Bouncing back to normal after vacation

Hello beautiful people! Mi gente!

We just came back from a wonderful family vacation. We spent a week in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We stayed in the beautiful Grand Riviera Princess. The weather was mostly perfect except a few days of short showers and the last day it was raining all day.

For many people, a vacation is like a trip into space, at least for me it is. 🙂 The blastoff takes place once you book your vacation and days of careful planning. Then a few days of serenity and peace are followed by a harrowing re-entry to the real world. But with a bit of planning, you may find that you actually did get some rest on vacation and you are ready to resume your regular life again. (As I mentioned before I plan everything lol)

(Some pictures from our vacation, our oldest child is spending the summer in Europe with our family)

I am a morning person and while on vacation especially when I am well rested my body just wakes up early. Every morning I would wake at 6:30 to 7:00 am. It was perfect for morning runs on the beach. This gives me time to my self while my boys sleep in 🙂 Its just a nice and early morning breather.

My one and only rule is to leave your self at least one rest day post vacation. This day allows you to rest from travel and restock your house with groceries, even do some laundry maybe. If you are a drinker and plan on drinking on vacation I would cut it very short or completely the last day of vacation and hydrate with a lot of water that will detox your body at least a little and give you more energy. As soon as we got home the next day I got laundry out of the way. I find it if it’s hanging around it is only adding more on my to do list and God knows those of us that have to go back to work have already a lot to catch up on and adjust back to, having heaps of laundry when you come back from work simply sucks. On that off day I also meal prepped and even cooked some food for the few days ahead. I try to have nothing to do when I get home from work that first week, other than relax, get back into my workout routine and play with the kiddos.

 If you have been eating more than you usually do or consuming alcohol I would recommend a detox. There are plenty of recipes out there you can look up on Pinterest but my favorite one is lemon water (with a lot of lemon slices) through out the day, I even add matcha, and detox tea at night.

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far and have vacations or staycations planned ahead to just take a few days to kick back and relax. If you are not traveling anywhere do some research there are plenty of things around your town to do and I am sure some are free too just like here in HOT HOT Gerogia.

Matcha!

Hello beautiful people!

Today I wanted to share my new addiction….MATCHA!

I have been seeing it on Intagram for a while with a few eating healthy accounts I follow but never actually paid much attention to it. Recently a nationally syndicated radio show host was talking about it. He said that he was not a big coffee lover and wanted to steer away from caffeine and stated ordering Matcha at Starbucks. He was ordering it with ice water in a tall cup with 2 scoops of Matcha shaken, and that would cost him 80 cents. Well after he spoke about it on the radio the price went up to $2.69 because of the amount of people that were ordering it. I went to Starbucks that day to test it out. As a matter of fact all of us from work went. LOL It looked very green, but it tasted good, sweet…..and that’s the bad part. Apparently Starbuck Matcha is loaded with sugar as a matter of fact 40grams per serving. WOWZA!

Then I did some research on Matcha.

It originated from Japan. The history and the cultivation of this tea is fascinating but what is matters the most is the amount of antioxidants it has.  It is a fat burner, cancer fighter, increases concentration and boosts energy. See here what BodyBuilding says about it. Here is what I found

• Is packed with antioxidants including the powerful EGCg
• Boosts metabolism and burns calories
• Detoxifies effectively and naturally
• Calms the mind and relaxes the body
• Is rich in fiber, chlorophyll and vitamins
• Enhances mood and aids in concentration
• Provides vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc and magnesium
• Prevents disease
• Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar

I did some research on different brands and I found an organic one on Amazon for $19.99. Sugar free. So when I make the match drink I add a packet of stevia to sweeten it.

I have been using it for 2 weeks. I bough some at my Sprouts Market till this one arrived. If you use any water flavoring like Crystal Lights you can mix it with that if you don’t like the taste of Matcha, but honestly if you ever drank green tea its pretty much the same taste. As you can see on the bag you can use it in smoothies, lattes, baking and many other recipes. I mainly drink it in water but did test it out in my greek yogurt parfait and it was delish. I am still experimenting with different recipes and will post them.

 In two weeks that I have been taking it I definitely have a noticed 3 things. A huge difference in energy. You can ask the people at work, my bff says I am happy and bouncing off the walls ha ha 🙂  Usually I drink coffee in the morning and at 2 PM I am exhausted and go to our work kitchen and start up another pot of coffee. With Matcha I do not do that anymore. I do not crash either after drinking it. The other major difference I noticed (excuse me this is a little TMI but I got to share lol) is my bowl movements are totally regulated, I have been having issues with this for years, since high school. I even went to a GI specialist who told me to take a bunch of different medicine that was still not doing a good job. Lastly, I have had some unexpected issues come up and I have been a little stressed to which my skin decided to have a freaking zit party. With Matcha it has definitely been clearing up. So far I love it and can not find any bad reviews or experience’s on it. Will you try it? Let me know your thoughts if you do 🙂