Juice Fast Day 4

Remember how I said yesterday my muscles were sore? Yeah, last night was hard. I rubbed Icy Hot on my calves and basically writhed in pain until it started helping. They are still sore today but much better.

Brunch juice:
2 pears
4 apples
1/2 cucumber

This made about 20oz with a lot of foam on top. This was my first time juicing pear and it was a nice subtle flavor. The cucumber is pretty strong though so you could still taste it over the fruits.

Dinner Juice:
2 apples
6 carrots
1/4 beet
4 celery stalks
thumb size ginger

This made about 24oz and tasted ok. Nick of course did not like it, and actually ended up vomiting later in the evening. He had some soup and crackers after so he is no longer fasting...but he said he will juice in the morning with me. And then there was one! Now for weigh-ins!

Me--7lbs
Nick--5lbs

I am still shocked by how quickly mine is coming off! Keep in mind that we weigh in the morning, but I don't post until evening. Nick will probably weigh in one more time tomorrow morning then quit after that since he is off the fast. I am doing surprisingly well and have developed amazing will power being around other people eating delicious looking food.

I did some grocery shopping tonight to get some more fruits/veggies and to start restocking my fridge for when the fast is over. We had eaten all of our meat and perishables to prepare for it so now I need to replenish the supply! I am definitely going to make an effort to cook healthier meals and use more veggies. I cooked pretty good before--using ground turkey instead of beef, cooking from scratch instead of box dinners--but we really do need to work on more veggies and whole grains. I heart pasta and I'm not giving it up so it will be whole wheat pasta now!

Tomorrow is my halfway point and I will be counting the minutes!! I really hope that when I break my fast I won't regain a bunch of weight all of a sudden. My major goal with this fast was to quickly get rid of those last few stubborn pounds that I have trouble losing, then modifying my lifestyle to maintain the loss.

Tune in tomorrow!

Juice Fast Day 3

Today was a little rougher for multiple reasons. I went back to work so I was on my feet all day. We drank a breakfast juice around 11am but I only drank water until I got home from work around 9:30pm when I could have another juice. My muscles were pretty sore and I was pretty sluggish.

Our brunch juice:
5 oranges
2 carrots
2 slices of pineapple

This made 24oz and we both loved it! My son even took a few sips.

Nick had an upset tummy after this drink and for most of the day so he declined a dinner drink. I however needed something in my belly so I made one more suited to my tastes:

1 carrot
1/4 beet
2 slice pineapple
2 stalk celery
handful spinach

This was just right at 12oz and tasted pretty decent. I had been wondering how the pineapple and beet would be together and I was pleased with the outcome. The sweetness of the pineapple helped to drown out most of the strong earthy beet taste. Nick sipped it but said he didn't like it.

Now for the {cumulative} weigh-in!

Me--5lbs!!!
Nick--1lb

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I weighed and had lost 3lbs in one day! It kind of makes me wonder if it will really slow down now. Nick is still staying strong after a pep talk from me earlier today about how we are doing this together and his body really needs the healthy break. I am off the next 2 days so hopefully it goes easier without being on my feet all day. Wish us luck and check in tomorrow!!

Juice Fast Day 2

Two days down, eight to go! I don't FEEL hungry but I still WANT food. It's tough, but it just shows how dependent our culture is on food. We use it for everything--reward, boredom, birthday, anniversary....but I'm staying strong and heading for my goal of 10 days. Nick is still hanging in there too I am happy to say!

Since we never really eat breakfast, we decided to just do two juices a day. I guess you could call this our "brunch" juice:

1/2 cucumber
4 apples
1/2 pineapple

It made about 24oz and I thought it tasted pretty good. Nick did not like it. Even with just half a cucumber in there I could still pinpoint the flavor. The pineapple was nice! I still have half of it plus another whole one to use.

Our dinner was:

5 carrots
2 apples
2 stalks celery
1/2 beet
thumb size ginger root

That beet is some potent (and staining) root! I never bought fresh beets before this, and I'm glad I only used half of one. This combination made 24oz and smelled like dirt. It tasted alright to me, Nick said it was the worst so far. HA!

As you may see, I am trying to do fruity stuff in the morning and more vegetably stuff in the evening. I sip mine slowly but Nick chugs his and is done. I drank about another 3 glasses of lemon water today. I haven't noticed any unusual symptoms, but Nick says his tummy has been rumbling...as for weight loss:

Me--2lbs!
Nick--0

If that keeps up it will be worth it (to me)! We will see in the morning.

Here is a taggie blanket I finished tonight for a friend at work. I am also working on a 1st birthday bib for her.

Juice Fast Day 1

One day down! So far so good. I have been pleasantly surprised at the ease and taste of juicing. However I have been thinking about food (mainly pasta) way too much!

Our "breakfast" consisted of:
5 apples
5 carrots
1 cucumber

This made 32oz of juice which was a bit too much for our glasses. They were filled to the brim!

It was a nice smooth drink with a hint of cucumber taste. Nick didn't like it but I did. I am not drinking coffee on the fast, but I am drinking hot green tea.

Our "lunch" was:
1 kale bunch
5 carrots
2 apples
2 handfuls spinach
thumbsize ginger root

This made about 24oz which was just right. I was surprised how strong the kale taste was. Nick said he liked this one better, but appeared to have more trouble drinking it. I thought it tasted like apply grass. The ginger was a nice addition.

So far our Waring juicer has been amazing. Easy to use and easy to clean. I just can't get over how it turns everything into sawdust almost! I clean it right after juicing so that the food doesn't get a chance to dry and cake on.

We didn't do a dinner juice--Nick went to a friend's house and I didn't want to get everything dirty just for me. I'm not feeling that hungry right now so I will save it for the morning. I have had two glasses of my lemon water today but I'm sure I should drink more. Nick hasn't had hardly any. I don't think he is handling the lack of food very well...

Don't worry, I am still feeding Brad normal food! I'm not making him juice with us. I did make him a big batch of split pea soup to eat on but he has liked that since he was a baby. If Nick does fall off the bandwagon I hope he doesn't expect me to cook for him!

In other news I got my Christmas decorations down today and the house is almost back to normal! I don't decorate for any other holiday until the fall so all of the totes are going into the attic.

Tune in tomorrow for the results of day 2!

Juice Fast 2012

I'm ready!

I have all of the initial fruits/veggies purchased and ready to go. And don't worry--the leftovers in the fridge will be gone by Sunday! Nick and I are pretty excited to see how this goes, and to see how we feel after detoxing and fasting for almost 2 weeks.

The book you see in the second pic above is one I purchased from Amazon along with my juicer. I have already scanned thru most of it and there is some pretty interesting information in it. There is info about how the body detoxes, which plants help which organs, good combinations of fruits/veggies to use, etc. Very informative!

Here is the plan:

• We are going to juice our "meal" 3x a day with lots of water in between. I am going to keep a pitcher of filtered water with fresh sliced lemons in the fridge at all times.
• I am going to blog daily about which juice recipes we used and how we liked them
• I will also weigh daily and post how much weight I have lost (but not what I weigh!)
• I will post daily about how I feel, and any other symptoms/side effects

I am pretty competitive (and stubborn) so I am confident that I will complete a 10 day fast. I may even extend it if all goes well! Nick is aiming for 10 days also, and I will give him my full encouragement. I think he has a slightly more emotional attachment to food so it may be harder for him to fast.

In other news, here is a baby blanket I finished for a friend at work:

I used a special pattern from a book for the middle, then just continued the rounds outward until it was the desired width.

And here is a onesie I embroidered for friend's baby due in April:

I am very much looking forward to this weekend and my goal is to get all of my Christmas decorations taken down and the house put back into order. Don't forget about the juice fast--it starts Sunday and I will blog daily about!

My 2 1/2 Year Old (and Christmas)

It is here, Bradley's 2 1/2 year post! I refuse to call it "30 months". When he hit 1 we quit counting months!

Weight: 26lbs
Height: 35 1/2"

As you can see, I had a fun time trying to get him to stand still and look at me. He seems to be getting better though! I would have bribed him with candy but it was right before bed time. Now for his milestones!

At 2 1/2 years old you...

• have almost outgrown size 5 shoe
• wear size 4-5 diaper
• wear 2T clothes
• have 20 teeth
• are using toothpaste now (and getting better at spitting it out)
• know tons of words and better at communicating
• can say 3-4 word sentences
• can identify many things/animals correctly
• sleep from about 8pm-9am
• take one nap from around 1pm-4pm
• absolutely love anything sweet or chocolatey
• have become slightly picky but still eat almost everything we do
• drink milk and ovaltine every morning, then 50/50 water juice the rest of the day
  
• know how to ride your tricycle with a little help
• recently starting saying "I yuv you"
• sometimes ask for your paci (but you don't get it)
• love to play outside and take walks
• like to sit on the counter and watch me cook
• love watching the Incredible Hulk
• use a spoon easily and getting better with a fork
• sit at the table like a big boy for meal times
• tell us when you pooped (but only after the fact...)
• sit in the grocery cart and say HI to everyone you see
  

We had a wonderful and busy Christmas weekend and spent time with lots of family. I had to work Saturday afternoon, but we spent the evening at home and Nick's family came over to share our tradition of Arby's roast beef sandwiches on Christmas Eve. We exchanged gifts with them and had a good visit.

Christmas morning we all got up early and headed over to my mom's house for our annual Christmas breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy. We came home for a couple hours, I cooked several things after we opened our presents, then we headed back to her house for a chili and baked potato lunch. We got home from that around 2pm and after I threw the turkey in the oven we all took a nap!

I cooked the rest of my big dinner and had 10 people over to our house for a traditional turkey dinner around 5pm. We saw some family we hadn't seen in a long time and had a great evening catching up and exchanging presents by a roaring fire.

^watching cartoons Christmas morning over my shoulder

I worked most of today but after I got home we all went to the store and picked up Brad's last Christmas present--a beautiful red betta! It is his first pet!

We put the fishbowl in his room and *hopefully* he learns how to feed it correctly and doesn't mess with it too much. Just ignore the tape and scissors....we've been having diaper issues.

I have a few more orders to fill and after that I MUST catch up on scrapbooking! I have all of the photos developed and organized. I just have to sit down and get started.

One thing I am pretty excited about is a "project" Nick and I are going to do together starting January 1--a juice fast! My juicer is supposed to arrive this Friday and we are aiming for 10 days. I plan on documenting the whole thing on here so keep an eye out for that!!

Christmas Treats

I spent my Sunday (after working a bit in the morning) baking up a storm! Every year for the last several years I make a bunch of treats and put together cookie tins for all of the family and close friends in my life in lieu of presents. This year I made marshmallow fudge, mini banana bread loaves, oatmeal raisin cookies, and for those with dogs--homemade doggie treats!

Nick helped me the whole time in the kitchen, and even wore a Christmas apron with me! He is too cute. I was able to get everything done all while little Brad was taking his nap! I can't find the recipe on my Pinterest, I will have to get back to you on the link. But so far the 3 dogs that have tasted them LOVED them!

I was able to get my Grandma and Aunt's goodies all boxed up and shipped early Monday morning so hopefully they get there soon! I just have a few left to hand out.

I colored my hair Saturday--don't worry, nothing crazy! Just dark brown again to cover the never-ending grays. I swear every time my roots grow out they are worse than before! Thanks dad.

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend and remembers the TRUE reason from whence our celebrations stemmed (yes I just said whence). We have lots of family coming over Christmas evening and I am in charge of a big turkey dinner! I can't believe Christmas is only 3 days away now! If only we had snow....

Keeping Busy

In the last couple of weeks we have gotten a couple more things knocked off of our 'to-do' list for our house. I didn't take of a picture of it, but Nick installed a whole new sink faucet in our kitchen. My only request was that it be tall (for filling up things) and it is! I love it. This week he rebuilt the shower faucet and regrouted the entire shower!

The picture may not show much, but trust me--it looks great close up!

I finally finished up one of my hat orders today. It was for 5 custom hats. Here are 4 of them:

Today I got to do something I have wanted to do for years--go to the Nutcracker ballet! I assumed I would go with my mom or someone, but she wasn't interested. So Nick offered to go with me, and he ended up loving it! We had the best time and enjoyed getting all dressed up.

The dancers, music, and set were amazing and we can't wait to go to another show! I am already planning on going to their Wizard of Oz performance next April!

I started wrapping all of the gifts I've accumulated throughout the year today, but Brad didn't take a very long nap so I didn't get them all done. Most, but not all. I only have a few people left and they are the hard ones. I found really good prices on kid stuff through the year so I got several presents for all the children in my family for dirt cheap!

I intended on doing my holiday baking tomorrow but I don't know how that will work out now--I am on call tomorrow and they let me know tonight that there are already 3 surgeries scheduled in the morning. Looks like I'll be spending most of my Sunday in the PACU!

Rolls and Crafts

First off is a new recipe I tried tonight that I found on Pinterest and loved it! They are called 30 minute rolls and are yeast rolls from scratch with NO kneading!

They plumped up nicely in the oven and I'm sure if I had made them smaller I could have gotten about 20 rolls from one batch. Here is the recipe (and link to original poster):

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1 C plus 2 Tbsp warm water

1/3 C oil

2 Tbsp yeast

1/4 C sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3 1/2 C flour

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour. Knead with hook until will incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes)

Form dough into 12 balls and then place in a greased 9 x 13 pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

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To go with them I baked onion-crusted chicken and steamed veggies. It was so good and entire dinner took about an hour to make. YUM.

Last Saturday was my last craft show of the year. My mom came to help me run it and we had a great time! There were tons of people there all day and I sold several items. Hey as long as I break even I'm happy! I have recently gotten a lot of orders from the internet and right now I have 9 things to make for 3 different people with more possible orders on the way!

Here is an item that I made today (without a pattern!). I know they would have sold like hotcakes at the craft show but I didn't think about it until a few days before, and didn't have any of the right colors. Hopefully I'll get some sold before Christmas!

As you can see, I have been staying very busy! I work the next 3 days then Friday evening is my work Christmas party at a restaurant on the north side of the city. We are going to get all dolled up and have a great time! Now if we could just get some snow....

Getting Things Done

I have been a busy girl! You might notice I marked a few things off of my list -----> but unfortunately they will not all be done by January 1. But I'll get back to that later on!

I had been working on these crocheted stockings for a couple of months but I kept putting them down to get other things done. Well I finally finished them last night and they are hanging on the mantel! I had a spot saved just for them and look marvelous.

Somehow they all turned out a different size, even with the same pattern! I think it was because I used a different hook for each one but who knows! I gave the big one to Nick, the medium one for me, and the little one for Brad--kinda like the 3 little bears. These stockings (and my new advent calendar) will remain in my Christmas repertoire for years to come!

We wanted to go get our tree on Saturday but after I worked in the morning it started raining and continued to be mucky all day. We did go get it Sunday though and here it is after we got home!

Nick got it all ready to bring into the house while I cooked lunch for everyone. Then while Brad was napping I got it all decorated so that he could see it first thing when he got up! He points at it and says "lights!". It looks so pretty in the corner of our dining room and smells wonderful too! I always put the tree on a timer so this year it is set to come on around 5:30 and go off around midnight.

Last week I got an order for a few custom hats from a lady. Two of them were to look like "Ernie" on Sesame Street for her little girls' birthdays that weekend....

She is very happy with how they turned out and already wants to order some more!

My next craft show is this Saturday so I have been trying to squeeze in getting ready for that in between Christmas stuff and other projects.

I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and got a few things to start some more projects soon including a baby shoe shadowbox and a birthday question album!