Life in the Bento: Week Four || 21-25 Sept 2015

Hellooooo cupcakes! 

Hope you all had an amazing amazing week! Our week consisted on a nasty sickness going around the entire house (my parents, my sister, both minion, & myself). Everyone was over it within 2-3 days; a week later & I'm still battling it. supersadface.

Anyhow! We are in week four of Life in the Bento. You can revisit all our past weeks here:
Week 1: 3-4 Sept
Week 2: 8-11 Sept
Week 3: 14-18 Sept

Now lets hop into this weeks Bento meals!

Monday & Tuesday 21/22 Sept. 2015

So this was J's lunch for 2 days only because he stayed home from school Monday (& ultimately Tuesday). He requested a grape & mint jelly sandwich on a thick, amoroso roll; some gingerale soaked apples, carrots, & fudge brownie little bites. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but I started feeling quite horrible Sunday night when I was prepping their lunches.

H's lunch (which he ended up taking to school on Tuesday since he was sick on Monday) we a peanut butter & jelly on an amoroso roll, some gingerale soaked apples, green beans, & chocolate chip muffin little bites. Again, not entirely healthy, but when momma can barely stay standing, you do what you gotta do.

Wednesday, 23 Sept 2015

Starting this week, J is only in Pre-K Mondays, Tuesdays, & Fridays so the rest is just H's meals for the week. If you'd like to see what I make J for lunch on those "off days", let me know!

For H's meal today he chose his make your own pizza (sans the pizza sauce) with turkey pepperoni & shredded, mild cheddar cheese, apples, a drinkable Danimal's yogurt, & some pringles.

Thursday, 24 Sept 2015

Finally got H to step out of the sandwich box & try something new. Hooray! So for lunch today he had ham & cheese roll ups, some apples with peanut butter, animal crackers, & a drinkable Danimal's yogurt. (**side note: he actually enjoyed the roll ups! So you may be seeing more of those)

Friday, 25 Sept 2015

Hooray! It's friyay! The minions ended up having similar lunches today due to the simple fact that I still wasn't any better & was having a hard time creating anything cute for them to eat. Eat minion had 2 sandwiches (H had pb&j & J had cheese), some peas, animal crackers, & Danimal's drinkable yogurt. Quick, simple, & a total carb over load which I feel horrible about but, again, when momma is sick not much gets done. 

Every day the kids drink water with their lunches & have a healthy snack upon arriving home from school. That is something that never changes. (:

In terms of their "Bentos": The blue Bento is a Paw Patrol 3 compartment, plastic lunch "kit" from the Target Dollar spot - & I totally should've picked up more than the 2 I did when I found them because the dog got ahold of 1 & now I can't find them.  The white rectangle-ish one is actually a Chinese take-out box reused & repurposed. It's definitely not as cute but it works! I am eventually upgrading to a PlanetBox or a YumBox. Maybe I can convince Santa to gift them to the kids for Christmas. Hahah. 

What do you guys pack for your kids during the week? Do you do anything cutesy? I am so excited to start doing fall/halloween themed boxes starting Oct 1! If you would like your kiddos Bentos to be featured in a blog post, tag me on Instagram @LoveofFilo &/or use the hashtag #NavyLifeinBento & you may see your works of art added to the blog!

Drinking myself Skinny

Hello cupcakes!

Here is, yet again, my feeble attempt at #girlgetsfit. It is quite difficult for me to stick to a routine because I often get quite depressed when I don't see/feel immediate results (&, yes, I know results don't happen over night) & when I get that way, I just stop everything. It really is quite horrible because, honestly, I like working out - the rush & feeling of a good run use to fuel my bones. But not lately. (& it doesn't help that most days I'm in extreme pain from the fibromyalgia that I am not on medication for - the doctor wants to try PT since my original medicine regimen made me sick).

However! That post is neither here nor there. This post is about an amazing TEA that I was introduced to through Swagbucks called BotanicaScience SkinnyTox Detox Tea. Long name, right?! But it's totally worth the tongue twister.

Day One of starting SkinnyTox

Now, I have always been a big tea drinker - especially when it comes to loose leaf tea. I was first introduced to loose leaf tea in 2010 from Teavana - but that's not the point of this post; hahah. Anyway, Swagbucks was offering a pints promotion of 2,000 points for trying out this tea so I jumped on the bandwagon.

BontanicaScience prides themselves on being 100% organic & all natural. Their teas include things like rosehips, orange peels, stevia leaf, currents, & elderberries - just to name a few. You are meant to drink one cup in the morning & one at night &, honestly, after the first 2 days it becomes like clockwork for me to drink my tea on a regular basis. The tea does not stake claims in making/helping you lose weight but it does state to help curb appetites - which is pretty much the same thing, right? Not hungry means no munching on random nonsense. Since starting the detox tea, I have also lost my taste & desire for soda which is something I have been struggling with for a long while.

When I first started my tea-toxing journey, I was severely bloated, always run down & exhausted with no motivation or energy to do much of anything.

SkinnyTox Day Seven

I'm not sure if you can see the difference in a weeks time, but by a week in, I was definitely feeling loads better; I had more energy, I didn't feel so "heavy" (not in reference to weight, but overall body feeling - does that make sense?), & I was sleeping better at night with the night time tea. My cravings for sodas & sweets in general was pretty much nil by this point. With my morning tea, I would use my Frog Ocean Honey (from a local farmer here in NJ) Cranberry Blossom honey (apporximately 2-3 tsp) & at night I would drink it straight as it was. You can even drink the tea with out any extra type of sweetner at all! I just wanted to try & boost my immune system, so localized honey was my option. My darling loose leaf tea (even though it comes in a satchel), would steep in my tea cup for about 2-3 minutes (& if I walked away & forgot, sometimes longer - haha) in my beautiful TARDIS Tea Infuser my love bought me because, well, Whovian. ♥

I have successfully completed the 14 day tea-tox & am in the process of ordering the 28 day tea-tox. (: I highly recommend purchasing this brand of detox-fying tea if you're in the market for something new to add to your regimen. I am so happy I found this & even recommended it to my husband.

Can you see the difference? I kinda can. My husband can when I sent him pictures. I am not so much worried about the "losing weight" aspect when it comes to this tea because that's not what it's for. I bought it to help cleanse my body of all the nasty toxins I have been putting in it lately & I feel amazing, refreshed, & energized since starting this. & that's really all that matters. 

My next step in the #girlgetsfit journey is my 21 Day Fix which is all ready on order & you can purchase your own here (no, I am not a beachbody coach). I will definitely keep you guys updated on my progress with that as well.

Are you guys doing anything to get healthy? Have you tried as special detoxing products? Any recommendations you'd like to offer?

#GirlGetsFit Reloaded | Week 1 + 2 days

Huulllllooooooo cupcakes!

I have made it through the first week of the 30 day ab & squat challenge. It got a bit challenging for me - the sit ups anyway. My lupus & fibro decided they wanted to flair up but I showed them! I am now on day 9 of 30 & I am noticing a little bit of a difference in my gut area but I wont show you until day 15 when its time to take the next set of pictures!

I kinda fell off the "Ice Water Before Anything" train & I am honestly feeling it. I have started drinking more soda & I have no idea why. I am going to drop this habit & start back up with my water -- like I said, I really have no idea what has gotten into me with drinking all this soda but blehk!

I am excited to see what I look like at the 15 day mark. (:  Check in with you guys then.

#GirlGetsFit Reloaded | Day 1 & 2

It has been a long time since I updated the hastag #GirlGetsFit... mainly because I got lazy & stopped exercising - cue getting up to almost 200lbs! - & mainly because I got ridiculously sick. & Im not just talking about coughcoughidontfeelgood - my body pretty much started to try & kill itself off & is destroying itself... in other words, we found out I have a bunch of autoimmune diseases. (lupus, fibromyalgia, & anklyosing spondylitis; followed by severe social anxiety rearing its ugly head again even though thats not autoimmune)  So now that I am in treatment, I am now working on getting my meat bag of a body back into a shape that I am comfortable being.

I will say, that since I had been diagnosed with all that crap I have lost 30pounds since NOVEMBER. I am quite pleased with that. I know that doesnt seem like a lot but I am 30 pounds further from 200 pounds & 30 pounds closer to 130 (: For this first 30 day session of #GirlGetsFit, I am doing the 30 day Ab & Squat Challenge.

I have started this challenge a while ago & then tapered off because I was suppose to be doing it with my husband & he wimped out so I did too. Total sheeple. :/ SO! I restarted it... & I even made adorable planner stickers to motivate me even more! ^.^;

Will be listed on my Etsy Shop on SUNDAY

 Soooo yeah! Days 1 & 2 are complete.. & they actually killed me >.<  Having fibro, lupus, & AS can really take a toll on your stamina.. &, as you can see, I didnt even do much!! But I have also started a new healthy regimen... thing.

Every morning, before I eat anything, I drink 33oz of ice water (I also take a weight loss pill at the time) followed by a cup of hot decaf green tea with a little bit of honey. After I have had my morning liquids, I eat a light lunch (salad, celery & cream cheese, etc). Then I go back to drinking 33oz of water before the end of dinner. I eat a normal dinner ( + in another weight loss pill) & follow up with at least 16 oz of water. Right before I go to bed, I have a cup of hot sleepy time tea with a little bit of honey. I have actually surprised myself with how well I am sticking to this. & Im curbing my appetite so much that I am not feeling hungry (& by hungry i mean omgimstarvingsomeonefeedmeeventhoughijustateanhourago!). 

I am slowly going to start adding in more exercise once my body is use to physical activity again. hey! We all need to start somewhere.

Are you doing this challenge or will you? If so, I would love to see your progress!