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Elf For Health is back for another year and it’s time to kick things off! There have been some changes this year so please read this post carefully if you’ve participated in the past because I don’t want there to be any confusion.

As you guys know, four years ago I started this Elf 4 Health Challenge with fellow RD Elle of According to Elle (formerly Nutritionella). Our goal was to promote health and wellness during the holidays, a time when healthy habits tend to fall to the wayside.

This year, Elle is going to be busy with a new little bundle of joy so I’ve got myself an awesome new co-host. Meet Georgie of In It For The Long Run. Although she’s not an RD, she is a fitness-loving health nut just like myself and we share similar life and blog philosophies! Let me just stop right here to say that if you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you must do so immediately. She takes drool-worthy photos, writes tons of helpful blog posts and is an Instagram champion. Like seriously. She even wrote an ebook about it. Go check it out.

So Georgie and I will be your hosts for this year’s Elf4Health Challenge.

Another big change this year is that we’re going sponsor-free! There are several reasons for that decision but the main one is that i think it’s a good opportunity to re-center the challenge and put the focus solely on making your holidays healthier and happier, which is why it was created in the first place, instead of getting caught up in money, prizes, etc.

So there will be no sponsors, no prize packs, no specific winners. It’s all about doing something healthy and positive for yourself and those around you.

There will still be daily challenges and a positive and supportive FB group. And you’ll still have the option to be matched up with elf or participate on your own. We think it’ll be a lot of fun and we hope you’ll join us by participating in the daily challenges and using the #elf4health hashtag.

Here are all the details about what the challenge entails and how to sign up!

Introducing the Elf for Health Holiday Challenge! This is a four week challenge that will run from the November 23rd thru December 20th. The challenges fall into 4 different categories: Food, Fitness, For You & For Others. There will be daily tasks, weekly newsletters and a private Facebook community.

And are you ready for the best part? You’ll have an elf to support and encourage you if you’d like! When you sign up, you can choose whether you’d like to be paired with a partner to swap ideas and support with, or participate in the challenges on your own. Over the course of the challenge, you can have two different elves.

Sounds like a great way to stay motivated and meet new people over the holidays doesn’t it?! Since this challenge is internet based,anyone can participate… no matter where you’re located! All you need is access to the internet and an email address.

So what does an Elf do?
As an Elf, you are expected to support your assigned buddy with their holiday health goals and the daily challenges. Elves & buddies will be reassigned after 2 weeks so that hopefully you get to meet 2 new people!

You are only asked to email your buddy 2 times per week:

• Monday: Send your buddy an email to help them with the challenges for that week. Ideas of things to include/attach: your own personal tips & tricks, inspiring words and/or images, a new, healthy recipe or workout to try.
• Thursday – Saturday: Any time during these days, check in with your buddy! For example, ask them if they tried a new recipe, workout, or had fun with any certain challenges. Feel free to tell them how you did with your challenges, too!
• Anything more than those 2 emails is up to you but feel free to go above and beyond this to show your support! Just a few ideas: send your buddy Tweets, shout outs on our Facebook Page, email a fun workout you liked or send a hand-written recipe or note.

Important Dates:

• Friday, November 20th at 11:59pm EST: sign up deadline
• Sunday, November 22nd: Round 1 Elf assignments emailed
• Monday, November 23rd – Sunday, December 6th: Round 1
• Friday December 4th at 11:59pm EST: Round 2 signup deadline
• Sunday, December 6th: Round 2 Elf assignments emailed
• Monday, December 7th – Sunday, December 20th: Round 2

*If you missed the initial sign up deadline, you can still participate:
Sign up before December 4th for Round 2

Not clear about something? Email Lindsay or Georgie!

So, you’re probably wondering what the daily challenges are, right? Here’s a nice square image that you can save on the lock screen of your phone to remind you of the challenges!

We’ve added the challenges to a google calendar for your convenience and we’ll expand even more on the challenges in each weekly newsletter.

We hope you’ll join us!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi friends –

Every couple of years, I feel the need to write a post for my fellow bloggers. In 2012 I wrote this one after I’d been blogging for a year and a half – Things Blogging Has Taught Me – Part 1. A little over a year later, I wrote this one – Things Blogging Has Taught Me – Part 2. Now here we are in 2015. I’ve been blogging for over five years. My blog has continued to grow and evolve and now I’m lucky enough to call it a job.

Like any job, it has its ups and downs and after a tough couple of weeks in a bit of a blogging rut, I felt inspired to share a few more blogging truths, along with some of the tips, tricks and lessons I’ve learned on my blogging journey.

Because, in the spirit of keeping it real….no matter where you are in your blogging journey, you WILL end up in a blogging rut at some point.

Blogging is hard. It takes work – both on the front and back end.  It takes time – probably more than most people imagine. And it’s not always fun.

Here are some blogging truths:

There will be fails. You will have weeks where you make 10 recipes and every.single. one will end up in the trashcan. There will be a post that you spends hours crafting and writing, that you think it’s the best thing you’ve ever written and when you publish it – no one will like it.

You’ll let your stats dictate your mood. Your pageviews will reach an all time high and you’ll be on cloud nine…and then they will nosedive, for no apparent reason, and you’ll spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking WTF did I do wrong?

You’ll get jealous. Someone else will publish a recipe that’s so brilliant that it immediately goes viral that you’ll spend the rest of the day wondering “why didn’t I think of that”. You’ll read a post about how someone makes thousands of dollars for a single sponsored post when you’ve never made any money off your blog. You’ll see someone taking an amazing trip without having to pay for any of it and you’ll think – why can’t I be that lucky?

You’ll fall behind. No matter how organized you are, or how far ahead you plan, there will be weeks when you don’t publish as many posts as you planned to. There will be emails that don’t get answered in a timely manner. There will be nights you stay up until 2am trying to finish a post because you forgot about a deadline.

You will feel overwhelmed. The sea of social media can drown even the strongest swimmer. And just when you think you’ve figured out some sort of schedule, the next big thing will ignite like wildfire and you’ll find yourself wondering how the hell you could possibly have time to do one more blog-related thing.

You’ll be criticized and judged. There will always be people out there who live to rob others of their joy. There are mean-spirited people who have nothing but negative things to say about you, your blog, your recipes, the way you dress, what you eat, etc. Blogs are, for the most part, a public forum. You’re putting yourself and a part, sometimes a large part, of your life out there for the world to see. And people won’t be shy about sharing their positive and negative opinions about the choices you make.

So when all of that stuff happens, here’s what you need to do:

Take a deep breath and re-center yourself. No matter how great your job is or how much you love it, there will be days when it sucks. And that’s ok. Remember that every day is a new day and a new chance to start over with a positive mindset and work on changing the things that didn’t go well yesterday.

• Inhale determination, exhale stress.
• Let go of the negatives and focus on the positives.
• Take a break if you need to. A day off, a week off, whatever it takes to allow you to come back excited and refreshed!

Keep trying. Not every recipe will fail. Not all your photos will have weird lighting. Not every post will be your most popular, but they won’t all be your least popular either.

• Don’t force it. Feeling like you HAVE to post a recipe that includes xyz ingredients just because everyone else is doing it might not turn out so well. Instead, get back to having fun and cooking or writing about what YOU are passionate about.
• Take a photography course or buy in ebook. There’s always something new to learn and good photography is so critical to blogging.
• Focus on finding your niche and defining your ideal reader. Learn everything you can about your readers and then think about what kinds of posts you can create that will help them solve a problem. That’s what will keep them coming back

Redirect your focus. Numbers aren’t everything. Instead of spending your time worrying about your stats, STOP CHECKING THEM. And don’t worry about how much money or how many pageviews anyone else is getting either. Shift your mindset toward doing whatever you can to make yourself better!

• Focus on things that are more easily within your control. Have you made it as easy as possible for people to share your content with share buttons, plug-ins, etc?
• Have you optimized your bests posts for SEO to help improve the chances they’ll come up in google searches?
• Are you taking high-quality photos that will encourage people to pin and share your content?
• Have you thought about other ways to diversify your income such as company collaborations, ebooks, etc so you aren’t as reliant on pageviews as a source of income?

Stay humble. When success does come, remember that pageviews don’t equal entitlement. Having 500,000 pageviews a month doesn’t mean you’re any better than the blogger with 1,000 pageviews.

• Continue to prove yourself by creating great content.
• Don’t lose your moral compass for money. Stay true to yourself and what you believe in even if it means turning down money.
• Remember that while you control some of your success, so do your readers, the people who feature your work, etc. Respect them and thank them.

Produce good content. If you build it, they will come. Invest your time in building your blog brand, creating posts that are helpful and well written with great images.

• Find a balance of evergreen content that is always relevant and seasonal content that fits the here and now, but can be re-promoted every year at a certain time.
• Choose quality over quantity. Posting 2 amazing posts a week is better than 5 haphazard, unorganized posts.
• Be smart. Good content is whatever content YOUR readers find most valuable. Don’t worry about anyone else’s readers.

Seek inspiration. You can find it everywhere.

• Step away from the computer and just LIVE.
• Revisit old posts and think about how you can repurpose them into something new.
• Browse Pinterest, cookbooks, etc and think about how you can put your own spin on something.
• Just ask. Post a question on social media or send a survey to your readers asking what they’d like to see from you.

Be flexible. Because, life. You’re living it. And sometimes it gets in the way.

• Have a tentative schedule but don’t be afraid to change things around if needed.
• Leave room in your calendar to throw in a great idea if something pops up.
• Give yourself a loose schedule and then let creativity take over and see what you come up with.
• Don’t be too hard on yourself if things don’t go as planned.

Prioritize. Repeat after me – you CANNOT do it all. And if you try, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You’ll get so overwhelmed that you’ll end up not doing anything well.

• Pick a few social media platforms you enjoy and do them well. Don’t worry about everything else.
• Get help if you need it. Hiring an assistant can free up your time to focus on other things that require your skills.

Give back. Karma is real, my friends. And believe me when I say that what goes around, comes around…in both a positive and negative way. Take the time to promote others, help others, answer questions, pay compliments, show respect etc and it will come back to you twofold. Celebrating someone else’s success does nothing to diminish your own.

• Read a great post? Share it. Pin it. Tweet it. Link to it.
• Love someone’s photos? Tell them! And ask them for a tip or two.
• Love the way someone worked with a brand or wrote a sponsored post? Tell them! And then take notes and learn from what they’re doing well.

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Let’s chat:

What’s your best tip or piece of advice for when blogging gets hard?

[Tweet “When blogging gets hard, here’s what to do! via @leangrnbeanblog”]

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi friends!

I can’t believe it’s time to write another one of these posts. I’m trying to do one every 3 months or so to help me remember how much my days change as Squish grows.

In case you missed the previous ones, check them out here:

Day in the Life – 9 Months
Day in the Life – 6 Months
Day in the Life – 3 Months

So here’s how yesterday went down:

4:30 – wake up, feed the animals, go back to bed

7:30am – Squish wakes up. We’re still dealing with the daylight savings switch. Usually he sleeps until 8 or 8:30 but for the past several days he’s been up at 7 or 7:30. I get him up, in a clean diaper and dressed (rare occurrence and only happened because his diaper leaked and pjs were wet. Usually whatever he wore to bed stays on most of the day). We head downstairs and I settle him in his pen with his Cheerios and cup of water and turn on Mickey Mouse Club House or Curious George while I make coffee and breakfast.

On Monday he went to his one year appointment and the doctor said it was time to transition him from formula to milk so we’re working through that this week. He’s been eating solid food for lunch and dinner for several months but has previously just gotten a bottle and some Cheerios in the morning. Now that he’s transitioning to just milk, he needs more food so we’re exploring breakfast together!

This morning I made my Sweet Potato Protein Pancakes and he ate his topped with almond butter.  Afterwards he got a bottle with a combo of milk and formula and then back into the pen while I check my email, do some social media stuff, etc.

9am – TV goes off. Yesterday was Little Gym day for Squish so we headed there. Most days we don’t have any morning activities but TV still goes off and kidz bop radio comes on. Then we play.

Anyways, yesterday we went to his gym class from 9:15-10. Note- he’s obsessed with the hula hoops. Notice EVERYONE else in the class is on the opposite side of the room doing what they’re supposed to be doing 🙂 As soon as it was over we headed home for naptime.

10:30am – naptime. Doesn’t he look peaceful?

I work on my computer on the floor in his room until he falls asleep and then head downstairs to cram in as much work as possible.

12:00pm – Nap time is over and daddy comes home for lunch. He’s eating “meat pot” – hubby always requests that my mom make it when she comes in town – it’s a cassoulet full of white beans, kielbasa, pork, chicken, carrots, etc. Squish loves it.

Post-lunch playtime! Excuse the mess. Playpen is out of control. He also got a bottle with 5 oz milk, 2 oz formula.

1:00pm – Daddy goes back to work and Squish takes the dogs for a walk while I nap. KIDDING. I pop squish in the Ergo and we walk the dogs together.

Childproof locks working their magic.

1:30pm – Playtime. Some days we head out to run errands during this time or go to the library or something like that. Other days we just roam the house.

3:00pm – Nap time. Yesterday I happened to have a call with a company about a sponsored post so that delayed nap time a bit. Afternoon naps have been hit or miss lately, but I do put him in his crib for at least an hour every afternoon so I can get some work done. Some days he sleeps, some days he just bumbles around in his crib talking to himself. Yesterday he did fall asleep for about 45 minutes. If he doesn’t nap, I usually head to the gym for the 4:30 class. If he sleeps, I wait until 5:45. Some days he falls asleep in the car on the way over and some days he just doesn’t nap in the afternoon.

I get another hour or so of work done if I’m lucky. Yesterday I did some planning for a cornbread recipe I’m planning to make and photograph today. I use Pinterest for photo inspiration. If I’m not lucky, no work gets done in the afternoon. That also happens frequently.

4:45pm – Change of clothes for Squish after another leaky diaper + a change of clothes for mom before we head to the gym. Pretty sure it’s time to size up the diapers now that he’s drinking more water!

Squish roams the gym and then usually hangs out in his jumper during the actual workout but yesterday’s workout had a lot of running in it so I brought the stroller along and ran with him.

7:00pm – Home from the gym. Squish plays with daddy while I make a quick dinner of spicy shrimp and noodles.

Too spicy for Squish so he eats half a cheeseburger and some applesauce.

Gimme all the food.

7:30pm – More playtime. Last night we had some fun with daddy’s guitar.

8:15pm – I give Squish his last bottle and put him to bed.

8:30pm  – Work. I do blog stuff like write this post, catch up on emails,  finish any other work I couldn’t get to during th day, try to cross some of the million things off my to do list, etc.

12am – shower and bed.

And then a new day begins 🙂

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Hi friends!

This is just a little update for you guys. As you know, I’ve been blogging for over 5 years. That means I have A LOT of recipe posts. Since I didn’t know how to use a camera when I started blogging, it means I also have A LOT of posts with really terrible photos. I’ve made it a goal this year to start working my way through old posts and updating the photos.

Although I am most definitely still not a camera expert, I do like to think I’ve figured out how to take a semi-decent photo. We all know we eat with our eyes so I want to do what I can to show people how delicious some of these recipes are…because the old photos most certainly weren’t enticing anyone to try them.

The problem with updating old posts instead of publishing new ones is that some of you might miss out on my updates. If you’re a new reader, you may have missed out on some of these recipes altogether when they were published the first time.

So, here are 9 recipes with updated photos that I wanted to draw your attention to. If you see any you like, I’d love it if you’d click the link below the photo to visit the original post and take a minute to share it – pin it/yum it/share it on facebook or whatever suits you – so I can share these delicious recipes with even more people!

Thank you!

Zucchini Carrot Apple Muffins

Cranberry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cranberry Corn Muffins

Quinoa Breakfast Bars

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Homemade Whole Wheat Tortillas

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Soba Noodles

Sweet Potato Banana Bites

Freezer Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

[Tweet “9 delicious recipes from the archives -updated with pretty pics! via @leangrnbeanblog”]

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–