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5 Quick Snacks to Tide You Over This Summer

June 25, 2019 By Lindsay Gee Leave a Comment

Life is busy, busy and I find that if you plan in advance, you can easily have quick snacks at the ready for those times when you need something fast and easy as you’re managing your crazy summertime life schedule.

Aside from carrying a water bottle around with you (filled with vodka, so no one suspects a thing), I have 5 go-to snacks that help me get through the loooooong summer days and our crazy schedule/

My Favorite Five Quick Snacks:

#1 – Baileys. It’s not just for coffee anymore, my friends. Carry a bottle of Baileys around with you all summer long and you can easily transition from breakfast to afternoon snack. It’s delicious and the added weight in your purse will give you that strength workout you’ve been searching for. Hello, deltoids!

Put the Baileys in your coffee in the morning and over ice in the afternoon. Be sure to use an insulated mug to keep your coffee hot and your ice cold. This snack is calorie dense, so you won’t get hungry AND everything will be delicious.

Warning: You cannot drive with this snack, so plan accordingly.

Why the calories don’t count: It’s summer. You’re surviving. ‘Nuff said.

#2 – Big Cup Peanut Butter Cups. You know you’re going to be toting around a cooler all summer long, so pack these two perfect beauties and set them next to your ice pack for a refreshing and delicious mid-morning or afternoon or late night pick-me-up.

Don’t mess with the mini peanut butter cups – too much work. You know you’re going to eat all 50 minis, so grab the pack of two Big Cups and get on with it. There are only two of them, so you’ll be less likely to have to share with anyone. The minis? Share galore – that’s awful stuff, don’t do that to yourself.

Why the calories don’t count: Summer is so busy you’ll be running around enough to burn the extra delicious calories.

Warning: Peanut allergy? Do not eat these. You will die and that would be awful.

Why I recommend this snack: Um, hello. Have you met a peanut butter cup you didn’t like?! They’re delicious! And I’m certain there’s protein in peanut butter, so you’re now building muscle…peanut butter cup muscle. Woop!

#3 – Two-bite Brownies. There are days when you’re going to have to share and I find that the amount of brownies in a package of two-bite brownies is sufficient to satisfy your personal desire for yum yum yumminess and share with a friend (or your kids, if you have to).

Why the calories don’t count: It’s summer, yo. Fuggetaboutit.

#4 – Bag-O-Chips. I realize not all of you have a sweet tooth, so here’s one for you salt lovers out there. Grab any bag of chips and enjoy. I personally think the Presidents Choice chips are the best. Yummy flavors, thicker cut, inexpensive (so we’re being summertime economical, go us!)…SO YUM.

Warning: Eat chips around me and I’ll smack the bag out of your hand. You keep your crunchy mouth noises away from me, you hear me?!

Why the calories don’t count: Chips are potatoes and potatoes are good for you. Add the salt to sop up any alcohol you may consume and BAM….look at you taking care of your salty self. YAY YOU!

#5 – Dairy Queen or any other fast food ice cream. While you cannot pack this, this is a quick go-to for summer road trips. Watch for that beautiful, big read sign and turn into the parking lot.

There may be lines, so don’t forget to sip from your water bottle (see note above and reminder photo below as to what to have in there). Order whatever the heck you want and enjoy your sweet treat.

Why the calories don’t matter: You’re making memories, baby. Your kids will remember how you always turn into DQ and their squeals of delight cancel out any fat and calorie intake. If you have no kids, you’ll remember how you always turn into DQ and you’ll smile because it is ALWAYS good. Plus, self-care. Look at you taking care of your needs. Good for you!

There you have it. A quick list of easy-to-grab snacks to help get you through the summer!

They’re not good for you…at all. But, they’re delicious. And sometimes, just sometimes you need to ease up on the reigns and enjoy life for a moment.

I guess I do have to say that this piece is pure silliness. While I recommend ALL of the above (except maybe all the drinking and some of the “facts” above), I’m totally joking with this piece. But, I do want you to enjoy your summer and lighten up a bit with respect to the guilt you put on yourself for having a treat.

Keep active. Eat well. Treat yourself when you want to.
Zero guilt this summer.

My Child Has Mental Health But He Also Has a Mental Illness

June 24, 2019 By Lindsay Gee 2 Comments

When my child was diagnosed with a mental illness I was constantly talking about mental health. I was confusing the two terms and replacing “illness” with “health”, mostly because I cringed every time I used the term “mental illness”.

You see, there’s still a stigma around those words, even for a Mom who has been advocating for her son for years and years. I just couldn’t seem to easily say the words “my son has a mental illness”. It was easier to say “I’m raising awareness for mental health” or “I’m pushing hard for my son’s mental health to be taken care of”.

Until one day my son corrected me.

We were talking about the campaign we are doing called #PushingForAwareness where we committed to completing 50 pushups for 50 days to raise awareness for childhood mental illness. BUT…when we first started the campaign I kept saying we were “raising awareness for childhood mental health”.

My son asked, “Is there a difference between health and illness”? I paused, because in that moment I realized I needed to get over the stigma and educate properly.

I told him that we were raising awareness for childhood anxiety and depression.

“And those are illnesses, right? So we should say that we’re raising awareness for childhood mental illness because that’s what we’re doing”, he said.

“You’re right, buddy. You’re 100% right. We’re raising awareness for childhood mental illness.”

You see, everyone has mental health but not everyone has mental illness.

Your mental health slides on a continuum – some days you could have good mental health and other days you could have bad mental health. Stress, sleep, nutrition, life, in general, all lend a hand in dictating your mental health. But mental illness? Well, that gets diagnosed by a professional.

You may notice now that in the live videos we do for our daily pushups that my son introduces it as “raising awareness for mental illness” and after a few weeks, I no longer cringe at those words. I’ve grown accustomed to them and appreciate the power behind them.

I was feeling pretty baffled by my reaction to the words mental illness, but I’ve accepted that it was all based around the stigma we are currently battling. Even though I’ve been battling and I’ve been fighting for my son, I needed to wrap my head around the terms. They’re just words, but wow…words hold power, don’t they?

The more I’ve used the words, the easier it’s gotten. It’s not that I’m ashamed of his diagnosis at all, it’s not that I felt the need to hide it (obviously…sheesh we’re running a whole campaign on it), but I did need to address my cringey reaction to those two words.

And, the answer truly was stigma. It’s a long battle ahead of us to de-stigmatize the word. I know this because even as a true and huge advocate for mental illness, I shirked away from using the correct term for my son…and that’s the problem.

I realize more than ever that the work we need to do to help in the area of destigmatizing (is that even a word?!) the words “mental illness” is massive. However, I also know you can get the heck over it because I have done just that.

So, say it with me “MENTAL ILLNESS”.

My child has a mental illness.

I can say it now and I actually stand a little prouder. I may even throw a shoulder shimmy at you because it’s not scary at all. It’s actually pretty damn empowering.

My son called me out on not addressing the issue and using the incorrect term and I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s not embarrassed by it and he continues to have the amazing conversations about mental illness with adults, friends and random people in the grocery store. So who am I to stand in his way?

If you haven’t checked out his campaign to raise awareness for mental illness, please do so! We have ONE WEEK left and we’re about $1300 short of our $5000 goal.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

“Don’t Talk To Me Like That” – That Time My 8-Year-Old Layed Down the Law

June 23, 2019 By Lindsay Gee Leave a Comment

I want to raise an independent woman. I want to raise a strong woman. I want to raise a woman who stands up for herself but does so with respect and…well…finality, no wishy-washy bullshit…just strength and power.

I want to teach her that her words matter and how she chooses to say those words, the tone she chooses is almost as important as the actual words themselves.

I want my daughter to have a voice that is intelligent, decisive and used to empower her and the person she is.

Oh Lordy…I want all of this for my daughter and in a time where women are taking so many steps forward but constantly getting pushed back, I see my daughter and the strength she exudes in who she is.

Today she was spoken to in a fairly impolite way. To be fair, the man who said the words was trying to be helpful, but his “coaching” came off as condescending and somewhat…what’s the word?…asshole-ish.

I stood up to say something to stand up for my daughter, but then I paused.

I saw my daughter take a deep breath, roll her shoulders back, lift her chin and say:

“Don’t talk to me like that. I don’t like it. You can coach me, I’d like to learn. But please don’t speak to me like that”.

The man’s jaw dropped open and he seemed unable to speak for a few moments.

I smiled, breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down. I watched the man gather himself.

“Sorry, Paytie. My bad. You’re right. What I was trying to say was….” and off they went for a respectful conversation.

And there’s me…watching my daughter do something I’ve fought my entire life to do. She found her voice and without any edge to it was able to communicate how she felt, that she didn’t like it and how the person could fix it.

I mean…SERIOUSLY.

She’s EIGHT.

What a fucking superstar.

She is constantly teaching me and I am constantly in awe of her spark, compassion and overall knowledge of who she is and what she deserves in this sunshine-y life of hers.

“Don’t talk to me like that”.

WHAT A ROCKSTAR.

It really can be that simple. Use your words. Let people know when they’ve over-stepped and find a way to make it work. Or not…of course…some people are just total assholes, but she knows that too. She knows when to walk away.

But today she corrected and became a smarter, more confident woman today. I have no idea if she’ll remember this moment, but I will, and I will use it in my own life to stand up for how I want to be treated.

I love that at 41 I’m learning from my 8 year old. I love that she is strong and powerful and beautiful. I love that she is confident and respectful.

I love that she is who she is and I truly love that she is mine to adore and be in awe of.

Well done, baby girl. Well. Done.

Burpees & Booty Workout

June 22, 2019 By Lindsay Gee Leave a Comment

I adore burpees. Love, love, love them. I feel like they are the most epic full-body workout (if done properly) with a snazzy bit of cardio for your heart health pleasure. See? I can make them sound so great.

I do not, however, love leg day. Truly, I can’t stand it. So I thought the best way for me to get in a good leg workout is to combine it with a lot of burpees.

Fair warning: This is an intermediate to advanced workout, so if you’re starting, I recommend you start with a more basic workout and learn proper form, get stronger and then tackle this beast. Try my 5 & Thrive series…it’s a week-long series of 5-minute workouts targeting different body parts each day. Linked below is Day 7, it has links to all five daily workouts.

CLICK HERE to try out 5 & Thrive.

The Workout:

There are 4 types of burpees and 4 leg exercises. Match up a burpee and a leg exercise, complete 20 reps of the burpee exercise and 50 reps of the leg exercise. Match up another burpee with another leg exercise and continue on until all four burpee and leg exercises are done.

You do not need to do these in order, switch up the order to do what feels “good” to you.

Want a challenge? Think 20 and 50 reps are too few? Okie dokie…I challenge you to 50 burpees and 100 reps of the leg exercise.

Enjoy! Let me know if you give this workout a try! I’d love to know how “burny” it was for you! Because my legs were screamin’ by the end! Good luck! You’re amazing.

Off you go!

It’s Hard to Be Excited When Your Completely Exhausted

June 21, 2019 By Lindsay Gee Leave a Comment

I remember dreading summer last year. Dreading it. I 100% did not want my kids out of school and I 100% did not want summer to start.

I saw other Moms posting things like: “I can’t wait to have my kids home with me all day” and “I can’t wait to make memories with my kiddos all summer”. I’m not kidding when I tell you that I practically dislocated my eyeballs from rolling them so hard and was muttering “fuck off, already” at my screen more times than I care to share.

Last summer I was exhausted. I work from home and that doesn’t mean I’m a stay-at-home Mom…let me be perfectly clear…I work longer hours than most people BECAUSE I work from home. And summers? Summers are harder than anything else.

Why?

Because the pressure is ON to make summer memories for my kids. So, I wake up at 4 am and get 6 hours of work done by 10 am so I can make those GD memories all summer long. Come September…I’m burned out and exhausted.

Early morning require bombass big mugs! Thanks, Chris!

Last year, I had zero reserves. I started the summer exhausted. I remember my kids asking if I was excited about summer and the shitty reality is that I told them “No. No, I am not”. Which I’m sure was pretty damn hurtful.

I was barely surviving last year. I was exhausted in June. I started the summer burned out. I was angry, irritable and overworked. I was unhealthy, sad, depressed and so full of anxiety that I couldn’t breathe.

But, I woke every morning, put my time into my business and tried so hard to get water from this stone.

It was not our best summer. At all. But, we did manage to have some good times.

But this year? I CANNOT WAIT! I’m one of those Moms who is ACTUALLY looking forward to spending time with my kids!

Why?

BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO REST! I’m not starting the summer in a deficit.

Hey, I know by the end of summer I will be tired and done and ready for my twerps to get back to class, but…then I have 10 months before I have to do that all again. I will get up and work at 4 am because I truly cannot wait to explore with my kids. I will put my phone away for hours on end (something I felt I couldn’t do before) and I will live my summer with my kids…beside them, not dragging behind them willing it to be over.

I’m rested, my friends. And that makes ALL the difference in the world. You truly cannot be excited about things if you’re exhausted. There is no physical way you can fake your way through that. Trust me, I tried.

I am finally looking forward to summer again. And that…feels so good.