Over indulgence and gelatin

Yesterday was busy. It was a loooong day at practicum 7:45-5. I found out I will be presenting in court on Thursday after I have a school evaluation. SWEET. (imagine a snarky tone there) Had class 6:30-8:45 but the bright side was ending my night having dinner with my friends Liz, Maylin, and Jeanette at Red Robin. Ohhhhhh the carbs I ingested.. Half a BLTA (avocado) croissant and french fries, 2 vodka tonics with lemon and lime... and then came dessert.. some huge mud pie concoction with an oreo crust. And the best part about it.. I'm not beating myself up! Normally I'd sulk and feel like poo for having over indulged but I woke up with no tummy ache (which I thought I would) and have gotten right back on track. In fact I have not felt hungry today so I have yet to eat something solid but I've been back to experimenting with smoothies/drinks.

Here's the lineup:

Breakfast: My super beauty tonic (see previous post for recipe) tweaked a bit. I excluded the spinach and vitamin c packet and went for almond milk, strawberries with green tops,  couple drops of vanilla stevia and bee pollen and maca powder. 

Lunch: Still not hungry, decided to do a salt water flush. I know it wasn't the ideal time, (early morning supposed to be best) but it felt right. 1 qt warm water with 2 tsp Pink Himalayan salt and 1 tsp Ginger powder.

Snack: Tea: Strawberry-chocolate rooibos tea blended (in the baby bullet) with coconut milk, coconut oil, chocolate stevia and.... GELATIN! Wowser, it was a delicious drink. Next time I will add a pinch of cinnamon. 

Dinner: Will be a large salad with a baked sweet potato with ghee

Here is an article that piqued my interest in this product:

http://wellnessmama.com/7419/12-uses-for-gelatin/

And this recipe in particular grabbed my attention. I want to make these for the kiddos: This picture is from the Wellness Mama site. Click the picture to go to her page: 

That's it for now. Please if you like what you are reading, go ahead and follow/subscribe. It will make me feel good. :)

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Super beauty tonic...

I went grocery shopping this morning and noticed there was a bunch of products on sale, and I'm a sucker for sales and saw this product:

From their website: NeoCell states:

"Collagen is essential for the structure and function of many connective tissues which glue other tissues and organs together. As aging is closely associated with the loss of collagen and the deterioration of the connective tissue, supplementation of bioavailable hydrolyzed collagen helps to counteract the negative consequences."

SO I decided to play around with creating a super beauty tonic... and here is what I came up with:

The verdict: This tonic/smoothie might have benefited from a drop or two of stevia but it was pretty tasty and FILLING. I will def continue this recipe maybe a couple times a week and then report on any changes/findings. 

That's it for now. If you enjoy my weird concoctions/ramblings please subscribe.. will give me a healthy dose of ongoing motivation. Thank you!!!!! Perhaps if I gain enough subscriptions I will have to do some kind of giveaway... ;)

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Sunday morning musings on Paleo eating and Oil pulling

Its been 5 days since I posted the pic of me at 130#. I'm currently 127#. Not bad for 5 days time. And the above picture illustrates my own mirrored inner "YES!!!"

I feel incredibly GOOD. I find, so far, what seems to be working for me is the addition of ghee, butter, and eggs. I don't really feel drawn to meat. I'll eat it but I'm more craving the fat. I use ghee the most, and butter (organic) when I run out and I did. In a weeks time I (and the kiddos) toasted through this:

Plus, I have always had extra virgin coconut oil but I've really upped my intake. The many uses of this product is amazing! Click the pic of the coconut for a great article from Wellness Mama on 101 uses of this deliciously fabulous oil. This past week, I've been drizzling it in my warm green tea and in any smoothie I make. AND I've been oil pulling with it.

Here is a great article on oil pulling: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7857/why-you-should-start-oil-pulling-today.html

My very first experience was an instant.. "OH GOD I just put a whole glob of oil in my mouth" and I had to kind of fight the gag factor. But I soldiered on and swished and pulled for about 10 mins while I was in the shower. Then I blissfully ran to spit it out in the trash and instantly my sinuses began to feel leaky. I don't have sinus issues but something was going on. My main reason for giving oil pulling a go is I started having a tooth ache, I still have unfilled cavities and well, I really don't want to get them filled. I've been reading Ramiel Nagel's Cure Tooth Decay. Fascinating.

Here is a link to a well layed out article: http://www.naturalnews.com/022564_cavities_root_canals.html

My toothache is gone and my teeth are looking whiter. I actually like this part of my morning routine. I feel good after, pretty energized. I'm not having the gag factor anymore and can swish for longer periods of time.. up to 20 mins.

I know this post is kind of all over the place but yes that's how my brain works.. Going "Paleo" for me seems to be quite awesome. My main focus is still on TONS and TONS of glorious vegetables. I eat greens with almost every meal. I've limited my fruit consumption just because I want to limit my carbs for a brief time to speed up weight loss. I eat berries because they are lower glycemic and DAMN, when you take away the sweets and then have a piece of fresh fruit, your taste buds explode. Really. They do. Blueberries rock.

In a nut shell I have taken away from my diet: White sugar and white flour. And added: glowing skin and weight loss.

Whenever you cut carbs, your body can experience a "detox" and mine did. I feel it in the background but its not annoying. It was the 3rd day and I needed sleep like I never needed sleep before. I believe it was on Thursday, I came home from practicum, fed the kids dinner and all that mommy stuff and then I told everyone I was going to go lay down AT 8:30 at night!!! I didn't wake up until the next morning at 8am. I got up to take Ollie home to Everett and when I came home, I fell asleep for a nap with Connor for 2 hours.

The only other side effect I have experienced is a slightly "off" feeling that my body is switching to burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. I guess if this was your first time with low carb eating, this would be really weird and potentially scary but I'm an old pro at this. Hmmm not sure if I should be proud of that statement... lol.

I continue to work out to Fitness Blender (I'm so absolutely in love with this couple because their workouts WORK for me and I'm always excited to check what my work out is for the day).

Hmm what else what else? I guess that's it for now. Stayed tuned. :)

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Paleo food and going to court...

 So I've dabbled in veganism, vegetarianism, raw foodism, lots of isms. Recently I've started to really give Paleo a go and I've enjoyed a number of brilliant blogs but I love reading this one currently: Wellness Mama

I'm actually going to give the 30 Day Challenge a shot. I've added Ghee into my diet lately and eggs and some meat and I really feel REALLY good. I've cut out a lot of fruit except for berries and am aiming for a lower carb intake to help shed the last of the unwanted weight. Seems to be working (of course coupled with regular exercise!).

Here's a snapshot of what I made today:

 The first mixture is:

-Chopped Cucumber

-Chopped Tomato

-Dash of Garlic Exra Virgin Olive Oil

-Dollop of horseradish mustard

-Salt (pink himalayan) and Pepper to taste

2nd concoction:

-Broccoli slaw with purple cabbage and carrots

-Dollop of organic mayo

-Drizzle of garlic extra virgin Olive Oil

-Salt (PH) and pepper to taste

The smoothie in this picture is Connor's:

-Banana

-Frozen Mango

-Almond Milk

-Spinach

-Vanilla Stevia

And well my scale is broken.. due to some rather rambunctious 2 year old.. hmmmmm.. but I'm thinking I've gained a few lbs (all muscle of course) but I'm going to be real about this challenge and need to have a starting picture so here goes:

And lastly,

I'm freaking out about practicum on Thursday. I go in at 9 for an hour of training then have to head over to court to present to the judge on a case. Its not like I haven't spoken in court ( I was a CASA forever ago) but I really REALLY REAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY have a hard time with public speaking. And then back to training for the rest of the day.  Its only Tuesday night and I have butterflies in my belly. Uggh. Belly (and beware if you click that belly link you will see something frightful). That reminds me of a douche whom I ran into at a grocery store who recognized me from my time working at an inpatient psych unit.. After his long winded explanation about the evil-ness of meds (of which I won't disagree) and how he was not and is not crazy, he then proceeded to exuberantly state "CONGRATS, how far along are you?"

It was actually really hard in the pic above not to suck it in.. I'm so used to pulling that damn lower belly in... but with keeping on track with diet and exercise hopefully I won't have to do that anymore!

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