2013 in Review

The past year has been a busy one for our family so I thought I'd do a little summary just for fun!

At the beginning of the year I started a home business and ended up closing it at the end of the year. We traveled to Arizona for a vacation in March which was bittersweet because we found out my dad has heart problems while we were there. We celebrated our youngest sweet girl's 1st birthday in January and our oldest beauty's 5th birthday in July. We started our juicing/ cleani eating journey in May and have kept it up well and lost about 75lbs between Matt and I. Our family took a camping trip in August and survived tent camping even with a one year old! We watched our oldest daughter start kindergarten in September which made mommy cry and daddy proud. I traveled to see my sister in Victoria, B.C. in October which was a wonderful getaway for me. My dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer, had surgery and is now cancer free (yipee!)...I believe it brought our family closer together. We rang in the New Year as a family and had a super cool kid- friendly party. And last but most definitely not least- Matt and I encountered many up's and down's in our relationship as most everyone has and came through it even stronger than before.

All in all we had a wonderful year. There are many more positives than negatives and here are some pictures of all of these awesome adventures. I look forward to a terrific 2014 filled with more amazing moments!

Happy New Year everyone!

Juice Reboot- Day 3

I am writing the day after my 3rd day because I was so tired last night and had to be up early to take Ceili to school. Yeasterday was almost the hardest day for me. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I knew I couldn't give in and eat regular meals all day!

I weighed myself and I was only down 6 lbs total. I was a little discouraged but knew I didn't drink enough water on Saturday so that probably played a part. Matt was already down 9 lbs!

We started with Apple Carrot juice for breakfast. It was supposed to have ginger, but I really didn't feel like putting it in. We tried straining it this time to see if it helped and it did! Less pulp meant less gagging. I had a lemon ginger tea and Matt had a lemon zinger tea with it. Then we packed up our water and my coconut water and headed to my parents house for a visit because it is my mom's birthday today.

Matt forgot to drink any water while we were out, so he was parched by the time we got home. I drank my coconut water at my parents place as well as some water so I felt fine. He said he was starting to feel light headed and weak. I made us the Garden Variety juice for lunch with more apple and less kale. The smell of the kale was starting to make us feel ill! We strained it again and it wasn't as frothy this time so it was a little more bearable. We all laid down for a nap, but I couldn't sleep. I didn't feel so tired for a change.

We skipped the afternoon snack again and ate an earlier dinner of real food- baked yam and steamed broccoli with a bit of lemon juice and salt and pepper. It was so delicious! I enjoyed the yam most. After dinner I made our dessert juice- watermelon, blackberries, lime and carrot, filled our water bottles and stuck them in the freezer. I also made my morning juice because I wanted to keep juicing once a day. Matt went to rake the lawn and enjoy the beautiful weather and I cleaned up around the house.

Once we put the kids to bed, we drank our dessert and I worked on our lunches for the next day. I made us each a spinach salad with bell pepper, mushrooms, red onion, tomato and some hard boiled egg and this amazing dressing. I had one taste and was in love! That will definitely be a regular recipe in our house.

We went to bed a bit earlier than usual because we were worn out and I was very much looking forward to a more normal day!

I weighed myself this morning and am down a total of 9.2 lbs since the beginning of the cleanse! This starts me off in a good place to start loosing weight and feeling more healthy. I am happy that I did the cleanse, as awful as it seemed sometimes. My clothes are feeling more comfortable and I am more comfortable in my skin already. I am proud that I am eating what my body needs, not just what it craves and am hoping that I can carry on long term eating clean and healthy.

Juice Reboot- Day 2

I woke up this morning feeling hungover. I felt so exhausted and my body ached all over! I dragged my butt out of bed at 7:30 am because the kids were up, but I wanted to stay in bed so badly. Another day of juicing made my stomach turn but I knew I had to keep this promise to myself.

I went to the washroom (for the one millionth time!) and then weighed myself. Down 5 lbs, woohoo! I was very surprised to see the scale move that much after only a day.

Once I got the kids their breakfast- delicious looking toast and fruit, I started cutting up oranges, carrots and beets for our morning juice "Sunrise". The flavor of the beets really grossed me out in our last drink that contained them. I was making the juice as Matt was getting up and he looked at it with a disgusted look on his face. He said his stomach had been bothering him all night and he didn't know if he even wanted to drink anymore juice. I told him that it was his decision, after all he is only doing this cleanse to be my support. He decided to try some juice for breakfast. We agreed that it was okay, but the beet flavor was still there. We each had a lemon tea and a bunch more water and got ready for the day.

We decided to take the girls to the park to get out and do something. It was only a 10 minute drive, I made Matt stop at 7-11 so I could pee....again! I drank my coconut water on the way as well. Matt opted out of the coconut water today. We had a good play at the park and were ready for lunch. At that point I could have died for a burger! We came home and had our lunch juice, another green one "Mean Green". I added more apple and some pear to it because the last batch I made was so horrible. This wasn't as bad, but still wasn't easy to get down. The kale taste is very strong in all of the drinks. We managed to gulp it down and voted for a vegan spinach salad for dinner.

We all had a nap and I slept better than ever. I have been so tired and have been sleeping so hard. It was time for our afternoon snack, but neither of us felt hungry so we skipped it. A couple of hours later I made our spinach salads with mushroom, onion, bell pepper, cucumber and a bit of dressing made of balsamic vinegar, EVOO, garlic, salt and pepper. It was wonderful! I have never enjoyed a salad more. And I felt so full and energetic afterwards! Afterwards, I made our dessert drink made of watermelon, limes and blueberries and put our drink bottles in the freezer for later because we weren't hungry for dessert.

We are just drinking our dessert now and it's very good. Because we put it in the freezer for a couple of hours, it is like a slush and perfect for a warm day like today. I will have my tea right away and call it a night.

As I think about it more, my eating was just an addiction and I am giving myself a "rehab". My body is going through withdrawals complete with headaches, exhaustion and aches and pains. Matt has been freezing cold and had a headache all day so I guess his body is going through the same thing. I need to break this addiction so I can start fresh and give my children a positive example to follow when they eat and start healthy habits for them!

One more day to go, I can see the light!

Juice Reboot- Day 1

I survived the first day! It started out great, loved the citrus juice with a bit of carrot for breakfast! I had a lemon tea along with it and headed off to take Ceili to school with my water in hand. I was feeling energetic and was in a great mood.

We take the bus and I usually end up walking a lot while she's in school to kill some time. I have used my pedometer a few times before and it's around 12,000 steps by the time the day is done. So I walked and shopped (and tried to avoid the food aisles!) and drank water. Then I realized that I needed to drink my coconut water, I had never tried it before so I was hoping for something delicious and coconut flavored. I popped the can open and tasted it and I have to say, it was awful!! It's like soapy water to me, but I gulped it down.

We got back home and it was lunch time, so I made the kids lunch and got my liquid lunch out of the fridge. It was the "Green Lemonade". This took a lot of holding my breath and gulping because it was like drinking water from an algae filled swamp. I drank it all and felt full. I texted Matt at work to see what he thought of it and he felt the same way about the coconut water and lunch!

We all had a good nap, I was completely exhausted! I was feeling groggy after my nap, so I started in on my afternoon snack of "Sporty Spice" juice. This wasn't as bad as lunch, but it wasn't fantastic either. I was still feeling tired and gross.

Matt came home from work and soon after I went to work making our dinner juice "Mean Green". I also made the girls some macaroni for dinner. I have to say even the water boiling smelled delicious to me! Our green juice was awful, much like our lunch. Matt couldn't even stand the smell of it! We drank it and rewarded ourselves with a slice of watermelon.

We went for a short walk and I just had some of my purple juice (citrus, carrot, blackberries and blueberries) with a banana because I am feeling so drained.

Over the course of the day, I realized that mindless eating has become a very bad habit of mine. I need to start eating mindfully and eating foods that my body needs, not processed things that are simply a craving and don't give me any energy.

Wish me luck tomorrow, I am hoping this gets easier!

Purple Citrus Punch Recipe

On a whim I decided to throw together a bunch of fruit and veggies tonight to create something for our juice tomorrow morning. My hubby and I have been having a juice every morning to try new recipes and prepare for the cleanse. I am slowly weaning myself off of my morning tea!

I tasted it and couldn't believe how delicious it was! Even the kids slurped it down and asked for more. Now I am left with only a half glass for breakfast!
I named it "Purple Citrus Punch" because it's quite sour but delicious and purple :) Here is the recipe for anyone who wants to try it out.

Purple Citrus Punch

2 Oranges, peeled
1 Grapefruit, peeled
1 lime, peeled
2 pears
1 handful blackberries

Put through the juicer alternating ingredients and enjoy! Keeps for 24 hours in fridge, but it's best to drink it right away.
Yields about 4 cups (2 servings)

Ready to Start Fresh

I haven't posted in way too long. Things in our lives have been absolutely nuts!

I have started my own home business selling children's clothes, a true passion of mine...clothes and am loving it so far. Most of my customers are fellow moms and I love talking to them and choosing new awesome items to order in! I am learning more about the market every day and Matt has been helping me do the spreadsheets and technical stuff.

I am also going to be starting a new adventure next weekend. Again, with Matt by my side we are doing a juice cleanse. After watching "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" we decided to get rid of the junk in our bodies and start fresh! We are starting with a 3 day cleanse and I may continue onto 5 days depending how I feel. After that it's clean eating for this family! No more preservative- filled crap. I'm going to slowly replace our regular foods with clean foods as we run out of them so as not to break the bank. I'm not dreading this at all like I would have a few years ago. I am quite excited to begin this new journey and start fresh. We eat far too much junk food and "fast and easy" foods in our house and I'm done with it. I want to become healthier and feel good. I am suffering with migraines and daily aches and pains- things a 31 year old shouldn't be dealing with!

I am going to post about our journey here so that I can look back and feel good about what we have done!

Off to Pinterest to look up some more juice and clean recipes. Wish us luck!