Category: Women

debt, Family, Food, money, post partum, pregnancy, prenatal, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Healthy No-bake Energy Bites and Simple To Make

Hannah Lucio

These are a favorite go-to snack for me and my kids. My 3 year old and 1 year old loves them. They do have ingredients in them that you should not give to your child until they are over 1 year old. Just throwing that out there. I have been making a similar recipe for many years now but this one I made a bit healthier so I can kick start my healthy eating. I eat an 80/20 “diet” but I I’m trying to kick it up a notch. I also make these for the women’s event at church and they absolutely LOVE them! I didn’t tell anyone I made them just to see if they liked them, people kept going back to get more. They are also such an easy grab and go snack. I put three into a snack size Ziploc and take it to go. Super easy and healthy.

I hope you make these and enjoy them as much as we do!

 

Ingredients (picture below):

1 Cup Oatmeal

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter (I use natural, super chunky peanut butter to add more crunch to it, YUM!)

1/2 Cup Flaxseed

1/2 Cup Walnuts (I chop them up in the food processor)

1/3 Cup Honey

1 tsp Vanilla

 

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and mix. I typically have to scrape the sides 1-2 times in the mixing process. You could just put everything in a mixing bowl and mix until all together if you do not have a food processor.

Put them into the fridge (I just leave them in the food processor) for 30-60 minutes.

Take them out and roll them into small bite size balls.

Put them into a container and put them back into the fridge.

Take out what you need and keep them rest refrigerated.

They are super simple and easy to make.


Enjoy!!
 

 

 

Live Healthy

Live Simple

 

 

debt, Family, Food, Hair, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Baby step 2….get really mad it works wonders! 

Hannah Lucio

Let’s talk about getting out of debt for a few. If you have read, listened or taken the class for financial freedom with Dave Ramsey’s program you should know what I’m talking about today. When my husband and I got married we had a lot of debt going into our marriage. We had the simplist wedding in Vegas with literally a few people. So that was a super smart move on our part to start with. So we didn’t start with wedding deb like the normal couple. I got pregnant 2 months into our marriage. Not a super shocker but it took us by surprise. Fast forward to 7 months pregnant. We wanted to buy a house so bad we went through 22 offers on homes in California just to get one. We moved in at 8 months pregnant and finally when I took leave I looked at our finances. I haven’t really been good with finances my whole life but it was time to grow up and look. We were trying to figure it all out before I stopped working for good. We had a huge decision to make but in the end it wasn’t a question, I had to quit working and stay at home to raise our boy. So I wrote down our finances with my husbands pay only. Well I almost had a heart attack but really I had a mega panic attack. We needed $1000 extra a month just to break even, without groceries. Uh, I freaked. When my husband drove home after a 3 hour commute I told him I had no idea what to do. He mentioned that he had heard about this guy Dave Ramsey and that I (we) should listen to his podcast. That night I downloaded it and started listening to it the next morning. From the first moment I started listening I was hooked. I started googling about getting debt free and came up with a plan. The first thing we started with was listing our debt from largest to smallest. Since I was going to get my paid leave for a few months I told him we HAVE to use every penny to pay off debt. Little by little and almost every week we paid off more and more little debts starting with the lowest debt. I cancelled, closed and shredded every credit card we had. Store credit cards are rip Offs by the way! You think you are saving by their rewards? Nope. Guess what? You have to spend to save…..think about it for a moment. So everything was gone! The next step….get rid of the horrendous new Honda Pilot I fleased, yes it’s a lease and the worst kind of car payment you can have. You are renting a vehicle and really burning a hole in your pocket. That’s why it is called a flease in Dave Ramsey’s terms. My husband looked shocked! He thought I was a little crazy to want to return this brand new vehicle I loved. It wasn’t important to me, what was important was changing our family tree. Taking stress off my husbands shoulders. He was the main and only money maker in the house now and I had to cut things out. Getting my hair done, not anymore. I go maybe once a year now instead of every 4-6 weeks. Going out to dinner, nope. Mindlessly spending, nope. That year we paid off thousands of dollars and so much that we actually had $1000 extra cushion in our budget! Love, love, love! 

Let’s fast forward a bit. We got an offer to move to Virginia that I didn’t want to pass up. People were thinking we were crazy to move from “beautiful, sunny San Diego” to Virginia…..but we didn’t. We wanted out of our mortgage anyway. The area was closing in on us with pot growers also and I really wanted a safer environment for all of us. We put our the little house on over an acre on the market and sold it within 1 week! We were shocked and just ready! We packed up, moved to Virginia. We put our debt free on hold so we were comfy to move and wanted to start back when we got here. Well……we went backwards. We “needed stuff” when we got here. New bed (needed a king not queen size) , couch (all we had was a small leather couch),  tv (ours broke within a month of moving), went out to eat and those sort of things. One thing we did well was biking everywhere which saved us mega! We only filled up once a month on gas and that was amazing. Instead of every week in California. So, 3 months after we moved I got pregnant again. So guess what? We kept the debt free on hold longer until he was born. It’s what you are supposed to do anyway in case something happens. Right when we were going to start back on our debt free journey we decided to move to a bidder house and better area. Prolonging our journey but honestly it was the best move ever for us. Oh and we also bought a Jeep. Ha! We don’t have share a vehicle anymore, which actually helps a lot. It’s older also, not brand new and it was not expensive, thank goodness. 

So here we are two years after we move to Virginia. One kid was born(paid in cash), moved(paid in cash) , lots vet bills( paid in cash), dr bills (paid in cash) and acquired more debt(not paid in cash 😦   ). 

Last week I got what Dave says, “I got mad at debt, like really pissed off”. Last week I told my hubby, “that’s it! Beans and rice, rice and beans. I’m done!”. He completely agreed and so here we are….. Mad at debt! Not prolonging it anymore and getting after debt once again. 

A question people ask or what I’ve heard people complain about is that they don’t want to eat beans and rice. I had some say they don’t want to eat crap. Um, did you know that brown rice, black beans, ground turkey, bell peppers, zucccini and broccoli is not crap. It’s yummy and health. We eat more than just that though, just smarter eating. And Um, he doesn’t mean you have to literally eat beans and rice. What he means is cut your grocery bill down. I eat super healthy and defenitetly healthier when we are getting out of debt. I lose weight and feel amazing. It truly is such an amazing lifestyle to eat healthy. And no, health food isn’t more expensive, it’s something you shouldn’t over think about. Stop drinking you fattening, super sugary Starbucks drinks. I bet you’ll cut your waistline down by just stopping that. And your wallet will thank you. 

Here is our action plan:

1. My goal is to cut our grocery bills in half and use cash. Using cash scares me because I typically pick up items I believe we need but really we don’t. I don’t want to look stupid at the register and go over our allotted cash amount. Well, sometime you need to do things that are scary to succeed in life. So that’s what I am going to do. Also, I love Costco. Like absolutely love costco, but I seriously spend like $200 a week easily there. Then go to a grocery store and buy more. That is not necessary. So, I’m going to try to do away with Costco for the time being. Also, until winter hits and it’s is to cold, I will ride my bike to the grocery store to save money also. You can’t buy a bunch riding s bike, HA! 

2. No more eating out. We don’t do this a lot anyway, but it’s gone completely for now. 

3. I unsubcribed to all the clothing stores I get emails on and any other emails from regular stores as well. It will keep my mind in check on things we “need” but really don’t need. 

4. I’m getting back to doing my surveys to get extra money. Recently I did surveys and bought my husbands PS4. He absolutely loves it! I typically buy our extra things with survey money. So I’m getting back to that. 

5. Listen to Dave Ramsey podcasts. This is one way to getting my brain retired back to saving, it really has helped us a lot. 

6. Encourage others to get debt free and feel less stressed. I see and hear a lot of stressed out people working for money just to buy things. It’s not a fun way to live. So if I can even help one person get on track to getting out of debt, I’ve done something life saving. 

7. Get back to working out and look into personal training option. I have a passion for working out and really think it may be time for me to put it into action. 

7. Practice making cakes and cupcakes, especially in the design area. I also have a passion for cakes, cupcakes and decorating. I really think it’s time to put my skills to work. Who knows, maybe it’ll help me reach out to others more and make a few bucks. As long as I can bring a smile to others that is a job well done. 
If you have any questions one getting out of debt, just ask. I’m here for anyone who may need some help learning about it all. Join me on this journey, you (we) can do it!! 
Live happy

Live debt free

Live simple

Family, Food, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

I was actually doing my dream job all along

Hannah Lucio

Since the age of around 16 I had thought about what I really want to do in life. Nothing to serious came to mind. I didn’t like school at all. So I knew going to school was not going to be an option. My favorite period was P.E.. Literally. Almost every single person in my class complained the entire time while we were working out. They also readed the day when we had a sub that worked us out hard. I just loved everything about P.E., they thought I was weird and I thought they were weird. There was one thing that just stuck out in my mind while I was thinking about what I wanted to do. Workout for a living. Might sound weird to the average person, but that is my thing. I never wanted to be a body builder, never wanted a 6 pack, never wanted big muscular legs, just wanted to be slim fit. Not lazy basically.

I am a stay at home mom, as you might know by now. And, I keep thinking about what I want to do outside the house after the kids go to school. I have gone through many options and I definitely will not willingly work in customer service. HA! I also have been thinking about the whole stay at home thing. I wasn’t to sure if I am really doing what I am meant to do in life. Since summer is here and I am not going to the gym anymore I have been making more of an effort to be outside with the kids. Everyday we go for a run/jog/walk in the morning, play out side when we get home, Then go to the pool, ride bikes, play with the kids more, run up and down the stairs in the house, clean and then walk the dogs in the evening. Basically….I am working out all day. But it didn’t dawn on me until my husband said something to me the other day. He said “must be nice to workout all day”….epiphany. I am actually doing what I wanted to do in life and never realized it.

I am a nutritionist and a personal trainer who gets to workout for a living.

It is a very tough job to be a stay at home mom/wife. It seriously is. Yes, we do have fun. But on the other hand I am a referee with the boys and someday’s I don’t get down time at home. I get frustrated, I am worn out a lot of the times at night. Its a thankless job and there are a lot of things to be done. But, since I realized what the heck I really was doing. And I am basically doing my dream job, I just step back a bit and just smile. I am also a fit mom and that is really what I have always wanted to do. So I will just sit back, smile and enjoy the time I have with my boys and teach them to be active in life. I workout for a living and I love it!

debt, Family, Food, money, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

New adventures…..we are SO ready! 

Hannah Lucio

I have been away from blogging because we have been preparing to move. We have been looking forward to moving for at least a year. We finally found a place that was best for us. So today is moving day! 

When we first moved to Virginia we had never been here so we just picked a place we thought was good temporarily. And it was. But, living in an apartment gets old quick! We saved a bunch of money so that was probably the best part. The other great part is that if something breaks you just call the complex and they fix it. Honestly, that the best part about renting, period. We bought a house in California and it was ok. But, we started Dave Ramsey’s Financial peace after buying and quickly figured out we shouldn’t have. It wasn’t expensive for us. But we would have rather followed his plan beforehand. So anyway, fast forward to today. We are starting back on his plan after taking a break to move. It will be a challenge at first but after a month…probably two we will be set again. I am excited for our new adventure with moving and getting back on track. 

The only kinda bummer thing is my last day at the gym was yesterday. I’ve come so far after this pregnancy but I know I can keep it up outside the gym. After our first kid was born I lost weight and toned up great without the gym. So, I know how to do it which is great. Starting Monday I am going to be on my new “get fit” workouts. It’s exciting! New start, new location and super positive outlook on life. 

Hers my last day at the gym pic. I am under pre pregnancy weight and want to slim down and tone up in the next few months. My goal is not to be skinny. My goal is not to be hugely muscular. My goal is to be toned and slimmer.  

The absolute best part is that we are living in our “dream” neighborhood now. Across from a golf course, kid friendly area, people always outside enjoying the weather and a very clean area. When we got to Virginia we drove through this area and said “one day we would love to live here”. We are so stoked! We are currently in the middle of our move but it’s nap time for the boys so I took a much needed blogging break 😉 Oh! And I almost forgot to mention, we are now going back to our original church we started at when we got here. AMEN to that! I’ve been praying we go back because I absolutely love the worship music. It reminds me of North Coast Church in Southern California. It’s my way of worshiping God. Everyone has a way to worship and that my way of connecting more with God. 

So cheers to amazing time, exciting new adventures and living out one dream at a time. I will be able to blog more also 🙂 So cheers to that! 
Live happy

Live your dream

But always

Live simple

breastfeeding, Family, Food, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Yummy and Healthier Pancakes

Hannah Lucio

Our family absolutely loved this recipe. It’s easy, fast and we had all the ingredients already. Nothing out of the ordinary is needed for these pancakes. I even was able to try out the new avocado oil from Costco. I love the healthier oil options we have these days. (Picture below) I hope you get to make these and enjoy them as much as we all did. And not to mention….toddler approved 🙂


Ingredients: 

1 cup Unbleached all-purpose flour or whole wheat  flour (I used 1/2 cup unbleached flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and only King Arthur brand flour)

1 Tbsp Raw sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Silk Almond Milk

2 Tbsp Avocado oil or Melted butter (I used butter the first time around)

1 Egg

1/4 tsp All Spice

Splash of Real Vanilla
Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, all spice and salt in a small bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together Silk, oil/butter, vanilla and egg.

3. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just to moisten—a few lumps are fine.

4. Cook pancakes on a cast iron pan with avocado oil over medium heat. I put just enough oil to cook the pancake, maybe 1/4 tsp.

5. Cook until you see little bubbles and flip, continue cooking until done. Maybe 1 minute longer once flipped.
I served these delicious pancakes with uncured turkey bacon from Costco (I highly recommend this turkey bacon brand-picture below) and scrambled eggs with almond milk whisked into the eggs.


Have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!!

Live healthy

Live simple

Family, Food, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Coffee Creamer and Awesome Fat Burning Workout

Hannah Lucio

I am a firm believer that black coffee is best. I typically (like 99% of the time) do not add anything to my coffee. But, the other day I was at the store and saw Almond Milk creamer. I love almond milk and very rarely get cow milk. So I decided to give it a try. Holy cow y’all! It taste so darn good. It is non-gmo, non-dairy, lower calorie deliciousness. I bought the Carmel flavor. If you need to add stuff to your coffee this would be a very good choice. This is the bottle and back of the bottle information. 

As for my amazing workout this morning…..I need to get my body firmer, if you know what I mean. So I decided to try pushing myself a bit. I try to run on the treadmill at the gym for 20 minutes and the least. With my body type I have found that cardio is what “slims” me down. I’ve tried doing a lot of weight lifting and my goodness. I do not like it. Lower the weight and up the reps is best for me. If I mix the two together my body starts to shape out nicely.  That is why I do a lot more cardio. On to what I did. I started out with 1 minute of walking at a 1 incline, then I ran 1 minute. After the run I slow it down to a walk, increase my incline by 1 and walk for a minute. After that minute of walking, I run 1 minute. And I repeat these steps (literally, ha!) until I get to a 10 incline. Once I complete my 10 incline I lower it back down to 1 incline and run for a minute. Then cool down for a few minute. I felt like I was going to throw up. It was that amazing! Ha! It is truly an amazing “fat burning” workout. 
Have a wonderful Tuesday!!! 
Live healthy

Live fit

Live simple

Family, Food, post partum, pregnancy, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Pizza recipe revised and absolutely perfect! 

Hannah Lucio

When I first set out to make pizza at home from scratch I found one recipe and kept tweaking it. I now have the best and most delicious recipe that I want to share. I love simple, I love easy and I love good food! I also found a pizza sauce without sugar added and without other junk added. It was maybe a dollar more but gosh, for $2.50 and using only half the bottle is darn cheap. Picture is down below.  Also, I cut out the oil out in the recipe and the crust is spot on amazing! I hope you get to try this recipe out, we absolutely loved it. 

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 tsp yeast (I only use Fleischmann’s brand)

1/2 tsp raw sugar or regular sugar if that’s all you have 

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 Cups White whole wheat flour (I only use King Arthur brand)or just regular white flour if that’s all you have

Shredded cheese

Pepperoni or whatever topping you like

Pizza pan
Directions:

Warm you mixing bowl by adding hot water and let it sit for 1 minute. Pour out the water and then start your first ingredient.

Add 1 cup of warm water to mixing bowl, yeast and sugar. Mix the yeast mixture enough to make sure all the ingredients are wet. Let it sit for about 5 minutes until yeast rises. 

Add flour, salt and garlic powder and mix the ingredients with a dough hook until all are mixed together. 

Lightly flour a counter and put dough on it. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Sometimes I let it sit more if I get sidetracked, which is very easy with kids. Ha! 

Now is the time to preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 

Once the dough is done sitting, roll the dough out into a circle or whatever shape you need for your pan. I make sure the dough is about an inch over on the sides so I can roll it up to make crust. 

Lightly spay your pan with cooking spray.

Put the pizza dough on pan and roll the sides up two times. Make a small crust border. Not sure how else to explain it, ha! 

Set aside and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I know, sounds like a lot of waiting…..but you want a really good tasting homemade pizza right? It also gives me time to clean up the kitchen and tend to my boys. That way I don’t have a mess to clean up after dinner is done. 

After the 10 minutes, add the pizza sauce.

Add the desired amount of cheese

Add your toppings. Our favorite is pepperoni. I use the Applegate pepperoni brand. It’s way healthier than other brand. And they do not have nitrates in it. Thank goodness for that. 

Put in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Check the pizza to see if it is brown on the edges. If not keep in the oven for 5 more minutes. Our pizza came out perfect in 25 minutes. 

Cut and enjoy! Try not to eat the whole pizza at once. Hehe! 
If you have any questions just ask me! 

Live healthy

Live simple

Family, Food, post partum, pregnancy, prenatal, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Simple Two Ingredient Ice Cream

Hannah Lucio

Our family absolutely loves ice cream. If I could eat it all the time and not get fat, I would. But since ice cream is fattening I wanted to try making banana ice cream that I see online a lot. I was skeptical at first but once I tasted it, oh man is it good! I tried strawberry ice cream first and will be testing out different flavors very soon. It is very inexpensive and so darn yummy, you should try it out. It is also toddler and nine month old approved. They absolutely love it! 

Ingredients:

Bananas 

Strawberries

Directions:

Wash, cut the tops off the strawberries and put them in a freezer bag and freeze

Peel the bananas, cut into pieces, put them in a freezer bag and freeze. 

Once frozen, take the bananas and strawberries out. 

Put the bananas in the food processor and blend for about 3 minutes or until it has a smooth/ice cream like texture. 

Out in the frozen strawberries and blend for a minute. It really depends on if you like chunks of strawberries or just smooth. So really gauge the blending on your liking. 

Done

Scoop and serve. It’s hard not to eat a lot at once 😜
Live healthy

Live simple

Family, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Question for Contact Lens wearers

Hannah Lucio

I have googled a lot about this and want to just ask people my question instead.

I have been wearing contact lens for about 7 years now. I used to not have dark under eyes and have been trying to get to the bottom of it. I have heard diet and age and sleep. I had dark under eyes before kids and have the same exact sleep so it is not kids, HA. Or sleep. My diet is way better now also. But honestly, I think that I may be allergic to the materials in the contacts I wear or the solution I use. I wanted to ask if anyone else has this issue? I am considering going contact lens free for a while to see if it gets better.

Have you had issues with dark under eyes form wearing contact lens? Please let me know either way!

 

Thanks!!

 

Live better

Live Simple

Family, Food, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Family favorite meal (lose weight meal) that is budget friendly and healthy

Hannah Lucio

We all have days when we are not feeling our best. We feel bloated, fat and just down right yucky. When I start feeling this way I make my favorite meal and eat it often. Mainly at dinner time. After eating it for dinner the first night I feel so much better the next day. This is also my key way to losing the baby weight this time around also. I lost the baby weight twice as fast this time around. The first time it took me a bit longer. It tastes really really good too! It is approved by my husband and toddler also. So this is our go to meal. It is simple, easy and budget friendly. We are doing Dave Ramsey’s Snowball so this is a great meal on a lower meal budget.

Ingredients:

1.5 lb Organic Ground Turkey (From Costco, or 1 lb package from the store)

2-3 Cans Black beans

3 Bell Peppers

4 Tbsp Taco Seasoning

Organic tortilla chips

Cast Iron pan. You need to add everything together. A dutch oven would work just fine also.

This meal feeds us 3 for about 4 days.

Directions:

  1. Cook ground turkey on stove and set aside. *picture below

2. While turkey is cooking cut up Bell Peppers *picture below

3. Cook the bell peppers for about 10 minutes on medium heat.

4. Drain 1-2 cans of black beans. Depending on how many cans you put in your recipe. If you put in 3 cans, drain 2 cans. If you put in two cans, drain 1 can. Make sure to put in one can of black beans, not drained, into the recipe.

5. Add the cooked turkey, black beans and taco seasoning to the bell peppers. Mix together and cook for about 5-10 minutes.

Done!

 

Enjoy! And enjoy often! I hope this concoction makes you feel better as much as it did for me.


 

Live Healthy

Live Simple