A Better You V.4 A New Day of Eating = A New Way of Eating

I started the Clean Eating Challenge with Danielle who writes Sometimes Sweet. You can read about her challenge here. A few years ago, I made a change in my diet somewhat like the one we're doing now. I ate no sugar, yeast, or dairy. I did eat fruit, noodles and Ezekiel bread. Surprisingly this way of eating lasted me close to a year (I would of corse reward myself every once in a great while with a cupcake or something). The main reason behind eating that way was because I had a lot of infections going on in my body at the time. I did go to the doctor before all this and he gave me some anti biotic's but after taking them all as prescribed the infections were unaltered. I wasn't about to go back to get some stronger stuff when I didn't like taking them in the first place. I decided to make a big change and stick to it. After only a few weeks of removing those three things  from my diet, not only did the infections go away but my face acne disappeared completely, my eyes turned freakishly bright blue, my hair eventually grew longer than it ever had before and I never noticed dried ends. I always maintained a great weight, slept better and had more energy.
I've tried many, many times over the years to start start eating the same again, but it always ends up lasting me between 2 to 6 hours! Yep, not even a day. It's so hard for me to just drop sugar completely from my diet. It's like a drug! Right now I have an ear infection that's been lingering for the past couple of months and my face has been breaking out like non other. I knew I needed to do something about it, but with many failed attempts to resist scattered goodies around my house it hasn't working out. After reading Danielle's challenge I FINALLY got the motivation I needed. She keeps saying how amazing she feels after eating clean for just a week! This is day number 3 for me and I'm going strong. It's totally just the hump of the first two days that's hard. Every time I get tempted I just think, Hey, you did awesome with this yesterday, there's no way you can give up now! The first day felt like hell, but I'm SO thankful to myself that I got over it and kept going.
So, I'd like to challenge you. If you'd like to give this clean eating thing a shot, GO FOR IT! And tell me what you decided to change about the way you eat. Are you going to cut out carbs? Sugar? Are you going for the whole thing?! Here are a few tips for you if you decide to make a change:

• Sugar is sneaky! It can be in ANYTHING! spaghetti sauce, catsup, peanut butter... You have to read the ingredients on EVERYTHING to make sure. 
• If you decide to cut out fruit sugar too, but don't know about fruit altogether, grapefruit and green apples have the least amount of sugar int them.
• If you want to start replacing all the corn syrup and processed sugar sweetened things with fruit sweetened things, AWESOME! There are some great fruit sweetened things out there like, yogurt, catsup (yes they make fruit sweetened catsup!), cereal, jelly, the list goes on! 
• Don't forget that carbs turn to sugar in your body, but if you don't think you can't cut out all that, just trying to cut out things with yeast is great.  You can use ezekiel bread and ezekiel tortillas. They're a sprouted bread.
• If you mess up, don't worry! Tomorrow is a new day and you can start over. Just KEEP trying and don't give up. It's hard, I know! But The longer you go the easier it gets! 

Good luck, and I'd love to hear from you! xo -Liz

P.S. You should be able to find most of the things listed at your local health food store.
P.P.S. I'll be posting my clean eating meals these past few days, in the next day or two.

Life this week (according to cell phone pictures) #26

Dada and little watching movies and eating fries, an amazing hand draw thank you card from Jen, trying to find his ball in the paper towel abyss, a hand made teapot by Rachel, Rocking in Rachel's arms and sucking on a play bottle, Everett loving Rachel playing guitar with her mouth bands, Happy Birthday drink, Monkey feet, recovering from his accident, Loves his mama's glasses, playing in packaging, mama and Babes, not listening, getting ready for bed, showing off his smile pin, spicy sweet potato fries and mustered(sooo much yummier then I ever thought!)

Paper Heart

 I love all the love of the Valentine season. Here are 12 DIY's I'm in love with! You can find the links for them at the bottom. xo -Liz

1. embroidered love

2. Valentine Banner

3. Origami heart earrings

4. Lips and Mustache lollypops

5. Piping Lace on cookies 

6. Cut out candle in a bottle

7. Valentine Breakfast

8. Valentine wreath

9. Hand made Valentine decor

10. Paper plates made into perfect bowls for a valentine picnic

11. Transferring a photo onto canvas

Candy ipod and finger hearts 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 

Thursday Night

We had a lot of fun during the sweet misters birthday. The kiddos were able to bowl a little and little Everett was so obsessed about pushing the "baw" that he didn't ever want anyone else to take a turn. The Reese cake turned out a little dry but the frosting made up for it. I'm STILL snacking on it! It tastes just like the peanut butter inside a Reese's Mmmm. I used this cake recipe and this frosting recipe.
After bowling we hung out with a few of David's friends at Old C's and had a late, but great night.

                  

Happy Birthday

[source]

Today is the sweet misters birthday! He has sadly been at work all day, but we'll be celebrating into the night with friends and family! I just popped in a from scratch cake into the oven that took about an hour to make(and that's with a lot of help) so I hope it turns out as good as it was hard to make! Happy Birthday Love!


(I have to embarrass you a little on your birthday)

• Somehow you always manage to get your phone under my ear during the night so that when that alarm goes off every morning, I'm the one that gets to violently shake you awake until you take care of it. 
• You weirdly CAN NOT sleep without socks and HATE it when the beds not made when you climb into it for the night. 
• You are into your video games more than me most of the time. 
• You're mostly ALWAYS later then you say you'll be. 

Even your bad and annoying qualities have an even better side because:

• I love being awake to say good bye to you in the mornings.
•  I hate cold feet in bed and I like having a reason to make the bed.  
• I like having the time to myself while you're gaming. 
• Being married to you I've learned not to worry so much.

 I can't tell you how much this man means to me. He makes me want to be a better person. I love you D.M. Happy Birthday Love! xo -Liz

What Everett Eats III

We had A LOT of avocado this week! I've heard a few people say how they don't like eating/feeding their child avocado because it's fattening. I really don't know where this theory came from, but if it's true I'm sure you could only get fat off of it from eating a LOT just like any other food. Avocados do have fat oils but it definitely doesn't mean you're gonna get "fat" from eating them! I like feeding Everett avocados because it's an excellent way to give him some protein without feeding him meat AND has a ton of amazing vitamins in them! Some other sources of protein I give him are eggs, (which he devours with a little bit of salsa) and almond butter. I haven't been giving him peanut butter because all of ours has sugar in it. I bought an assortment of individual squeeze packs of Justin's Almond Butter which is sweetened with with things like honey and pure maple syrup. Don't worry though, I'm not a freak mom. He defiantly still has his share of processed sweets! Mostly courtesy of his Dada!

Dinner: Easy Mexican Pizza

Lunch: Pita sandwich and cheese sticks

Dinner: Turkey dogs, rice dish, pretzels

Breakfast: Grapefruit, Orange, avocado, whole wheat toast

Lunch: Pickle, avocado, corn chips, cucumber and tomato salad

Lunch: Cilantro quesadilla, with salsa and avocado 

Breakfast: Pears, Whole wheat toast with almond butter

A Better You V.3 Loving YOU

Self Image & Personal Style

#1 Self Image
Cellulite, thick calves, wide hips, we've always struggled with some part of ourselves that we just don't love. I've struggled with myself for a long time. Before I was pregnant I had the BIGGEST calves. I was an avid bike rider and worked out a lot. I could do things you could never imagine a 5' 4" girl could do. I was always self conscious about them though, but now after I lost all my muscle mass I miss my thick calves! I wish I had them back so I can do some of the same things that I used to. If you have wide hips, some women with a different body type are probably wishing they have what you do! I've heard the the most beautiful people I know complain about how much cellulite they have! Every single body type is different. Isn't that refreshing? Not a single person is absolutely perfect. The media has totally distorted what a woman should look like. You don't have to have a stick thin body in order to love yourself. It's all about attitude! Instead of looking at what others have, we need be proud of what we have! We need to stand up for ourselves and say NO! Today I'm going to love my hips, curves an jiggly bits! You need to make the decision to start loving your body.

I love this quote from the poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, 

"If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; 
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself."

(I highly recommend reading the entire poem. It's SO inspirational.)

With my post pregnancy body I have had a lot of "I wish"'s about my body's changes. It gets hard at times, but I try ever day to only look at the positives and really love who I am and what I look like. 

#2 Personal Style

I'm really passionate about this subject and I hope you can leave this post with a renewed sense of self and style. Here are a few pointers:

1. Dressing up always makes me feel good! Even though I work at home, when I take time to look my best I always feel better about myself and in the end am more productive! You don't need an occasion, dress up just because! You're worth it!
2. I know some of you have probably gone through your closet as a new year resolution, but I want to ask you to take another look. If it doesn't make you feel like a Super Star throw it out! You don't need to wear things that make you feel any less!
3. Don't buy things just because they're "in". Doing this you will a)end up wearing things that don't flatter you. b) end up spending more money on some things you'll hardly end up wearing.
4. Find your style. Buying things that are the current style means the clothing you buy will only be in for short amount of time(as mentioned above). If you can find your own personal style that you love and feel good in, why would you ever want to keep up with what everyone else is wearing?! Remember to keep it unique, because guess what? It's YOUR style, make it what you want!
5. You don't have to spend a lot. I've found so many irreplaceable pieces at thrift stores, estate sales and so on. I can't imagine my wardrobe without some of these many unique pieces and it saves so much. If there is something you have to have that's regular price, don't feel bad! If it's something you're in love with and is going to last you a long time it's probably worth it!
6. Make sure you mix it up. I'm always finding completely new outfits just by layering or finding a new way to wear something. It's fun and a free way to find a new outfit!

I feel like I'll write a novel if I keep going so I'll stop at that, I'm really passionate on this subject as you can tell! I hope you take my advice on replacing negative thoughts about your body with positive. I need to be reminded of this every day! If you have anything to say about anything, I'd love to hear from you! xo -Liz

Life this week (according to cell phone pictures) #25

avocado and Ahi, playing dangerous, sink bath buddies, vegan sushi courtesy of Rachel, Watching Darjeeling Limited and drinking Darjeeling tea, One of my new favorite salads, Playing with a squirrel he called Chase, snow storm, delicious stir fry, grocery shopping(and loving that my cart is filled with mostly fresh produce!), a drive by visitor (Everett's great grandparents!)

I hope you enjoyed your week too! xo -Liz

Snow and Bubbles

I've been so off the past few days, which has actually been kinda a good thing. It's nice to take a break from the norm sometimes. Am I right? We went up to stay at my husby's parents house last night and ended up hanging out playing Kinect and watching the snow storm all day. It was pretty nice. Hopefully next time we can enjoy some sledding up there when it's not so blustery. The kiddo slept in an hour longer than he normally does and then took two naps longer than he ever does! I don't know if it was the altitude makeing him sleepy, the quietness of being away from the city, or if it was just the dreary weather?

I took a hundred photos of these two bubble sinking it , but it didn't quite capture the cuteness of them together :)
P.S. If the videos aren't working for you the buttons are kinda off so try clicking in different spots. (sorry, I'm that smart with HTML).

For the Love of Grapefruits

We just got three big boxes of citrus fruits the other day so I've been trying to figure out different things to make with them. I made some home made grapefruit salad dressing the other day and it turned out great! My husband is not a grapefruit lover like I am, and since this dressing had a pretty tart grapefruit taste to it, it was pretty strong even for a grapefruit lover, but all the more for me! 

Here's how I made it:

1. Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a pan with half a cup of chopped shallots(or onion and garlic). Cook for about five minutes or until browned.

2. While that's cooking juice 2 cups of fresh grapefruit juice(about 3 grapefruits)

3. Pour it in with the shallots and bring to a boil until reduced to about half (about 7 minutes) and let cool.

4. In a blender place 2 Tablespoons of chopped, fresh cilantro, 2 teaspoons of sugar, some ground pepper to taste, and the cooled grapefruit mixture.

5. Slowly add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil while blending and blend until smooth.

 I suggest it with some yummy feta or goat cheese. Enjoy!

New and Why?...

I've been working my butt off (I wish literally) trying to come up with a new blog design. I've tried so many different ideas, but the one I ended up sticking with is pretty simple. Anyway, as you've probably noticed I changed my blog name too. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but never completely convinced myself. I know a lot of you liked the first name, but I think this one allows me sorta a broader circle of things to write on. Anyway, I hope you like the change and if you have and suggestions at all, I'd love to hear them! xo -Liz

Life this week (according to cell phone pictures) #24

This week was so great and busy!
Just as a warning, I took way too many pictures of my food this week. I'm kinda obsessed with it.

trying to take pictures of the giant moon, hanging out with cousin Eli, Getting my hair done and goofing off, a refreshing breakfast, beautiful pom, pita lunch, stevia sweetened lemonade, hanging out at the bread company, red cabbage/pom salad, poker night, crayon heaven, berry pie baked oatmeal(so good), playing around with stop motion, strawberry almond salad and grilled tilapia, goat cheese pear salad at Spoons, a cold day at the park.