Home body

Yesterday was the first day in a while that we were home all day.  Well, with the exception of me going to the gym in the morning to get a run in and spin with my favorite instructor.  Oh how I missed her!

For me, there are some pros and cons about being home all day.

Pros ~

• I get a lot of cleaning done, especially when the weather is nice.  It motivates me.
• I drink a TON of water.
• The love nugget gets some good naps in.
• I can catch up on emails and other online tasks.

Cons ~

• I snack more.
• I tend to get cabin fever, I think the love nugget does too.

The pros definitely out way the cons but it depends on the day.  If I hadn’t had a lot of cleaning to do, we might have been really bored!

Due to the fact that I tend to snack more often when I’m home or bored, I make sure to only keep healthy snack options in our house.  Here are a few options that we usually have on hand.

• Fresh, cut up veggies.  Some of my favorites are cucumbers, carrots, celery, daikon radish, and blanched asparagus
• Homemade or store bought hummus to go with the veggies
• Raw, unsalted nuts.  My favorite is raw frozen almonds.  To make sure I don’t eat too many I measure out 1/4 cup and put them in a zip lock bag for quick snacks.  I also keep raw walnuts, cashews, and macadamia nuts on hand so when I want a quick trail mix I just mix them with some cranberries and dark chocolate chips.
• Fresh fruit
• Frozen grapes.  This is a good after dinner sweet treat too!
• Dried cranberries.  I add these to my frozen almonds
• Peanut butter bites
• Homemade granola bars
• Protein powder
• Dark chocolate bar or dark chocolate chips

What healthy snacks do you like to keep on hand?

When I was breastfeeding I bought a HUGE water jug that I helped me to keep up on my fluid intake.  I think it holds 60 ounces or close to it.  When I’m home, I often fill it up and make it a goal to drink at least one a day.  When I get bored with plain water, I add in some sliced lemons or oranges to give it a little flavor.  I’m not a soda drinker, but I do like sparkling water.  Instead of buying flavored sparkling water, I take soda water and pour it over ice.  Add a little unsweetened cranberry juice and a splash of orange juice.  It’s a refreshing, low-calorie, low sugar, yummy beverage!

Since I was home all day yesterday, I had a little time to get together a fun activity for the hubby and I that I found on The Dating Diva’s blog.  A few years ago, we went on a cruise and one night they had a Newly Wed game that they hubby and I were a part of and won!  We both had fun and when I saw this idea, I thought it would be fun to do.  So I prepped it and after dinner we turned off the TV and enjoyed some game time.

I printed it out on card stock, cut and numbered the cards from 1-10 without reading the blue ones.  No cheating 🙂

Then the hubby got the blue, I got the pink and we went through and wrote our answers for each question.

When we were done, we took turns reading a card and allowed the other to give their answer.  If it matched what we had written down, we got 1 point.

Funny, we each scored 7 points!

All in all it was fun and a good way to spend the evening rather than watching TV or sitting on our computers 🙂