The new health journey - Food.

Happy Thursday! Today I want to start out with a sweet picture <3 My Boys!! <3

Also, I'd like to share a picture of my breakfast.... This is a protein shake made with the protein powder I made... This was NOT a good experiment. It is disgusting beyond words and smells like absolute shit... but, it was expensive to make so I feel bad wasting it! THIS IS WHY VEGAN PROTEIN IS SO EXPENSIVE! Because it is HARD to make and even harder to make taste good! lol!

PS how cute are the sweet bullies in the background snoozing away? Also, please excuse the mess... I have a one year old bulldogge who just REFUSES to put his toys away when he is finished! lol!

OH and for those of you who want to try your hand at making your own powder (maybe you'll be more successful than me?) Here is the recipe I used -  Protein Powder


Yesterday was so productive. I went to my internship in the morning and then came home around 1 and had some lunch before decorating for Halloween. I have some great decorations so far and every year JT and I add a little more. I really love the fall!

This is probably my favorite area of my decorations so far. I think it may be a little crowded, so I may take a few things out and move them elsewhere and just keep the cool bottles. We're going to hang lights up outside too and I have a GREAT windchime up now! (This was a World Market Steal!)

I also cleaned the house up, picked up JT's drycleaning and stopped at Big Lots to pick up a loaf pan. Why you ask? Because I had TWO recipes to make that called for one yesterday. The first of which, was Millet and Black Bean Stuffed Peppers. These came out MUCH better than the protein powder. In fact, they were definitely the best thing I have ever made. Quick shout out to The Daily Garnish - the girl who writes that blog has AMAZING and easy recipes and although the protein didn't come out well for me, I'll take the blame on that one!She's also VERY pregnant right now and looks so cute! I hope I am as lucky some day!

After that, I washed the loaf pan and made Blueberry Greek Yogurt Banana Bread. It is as delicious as it sounds!

Both recipes were SO easy too. My food definitely isn't near being on par with JT's (he is truly talented...) But, i am so proud I was able to make a yummy and healthy dinner for us. It is also nice to be able to contribute more to the eating aspect of our life. I know it has to be exhausting to always have to be responsible for feeding us, and he always has been due to my lack of domestic skills (and lack of effort to learn!) That has changed though and I am going to keep working on it! :)

Eating is so important to our health. I have always been so focused on working out and cutting calories, but truthfully I've been wrong all along. It doesn't matter as much  how many calories we consume, but rather what those calories contain. And we are SO brainwashed to think we should avoid fruits and juice because "they have so much sugar." That is so not true. Yes, we should avoid fake juice that has high fructose corn syrup in it, but fresh juice? No way. Fresh fruits and vegetables? No way! And I will say one more thing about really cutting my meat consumption (to nothing but seafood) and eating 80% raw fruits and veggies - I feel so much better. I feel like a new person. I am no longer having the severe digestive issues I've had in the past, I am less fatigued, I have more energy and I sleep so much better. And I just feel better about ME. I no longer crave bad crap either (especially sweets, which have ALWAYS been my downfall.) I also feel like my skin looks WAY better.. check me out! loL! (not sure if putting a picture of myself on my blog is appropriate, but it is my blog so oh well! hehe)

The agenda for today includes: Finishing this blog, going for a run and doing some deep stretching afterward. Shower, errands (to pick up cilantro, cucumbers and other veggies for juicing, lara bars (JTs new fav!) and a few other things that I can't remember right now...shoot! I need a list!) internship (and meeting with my supervisor) then home to do more cleaning/decorating. Tonight JT and I are going to pick up prizes for his treasure box for his little babies and then I have softball. <3 What a fun day!!!

Hope I didn't share too many pictures today. If I did please let me know - I want this blog to be enjoyable to read and something to look forward to. Feedback is ALWAYS welcome, especially if it is constructive!

Enjoy your day and life! I know I AM!

interesting week

Quick check in. It is pretty early Tuesday morning and I am ready to do my errands and cleaning for the day! The highlight will be DECORATING FOR HALLOWEEN!!! My FAVORITE holiday <3 But, before all of that, I feel the need to blog a little bit.

The past week and a half has been INSANE. Really, the last month has been, between working and trying to do my internship, but with JT JUST getting hired to teach last week it has been a full on sprint to get his classroom together. I am happy to report it IS in fact coming together... but as a result we've been struggling to keep our eating as clean as  we'd like.

Just to clarify, We have both been eating mostly raw, very little meat and dairy etc... We generally juice for at least one meal a day and we had been working out regularly as well. This past week, we had On the Boarder, BJs and sushi ... Last night we had Taco Bueno (although I had a black bean vegetarian burrito and it was AWESOME!) The good news is we actually made good choices overall for as much as we ate out, but we both feel super guilty about eating out so much... it just isn't something we like to do (or really have the money to do!) And it is increasingly difficult to eat out at many places since we've changed our eating. I am officially a vegetarian. I do not eat any meat besides seafood and I eat very little dairy. The seafood is rare as well because I am not a fan of fish farming and that is where a lot of seafood comes from now... Im also not a fan of the overfishing we're doing in the oceans - so yeah, its tough. Eventually I'd like to go completely vegan, but I think that will take a little more time and a little more control and organization. I found when we weren't eating any meat that my protein levels were low (we donate plasma and I was turned away due to them being low) and I wasn't real sure about that. So I am now figuring out how to incorporate more protein into my diet.

Speaking of low protein, I actually made my own protein powder... lets just say it was... disgusting. Words cannot even describe the smell. :( It was expensive to make too! lol! Luckily we still have all of the supplements I added so we'll just have to use them in something else I guess. :) 

So yeah, to curb our eating out (although we are meeting friends for sushi tonight! We can't wait either! It has been too long since we've seen them! ) I am going to find healthy vegetarian/vegan recipes and go shopping for the ingredients. For those of you who know me and love me, you all know I would starve or be 300 lbs. if not for JT... so this should be fun. haha no I am way better so it will be fine... but its funny that I will be taking charge of that aspect of our home for a couple of weeks. Im sure JT will still do much of the actual cooking, but shopping and planning and all that other jazz is just too much right now while trying to teach babies and organize his work space. Honestly, Ill  take the blame for all of the eating out, because if I would have just done this at the beginning we'd have stuff in the house.

The cool thing about me doing all of this is that lately I've been on the ball with getting stuff done - I am definitely starting to manifest mommy traits and although I will definitely NOT be a mommy any time soon, it is really awesome to be getting to the point where I could handle it.

Later today I will post recipes that I decide on, pictures of my awesomely decorated house (without pumpkins though - that will be a FUN trip to the pumpkin patch with our sweet boy! On a side note, I am SO sad that even the extra large costumes would be too small on him... someone teach me how to sew!) and a couple other random thoughts. I am going to get better at this again. I love posting when I do it! OH and I got a new phone and it is AWESOME! So maybe Ill start blogging in the mornings and using that!

Thanks for reading!

Phone blogging?

Maybe!!!

So much to share

The need to start blogging again has been a long time coming. I have so much information to share - so much news to share and so much self reflection to share (and do... :)

First of all, and most importantly, JT and I are back in Texas and things are completely different in our worlds health wise than they were just this summer. While in Ohio we started trending toward vegetarianism, whole food, supplements etc... but now that we are back in Texas in our own home, things are absolutely and completely different.

We got to this point thanks to a few awesome documentaries and some great friends. These documentaries are MUST sees if you care about food, nutrition, health, fitness or living really...

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead - this is a documentary about a guy from Australia named Joe who is very obese. He has an autoimmune deficiency which forces him to take 11 pills a  day . Joe decides to completely detox his body by doing a 30 day juice fast. The results are astounding... until Joe meets Phil - who is also very sick and quite ironically has the same autoimmune disease. Joe helps Phil start a juice fast and the results go from astounding to unbelievable. Check it out for yourself on netflix! (and join the revolution on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/FatSickandNearlyDead )

Food Matters - of all of the documentaries I believe this is the most important and beneficial. If you watch only one, make it this one. It is about eating right, but it is also about prescription drugs, government cover-ups of true cures for cancer and how eating and supplementing can literally change everything. Simply AMAZING.

King Corn - This is the story of two young men who get their "make up" tested with a hair sample, only to find they are made up completely of corn. They decide they'd like to learn more about corn farming so they can understand better why they register as being made up of corn. They rent an acre of corn field in the midwest and go through the process of "being corn farmers" with their one acre. They learn a ton along the way including how corn farmers are paid, how the corn is processed and everything in between. Although it drags a little at times, the information is important and it is a must see.

Forks Over Knives - This is also a documentary about food and vegetarian/vegan eating. We follow the stories of several sick individuals on their quest to regain their health and life. There are several interviews with doctors, nurses, people who have changed their diets etc... Very informative.

In addition to the documentaries we've been doing SO much reading. We are both currently reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan and we both just read "Born to Run" by Chris McDougall. I don't really know about the first one yet (still have a ton to go) but, Born to Run is AMAZING. Thank you Sara for sending that to me and suggesting it. If you haven't read it, please do yourself a favor and pick it up. So awesome in every way. A great story, very informative and just ... well AWESOME. lol.

OK - so right now here are the things we are doing:

Juicing (usually at least once a day, sometimes more.) Most of our juices are "green" juices with cucumber, celery, green apples, ginger and carrots. We also just got a whole flat of Wheat Grass (a lot cheaper than buying it individually) and will begin juicing that starting Monday.

Chia seeds - if you don't know about them already check THIS out. We make the gel and add it to our water, coffee, juice etc...

Eating a VERY limited amount of meat or dairy - and when I say limited I mean RARE. We have switched to non-dairy milk options such as coconut and almond.

Mostly Raw and vegan and absolutely NO processed foods. In fact, I am even doing vegan/gluten free baking (well Ive only made one thing... but I plan to make lots! and I will def. share the good recipes here!)

My blogging has really always been about where Im at fitness wise and what Im doing, but I am definitely going to try to provide more useful information from now on. I really hope this will be beneficial and motivational!

Thank you for reading!