Busy, Busy, Busy!

I really wish I would start blogging more, but I'm happy to report that I have lost 6lbs! I'm going to get weighted in today at my gym to see how well I'm doing now, but I'm so excited! I' have done a good job of keeping meat out of my diet for the most part and I have started cutting cheese out again. As for exercise, I'm going to the gym regularly and ... organizing my house! That's right! I've been doing so much work on the house that it's helping me lose weight!



My big project over the weekend has been to organize my desk:

I used those green berry cartons and the tops of egg cartons for keeping small things together! That's what I'm the most proud of! The real work out came, however, when I had to go through all of the monstrous piles of papers that had accumulated over the last three and a half months! I set up n the dinning room and had piles for all the different kinds of papers and a paper bag for recycling! I spent the better part of the day walking around the dining room! It was fun and rather tiring!

Next week I will start working on meal planning again so I can save money and not have to worry so much about what we're going to eat!

Here's to tomorrow!

o_O Free Time Please???

The last three months have been INSANE! (Caps lock and bold doesn't even begin to cover it!) I have not been sick so many times in such a short span of time for ... I can't even remember a time that I got sick a lot! *Sigh* Every time I turn around, the dishes haunt me and the piles of laundry (dirty and clean) taunt me.

However! I am really enjoying life up here! The snow is a nice change of pace and everyone is far more relaxed! My favorite part of living in Cheney: I have windows in my house! Huge windows! On all sides of the house! In every room except for one! It's wonderful. :^)

As for my diet, I'm finally getting back to vegetarian. It's nice! I've had a lot of fun cooking veggies and looking up or making up new recipes. I'm also having to force myself to cut out dairy because my daughter is showing signs of having an intolerance to milk.

One of my newest projects is to type up my favorite recipes so I can access them easier. It's really nice! But free time is ... nonexistent. Like right now, I could and should be doing dishes or laundry or vacuuming or cleaning or gosh, who knows! But I needed a break! ;^D

I'm figuring out the best way for me to organize meals and grocery lists, and have made up a couple excel documents based off of forms I found on the internet!

Grocery List

Meal Planner

So That's what I've been up to lately! I'll update with recipes and other fun stuff!

Here's to tomorrow!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Hello! It's been so long! The last month has been INSANE! I kid you not! We moved at the end of September. The first week of October, Jairus got sick and I was about three days behind him. Then Juriah ended up with croup and spent two nights in the hospital and a week later, Jessenya was hospitalized for one night for croup. This last week we have been recuperating.

Okay, so that aside, I have joined a gym! Yay! It's right across the street and so far I've been able to go after the kids go to sleep. It's AWESOME! The first day I did some cardio and focused on my legs and today I did more cardio and focused on upper body. I'm having a lot of fun and really enjoying the time to myself.

As far as diet goes, I haven't been doing so well--when everyone's sick, you eat what is easy to get to. There's been a lot of fast-food chicken, pizza, and junk food in general. But I'm super excited because I made a fantastic vegan meal for Halloween! Butternut Squash & Pear soup, Cumin & Cayenne Mashed Potatoes, Citrus Collard Greens, and Chocolate-Pecan Pudding Pie. Sooooooooooooooooooooooo good! The left over pie makes it easier to pass up my brother-in-law's cheese cake! I have decided to go back to focusing on eating healthy first and vegetarian/vegan second. Thing are just now settling down so focusing on getting back to eating real food is more important right now.

I've been incredibly inspired by the show The Biggest Loser! I know I'm right on the edge of being obese (The last Dr appointment I had I weighed in around 195!) and watching people who have decided to change their lives made me realize that if they could do it, so could I! I'm super excited because I finally have the motivation to take care of myself and get healthy! Well, at least to the point that I'm doing something about it! I'm only going to be able to afford 2 months at the gym at $30 a month--our income is going to be going bye-bye soon--so I have to make them count. It's going to be fantastic though! And who knows, maybe I'll find a way to make some more money!

I really do have to thank my friend, Becca Sue! She's been working so hard to get healthy and has done such an amazing job! Knowing someone who has changed their own life so much has made it easier to believe that I can do the same for myself!

Oh! Also, I can now share who's getting married!!! My bestest friend in the whole world, Jillian Kellett, is getting married to her boyfriend, Jason Ackley, in August (the date changed when they made the engagement official). Woot!

Well, that's it for me today! Here's to tomorrow!

Giving In but not Giving Up

It's been nearly a month since I blogged last. The depression really got to me and I had to get back on the Prozac. Man, being open about it is rough but it worked well the last time. I'm going try being on it for a year so I can be stable while I set myself up on the new diet: vegan/gluten-free, an exercise routine, and (with our big move coming up) making friends/getting to know Jairus' family better. So here I go, jumping into the next chapter of my life. Woot! The fact that I stepped up and went to the dr yesterday gave me a nice boost and actually feeling sleepy instead of tired all the time. Yay! Well, goodnight all and here's to the next chapter!

How to Make Green Lemonade:

My good friend, Becca Sue, was asking me some specifics about juicing today and I realized that I should finally post more about the process we go through for juicing! So, here it is!

Step 1: Prep the produce!Washing the greens is fairly easy, I fill the sink with 2-3 inches of water toss each leaf in and essentially stir them in the water. This knocks most of the dirt and such off and conserves water because the faucet isn't running the whole time!



The apples and lemons we clean with a neat washing agent called Environne. (Washing instructions are on the bottles) Then each is cut into chunks that will fit into the juicer.


Step 2: Juice the produce!
We like to prep the juicer with a few leaves of Romain fist because, of all the ingredients, it is the cheapest. Then push two pieces of apple, one or two leaves of kale, one lemon wedge, and a few leaves of Romain. Repeat until you run out of produce but always try to end with Romain to push all the good stuff through!


Step 3: Strain out the pulp!
The reason a person juices is to get all the fantastic goodness that plants hold for us but there's so much fiber that it's hard to eat all of it. The juicer does a good job of removing most of the fiber, but there's still a lot left over. We use two different sizes of strainers. The first has a mesh with larger holes and the second has smaller holes. The first we only use once but the second we will use three or four times.



Step 4: Enjoy your Green Lemonade! Let me know if you have any questions!

Here's to your tomorrow!

I must met some chickens

Yikes! It's been awhile! Sure I've been busy, but really, I think I'm avoiding you all. See, I haven't been doing so great--emotionally speaking--these last couple of weeks and I've let things slip. Not as horribly as I could have, but they have slipped and I fell ashamed to admit it. But I know that if I don't, it will only get harder to regain my footing. So, here I am, confessing that I went 6 days without my green lemonade. I don't remember the last time I had my vitamins one day after the next. I am cheating horribly on my "no sugar" rule. I have slipped up by eating chicken at least twice and desperately wanted bacon the other night--so much so that I actually used the excuse that it would be in memory of my late father. *Sigh* There. It's out, and I'm ashamed but I'm moving on. Jairus and I have decided that we're going to try juicing only on days that he has off. (Getting up at 4:30a is really tough on a couple of night owls like us.) I'm going to change my goal concerning sugar from "I will not have sugar" to "I will refrain from sugar." (Not sure why but that helped in the past.) As for vitamins, I don't have a plan for that yet. And my plan for refraining from chicken: I must met some chickens. I'm finding that it is easier to not eat something if I can imagine it dead because the thought makes me sad. Please note, my original intention behind this diet switch was not because of the animals per say! It just kinda happened that I started having sympathy for them. I was giving my dog a bone that we got him as a special treat and as I handed it to him, all I could think about was this poor cow's leg sticking straight up from her mangled body and the flesh -- I'll stop there. It was gross. So, I figure, if I meet some chickens and maybe find out their names or give them names, I'll start feeling more sympathy for the species in general.

Well, I think that's all for tonight.

Here's to tomorrow!

That's Right, Veggies Have Protein Too!

Did you know that a whole head of Romain lettuce has 21% Daily Value (DV) of calcium? Or that it has 34% DV of Iron? The shot that babies get after being born to help with blood clotting--vitamin K--Romain has 802% DV!!! (Some babies need this shot because there wasn't enough in their mother's diet to help them when they were born but it's given to all babies who's parents choose not to have it administered.) Oh! And get this, an entire head of Romain has 15% DV of protein! That's right, veggies have protein too!!! Jairus found these niffty facts out when he was researching whether we needed to take supplements or not! We went through and found all the ingredients for the Green Lemonade, it was really cool! I haven't had the time to add everything up, but the nutrition facts are awesome for this produce!

Romain:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2475/2

Kale:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2461/2

Apple:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1809/2

Lemon:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1937/2

Ginger:
The link's not working! Sad!

Pretty cool, huh? Well, that it for today! Busy, busy, busy!

Here's to tomorrow!