JuiceLand Cleanse: 7 day review

ONE WEEK!!! I went one whole week without solid foods... and I have 3 days to go until I am finished with the 10 day cleanse!

Let me tell ya, this weekend was hard. Really hard. Ben's brother, Dave, was in town. Which meant steaks at our house on Saturday (I helped prepare it, of course) and dinner out on Sunday at an Italian food restaurant that I LOVE. Not to mention, Ben and I went to Alamo Drafthouse on Thursday and I was sandwhiched between Ben attacking his buffalo chicken and a lady smacking on popcorn. But not to worry- I brought my juice! Ugh.

I will admit, I cheated just a tiny tiny bit. My stepdad, Mark, gave us some amazingly juicy red tomatoes and I just HAD to try one. That one small slice of tomato might have been the most satisfying thing I have ever tasted. Heavenly.

There are many pros to this juice cleanse which is why I have kept my self control for this long and will continue to for the entire 10 days. For example, I've lost 5 lbs so far. And this is not water weight. I also have a crazy amount of energy that I didn't have before. Levi has been the main benefactor of this advantage, considering we've either walked 4 miles or ran 3 each day this week. I can honestly only think of one con- and its the fact that I haven't had a solid meal in 7 days.

Here's to Levi! Stay tuned for my final JuiceLand review.

JuiceLand Cleanse: Day 2,3, & 4 Review

"KILL ME NOW"
This is Ben's favorite dramatic saying... I get the pleasure of hearing it every time he is stressed, we are bickering, or he is being moody. I wanted to scream it many times in the last 3 days.

Every review I read on juicing said that day 3 is the hardest. I'm assuming it's because on day 2 people are still enthusiastic about doing the cleanse, and hunger really starts to kick in on day 3. This was the opposite for me. On day 2 all I could think about was FOOD. I was miserable. However, I do think that my laziness was to blame. I basically sat on my butt all day watching people eat on TV feeling sorry for myself and counting down the hours until I could drink my next bottle of juice. And to make matters worse, I cooked spaghetti for Ben to eat for dinner. Torture.

Day 3 was much different. I woke up very early on my own and full of energy! So I went to pick up my juice and sipped on it while cooking breakfast for Ben. I had a lot of cleaning and unpacking to do after my crazy month of travel which kept me pretty busy and I actually forgot about the juice (for the first time). I even went to the gym and did a 2 hour workout!

It's Day 4 and I'm currently drinking my "Tree of Life" for dinner. Which is what I've had every night so far. It is the most filling of them all because of the carrots and beets, and I love the kick that the cayenne pepper gives! Day 4 has been a little touch and go. My mom was in town, so we walked our dogs the 4 miles to pick up my juice and I drank my breakfast. We then left to run some errands and what do you know, I FORGOT MY DANG JUICE!! So by the time we got home, I was STARVING. I drank some "XTRA HOLLA PAIN YO!" and was immediately cured. The day got much better and I even went to happy hour with my friend Amy... this time juice in hand :)

After tomorrow, I will be HALFWAY DONE!! Yippee! Keep posted for a review of all the juice flavors I've had, as well as my 5 day results.

PS- This post is dedicated to my future sister in law, Anne Yambor, who I'm pretty sure is the only person actually reading these posts!! haha

JuiceLand Cleanse: Day 1 Review

Day 1 juice flavors (in the order I drank them):

Unicorn Blood: Watermelon, Beet, Celery, Ginger, Spinach

Eh... It was okay. A little too sweet for me, but I read in another review to drink the sweet things first to get your carbs in the morning for energy. I suggest drinking it over ice, it makes it taste much better!

Ninja Bachelor Party: Pineapple, Jalepeno, Celery, Kale, Spinach, Parsley, Salt

This was sweet but had a kick to it. I was hoping for a bigger kick... but it was still good!

Cocolilly: Coconut Water, Cucumber, Celery, Kale, Parsley

This tasted SO GOOD and refreshing after my work out! I grabbed a large cup of ice from Food 4 Fitness (part of my gym) and took it with me into the sauna. It was perfect for an after work out pick me up!

Tree of Life: Carrot, Tumeric, Coconut, Ginger, Lime, Cayenne, Beet

I saved this one for dinner because I thought it would be the spiciest, and I'm SO glad I did! It was delicious, filling, and definitely my favorite!

All in all, day one was pretty okay. I was a little moody, lacking energy, and not satisfied, but I was able to handle it. I went to the gym around 3pm and ran a mile before doing an hour of strength training. I was really lacking energy after that and when 6pm rolled around, I was tired and annoyed. It's a weird feeling... I'm not hungry, but I really miss EATING. Which is hard because every time I get juice out of the fridge, I want to eat a pickle. And every time I walk by the pantry, I have to stop myself from snacking on almonds. I just want to put food into my mouth. 

1 day down.... 9 TO GO!!!!!!!

JuiceLand 10 Day Cleanse

The juicing craze has taken off full speed and I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Luckily, I live in a city that makes it easy to do. Not only do I not have the time or energy to juice a WHOLE GALLON of juice a day, but it can be very expensive and messy. I'd rather pay for convenience, and I've decided to do that through JuiceLand on Barton Springs in Austin.

I paid upfront online for a 10 day cleanse. When you do this, you save $50 and it is a commitment to do the full 10 days (which is what I need). I had difficulty deciding which one I wanted to do, so I went with the Captain's Choice where you get 4 different juices each day. My only request was that I get 2 spicy ones. For those of you who know me, I eat hot sauce on EVERYTHING so this was definitely a necessity :)

Most people eat raw for 3 or 4 days in advance to get their body prepared, but thanks to my cousin graduating from TCU this weekend- I went on a weekend binger of over eating and drinking instead. This also left my dog Levi very hyper from his lack of exercise he received this weekend, so I decided to walk the 2 miles there to go pick up my juice for the day. 

4 miles, a gallon of juice, and a very tired dog later- I started my juice cleanse. Stay tuned for my review of Day 1!

spEGGtacular TIE-dyed easter eggs!!!

It's no secret that I'm a craft lover. Ben refers to them as "projects" and claims that I spend all of my time on the internet searching for new projects to do. It doesn't take up ALL of my time, but it does consume a generous chunk of my day :)

I found this gem while surfing for DIY Easter decorations. It combines two things I absolutely love, thrift store shopping, and crafting. http://www.marthastewart.com/269788/silk-tie-easter-eggs

My little sister, Mallori, was in town this weekend which was great because I needed an extra set of hands for this one. I followed the directions from the website step by step except I decided to use blown eggs (which were the shells leftover from the massive amount of breakfast burritos I made last week). In theory, this was a great idea because we are still a couple of weeks away from easter, and I wanted to save the eggs for as long as possible. However, it made the boiling step quite difficult.

Here are pictures and thoughts from my EGGciting craft afternoon with Mallori!

These are the ties we used. I've been collecting them from local thrift stores around Austin. The cheapest I could find was $3 each, so please let me know if there is a place I can get them for less! As you can see from the final product, the dark blues and deep reds show up the best.

I should have done a better job at wrapping the eggs in the ties. There is a lot of white area on the eggs from the folds in the silk. I think next time I am going to try and wrap it like a tootsie roll so that the fabric is closer to the eggs.

Here is where the blown eggs caused a dilemma. Because they were hollow, the egg wouldn't sink in the pot. We had to put a salad plate on top of the eggs to hold them down under the lid. Not ideal. I'll have to think of a better way to do this, because it is really a shame to throw these pretty eggs away every year. Not to mention- boiled eggs smell terrible.

Finished product!! Don't they look great? Not too shabby for our first try. How cute would these be hanging by a ribbon on an Easter tree? Can't wait to try it again next year!

Proud Pullet Parents

Look at those tail feathers!!

Tonight is the first night our little chickadees have gone to roost on their own. They are growing up so fast!! I can't wait until they start laying eggs, hopefully in about a month or so. Maybe Ben will get an egg for his birthday!!

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy BURRITO!! Hey hey BURRITO!

I went back to work this week, which has been quite the adjustment for both of us. The house is far from spotless, I haven't cooked once this week, and our laundry is piling up. Not to mention, the healthy lifestyle we were living is slowly but surely heading in the wrong direction. 

Ben is mostly concerned about his bad breakfast habits. He's been waking up really early the last couple of weeks, and I'm not one for early mornings so he is left to fend for himself when it comes to food. 

He sent me a blog post about pre-cooking bulk breakfast burritos and freezing them for busy mornings. I needed blown eggs for an easter dying project I'm working on- So I thought this would be a good opportunity to use the yolk from those eggs. Normally I would say "Kill two birds with one stone", but that saying just doesn't seem right now that we have our lovely chickens :)

Here is the blog post:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/02/20/bulk-breakfast-burritos-convenient-cheap-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

I made 2 different variations. The one on the left is just egg and breakfast sausage. The one on the right is onions, green onions, black beens and eggs. 

I chose to try 3 different types of tortillas to figure out which one froze the best (corn, white corn, and whole wheat with flax meal). Once all the cooking was complete, I put the egg mixture on a tortilla, added salsa, folded it into a burrito and wrapped it in saran wrap. Ben helped at this point, it was much easier with two people!

We have been eating them for the past 3 days. All you have to do is take off the saran wrap, loosely wrap it in a paper towel (to soak up moisture) and microwave it for about 50 seconds. They taste great! The flax meal tortillas fall apart immediately so I won't be using them again, but both corn hold up really well. My favorite one is the egg and sausage in the true corn tortilla, with a little bit of hot sauce of course :)

The best part about these quick and easy breakfast burritos is that they are high in protein and each under 180 calories. I'm not loving the amount of carbs, but for now it is a good fix for our problem. I welcome any suggestions for other quick and healthy breakfast ideas!

Complete 180

Well hello y'all!! It's been a long time since I've said that lovely southern word without a giggle or funny look coming from the people around me.

This past year has been somewhat of a crazy whirlwind. Last March I was a single, career driven young professional who ate out every meal and paid to get her laundry done. And today- I am a happily engaged housewife to be, cleaning up after my fiance in our new home and googling fun dinner recipes to try each night. Did I forget to mention... I've lived in 3 different states this year? Oh, and I own chickens. Like the title of this post- a complete 180.

I'm creating this blog to track my adventures, share my mishaps, and learn from others the tips and tricks of managing a household. Thanks for helping me along this journey!