Growing up as the 2nd of 4 girls, I know a little bit about hand-me-downs. My older sister is only 2 years my senior and we were about the same size all our life, so I would constantly be wearing the items she cast off or grew out of. I rocked out some old baggy t-shirts, worn-in tennis shoes, and gently used barbies as a child.
Only having the occasional birthday money and special allowance for mowing the lawn from time to time, I had no idea what it meant to have more than $20 on a regular basis. So, when I got my first job at Bob Evans as a server at age 16, Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 were never the same again, nor was my wardrobe. Money flowed through my pockets like f-bombs in an uncensored Eminem song and I cycled through my new clothes in 1-2 wears and then booted them to the curb.
Now, as an adult with bills, a mortgage, and what seems like a lifetime of student loans, I know the importance of a buck and buying quality vs. quantity as well as the need to plan for larger expenses.
So, over the last year(ish) I've been saving fairly diligently for a Canon 50D and I'm happy to report that I'm about 80% to the amount I need for this camera. It really has been a long process, but i'm really proud of myself! I've only squeezed my hand into the piggy bank a couple of times for other shopping, but for the most part all my extra spending money is going straight to this fund. Looking forward to a day sometime in the near future where I can start snapping quality pics instead of the standard iPhone pictures i've gotten so used to.
10.07.2011
10.03.2011
Recipes I'm Loving
I still can't bring myself to write anything really serious on here. After my unintentional blause earlier this year, sharing deep things seems harder than it was before. I'm can't say for certain, but I think it has something to do with the fact that serious posts seem like they have to be long posts...and long posts are hard to write. So I'm going to stay on the surface for a little while longer, if that's OK with you. :)
Here are a few fabulous recipes that i've made recently and I want to share them with you, the world wide interwebs, to enjoy as well...
Creamy Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup
Here are a few fabulous recipes that i've made recently and I want to share them with you, the world wide interwebs, to enjoy as well...
Creamy Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup
I like this soup because it's fairly healthy with minimal fat and animal products and SUPER yummy. It's most definitely a fall recipe.
Giada's fake accent every time she says an italian word annoys me. But this was just to fabulous to pass up. Her recipe skips the Mushrooms, but to bulk it up a bit a sauteed a few in olive oil and added them on top before sprinkling the gorgonzola. I made this at my recent wine night a few weeks ago, and it was a huge success!
I LOVE crispy buttery phyllo dough and you can't really go wrong with a Paula Dean recipe. If I were to do this again, I would cut the asparagus in bite size pieces before wrapping. Cutting through the phyllo with a knife makes it fall apart and loose the overall crunch.
Another Giada recipe - fake accent aside, this woman knows her italian cooking! This recipe is super simple, very rich, and SO good. We made ours with shrimp and angel hair pasta. The angel hair didn't work well because the sauce was so creamy it tore apart the noodles while stirring.
Now that i've worked up a crazy appetite - i'm going to go make something fun for dinner!
8.30.2011
Addictions
This past week I received an invite to pinterest. I'm officially addicted.
From my browsing and play time on pinterest i stumbled upon polyvore and developed another addiction. Here are some of my creations/inspiration.
I'm hoping these shiny outfits will distract you from the fact that i never gave a final update on the juice fast.
Did it work?
No.? ok...
Well, here's the update. We made it to day 6. I was emotionally dying inside (which is horrible that food had such a strong emotional connection to me - i think this post is appropriately titled.) Josh decided we needed to spend some quality time together and allow ourselves to be light hearted for the evening so we went out to dinner.
I don't regret breaking the fast early. I lost 15 lbs (and so far have kept off 8!) and truly felt like a "cleanse" took place. I obviously realized some unhealthy eating patterns (like my ridiculous mood swings, and constant eating when i'm not hungry + a carb heavy diet). Which I've tried to learn from and implement post-fast.
I think a more realistic plan moving forward would be green smoothie at breakfast (starting off the day right with tons of nutrients). A low sodium V8 at lunch + almonds as a snack throughout the day. and whatever I want for dinner (within reason).
This type of plan is much more feasible and would be a healthy structure/boundaries with lots of nutrients while still giving myself some wiggle room at dinner. I might actually give this a try sometime later this year for 20 or 30 days to see how it goes.
ANYWAY...onward to other things!
From my browsing and play time on pinterest i stumbled upon polyvore and developed another addiction. Here are some of my creations/inspiration.
I'm hoping these shiny outfits will distract you from the fact that i never gave a final update on the juice fast.
Did it work?
No.? ok...
Well, here's the update. We made it to day 6. I was emotionally dying inside (which is horrible that food had such a strong emotional connection to me - i think this post is appropriately titled.) Josh decided we needed to spend some quality time together and allow ourselves to be light hearted for the evening so we went out to dinner.
I don't regret breaking the fast early. I lost 15 lbs (and so far have kept off 8!) and truly felt like a "cleanse" took place. I obviously realized some unhealthy eating patterns (like my ridiculous mood swings, and constant eating when i'm not hungry + a carb heavy diet). Which I've tried to learn from and implement post-fast.
I think a more realistic plan moving forward would be green smoothie at breakfast (starting off the day right with tons of nutrients). A low sodium V8 at lunch + almonds as a snack throughout the day. and whatever I want for dinner (within reason).
This type of plan is much more feasible and would be a healthy structure/boundaries with lots of nutrients while still giving myself some wiggle room at dinner. I might actually give this a try sometime later this year for 20 or 30 days to see how it goes.
ANYWAY...onward to other things!
8.21.2011
Oh...the weekend
Weekends are typically my favorite part of the week. Filled with eating out, relaxing, watching movies, reading, shopping Sunday morning church and time with friends. This weekend has been filled with all of the above mentioned things, with the exception of eating out, and i'm 2 degrees away from completely miserable.
The juice/blended green smoothie diet has been very difficult on our free flowing no schedule weekends. We helped a friend move on Saturday so at the end of the 3 hours of lifting heavy boxes and sweating in the Tennessee heat, both Josh and I were completely drained of every ounce of energy that we had. All either of us could think about on the the way home was eating a HUGE meal - didn't matter if it was pizza, mexican, burgers, or some other ridiculously bad for you greasy meal - we just wanted solid food that filled us up in our bellies!
Alas, we got home and forced ourselves to drink the leftovers we had of tomato, parsley, garlic, puree. It wasn't good, but it sustained us. Later that night we went over to my sisters house to play games and they had artichoke dip and crackers...I let my self smell the dip...it was heavenly.
This weekend has been a true test of our emotional and physical beings. I'm realizing that some of the eating habits I have - like automatically wanting horrible food after working out or socially snacking - are deep rooted attachments that are going to take serious will power to resist after coming off this diet.
Below are our sad little videos from day 4 and 5. Here's to hoping that day 6, 7, 8 are easier!
The juice/blended green smoothie diet has been very difficult on our free flowing no schedule weekends. We helped a friend move on Saturday so at the end of the 3 hours of lifting heavy boxes and sweating in the Tennessee heat, both Josh and I were completely drained of every ounce of energy that we had. All either of us could think about on the the way home was eating a HUGE meal - didn't matter if it was pizza, mexican, burgers, or some other ridiculously bad for you greasy meal - we just wanted solid food that filled us up in our bellies!
Alas, we got home and forced ourselves to drink the leftovers we had of tomato, parsley, garlic, puree. It wasn't good, but it sustained us. Later that night we went over to my sisters house to play games and they had artichoke dip and crackers...I let my self smell the dip...it was heavenly.
This weekend has been a true test of our emotional and physical beings. I'm realizing that some of the eating habits I have - like automatically wanting horrible food after working out or socially snacking - are deep rooted attachments that are going to take serious will power to resist after coming off this diet.
Below are our sad little videos from day 4 and 5. Here's to hoping that day 6, 7, 8 are easier!
Day 4
Day 5
8.18.2011
Day 2 - Blended/Juice Fast
Just popping in to give you a quick post on how day 2 of the fast went.
It was harder to drink my lunch and dinner today and I think i've discovered that I prefer my "smoothies" with more water so they are thinner and easier to drink quickly. Today I found myself feeling funny over the textures in my Berry/Banana/Spinach drink for breakfast and lunch. So for dinner I mixed up avocado cucumber, spinach, lime, ginger, and garlic with LOADs of water. It actually helped a lot. I would even say I enjoyed the strong flavors of ginger and avocado...for about the first 8 oz, at least. The only thing that got me through the last bit was thinking about how I was doing something good for my body. I'm hoping it will get better as the fast goes on.
We made some yummy orange juice today as well! It was so rich when we first strained out all the pulp so I added some water to tame it down a bit and now we have something other to drink besides water! Yippie!
Below is our reflection video! Enjoy!
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