Easy and Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins

One of my favourite things to bake is muffins.  They are easy to make, healthy, great for breakfast or a snack and the kids love them!

 
I have tried a few different recipes and mashed them all together to make my own version.  So today I will share this simple and great recipe with all of you.  

Easy and Healthy Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or white all-purpose flour, or flour of choice)
3/4 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup coconut oil (or whatever oil you like to use for baking)
2 tbsp of flax meal (I grind my flax seeds)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar (I use a combination of white sugar and coconut sugar)*
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 chocolate chips
1/4 nut of choice (optional)
1/4 dried fruit of choice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tray (or grease loaf pan). 

Mix all ingredients together.  Divide batter into muffin tray or place batter in loaf pan.

Bake for 18 - 22 minutes.  I usually check my muffins at the 16 - 18 minute mark to determine how much longer they may need.

Remove from oven when done and let cool.

Enjoy with a nut butter or jam for added flavour.

*Using only 1/3 cup of sugar does not give the muffins a sweet taste.  If you prefer them to be a bit sweeter use 1/2 cup of sugar.

Have fun and experiment with the recipe and make it your own!  Add different types of dried fruit, play with the measurements and see what you can come up with.  Share with me how you made this recipe in your own unique way.  I would love to hear back from you!

This is my kid friendly and fun version with blue bubblegum icing from Duncan Hines Icing Creations. The children really enjoyed having this as a treat!

Until the next time, STAY FAB!

Announcement Time

Hello to all my fab readers.  I am so glad that you have all joined me on my journey here at Fit to be Fab!? It has been great to hear back from some of my readers who have been on the same journey as me.  It is my goal that I can inspire, challenge and encourage all of you to a better and healthier life.

Today's post will be short and sweet.  In an effort to keep inspiring and encouraging all of you to make healthier life long choices I am expanding Fit to be Fab!? to Pinterest and Twitter.  This is exciting news friends, I get to share with you even more fabulous tips each week!  (As well as my own challenges, victories and other great fun stuff.)

My Pinterest page located at: http://www.pinterest.com/imfittobefab/  will include recipes and workouts that I have personally tried.  I will include a little personal description with each pin to reflect my experience with each workout/recipe.  I will also include some fun fashion and easy hairstyle links (another little passion of mine) plus some great motivation!

Feel free to check it out and have some fun with this!  As well share your experience with me, I would love to hear what you have tried. Share with me your favourite workouts, recipes, hairstyles, and even other blogs, I would love to get the conversation going!

Do you have a Twitter account? Get encouraged and inspired at:  https://twitter.com/imfittobefab
Find out what workouts I tried, how I'm feeling or some encouraging words.  Share with me how your doing, what working, what's not. I would love to have a conversation with you.

Also remember to add me to your Google account and share, share, share!  If you have found this blog encouraging and an enjoyable read, please share with your friends!  I would love to expand my range of influence.

Thank you all for being faithful readers I have enjoyed this journey so far and hope that it continues to grow and expand into great things!

Take care all my fab friends!

What is up with my Skin?

For those who know me, you will know the battle I have faced with my complexion, for years I struggled with acne.

It started in my teen years, I always seemed to have a pimple on my face but it wasn't overwhelming or all over. I was using special cleansers for acne but nothing else. It wasn't until I got into my twenties that things went really bad. So off to the doctor's I went. My doctor put me on Diane 35 and my skin cleared up. I was on the medication for about a year and once I finished my skin was fine for about a couple of years after that. Then out of the blue my skin started to break out – but this time worse than before. It was horrible. I had a lot of big deep pimples and I would get a lot of white heads (gross). It was emotionally very hard to deal with because I was approaching my mid twenties and feeling very insecure about this “teenage” problem. So back to the doctor's office I went. This time I was prescribed Accutane. This was the last resort option by my doctor considering all the risks and side affects of the drug. With a little prayer I started my prescription and faithfully stayed on it for about 6 months with no issues. My skin cleared up and I was so happy with the results.

My skin stayed great until after I got pregnant for the second time. When I was pregnant with my son I started to break out a bit – not too bad – but enough to be annoying. I figured I'm pregnant this is what happens. After having my son my skin got better but when I hit thirty my skin started to break out again. Not bad like in my mid twenties, but I was getting those deep pimples again that take forever to heal. I was so frustrated. I didn't want to go back on Accutane knowing the risks, but I needed to do something.

That is when I decided to do some research. I hopped online and started searching foods that heal the skin. I made a huge list of foods that were rich in vitamin A, C, E, Omega fatty acids and zinc and started incorporating more of them in my diet. This is about the same time that I started to work out on a regular basis and increase my water intake. I also decided to cut back on how often I wore make-up and I stopped taking my multivitamin (which was advised to me by someone else who struggled with acne).

After about a month or so of these changes I noticed something, my skin looked good! Not only had the acne subsided but the scars were starting to fade quite a bit as well. It has been a year so far and my skin looks really good. I go out in public makeup free and don't feel self conscious or insecure

(which is so freeing). I do still get the occasional pimple – it happens to all of us – bit compared to where I have been these changes have been amazing.

me and my fab skin :)

I truly believe that what we put in our bodies will have an effect on our health and well being. I am not saying that if you struggle with acne or anything else to not refer with your doctor, you doctor is there to help you and guide you in what is best with your situation. I think we will all gain from making healthier choices. We will see it in our skin, our energy levels, even in our ability to focus and handle stress and so much more! 

I hope that this post has encouraged you in your journey to become fit to be fab!

It`s all about the Small Changes

Found on Pinterest

How I got my Start (Part 2)

Last week in my post I shared how I got my start into fitness and a bit of the struggles I faced when I was younger.  As promised this week's post is about what I have been doing for the last year or so to become healthier and fitter. 

It has been a journey, one that I thought would be a lot harder than it actually has been.  Over the years I have taken many health, fitness and nutrition courses in my college programs and have learned a lot about being healthy and fit.  I have also continued to educate myself as I've gotten older so that I can make the best choices for myself and my family when it comes to food and healthy living.

About a year ago I decided that it was more important for me to be healthy and strong than try to be as skinny as I was in high school.  I decided that I wanted to be healthier to ward of disease and illness.  I found that working in a grocery store and not being fit was making it hard to lift those full reusable bags. They just seamed to be getting heavier and heavier - but reality was I was getting weaker.  Enough was enough, I was done with that.  I needed to make a change so I could be the person I felt I was on the inside.

I took the knowledge I knew already and started making small changes one at a time.  This is the key - taking it slow and steady.  Too many changes at once is hard to maintain and frustrating.  It's much easier to make smaller simple changes.

I also had another motive, my skin.  Which I will share in next weeks blog.

So what did I do exactly?  First I started eating more vegetables and I would be adventurous and try ones that I had never tried before. I found new vegetables that I really like - who would have thought! I have always loved my fruit so that was not something I needed to work on.  As well I upped my water intake, now I try and carry a water bottle with me everywhere.

Next thing I did was switch to whole wheat or more nutrient dense grains.  I only buy multigrain breads and pastas and I  added quinoa and brown rice to my diet as well.

The next major step was to cut out the sweets so now I only buy those on occasions, more so for the kids than for me.  I usually now bake my own so I know what is going in them.

And the last major step I have taken more recently is cutting out all our processed foods.  I rarely buy processed sausages, lunch meats, hotdogs, hamburgers, cheese slices  and even those packaged pasta side dishes (Side Kicks, rice).  I have noticed that those things that I used to think tasted so good now don't even taste that great to me.  Funny how that happens.


To get my fitness going I found something that I love to do.  That is the key - you need to have fun with fitness.  I do workout videos on You Tube about 3 - 5 days a week.  This gives me variety and fun in my workouts.

And that is it, these are the steps I have taken over the last year.  And like I mentioned before it's all about taking one step at a time, not overwhelming myself. 

I want to hear from you!  What are some healthier lifestyle choices you have made?  What are some of your challenges?  Let's share and work together.  I want to help you with your journey to becoming fit to be fab!

How I got my Start...

Healthier choices don't always come easy for a girl like me, especially since I really like – or should I say – love my sweets. It has been a journey that I have walked for the last year. So what have I done to get healthier you ask?

Well I'm glad you did because I really want to share. But before I get to that let me tell you where I have come from. This goes all the way back to high school. When I was in grade 11 I took a gym class that was geared to specific goals i.e. Getting strong, losing weight, etc. So I decided at that time that I needed to lose 10 lbs. Don't ask my why, because I was pretty thin, except I just didn't see that at the time. So I started working out which I found out I loved. But at the time I didn't really educate myself on how to eat properly I just ate light. However I could not resist those under-baked chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria – they were so good!

When I went off to college I was in the best shape of my life. I was going to the gym 5 days a week working out for an hour and half to 2 hours a day. I could run for what seamed like forever and I did all the hardest workout classes. Those were my favourite and still are to this day.

But as it goes in college I put on weight, maybe it had to do with the fact that I was eating out pretty much every weekend. Needless to say as the years went by the clothes got a bit tighter and the hips and thighs got a little wider. I started working full time and had to drop my gym membership because of the lack of time. Over the years I had moved cities and was working two jobs. Did I mentioned my two jobs were in two different cities. I was working 7 days a week and I was tired. When I had down time I didn't want to work out but I did get a gym membership to see if I could get back to my old self. I found that being tired and trying to get up at 5:30 in the morning was very difficult. Still at this point I thought I knew how to eat properly – but looking back now with what I know now I see that I knew a little bit but I was still making a lot of poor choices when it came to food.

I was my heaviest after I had my first child weighing about 140lbs and with a 4'11” frame that was a lot of weight. I did lose a bit of weight with my second child but I was still very unhappy with how I looked and felt.

After my second child I met my now husband – and wouldn't you know he was a fitness buff who worked out all the time and ate really clean, no pressure really! But that was the start. That was when I realized that I needed to do something different and more importantly that I could do something different. Would it be easy – probably not – but was it possible – most definitely.

So what changes did I implement? How long did it take? What struggles have I faced? Well I guess you will have to wait till next week to find out.

Until then lets stay fab!