I really should start taking "before" pictures

Any time I take pictures of the kids around the dinning room table, I'm always having them move around to the side with a wall behind them.  If they're on the other side of the table the picture will have a lovely background of my destroyed office.  The office is also known as "the dumping ground" because it is used for just that.

I spent 30 minutes looking through pictures trying to find evidence of just how bad the office is, but I guess I've been too good at aiming the camera away from the mess because I couldn't find a single picture.

I spent 2 hours on Friday morning cleaning it up.  If I am being honest, I think it's been almost 2 years since I've dusted my desk or even had it cleaned off.

It isn't done, because I am looking in to buying another piece of furniture to help organize the storage tubs of scrapbook supplies that are under the desk, but it sure looks much better than it ever has.

Sadly, I haven't even looked at what my goal is suppose to be with the organizing the home challenge.  I am suppose to be catching up, but I haven't done much.

I need to get rid of that broken chair but I keep telling myself I will upcycle it into something...

Calorie count in Dr Oz Detox

I got curious about how many calories I would be eating over the next three days so I decided to look up the fresh ingredients and add them to the numbers on the packages that I have.


Morning Drink
Green Tea: 0

Breakfast smoothie
1 cup water = 0
1 tbs flaxseed = 30
1 cup raspberries = 64
1 banana = 105
1/4 cup spinach = 2
1 tbs almond butter = 95
2 tsp lemon juice = 1
Total calories for breakfast = 297

Lunch smoothie:
1/2 cup almond milk = 30
4 celery stalks = 22
1 cucumber = 32
1 cup kale = 34
1/2 green apple = 60
1/2 squeezed lime = 6
1 tbs melted coconut oil = 120
1 cup pineapple = 83
Total calories for lunch = 387

Dinner smoothie:
1.5 cups coconut water = 81
1 cup blueberries = 84
1/2 cup mango = 50
1 cup kale = 34
1 tbs lemon juice = 4
1/4 avocado = 80
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper = 1
1 tbs flaxseed = 30
Total calories for dinner = 364

Total calories for the day: 1048 plus a 4th smoothie if needed

Since 3,500 calories is a pound, that means if I have a deficit of 500 calories a day for a week, I would lose one pound.  I'm only part way through day one of this plan, and I was craving some "real" food between breakfast and lunch, but I've only had the breakfast smoothie and half of the lunch smoothie.  

This may just be the jump start I need to getting me back in shape for my mud run.

Dr Oz Detox first drink

I didn't pay attention to the "green" part of the tea that I had to drink this morning.  Luckily I found one single pack of green tea in my cupboard that a student had given me (with a mix of other packs) for Christmas.  I'll have to go buy more today.

I watched the clock to make sure that I made and drank the first smoothie within an hour of waking up.  I wasn't hungry yet but wanted to stick to the rules.

two teaspoons of lemon juice thanks to a Pampered Chef garlic press

I've never had almond butter before

It sure looked pretty.

It filled the glass completely and there was still some left in the blender so I poured half in another cup and put it in the freezer.

The drink wasn't bad.  Those little chunks of flax seed on the glass were indeed little chunks that I tasted as I drank it.  It  needed some sugar but otherwise was fine.

The second half tasted better once it was a bit colder.  I think I will freeze some of the ingredients for the next ones so that it's more like a smoothie.

The new fruits keep coming

I picked up two new fruits from the store today.

Dragon Fruit and cherimoya.

Dragon Fruit

Cherimoya

The dragon fruit is from South America and I read that it is bland flavored like a melon or a kiwi.  The cherimoya is said to be a blend of a few different fruits and it sounds pretty good.  I also found out that Mark Twain said it was "the most delivious fruit known to men".

I plan to try them out tonight before I start my 3 day detox.

A New Challenge

I have wondered for awhile about doing a detox or something along those lines.  Yesterday I stumbled across Dr. Oz's Three Day Detox on Pinterest.

I did a search to see if this really was a plan that Dr. Oz came up with and not something that was just made up and had his name put on it.  I did find the same plan on Dr. Oz's website.

Click HERE to link back to Dr. Oz's site

I've been having a really hard time getting back on track with my normal diet and I've been getting more and more upset about the artificial and unhealthy food products that are out there to eat AND I have my next mud run in just a few weeks.

So I decided to do this.  

I went to the store and picked up enough ingredients to follow this plan Sunday through Tuesday.  It wasn't until after I was heading to the store that I remembered that tomorrow is Easter.  No treats for me.

New Food Challenge - Winner

If only my ONLY challenge was to try new foods.  This is by far the easiest one for me.  Every time I go into the grocery store I got into the produce aisle to find something new and interesting.

This time I picked up an ugli fruit and a star fruit.

I looked them up on the internet once I got home and learned that an ugli fruit is from Jamaica.

And we stopped by a book store that had a fresh made doughnut stand outside.  They said they were potato doughnuts so I asked what they meant by that.  Turns out, they really are made with potatoes that are mashed up.

So I put all three things together for the youngest son to eat (and of course I tried them all too.)



The ugli fruit was interesting.  It was much more liquidy than an orange, but had a similar flavor.  The little bulbs inside were not as firm and were much bigger than an orange.

The star fruit was good.  I'm sure the shape and color helped to make it seem more appealing.  It really did taste good though.

The doughnut, well how can you go wrong with a doughnut?

Vacations mess things up

I went out of town for six days.  I had every intention of trying to keep up with things, but that didn't happen. I am going to play catch up for the next week trying to get back on track.

I'm on a roll

I'm on a roll with the new food challenge.  Even thought I'm only suppose to have one new food a week, I'm having a good time forcing myself to try new things.

Today I had stuffed cabbage for lunch.

It was a Lean Cuisine, but I was scared to try it regardless of where it came from.  I don't know why, but I was scared.

It was pretty good.

For dinner I finally made the brussels sprouts.

With bacon and pecans on top, how could this go wrong?

I cooked it following a recipe I found online.  It was decent, but not amazing.  I think it needed more of the sauce and salt but I did eat a full serving and didn't gag.  I'd try them again.

Two new foods that I actually would eat again in one day?  I'm on a roll.

Over achiever

The 52 week food challenge was getting the best of me.  I want to eat new food but it seems like the "new" foods will have to be seriously new.  Like cow tongue and goat and ox tail soup.  All week I kept saying I would go to the store to find something new and interesting and suddenly it was Saturday and we had company.  And suddenly it was nearly 9PM and the new week starts tomorrow.

So I ran to the store.

And came back with this.

I sliced open the horned melon first.  I did a quick google search to find out how to eat it and took a taste of the seeds inside.

It tasted like a cucumber.  I have nothing against cucumbers, but I like them with salad dressing.  This just tasted very plain and slippery.  I even tried a small piece of the skin because one site said it was eatable.

Nothing.

I tried to google recipes and found a couple that sounded pretty boring.

So then I tried the goat milk.  We have goats, I've said I would try it, and I saw it in the store.

Two cups because the youngest son said he'd try it too

The youngest son immediately said he wanted some and he even tried it first.  He made a face which didn't help me to try it.  I took a taste right as he said "it tastes like milk."  It did taste like milk... and something else.  I couldn't put my finger on the taste except to say that we have goats and this milk tasted like them.

No, I'm not walking around licking my goats.  It just had a sort of goat taste.  I can't explain it.  I'll sneak this into his cereal bowl just so we finish it, but otherwise it didn't do anything for me.

Proof that I finished my glass

The Brussels sprouts will be cooked properly in the next couple days so I put them away and decided to try those sour candy things.  Loaded with Red dye 40 (which is the devil if you ask me), sadly it was the best tasting thing of the night.

I only need to try one new food a week and I tried three tonight simply because I was tired of feeling like I was cheating and not putting any real effort into this one.

Slipping

I managed to complete the challenges (that I'm still sticking with) but I definitely think that I didn't try to and I only made it this week because of what the challenges were.  I lucked out with timing.

52 Weeks to Simplify Your Life: Catch your breath - Check!
Really?  This week I didn't have to do anything.  Okay so maybe I should have been reflecting on the past few weeks of this challenge but I didn't.  It didn't say I had to.  I'm saying I took a breath this week.  Luckily I took many breaths, otherwise I'd be dead.

52 Challenges in the Organized Home: Cookbooks and recipes - Check!
Again, I only completed this because I only own a few cookbooks.  I do all my recipes online or in files on my computer.  Perhaps I could have organized some of them better than they are done now, but they're organized enough.

52 New Foods Challenge - Check!
I lucked out completely on this one.  I made a pre-packaged meal that I had picked up at the grocery store a week ago.  I've never had bisque.  I don't really know why other than the one or two times that I've been in restaurants that were serving it, I was told the particular kind that was available was spicy and I don't eat spicy food.  So I had it this week and I am now able to say I ate a new food this week.  I promise, my intentions are to eat more interesting "new" foods.

Ricotta & Lobster Ravioli in a seafood bisque

My original intentions had to do with a list that I remembered seeing of 100 foods that were unique to try on Facebook a few years ago.  I was able to find the list today and I copied and pasted the list into a spreadsheet on google that anyone can access.  Feel free to copy it if you want to.  Food List Challenge

I'm hoping to check some of these items off that aren't already checked off, as well as things like Brussels sprouts and cow tongue and such.


52 Week Money Challenge - Check!
Okay so I technically failed this, but I'm going to say I completed it on a technicality.  I don't have the exact bills to put in the jar because I haven't had a chance to get to the bank, but I have the money in my account ready to be pulled out tomorrow on my way home from work.

Listmania: A day in the life - Check!

This was the easiest challenge that I actually did put an effort in to.  My week days follow a set-in-stone routine so it isn't hard to list it out gym, feed animals, ready for work, leave for work, work, figure out dinner, make dinner, do chores, check email, go to bed.  Repeat.

Wellness Calendar: 

I didn't even look at this calendar for the rest of the month.  

28 Day Mom Challenge:

And I didn't even look at this one either.

No Spend February 
I didn't exactly succeed at this one since I did go do a major shopping trip and filled up the basement freezer, but I did spend less than half of what I normally spend on groceries this month and I did spend very little on "junk" during the month overall.  I like this challenge because it definitely makes me think twice in the days, weeks, and months after it is over about spending on "stuff" that I really don't need.

As for my homesteading and gardening challenges - I'm working on them and they're still on track, although I wish I was outside getting more done right now...