I’m trying out Hello Fresh & thought I’d share. They deliver ingredients to you, pre-measured, along with the recipe. The recipes are supposed to be nutritious and prepared quickly. I’m getting 3 days of meals for 2 people…they offer higher packages as well. I’ll get my first shipment next week. To try it out, I had a $40 coupon…so it’s costing me only $29. If anyone else is interested in trying it out, here’s a referral link. You’ll get $40 off your first order as well. I’ll report back and let everyone know how it is next week. http://www.hellofresh.com/?c=ZXESFS

I love to read about healthy living, and ways to lose weight. Some might call me obsessed (I know my husband would)! I have an absurd amount of healthy eating cookbooks, I follow many blogs, I wear a FitBit Surge (and participate in multiple challenges each week), I attend at least 1 Weight Watchers meeting a week (2 most weeks), and I have my own healthy eating blog. So, when I had the chance to review a new dieting book from a blog I follow, I jumped at the opportunity.

I was not sure what I was getting into reading “The 16 Hour Diet” by Ashley Barnes. Based on the name, I thought, it was probably going to put me on a liquid cleanse.

Boy was I wrong. “The 16 Hour Diet” introduced me to a concept that is popular with the weight lifting community – that with my healthy eating obsession I had never heard of – intermittent fasting.

Barnes isn’t promoting that you go without eating, or that you starve yourself. Her plan is an “eating schedule,” where you consume your day’s calories within an 8-hour window, and fast the rest. The time of “fasting” is to allow your body to have time to burn what you’ve eaten, dig into stored fat, and kick start hormones that will help you in your journey.

I was a little skeptical at first, but not only does Barnes presents a lot of scientific evidence to back up the benefits, but she also presents you with ways to “Turbo Charge” your weight loss efforts. Plus, she tops it off with some of her favorite recipes at the end of the book.

I usually start eating around 10 am, so to follow “The 16 Hour Diet,” all I have to do is stop eating at 6pm. Since I usually do all my snacking and mindless eating AFTER 6pm – it makes a lot of sense for me to give it a go.

Barnes developed the plan after her own extensive research, and through her own efforts of losing weight. She’s lost 50 pounds in the past 8 months (weight gained after baby #4) through the “The 16 Hour Diet.”

Barnes says, “I was able to find an effective way to lose weight fast, easy, and without changing my life. After following my new found ‘diet,’ I lost 68 pounds in about 6 months. Once I ‘cracked the code’ I immediately wanted to share this with others who I knew were going through the same struggles as me. This is how ‘The 16 Hour Diet’ was born.”

“The 16 Hour Diet” is something you can use in conjunction with other weight loss programs (like my favorite Weight Watchers).  Barnes encourages you to eat healthy, and provides you with a calorie calculator to help you determine your own needs. In addition to her book, she offers life and fitness coaching.

To learn more about Ashely Barnes, “The 16 Hour Diet”, her mobile app and personal training packages, visit her online at: letsgetfitwithashleybarnes.com or on Facebook at: facebook.com/LetsGetFitWithAshleyBarnes

 

Happy New Year! Welcome to your clean slate –your chance to wipe things clean and start anew. New year, new possibilities!

In the spirit of all things new, I wanted to share a few product finds with you that I’ll be using this year.

Katie Farrell of DashingDish.com has two brand-spanking new books – a cookbook, and a devotional book.

I’ve followed Dashing Dish for a few years now, and I absolutely love everything I’ve tried. I’ve mentioned my love of her 5 Minute Tomato Soup with Parmesan Croutons here before. Farrell focuses mainly on clean eating, and making comfort foods delicious and healthy. Her blog has free and premium content (available for $5/month), as well as devotionals.

Her cookbook Dashing Dish: 100 Simple and Delicious Recipes for Clean Eating does not disappoint. It has 100 amazing recipes – complete with beautiful photos of all the recipes, and the nutritional information. She also starts out the cookbook with lots of tips on things like eating clean, snacking, and meal planning.

Farrell’s second offering Devotions for a Healthier You is a beautiful book, complete with daily devotionals, recipes, tips, and even a meal plan. The scripture-based devotionals are meant to encourage you in both your walk in faith, and your mental/physical/and spiritual health. After a few introductory pages, the devotional is divided into 71 sections that you could read all at once, or read a day at a time. Each includes a scripture, a devotional to read, a prayer, and recipes follow several. The book also includes a 1-week meal plan, a pantry staples list, weekly grocery list, and the recipes for the meal plan. On her blog, Farrell offers a free 10 week book study based from Devotions for a Healthier You that would be great for a small-group setting.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the brand-new offering from Skinny Cow – Blissful Truffle Candy Bar. I found this in a bulk box of Skinny Cow candy (pictured) at Sam’s Club. These candies hit the mark when it comes to chocolate cravings. They’re only 3 points plus on Weight Watchers. They are segmented where you can break off individual sections, so this helps you make them last longer – and you feel you’ve had more! These guys are so new, they aren’t even on the Skinny Cow website yet.

Now – a quick weight loss recap:

After eating a post-Christmas meal at my grandmother’s house last Friday, I weighed in Saturday morning, and the scale went up. I wasn’t surprised. After a very much “on plan” week, I knew that I’d most likely still be retaining water at weigh-in.  And hey, it’s life. This isn’t a race. All I need to do is eat right, move more, repeat. It WILL come off, eventually.

Current Pounds Lost: 50.8