Healthy Holiday Substitutions

We *love* the sweet stuff, just as much as the next person! There are a couple of things we've found that help us indulge our sweet tooth without totally blowing our progress out the water....

The first is that we always make our own goodies versus buying the packaged/boxed versions. This is like healthy living tip #1....learn it, live it, love it. :) Even if it's higher calorie or higher fat, your body will process real ingredients better than it will anything pre-packaged/fake. End of story.

The second is substitutions. Especially when you're baking some sweet goodies, substitutions are an easy way to make these yummy noms healthier! Here are some of our favorites:

• White Flour Substitutions 
• Nut flours
• Our favorites are almond and coconut flours. 
• Black beans 
• This is a great substitution when you're making brownies! 
• Whole wheat flour 
• If you aren't quite ready to experiment with the above mentioned, take it slow and just swap your white flour for wheat flour.
  
• Sugar Substitutions 
• Applesauce 
• Great at keeping the goods nice and moist (yikes, dirty sentence).
• Vanilla extract
• Stevia
• A little goes a long way here, be careful!
  
• Butter/Oil Substitutions
•  Greek Yogurt
• Adds lots of protein. 
•  Applesauce
•  Prunes
• A good way to get a little cleanse action :)
•  Avocado
• Great, healthy fats! 
•  Banana 

We found this great image on Pinterest that goes into further detail about these substitutions and measuring differences.

Here's to enjoying the holiday sweets while staying on track with your healthy lifestyle!

In Health,

Lindsay and Tim
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