Happy Monday, friends!  I wanted to share my 10 Day Challenge plan with all of you!

I’m not a very well disciplined person.  I want to work out every day and be the girl who can say no to the chocolate or cakes or cookies at work, but the reality is that I don’t work out every day and more times than not I’m the first person willing to cave into the sweets!  Nick and I came up with this 10-day Challenge where we take 10 days to work on something we’d like to improve on.  We usually take a few days break in between the 10 days, but so far it’s been really good!

The first 10 day challenge we did was to only drink water – no soda’s, no sweet tea, no coffee with cream or sugar.  Our goals were to 1. Get more water (which I so desperately needed!) and 2. Cut back on the amount of sugar we intake from drinks.  The end result was that I now drink more water during work and I don’t have to have sweet tea anymore, I actually really LOVE unsweet tea with 3-4 lemons squeezed in it!  I would say both of those things are positives and improved my life.

The second 10 day challenge we are taking starts today and it’s a vegan challenge!  A few months back we tried to go vegan for a few weeks.  We did alright for a little while, but it ended up being too time-consuming and a little more expensive than originally expected.  Enter – 10 day challenge!  Perfect amount of time to not feel like I’m spending too much money and I can pre-plan for the 10 days pretty easily.  We are both big advocates of vegan eating, there are just so many benefits and there are a lot of alternatives besides just fruits and veggies like many people think!  When I ate vegan a few months back, I was feeling WONDERFUL!  I had lost a few pounds, felt good and healthy, and at the time I wasn’t working out because work was super busy.  I’m really excited about this challenge and I’ve already done most of the meal planning and grocery shopping!

Wish me luck as I spend the next 10 days eating vegan! I’ll share some of the recipes with you as I go along!

I’ve wanted to try kale chips for a while, but honestly, I was a little nervous! 

2 Bunches of Kale

EVOO

Salt

Pepper

Other Seasoning

Pull your kale off the stems and toss with 1 tbsp. EVOO, salt, and pepper.  I added a little cayenne pepper and cajun spice to my kale chips because I was worried they wouldn’t have enough taste to them.  

Once you’ve tossed your kale, Spread them out on 2 baking sheets (with edges).

Bake for 20 minutes at 300 degrees (one sheet on each shelf in the oven), then flip the baking sheets to the other shelf and bake another 20 minutes.  

*Add plenty of seasoning!! I wish I had added more to mine, they tasted alright for a 1st attempt at kale chips, but next time I’ll focus more on how I flavor them!  

When I first started experimenting with veganism, I fell in love with this cookbook, Vegan Cooking for Carnivores!  I would check it out and the book, Main Street Vegan, if you decide to try out veganism!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Have a great Monday, friends!

Happy Friday!

Dear Friday, Is it strange that I’m always excited to see you!?  Dear Unknown Future, I know there is a plan and I’m trusting that the Lord will make a way and guide the path.  Dear Inner-Self that likes to worry, DON’T.  Dear Reeses, if you ever needed a spokesperson, I’m pretty sure I’d be your girl!  Dear Chelsey, I enjoyed catching up last night and I thank you for the verses of encouragement you shared as I struggle with this season of my life that is uncertain.  Dear Jamey, thanks for getting up with me this morning to run!  Dear Disney Wine & Dine Half-Marathon, I will conquer you and have a grand ole’ time doing it with some of the greatest friends!  Dear new running shoe insoles, I have a feeling that we have some issues, but I think I’m beginning to get use to you, so hopefully this will be a happy running partnership between us!  Dear Weekend, expect to be busy, but it’ll be a fun and productive time!