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!

Thanks Grandma

Being a mom of two young kids is crazy busy! Also, I've been traveling so things are extra hectic! I continued juicing while I was away--thanks Grandma for letting me borrow your juicer! This morning, however, was the second time I haven't juiced! I was so tired this morning I opted to not worry about it. As far as my vegetarian diet went this weekend: I did so well, until we stopped at the dreaded Micky D's to let the kids run out their wiggles. Without a second thought, I ordered chicken. *Sigh* But that's it! Well, okay, I did allow for one day for sweets because there was an fabulous ladies party! I'm quite proud of myself! Well, I'll get back on the horse and let you know how it goes!

Here's to tomorrow!

Stats:
Eh, yea, I'll let you know later!

Some Thinking to Do

Well, I'm one day away from reaching my goal of having Green Lemonade every morning for a week! Woot! This morning, though, Jairus had to pull me out of bed so we could juice! I got a nasty bug bite that became swollen and my entire foot ached so last night I had to take a Benadryl. Oh Benadryl, my arch nemesis! I fought it's hypnotic pull to keep me in bed and had my Green Lemonade, swept the floor and tidied the kitchen a bit. But the Benadryl still won out and I went and took a fantastic nap. Except for the dream that I had... a strange mix of Harry Potter and the summer Bible camp I went to as a kid.

Aside from that, the day went well! I stuck to the all fruit breakfast and had a fantastic, well combined meal for lunch; SW Black Bean Gardenburgers, 1 1/2 avocados (I'm really craving avocados!), and sliced tomatoes--oh! and I finished off my son's lunch of fake "chicken nuggets" that are made with corn instead of soy or gluten protein! So yummy! All in all, I did AWESOME! Although I did have sushi for dinner... dang it! I forgot about the fish! I'm so used to allowing that one! Fish is easier to digest so I haven't given it much thought. Bummer. I didn't realize that I was going to have to make that choice about fish. Chicken was obvious for me to realize that I need to stop eating. Pork and beef actually make me sick now when I eat it so that's not hard to stay away from. Turkey is going to be another hard one for me to give up!

I've got some thinking to do.

Stats:
Weight - I'll check on that tomorrow and get back to ya.
Green Lemonades - 6
Properly Combined Meals - 9

Yesterday... sucked.

So I skipped blogging yesterday because I didn't do much of anything healthy. I did get up early with Jairus and drink my Green Lemonade. But let me back up and share how my night went.

I took a detox bath --late, but I got it in! The recipe (for those who are interested) is:
-16oz lemon juice
-1 box baking soda
-2 scoops Arbonne Unwind Bath Salts (optional)

And before that I used a natural bristle body brush for a detox method that Natalia Rose suggests on page 58 in The Raw Food Detox Diet. I felt great after! And I noticed the next day that my stretch marks didn't look as pronounced! It was awesome!

We got to sleep late but I was feeling great! We went to bed around 11:30 and an hour later I woke up thinking that the detoxing was working--it turns out that I had food poisoning. How cool is that. *Sigh* So I got even less sleep then I would have and I was really weak when I got up in the morning. So the whole day I did virtually nothing. I didn't eat right, I didn't do anything around the house--it sucked. And it sucked because at some point I was feeling better physically but emotionally I was checked out. It's probably because--despite the good start that I had--I didn't follow through with the "goodness." I fell into old habits and didn't listen to the promptings from within to do something healthy, mostly turn off the TV. And again I didn't go to sleep when I should have! Grrr.

But today I forced myself to do stuff around the house! And eventually I started to feel better! I ate right (maybe not enough to eat, but I ate right!) and I got stuff done and (more importantly) I spent 45 solid minutes reading to my son! And then 15 minutes playing with my daughter! It was amazing! Yay!

So not so much about diet for the last couple days, but one day at a time! See you tomorrow!

Stats:
Weight - Low 180s
Green Lemonades - 4
Properly combined meals - 5

Dumb Choice

Today was one of those mornings where the thought of waking up repulsed me. I was so incredibly tired and it's my own fault! Harry Potter really isn't THAT awesome; I shouldn't be giving it the precious hours I have to sleep. The lack of sleep is messing with the results of my experiment! *Sigh* Not to mention my interactions with my family. I was able to see with deafening clarity (yes, the sight was such that I could hear it) that dieting alone is not going to give me the results that I want as far as my mental & emotional health goes. I'm going to have to throw myself into all aspects of self -care if I'm going to beat out the Postpartum Depression without medication. A good night's sleep every night, a refreshing shower every evening, an early start to my day so I can have "me-time" before the kids wake up, and a healthy diet are all necessary for my health. So, I am now committing myself to taking my shower between 8:30p-9:00p, being in bed by 10:00p, and waking up at 6:00a.

Alright, now that I have that out of my system!

I stuck to my Green Lemonade for this morning! A whole 32 oz! It tasted much better this time--we put in more ginger and it helped even the flavor out a lot more. We ate a breakfast of Rainer Cherries, blueberries, and gooseberries. After our last midwife appointment, we swung by Chipotle and cheated on the properly combined lunch. My lunch time philosophy has become as such: If I have the drive to eat a properly combined meal, I will do so, if not, I will eat a healthy meal! And it's worked out okay so far. Of course it's only day two. Rose explains the "Quick Exit Combinations" on pages 34 and 35:

"The first thing you want to do is eat foods that are the easiest to digest and move out of the body. (Please refer to the Quick Exit Hierarchy of Food on page 27.) The second thing to do is eat these foods in "quick exit combinations." This means that when you make a meal out of high-quality, quick exit foods, the combinations of the foods in your meal should also be as easy as possible to digest. As you've learned, the quicker the food is digested, the less waste matter it will leave."

So the categories for foods that she lists are:
1) Starches
2) Fleshes
3) Nuts/Seeds/Dried Fruit
4) Fresh Fruit

Rose explains that none of these should mixed together because doing so causes putrefaction in the stomach leading to the body spending more time digesting and less time with waste management throughout the entire body. Raw veggies, however, can be mixed with any of these categories! However, mixing anything with fresh fruit isn't suggested. She shares that cooked veggies combine well with the first two categories to make a good solid meal. Some where else (regrettably I cannot remember exactly where) Rose explains that ideally we should wait 30 minute after consuming fresh fruit before continuing on to the next meal or snack and that approximately 3 hours should be given after eating a properly combined meal before having a snack.

All of this to briefly explain what I'm talking about when I say "properly combined meals." Alright! So now it's time for me to move on with the rest of my day! Here's to tomorrow!

Stats:
Weight - 185 (I got to use a scale today.... I wept inside!)
Green Lemonades: 2
Properly combined meals: 3

My Experiment Day 1

In January, I have the pleasure of standing next to a dear friend of mine on the day she gets married! I am so excited for her and her fiance but I'm nervous too because I REALLY don't want to be a frumpy matron of honor who has just let herself go. Therefore, I have decided to try a detox method that's safe for nursing mommies and their babies. It's called the Raw Food Detox Diet (the book is by Natalia Rose) and it's safe because it's a life style change rather than a traditional diet. My husband, Jairus, and I have decided to start off small. On page 48, Rose presents the Green Lemonade recipe and suggests drinking it on an empty stomach a half hour before eating a breakfast of fresh fruits. We have decided to try this for one week and see how we feel! Here's the recipe for those of you who are interested in trying it (as from The Raw Food Detox Diet--brackets [ ] are my addition):

GREEN LEMONADE
Makes one serving
1 head of romaine lettuce or celery [we're sticking to romaine for this experiment]
5 to 6 stalks of kale (any type)
1 to 2 apples (as needed for sweetness--I recommend organic Fuji)
1 whole organic lemon (you don't have to peel it)
1 to 2 inches fresh ginger (optional)

I know, it's a lot of lettuce! You should have seen the looks on people's faces when we bought 6 days worth for 2 people!

This morning was our first day trying it out--well, Jairus has had it before, but that's besides the point. It really didn't taste too bad! Mine was about 24 oz and I drank all but 4! To get the most enzymes, we have to drink it within the first 15 minutes of juicing so I was gulping it down as fast as I could. I actually felt tingling in my extremities when I was about half way through, it was very strange. Half an hour later I had half a plum and about an hour after that I had about two cups of cherries. I'm really proud of myself! I was able to stick to the fresh fruit breakfast and wait the recommended 30 minutes before moving on to a lunch of yummy tofu and brown rice! It was an awesome experience and I'm sure I would have more to say about having more energy but I stayed up WAY too late last night watching Harry Potter. As a side note, I've noticed that my milk production has been doing better today after having the Green Lemonade!

Stats:
Weight - 170ish (I don't currently own a scale)
Days of drinking Green Lemonade: 1
Properly combined meals: 2