Protein Boost Recipes

At a loss for healthy, pre-made snacks for you AND your family that help keep you full for longer, and meet your need for protein?  Believe me, ME TOO!  My kids seem to be eating constantly!  It is not unusual for me to still be washing up from a meal and see little (boy) feet sticking out of my fridge.  We go through a HUGE amount of meat and cheese around here, as well as less healthy choices, like granola bars.  Whether I want to limit the junk (boxed snacks), or watch the budget (meat and cheese), protein bites and shakes are my go-to.

These are a favorite snack recipe of our whole family.  Seth even takes these out in the field.  And they're freezer-friendly, so feel free to double up the recipe!

Chickens in My Kitchen 5 Minute Superfood Protein Bites

1 c almond butter (can sub peanut butter if you like)
1/2 c honey*
2 t vanilla extract
1/3 c Arbonne Vanilla Protein Powder**
1/3 c Arbonne Chocolate Protein Powder**
1/3 c flax seeds
1/3 c chia seeds
1 c steel cut oats
4 T mini chocolate chips

*For no-sugar bites, you may substitute liquid stevia for the honey (to taste-try 1 T to start, and adjust from there), and then also substitute Arbonne's new sugar- and sweetener-free Daily Protein Boost for our flavored proteins.  Of course, remove the chocolate chips as well.  :)
**Notes: you can make these with all one flavor of protein powder if you like.

1. In a microwave safe bowl, mix almond butter and honey, and microwave for 1 minute, or until you can easily mix them together.  Add vanilla extract.  Mix again.

2.  In the meantime, in a large bowl, mix all other ingredients.

3.  Add the almond butter mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix well.  The chocolate chips may melt.  That is okay!

4.  Using a cookie scoop or large spoon, between your hands to form 1 inch balls.  *You can also press into a 9 by 13 pan and then cut into squares

5.  Refrigerate for an hour before eating, or freeze immediately.  Keep refrigerated when you can, as the bites tend to crumble a bit when warm.  If you need to travel with them, keep frozen and let them defrost as your day goes on.


Help a girl out....what's your favorite healthy snack?

5 Tips for Staying Healthy on the Road

Since starting my Arbonne business almost two years ago, I have gotten SO many amazing travel opportunities (Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Seattle, Arizona, DC, Miami, Tennessee, NYC, Charlotte, just to name a few).

Charlotte enjoying the Virgin Islands, Arbonne Trip 2015

In fact, I just returned from a great week in Las Vegas for our Global Training Conference (SUCH a great week, but more on that later!).  Through our Clean Eating Challenge program, many of you have told me that sticking to your health and fitness goals while traveling, for work or otherwise, is a big struggle.  Here are a few tips that I use to make sure I stay on plan while I am traveling:

1. Preparation is KEY

Just like when you are eating clean at home, sticking to your priorities on the road will take some good preparation. If you usually spend Sunday afternoon meal prepping, do that exact thing for your trip!   First of all, plan ahead.  Do you need to order anything special?  Ready to drink shakes? Single protein packets?  A blender bottle?  Order those at least a week ahead of time.

Then, think about how you will handle meals, and get your nutrition needs packed up.  For breakfast, maybe pack your blender bottle, individual packets of protein, and any other supplements.  For lunches, consider whether you will be in the car all day (need nutrition bars and individual packets of almond butter, or ready-to-drink shakes to avoid the drive through), or having business lunches (plan what you will choose right now-”I will have a piece of fish and a vegetable”) for lunch everyday.  Put sturdy snacks in your luggage.  Powdered greens are a great safeguard against a no-vegetable trip. This seems obvious, but most of us don't even consider planning our nutrition on a trip.

Next, look at your schedule and plan your workouts.  Commit to how many workouts you will get in while you are gone.  These days, that is much easier than it used to be.    I am so grateful that Arbonne so highly values health that they offer group workout options for us, but if that is not your situation, plan them for yourself!  (In fact, maybe a friend or colleague would appreciate the invitation to join you!  Encourage each other!)

Arbonne charitable workout for Hope for Haiti #gtc2016

Group yoga to benefit Arbonne Charitable Foundation #gtc2016

Running or walking is always a simple option.  It has the added benefits of needing only a pair of shoes, and also allowing you to explore the area!

One of the ways I have been introduced to awesome new workouts is to take every opportunity for new classes.  Are you traveling to a big city?  It is a great chance to try that awesome class that everybody raves about!  Are you in a scenic area?  Ask friends for recommendations for a hiking spot or walking trail.  Are you visiting someone who is passionate about a certain workout?  Let them introduce you to their fav!  That is how I tried a barre class, and it is a regular part of my routine now.

Hiking on trip in AZ

If you know that you will have a crazy trip with little downtime or no good options, consider signing up for streaming workouts.  This is what I do when I am home on the farm.  My personal favorite is Physique57 streaming because they offer a free 1 week trial.  Other great options include Tracey Anderson streaming, or Barre 3 streaming.  All of those choices offer no-equipment workouts that you could easily do in a hotel room.

So how do you fit all this into your traveling schedule?

2. Prioritize

Write down your goals, and commit to sticking to them.

One important way to make sure that happens is to spend the money: pay for the exercise class, the daily gym pass, whatever it takes.  Buy the blender bottle, the single serve protein, the stacking containers, the PB 2.  Why?  Because you need to make staying healthy as easy as possible.  Making small investments in necessary preparation is an essential part of that.  

If at all possible, make it a priority to go to the market when you first arrive and grab clean food that can be kept in your room fridge: hardboiled eggs, precut veggies and hummus, non-dairy milks, water.

If you track your food using a diet and fitness calculator, consider where you want to spend your calories/macros.  Don't stray from that plan except for a truly once in a lifetime treat.  (Airport food ain’t that).   Planning ahead will help enormously here.

For example, here is the difference in Starbucks v Arbonne's Fizz Sticks nutrition:

If you are committed to staying on plan, do you really want to spend THIRTY TWO grams of sugar on one coffee?

Another important way to prioritize is to discipline yourself for what you want the most!  

Leave the party early so you can get up early and squeeze in that workout.  If all else fails, walk laps at the airport.  Ask your business contact or friend to meet you for an active meeting instead of a drink.  I have done this with great success several times lately, and gotten to have some great experiences as a result.

Barre 3 Studio, Georgetown

3. Essential Take Alongs

So what to pack?

For me, these are essential take alongs, and I can fit most of it into one gallon size ziplock.

• Protein packets
• Ready to Drink shakes (for car travel, or ship ahead)
• Fiber (35 g of fiber per day has been proven to help you eat 245 less calories per day without noticing)
• Fizz Sticks
• Greens
• Digestion Plus
• Sleep Spray
• Blender bottle
• Stacking cups
• Nutrition bars
• Complete Hydration

4. Stay Flexible

Let's say you slept through your planned workout this morning. You're giving up on today, right?! NO. Figure out a way to squeeze something in! Walk laps in the airport. Do a 7 minute HIIT workout (there are apps for this!). What if your boss just loves fast food, beer, and general shenanigans? (Well, don't we all?!) Make the best choice you can-check the nutrition info, order a club soda and lime, plead jet lag and get back to the hotel-whatever it takes. Don't let your perfect plan be the enemy of a good alternative choice. Staying on track is absolutely about a "no matter what" attitude than it is about sticking to any one small part of your plan.

5. Tips & Trips

• Packets of single serve protein are perfect for when you are only using a carry on bag. Make sure you have your blender cup and stacker ready to go in your bag for your travel day.
• Ready-to-drink shakes are the gold standard for car trips and checked luggage. SO easy.
• If you will be in one place for more than a few days, consider sending nutrition ahead to the hotel. Most hotels will hold boxes for you at the front desk. That will save you some weight in your luggage.
• Stay on your probiotic, for two huge reasons. 1) Many people suffer from tummy trouble while traveling, and your probiotic is essntial to protecting your digestion, and 2) Do you know that a large percentage of your immunity resides in your gut health? By being consistent with your probiotic, you can save yourself all that crud many of us pick up while traveling.
• Bring your own water bottle. Keep it filled. Enough said.
• Commit to keep using your trackers, especially if you normally do at home-My Fitness Pal will give you nutrition information on most restaurants. Even if you are planning on indulging, keep yourself accountable by tracking everything!
• Write down your goals and keep them with you. WHY do you want to stick to your plan? What is your end goal? Keep these with you to remind yourself when you are tired from travel and feel like diving into a mediocre pizza.
• Try to get a friend to commit with you. If you can chat throughout the day, it will help keep you accountable. Even better if you two are traveling together. It is so much easier and more fun to make healthy decisions together. Encourage each other when one is feeling weak!
• Make the effort. This is key. Work hard ahead of time so that your decisions are easier later. For example, pack food for airport on travel days, don't plan eat fast food and hope you will find something healthy.  Start yourself off on the right foot.
• A quick example of what I ate while I was gone last week:
• Breakfasts: protein shakes made in the room, with fiber, Digestion Plus, and PB2. Prepared and packed in my tote: Fizz Sticks made with Greens
• Lunches: Always protein and a veggie combination of some kind at a restaurant. Made sure to get in a healthy fat (avocado is a good bet)
• Dinner: (admittedly, at 11pm most nights): Again, protein and veggie combo. I even got a beautiful salad from room service one night. And champagne. Because vacation.
• Snacks: bags of almonds, another protein shake, or nutrition bars in my tote. We also keep veggies and hummus, and some meat and cheese in our hotel fridge. Cut myself off coffee before 2 pm, stuck to fizz sticks so that my sleep wasn't disturbed.

May you be encouraged in your efforts to stay healthy while traveling! Tell me, what are your traveling healthy tips? I challenge you to make one healthy swap this week, whether you are on the road or not.

A Year in the Making: How Arbonne Taught Me to Live Inspired

Hello faithful friends!  I apologize for being inconsistent with this space in the last year or so.  So many exciting things have happened in that time that took my time and attention, but I have missed chatting with you all.  I am committed to making the room for this in my life again.

In the meantime, let's catch up!  As I alluded to above, it has been a surprising and fun couple of years.  First of all, my family is healthy and well, and growing up quickly.  Those babies are now almost 11, almost nine, seven, five, and three.  Not exactly babies anymore.  I am everyday both delighted and exhausted by all their energy and passion for life.  There are a lot of feelings and talking and NOISE in this tiny house.  We are still happily homeschooling, so I feel blessed that we get to spend all our days together.  In addition to farming, Seth has started another business of his own doing sales and service for precision planting.  His business is absolutely exploding at this time of year, right before planting season.

Olivia, 10.  Amelia, 8.  Charlotte, 7.  Henry, 5.  Griffin, 3.

The biggest surprise of these years has been my Arbonne business.  When I started a little less than two years ago, I was just terrified.  I thought there was no way that a business like this could work.  I thought that I had absolutely no time to fit anything else into my life, let alone my own business.  I thought that I couldn't be successful at a network marketing business, because I didn't know anyone here.

Well.   I have never been happier to be wrong in my whole life.  Ten months after beginning my business with all that fear, I promoted to Vice President and earned a free Mercedes.  In the past two years, my business partners and I have been able to build an incredible team of people across about twenty states and three countries, people who motivate and inspire me everyday, and who have achieved considerable success themselves.  In our first full year of business, my team did almost a million dollars in sales, and we promoted 22 people to the position where they make $1000+ per month.  We promoted five people to the level where they make $2500+ per month, and this year, we are ready to help three more women earn their own free Mercedes before 2016 ends.  My personal business now brings home six figures a year.

More than that, we have been able to give back in big ways.  We have been delighted to support many causes that you told me are important to you (March of Dimes, St. Baldrick's, Girls on the Run, Boys and Girls Club, Volunteers of America, and several smaller local needs).  But the biggest success of this year is the tiny part we played in supporting the Hope for Haiti project.  Last month, the Arbonne VPs leading that project had an idea for a FB auction of gently used clothes and accessories.  We hoped the auction could raise $40,000.  We raised $300,000 in four days and CLOSED DOWN the project.  As a result of that vision and the work of so many, all 90 families who were still homeless from the 2010 earthquake now will have homes.  A few weeks later, the ground has already been broken for their houses.

I cannot explain the surprise and blessing of this, except that so many people have been incredibly generous, have consistently worked hard, and have dreamed much bigger than seems realistic.  THANK YOU, for the part that each of you has played in supporting my business.  So many of you have hosted small groups for me, referred me to other successful business people, and introduced me to your contacts.  Thank you for those of you who have loyally purchased products, written me glowing reviews, and joined my team.  I cannot tell you what it means to me to have your continued support as my little business grows.

Just a little Arbonne fun from the past two years

When I started my Arbonne business, I thought that I wanted to help Seth pay off my law school loans.  As it turns out, I am not motivated by that goal at all.  But it did lead me to my passion-helping people find a third career path.  Many of us were taught that if you work hard and do well in school, go to college and go to grad school, then you will get a great job and be successful.  Well, for the most part, that turned out to be true.  Except that we were working more and more and more hours.  And we had a bunch of grad school debt.  And then we had babies, and we found that we didn't want to work more than full-time and not see their sweet faces all week long.  But what were the options?

I know many women in that position who eventually decided to become stay at home mamas, as I did.  While I have loved being home full-time for almost 10 years now, I always felt a tug to be using a different part of my brain.  But I truly believed there was no other option (that would allow me to keep time with my family first) between working out of the home, and being a stay at home mom.

Arbonne IS that third path.  I am now able to run a thriving business, while still being at home every day, educating and raising my kiddos.  You can only imagine my surprise-before I began with Arbonne, I seriously believed that people who had direct sales businesses were sad and lonely people, who spent far more money with their silly companies than they earned.  (Sorry sorry sorry!  I really did think that!).  Helping people on this third path to career success is now my passion.  It is what gets me moving early everyday, and keeps me up late at night!  I have never felt as fulfilled and inspired as I do now, and I am able to have my business work around my first love, my family.

Mercedes Presentation Party, May 2015

Now that you have been very lengthily updated, where do we go from here?  :)

Well, as promised, I am going to be more consistent with this space.  Sharing ideas and conversation is a deep-rooted joy of mine, and I am going to make time to do that with you more.

There will also be a small shift in the conversation here-in the past, I have written mostly about babies and home and farming, and I will continue to do that.  Those are as essential to my life as they have ever been.  But Arbonne has also opened up a whole new group of passions for me, namely: healthy living, skincare and makeup, goal-setting and entrepreneurship, and even fashion.  So you will begin to see a small sprinkling of these topics as well.  I am hoping to bring you tasty (and group-tested!) clean eating recipes, makeup and skincare reviews, and a peek inside my business life.

I hope you will continue to stick with me and enjoy a broader range of topics here.  If you like what you read, can I ask you to share this page, as you have done so many times in the past?  You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram (@sodellwenzel), or Pinterest to hear more antics from our house everyday!

And of course, I always love hearing from you in the comments!  Tell me, what is the biggest, most exciting thing that has happened to YOU in the past year?  I am anxious to hear...