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Elf For Health is back for another year and it’s time to kick things off! There have been some changes this year so please read this post carefully if you’ve participated in the past because I don’t want there to be any confusion.

As you guys know, four years ago I started this Elf 4 Health Challenge with fellow RD Elle of According to Elle (formerly Nutritionella). Our goal was to promote health and wellness during the holidays, a time when healthy habits tend to fall to the wayside.

This year, Elle is going to be busy with a new little bundle of joy so I’ve got myself an awesome new co-host. Meet Georgie of In It For The Long Run. Although she’s not an RD, she is a fitness-loving health nut just like myself and we share similar life and blog philosophies! Let me just stop right here to say that if you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you must do so immediately. She takes drool-worthy photos, writes tons of helpful blog posts and is an Instagram champion. Like seriously. She even wrote an ebook about it. Go check it out.

So Georgie and I will be your hosts for this year’s Elf4Health Challenge.

Another big change this year is that we’re going sponsor-free! There are several reasons for that decision but the main one is that i think it’s a good opportunity to re-center the challenge and put the focus solely on making your holidays healthier and happier, which is why it was created in the first place, instead of getting caught up in money, prizes, etc.

So there will be no sponsors, no prize packs, no specific winners. It’s all about doing something healthy and positive for yourself and those around you.

There will still be daily challenges and a positive and supportive FB group. And you’ll still have the option to be matched up with elf or participate on your own. We think it’ll be a lot of fun and we hope you’ll join us by participating in the daily challenges and using the #elf4health hashtag.

Here are all the details about what the challenge entails and how to sign up!

Introducing the Elf for Health Holiday Challenge! This is a four week challenge that will run from the November 23rd thru December 20th. The challenges fall into 4 different categories: Food, Fitness, For You & For Others. There will be daily tasks, weekly newsletters and a private Facebook community.

And are you ready for the best part? You’ll have an elf to support and encourage you if you’d like! When you sign up, you can choose whether you’d like to be paired with a partner to swap ideas and support with, or participate in the challenges on your own. Over the course of the challenge, you can have two different elves.

Sounds like a great way to stay motivated and meet new people over the holidays doesn’t it?! Since this challenge is internet based,anyone can participate… no matter where you’re located! All you need is access to the internet and an email address.

So what does an Elf do?
As an Elf, you are expected to support your assigned buddy with their holiday health goals and the daily challenges. Elves & buddies will be reassigned after 2 weeks so that hopefully you get to meet 2 new people!

You are only asked to email your buddy 2 times per week:

• Monday: Send your buddy an email to help them with the challenges for that week. Ideas of things to include/attach: your own personal tips & tricks, inspiring words and/or images, a new, healthy recipe or workout to try.
• Thursday – Saturday: Any time during these days, check in with your buddy! For example, ask them if they tried a new recipe, workout, or had fun with any certain challenges. Feel free to tell them how you did with your challenges, too!
• Anything more than those 2 emails is up to you but feel free to go above and beyond this to show your support! Just a few ideas: send your buddy Tweets, shout outs on our Facebook Page, email a fun workout you liked or send a hand-written recipe or note.

Important Dates:

• Friday, November 20th at 11:59pm EST: sign up deadline
• Sunday, November 22nd: Round 1 Elf assignments emailed
• Monday, November 23rd – Sunday, December 6th: Round 1
• Friday December 4th at 11:59pm EST: Round 2 signup deadline
• Sunday, December 6th: Round 2 Elf assignments emailed
• Monday, December 7th – Sunday, December 20th: Round 2

*If you missed the initial sign up deadline, you can still participate:
Sign up before December 4th for Round 2

Not clear about something? Email Lindsay or Georgie!

So, you’re probably wondering what the daily challenges are, right? Here’s a nice square image that you can save on the lock screen of your phone to remind you of the challenges!

We’ve added the challenges to a google calendar for your convenience and we’ll expand even more on the challenges in each weekly newsletter.

We hope you’ll join us!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

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Hi friends!

This is just a little update for you guys. As you know, I’ve been blogging for over 5 years. That means I have A LOT of recipe posts. Since I didn’t know how to use a camera when I started blogging, it means I also have A LOT of posts with really terrible photos. I’ve made it a goal this year to start working my way through old posts and updating the photos.

Although I am most definitely still not a camera expert, I do like to think I’ve figured out how to take a semi-decent photo. We all know we eat with our eyes so I want to do what I can to show people how delicious some of these recipes are…because the old photos most certainly weren’t enticing anyone to try them.

The problem with updating old posts instead of publishing new ones is that some of you might miss out on my updates. If you’re a new reader, you may have missed out on some of these recipes altogether when they were published the first time.

So, here are 9 recipes with updated photos that I wanted to draw your attention to. If you see any you like, I’d love it if you’d click the link below the photo to visit the original post and take a minute to share it – pin it/yum it/share it on facebook or whatever suits you – so I can share these delicious recipes with even more people!

Thank you!

Zucchini Carrot Apple Muffins

Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cranberry Corn Muffins

Quinoa Breakfast Bars

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles

Sweet Potato Banana Bites

Freezer Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

[Tweet “9 delicious recipes from the archives -updated with pretty pics! via @leangrnbeanblog”]

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

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Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

This post recaps a sponsored trip. My expenses were covered. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hi Friends-

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Eat Sea Retreat at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Thanks to the resort and a couple of other amazing sponsors – Stonyfield and Nature’s Path, a small group of amazing bloggers were able to get together for a few days to eat, drink and chat about blogging and life.

Our group included:

• Amelia at Eating Made Easy
• Liz at The Lemon Bowl
• Ashley at Edible Perspective
• Lauren at Climbing Grier Mountain
• Kristin at Iowa Girl Eats
• Megan at Wanna Be A Country Cleaver
• Nikki at Seeded At The Table
• Me!

The group was the perfect size for productive, yet intimate blogging sessions and for me it was a great mix of bloggers I knew very well and some I was less familiar with. When I was initially invited on this trip, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go. My plan was not to travel much until Squish was a little older but as I learned more about it- who was going, what the agenda was, I decided it would be worth it.

And I was so right. It’s probably the most valuable thing I’ve ever done for my blog.

Being a part-time or full-time blogger is a somewhat unique career and because of that, it can be a bit isolating. It’s not like we all work in the same building, or even the same city! We don’t always get a chance to meet the people we interact with every day. Opportunities like this are wonderful because they allow bloggers to connect in person and talk about the behind the scenes blogging things that people in your personal life might not necessarily understand because they’re not bloggers themselves. It allowed us to share tips and tricks, offer constructive criticism and critiques, brainstorm and problem solve.

But probably most importantly, it allowed us to support each other. I titled this post with one of my favorite quotes “We rise by lifting others”, because although all 8 of us are bloggers and some of us even blog in similar niches, work with the same brands, etc, there wasn’t a single time during the trip where I didn’t feel 100% SUPPORTED & ENCOURAGED by everyone else who was there.

Blogging is a tricky beast and if you let it, it can easily become a cut-throat, competitive, money-obsessed occupation. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, this retreat just went to show that in many cases, bloggers can be each other’s best advocates and supporters.

One of my favorite activities from the trip was what I’d call the “struggle circle”. We all came up with one thing we’ve been struggling with lately, described our problem to the group and then we went around and everyone offered a suggestion or solution. Since we all had unique experiences and insights, everyone left with several different ideas and suggestions for fixing their problem. We covered everything from time management to rebranding to blogging burnout to figuring out how much to charge the companies we work with and so much more. And many of us found ourselves relating to more than one of the struggles.

It was so refreshing to be able to chat with people who understood what I was going through or had been in my position previously and could offer insight. Most of us have been blogging for 5+ years and to be able to have a “meeting of the minds” like this where we could share experiences, tools, suggestions and encouragement was absolutely invaluable.

I could go on and on about my trip but I’ll leave you with these 5 valuable lessons that this trip helped remind me of:

1) Stop comparing yourself to others. What are you doing when you’re comparing yourself to others? You’re doing nothing to move yourself forward!

2) Just do it. There’s never going to be a “perfect” time to do something, whether it’s increasing your rates, quitting your job, rebranding, whatever. It’s always going to be scary, but you’ll never know until you try.

3) Find your niche and rock it! You cannot please everyone. If you try to, you’ll end up being mediocre in lot of areas instead of excelling at a few.

4) Get help. If there are things you don’t enjoy doing or don’t make the best use of your skills or talents, find someone else to help you do them.

5) Spread the love. Surround yourself with people who believe in you, support you and encourage you and make sure you’re doing the same for those people.

To give you a brief recap of our trip: I got to LAX around 9am on Thursday and took a cab to Amelia’s house. We ran to Whole Foods & the farmer’s market to get some supplies and then headed up to the resort. After we unpacked, we met up with Ashley, Megan and Lauren at the pool. Liz & Kristin arrived and we headed back to our villas for a happy hour.

That evening we had a several course dinner complete with wine pairings that was incredible. Friday morning we were up early and after a delicious breakfast thanks to our sponsor and then we spent the rest of the morning taking turns leading sessions.

Liz and I shared our tips for productivity tools and time management techniques, Ashley and Kristin talked about building a loyal following and Lauren and Nicki branched out and talked a bit about how to approach brands and expand your portfolio. The great thing about the sessions is that we had a rough outline but then we were able to each chime in whenever we wanted and address other related issues that came up.

After our session we had lunch on the patio of our villa cooked by some of the resort chefs and then we squeezed in a little more time at the pool before heading back to our villa to get head shots taken. We enjoyed a happy hour at one of the other resort restaurants and then came back to make dinner and chat some more.

Saturday morning we fit in a couple more sessions before the first group of us headed to the airport. It was a quick trip but it was jam packed with useful information.

Like I mentioned before, I found the chance to get together with such amazing women and fellow entrepreneurs in a small-group setting to invaluable and it definitely gave me a push to make some changes and improvements I’ve been contemplating for a while now.

Huge thanks again to Terranea, Stonyfield and Nature’s Path for making it possible and to Amelia for organizing such a great retreat.

A few sponsor-related notes:

• If you’re looking for a California vacation destination, I highly recommend Terranea Resort. The resort staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, the rooms/villas we stayed in were spacious and clean and the resort itself was beautiful, with all sorts of available activities from hiking to spa treatments to poolside lounging. It was like escaping to Hawaii for the weekend- without the extra-long flight!
• Stonyfield has a couple of relatively new products you should check out: Greek & Chia Yogurt and Oh My Yog! I hadn’t tried either before the retreat and I liked them both! The Oh My Yog is delicious for dessert!
• Nature’s Path Organic also has tons of great products. My favorite was the Qi’a Superfoods Hot Oatmeal packets we got to try for breakfast. They were a fun change from my regular oatmeal and SO delicious. I loved the Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed flavor!

Let’s chat:
What’s the most valuable life lesson you’ve learned or been reminded of lately?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

It’s time for another Pin It Party! Are you following me on Pinterest? If not, CLICK HERE.

In case you missed out on the last one, here are the rules:

All bloggers are welcome to participate! Here’s what you do:

• Round up 5 blog posts you’ve written that you would like to see on Pinterest.
• Make sure there is a nice, pinable image or photo included in each post.
• Write a short post featuring the posts you chose- ie, put 5 nice images & links to the posts all in one place, along with a short description of each post.
• On Thursday, publish your post, then visit The Bean and add your post to the linkup! (If you’re just reading this today and still want to participate, just publish in the next few days…I’ll leave the linkup open for about a week!)

The only rule is this:

If you add your post to the linkup, please take a few minutes to visit at least three other posts  and pin some of their images!

That’s it! Hopefully this will be a fun way to get some Pinterest exposure to some of your best posts and to help drive traffic to your blogs.

If you’re a reader, you can still join in the fun if you’re on Pinterest! Remember that pinning images from blog posts you love is a great way to support your favorite bloggers! It helps more people see the posts and can help the blogs grow! So, if you’re a reader in the mood to pin, visit the Pin It Party, check out some of the great posts that are linked up and pin away!

Just a reminder that you can pin the same recipe to multiple boards on Pinterest so even if you’ve already pinned a blogger’s recipe, you can probably find another board of yours to pin it again and help them get more exposure!

[Tweet “Looking for some great content to pin? Check out the Pin It Party from @leangrnbeanblog!”]

So, here are some of my posts I’d love to see more of on Pinterest. You can click the photo or link below to go to that post to pin:

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Freezer Chicken Tenders

Tuna Quinoa Cakes

How To Eat Healthy In College

Freezer Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Sweet Potato Banana Bites

In the mood for more pinning? Check out my last 6 Pin It Party posts to find some more tasty recipes to pin!!!

CLICK HERE to pin these recipes!

CLICK HERE to pin these recipes!

CLICK HERE to pin these recipes!

CLICK HERE to pin these recipes.

CLICK HERE to pin these recipes.

CLICK HERE to pin these recipes.

Add your link below to join the party! Happy Pinning!

An InLinkz Link-up

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Dear Chase-

Over the weekend you turned 5 months old! Hard to believe. Be sure to check out Months 1 & 2, Month 3 and Month 4 if you’re interested. This month was a big one!

One of the biggest changes this month was that you started solid foods! I could tell you’d probably be ready to eat earlier than six months. I initially tried to hold off because I wanted to give your inner digestive system as much time to develop as possible but at about 20 weeks you made it clear that you were quite ready to start eating. You could sit up on your own for short periods of time, were super interested in everything we were eating and constantly made attempts to grab food off our plates! Plus you were maxing out your formula, usually getting 34-35 ounces per day. We bought you a high chair that you absolutely love! (For those of you wondering, it’s this one and we love it: Graco Blossom 4-in-1 Seating System.

We decided to try babyled weaning with you and it’s been a huge success! You’ve tried cooked sweet potato, avocado, carrots and butternut squash and you love them all but sweet potato and avocado are your favorites! Mommy cuts them into french fry shapes and steams them so they’re soft. Sometimes you like to pick them up yourself and sometimes mommy holds them for you and lets you guide her hands to your mouth. I’ve also let you chomp on cold cucumbers, green beans and raw carrots just to try out the texture.

We’re learning! Getting better each day at grabbing pieces by himself! #babyledweaning #blw #20weeks

A video posted by Lindsay L, RD (@theleangreenbean) on Mar 23, 2015 at 8:27am PDT

You’ve also tried oatmeal and you love that as well. Mommy makes it herself because she didn’t love all the crazy ingredients in the store bought kind! (Moms: I just put rolled oats in my food processor and process until I have a 1/4 cup, then boil 1 cup water, add the oats and simmer for 10 minutes with some cinnamon. They get super thick once they cool, so feel free to add some breast milk or formula to thin out the portion you’re serving if you want to. I like to leave them thick).

Squish tried oatmeal! A video posted by Lindsay L, RD (@theleangreenbean) on Mar 21, 2015 at 11:34am PDT

You’re very good at guiding the spoon to your mouth and sometimes you even take the spoon and get it in your mouth yourself! Right now you’re eating solid foods twice a day. Usually around lunch time I’ll give you a few finger foods – 2-3 slices of avocado and 2-3 veggie sticks. It can get a bit messy but you actually manage to get almost all of it in your mouth. Around dinner time you eat about a tablespoon of oatmeal.

You’re still drinking your formula as well. We bought these Born Free Glass Bottles and absolutely love them! Now that you’ve started eating some solid foods, you’re drinking 5-6 bottles a day…anywhere from 24-31 ounces.

You still don’t love it when meal time comes to an end 🙂

Another big development this month was that you figured out how to roll from back to front at about 19 weeks. Last month you figured out how to roll front to back but you really haven’t done it since you initially figured it out. This month you got back to front and you will not stop doing it.

Day of firsts- @bgliving tried the @ergobaby and squish figured out how to roll back to front! #lovecarrieson #babywearing #19weeks

A video posted by Lindsay L, RD (@theleangreenbean) on Mar 14, 2015 at 5:24pm PDT

The problem is that you still hate being on your tummy. And even though you know how to flip back over, you refuse to do it. Instead you just lay there and scream. This made for one VERY long week since you would flip over no less than 100 times per night and pretty much the only way I could get you to sleep was to hold you…so me and you spend several nights on the couch just so we could get some sleep. After about a week, things got  a little better. You seem to be content to sleep on your back or side initially and then once you wake up, you tend to flip on your stomach and sleep that way for another 2 hours or so. You’re still sleeping in your pack and play because you haven’t quite mastered sleeping through the night. Usually you’ll sleep from 9 to midnight, eat, sleep until 6:30 or so with a few relatively quick wakeups, eat and then go back to sleep til 8:30 or so. You like to rock with mommy in the glider to help settle down before bed and  I think this month we’ll be ready to try the big boy crib and see how that goes! You usually take a couple of naps during the day but the timing varies.

You wake up happy and tend to stay that way most of the day! We got you a Jumparoo last month ( Moms, we have this one: Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo and you’ve really started to like it this month. You are LOUD when you want to be.

So, Chase “found his voice” a while back… Now, he’s trying to find the limits lol. Obviously this is only a 15 second sampling, but trust me it went on much longer. A video posted by Brett (@bgliving) on Mar 22, 2015 at 4:58pm PDT

It’s impressive. Now that you can roll around, we spend a lot of the day on a blanket on the floor playing with toys. You have a Curious George monkey that you love and you still love Mortimer the Moose the best. You love books! One of my blog friends sent you a big shipment of amazing books and we’ve been having fun reading them. Sophie the Giraffe  stays in the diaper bag and you love chewing on her when we go places.

You still do well in your carseat and when we go out to eat you’re usually happy if someone holds you.

You like being in the Ergobaby but mommy’s really hoping someone gets her the Ergo360 for her birthday so that you can start facing outwards! The weather is finally getting warmer so we’re getting back into our afternoon walks.

More big news- you’re big enough to sit in your stroller facing forward instead of in your carseat! We’ve taken a few walks with daddy.

We even took you to the park…but there was snow on the ground so we can’t wait to take you again when it gets a little warmer. We have this stroller- BOB Revolution SE Stroller and it’s amazing! You’re always rocking your Babiators!

You like to watch daddy work out and go to the gym with mommy to see your crossfit family. The loud sounds don’t bother you at all.

While you’re generally happy, you certainly have your moments of discontent:

Usually this happens in the witching hour…sometime between 4 and 6 pm. Some days are rough but we always survive 🙂

You love your daddy. He can make you laugh like no one else!

Squish loves the French accent! @bgliving

A video posted by Lindsay L, RD (@theleangreenbean) on Mar 16, 2015 at 7:09pm PDT

You’ve started taking an interest in the dogs and cats. If they come near you, you’ll reach out to try to pet them. Occasionally you’re a little grabby so we’re working on that.

We had one health scare this month. Mommy noticed a pretty pronounced ridge on the back of your head so we took you do the doctor and they sent us to get x-rays so we could make sure your plates weren’t fusing early. It was scary, but the x-rays came back fine and we think it’s just the plates in your head moving around as you grow.

And you’re certainly growing. You’re already growing out of some of your 9 month clothes. You can wear some 6-12 month clothes but you’re also wearing lots of 12-18 month clothes…and size 3 diapers. When you were at the doctor last week you were 19 1/2 pounds! We bought you a swim suit, a couple summer hats and your first pair of shorts! We’re ready for warm weather!

Mommy loves you, sweet boy! Can’t wait to see what the next month brings!

Love,
Mom

PS…Just a reminder that we’re having another Pin It Party this Thursday! Check out the last Pin It Party post for all the details and join us!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item from Amazon.com using the links in this post, The Lean Green Bean will receive a small commission for the sale – at no added cost to you. This allows us to cover site-related expenses and helps support the growth of my blog!

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

It’s Tuesday. Let’s chat, shall we? I have a few random blog-related things to catch you guys up on that I hope you’re going to enjoy!

Recipe Index

First of all, thanks to the amazing Rita at Blog Genie, I have a beautiful new recipe index for you guys. I know my old one was a pain to navigate so I wanted something that was more visual and easy for you guys to find recipes! It was a major pain…I had to go back and categorize all my recipes. I should have been doing it from the beginning, but I never did, so I had 4.5 years of recipes to go through…but I got it done.

So now, if you hover over the recipe tab at the top of the page you’ll see all the recipe categories. Take a look around! Maybe you’ll find something you haven’t seen before!

You’ll also notice I have a baby tab at the top so you can find all my pregnancy/baby/parenting posts in one place!

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Blogging Schedule

Something else I’ve been meaning to share- my posting schedule. Now that I’m getting back into the grove of things with baby, I’m trying a few things:

1) I’m cutting myself some slack. Being a working parent is hard. If I don’t get a blog post up, it’s ok. I’m doing my best to stay consistent but baby comes first.

2) I’m trying to stick to the following schedule:
– Sunday- Food Prep Inspiration
– Monday – Bean Bytes
– Tuesday – Random
– Wednesday – Recipe
– Thursday – Off
– Friday – Recipe
– Saturday- Off

Obviously this may change some weeks, but my goal is to give you guys food prep, bean bytes and two new recipes each week. Then on Tuesdays (and Thursdays if needed) I’ll fill in with other posts if I have time. If not, I’ll take those days off. It’s been working pretty well for the last few weeks so I’ll do my best to keep it up.

I’m putting CoSchedule to good use and trying to stay on top of my editorial calendar, plan ahead, etc. (Bloggers- if you’re not using CoSchedule yet, you can check out my review here.

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Pinterest

First of all, are you following me?! If not, CLICK HERE. I’m doing my best to step up my Pinterest game this year. What does that mean? A few things:

1) I’m starting to pin regularly. I used to be really terrible about using Pinterest and could go months without pinning. Now I’m getting into the habit of actually pinning most of the delicious recipe links I share in Bean Bytes and am using Tailwind to regularly schedule great pins!

2) I took on a major project and went back through all my old posts, created pinable images for a lot of my older posts that didn’t have them and made a spreadsheet so I can keep track of what posts I want to update the photos for, when I last shared my own posts on Pinterests etc. It was a huge project but it’s nice to have a list of all my evergreen content so I can re-share it as it makes sense throughout the year (ie seasonal recipes, etc).

3) While I was updating my old posts I also went through and updated my photo titles/alt tags, etc. Cue MAJOR headache. Another thing I should have started doing since I first started blogging but didn’t, so consequently I had hundreds of pictures titled DSC_1908 or whatever. Lame. So, I took the time to go back through and fix most of those so now when you click the ‘pin it’ button on my images in recipe and other pin-worthy posts, it should automatically populate a nice little description for you!

4) I’m cleaning up my Pinterest boards so they can continue to be a great resource for you guys. If you haven’t checked out my boards lately, I have a lot of great ones designed to help you guys with meal planning, recipe inspiration etc. I’ve been pinning lots of healthy breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snack ideas for you guys! You can read more about my thought process behind creating these boards in this post: Pinterest For Meal Planning.

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Recipe Re-shoots 

Like I mentioned above, I’m slowly working my way through a list of old posts that had crappy pictures and trying to take better ones! Every so often i’ll fill you guys in on posts I’ve updated lately in case you want to read them, pin them, etc.

Here’s the first batch. Links to the original posts are below the photos so you can go check them out!

How To Eat Healthy In College

How To Hard Boil Eggs In The Oven

Freezer Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Crockpot Rotisserie-Style Chicken

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Food Blog Academy

And finally, because I’m always trying to make this blog better for you guys, I signed up for Food Blog Academy! It was created by Tessa who blogs over at Handle The Heat and you guys, I can’t say enough good things about it. I’ve been reading Tessa’s blog for years now and have seen it grow into something pretty amazing so when she introduced Food Blog Academy, I had no doubt it would be awesome.

I’m about a week into it and I’m already learning SO MUCH. I’m a firm believer that no matter how successful you are, there’s always more to learn. Even though I’ve been blogging for 4.5 years, I definitely know there are things I could be doing better…which is why I signed up.

Tessa does a great job breaking down the content into manageable segments and giving you actionable goals to encourage you to implement changes. I’ve already made a lot of behind-the-scenes improvements and tackled some tasks I’d been putting off for months now.

If you’re a good blogger, I’d definitely check it out. (PS- that is not an affiliate link. I don’t get anything for sharing this. I just like to spread the word about things I love and believe in!)

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Whew! I think that’s all for now! Feel free to let me know if there are other changes you’d like to see on the blog and I’ll do my best to make them happen!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

The last time I did one of these Day In the Life posts was back in September. Now that Squish is almost 3 months old (he’ll be 12 weeks tomorrow, 3 months on the 29th) I thought it’d be fun to do another one! He’s still not exactly on a schedule so every day is different but here’s what yesterday looked like:

10:30pm Sunday – 12:30 am Monday
Work. Sunday’s are hard for me. I get really overwhelmed thinking about everything I need to do on Mondays and since life is a bit unpredictable, I feel like I need to take advantage of time when he’s sleeping to get some things done before the week officially kicks off.

12:45am
Bed. This is a little later than usual. I’m typically in bed sometime between 11 &12.

4:45
Wake up and feed the animals. They drive me crazy since I’m such a light sleeper so it’s easier to just get up, feed them and go back to bed.

6:30
Feed baby. He’s slowly starting to go longer and longer without eating at night. I fed him at 10:30 and he made it until 6:30. I would say 6-8 hours is about his average right now but there are still some nights where he only goes 4 hours.

7:45
Baby wakes up again. This is a bit unusual. Most mornings he’ll sleep until 8:30 or so unless he’s feeling fussy/can’t poop, which was the case today. I pulled him into bed with me, grabbed my phone and started reading blogs/checking social media

8:15
I get up, plop Squish in his chair and make my oatmeal. While I’m eating, I read more blogs, schedule tweets, etc with half my brain and sing and talk to baby with the other half. Hubby wakes up, gets ready for work and heads out.

8:45
Work. As most of you know, I work 15 hours a week for Regan. I do a lot of stuff for Healthy Aperture, various social media tasks, client projects, etc. Squish is usually pretty happy at this hour so we turn on Toddler Radio Pandora and I sing and work while he chatters away, plays with his taggie blanket etc.

9:30
Feed baby and check social media on my phone.

9:45-10:45
Squish usually falls asleep for at least a little while after he’s been up for a couple hours so I work furiously to get things done.

10:45- 11:15
He’s still sleeping so head to the kitchen to make some enchiladas for the blog. This will also double as dinner.

11:15-12:15
I try to plan things out so I can take a lot of my pictures for blog recipes on the weekends when hubby is around because for some reason Squish doesn’t enjoy watching me take pictures and run back and forth from the kitchen a million times. However, Sunday was super cloudy and dark which means terrible lighting, so I had about 4 recipes I needed to shoot today so I get that done while simultaneously trying to keep Squish from having a meltdown.

12:15-12:45
Daddy comes home for lunch. While he eats, Squish and I play on his activity mat and have tummy time (always a treat).

12:45
Feed baby.

1:00-1:15
Inhale lunch

1:15-1:45
More fun on the activity mat and in the bumbo. I also spend a little time responding to blog comments, which I’m terrible about…I always seem to be behind…but I’m working on it.

1:45-2:00
Check in on social media stuff.

2:00-4:00
Squish naps for some of this time so I do some project research for a client project. Then I work on blog stuff/chat with Squish as he wakes up. I’m changing the way my recipe index is displayed and I think it’s going to make it a lot more visual and easier to find recipes, which is great! However, I have to go back through and add category tags to 5 years worth of blog posts….not so great. I should have been doing it from the beginning, but oh well.

4:00
Feed baby.

4:15-4:45
Bundle up baby, pop him in the Ergo, leash up the dogs and head out for a walk. Today was the first day it was warm enough for Squish to actually look around while we were walking instead of my having to shield him from the winter weather and he loved it!

4:45-5:15
Baby finally poops. Major blowout. Get him all cleaned up and we play some more.

5:15-5:25
Daddy comes home. I run and get changed for Crossfit and eat a snack.

5:25-6:40
Crossfit while Squish hangs with daddy.

6:40-7:00
Quick shower and a snack

7:00-8:45
Back on Squish duty while daddy works out. We chat and play and he even entertains himself on the activity mat for a while (this is a new development) while I get a little more blog work done.

8:45
Dinner.

9:00-10:00
Squish falls asleep and I write a blog post and watch some HGTV while hubby plays guitar.

10:00-11:15
Finish categorizing 5 years worth of blog posts. The worst…but it’s done!

11:15 – 12:00
Feed baby, social media stuff, tv watching, chat with hubby….

12:00 – 12:30
Bedtime stuff.

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Hi friends!

I’ve seen some of my blog friends like Janeetha & Ashley write letters like this to their little ones and I love the idea. It seems like a great way to document how baby Chase is changing from month to month as well as giving you guys a glimpse into life with my little one.

——–

Chase turned 2 months old yesterday. I actually wrote his 1 month letter on time, but never got around to publishing it…so I’m just going to share both of them now:

Month 1

Dear Chase,

It’s hard to believe you’re one month old already! The past few weeks have flown by, yet it’s hard to remember what life was like without you! Every day you light up our lives with your sweet baby snuggles and your unique personality.

It’s pretty amazing how quickly you’re changing and I find myself wanting to record all the cute little things you do because I’m not sure when you’ll stop doing them. They’re the things that make you YOU and I love them all!

I love:

• When you’re waking up and you stretch out your neck and scrunch up your forehead so you look a little like ET.
• That you squeak when you’re eating and sound a guinea pig.
• The way you voraciously attach yourself to whatever is feeding you, whether it’s me or a bottle, as if you haven’t eaten in days.
• That you love sucking so much that sometimes you just make the sucking motion with your mouth even when you aren’t eating and don’t have your binky.
• How you usually make some sort of noise while you’re sleeping so I know that you’re still breathing and I don’t have to lean over and check on you.
• The way sometimes you just stop nursing and start smiling to yourself and sighing.

You’re such a good baby and even though you can be a bit fussy, most of the time when you cry you either want to eat or are trying to poop.  Just in the last few days you’ve started making a lot of eye contact with those big blue eyes of yours. You’re very expressive with your eyebrows and we’ve even seen a few smiles! You’re starting to swing your hands a little bit at the animals dangling above your activity mat and you tolerate tummy time fairly well. You will nap in your rock and play but you also love napping while people hold you.

You like bath time for the most part, especially when we pour the water over your head to wash your hair! You do your fair share of sleeping during the day but when it comes to night time sleeping you’re not quite as good. Generally you’ll sleep a three hour stretch at first and then it goes down to an hour and a half or two hours at a time until it’s time to get up. You did give me two nights with a 5 hour stretch of sleep which was wonderful.

You were a little jaundiced when you were born and we had to supplement with formula. We’re lucky that you easily switch between breast and bottle.  You LOVE to eat so we continued to supplement while I tried to recover from mastitis and plugged ducts.You’ve gained about 2 pounds since you were born and just the other day you outgrew your first outfit. For the most part you’re wearing 3 month clothes but some 0-3 months still fit. You also had clogged tear ducts which we treated with some ointment and they’re better for the most part, although your eyes still get a little goopy sometimes when you cry. Other than that you’re perfectly healthy!

You don’t seem to be too aware of the animals yet. Abner loves you and is constantly by your side checking on you. Tucker is more wary of you and often spends time on whatever level of the house you’re not on. Marcus lays by you occasionally, especially early in the morning when I’m feeding you and Poco keeps his distance. Sometimes the dogs startle you awake, but they rarely make you cry. It will be interesting to see how you interact with them as you get older.

I’m so excited to watch how you grow and change over the next month and each day I think about how lucky I am to be your mama.

Love,
Mom

Month 2

Dear Chase –

You’re two months old! How did that happen? I spent a lot of the past month very sick, even in the hospital, and I’m so glad to be feeling better so I can spend more time with you. You’re such a sweet, happy little boy. We discovered your love for music and we’ve been playing the Pandora Kids Christmas channel for you. On the weekends daddy sits with you on his lap and listens to all sorts of music. You perk up for your favorites and do your own little dance, moving your feet and arms around like crazy! You still love to sleep and we’ve found your favorite position. You’re a burrower. You love to lay across my stomach and burrow your head into my elbow. It’s your absolute favorite way to sleep and I could hold you like that for hours. When you’re awake you’re fairly chatty. You coo, grunt and tell me all sorts of stories.

You’re an eating machine. We took you to the doctor at six weeks and you’re in the 95 percentile for weight and 98 percentile for height. You’re gonna be tall like your mommy and daddy. We switched you to all formula and you eat anywhere from 28-32 ounces each day. When you’re full, you’re happy but when you’re hungry, you let us know! You’re still growing like a weed! Right now you’re  wearing pretty much all 6 month (some 3-6 month) clothes.

You do pretty well in your carseat and when we take you on errands you either sleep or look around quietly with your wide eyes. You like being worn as well. When you’re super fussy at home I’ll put you in the Ergo and walk in circles around the house while singing to you. It almost always puts you to sleep. I’ve also started wearing you in some stores because it’s easier than dealing with your carseat. Last week you were fussing while you were in the Ergo at TJ Maxx and when we decided to change your diaper in the backseat of the car, we discovered you’d had your first epic blowout! Poop all over your body, your overalls and your onsie. Luckily I had a change of clothes in the diaper bag!

You love your binkie, but only when YOU want it – otherwise you’ll spit it out. When you’re screaming, it usually helps calm you down. When you don’t want your binkie, you’re usually chewing on your hand. You so badly want to suck your thumb but you just can’t quite figure out how to get it when you want it. You’re getting so close though – you can get it in the right position, just can’t figure out how to straighten it out and suck on it. As much as I don’t especially want you to suck your thumb, it’s pretty fascinating to watch you try to figure it out. 

Your sleeping schedule is still pretty unpredictable. You take several naps but the timing varies day to day. Earlier in the month we’d typically feed you around midnight and many nights you’d sleep until 5, eat and then go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. The last week or so, you’ve started falling asleep around 10pm and some nights you’ll sleep until 4 or 5am. Not always though 🙂

You recently started grabbing more. You’ll grab for my necklace or a scarf when I’m holding you, you like to clasp your hands together and you also love grabbing, and sometimes scratching, your face. You’re also getting better at grabbing the animals above your activity mat. We’re trying to get you interested in some newborn toys like rattles, but you’re just not quite there yet. I’m excited for the next few weeks because I think you’re going to really start taking an interest in some toys!

Sometimes you’ll lay quietly in the rock and play but you like to be able to see someone, not be by yourself. Just the other day, we got you a new chair that reclines enough for you to sleep, but also lets you sit up and see more of the things around you. You seem to like it so far. When you’re in a good mood, you’re content to just sit in your chair, talk to me and dance around for a while, kicking your feet and moving your arms around like crazy. It’s times like these when I try to get some work done. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time working on my computer with you laying across my stomach sound asleep.

You’ve got a big head, but your neck is so strong. For the most part you can hold your head up by yourself, but you’re still a bit wobbly so we’re carefully to keep our hands close by to support you if needed. The past few days you’ve really starting turning your head back and forth while you sit, taking in as much of the room as possible.

You had a great Christmas. Both sets of grandparents spoiled you with lots of clothes and toys and mommy and daddy bought you a new rocking chair and lots of books. You had a couple of epic meltdowns at the family get-togethers, but we survived. You were having some tummy trouble and there was a lot of stimulation!

It seems like you grow and change a little bit every day and I can’t wait to see what next month brings!

Love you forever,
Your mama

 ———-

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

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This post was sponsored by Sweaty Betty. I was compensated for my time. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hi Friends!

It’s time to introduce you to another Elf for Health Sponsor. Elle and I developed this challenge to help people have a healthy holiday season and we wanted to cover all aspects of health- healthy eating, physical health and mental health. Sweaty Betty is one of our sponsors in the fitness area. They’re a fitness apparel company whose purpose is to “inspire women to find empowerment through fitness”. They sell workout, yoga and running gear, plus underwear, swimwear and accessories.

They have SO many cute things on their site that I struggled to pick out an outfit to try. Here’s what I ended up choosing:

Athlete Workout Vest 

Level Workout Leggings

Escape Luxe Jumper

———–

You guys, I love these clothes! I usually have trouble finding workout leggings that are long enough and fit at the waist so they’re not constantly falling down. These are perfect! Not too tight, but they definitely stay in place when squatting, etc. Plus they have a little zipper pocket in the back!

The tank top is so comfortable. It wicks away sweat AND it’s long enough to fit my torso and stay in place when I’m moving around.

The jumper might be my favorite. It’s SO soft and it has thumbholes – my favorite! I love how it looks like there’s a hood, but it’s just some extra fabric around the neck. It doesn’t get all bunched up under a jacket like a hood. It’s a little bit shorter style which I don’t typically go for, but I really like the way it looks with a tank top underneath!

———-

If I was putting a few things on my Christmas wish list, I’d pick:

Allegro Knit Dance Jumper 

Embrace Luxe Knit Shawl

Balasana Yoga Pants 

Visama Reversible Yoga Leggings 

——————

The only downside, in my opinion, is the price…but the high quality material makes it worth it. I think these are pieces that will hold up well over time, allowing you to get your money’s worth!

Huge thanks to Sweaty Betty for being an Elf for Health sponsor this year! All the elves are looking forward to their sponsored challenge on Monday- run or walk a mile as fast as you can!

If you’re in the market for some new fitness clothes, be sure to check out Sweaty Betty’s website! I mean, new clothes are pretty much guaranteed to improve your workouts right?!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

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Get my free Table Talk email series where I share bite-sized nutrition information about carbs, protein, and fat, plus bonus information about snacks and sugar!

Hi Friends!

Elf For Health is back for another year and it’s time to kick things off!

Three years ago Elle of  According to Elle (formerly Nutritionella) and I started this challenge to promote health and wellness during the holidays, a time when healthy habits tend to fall to the wayside. In years past, all challenge participants were paired up as elves to support and encourage each other during the holidays.

We recognize this is an especially busy time of year and not everyone can commit to having an elf, so this year you’ll have the option of having an elf assigned to you, or participating solo. Regardless of whether you want your very own elf or choose the solo route, all elves are welcome to join our awesome community on Facebook, as well as by using the #elf4health hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.

Here are all the details about what the challenge entails and how to sign up!

Introducing the Elf for Health Holiday Challenge! This is a four week challenge that will run from the Monday November 24th thru December 21, 2013. The challenges fall into 4 different categories: Food, Fitness, For You & For Others. There will be daily tasks, daily winners, prizes, weekly newsletters, and a Facebook group for support.

And are you ready for the best part? You’ll have an elf to support and encourage you! When you sign up, you will also be committing to be an elf for someone in return. Over the course of the challenge, you will have two different elves.

Sounds like a great way to stay motivated and meet new people over the holidays doesn’t it?! Since this challenge is internet based, anyone can participate… no matter where you’re located! All you need is access to the internet and an email address.

So what does an Elf do?

Elf Duties

As an Elf, you are expected to support your assigned buddy with their holiday health goals and the daily challenges. Elves & buddies will be reassigned after 2 weeks so that hopefully you get to meet 2 new people! You are only asked to email your buddy 2 times per week:

• Monday: Send your buddy an email to help them with the challenges for that week. Ideas of things to include/attach: your own personal tips & tricks, inspiring words and/or images, a new, healthy recipe or workout to try.
• Thursday – Saturday: Any time during these days, check in with your buddy! For example, ask them if they tried a new recipe, workout, or had fun with any certain challenges. Feel free to tell them how you did with your challenges, too!

Anything more than those 2 emails is up to you but feel free to go above and beyond this to show your support! Just a few ideas: send your buddy Tweets, shout outs on our Facebook Page, email a fun workout you liked or send a hand written recipe or note.

Important Dates

• *Friday, November 21st at 11:59pm EST: sign up deadline
• Sunday, November 23rd: Round 1 Elf assignments emailed
• Monday, November 254h – Sunday, December 7th: Round 1
• Sunday, December 7th: Round 2 Elf assignments emailed; Round 1 “Best Elf” winners chosen
• Monday, December 8th – Sunday, December 21st: Round 2
• Sunday, December 21st: Round 1 “Best Elf” & participant grand prize winners chosen

*If you missed the initial sign up deadline, you can still participate:

• Sign up before December 5th for Round 2

Not clear about something? Email Elle or Lindsay!

Prizes

We have some fabulous prizes from some of our favorite companies to give to the winners.

• 2 prizes for “Best Elf”, one awarded at the end of each round
• 1 grand prize for best participant awarded at the end of the challenge determined by participation, hashtagging and being an awesome Elf.

There will be a daily challenge winner chosen each day. Daily winners will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize!

Best elf prizes will given based on participation and nomination. If you love your elf, let us know so we can consider them for a Best Elf prize. Best Elf prizes will be awarded at the end of each round.

Prizes will be provided by our 2014 Challenge Sponsors:

Prize packs will include 3 months of meal planning from Cook Smarts, beautiful workout gear from Sweaty Betty, hemp seed protein powder from Manitoba Harvest, and more from Swanson Health, Love Grown Foods, Nuttzo, Cabot Cheese, and Sizzlefish.

** Unfortunately, due to shipping costs, only USA residents are eligible to win prizes. But we’d still love to have you participate, even if you’re from somewhere else!**

Still with me?

Challenge Calendar

If so, you’re probably wondering what the daily challenges are, right? Here’s a nice square image that you can save on the lock screen of your phone to remind you of the challenges!

You can see more detailed descriptions on the calendar below and we’ll expand even more on the challenges in each weekly newsletter. See below for a printable list! Print it out and hang it somewhere to remind you participate, or add it to your Google calendar!

Sign Up

Want to sign up?! Fill out the form below.

We will be sending out a weekly newsletter reminding you of the weekly challenges so look out for a confirmation email to confirm your participation & newsletter subscription. If you don’t receive a confirmation email, check your spam box. If you still can’t find a confirmation email, let one of us (Elle or Lindsay) know ASAP and we’ll add you to the list.

Buttons

Did you sign up? If you’re a blogger, grab a button:

<img decoding="async" src="/wp-content/uploads/images/14577/elf4healthbadge1.png" alt="The Lean Green Bean" style="border:none;" />

<img decoding="async" src="/wp-content/uploads/images/14577/elf4healthbadge2.png" alt="According to Elle" style="border:none;" />

Follow

Make sure you’re following us for the latest updates, daily challenge reminders and winner announcements by social media.

• • • Elle: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest
    • Lindsay: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest

Don’t forget to join the Elf for Health Facebook group, too! We’ll be posting pictures and updates there too. [Tweet “Check out this fun, free holiday challenge from @LeanGrnBeanBlog and @EllePennerRD! “]

Info Pages

We’ll both have Elf for Health info pages up and running on our blogs if you’re looking for the calendar of daily challenges, the sign up form, important dates etc…Whew! I think that’s everything! Let me know if you have questions! We’re excited to have lots of you join us for a happy, healthy holiday season!Enjoy!
–Lindsay–LEARN HOW FOOD AFFECTS YOUR BODY.

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