Sunday night came and went

So I've done it. I'm sitting here (actually I'm stretching as I type ~ gotta love multi-tasking!), and I feel pretty good. Besides being a little under the weather the last few days, I've done great. I stuck with my plan of smoothies and salads (except that Sat and Sun night I had soup :tom yum and pho instead because I had a slight fever and felt some soup was better then a salad). anyways, I've done it and I feel like I want to do this for a few more days. I don't feel 'done' yet you know? I must admit tho, this time around I feel like my relationship with food has somehow changed. My husband talked about this 'change' last time we did the lemonade cleanse. I wasn't sure what he was talking about until now, and I'm not sure I can explain it, but I really feel differently about food right now.
The only way to explain it may be to say that I'm consciously eating to live and not just eating every yummy thing in my path.
So the plan as of today is to continue this eating, cleansing, detoxing, exercising, thing I have going on and see what happens by Thursday. Why Thursday, well, dunno.... seems like a good night to me. If nothing else I will re-evaluate and see what's what then.

Till then, I'm off to Costco for some nuts, nutella, grapeseed oil and whatever else happens to jump into my cart!

p.s. My new fav salad is a mix of lettuces, crushed walnuts, dried cranberries, a few cloves of minced garlic and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. SO YUM!

here is a photo if you'd like to see

Happy Holidays!

p.p.s Wanted to also pass along a site that has a LOT of info about eating Alkaline, check it out here, I just bought the recipe book, and as soon as my Husband prints it off and binds it so nicely for me, I will be feeding us a few of these yummy recipes. Let you know how that goes! (and tell me what you think too!)

straw that broke the camels back, or how I'm getting rid of this tire for good!

It's been a few weeks since I started doing this hardcore working out with Zuzana at BodyRockTV, and as intimidating as it was to start, I am now 200% addicted, hooked and loving it! Every morning I wake up and get my smoothie ready, then while the boys are eating and getting dressed I am sweating and working my ass off! Love it!!! I took some photos of me on the day that I started working out (Nov 24th), and will take some more closer to mid January. If I took them right now, I'm sure you wouldn't see a difference, in fact to me it seems that I've gained a few inches on this tire of mine....  I'm working so hard, and I can feel (deep down somewhere hiding in there) that I've got some muscle and made some progress, but it's for sure not picture worthy yet....... This is actually really bothering me. I've never had trouble with my weight, I've actually never really thought about it one way or another. I've always been 'lucky' to be 'thin'. I say these in 'quotations' because that's what people have always told me. But right now I'm struggling to see my body in a positive way in the mirror.
 I'm not a perfectionist, and I don't have a distorted view of my body. I  know that I'm 'thin', but at the same time I have fat. Notice I didn't say that I was fat, but that I have fat, there's a difference, oh yes there it! I may be a size 4, but I too have a tire that I'm carrying around. I do, and I'm tired of it! It seems worse now then it did in the summer.... which makes sense. But the bottom line is that this tire is what is hiding all my progress with Zuzana~
Most people indulge in cakes and sweets and extra helpings when the weather gets colder (it's that extra layer we tell ourselves that we need to survive the winter), and I do live in a very VERY cold place... but in the end it's all just excuses! I have been indulging in sweets and cookies and extra snacks. And although most of my 'treats' are made by me and are very  healthy, it's still  not letting me see all of my hard work.
With all of the blabbering, I feel I've gotten off track.
Here is the point.
Here is what I'm going to do now that the Camel's back has split.
I'm going on a quick and simple half fast half cleanse starting today and ending on Sunday night. It will be simple, but hopefully effective!
For my breakfast I will continue with my smoothie always making sure there is plenty of spinach, fruits and protein powder. For Dinner I will have a good helping of a Delish salad full of body cleansing veggies (things like Beets, Cilantro, Broccoli, Kale, etc). In between my 2 meals a day I will only drink either some Green Tea, Filtered Water or the "famous" Lemonaid Drink.
This added to by Body Brushing, Yoga, and my workouts (which may need to come down a notch because of the difference in my food intake~ we'll see..) should help rid me of this horrible tire that keeps following me around.
Afterwards of course I will need to eat properly, starting with RAW and alkalizing foods, and Nuts, and after 5-7 days adding in meats as well. I should be back to 'normal' for the Holiday season!

Yes, then the Holiday Season. Will Power, and the look of my nearly 6 pack abs should help.... lol, I guess we'll see!
Wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted!

Can you find a Balance

I've had this problem for a while now, a few years actually... my problem is finding the right balance between having treats and ...... well.... not having treats. I like to keep foods as Healthy as possible, and I'm a firm believer of not jumping on and off detoxes, diets and other food fads. There was a time where I went nearly 9 months without any sugar what so ever, no treats, not one cookie or muffin or chocolate or candy. But I don't want that either, I think that we should eat what we like (and by that I don't mean sugar filled candy, corner store chocolate bars, gummy worms and pop, I mean healthy cookies made with Agave Nectar or muffins made with Honey, etc). I think it's much better to try to eat the best you can all the time and not binge or starve. There are time though that I just can't stop myself from eating these delish yet healthy treats, recently I made some really yummy (and healthy) Pumpkin and GingerBread muffins with a to die for Butter Cream icing (recipe here, thanks again OhSheGlows), yesterday I had 2, and today I had 2 too! This is where I feel the guilt, and I don't want to feel guilty for eating a muffin, but I also don't want to be stuck with this muffin top!
It's not just now at the Holiday time that I find myself struggling with this, but it's definatly more difficult around Christmas that's for sure.

I'm wondering what YOU do about this Balance. Have you found a balance with treating yourself with sweets? Are you one who only has treats on the weekend, or for special occasions, do you make yourself workout for a cookie?

Please tell me what you do in the comments below, and how it works for you. Thanks!

being in the "right place at the right time" just happen sometimes

I was feeling a little in limbo, there were things that I could do, things that I should have been doing, and then there was me.... walking around in circles with a cup of almost warm tea in my hands. It was only 10:30, I had all day to figure out what to actually do.....

I happen to open the cupboard above the coffee machine to grab my morning vitamins, and that's when I noticed that the 2 shelves of our assortment of teas, and supplements was looking a tad messy. It was gross actually. So I put my tea down (who's kidding who, I wasn't drinking it anymore, it was getting cold), jumped up on the counter and started going through the mess.

I found expired allergy medicine that I had forgotten we had (obviously), 2 different B vitamins, 2 different adult cough and cold remedies (it's been ages since we've used that kind of medicine when sick), an open and half used bag of children's zinc lozengers, tylenol that was nearly full but expired, some kids echineachea that was only good for another month (perfect timing with this weather, plus Oz wasn't feeling to well), and some 'herbal calm' which I thought was perfect for me seeing as the crazy hectic holidays was sneaking up on us at an alarming rate.

I've titled this post about being in the right place at the right time because that is what happened to me.... Oz needed something for the cold he was catching (and after a few days of the drops, he's doing better then ever!), and I was just talking with my husband about already getting stressed out thinking about the holidays. Herbal Calm here I come!

Every once in a while you need to do little mini cleans in your home. Check the medicine cabinets ~ and on that note, move it out of your washrooms, the humidity can do nasty things to prescriptions, herbal remedies, and the like! Keep it somewhere cool, dry and away from sun, humidity, heat, kids and animals. When you're done cleaning out all the bad and expired stuff, stock up on things like Tea tree oil, Oil of Oregano, Vitamins, Herbs and more!

xox
T

Accountability

I'm struggling. I feel like I can't balance, can't get it all done (never mind, I feel like I can't get anything done)!!! I know this is the third blog up in as many days, but that's not what I mean.  Cheryl Richardson taught me that when I feel overwhelmed I need to take things off my plate, but I don't think that what would help, I'm already feeling lazy and like I'm not accomplishing anything. I think what I need is an amazing schedule or a plan, as well as someone or something to be accountable to every few days or every week. Being accountable to myself hasn't worked so far, I suck at keeping myself 'with it'. Maybe it would help if I had a clear goal of what will happen once I've made these thoughts and ideas into habits.

Better yet, I'm off to my first month of blogs, there I will see why I am here, and what I can do to get to where I want to go.