5 Tips To Make Meal Prep Easier

I love Sundays because I get to sit down, enjoy my coffee and plan my week. One thing I am focusing on this week is my meal plan. Every since Chris left I find myself eating more treats, not following my meal plan as closely, not prepping as much and my body can feel it. So today I want to share with you my top 5 tips on creating a meal plan and the easiest way to meal prep!

1. Have a plan. This may sound obvious but you have to have a plan to put into action. You have to know how much of each food your body type needs, how often to eat, and what you should be eating to reach your goals. Spoiler alert! 100 calorie packs, restricting calories, and eating straight lettuce doesn't work. Trust me I did it for years. We talk a lot about this in our Virtual Gym where we literally learn HOW to eat. We eat food. Lots of food.

2. Make your grocery list from your plan. Simply take all of the foods and ingredients you need and turn it into a list. And then STICK to it! No impulse buys in aisle 4.

3. Keep it simple. Especially if you are just starting out. I hate to cook in general (I am also a bad one lol) so meal prep is not my favorite but I know it is vital to success during the week. Don't try fancy extravagant recipes. Start with simple. This takes some practice. Also, work on prepping for 3-4 days out. Dont try to prep all of your food for the entire week the first time.

4. Cook all of your food in one day. Okay, so this is where everyone gets tripped up. "I don't have time to meal prep". I get it you are busy. There are convenient (unhealthy) food options available to us every second of the day. But you just have to decide. Is your health worth a few hours in the kitchen? Food can literally save your life.

Block out a few hours on a day that works for you. Doesn't have to be Sunday. My prep day used to be Monday morning because everyone was out of the house. So find some time and schedule it into your week. Cook all food for as many days as you are prepping in advance. Veggies, chicken, ground turkey, potatoes/rice, anything that makes your week easier.

5. Actually EAT the food. Another no brainer but I hear it all of the time. I didn't eat the food, it went bad and I threw it away. Gosh, you guys! What the heck did you do all of the other work for then? EATING it is the easiest and best part! Once you have it prepped and ready follow your plan. And remember why you are doing this.

Sometimes women get overwhelmed with meal planning and prep so if you can start to implement just a few things into your routine it makes a huge difference too. Cut the pop, cut the refined sugar, drink more water, slowly implement clean eating into your family's life.

One last tip! Invest in some meal prep containers. You can get some from Amazon for like 13 bucks. Totally worth it and easy to prep and take with you on your busy days!

If you would like more info on the meal prepping and planning we work on in the Virtual Gym fill out an application for more info! Chat with you soon!
The Sweat Life Virtual Gym Application

One day.

One day. One day was all it took for me to completely feel like I was losing it. Audrey had surgery on Wednesday. On that day we just go through the motions. You just do it. You wait in the children's hospital cafeteria placing your faith in the Universe and trying to find the energy to eat. But its impossible. You video chat your husband who wants to be there with you more than anything but all he can do is try to keep me calm from the other side of the world. Through a phone. While I sit in the hospital and he sits in the desert. You hold your baby's hand as she wakes up from surgery. As they tell you she really struggled with the anesthetic and that she has really "athletic kicks" as she was fighting as she was coming out of it. I guess all of those years of soccer paid off lol. As you pick up your 65 pound child out of a wheelchair to put her in the car and she has blood all over her face from bloody noses and left over from surgery. But she just gets tissue after tissue without asking questions. You drive home in the dark. Realizing you've been sipping coffee until 9pm that night so that you can stay awake and try to figure out how you will sleep.

You lay on the floor next to her in case she has to get up. In case she needs more pain meds or needs help getting to the bathroom. You don't sleep. What if she needs me. I need to be there. And you cant forget the other kid you have. She is struggling too. She doesn't know what is going on other than the fact she was shuffled around, no nap, home late and she can sense the vibes. She has meltdown after meltdown she knows something is going on but can quite put her tiny 2 year old finger on it. She doesn't sleep. How could she? It hard for her too. So we are awake going through the motions. Even if we fake a smile.

Thursday Audrey did so well. She was up and about. She just wants to get back to her normal busy self. Gymanstics, soccer, playing. Its been months since she's been able to do all those things and somehow at 8 years old she just copes. She deals. We know she will get back into everything but it will still be months. She wears her eye patch without question without worry what anyone will think. Kids are so frickin resilient.

She has been sleeping for about 14 hours now. Not me. I needed to keep checking on her. Making sure she was comfortable. Keeping Chris updated. He is struggling. He wants to be home so bad with her. Be the one sitting on the couch with her all night, not sleeping, literally sitting there with her just like he did after her accident. Telling me to sleep and he would stay up and watch her. And would. But not this time. All he can do is tell her how much he loves her through the phone, send her gifts, and then sit on the other side of the world thinking about her. Staying up all night to get updates because of the time difference over there. It has to be so hard. Then his picture shows up on my phone and you realize how bad you miss him. How bad you want him to hold you because you are struggling too. Trying to hold it together for everyone else. Pretending like you are doing okay with the sleep deprivation and mental stress of going through this with him deployed. Realized he will be gone for at least 9 more months. And suddenly you feel like its not fair. Suddenly feeling like a victim.

For me, everyday I have a routine. There are things I do during my day to set myself up emotionally and physically to feel my best. Everyone says "how strong I am". Between Chris being deployed and Audrey's accident everyone says I am doing so good. And honestly, we were doing good. Until yesterday. It is no accident I find the courage and willpower to get through these hard days with a positive mindset. But even being "off" for ONE day I can see how the negativity and stress comes creeping back into my mind. Life is a mental game. What you focus on becomes your reality.

Yesterday I didn't work out, I didn't read, I didn't eat well, I didn't drink my Shakeology, I didn't connect with other women, I didn't meditate, I watched the news, I was scrolling the newfeed. I was miserable. I didn't write down my goals or affirmations or even what I was grateful for. My daughter just went through a very extensive surgery successfully and I didn't even take 2 seconds to acknowledge how grateful I was for this miracle. ONE day of getting off course and I could feel the negativiy creeping in.

When I started my coaching business I never realized how much this would be about me. How I would start to implement so many things into my life that would help ME be a better person. How I would learn to cope. I was so drained and exhausted last night I couldn't do anything but try to sleep. I felt unmotivated I felt miserable.

Everyday I workout.
Everyday I read personal development.
Everyday I connect with other women and moms.
Everyday I write down what I am grateful for and positive affirmations.
Everyday I try to feed my body to feel its best. (It is crazy how food (especially sugar) affect your mental state)
Everyday I meditate. Only for a few minutes. Because I need to sanity of the quietness.
I NEVER watch the news. Never. That was something I quit doing after Chris' last deployments. I CANNOT have that negativity in my life.
I almost NEVER scroll the newsfeed on FB. Love you guys, but there is a lot of negativity there too.
Everyday I share my journey with you guys. And yesterday I couldn't even do that. Everyday I hope that someone will see even one of my posts and have a little positivity in their life. Have a little hope. Yesterday I didn't have that. So I steered clear of posting.

I could feel myself reverting the person I was 2 years ago. In ONE day. One friggin day of not doing the things I do daily to improve my mental and physical state and I felt awful. I felt like I couldn't cope. ONE day of not doing my coaching my activities and suddenly I was lost. That girl 2 years ago was lost. That girls during Chris' last deployments was a mess. And now I can see why. Coaching isnt for someone who is perfect. It is for someone who wants to improve every aspect her life and continue to change.

So today as the warm weather creeps I DIVE back into my daily routine. Into what gives me life. So this morning, that starts with pushing play. That workout isnt about 6 pack abs or huge biceps its about so much more <3

Changing the way you think about food. How I LEARNED how to eat.

Turns out everything I was doing in the past as far as health and nutrition was all wrong. Back in college I would binge eat sweets in my dorm room and then cure my weekend hangovers with fast food and greasy burgers. I mean honestly I wasn't really concerned with my nutrition back then because going out an drinking was WAY more important. Or so I thought. I had always been "thin". I was athletic in high school and figured that would continue into college. I gained some weight but continued on my partying ways and really never cared about my health to much back then. (That's a blog post for another day. #HotMess)

Anyways, when I became a mom in my early 20s though health and nutrition kinda started to become more of a priority. Not huge but something that I dipped my toes in. I started running when Audrey was younger and tried to eat healthier. I again, was never really overweight. I like to call it "skinny fat". I wasn't really healthy though either. I was tired all of the time. I just chalked that up to motherhood.

I remember researching ever "diet" out there. The cleanses, the cabbage diets, I tried Paleo (but once I realized I couldn't peanut butter I was out). I opted for every "low cal", "fat-free" or 100 calorie snack I could find. Oh and Diet Coke. Lots of coffee and Diet Coke. I was tired all of the time remember? I remember eating a stalk of romaine lettuce in my car once. Thinking that would fuel my body. I wanted to eat healthy. I wanted to love my body. I just didn't know how. My husband ate very poorly so we ate out a ton and ate crap at home but he was in great shape (men. insert eye roll.) He was getting the results at the gym but why wasn't I?

This continued through my second pregnancy where since I had deprived myself for so long of eating and fueling my body correctly when I found I we were pregnant I went on a full blown, no self control eating binge for the full 9 months. Eating everything in sight. Everything from sweets to greasy food (reverting back to those college days) but at almost 30 my body didn't respond nearly as well. I remember eating 2 donuts before a doctors appointment not realized they would check my sugar levels somehow and everything was off of the charts. I remember my doctor joking about it but I was mortified.

After having Finn nothing changed. I continued using food to make me feel better. Sweets and sugar. They were my comfort. I would eat an entire bag of pretzels and frosting while rocking my new baby to sleep. I was exhausted. I was fat. I had gained 60 pounds in my pregnancy and was still 30 pounds overweight now. Yes, now I was overweight. I was so unhappy I just kept eating. I had this brand new baby that we had prayer for for so long but yet I was completely miserable. I remember thinking. It would be EASY to stay fat. Ya know? My husband wouldn't care. I was a mom now of 2 girls. I didn't have time or energy to get this weight off. I would just stay fat. Eating my bag of pretzels and tubs of frosting and being miserable.

You see, I lost my baby weight very quickly with Audrey. I was 22. My husband was active duty military. Gone all of the time. I think my age played a factor but it was also stress. I never worked out. I didn't eat healthy. That's when I was trying every diet. I was stressed working 2 jobs and going to school full time with a baby that didn't sleep. Not a healthy way to go about this.

I honestly thought this time the baby weight would come off just as quickly. I had such a screwed up perception of food that even though I was eating everything in sight somehow this weight was going to just fall of. But two months post partum I was miserable. And fat.

For me, the switch came very quickly. I literally just DECIDED one day enough was enough. I could not live like this anymore. My marriage and my children needed me. They needed my energy they needed me to love myself. I remember being up in the middle of the night with Finn and just thinking enough is enough. I literally remember the night so vividly to this day. Holding this baby and thinking I have to change this or continue to be miserable and I was just going to keep getting fatter. This was NOT me.

It was that night that I made the change. Through the 21 Day Fix meal plan I literally LEARNED how to eat. Turns out eating lettuce in your car isn't the way to live. I learned portion control and found a meal plan that fit my goals. I now was eating a TON of food. And good food. I had always thought eating LESS meant weight loss. Or eating only veggies meant weight loss. Or eating low cal and Diet Coke meant weight loss. Turns out eating food that fuels yours body (and a lot of it) means weight loss. And oh snap, in 6 weeks I had lost about 15 pounds! It was coming off. Half of that baby weight was gone and the other half was following right behind!

Soon I found a lifestyle that fit my goals. That completely changed my relationship with food. I teach and support women almost every day in my Virtual Gym where we break this meal plan down and make it fit your needs and goals. If you are interested in learning more about this program, one on one coaching, or my virtual gym feel free to fill out the application and lets change your relationship with food <3 Let's LOVE ourselves again.

The Sweat Life Virtual Gym Application

The Sweat Life Nation Virtual Gym is officially OPEN!

I am so excited to announce my latest project and venture! The Sweat Life Nation Virtual Gym!

So what is a virtual gym?! Let me share with you what I have been pouring my heart and soul into lately. What I have found over the past few years while working with women to achieve their health and fitness goals is that most of the time staying motivated and on track is the BIGGEST factor between success and quitting. Once that initial motivation is gone its hard to get back. I mean living a fit and healthy lifestyle and losing weight is not easy. But neither is being overweight and unhappy. So I challenge you to pick your hard. 

My members of the virtual gym now have a place to go for daily support, motivation, information and fun! You have to do the work. I can't make you push play or follow that meal plan but my mission with the help of the gym is to make it a little easier to stay on track and get the results you want. 

There are daily and weekly checkins, meal plan guides, challenges, prizes and support But the biggest thing is accountability. Someone and somewhere to hold you accountable. And a community of other ladies striving for success on their health and fitness journey! 

So what do you get as a member of The Sweat Life Virtual Gym?!

• An ENTIRE year of workout programs streamed right to you computer, smart TV, phone, tablet, anything you can stream WiFi on so you can do your workouts at home. This is a virtual gym remember?! No packing up the kids and taking everyone to a crowded gym! Just you and your TV and a little sweat! 
• Meal plans and guides that help you fuel YOUR body for YOUR goals. 
• One on one coaching from me.
• A #FitFam that is unlike anything else! Other women supporting and motivating each other to achieve their goals! 

Whether you are looking to just get started on your health and fit journey, if you are trying to get results and just aren't seeing them or don't know what to do, or if you are seasoned fit junkie we would love to help you achieve your fitness goals! 

If you think this may be a good fit for your lifestyle fill out the application below and lets chat!
Virtual Gym Application
Can't wait to hear from you!

The Millers Move to Montana

Its March already! Holy smokes! Didn't we just do Christmas?! Seems like it here. Times has flown since Audrey's accident back in December (updates for that to come later!) Anyways, since its March that mean only 15 more months until #TheMillersMoveToMontana! Whew! This is going to go fast

For YEARS, Chris and I have wanted to move out of Ohio and ever since we visited Washington state back in 2014 we thought that is where we would end up. His family lives there and its absolutely BREATHTAKING. But once I started my coaching business and we realized the potential of this business we quickly realized we could take our adventures ANYWHERE. And now, for once in our life, we could actually AFFORD to take our adventures anywhere. While we had always wanted to move out of Ohio the cards (AKA the finances) never played out and here we were stuck in Ohio year after year. Now this business gives us the freedom to basically pick a spot on the map. And go.

We decided on Montana. Except neither of us have actually physically been to Montana. I mean I stalk plenty of people on Instagram and their amazing pictures of Montana so its like I have been there right?! And I envision what our home in Montana will look like. So I know the Universe will send us to exactly where we are suppose to be. Yes, I know it snows a lot. Yes, I know it gets cold. But it looks INCREDIBLE. I mean do you know what we could do with 25 acres in Montana?! Plus, I think Chris just wants to be a cowboy. lol.

So that is what we are going to do. Get rid of everything. Buy a 5th wheel. Pack up our kids and dogs. Bring my business, which by then will completely support our family financially. And head out West. For the road trip and move of a LIFETIME. This doesn't come without a lot of criticism but if you know me by now you know I don't take to heart what many people say anymore. We have a vision and a way to get there (my business!) and we are going to be relentless until we get it. Done living the mold of what we are "suppose" to do.

Anyways, the biggest obstacle right now will be getting rid of our stuff. Seriously. Why do kids have so much stuff?! The last few months I have been trying to take a [semi] minimalist approach to our lifestyle. We don't NEED any of this stuff. It all has to go. But that is so hard after years of accumulation. But I have 15 months to get this in order. So here go.

Right now I am working on the  40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge. Have you heard of it?! It coincides with lent and you are challenged to get rid of 1 bag per day each day. Day 1 was yesterday and I did it. The hardest part of this is finding the time to do it each day and actually sticking to it. I FAIL at every single one of these challenges. But I am determined because the move is coming whether I am ready or not!

So the countdown is on! #TheMillersMoveToMontana in 15 months!