7 Habits to Instill To Make Your Life Healthier and Happier

#1- Spend at least a couple of hours outside every day

A study done by the app Mappiness in 2010 found, via 20,000 participants, that people are least happy either at work or while sick in bed.

They are most happy when they’re with friends or lovers.

And their moods tend to reflect the weather at hand.

But, one of the biggest variables is not who you’re with or what you’re doing. It’s where you are.

On average, study participants were significantly happier outdoors, in an all green or natural habitat type, rather than in an urban environment.

We are growing increasingly burdened and inundated by chronic ailments made worse by time spent indoors, from myopia and vitamin D deficiency to obesity, depression, diminishment of eyesight, loneliness, and anxiety, among others.

Since the dawn of the internet, researchers say we have grown more irritable, less sociable, more narcissistic, more distracted, and less cognitively nimble.

This might be due to both, to the internet’s effect on our ability to focus, as well as the barriers created between connecting as deeply emotionally as we once did (now, our screens tend to distract us much of the time).

This can also be due to things like advertising and media, posting selfies (look at me, look at me!), the sense of competition and comparison that social media ushered in, the seeking of status and popularity, the branding of ourselves via crafting our online images for viewers, the diminishment of wisdom, and reading articles and bits of information in short bursts, as opposed to focusing at length on, say, a book for an hour or two.

The fact that we have grown more irritable, less sociable, more narcissistic, more distracted, and less cognitively nimble, though, is also because we are spending way more time indoors.

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Gluten-Free Chocolate Pie

Chocoholics, this one is for you. It’s wheat-free and gluten-free (not the same thing, contrary to some people’s assumption), and lower in sugar than many typical desserts. The base of this cake, though, is fudgy and rich, and the other two layers are whipped, creamy, light, and delicious.

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Decadent, Delicious, and Healthy Cakes

Happy Wintery, Snowy Monday, my fellow dessert devotees,

Get excited for a roundup below of the most scrumptious, tastiest cakes you have ever sampled.  All of which fall under at least one (though many fall under more) of the following tiers: grain-free, gluten-free, lactose-free, low in sugar, or sugar-free.

Cake you can actually feel semi good about eating!  Though on tasting any of these, I have a sense you will feel awesome about eating them at that point 😉

Click the recipe name to be taken to how to make it!

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Chocolate cheesecake.  This version is lower in sugar than the usual cheesecake, by far.  And can be made gluten-free if you desire.

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Healthier chocolate mousse.  This one has been a major hit in our home ;-).  With much less sugar than usual mousse recipes, plus Greek yogurt for a creamy, protein-packed punch.

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Walnut cardamom cake with cinnamon buttercream frosting.  SO good.  This one has zero gluten/grains.  The perfect, lightly spiced, cold-weather cake.

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Paleo pumpkin pie.  Taking a classic, quintessential dish and making it one you dont have to feel nearly as guilty eating.  The crust on this one?  The bomb.  Like eating an almond flavored sugar cookie.  Gluten/grain free, and low in sugar.

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Healthy Small Bites for Snacking

Hi all,

Most of the items on offering for usual snacking, as well as know, are not great for ones health.  Chips, candy, even most granola bars which, though claim to be healthy, are loaded with sugar and carbs.

Here is a list of snacks you can feel good about reaching for, which dont hit your health with the damage that most of the others out there do:

 

The chocolate on these crunchy almonds is surprisingly delicious.  Rich, decadent, though a healthy snack for nibbling on.  So yum.

 

These bars are my favorite to date.  They are chewy, oatey, and gluten free.  The triple berry flavor is also delish.

 

This stuff is AMAZING with Greek yogurt.  I cant get enough.

 

Like Goldfish or Cheezits, but without the grain/gluten/wheat!

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Paleo Fish Tacos

Tacos are one of the best dishes on the planet.  However, in consuming a diet largely void of grains/wheat/bread, this makes continuing my love affair with said hand held treat a tough one.  However, to my relief and thrill, I found the most delicious recipe.  Granted, these are more toastados than taco, but man oh man, are they tasty.  Totally on par with and hitting the taco spot, though without the bad-for-your-body ingredients.

Grain/gluten free, lactose free, sugar free, these are a homey, scrumptious meal that is also awesome for your health!

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Antioxidant Berry Smoothie

Ready for the easiest way to pack a nutritional punch to your body today?  A drink laden with nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and glow inducing ingredients?

People tend to underestimate the power of a homemade smoothie, how awesome, rejuvenating, and fabulous for your health it is.

Four ingredients only.  Here is how to make this nutritional powerhouse (just a few ingredients and a blender are needed):

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Fluffy Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best wintertime treat, no question.  Well, aside from say, chocolate mousse.  Chocolate chip cookies are one of those much loved, classic, quintessential desserts on every table with a truly inclusive spread of sweet treats. Personally, they are one of my favorites.  Especially when freshly baked out of the oven, and the chocolate is still just a tad melty.  Oh boy.

I was skeptical on making these coconut flour (aka gluten/grain free) chocolate chip cookies, worrying they would be dry, or weirdly textured.  They weren’t.  Tasted just like the real deal.  A fluffy, cakey textured chocolate chip cookie.  Yum.  These are the new much obsessed over dessert in our home at the moment.  Try them yourself and see.  You wont be disappointed.

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Throwback: Top 5 Recipes in every category.

Hi all you fabulous fellow foodies,

In tune with the New Year and all the resolutions swirling about in peoples minds and intention towards their healthiest, best selves in 2019, here are some personal top 5 most loved recipes in each Sweet. Raw. Free. category!

Note: Click the name of any recipe to be taken to its corresponding recipe page!

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Sweet. Raw. Free. Exciting Announcement!

Dear Sweet. Raw. Free. Readers, Fellow Foodies, Bakers and Chefs,

I am excited to share with you an expanding of the content on which I will focus here on Sweet. Raw. Free.

Alongside the usual posting of recipes (all of which will continue to fall under one, if not more, of the following: gluten/grain free, sugar free, lactose free, or raw), I will begin posting articles in relation to other realms of health (such as, nutrition, sleep, physical activity, emotional and social health, relational health, and more).

Recipes will be interspersed with articles of this nature, adding to the overall fullness of my offering a blog in favor of the encouragement toward leading your healthiest (and happiest) life.

In the meantime I would love to offer, in the mood of healthier eating and New Years resolutions, a round-up of my favorite recipes for your perusing and sampling pleasure:

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Easy and Healthier Chocolate Cheesecake

Happy New Year with this succulent sweet!  Chocolate cheesecake continues to rein over all the desserts I have sampled, making it a stedfast favorite.  I dont eat it often, for the caloric and sugar bomb it is, but man oh man, is this a tasty treat and one that when I do indulge, I revel over.

This particular version, while not sugar free, is considerably lower in sugar than usual cheesecake versions.  Though there is already sugar in the Oreos and bittersweet chocolate, there is no further added sugar in the cake (which most recipes do).  Though the crust contains wheat, you can easily make it without.

If you would like an equally enticing though gluten/grain free dessert, eliminate the crust.  I promise, it will be just as scrumptious without.

Enjoy this decadent, sinfully sweet dessert, without so much guilt.

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