A Latte Lipstick

1 List to Make You Happier

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What makes you happy? How do you define your happiness? Sometimes it can be easy to push your happiness aside and focus on other more pressing matters, however nothing is as important as finding your happy. Sure, days will be more difficult than others but make sure you are doing at least one thing a day to bring you that bliss. Whether that is turning to Pharrell’s song, or snuggling with your wet nosed pup.

 My Happy List:

Coffee dates with my sweet friends, because there’s just nothing quite like talking it out over a steaming mug. Even the smell of coffee in the air floods my soul with happiness.

Buying and admiring beautiful flowers that leave a lovely scent in the air. Flowers are just so happy and perky, making it nearly impossible to feel sad when looking at them.

Watching a beautiful Oklahoma sunset. Sunsets are famous around here and us Okies love to capture the perfect sunset, yet none of these photos can quite give them the justice they deserve.

A great sweat session! Nothing can quite beat the feeling after a great workout. Letting your mind clear and focusing on the challenging moves at hand is a healthy mental break and definitely a physical one.

Reading has always been one of my favorite things to do! It’s amazing how sucked into someone’s world you can get from written letters on pages. Always a perfect activity to do, no matter if you have 5, 10 or 60 minutes to get away.

What would you add to your day when you make that list? Try it out and let’s have a great week!

Benefits of Matcha

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matcha

The Matcha craze is real. Have you fallen yet? There are many known benefits, so if you haven’t given it a try, you might as well.

First off, you know it must be healthy since it’s sooo green, and we all know that green = healthy. Now you don’t have to eat your greens, you can drink your greens.

Still don’t understand what it is? It is a fine ground powder of green tea leaves that have been shade grown. Keeping these leaves out of sunlight slows down their growth resulting in an increase of chlorophyll development, which creates the production of amino acids.

The flavor is super distinct and something to get used to. However, once you fall for it, you’ll never look back. There are many new interesting Matcha-flavored foods and drinks to try like matcha green tea, beers, or even a delicious milkshake. Have you tried anything crazy with it in it?

matcha

Benefits of Matcha:

Improves mental focus
Provides an energy boost with no crash
Filled with antioxidants
Burns fat
Boosts metabolism

Still not convinced? Matcha tea is the nutritional equivalent of 10 cups of good ole fashioned green tea.

Have you tried it in powder form? Do you like it already, and I’m just preaching to the choir?

Sugar Kills

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I have never used a hardcore trainer because I believed that I had what it took to make my goals happen, as long as I was determined enough and self motivated. However, this can be close minded thinking and sometimes just a little support goes a looooong way. And since I’m doing one of my hardest challenges, I thought I’d share with my lovely, supportive readers. 🙂 Plus once it gets out there, I don’t want to not make it happen.

My goal is to continue my fight to end my sugar obsession and lose a couple pounds so that my muscles aren’t covered with excess fat. In other words, see you later chocolate. Those arm muscles are under there so I want them to show, especially now that I am teaching a workout class! I want to truly inspire my awesome class-goers to continue to push themselves and add that weight to their bar. Rawr!

sugar kills

Terrifying statistics…
One in seven Americans have metabolic syndrome
One in three Americans are obese
Diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate
…many believe it all comes down to one toxic presence…sugar.

Seeing that sweets are my greatest downfall, I must start there. I am going to try the no sugar challenge once again and potentially keep it up for longer.

Second, and my favorite, is to continue my working out schedule. If you’re in the OKC area, hit me up at Golds Gym for Body Pump 🙂

Sugar Kills diet:

Foods to eat:
Vegetables
Beans
Meat
Nuts
Eggs
Nut Butter

Foods not to eat:
Breads
Crackers
Baked goods
Juices
Fruit
…sugar

I am allowing red wine… you have to give yourself a break somewhere.

Who wants to join me? I am going to do this for 2 weeks, ending September 1. Just in time for Labor Day festivities and bikinis! Remember…sugar kills ya’ll!

4 ways to sneak more green into your diet

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There are many reasons you should go green, both environmentally and nutritionally! It’s even fun to say go green! Everyone, GO GREEN! Here in Oklahoma, the grass is taking going green very seriously and has summoned the rains to continue to fall, non-stop.

Sneak that green into each meal and snack! Leafy greens boost bone strength, heighten immunity, improve brain function and even increase your metabolism! There are countless reasons to go green…consuming your greens is super beneficial to your health and can be done with some easy tips and tricks.Double the green that is called for in recipes. Especially if the greens are cooked spinach. Spinach shrinks drastically when cooked so I basically add an entire bag of spinach to whatever I’m cooking!

Make Green popsicles! I used Evolution Fresh Sweet Greens and Lemon juice and added 1 1/2 teaspoons of honey to the juice and gave it a good shake. Then I poured into the provided popsicle makers. It served as a great green treat! Perfect for mommas who have to satisfy their kid’s sweet tooth for the thousandth time.

When you are in a snack mode, grab a bag of broccolli and munch away! This will fill you up, give you great nutrition, and do the job. Trust me, a bag of brocolli is better than a bag of chocolates! You can buy a microwaveable bag and sprinkle some cheese on top…yum!

Order a side salad with every meal. It starts your meal off right and veggies fill you up quicker than you think! You may even pass on that dessert in the end…ha. Who are we kidding?

What are your tips to get more green in?

Why do you exercise?

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I am so excited to be featured as the Oklahoma Women Blogger’s featured blogger of the month! Check out my first post below and be sure to finish reading on the Oklahoma Women Bloggers blog!

Why do you exercise? Or, why don’t you exercise? Stop and think about it.

We shouldn’t be sedentary, because we weren’t designed to be sedentary. We were created to move, shake, boogie, and ultimately run from predators who were trying to make us their meal, but that’s another story.

You should exercise for the right reasons! If your sole reason for exercise is to lose some lbs, it’s not going to happen quickly or enjoyably.You will hit both a mental and physical block. Don’t exercise simply to lose weight, exercise for mental and physical health.

If you are new to the exercise world, your first task is to find what kind of exercise you will look forward to doing each day. Working your body should be fun, not torturous. Find an activity that can be your personal play date and make an appointment with (for) yourself.

If you are fighting to push past that aggravating plateau, simply changing it up can drastically change your results. If you’re a runner, perhaps try yoga to get more in tune with your body. If you’re a pilates advocate, perhaps it’s time to add some weights.

Ask yourself some questions to find the best workout, or workout mix up, for you…

Continue reading my post on Oklahoma Women Bloggers!