 gram of fat per serving and is 99% lactose-free as well as gluten-free. Sounds great, but how is it going to taste?!

I'm happy to report that it was really freaking good! It had a nice smooth, creamy texture and the flavor was perfectly tart and tangy. I will definitely be trying the other flavors that my local grocer has in stock and I hope to find some of the others that I have heard of, too!

If you'd like to locate a store near you and get a coupon to try some Lifeway Frozen Kefir for yourself, click here!

Have you ever tried any of the Lifeway Kefir products? If so, I would love to know which product and flavor is your favorite.

*I received a voucher for one free Lifeway Kefir item as a perk of being part of the Influenster program. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Keep Calm...Dammit!

It's been awhile since I've stepped on a scale. I'm pretty sure I've made it known that I don't like the scale and it doesn't tell an accurate story of what's going on with your body.

I normally just use my measurements and how my clothes are fitting as a guide and I adjust things from there. Well, today I stepped on the body mass calculator, in order to log all of my numbers for the official start of the Focus T25 challenge group that I am running with a friend, and the number wasn't pretty.

Now in the rational part of my brain, I know why there was such a jump in the number on the evil little piece of bathroom equipment, but the rational part of my brain was abruptly over thrown by the irrational part of my brain when I saw the number. I immediately began to freak out and wonder how this could be. I mean, yeah, I haven't followed a program for a while and yes, I've been a slacker with running...but I've been okay with my eating and I have been active. Where did I go so wrong? How could my clothes still fit well if there was such a jump?

Then I took my measurements and laughed at myself. They are all the same except for my thighs...they went up quite a bit and I always had a flat booty but that is no longer the case since I started running and squatting. THAT is my answer right there. I have built a lot of muscle in my lower body over the past few months. Now I know not all of it is muscle, the time of day as well as the month plays a role in a woman's weight and I know there is room for improvement with my diet, but once again, measurements told some key plot points to the story.

It's scary how quickly the rational part of my brain shut down and how upset I got over a number on a scale. I believe part of it has to do with how I refuse to go back to were I came from. It's actually a big fear of mine, so knowing I've been off my normal routine and not as good as I should be with nutrition, teamed up with a weight spike, freaked me the fuck out!

On the bright side, I feel a little clearer on my goals, know that my nutrition is key and I'm truly looking forward to getting to know those participating in the challenge and seeing what a full 60 days with this program can result in!

Have you ever experienced a moment like this? Where you know better but your emotions just take off and leave common sense behind?



 

{Recipe} Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Thighs

We are a week into the August Clean Eating Accountability and Yoga Challenge and I'm loving it!

I've been following a good 80/20 rule with my eating and even that 20% has been full of smarter choices. A new challenge always means new recipes for me, so I hit Pinterest and started searching for Clean Eating and Whole 30 meals that looked good to me...then I put my own spin on them.

The recipe I'm about to share is a combination of two recipes I found on there. One was a stuffed chicken thigh and the other was a bacon wrapped chicken thigh. Both sounded delicious and I couldn't choose which one sounded better so I decided to merge them together, make a few changes to the stuffing and the results were delish!!

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Thighs

• ¼ cup cashews
• ½ medium onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• small handful of basil
• 1 cup baby spinach (kale would work too)
• boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• Cajun seasoning, to taste (I use Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning)
• nitrate-free bacon

 Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a food processor, combine the cashews, onion, garlic, basil and spinach. Pulse until it forms a thick paste with no large chunks in it. (If needed, add a little water or vegetable stock to thin it out so it doesn't get stuck - but don't make it runny.)
3. Open the chicken thighs and lay them out flat. Sprinkle with your seasoning, then spoon some of the mixture into each thigh. Roll it up and then wrap with a slice a bacon. Place each thigh, bacon seam down on your baking pan.
4. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads the proper temperature, between 165- 175 degrees.

These were really easy to make and they tasted amazing! I served them with some roasted sweet potato and zucchini.

As for yoga, I'm REALLY loving this series and I'm so happy I stumbled upon it on YouTube! Having a quick, program that is beginner friendly has been key to me sticking with daily practice.

I'm also happy to report that I have started running again! It felt good to get back out there and while my legs are really sore right now, I didn't lose that much progress, which was a pleasant surprise.

Have you tried any new recipes since starting the challenge? Please be sure to share them with the rest of the group and if you Instagram or Tweet a photo, use the hashtag #EatCleanWithNikki

If you are hearing about this for the first time, please join us over on Facebook for daily accountability, recipe and snack ideas and of course, the daily yoga video!

August Challenge: Clean Eating & Yoga

August is upon us and with it brings us a new challenge!

First off...congrats to everyone who stuck with the July Squat & Plank Challenge. I know how hard it is during the summer to stick with these things, so even if you missed a few days (I know I did), you still did awesome if you kept coming back to it!

This month I'm changing it up a bit. I found out that many of us struggle with nutrition, so a clean eating challenge seemed like the logical way to go. I also found that many of us have a lot of stress in our daily lives, so I'll be posting  daily yoga video on the Facebook Page to help center and relax us!

I have already posted some Clean Eating basics over on Facebook, as well as Day 1 of the Yoga routine. There is also a tab on the upper right side of the Facebook page where I have a link to Pinterest. I'll be pinning lots of clean recipes over there, so make sure to check it often or follow me on Pinterest.

For this challenge I want us to all work as a team. I'll help you as much as I can but expect the following from you:

• You need to check-in daily on the Facebook Page.


• Share any new clean snacks you may have found, as well as recipes that you've tried.


• Share any slip-ups or struggles you may have. I try to be as honest as possible here on my blog and lord knows I get derailed quite often. We are all human and we can't be perfect. If you have a slip-up and happen to not eat so clean for a meal, it's okay! Dust yourself off for your next meal and make sure it's as clean as you can make it.


• No matter how much you dislike yoga, try it! If you really hate it, just lay in corpse pose for at least 10-minutes, clear your mind and focus on breathing. We all need to take a break from our daily crazy tasks to just breathe.


• Don't try to go cold turkey! If you use 6 teaspoons of sugar in your coffee a day, cut back or try something like Stevia in the Raw. Going from 0-120 with this will only set you up to binge. I'd rather you take baby steps to ingrain a new, healthy habit. Just make sure you are making changes.


• Be supportive of one another!

Following an 80/20 rule will also make this less stressful and stress is one of the things I'm also aiming to reduce with this challenge!

We have a few different diet restrictions (Gluten-Free, Paleo, Vegetarian & Vegan) participating in this challenge as well as a yoga instructor, so please feel free to post questions! If I don't know the answer, someone else might!

If you are on Twitter or Instagram and take photos of your yoga practice, meals or snacks, please use the hashtag #EatCleanWithNikki and be sure to follow me! I'll share some on the blog as we go through the month!

So who's ready to eat clean and de-stress with a quick, daily yoga workout?

Refocusing

More often than not, I seem to be refocusing. I refocus on workouts, nutrition, cleaning schedules, and priorities in general. Life seems to be a constant juggling act, and more and more items keep getting tossed in. It's hard not to drop something from time to time.

Running is the item that got dropped a while back and you know what? I miss it.

I set a goal for this year to hit 500 miles and I stalled out at 250 due to illness, frustration and then the heat. Frustration and heat are excuses and I know it. I know that you have to push through frustration and I know that there are ways around the heat. The time has come for me to stop making the excuses and start logging miles again. I'm a happier person when I run and I'm tired of feeling like a quitter.

This past week I started to refocus with Focus T25. The amount of sweat my body produces in 25 minutes with these workouts, is both amazing and gross. I'm hoping to build my cardio back up with this routine, so easing back into running will be a little smoother.

The next part of my refocus plan is an August "Clean Eating" accountability that I will be running over on the Facebook Page. I'll be posting the basics of clean eating, shopping guides and recipes over there each day. My eating has been pretty good, but it took a nose dive during Mike's vacation this past week. I'm hoping that as a group, we can stay accountable, help each other find new recipes and form new, healthier habits. I've always had success while working in groups and I'm hoping that those participating will too.

As well as the clean eating accountability, I plan on sharing a daily yoga workout on the Facebook page each day. If there is one thing I've learned during my fitness journey, it's that no matter how badly I suck at yoga, it is important to my routine. I'll benefit from a stretching/muscle recovery aspect as well as mentally with meditation/stress relief. I always feel better after doing yoga, yet I always manage to skip it...I clearly make no sense and need to fix this.

Ultimately, life happens, and our grand plans don't always work out as planned. As long as you take a moment to stop, see where things went wrong and refocus, your goals can still be reached.

Are you ready to refocus with me? What aspect of your routine do you need to focus on?

I'm A Rugged Maniac!

Back in March, I was participating in the #FurtherFasterFurther badge challenge and feeling like a total badass. I was on the top of my game  and achieving things I never thought I could do. One Saturday I was scrolling through Groupon and found an amazing deal on the Rugged Maniac mud run, so I obviously bought it and felt instant happiness! Poor Mike.

Fast forward to July 14th....race day. I had fallen off the running wagon, my cardio wasn't close to where it should be and I was now nervous as I drove to the event with Mike. I didn't know if I could hack the obstacles that were waiting for me, but thankfully we were doing the race with Mike's childhood friend, Irwin and his two kids, Jess and Ryan... and this wasn't their first mud run!

We arrived early to park, pick up our race packets and hang out for a bit. We were in the first wave for the day, and I was grateful for that since it was going to be in the upper 90's!

Top: Hanging out before the race - Bottom Left: Let the fun begin! - Bottom Right: 1/2 mile run. *Special thanks to Lisa for taking these photos!*

Our first obstacle was a wall that you had to jump in order to get to the starting line. I honestly felt a little intimidated by it, but I made it over on the first try, and I felt the doubt wash away and some confidence kick in. The first stretch of the course was a pretty easy 1/2 mile run before we hit our first obstacle, which were two A-frames that we had to climb up and over. From there, we headed into the woods and were greeted by ankle to knee-deep mud (which smelled awful) and some 5 foot walls to hop, like the one at the start gate. These were a little trickier to do because my feet and the wall were slippery with mud, but I made it over all of them on the first shot, which made me feel kinda badass again. From there it was more mud and then a football style tire run with swinging tires that you had to push through. Our reward for making it through was a water station, which ended up being the only one on the course!

 

Top: A-Frames - Bottom Left: Tire carry & hurdles - Bottom Right: Sprint to the Finish              *Special thanks to Lisa for taking these photos!*

After our water break we headed onto around the motocross hills and toward the barbed wire obstacles. Thankfully the barbed wire wasn't as low as I was anticipating, so I was able to crawl under it without army crawling. The downside to crawling? I wore shorts and didn't have knee-pads so my knees got really cut up! Lesson. Learned. The next obstacle I remember was the slide! Nothing like sliding into a lake of muddy water to cool off!

 

Left: Fire jumps - Top Right: Barbed Wire - Bottom Right: Sliding into muddy water.                 *Photos taken by Rugged Maniac Photographers*[/caption]

I honestly don't remember the order of the rest of the obstacles. I think the drainage pipes were next and I skipped that one. I'm EXTREMELY claustrophobic and didn't feel like having a panic attack if I had a hard time making my way back up the second pipe. I think it was this obstacle where my teammate Jessica's hair got stuck in the barbed wire while making her way between pipes....OUCH!

 

We're Rugged Maniacs!!  (Ryan, Irwin, Jessica, Mike and Myself)

Thankfully there were lots of sprinklers along the course so you could wash mud off your hands and out of your eyes. Although the one time I needed a sprinkler I couldn't find one. I lost my traction going down a small mud slide and ended up going completely under the muddy water at one point. I wasn't expecting it so I didn't have time to hold my nose and ended up with mud in the my eyes and up my nose....talk about gross! I had to skip the obstacle after that because I couldn't see.

A big thank you to the volunteer who offered me a clean spot on her t-shirt to wipe my eyes!

From there it was the fire jumps and then off to the final obstacle which I failed at. Between the mud in my eyes and the amount of mud on the wall, I just couldn't pull myself all the way up. I was pissed I couldn't make it to the top and across the cargo net, but I achieved a lot and I was proud. Mike and I waited for our teammate on the other side of the wall and then we sprinted to the finish line (and Irwin's kids who ran off ahead racing each other to the final obstacle and finish line. I loved the competitive nature between them)!

 

Before & After

The finish line had a water table which was a welcome blurry site. I grabbed two bottles and started rinsing out my eyes, while rehydrating. From there we showered off, headed to the truck to change and then went back to the after party for our post race beer, music and snacks!

Overall, the course was challenging but not awful. I loved seeing all of the team-work going on around us as well as all of the laughter. I can't wait to do another mud run with this team....they were awesome!

 

Cheers!

Have you ever completed a mud run? Which one and what did you think of it?

Holy Heatwave, Batman!

It has been a scorcher here in NJ this past week. Temps in the upper 90's with heat indexes of 105+ mean lots of time in the air conditioned house or cooling off at the pool.

Thankfully, my mother lives in a development with a pool and we are allowed there everyday after 1pm...so of course, that's where we have been!

~ I owe you a post on the Rugged Maniac, which we did last Sunday! I have lots of photos to share with you...it was so much fun! ~

While hanging by the pool and splashing around cools you off, it still zaps your energy levels. As a result, I haven't really been working out much this week. My focus has been on staying hydrated and the heat killing my energy has made me catch up on sleep!

I'm really looking forward to a break in this craziness, especially since Mike is on vacation this week. I'd like to be able to go to the beach or walk around an amusement park without melting.

If you're experiencing this heatwave, how have you been keeping cool?