fitness — Blog — Lily The Wandering Gypsy

This post is sponsored by Ocean Spray® as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. All opinions expressed in my post are my own.

This year, health became more of a focus for me. I have always lived a pretty healthy and active lifestyle, but this year, when we upgraded our kayak, it got us outside, getting fit, and overall appreciating the benefits of treating our bodies better than ever.

I am always looking for new things to incorporate into my mission of living a healthy lifestyle. This year, I was able to spend so much time outside doing fun activities like hiking and boating, and now that the weather is a bit chillier, I tend to do more activities inside like yoga and light weights.

Ocean Spray® Pure Cranberry Juice has no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, and is Non-GMO. This is a big incentive for me to purchase this juice over others, because I love to find new ways better myself through what I am drinking!

You can get Ocean Spray® Pure Cranberry Juice at Target, Walmart or Kroger. I got my juice at Kroger, in the juice aisle, near the other 100% juices. It’s towards the very beginning of the aisle. The juice is 100% pure cranberry juice, and there’s NO added sugar. The only sugar in this juice is 9g per serving, which occurs naturally in the cranberries themselves. This is an excellent option compared to traditional juices that may contain 23g of sugar or more.

Cranberries have been referred to as a superfood, and they are known for their high levels of nutrients and antioxidants. Each bottle of Ocean Spray(R) Pure Cranberry juice is made from the juice of 850+ cranberries.

Throughout this post, I will share some of the simple ways I adapted to a healthier lifestyle, share the health benefits and nutritional information of cranberries, and share how you can easily incorporate cranberries into a more health conscious lifestyle. Plant based wellness is such an easy way to take our health into our own hands and help our bodies prosper any way possible!

MY HEALTH JOURNEY

Years ago, I decided to completely give up fast food and most convenience foods. By eliminating fried foods and gave up drinking soft drinks almost completely. That one was so difficult, but once you don’t give into certain temptations like excessive sugar, then your body does begin to crave it less and less. By finding alternative ways to indulge in those sugar cravings is so always have bananas, apples, and oranges on hand. And, feel free to of course keep a bit of chocolate around, but I recommend getting a bag of dark chocolate chips and eating a small handful of them, instead of keeping bags of processed candies around.

Also, through food photography, I was able to start learning more about eating plant based foods, incorporating new ingredients into my meals, and to consider what I ate and drank SO much more than ever. In addition to that new kayak we got this year, which allowed us to get outside, get fresh air, and get more active, we have been on an upward slope to being overall in better health. Cranberries are so fun to cook and bake with as well, and their all natural color makes for some gorgeous food.

CRANBERRIES FOR A BETTER LIFE

The Ocean Spray website has a lot of great recipe ideas, and some of them include smoothies and a variety of Cranberry Mocktails like these. The holidays are a fun time to try new drinks and ingredients, so here are some ideas.