Loving myself (why I will never compete in a bikini competition)

 I've spent many years of my life looking in awe at bikini competitors and I thought the only way I could look like that is if I lifted, did cardio, and starved myself. 

I hate to say this but a majority of bikini competitors reach their physiques in ways that don't appeal to me at all. 

Low carbs. No thanks.

Cardio. Yes, I love running distances but when I label it as cardio (ex. Staiemaster, elliptical, running for exercise and not enjoyment) and not for enjoyment or the bettering of my running, I start hating exercise. And that shouldn't happen. I strongly encourage everyone go watch Katiesfitscript on competing and why she will never do it again. I get a rush from running. I don't get a rush from eating no food and forcing myself to exercise. 

I love just doing into the gym and lifting whatever muscle I feel like lifting that day. I love going out and running 8 miles. I love health and all that goes with it. 

Exercise should be fun. If you enjoy competing, that's awesome! I applaud you! If you enjoy running (as I do) then you should be applauded as well. 

Love yourself! :)

Happy National Peace Day!!

Today is National Peace Day.

I also changed the layout and look of my blog. :) I will be posting more fashion looks along with my reviews and lifestyle tips. :))

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Spread the love. If somebody is different, that's just who they are. Accept that not everybody conforms to societys idea of "normal."

Happy Living, Macy.

WHAT I'M WEARING:

Leggings: TJ MAXX
Sweater: Kohl's

Shoes: Birkenstocks

Peanut Butter Banana Protein Bars (Nature Valley Dupe!)

Hey everyone, As I was sitting at home today, Inspiration struck me. So I ran out to the store and got some things and came home and started baking.

Today I am making these delicious, and secretly healthy, Peanut Butter Banana Protein Bars. YAY!!!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 RIPE Banana
• 2 TBSP of Peanut Powder (I used JIF)
• 1 TBSP of Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (I used Great Value Brand)**
• 1 cup oats (Quick or Steel Cut will work) 
• 1/2 Scoop of Protein Powder (can omit if desired)

**If you don't want the fat from the peanut butter, I would add more mashed banana

Directions

1. Mash your banana and add into a bowl. Make sure it's completely mashed or it won't bind as well.
2. Add both of your peanut butter products. (powder and regular)
3. Add oats
4. Mix thoroughly.
5. Fold in Protein Powder until completely mixed.
6. Bake in Oven at 355* for 8-12 minutes.
7. Top with desired toppings, (I used chia)

The longer you cook the harder they will be and more similar to the Nature Valley bars they will get, but make sure you don't burn though.

ENJOY and HAPPY LIVING :-)

PowerBar Triple Threat Peanut Butter Caramel Bar Review!!

Yummy. Just yummy. 

So I was on Instagram the other day and I saw iifym_queen (aka Andrea) post about how good this protein bar was. And of course I was skeptical because I've NEVER been a fan of the original powerbars, at least the ones I've tried, so I was very intrigued. Lucky enough for me, my nearest gas station had some of these so I bought two right away for $1.89 and called it day (haha bought more than two who am I kidding) 

So basically, this is good. Like really good. I would honestly compare it to a healthy tasting snickers. Now, I am not the biggest fan of caramel but this doesn't have too much where it ends up overpowering you. It has just a nice spread of caramel. 😍 here's an inside shot: (for some reason all my pictures flipped 

Now in the picture you would think that middle part would be crunchy? It's not. It's like a soft cookie texture (and almost taste!) it's sooo good. 

Now I wouldn't buy these all the time since they don't have the cleanest ingredients out there, BUT like I preach on my Instagram page (@Simplymacyslife) everything is ok in moderation. 

I give this a solid 9 out of 10. Only reason I'm nknocking a point off is because it melts sooooo quickly. 

Happy living, 

Macy xx

YOUTUBE?!?!

Hey friends, GUESS WHAT? I made a YouTube!!!!!! My name is Simply Macy's Life (duh) Since I am passionate about many things, and not just fitness, I plan on posting all sorts of types of videos!! I love food, fashion, fitness, motivational speaking, and tech stuff. I am so excited to post blogs and other videos!!!! The link is: www.youtube.com/simplymacyslife (the link should work if not then just search in Simply Macy's life in the search bar of YouTube) I already have two vlogs of my typical day up so please check those out and subscribe for some exciting content coming up!!

Happy living, Macy :-) 

Luna Chocolate Chip Brownie Review!

Went to target again today. (Of course) (I work by target) (spend to much money there) (I love target) ;)

Okay, so where I work, we just moved offices and we are now by a target! I only have a few days left (tear tear)! Now usually I don't normally go to target, because A. I just usually go wherever my Dad chooses to grocery shop. B. I never think about going to Target. (That's definitely changed) they have such a better variety of nut butters and food and protein bars and AHHH TAKE MY MONEY hahah

So today, I picked up a few different kinds of protein bars (aka I bought mostly my fav Luna protein bars and then decided to try one new one) and this one looked good so I decided to give it a go! I was kind of in a hurry so I just grabbed this or I would've picked up a few others too! 

This is what the packaging looks like. Believe it or not, this is the first Lara Bar I've ever tried! 

First impression: the texture was so strange! It was like chewy but very soft at the same time. It's a date base, so it's pretty much the same as any other date based bar. The macros are alright, I think there was 9 fat and 20 something carb and I'm not sure how much protein. There were chunks of almonds and chocolate chips through out the whole thing. Here's what the inside looks like: 

It tasted like a cross between a date bar and a brownie and it was really good!! I think this would be a good alternative for those of you who don't like clif bars! (I love clif bars) I think this would be amazing heated up and it would be like a gooey brownie!! 

Brb going to buy 12 of these.

Overall I give it a solid 7 out of 10!!

Can't sit to try the other flavors!!:-)

Happy living, Macy! 

Simple Protein Bar Review!! (Double Chocolate)

So as I was roaming the aisles of the grocery store today, I come upon these bars. Of course I had to buy them. Because protein. Chocolate. 75 cents. In my town, we have a store that is like Aldi's but it has all Kroger brand food. It's pretty awesome what you can find there.

So I bought two flavors, the Double chocolate (pictured) and Peanut Butter Extreme.

As soon as I got home, I opened one of these bad boys and gave it a go. It really reminded me of the Pure Protein Brand chocolate brownie protein bars. It has a very chocolatey flavor, and I love it. Call me weird, but I like the protein-y taste of protein bars, so I thought these were reallll good. It had little crisps of cookie bits in it (I think there called Protein Crisps??)

What I love the most about these is that A. There 75 cents per box of 6 at this particular store AND they are made with ingredients I can recognize. (Hence the name Simple)

Overall, I give these a 7 out of 10!! Definitely going to go back and buy like 10 boxes. (Not exaggerating either)


Happy Living, Macy :)

Blueberry Oat Chips Review!

These taste gooooodddd. Like real good. 

The texture is actually strange, it is like a mini rice cake but with little oat flakes covering the outside. There are I think 5 (?) flavors. 

It was dark in my room when I took this, so you can't really see the actual texture. There are 3 servings in this bag and each serving is I think 110 calories and 22 carbs and 1.5 fat. I ate the whole bag. So there's that. They are pretty tiny and I was hungry so I just though, hey CARBS. 😂 I think I would like these better if I had gotten a zestier flavor and not a sweet one but the store I went to only had this and the caramel corn one. 

I give this a 6.5 out of 10. 

Happy living, Macy. 

MiO energy Review!

So recently I've been looking for ways to spice up my water since I drink so dang much (1.5 gallons a day) and I also have been SO tired lately so I decided to try Mio energy! It's originally $3.50ish per bottle but I got both of these flavors on sale for $2.89 at a local grocery store. I'm not sure if there are other flavors but the two I go are called Wicked Blue Citrus and Strawberry Pineapple Spark (makes me think of advocare haha)

They both taste sooooo gooood! There is 1.62 oz. in each bottle or 18 servings per 8 oz. of water! There is also 60 mg of caffeine per squeeze (1/2 tsp). The blue one tastes like a blue-raspberry slushie aka my FAV flavor 😍 and the orange one tastes like pineapple juice so it's sooo good! 

The only thing about these if that you need to be careful about the caffeine because you could easily overdose on caffeine because you can't even tell its in there! Just make sure to not put too terribly much into each squeeze. There are 0 everything in this (calorie,fat,carbs) so that's nice as well. I feel like if your trying to lose weight this would be helpful because the ingredients in it are metabolism boosters. 

As for energy goes, caffeine usually gives me the jitters and this kinda does that too but not to terribly bad. Here are the ingredient list: 

I give this a 9 out of 10! 

Happy living, Macy. 

Healthy Chocolate "Ice Cream"

Who doesn't love chocolate ice cream? Aliens? Who am I kidding, they probably do too. This recipe is literally 150 calories and practically fat free. Did I mention it tastes exactly like a Wendy's frosty? Because yes. BUT it doesn't contain all the nasty preservatives and oils in it. Straight up goodness. Here's what you needs : 

1 frozen banana (essential that it's frozen)

A few ice cubes (I used like 4)

 1-3 tbsp of Cocoa powder (or any chocolate sweetener) (amount depends on how chocolatey you want it)

Here's the one I used: 

And a splash of water. 

Directions: simply put everything in a blender and mix until the banana chunks are broken up with the ice. Here's the final product: 

Here's a tip I've found that makes it taste super good and even more like ice cream: use realllly ripe frozen bananas. 

Hope you enjoy and remember, 

Happy living, Macy. 💜

 

The protein bar gods have spoken

Yes. Yes. Yes. LUNA BAR PROTEIN BAR CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH. YES. 

This is the hands down, best protein bar I've ever tasted. Even better than Quest. (I'll do a post later on those) but seriously this was SO good. I only bought an individual one (98cents ftw) and I'm definitely gonna have to go back and buy a whole box. (6$?) It literally tasted like I was eating a block of cookie dough covered in chocolate and it was the most heavenly thing. Do yourself a favor and go buy these. Now. 

Definitely a 10 out of 10.

Happy living, Macy. 

Mamma Chia Drink Review

DAnother one of my finds from yesterday's shopping trip. It was in the produce section of Walmart and was like 3 dollars for a bottle. 

In the bottled, there is 120 calories, like 4 grams of protein, and 2.5 (?) fat. Overall I'd say the macros are pretty good. There are a lot of omega 3's in this from the chia seeds which is very convenient as well. When I first took a drink, it was SO weird. It was  like drinking blueberry slime with seeds in it. That's not a bad thing either, it just freaked me out for a second. Here's a close up on the bottle; 

It's literally chia seeds soaked in water with added flavors. This whole companies gluten free and vegan which is pretty nice for those of you that are. (I'm Pescatarian). It took me a while to finish this bottle because it literally filled me up. It honestly felt like I was eating breakfast. 😂 There were like 5 other flavors, some of which were very weird. (There was a lemon lime flavor) I'm a big texture person when it comes to food and this was just sooo weird to me. I would honestly try the other flavors just to see what the texture combined with the weird flavor was like. Overall I give this an 8 out of 10. 

Happy living, Macy.

Live your life happily

As I sit here writing this post, I know there are millions of girls (and boys) out there that are feeling insecure about themselves. I just wanna say, you ARE worth it. I know what it feels like to be told you aren't good enough, pretty enough, smart enough. You know who's opinion matters the most? Yours of yourself.

Think about it, In twenty years are you really going to be still crying over the bad grade you got on a test? Bad Track Meet? They boy you like didn't like you back? The answer is most likely not.

GO OUT THERE and live your life to your fullest.

The only person stopping you is you.

You know they saying, "MIND OVER MATTER"? Completely accurate. If you tell yourself that you're a failure, how are you ever going to believe you're going to succeed?

Success is made with many failures.

Happy Living, Macy. 

Life Choice Protein Bar Review

Today as I'm roaming through Walmart, as always, I find myself in the protein bars and health food. (Duh) I was looking and they had this brand (Life Choice) and I had never seen it before so I decided to give it a go. I think it was like $4.00 for a box of 5, which is a decent price I suppose. This is what the package initially looks like before you open it.

( not sure why its upside down)

There were two different flavors. There was this one (double chocolate) and then an extreme peanut butter one. I'm trying to lay off peanut butter things because for me, PB tends to make me want to eat a gallon of ice cream and oreos (JK) but really, PB for me just is a no no. First impression: It looks like a candy bar when you open it, which makes me imagine that is. (if only) Heres what it looks like after I took the first bite.

It wasn't crunchy at all and had a smooth taste to it. The one thing I will say is that these do taste like protein bars. In my book, that's not a bad thing but if somebody else doesn't like the taste of protein powder, they probably wouldn't like these too much. I like that can taste chocolate but it also tastes healthy too which I like. Overall, I give it a 7 outta 10. 

Happy Living, Macy