My day ended better than it began

Just a rough day. Detoxing, I'm sure, although I can't tell what is a cold/allergy symptom or detox symptom. I've never had allergies, so this is new. I was rather grumpy last night and today. But after lunch, the kids I went to the sand park, they played and I read the Ensign. Much needed. My heart is so happy when I see this thing in the mailbox. I know that sounds so Molly Mormon, but seriously, I need it. I need it!

Today, I accidentally fell asleep while Kenzie was watching Bubble Gubbies and the boys were...somewhere. Oh my gosh, bad mother moment. I just keep praying that the Lord will please watch over them. The past few days I haven't been very vigilant. I just feel so crappy. My nose is a faucet too which is no fun, and now it's extremely sore. I need to stop whining.

Ok. So dinner was sushi. I had a yummy salad before, just greens, tomato, avocado, and cucumber with Rice Vinegar. A friend posted about using just vinegar and I wanted to try it. And well it was awesome and easy. So you don't have to get fancy with dressings to enjoy your salad.

My sushi was very simple. Roasted red pepper strips in sirachi sauce, avocado, sprouts, and cucumber strips. It was super hot but it was good. I ate a lot of avocado tonight, probably two. I just wanted it!

Finished off with some chocolate.

Put my kids to bed.

I'm to bed.

Peace out!

A few of my favorite things

I know there are many skin products out on the market and I've tried a lot. But I've never had a skin care product literally heal my skin in one night!

For example I will get a few zits, and I'll pump two squirts, maybe, onto my hands at night and rub this magic into my skin, and literally they will be gone! I love it! It's all natural, smells really good and is seriously amazing! I started using it in February and have LOVED it!  Go here to read all about it!

Secondly, I cannot say enough about taking probiotics. Whether it's Kombucha, a pill form, saurkraut or raw kefir your body needs living good bacteria to do all your dirty work. If you are constipated, you are not getting enough probiotics.

Straight off amazon.  But it is cheaper technically to buy in the store cause you can open the package and on the lid of the box is a $3 off coupon! SCORE!

I suggest taking a pill form of Garden of Life Probiotic twice a day, morning and night.

And then at night taking magnesium oxide. Magnesium oxide is safe in low doses, so don't think more is better with this product, cause it ain't! It creates water in your bowels and helps to move things along. And why isn't this great in large doses? Well, let me tell you I decided a while back if a little of this product was good a lot more would be even better (against Kimberly Snyders suggestions in her book The Beauty Detox), and I believe my backache that night and next day was because my kidneys were over taxed and every ounce of water was pulled out of my body to create water in my bowels. I learned to follow the suggested dose. haha

This is the variety I use.

I suggested this to a friend back in January, and not knowing she followed my advice for more than a week, haha, told me in April what a huge difference it had made with her constipation. She was eating a ton of fiber and still very constipated. So technically fiber is not always what pulls your poo out, especially if you are VERY backed up, which honestly, 90% of Americans are!

Kombucha, ahhhh, I love this stuff. And literally could not get enough of it today. I made a batch for myself this morning and then while at Good Earth picked me up some strawberry. Yum yum. Then came home and made some more.

And for my little Kenzie Lou, who is now on an antibiotic my efforts to help her little body come in twice a day two little pink pills. They are a chewable probiotic I usually buy it at Sprouts or Good Earth. I store them in the fridge with my probiotic. It is so good for her, especially to help keep good bacteria in her gut and to hopefully avoid a yeast infection after this round of antibiotics.

I finally felt like some juice around 2pm, which is super late for me. I'm really enjoying this cleanse because it's the first time when it's time to eat I'm hungry but not starving and crazy!

Tonights dinner was, well, not something I should have been eating. Opps. I'm a ding dong. No nuts on this cleanse and didn't realize that till tonight when I looked at the chart to post to the group. Oh well. It was properly combined but a little on the heavy side. So no more of the curry.

It was massaman curry with cauliflower rice and I had my salad before too. Yummy! And then decided it would be fun to have the family have some healthy chocolate cake. The kids LOVED it and so did I! I doubled the recipe. It is here.

Another victim

Yes, today I found out Kenzie has strep. This, as she was bouncing around the doctors office, jabbering to herself and us about who knows what. I said to the doctor,"I'm not sure she has it. She had one night where she felt really hot and woke up a couple times but that was it! And other than that she's pretty happy. Every so often she freaks out but she's been ok."

Apparently, strep hits kids different than adults. So now we both are on antibiotics. Man, I haven't had this much strep since college, haha! I may be revealing some things about me with that sentence.

I still had trouble swallowing today and feeling really weak. I did my WINCO run to stock up for the week.

And then what do you do when you can't take a nap cause you have two wild men running around your house? You make a diorama. I know, you wish you would have thought of that. HA!

I wish I could admit that Jace contributed more to this diorama, but really it was a mom-orama, with Jace glueing occasionally and helping to cut. He left half way through and when he came back he said, "mom, why did you finish it without me?"-Well, son, cause you took off and it's due tomorrow.

my mojito...it was a little strong on the mint. But pretty good!

AND, I realized about halfway through making this thing, that the bird is, I believe, an Eagle, instead of a Peregrine Falcon. What little kindergartners don't know WILL NOT hurt them! So, this little craft project kept my mind and hands and stomach busy.

And what do you do if you start dinner at 4:00pm(This is probably early to most people but not for me on nights I'm planning on making cauliflower pizza crust)? You get inventive with your cauliflower rice that needs to be squeezed. I actually think this is very smart.

Excuse me while I toot my horn. Toot Toot.

So the rice is smokin' hot coming out of the boiling water (duh, I know) but I need to get pizza's cooking so I had to think of something quick. And voila! Use another strainer to push the water out of the towel covered cauliflower rice and no burned hands! It worked really well. So you should try it.

Step 1. Pour boiling cauliflower rice into towel covering a strainer. Place edges of towel over cauliflower rice.

Take second strainer and put on top of toweled cauliflower rice. And push down. Again and again, until very little liquid is coming out.

This is the end result, dry, cooked cauliflower rice.

Also, if you are going to take the time to make cauliflower pizza, please, please, PLEASE, make a second one! It is so laborious and you are already doing all that work, just double it up.

Tonight I tripled it. I had one HUGE pizza for in the future, and two small ones. I ate one of the small ones and the other two were wrapped in tinfoil and put in the freezer.

You MUST try this pizza! It is so yummy!!!!

Salad with sprouts! Yum.

So I let it sit a bit long on the pan, and it got kind of mushy. so this is like a pizza omelet, or something.

So I ate my typical salad first with the kids while they ate their pizza. And the about 6:30pm, yes 4pm to 6:30pm, I finally ate my pizza. Hence why I say I got a late start tonight.

I finished my evening with some dark chocolate and a nice HOT epsom bath. I love hot baths. The hotter the better. I think it runs in my family. ;)

Night.

First day and all I can say is: interesting

You know that feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night and you think, dang, I'm getting sick.

Well, that was last night for me.

My throat hurt so bad and it was only on one side, my left lymph node. WEIRD. Went to bed totally fine and feeling good, the rest of the night, not so good. Kenzie woke up oh, I lost count at 4 times. I hope she doesn't feel sick, hence the constant waking. And then my stinking throat hurting kept me tossing and turning.

So I didn't run today. I feel achy and tired and well, just tired.

But I'm on a cleanse and well, this stupid sore throat thing ain't going to get me down!

So I woke up, and quickly made as much juice as I could, about 50 oz. and drank that while getting three children ready, myself too, and feeling so yucky. It wasn't a fun morning, have I said that yet?

We had a dr. apointment for Sean at 10am, Jace to school by 9:15am, drop books off at the library, then swing through the Post Office and drop off a letter, and on my way down Main street see if I can figure out who my Dr. is at the one building since I can't remember his name, so I can call and try to get in and see someone!

Well, I have strep after that ridiculously long explanation. Don't know how or where I got it and as far as I know I am the only one with it in our family.

So here I am, typing, starving, and hardly swallowing my juice cause it hurts. This could probably be the easiest first day I've ever done since food is unappealing and drinking hurts. My tummy is so hungry and all I want to do is chug some liquids down this hatch and I can't. So I've decided I better prepare for tonight's dinner. I did this cleanse kind of last minute, so I planned on a meal I knew I had the ingredients for. Omelets. I hope I can eat them and not be in pain.

You can omit the butter and use coconut oil, no problemo!

I also need to eat a salad tonight, which actually really scares me right now since my throat hurts. I'm thinking romaine, tomato, cucumber, red onion...and a yummy easy dressing. Like half a lemon juiced, 1 tsp of stone ground mustard and some liquid stevia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Post 4:00pm when the above was written.

The antibiotics must be working cause I can now swallow and drink much more easily! Yes!

So I made my salad and omelet as listed above but only finished about half of each as my appetite was NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! haha. I've been lying around rather lazily and decided I'd have some dark chocolate. It was yummy. But again, didn't feel like it either. So I think I'm done trying to eat food today. Haha.

I can't get these pictures to move...dang.

All I keep telling myself is strep is better than lice...oh my, that was AWFUL! HAHA! I love you person I went through that with!!! I LOVE YOU! xoxo

Something needs to change

Something needs to change.
The size of my butt and legs is a first.
But mainly, I have been super lethargic, and there is only one culprit, not eating good food.

Over the past few months, I can only put it one way, I have been struggling. If you name it, it's been a struggle. A LOT of things have come to a head in my life and I have had to face tough choices head on and make decisions that were hard. Too many of them emotional. And well, in my life when things get emotional, I eat. And eat. And eat. And continue to eat to comfort myself. I'm not sure where I picked up this bad habit. But it's been formed, and I must break it. I also feel awful, physically and then emotionally for eating the bad food cause well I know it's bad for me. And well that's not a good path either.

It's time to truly find happiness and peace with myself.

So here I go, again.

Yes, another clease. I need to change some things. And continue to change myself. You are probably laughing at me or at this idea. Thinking, gosh why can't this girl figure her crap out. Well, each time I do one, it furthers my ability to figure my crap out. And the crap is about to hit the fan, and be DONE in my life. I am mentally really done with all the bad food. Going to the bad food for comfort, although I am finding myself going for the good food but knowingly eating too much, which isn't really good either.

Rose Cleanse #3

1.) Juice till dinner
2.) No fruit first week. After first week lemons, grapefruit, berries, and granny smith apples.
3.) Properly combined meal no sugar in meals.
4.) If I have to make a meal for my class, I will not eat it, Jordan can tell me yea or nay.
5.) Figure my crap out. Stop using food as a comfort.
6.) Find something I enjoy doing. Like a hobby Natalie. Find a hobby girl, and something that doesn't involve my kids or Jordan. JUST FOR YOU!
7.) Go to bed earlier and stop staying up so stinkin' late!
8.) I am not posting a weight goal. I need to cleanse and I know the weight will come off. I need my brain to be free from the stress of the scale. But I do have to train for Ragnar and so 4 miles every other day, with a little home resistance workout Jordan put together for on the off days will be my workout and stress relief as well.

Dinner's
Fish
Barley stew
Cauliflower pizza
Pizza veggies
Spaghetti squash casserole
Greek salad and zucchini humus
Curry with cauliflower rice
Sushi
Avocado salad with roasted veggies-brussels sprouts and sweet potato
Detox lasagna
Flourless Pumpkin Pancakes-Breakfast for dinner
Omelet
HUGE cheese salad
Mushroom and spinach Quinoa Rissotto
 Chili-cornbread for family, maybe me if I can find a clean recipe.


Lastly, please remember I'm human, and very weak, and learning. Hence, why I haven't just figured it out. I probably never will, and I need to be ok with that, too. Thanks! xo

Third times a charm

First
I have tried Detoxinista's cauliflower pizza crust twice and both times about gaged over the sogginess of my crust.

It was so sad. I want to enjoy pizza and know it's good for me too.

That was all true, until SUNDAY! Super Bowl Sunday of all Sundays!

Detoxinista's picture...mmmmmm! So gooooooooooood!

So I've had a hunch that perhaps, in the pizza crust recipe* I wasn't squeezing enough of the liquid out and that's why it was still soggy.

Determined to make this crust work, I bought a cheese cloth and asked my main man to help in my squeezing endeavors with his big burly mooooscles. (That was a plug for Jordan, yes)

So I followed the recipe here and when it came to squeezing time, I handed everything over to the man with big hands, big muscles, and even bigger heart, haha!

Well, I cannot say enough about how truly yummy this turned out. I ate the whole thing, and didn't think twice about it.

So, go on and try this delicious idea and see if it is to your taste buds liking.

*This recipe is laborious. Start earlier than you think. I up'd the oven temp to 425 degrees to make sure it really crisped up and cooked through. Half way through I flipped it over so the other side would brown. MMMMmmmmmm so good, I think I want pizza again this week! :)

Second

This is detoxinista's pic...I ate mine all too quickly to get a photo! haha

If you want something that is so healthy for you but tastes rich and decadent? Then get ready to live. Detoxinista posted about her Cheesy Spaghetti Squash Casserole. My kids were a little cautious but actually really liked it. It was our main course, but I'm sure those that are transitioning could have this as a side. It tastes like us Mormons Funeral Potatoes without all that awful, bad for you junk! Try it, try it, TRY IT! You won't regret it. I had a big salad with her ranch dressing that also uses goat yogurt and it was sooooooo good. Hope you like! :)

It's called a struggle for a reason

I struggle with my weight. It's called a struggle for a reason. For days I can do great and then one day I don't and it throws me off. I try to only have it take me off track for that one day, but I've had it happen where a week or more has passed.

And then I'm like OH CRAP! I've gained a lot of weight back.

Now people say, "well, that's why I don't diet, or call it a diet. Cause then I am setting myself up to fail."

I received a text from Ginger a few days ago with the following quote:




"You haven't failed until you have quit trying." Elder Marvin J. Ashton.





That's right! I am completely changing 29 years of bad eating habits, with extremely healthy and good eating habits. It's going to take some time. And when I give up and go back to the old ways of eating including the following:
 I can eat whatever I want if I'm under 1500 calories
 protein heavy
gym foods
processed foods
Splenda is good for you and any other fake sugar
limit your fruits mentality

then I have failed.

Over the past year it has been hard, I'm not going to lie. I started down this path when Kenzie was 6 months old, and had maintained 175+ LBS post baby for 6 MONTHS! I was running/walking 3 days a week and "trying" to eat right.

But really what is eating right. Now I know that this is truly different for every person. And yes, you can calorie count and workout every day and lose the weight.

I get sick of calorie counting and marking down everything I eat.

But get this, I allowed myself over the month of January the following:

Juice till dinner, liquids
Snack/eat around 2:30 or 3:00 carrots, veggies
Fruits ok to eat around that time too
Eat properly combined every day
Have 1 CHEAT meal a week, if I so desire
Work out every day (my average calorie burn was between 300 and 500 calories a day)
Body brush
Have colonics or enemas
Take a probiotic in the morning
Take 1 to 2 magnesium oxide at night

You might be wondering what the point of this post is? Well, last Tuesday I weighed myself and the scale said 143. When I started at the beginning of January I was 148 lbs. I was SO MAD Tuesday. That means for a whole month of being so strict I had only lost 5 lbs. I got a phone call from Ginger later that day (I believe Jordan told her to call me cause I was so mad).

And this is basically what she said.

YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BE VERY STRICT! Did you read what I've been doing? I am pretty strict as it is!
NO CHEAT NIGHTS
ELIMINATE FRUIT (this is only for a while, till I hit my goal)
NOT NUTS OR SEED MEALS (peanuts, especially peanut butter are extremely difficult for women to digest)
ONLY HAVE A MEAT BASED MEAL ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK(meaning eggs or cheese or fish)

AND after our phone call, I had a new determination. I was going to be even more strict and I was going to get the weight off!

I also said I was going to put the scale away, but I have issues with weighing myself, and well since I've really only had this struggle since I started having kids, which was 5 years ago, I am still working through some things.

So I weighed again on Wednesday, after eating PERFECT on Tuesday, and you know what the scale said!? 145!!!!!! WHAT THE!!!! I was besides myself. SO I got off the scale, got back on and it said 141. WHAT? I got back on and it said 143 and was delaying and being weird. I then realized, I truly have a BROKEN SCALE! Isn't this what we all wish for, haha!

 So on Thursday night I bought a new scale, and Friday I weighed myself after eating perfect Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

GUESS what I weighed as of Saturday morning, cause yes I weighed Friday and then again Saturday...

139.

So really in the month of January I lost 9 lbs. This was without calorie counting. I ate as strict and as best I could allowing myself some cheats, which really only happened when we were out socially. (I need to work on this)

But I was curious, to see how many calories I was eating with doing this and feeling satisfied.
Well the days I did it on myfitnesspal.com I ate 1500 calories, and yes my biggest meal was my nighttime meal, and I still lost!

 And NOW I am only weighing myself every Friday, with my girl Ginger! :)

And gosh darn it, I'm still doing this properly combined because it works and the way I feel, even though at times it can be a lot of work, I feel incredible.

Cause after all, this is more than just weight loss, right? I want to feel good, have mental clarity, eat things that will fight cancer not create it, give me amazing skin and hair cause I eat and drink foods that flood my body with living enzymes! Really, I am on such a roll I can't stop.

Very simple. Very satisfying. Learning to be content with less.

As I was talking to a friend about this the other day I relayed the following story about how amazing and grace-filled Ginger is with me. On one of my cheat days we were going to have pizza with some friends and I sent her a message earlier in the day to see what she would do.

Well she suggested first to not eat any pizza and just the salad I brought. Then she said you can eat the pizza just no cheese.  But well, it would be my cheat day and well, homemade pizza was sounding really good.

So she ended it with the following:

  "Just know it's life and energy draining. As long as you go into it knowing its not a healthful choice for your body, but you're ok with that for this meal then enjoy. And be present so you don't over eat."

That pretty much sums up the thinking behind this type of eating. I feel our Heavenly Father gave us the word of wisdom for a reason. Fruits and vegetables, herbs and grains are here for our use.

Losing the weight takes so much work. I am tired of putting in the work, not being as disciplined and gaining back. This struggle needs to end and the more I eat right and work towards a healthy weight with the right foods, the less strict I will need to be and the struggle can end. (WHICH MEANS I can eat more nuts, cause I love pecans and almonds, OH MY!)

I am grateful for an eating plan that is teaching me to love the taste of vegetables and making them the base of my meals. I am grateful for a friend that has been so supportive, never asking a dime and doing this all because she is so loving and giving and wants everyone to feel and be healthy. I am grateful for this plan because of how amazing I feel on it, how great my skin and hair are. I look forward to having great skin as I age because I am taking care of my body the right way. I love that at night when I get snacky and naturally want more food, I can give my body just that, all the nutritious food it can handle. I am learning a way of eating that will never be a fad, because when will they ever come out and say, "Fruits and vegetables have been found to cause heart disease and colon cancer".

But this has taken me a year + to get to this point. To decide YES! This is the way I want to eat and be! Always starting my meal with a salad. Making my meal stay in an easy to digest category so my body can spend less time digesting and more time healing my body and giving it what it needs. As I get to my healthy chosen weight I will start incorporating more lunch salads and meals and only juicing till lunch. But for now I have a goal, and well, Jordan and I might be going to Las Vegas for one of his work trips, and I want to feel really good in a swimsuit and not think, man I really need some swim shorts to cover up this big 'ol bootie of mine!

My goal from this post is to have hopefully shown you that I too fail. Struggle with making the right food choices, even when I know better. That I give into stress and social eating and that most importantly, I AM NOT PERFECT! I am on a path that is the right one, that fits me like a glove when I, I I I I I follow it. Cause when I don't follow it, well, then it just leads to a lot of frustration.

I am not one of those girls that can eat whatever I like and stay thin, I don't have great self control, I DO NOT lose my baby weight through nursing, if anything it makes me extremely RAVENOUS, I can't drink soda, diet or full sugar, I gain weight and it makes me eat MORE. I know I have to be so careful and I just can't indulge anymore. It is just the way I am.

After more than a year, I think I am maybe beginning to accept that!

Lastly, I am working on 

BEING PRESENT WHEN I EAT. 

Some of you will understand this...