I’m always struggling to add more routine to my schedule but the nature of my work means I’m almost always running around the city and fitting in things whenever I can, and that includes working out, spending quality with friends and, of course, the pets (Billie Jean needs to get plenty of exercise!), and eating well.
Having healthy snacks makes my life a helluva lot easier. I don’t always have time to make a smoothie or bake superhero muffins, so snacks from Kind Snacks, for one, often save the day. So I’m so happy to join the #snackKIND movement as an ambassador!
I’ve long been a fan of their bars. You can see the whole ingredients they’re made of, and when you compare it to other bars on the market, they contain much less sugar (5 grams compared to 23 grams). And they have such a variety of flavours (and gourmet combinations at that!), so there’s always something that appeals to me (almond sea salt and dark chocolate when I’m craving something more dessert-like, or almond coconut when I want something with a hint of tropical fun—coconut always takes me away to a faraway beach).
Add to this some of their newer offerings and I’m a snackKIND fan for life. The Breakfast Bars are more substantial in size and it’s something I can eat quickly and easily as I’m rushing out and onto a streetcar to get to a meeting. The Almond Butter Breakfast Bar has saved me from starting off the day hangry more times than i can count. And because some days I schedule my day so tightly going from one event to another and I forget to schedule in important things like stopping for a bite to eat, I always try to keep either a Kind Bar or a Kind Healthy Grains bar in my purse. The Healthy Grains bars are more like the granola bars I grew up with (and they’re thinner and crunchier than the Breakfast Bars) and these convenient 150-calorie bars are filling enough to keep me going until I have time to stop for a meal. My fave is the Maple Pumpkin Seeds with Sea Salt, perfectly sweet and savoury. (Oh, and the Healthy Grains bars are all gluten-free, for those of you who follow a GF diet!).
Last but not least are their Pressed by Kind Bars. I think of these as healthy versions of a fruit roll-up. They’re only made of either fruit and veggies or fruit and chia, and sometimes I’m just more in the mood for something fruity and not nuts, grains or seeds, and since I can’t stash a fresh fruit in my purse all the time (I’ve had too many apples and bananas get too bruised and forgotten about in the depths of my handbag!) I can stash one of these bars as an essential emergency fruit snack. Since these are conveniently portable (more so than fresh fruit), I also often travel with a Pressed by Kind bar when I’m out of town. Oh, and each bar is two servings of fruit (and getting my RDA of fruit and veggies is something I’m always working on!).
Are you a Kind Snacks fan, too? I’d love to hear your faves (I’m sure I haven’t tried all the flavours yet!).
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November 19, 2018
When you work freelance like I do, and you make your own schedule, it can be both a blessing and a curse. Sure, if I want to take the afternoon off because it’s a gorgeous sunny day, I can…but it also means I’m always juggling my schedule and fitting in meeting, events, fitness and a social life however/whenever I can.
As much as a 9-to-5 job can be a drag, sometimes I envy the structure it gives your life. Although that does mean you have to cram everything else outside of those hours, doesn’t it? So life can get chaotic for all of us–whether it’s kids, fitness, travel, friends, work–we all have times we feel like we’re just struggling to stay ahead of it all.
How do I juggle my responsibilities and make it work? It’s not rocket science by any means but here are three ways I’ve found have helped make my busy schedule more manageable.
Snack on the go. I try to eat three meals a day, and snack as needed depending on my workouts and how hungry I am. But sometimes i legitimately forget to include time to grab a meal because I’ve scheduled my day to run from one meeting to another. And often, since I’m not a morning person, I’m running out the door trying to get to an early workout or event, and I haven’t eaten a thing. This is why ready-to-go snacks like Good & Simple Muffins and Bars are a staple in my house. I’m partial to the Bars (they’re just easier to eat and I find they taste slightly less sweet than the muffins); Walnut and Grains is my fave but the Blueberry Oatmeal is a close second. Made with real ingredients such as whole grains (in the blueberry oatmeal bar, for example, there’s 13 grams of whole grains in each bar) and no artificial flavours or colours, Good & Simple offers a wholesome and tasty quick way to fuel up quickly and when you’re on the move.
Create some routine to your day to day. While I love making my own schedule (although I do curse that very same thing when I’ve taken a few hours off in the day to go to a sample sale and I’m typing away on my computer at 2 a.m.!) , going through each day with zero structure can be taxing mentally. So I try to have some routine to my day: I try to do a quick journal entry morning and night (this is still a work in progress), and now walking my recently adopted dog, Billie Jean, a minimum of three times a day helps me break up my schedule into distinct chunks of time, which makes managing my time easier to do.
Find a calendar that works for you. My smartphone calendar is my bible. I use the Informant app to keep track of my events, meetings, phone calls, deadlines, workouts, appointments and plans with friends. It’s all colour-coded, and I’m very, very lost without it and refer to it a few times a day. I didn’t find the iCal had all the functionality I wanted, which is why I purchased Informant. Before I bought it, I was forgetting about deadlines from time to time. It remains the most expensive app I’ve ever bought but it was worth it (and that’s even without using it to its full capabilities, I still need to learn how to make use of all of its features).
I’d love to know if you have ways to streamline your busy life! And in the meanwhile, to learn more about Good & Simple, which are now available in Ontario, here.
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July 27, 2017
