FitViews

This has been a long time coming and I am so ridiculously excited to announce the FitViews Book Club ! Big news🎉🎉🎉 Announcing FitViews Book Club over on clubhouse https://t.co/Xdg4lh1lYF #BookClub #Clubhouse pic.twitter.com/hudux2fksl — Kerri Olkjer (@KerriOlkjer) October 4, 2021 We'll be meeting monthly over on Clubhouse to connect and chat about our monthly book selection. What kinds of books will we be reading? Fitness, health, wellness, nutrition, mindset, and related topics. One month might be a memoir and the next something on mindset or habits, then maybe something on lifting or nutrition. I'll try to mix it up and keep it interesting. By joining you are in no way obligated to read every book. If one of our monthly selections doesn't float your boat or you find yourself crazy busy for a bit, just skip that month! Then jump back in any time. I want this to be fluid and welcoming. I understand that not every book I pick will be everyone's cup of tea. No wo

2021 has been a busy year! I wanted to jump on here and give a quick update on how I'm doing with my yearly goals and also share my October goals.  First, what were my yearly goals? I'm glad you asked... I have to stop stopping.  With my fitness, with my weight loss, with my running, with my writing... the list here is long, but I've got to grab ahold of consistency like it's all I've got. Because truly, it is. I'm tired of moving.  We've been flipping houses since we left Idaho and I am done with that life. I'm tired of the chaos in my life and family that constant living in construction and moving causes. We started down this road in the hopes of getting back to farm life debt-free. It's become too much and it's time to settle down somewhere. I need to be done with the fat loss phase of my wellness journey.  I just can't waste mental energy and head space here any more. I need to be done and on with life. I know maintenance is work, fitness

  I almost deleted my entire blog last week and started again from scratch. Sounds extreme, and I finally decided not to, but that's how hard of a reset 2021 is going to be.  I had the realization from a handful of casual comments made recently by some of the people closest to me: they don't believe in me .  Now, this is not about those people or what they said. I honestly know they didn't really mean anything by their comments. It was what the comments revealed about others' perceptions of me. This is about the realization it made me come to. That being: I'm not who I am . I haven't been for a few years.  You see, those comments made me realize that some of the people closest to me don't see me as someone who does hard things, who finishes things, who does what she says she's going to do.  At my core that is WHO I AM. I was astounded. I do hard things, I finish things, I do what I damn well say I'm going to do! How could they see me so differentl

  Let's not sugarcoat it, 2020 has sucked rocks.  In pondering that opening sentence, my teen suggested "2020's mother doesn't even effin’ love it".  Indeed. It's been a tough year for us all. Too much to list; you already know. The world has been on fire and most of us feel like all we can do is roast marshmallows while it burns. The repercussions have been far reaching. Finances, health, relationships, community, nothing seems to remain untouched. Often leaving us feeling out of control. I can't control who wins the election, I can't control covid, I can't control the chaos that rages in our world right now, but I can control me. I can control my reactions. I can choose to take care of me and offer a better, stronger me to the world. I’m in no way trying to minimize the bigger picture. Nor am I implying we shouldn’t get in there and fight for the bigger causes, do our part, and help our neighbors. I’m not talking selfishness.  What I am saying is

 I am not a health professional and nothing here is medical advice. Hey Guys! You know me...I was curious. I had to try it. Who are we kidding? It was only a matter of time. I went carnivore. Carnivore, also sometimes called zero carb, has been making its rounds and has been on and off my radar for quite a while now. I held off, I researched it, I dabbled in it for a few days here and there, but never really gave it a shot. Finally, I decided to try it for a week. I'd been stalled out on keto and the whole covid quarantine saw my weight sneaking back up. I was bored. It seemed a good time to give carnivore a whirl! Now, in case you don't frequent the parts of the net that I do, what is carnivore? Basically, carnivore is a diet, a way of eating, that is exactly what it says: carnivore. You eat like a carnivore. As with anything, there are varying versions of it: those that seem to eat only ribeyes, those who stick to only beef, those who stick to only meat, those who include al

  It's that time of year again. Pumpkin Spice Latte season that is! I want all. Things. Pumpkin. Right now.  Pumpkin bread ,  pumpkin muffins , pumpkin spiced everyyyyythingggg. I mean, have you smelled the Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Candle from Bath & Body Works yet? So good. Oh yes, pumpkin obsession is in full force. Just me? Anyway, I'm currently doing pretty strict Keto (more on that in another post), so no good ole PSL's for me this year. Dangit. Unless.... KETO Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer Recipe Ingredients 1 can  Organic Classic Coconut Cream 1 Tablespoon  Organic Canned Pumpkin  (YES, it has real pumpkin it it. Seriously, they all should...) 2 teaspoons  Organic Saigon Cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon  Organic Ground Nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon  Organic Ground Cloves 1/8 teaspoon  Organic Ground Ginger Truvia  Packets or  Monk Fruit Drops  to taste - I like to use both together. Sweetness is a personal preference, but just as a guideline: I do 10 drops monk fruit and 5 packets Truvia

People have asked me a lot about my kids. Are my kids keto too? Nope. At this point, they are not. I think keto is fine for kids, we just haven't gone there. Or see the need to at this point. They are however still Paleo. As we all are, my husband and I just do so with keto macros. Paleo was a game-changer for us all and is definitely staying in this here household. The next question I always get is some version of what do they eat? What do you do about snacks?? How do you keep them happy without fruit snacks, granola bars, soda, and cookies?? Well, thankfully there are paleo-friendly ready-made snacks flooding the market (though READ your labels parents, just because it says paleo does not mean it is). Our cupboard is just as full of swaps like  Larabars , Zevia , and Autumn's Gold Cinnamon Almond  as any paleo parent.  Mostly, I make their snacks though. I just like to. We're a busy homeschooling family though, so I keep it quick and simple when it co

January 1, I embarked on an interesting journey; I decided to start the 75 Hard Challenge (scroll to the bottom of the post for my updated journal on my progress. I've gotten a lot of questions on this program and what it is exactly, what the rules are, etc. So... What is 75 Hard ? It's a mental toughness skills development challenge started by Andy Frisella. (Since first posting this, it is now a book as well .) His premise is that mental toughness is a skill and therefore can be learned, practiced, and honed. Andy designed this challenge to cultivate: confidence, self-belief, self-esteem, self-worth, endurance, fortitude, grit, perseverance, self-discipline, endurance, resilience... and all of the skills inside the scope of mental toughness.  Check out the podcast that started it all for all the info from Andy himself:  https://andyfrisella.com/blogs/mfceo-project-podcast/75hard-a-75-day-tactical-guide-to-winning-the-war-with-yourself-with-andy-frisella-mfceo291  No

With the popularity of the Keto Diet many companies are using it as a marketing ploy.  Unfortunately, just because it says “keto” on the label doesn’t mean it is. There is so much junk out there that I would NOT recommend to a friend. So, for the past 6 months I've been  weeding through all the new keto products and long loved keto staples on the market and weeding out the hyped up junk.  What I've come up with is a top 20 list on Amazon . This list shares only the best of the ketogenic best you can find to support your Keto Diet lifestyle on Amazon!  For my criteria in choosing products, they had to: Have clean ingredients. Be low enough in carbs to sensibly include them in a daily keto diet. Stand up to my quality standards for something I would (and for most of these do) regularly purchase. Taste good! (except, obviously in the case of the ketone meter, etc) Without further yammering, my picks for The Top 20 Keto Diet Products on Amazon : 1.  2.