Alkaline Water

This is the book I got at the library and is the cleanse I am following this weekend. I am only doing the 3-day Energy Boost Cleanse, but there are four options, including up to a 28 day cleanse. Wow!

As I have become more aware of nutrition over the last couple of years, I do have a very strong belief in whole foods. Meaning, when I learn about eating whole foods, I get a very strong feeling of "truth", for me. I am not ready to become a fanatic and maybe I never will be. I am also not ready to make a complete overhaul on the way I eat, because frankly, it's too overwhelming all at once. Some choices I have made recently are to stop using refined flour and sugar (in my home). This one is a very easy thing to change. I am also trying to limit the "processed" foods we have in our house, but that one still needs some more work and education.

So, the cleanse: Day One

Luckily my kids slept in today until around 8:30. Shorter day means less time thinking about what I am not getting to eat today.

I start by drinking 32 oz of pure, Alkaline water with lemon. Alkaline water is a big deal in the world of whole/raw food, from what I have gathered.

Here are some things she lists that can make us too acidic:

• meat, including chicken, pork, turkey and fish
• dairy products, including eggs
• bread, pasta, potatoes, and baked goods
• cigarettes, and other forms of tobacco
• alcohol, Rx drugs and recreational drugs
• coffee and most commercial teas
• processed or fast foods
• sugar
• artificial sweeteners
• soft drinks and sports drinks
• no exercise
• stress, negative emotions, and spiritual emptiness

(And by the way, I made sure to acid myself up real good last night. Those valentine candy bins at WinCo got the better of me-sorry Stacey! {my partner})

She also discusses how dehydration and high acid levels both contribute to stalling weight loss.

"Your body retains fat as a protection against the acids produced by the lifestyle outlined above. Some of the acids are eliminated through the bowels, urinary tract and skin, but whatever is left behind has to be buffered and neutralized. Your ingeniously created system goes to impressive lengths to keep you in balance by storing fat, building cholesterol plaque, draining calcium for your bones, and leaching magnesium from your heart or muscles. When you're dehydrated, your body goes into preservation or fat-storing mode. If your body has been dealing with a major acid intake, your fat is actually protecting your cells, tissues and organs" pg. 22-24


All I can tell you is that this Alkaline water that I purchased at Fred Meyer is really, really, really good. Probably the best tasting water I have ever had!

And this goes without saying, but I am no expert on any of this. All I am doing is sharing information and a little about my cleansing experience.

Breakfast: Raspberry Love Smoothie (you can choose what recipes sound appealing to you)
1 pint fresh or frozen raspberries
2 ripe pears
2 handfuls spinach
2 C chilled water
Blend until smooth (really wish I had that Vitamix right now!)

Lunch: Salad with lots of veggies and a dressing made of olive oil, lemon and sea salt

Evening: Smooth-Move herbal tea (hmmm, hope that doesn't backfire!)

Dinner: All raw, beginning with lower acid fruits such as berries and stone fruits and then a salad

*In bed by 10pm

Here's to trying to live with better health!

I might be crazy

My friend asked me if I would like to be her partner, for the "Put a Stop To the Muffin Top" partners weight-loss challenge. (same challenge I did last year, just with a partner this time). I had success last time and lost 21 lbs in 3 months and took 4th place. Well, I gained some of that weight back and was feeling like I need to do something to get a few more pounds off, so I agreed to be her partner.

I was so much more motivated last year. I had just signed up to run a 1/2 marathon and had lost 25lbs since having Alaina. It felt so good. This year, although I got some of those lbs back, I just feel like I'm in such a better place physically. And I am struggling to stay motivated. And lets just face it, I really enjoy eating!

And while we're facing things. Counting calories = sucks! It works, but it's no fun!

Anyway, I lost some weight and then I was back up a lb at last weigh in. Some of my fellow contestants started the challenge out by doing a cleanse (a nasty sounding one) and I thought maybe I'd give it a whirl. I tried to do one last time, but gave up after a day. I'm only doing a 3 day cleanse and I still get to eat salads. Yay! Thought I'd document this to try and hold myself accountable, but I'm not going to make any promises. Don't be jealous of my iron will!

I have been trying to eat healthier in general, but seriously, don't you have those days when you just want to eat some good old fashioned crap!?

how to make a collage

Finally learned how to make a collage. Thanks to this tutorial.
It's only taken me a year or so to figure it out.

big deal

If you know me really well, you know that I pretty much hate seafood, especially anything of the rubbery or chewy variety. However, as I have grown (matured?) I have on several occasions been willing to try different forms of sea creatures. A few successful attempts have been made, but overall I still have a really, really hard time with fish. Hello? Have ya smelled it?! But I want so badly to like it because of the health benefits it offers.

Well. Let me tell you, the light has come...I think. I have been attending a healthy cooking class offered by a lady at church. At our last class, she showed us her meat rub and grilled up some Salmon. I try Salmon as often as possible because everyone always says to me, "Have you tried Salmon? You've gotta try Salmon". I always give it a try, but few times have gone over well. So at our class, I tried it and LOVED it! Her meat rub is delicious, the fish was FRESH and those two things together made all the difference.

I liked it so much that I went to Fred Meyer THAT evening, purchased a whole Wild Caught Sockeye Salmon (it's cheaper that way), had the seafood guy fillet it, and went home and grilled half of it up for dinner. I actually touched the fish and plucked out the remaining bones (which, truth be told, was the funnest part). You then put melted butter over the fish, then the rub and slap that bad boy on the grill on med heat for 20 min. Yum!

One thing I learned: If I am going to eat a fish, it needs to be eaten as fresh as possible. I cooked the second half of the fish two days later, and had a much harder time with it.

Oh, and the rub consists of: paprika, thyme, kosher salt, ground onion and ground garlic. 1 C of each. It'll make quite a bit.

dreams really do come true

Yesterday Justin and I were going through the garage and cleaning out boxes that have been sitting there since we moved in. I came across an old journal that started back in 1998. It was fun revisiting some of the things that happened in my life during that time.

I came across an entry where I wrote about some of the things I wanted in the person I married and the home I would someday have. I'm not going to share specifics, but I will say that my heart swelled as I became more aware that I found a person who matched that description. I am very thankful for my sweet husband. We're not perfect, but he is that guy that I hoped to find.

joy

Today. I "enjoyed" them. Truly.

something to think about

This article has been going around facebook and I just finally took a couple of minutes to actually read it.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-death-of-pretty (the direct link)

The Death Of Pretty

Share

by Pat Archbold Wednesday, December 21, 2011 11:11 AM Comments (385)

This post is intended as a lament of sorts, a lament for something in the culture that is dying and may never been seen again.

Pretty, pretty is dying.

People will define pretty differently. For the purposes of this piece, I define pretty as a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence.

Once upon a time, women wanted to project an innocence. I am not idealizing another age and I have no illusions about the virtues of our grandparents, concupiscence being what it is. But some things were different in the back then. First and foremost, many beautiful women, whatever the state of their souls, still wished to project a public innocence and virtue. And that combination of beauty and innocence is what I define as pretty.

By nature, generally when men see this combination in women it brings out their better qualities, their best in fact. That special combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and defend it.

Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they prefer to be regarded as hot. Hotness is something altogether different. When women want to be hot instead of pretty, they must view themselves in a certain way and consequently men view them differently as well.

As I said, pretty inspires men’s nobler instincts to protect and defend. Pretty is cherished. Hotness, on the other hand, is a commodity. Its value is temporary and must be used. It is a consumable.

Nowhere is this pretty deficit more obvious than in our “stars,” the people we elevate as the “ideal.” The stars of the fifties surely suffered from the same sin as do stars of today. Stars of the fifties weren’t ideal but they pursued a public ideal different from today.

The merits of hotness over pretty is easy enough to understand, they made an entire musical about it. Who can forget how pretty Olivia Newton John was at the beginning of Grease. Beautiful and innocent. But her desire to be desired leads her to throw away all that is valuable in herself in the vain hopes of getting the attention of a boy. In the process, she destroys her innocence and thus destroys the pretty. What we are left with is hotness.

Hotness is a consumable. A consumable that consumes as it is consumed but brings no warmth.

Most girls don’t want to be pretty anymore even if they understand what it is. It is ironic that 40 years of women’s liberation has succeeded only in turning women into a commodity. Something to be used up and thrown out.

Of course men play a role in this as well, but women should know better and they once did. Once upon a time you would hear girls talk about kind of women men date and the kind they marry. You don’t hear things like that anymore.

But here is the real truth. Most men prefer pretty over hot. Even back in 6th grade I hated the “hot” Olivia Newton John and felt sorry for her that she had to debase herself in such a way. Still do.

Our problem is that society doesn’t value innocence anymore, real or imagined. Nobody aspires to innocence anymore. Nobody wants to be thought of as innocent, the good girl. They want to be hot, not pretty.

I still hope that pretty comes back, although I think it not likely any time soon. For every Taylor Swift, there are a hundred Megan Foxs, or Lindsay Lohans, or Miley Cyruses etc.

Girls, please, bring back the pretty.

***********************

This really, really made me think. Unfortunately, it made me think about myself more than anything. I am married now, and am not trying to get the attention of other men, but I still wonder and asked myself what my subconscious self wants to look like. Pretty or Hot? If I am honest, I think that a lot of times I do want to look "hot", so to speak. I'm embarrassed now that it's brought to my conscious mind. Lets be honest, a lot of the fashions that are popular, even among my circle of peers are geared toward looking "hot" and "sexy". Seriously, think about it. Stiletto's, the jeans with the diamond butt pockets, the tight clothes. Even the jewelry, I think. I'm not saying that you are an evil person if you have those. I even like the look (well....maybe not the Stiletto's. Probably because I can't walk in them). In fact, I have a pair of black boots that we affectionately refer to as my "sexy boots". When my 5 year old started repeating the phrase (luckily she misunderstood it and called them "sassy" boots), it caught my attention. So now when she's around, we say "sassy" boots. Ugh!

Anyway, I thought it was a really interesting article. I think that it goes beyond the outward appearance though. The real question is why do we want to look this way or want to be sexy or hot? It really has become the norm. What's at the root of it?

I am going to think about how I can change my mindset.

I just looked up the definition of pretty and here's what I got:

1. pleasing or attractive to the eye, as by delicacy and gracefulness; a pretty face
2. (of things, places, etc.) pleasing to the eye, especially without grandeur


What are YOUR thoughts????

the playroom

Here are a few pictures of the girls' playroom.

Painted cherry blossom tree, hooks for dress up

story time shelf Katelyn has been begging for

vinyl quote: "A daughter fills a place in your heart that
you never knew was empty"

A picture of Katelyn at 6 months old and a picture of Alaina
as a newborn that my Doula painted for me.
Willow tree figure of expecting Mother.

just feel like writing

God has blessed me to start another New Year! The year always starts off good when Justin simultaneously goes back on the day shift. He doesn't like the calls as much during the day, but I'm sure he likes his wife a lot more :) I nearly go cuck-coo at the end of his 4 months of night shift. Leaves at 5:15pm gets home and into bed around 6:30-7am, sleeps til 3pm. This translates to A LOTTA just mommy time. (*Somehow I always feel like I am going to be judged for complaining about Justin's schedule. Yes I know their are moms out there who have it worse. Who's husbands are gone much more and longer and whatnot, but this is still MY struggle, so don't downplay what I go through, ok?)

My friend has decided to do a "truth" post (I think every day) on her blog this month. Where so many blogs are the "image" of perfection, she has decided to just lay it all out there and not look back. And I LOVE IT! I want to do that all the time. Sometimes, I fear that I need to be more private, but there are times when I just want to say "look, here's how it really is FOR ME".

So, ya wanna really know some things about ME? If not, you don't have to read my blog.

*I have a mental illness. It is an almost daily struggle for me. I take medication. It has become more of a struggle for me as I have taken on the roll of "mother". I am a Mormon and I don't want to have any more kids. I only have 2. Two is really, really hard, for ME. I would rather have only two children and try to give them the best that I possibly can (and I am not referring to materialistic things), than to have 4 or 5 children (or whatever the most righteous number would be) -just because other people think I should- and go totally and completely off the deep end. And furthermore, it is absolutely between myself, Justin and God as to how many children we decide to have. End of story. I am not a sinner.

*It's been a challenge for me to go through this stage of life as a mom. I feel like I am constantly trying to figure myself out in a lot of ways, which has really bothered me because before I got married I thought I had a pretty good grip on that. I was just about 27 when I got married. Oh yeah, I had it all figured out. I feel like my perspective on a lot of things has changed. Sometimes for the better and probably sometimes for worse.

*I had some challenges in my upbringing that led to me having a lot of anxiety about marriage and motherhood. As as result, I was never the Mormon girl who dreamed of nothing else but getting married and having babies. (*If you were that girl, I am not condemning that in any way, because I do feel that it is a very noble desire, and I admire you for that, it just wasn't who I was). It freaked me out. I always assumed that's what would happen, but the reality of it scared me. A lot. And even after I was married there were many times that I would think that I would be perfectly content if I didn't have any children.

*After I had Katelyn, it changed. I remember a time when she was in her first couple weeks of life and I was holding her, and I thought "how could I have ever thought I wouldn't want this?" (when I decorated their play area, I found a quote that reflected that thought perfectly and I put it on the wall-post will come later).

*I love my two beautiful daughters and I am not a kid-hater in anyway. I just know what I experience and what's best for my well-being. Maybe God has a different plan in mind and if so, then I will accept what He has to offer. If not, I am content with what I have been given and hope I can care for these girls to the best of my ability.

2012

Here's one of the things I got out of church today:

"Do the best you can, and then choose to be
happy with your circumstance."

Spoke volumes to me.

Happy New Year!