Detox Day 24-we're on a streak

My whole life growing up I had the same hair. It was long and thick and boring. I kept it long at first because my daddy wouldn't let me cut it. Later, it became a security blanket. I so wish I had cut my hair and wore fun styles through the years. Hair grows. 

So I decided when I had a girl I would let her do whatever she wanted with her hair. Within reason of course😉

Behold the purple streak. 

It's a little hard to see but I guess they do it dark because it will start to fade and at least last a little longer. 

Tonight we had quinoa for the first time. If you're like me you might have thought it was qui-NO-a for the longest time. However in case you aren't familiar, it's pronounced KEEN-wah. 

We all really liked it. Even picky little Michael. I made another of the Arbonne recipes which called for turkey sausage. I got the uncured nitrate free stuff. They sell it at Wal-Mart. I'm starting to key in on more and more organic stuff, by the way, and Wal Mart, as well as Aldi, has quite a bit. Good to know since the nearest Whole Foods is probably two and a half hours away in St Louis. 

Doesn't this look delicious? It was. 

When I served it I stirred in the quinoa as the recipe suggested. 

Eating "clean" is satisfying and delicious. You should try it if you haven't!

All that healthy food is much better for us than this cake I made today. 

 But alas, celebrations call for cake. Not quinoa 😄

Arbonne Detox Day 23

Tonight I went to a Discover Arbonne meeting in Cape. I was asked to share a little bit about our experience with the detox. It's an easy thing to talk about because we have seen such terrific results. Before I left I asked Paul some things I could point out. Here's what he said:

- He feels so much better eating healthy

-He used to be so tired in the afternoons and have to come home and sleep in his chair. Now he has more energy to do more

-He has lost 12 lbs in just over three weeks

-He's lost several inches. His pants that used to be tight are falling down. 

-His blood pressure is down from upper 130s over upper 80s to 117/70

-He feels like we are now on a path and have a plan to eat better and feel better so we're around for our kids

-He really likes the fizz sticks which you drop in water for a bit of energy boost

And much more...

I didn't convey all of that tonight but you can see how thankful Paul and I both are for the experience we have been a part of. 

I find myself looking forward to my morning shake. Next week were headed to church camp and were planning to take our protein powder and make shakes for breakfast at least. The detox will be over but we've ordered more Arbonne protein powder and a few other items to continue with our healthy living. 

When you think about it, it's totally like having a milkshake twice a day. And I love milkshakes. The best part is these are healthy and beneficial and don't make me feel yucky afterwards! 

Go Arbonne. We're big fans👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Because I always like to post a picture , here's a snapshot from our trip to Instanbul in Jan of 02. My dad and brother and I went to Greece and while in Athens my dad suggested we hop over to Turkey. We absolutely loved it. The people were so dear. I hate that all this terrorism is going on. It's just awful. So thankful I serve Jesus and he's got it all handled. 

Detox Day 22 - a mere six days to go

Today we started our final week of the detox. Now that the day is over we only have six more days to go. Our weigh in showed we all had lost again over the course of last week. I completed the 7 day body cleanse yesterday and Paul has a couple more days to go. He started late due to an out of town trip. 

I decided to use an entire week's worth of new recipes along with the shopping list provided for this week's meals. Tonight we had crock pot taco soup. I knew this evening would be busy with swimming and ball games so I put the soup on this morning at 930. It was great to come in this afternoon and have dinner ready. We added some avocado on top and the soup was very flavorful. 

Mallory is attending a math camp again this week. Each day the students walk to the park to eat lunch. I always bring Mallory her shake and an apple cut up with lemon juice on it. I put the juice on it to prevent it from turning brown but Mallory likes the taste of it so that's an added bonus.  

I started a big project cleaning our garage today. 

We're detoxing and decluttering and it is a great feeling!

Detox Day 20

There hasn't been much to report the last couple of days. We are all doing fine and moving right along. There's only eight more days of the detox. The cat thing has gone well. We got Louie's claws taken out so we don't have to worry about being scratched. Mallory hasn't shown any signs of being allergic to him and that was a concern so great on that end. 

Last night was our big Main Street Party. 

There's always lots of good food to eat and we knew there'd be nothing detox friendly so we ate before we went. I made the salmon with the avocado salsa from the first week. Mallory walked around with some friends who got treats but she just stuck to bottled water. 

She continues to shine. 

Michael had fun too. 

I made two cakes and didn't eat any of the scraps again. This was a slip and slide kickball cake. I added a couple of gum paste people after I took this picture. 

This was for the sister. They were both born on the same day 8 years apart. 

Tonight I made meatloaf with carrots, onion and green peppers in it. Served it with baked sweet potatoes and sautéed spinach. It was really good. 

Tomorrow is the end of week 3. Can't believe how fast it's gone. 

Detox day 17- on the road

We're detoxing on the road this week. Paul is in Indiana and the kids and I are in Kentucky. We all packed our detox stuff before we left. Mallory has been making her own shakes at our friend Martha's house where she is staying and I'm doing the same at Yvonne's. Pauls making do where he is. 

I've done two days of the body cleanse and find it easy to sip on throughout the day. I've also been drinking lots of water as recommended. 

Last night I grabbed a burrito bowl at Qdoba for dinner. They have brown rice so I got that with black beans and pinto beans, some grilled chicken, lettuce, pico and guacamole. I only ate half of it but it was very yummy. 

Tonight Yvonne and I went to Longhorn and I had salmon, a plain baked sweet potato, broccoli and asparagus. So delicious. Again, I love all the color on the plate. I had water to drink and asked for lemon and lime in it. I try to drink a lot of water at meal times. You have someone there to pour your refills and it fills your tummy too. 

I finally found the brown rice syrup I was looking for at Kroger. 

The homemade protein bars I was going to make calls for that as a sweetener and I'd looked several places for it but had no luck. I don't know if I'll make the bars but if I do I'll be ready. They only call for four ingredients: the Arbonne protein powder, almond butter, gluten free oats and the brown rice syrup. 

I had my morning shake at 830 and then went out tooling around Frankfort. Didn't have my lunch one until 230 and I was not even hungry between shakes. Before I would have eaten something around 730, then maybe 930, then lunch, then prob something by 2. It's really amazing how much your cravings go down when you're not eating all that sugar. 

Sweet dreams😉

Detox Day 15- weigh in day

Today was weigh in day. Mallory has lost 8 pounds and Paul and I have both lost over 7 in the first two weeks of the detox. We're very pleased with our results so far and look forward to the next two weeks. It's gone really fast. My hope and desire is to continue in this healthy living lifestyle. We enjoy the foods and we feel so much better. 

Today I started the 7 day body cleanse. 

Paul is traveling so will wait until he gets back. This isn't a colon cleanse but is designed to flush even more toxins out of your body. This is a liquid you mix with 32 oz of water and drink over the period of 4-8 hours. It doesn't taste bad. You're supposed to drink 32 oz of plain water alongside so you're really getting your water in. You do this for 7 days straight typically the third week of the detox. Mallory won't be doing the cleanse. It wasn't recommended due to her age. 

I keep reading tremendous testimonies of people who have done this detox. People who were taking all kinds of medication who no longer needed them after detoxing and changing their eating habits. The old adage is true... you are what you eat.  

Tonight we had leftovers. Mallory ate the Applebee's leftovers and Paul are the Coltons leftovers. I scrambled three fresh eggs and ate them with some sliced avocado and a little salsa. Mmm good. 

Mallorys detox cat finally came

Out of the crate. Well Paul had to dump it out:) He hides all over the house but will let you pet him on his terms. In these pictures he was under Mal's loft bed so I got a few shots of them together. She's so thrilled with Louie👍🏼❤️

Detox Day 14- half way there

Yesterday the kids and I went over to the Paducah area to see one of their good friends perform in Aladdin Kids. Natalie did a wonderful job as Jasmine. 

After the show some of Nat's family invited us to join them at Applebee's. The kids really wanted to go so I told Mallory we could make that our meal of the day and then have our second shake that night. We both got a small grilled chicken breast with diced  green apple on top. Mallory got sweet potato fries and I got green beans.  We shared the two sides between us so we'd have a veg and carb to go on our plates. It was all good. You can go out to eat on the detox. There are usually healthy items you can choose when you're looking for them. 

We never ended up eating our night time shakes. I guess we were just still full. The meal was later in the day since the show was at 2. 

Today we celebrated Father's Day by going to Coltons. Paul, Mallory and I ordered detox friendly dishes. Michael didn't. 😄

I had the chopped sirloin with grilled peppers and onions and a plain sweet potato with green beans. 

Paul also got the chopped sirloin with steamed veggies. 

Mallory had salmon and sweet potato fries. 

Michael had  sirloin tips, fried okra, fries, and the onion straws from Paul's and my chopped steaks. 

He also had the rolls. While we were sitting there I noticed the vast difference in color on our plates vs his. See it?

Paul, Mal and I still had this much leftover...

And to be fair Michael didn't eat all that. Here're his leftovers. 

We had our second shake around 6:30. It was a terrific father's day. 

Tomorrow we start our third week. We're all traveling this week so we'll have to make an extra effort to stay on the detox but we plan to carry on. We're feeling good and are very happy with the decision to give this a try!

Detox day 12- Here kitty kitty

Mallory has wanted a cat forever. I have never wanted to get one because I don't like them. Hate to use the word hate since it's so strong but you can think what you want. 

I told her if she stuck this detox out I'd let her have a cat. Well, we're half way through. She's done so well and a friend posted a cat looking for a home today so we went ahead and got him. 

Meet Louis as in Louis Zamperini from the film Unbroken fame. 

He's pretty. And we're told he loves to be held and brushed. 

And played with. 

But we'll have to wait and see because he hasn't come out of the crate since we got home. 

Tonight the kids went to a birthday party from 5-7. Mallory ate our leftover savory bean and spinach soup from last night before going to the party. They were going to be serving hot dogs and cake. When we picked her up two of my friends who were there said Mallory had done so great. Turned down all the party food and cupcakes. She wants that cat. 

Paul and I went on a mini date while the kids were at the party. We went to a Mexican place and shared some chicken fajitas for onewith no shells, no cheese, no rice, no beans, and no sour cream. And we said no chips when we sat down (that's a first right there!) No fun you may be thinking! What did you eat you may ask?  We had the shredded lettuce with guacamole and pico on top along with the fajita chicken and grilled peppers and onions. And a little salsa on the side. It was all delicious and we were satisfied and we even brought some home. And with two waters our grand total was $13 bucks. 😉 

Detox day 11- Thyroid Schmyroid

So I've been sooooooo tired lately with little to no energy. I haven't been sleeping well at all and I used to sleep great. I had read all this stuff about the detox and how you have so much more energy, etc so I started thinking my thyroid meds

might be off. I had a total thyroidectomy in April of 2015 after finding a large nodule on the left side. I used to hear people blame their weight problems on thyroid issues and I'd  basically roll my eyes inside. However, now that I've had mine out I know how real these problems are! So I'm sorry to all the people I ever pooh poohed when they mentioned their thyroid:)

I went yesterday to have my levels checked and got the results today. The TSH should between 3.5-5.5. Mine was 49.78. Off the charts. No wonder. I wasn't getting enough meds so that's why I've been so sluggish. 

The prescription was upped and hopefully I'll get my numbers leveled out in the near future. 

Unfortunately it might not be in time to affect how much weight I will lose on the detox. The thyroid hormone regulates ability to lose weight so with it being so off my results will likely be skewed. 

Nonetheless we press on. We tried this tasty recipe today that my friend Kimberly who is an Arbonne consultant posted.

 I couldn't find the coconut milk only the half coconut/half almond milk. But it was really good anyway!

Fun to try different shakes. They had really grown on me and I am honestly enjoying them! They're both better to me with a cup of ice. Makes them thick and cold like a real shake. Fun to drink with these straws. 

I woke up at 3:15 this morning and never went back to sleep so I'm going to try to do that now:)

Detox day 10 - 18 to go

So I have these kakhi shorts that my friend Brooke gave me that I wear all the time. They had gotten so tight I could barely button them. Today...loose. 😄 Party. 

I guess there's not a whole lot to report today. I can tell you our cravings have all but vanished. I literally never think about coffee or wanting something sweet. And speaking of sweet, I got out a couple of strawberries to eat and they tasted soooo sweet. I guess when you're not used to eating sugar something the least bit sweet tastes extra sweet. 

Mallory is going to a math camp this week. They give out candy as rewards when the kids get problems right. I sent her with a ziplock of berries today so she could reward herself with a detox friendly snack:) Her teacher said she had seen an idea on Pinteredt that is basically dehydrating strawberries. Said they taste like candy. I found it online so we'll try it when we have four hours. You cut the berries in half and bake on 200 for two hours then turn over and do two more hours. I'll let you know how they come out :)

Tonight we had our leftover stuffed peppers and some fresh roasted veggies. I tossed zucchini, carrots and mushrooms in some olive oil and sprinkle S and P, paprika and red pepper flakes. Roasted at 425 about half an hour. Really good.  (This pic is before roasting)

We've completed 10 days. We're all doing well and feeling good. It's not like anybody is saying I'm dying, when will this be over, I hate it. Quite the contrary. 👍🏼

Arbonne Detox day 9 - 19 to go

We're in the 'teens' of days left to

go on our family detox. Honestly it's gone pretty fast. Today Paul went to the doctor about an infection on his hand. After just these eight or nine days on the detox his blood pressure is down from what it normally runs. It's normally mid 130s over 80s. Today it was 118 over 70. Awesome. 

Well I thought I'd try the vanilla shake with 3/4 cup almond milk and it was yummy. Had one for breakfast and lunch. 

Mallory is sticking to the chocolate. Paul too. 

We had the stuffed peppers for dinner. Really good. I used brown rice and the grass fed beef. Very good. We had some zucchini and fresh from the garden cukes. 

The kids each had games tonight. Mallory and I enjoyed munching on sunflower seeds during Michaels game. Turns out they're detox friendly👍🏼

Detox day 8-and the detox in a nutshell...you can have nuts after all!

So we are one week into our 28 day detox and journey to healthy living. This morning we all weighed in and sent our progress to the sweet friend we heard about Arbonne from. Among the three of us we lost 13-14 lbs the first week!

We are all real happy with the results so far and are enjoying this journey to healthy living. We feel good and I tell you Mallory is thriving. I did feel a bit remorseful on Saturday when at our VBS day camp all the kids were eating pizza and ice cream and she couldn't partake. But she stuck it out, we had stuff there she could snack on like nuts, a green apple and berries and she made it through. We can tell she's pleased with the progress so hopefully that, along with the promise of her long desired cat, will get her to the finish line. Only 20 more days. Like one of our friends who is doing this detox said, "you can do anything for 28 days". True. 

We're basically wanting to reset our eating habits. We are experiencing the way eating healthy makes us feel which is really good. We had fallen in to eating junk and too much of it. Instead of a couple of treats a week we were having three or four a day. Not good. 

Someone asked me if we're starving. I said No!! You get to eat and eat good things. It's very doable. The goal is 1200 calories a day. It's a protein shake for breakfast and lunch and then a healthy, clean dinner of lean meats, veggies, healthy fats and grains like brown rice or quinoa. And there's the handful of snacks here and there. Plus your cravings go way down when your body isn't use to eating all that sugar and gluten. 

As far as what you're "detoxing"? You're cutting out all sugar, gluten, alcohol (not a prob for us since we don't drink but could be a concern for some) dairy, caffeine (yes no coffee and I drank two small pots a day but am fine), and other stuff but those are the biggies. But again...you can do anything for 28 days😄

This was our dinner tonight. 

I sautéed some fresh green beans to al dente in a little olive oil. I added some fresh garlic and some purple onions. 

I also roasted up a bunch of fresh veggies. Mmmm...

I grilled some chicken breasts with a little

olive oil, salt and pepper and fresh lime juice. It was delicious. 

And I made some brown rice. All tasty. 

The kids each had a friend over and they liked the meal too😄

Tonight Mallory had a ballgame and they won! They're undefeated. It's fun to win. Paul was third base coaching. 

And she scored! Just like we're doing on this detox!

When we got home the girls had a few berries...we have strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries in the fridge. It's easier to eat good stuff when good stuff is on hand. 

I had a few of these yummy bean chips with some homemade salsa. It's recommended not to eat after 7 and we try to hold to that but sometimes we need a small snack:)

Tomorrow I'm going to make stuffed bell peppers with grass fed beef and brown rice. Paul loves stuffed peppers so it's nice this is a good meal for the detox. Beef is allowed once a week but we didn't have any last week. Looking forward to tasting "grass fed beef". I never have before:)

Arbonne detox day 7- 21 to go

So the big break through of the day is... I now like the vanilla shake. When I first tried the vanilla protein powder shakes I added almond milk, almond butter and strawberries. For whatever reason I did not like that combination. And ever since then (Monday) I've stayed away from the vanilla. But I got to thinking it can't be that bad or they wouldn't offer samples at the Arbonne get togethers or make the little fruit dip out of the powder that I've read about. So this morning I made my breakfast shake vanilla and just used water. It was good. Nice vanilla flavor. I think at first I just wanted to use the almond milk because it was "milk" and I thought the shakes would be better with it. But I'm liking them better with the water. Paul is set on the almond milk so I'll be stocking up for the week in the morning. 

Aldi is a great place to shop for the detox. I love to shop there anyway but for the detox they do offer stuff like almond butter, almond milk, nuts, hummus, lots of fresh veggies and even grass fed beef which you can have once a week. They have quite a few organic items as well. 

Tomorrow morning we weigh in officially. I've been weighing every day but this will be the one week check in so I'm excited to see what the scales show. 

Cravings are down. We're all still 100% in detox mode. Feeling really good. 

On to week two. 

Arbonne Detox Day 6-22 to go

I didn't get a post up yesterday. I was too busy making this cake for a friend giving a baby shower. Didn't eat any icing or cake scraps I'm happy to report. 

So the detox is going really well. We're all in the groove and enjoying the healthy meals and snacks. We feel good. We're not missing our coffee and only 22 days more to go. 

Tonight we had the burrito bowl from the menu suggestions. It was brown rice with delicious chicken and homemade taco seasoning. On tops was onion, black beans, avocado, tomato and cilantro. I made some home made salsa to put on top. Delicious. Love eating all this fresh tasting food. 

I'm totally beat from staying up late working on the cake and then working VBS today. Planning to go to bed early. 

Monday I'll give a weight loss update. Fun to see progress!

Arbonne Detox day 4 - 24 to go

When we first started this detox I was fairly certain that Paul nor I would have any trouble sticking to the plan. He is very disciplined and has a good grasp on self control from a biblical perspective. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit and he says a better phrase is really self mastery. I don't know why but I was on board from the start so didn't think I couldn't do it or that I would cheat. 

 But Mallory? She's 11 and a half as she likes to say, and she was a wild card. To say I'm surprised that she's done so well wouldn't actually be true. She is very strong willed and head strong and to see her sticking to the regimen doesn't really surprise me. But she's a kid and she likes to eat and she really loves her food so to see her drinking those shakes two times a day and eating her sensible dinner and enjoying healthy snacks really just makes me proud. 

Today I took the kids and a friend to the city pool. Normally Mallory would have asked for some snacks from the concession but I packed her some strawberries and a water and that's what she snacked on. I loved looking up and seeing her enjoying a fresh strawberry when she previously would have been having chips or candy. 

Tonight she had a softball game. I packed her a little bag of pistachios. Figured they were sort of like sunflower seeds as far as having the shells and all that. I noticed when she was up to bat that her shorts weren't fitting as tightly around her thighs and pointed it out to Paul. After the game she mentioned the same thing to me. She was happy. And she hadn't even eaten all the pistachios.  Again her MO is to ask for not one but two things from the concession stand every time we're all the ballpark. 

 I hope the next 24 days continues to go well. I trust that it will but, hey, she's 11...and a half 😄