Day 4 - 7 of the Uber-Long 21 Day Cleanse Diary

Day 4:

Day 4 went really well until I had to stare temptation full-on in the face. Meaning, this cleanse is pretty easy if you're surrounded with only things you can eat, not with things that you can't. I'll preface this by saying I did not cheat once at all during day four, but it was difficult, a real willpower test.

Being at least 1/4 Italian and 1/4 Irish my food indulgences (or should I say loves) are pasta & cheese. Especially when you combine them. My dad invited me over for Sunday dinner and I told him ahead of time that I was doing this cleanse and to have some veggies ready. So of course it was still the usual when I got there - a spread of wine, cheese and bread laid out on the table. I refused it all, grabbing a glass of water. Luckily he made a salad and I brought my rice to cook up, but he made - of all things - Chicken Alfredo - for dinner. My son loved it and I tried not to notice the steaming bowl of pasta and cream sauce that sat in front of me. But I did it, successfully, and headed home triumphant.

Breakfast : Cherry Strawberry Banana Spinach Smoothie
Snacks: Apple, Carrots
Lunch: Strawberry Blackberry Kale Smoothie / Roasted asparagus with spices & olive oil (8 large spears)
Dinner : 1/2 cup rice, mixed green salad with raspberry vinaigrette

Day 5 :
4 days / -3.5 lbs
Pretty happy with the scale. I know I probably won't lose as much when protein is added back in but the weight loss has been consistent. In the last 4 days I lost as much weight as I did last month, almost.

This morning I was super hungry and needed the shake right at 8:30. My exercise plan for the week is to walk Monday, then I am signed up for classes the rest of the week. Five days is enough of a rest week right? I made spicy vegan carrot soup this weekend. I even made my own vegetable stock, too. Took a bit of time, but I think I have a tasty carrot soup for lunches this week! I followed this recipe from Yummly, adding a bit more heat than the recipe called for. Let me tell you this carrot soup is blowing my mind right now. It's neat how far a little seasoning goes, and a hot cup of soup for that matter. I was shivering this morning after I downed my smoothie. Hot soup was just the thing I needed.

I had a pretty bad sugar craving around 8pm, probably because there were sweets on display in my fridge (cannoli, brownie sundae left over from my dads) that I was prohibited to touch. Even giving Landon his ice cream sandwich for dessert I had to remind myself not to eat the rest of it that he didn't finish. I have realized my bad habits when it comes to making food for Landon. If I'm making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I'll lick the knife or I'll have a snack with him, eat his left over food, etc. I've had to stop myself from these habits many times during the day. I made myself a little frozen banana sorbet and the sweet craving passed.

Breakfast: Peach Mango Ginger Spinach Smoothie
Snacks: Apple
Lunch : Blueberry Strawberry Banana Smoothie, Carrot Soup, Mixed Greens Salad, Carrot Soup
Dinner: Lentil soup, broccoli & green beans
Dessert: Banana sorbet

DAY 6:
5 days / -3.7lbs

Trying not to be disappointed by the scale and it' .2 lb loss yesterday. I am crazy to be disappointed, I've lost 4lbs almost in just 5 days. Ok, still happy. Today, I'm starting workouts again! I'm starting with running and I've signed up for a few Yoga classes and CrossFit on Friday. I miss CrossFit, but I'll get back in to it Friday. I really shouldn't be doing it until I am eating animal protein again but vegans still strength train, right? I still feel great, tons of energy and honestly yesterday when I walked I had to stop myself from breaking in to a run. I'm ready. I didn't give myself a full week off (only 6 days off from high-intensity workouts) but hey I figured starting back in a little early is better than wanting to give myself too long of a break.

So today, yes TODAY, I ran. AND I met my one of my year-end goals of running a 5k in 30 min - in April. I flew on the pavement, or at least I felt I did. Call me amazed. I have been gluten, dairy, animal, caffeine and alcohol free for five and a half days and guess what? It made me a faster runner. Today, blog readers, was a good day. I can't express in words that feeling of surprising myself with meeting a goal more than 8 months early.

Breakfast: Strawberry Blueberry Banana Spinach Smoothie
Snacks: Carrots, Apple
Lunch: Peach Pineapple Spinach Smoothie, Steamed Broccoli & Cucumbers (those were not steamed)
Dinner: Steamed kale, rice, sweet potato fries (yum!)

DAY 7:
6 days/-4.4 lbs

We made it, one week down and two to go! Doing some math today if I keep on this steady weight loss progress, I could lose 15lbs in three weeks which is so exciting. It will take discipline with my dairy, meat & alcohol intake after the cleanse is complete to keep it off and keep losing. I think I'm going to stick with the fruit shake for at least one meal - perhaps breakfast. Although I love eggs and cheese.

Today was a fun day, Sarah went to a spin class with me today and she rocked it! Burned way more calories than I did (and I burned 480)! It is always so inspiring to me to see people start their own health journey. Today is also the last day of the SP Cleanse supplement and we move on to the green food supplements which means less capsules to take! Still feeling really great, went through a spin class today with tons of energy and I have not been hungry.

A week from today is the second Slim it to Win it weight in. I'm already down 7.6 lbs from that weigh in so I'm excited to see what the next seven days brings!

Breakfast : Strawberry Banana Spinach Smoothie
Snack : Carrots, Apple
Lunch: Peach Pineapple Smoothie, Garden salad, italian dressing (olive oil, oregano, balsamic)
Dinner : Stirfry (photo below)
Dessert : Banana sorbet
Exercise : Spin & Sculpt

Weigh in on Day 8 AM - lost 6lbs in 7 days! Also down 8lbs this month so far...

Days 1 - 3 of the Uber-Long 21 Day Cleanse Diary

Here it is. The time has come. The countdown is over and now it is cleanse time. Almost 29 years in to life and I'm finally doing a cleanse. What is this cleanse I speak of, you ask? Well, I'm doing the 'Standard Process Purification/Detoxification' program which focuses on eating real, organic food (fruits, veggies wild rice for the first 11 days, adding deep sea fish and chicken for the last 10 days) while taking whole food supplements to support detoxification of the liver, kidneys and intestines. I have to thank my friend and fellow detox buddy Sarah for talking me in to this (I thank her now, but we'll see if I'm still thankful a few days in!). I may not have ever attempted something like this by myself.

For 10 days (of the 21) I will essentially be a vegan. No gluten, caffeine, alcohol or dairy is allowed the entire program. For the first 10 days my eating will consist entirely of veggies, fruits and a very limited amount of rice (1/2 cup). It is a bit intimidating but something I'm willing to do because what I eat has changed so much over the last year. I will not be experiencing the negative effects of withdrawing from caffeine, processed foods or sugar because I eat very little, if any. If you are interested in the program and following along with me (and my detox buddy!) check out the .pdf of the entire program here. I will be having a rice protein mixture to blend in to my fruit smoothies (twice a day) so I don't anticipate being terribly hungry but we'll see.

The Prep:

First, you have to find a standard process kit - normally they are only supplied by nutritionists, chiropractors   etc. But you can find them on Ebay or Amazon for around $200. You get everything you need for the 21 days and a nice booklet about the program including the food journal. You'll also need a blender for smoothies, which I had to purchase.

I bought some detox lemon tea as I can't drink green tea or any other tea with caffeine in it during the 21 days. It's highly recommended to taper off processed foods, sugar and caffeine prior to starting to avoid headaches. I had already pretty much stopped drinking coffee already (save one latte/week) and cut myself off from green tea two days before the start of the cleanse with no headaches. I don't normally eat processed foods or anything with refined sugars so it was an easy one there. I can see how it would be a horrible first few days of the cleanse if you try to quit everything at once - I heard that sugar is just as addictive as some illegal drugs (or more so) but I'm at a good point nutritionally to start this cleanse where I hope not to be miserable from withdrawal.

I started shopping a few days before, stocked up on wild rice, brown rice, frozen blackberries, mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, green beans (all organic, of course) to have for my smoothies. Then came the day before the cleanse and it was really time to load up on the veggies. In the last year I developed a love for almost everything green. I don't like mushrooms, however, but there are plenty of green veggies that I LOVE.  I am one of those people who prefers spinach over iceberg lettuce for a salad. I think Kale is one of my all-time favorites. I decided to shop for only a few days at a time so everything would be fresh. In a perfect world I'd love to be able to shop at open-air markets each day for my food like they do in so many other countries. Ideally I'd like to stop shopping at grocery stores all together and depend on local farms mostly for my food but that's a whole other thing to tackle. Anyway, I'm loaded up on veggies, fruits, high-quality oils, rice and am ready to go. Here's what my spread looked like on day 1:

Prepare yourself as I walk you through my journey, I'm providing  advanced apologies for any cleanse-induced rants that may happen. Read along, if you dare.

DAY 1:
I've been told the key to this cleanse/detox is preperation. So I packed my breakfast and lunch smoothie ingredients and a snack in containers for the work day. I woke up pretty stoked to start, actually munching on some raw kale to curb my hunger until I made my shake. The deal with this cleanse is you have to eat twice as many veggies as fruit, though they don't limit you on intake.

Breakfast Smoothie: 1 cup fruit (strawberry, rasberry, blackberry), 1 cup veggies (kale), 2 scoops SP Complete
Snacks: Carrots, Apple
Lunch: HUGE SALAD (meatless, dairy-free w/vinaigrette), Smoothie with 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup mango, 1/2 cup peaches & fresh ginger
Dinner: Stirfry with garlic, onion, olive oil, wild rice, asparagus, green beens & carrots

The shake was OK although I'm a big fan of kale or spinach in smoothies anyway. The protein powder came off of chalky to me, which I also expected. Not too bad, wishing it was a little sweeter but completely drinkable. Also snacked on a cup of carrots too, might as well keep eating while I have the appetite. Downed the supplements with water at each meal (10 capsules total of organic whole food powders/herbs, 3 times a day) which was a bit difficult. Ginger tastes like sunshine. It's probably going to end up in all my smoothies from now on.

Day one I was hungry pretty much every 90 minutes - likely because organic fruits and veggies are so easy for your body to process so they would move out of my stomach quickly. Hunger is an interesting feeling. I didn't experience it too often on my current healthy eating plan (prior to the cleanse) because I always ate a fair amount of animal protein with each meal. Eating only fruits and veggies for most of the day was difficult, made me hungry at multiple points in the day and made me look forward to my one meal with rice that was allowed. I think for me, even though I do eat pretty healthy, it's important while going through this cleanse to recognize the feeling of hunger. Because I am drinking so much water I know the feeling is not thirst. And the opposite is true - I need to know what a 'full' feeling is for me. Not stuffed, but satisfied. During day one I noticed that drinking the smoothies did make me full but for a short period of time. I could quickly satisfy my hunger with some carrots, apple or other veggies.

Dinner tasted amazing. It was interesting how just the tiny bit of fat (olive oil) made the meal so tasty. For dessert I made myself a little frozen banana sorbet (just 1/2 frozen banana with a little water run through a blender) and that was also delicious. Day one went really well, I felt great at the end of it and followed all of the cleanse rules. In fact I drank 40 more ounces of water than recommended.

DAY 2:
I slept so well last night. Normally I sleep well but last night I don't recall moving or tossing around at all. Just like a rock. Got out of bed early and ready for the day, stepped on the scale first thing - I lost 1/2 a pound in day one. That's pretty reasonable considering I don't really have a lot of detoxing to do (clean eating for the past year or so) and that I only ate about 700 calories yesterday. Half a pound makes perfect sense. Day 2 is likely to look a lot like Day 1. I figured out yesterday that I was eating too little fruit (the suggested fruit serving sizes are generally bigger than the veggie serving sizes) so my shake this morning was huge and thick like sorbet, really yummy. I honestly did not taste the powder.

Breakfast : Banana, Blueberry, Strawberry & Spinach Smoothie
Snack: Carrots, Apple, frozen banana sorbet
Lunch: Mango Peach Ginger & Spinach Smoothie, mixed green salad w/balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner : 1/2 cup rice stirfry w/green beans and broccoli

At some point during my walk today I contemplated vegetarianism. I thought how respectable it was to be on a nutrition plan just like this everyday. A deliberate effort to not indulge in animal meat (or products for vegan). I realized having meat was an indulgence, really, or cheese or milk. They are things other live beings have to give to us. The last two days have really opened up my eyes to vegetarianism as a manageable lifestyle - I had not been too hungry in the last two days and was pretty full of energy, quite honestly. Maybe after this I will start eating less meat...so many other things are indulgences like coffee or alcohol. I am already two days in to this cleanse and trying to better define want vs. need when it comes to what I am eating or drinking, which is EXACTLY why I am doing it.

I felt really good the whole day and was never too hungry. Having a nice big warm meal at the end of the day (even if it was just a little bit of rice and a ton of veggies) was the perfect ending to the day.

DAY 3 :
Again last night I slept very well. Usually Landon gets here around 8am and we nap for an additional hour or two. He got here at 7:30 this morning and I honestly didn't feel tired at all. I do want to note this morning I felt like I had done a really good ab workout and I'm sure that's due to what's going on in my stomach and digestive system right now.

Got on the scale and I lost a pound and a half yesterday (2lbs in 2 days)! Now, I already know that you're thinking it's just water weight or effects of flushing things out of my digestive system but I know it's not either of those things. I am drinking so much water, up to 100oz/day to the point where I thought drinking that much water would make me weigh more. And another reason; this is a cleanse not a flush. There are no strange things coming out of me at a rapid pace.

Now a note about exercise during the 21 days. Standard Process recommends not doing any high-intensity workouts during the three weeks. I have been walking a few miles a day but I'm going a little crazy without my workouts - and I feel great. Today on top of some good house cleaning I did a bit of strength training to test the waters. Still felt fine. I will probably try to go back to my workout classes on Monday, I figure if I feel really fatigued I can just cut out of the workout early.

Breakfast: Kiwi Apple Spinach Smoothie
Snacks: Carrots, Banana sorbet
Lunch : Banana Orange Pineapple Ginger Spinach Smoothie, spicy kale & green bean salad
Dinner : Sweet potato (baked) spicy fries, steamed broccoli, 1/2 cup rice

Here is my breakfast smoothie and the kale & bean salad (sauteed with onions, red pepper flakes & chili powder). Apple and Kiwi wasn't my favorite combo, the smoothies with mango or berries have been better. I liked the extra spice of the kale and bean salad, I had been having a mixed green salad for lunch so this was a nice change.

Taking the supplements (30 capsules/day)  is not getting any easier but I find taking them with lemon water curbs the weird taste at least. Another good day on this cleanse. I'm satisfied with what I'm eating and really not that hungry.

Weighing myself at the beginning of day 4i lost another .8 lbs, down 2.8 total in three days - I'd say we can round that to 3!

SITWI Begins and 5X5X5 Challenge

This month I realized that being on a healthy eating schedule and working out regularly makes me better at all other areas of life. I'm a happier, mostly stress-free person - and a harder worker. I got promoted last week, and then thought about when I really got on my 'SEO game' - it was Spring last year when I made it my mission to go the extra mile, above and beyond for my clients. Is it a coincidence that is the same time I started eating much healthier and exercising 5 days a week? No. The benefits of this healthy lifestyle - while plentiful - have extended far beyond the physical for me. I'm just having a year where I feel like I'm acing life, you know? I've never felt that way before. Pretty cool.

Month one of our Slim it to Win it challenge at work (the second one for me). I've been asked to be on a panel about sustainable weight loss, so others can ask questions about how I 'did it' (or in my eyes, continuing to work towards a healthy goal). Who would've ever though I would be asked to be on a panel for healthy, sustainable weight loss? It boggles my mind. I lost a reasonable amount of weight this month - 4lbs so far. I hit a really big milestone in March, though. For the first time since high-school, I'm under 200lbs (actually well under right now). The even better thing about this, though, is that I've been under 200 before, but NEVER as strong as I am right now.

Total, I'm 75lbs down Here's what that looks like:

 Now, you're probably wondering what the 5X5X5 challenge is. I had already signed up for four 5Ks in May (the Maple Street 5K running series) and then I found another that peaked my interest ColorSmacked is a 5K that you dress in white and have colored powder thrown at you throughout the run. So, I've challenged myself to complete five 5Ks in the fifth month of this year (5X5X5). I'm planning on doing this on top of my workout routine too, which should make it extra challenging.

More exciting things coming up! A friend of mine convinced me to finally do a cleanse. This is something I've been considering for a long time because although I am a pretty 'clean' eater right now, I lived off crap food for a long time. When I has lost weight in highschool, bringing me to a 'healthy weight', I was living of package meals like Lean Cuisine and breakfast shakes, flavored like Strawberry or Chocolate. This three week intensive cleanse will flush out any toxic build up out of my system that has built up in the last 28 years. I'll have to quit coffee and booze for three weeks and for the first week my food intake will mostly be organic fruit/veggies, lentils and wild rice. After the three weeks you can start to taper other foods back in to your diet like meat, gluten and dairy. This allows you to evaluate how they effect your body. I am half completely scared and half really excited for this journey. I'll start this process when back from San Diego in April. I'm pretty lucky to have a buddy that will be doing it with me, though!

Looking forward to many more fantastic experiences on this journey...

Initial Findings on a Chemical-Free Lifestyle

This blog has made it's way around lately and I've been getting a ton of questions on what or how I've attempted to make my life 'chemical free'. I start to explain and people are really surprised how easy (and inexpensive)  it is. So I figured it would be helpful to put all of my findings in one place, so you can see how crazy (but not really) I am when it comes to the 'products' I keep in our house.

First, let me explain what prompted me to get rid of everything I thought was supposed to clean me and my home. I started reading the labels on everything, and it's something I recommend every one should do. Many companies make this hard to find, or will generalize ingredients like 'fragrance' or 'natural coloring'. Look at the labels on everything and anything you use to clean your house, wash yourself with, eat, drink or comes in to contact with your skin. You may have that initial freak out that I did, especially when you research the 'ingredients' that you can't even pronounce. Now once you've done this, remember that your skin is really good at absorbing things, that's part of it's job after all. Once I started to think about it I didn't want any of it anymore - on me, in my house, on my son, etc. Thinking deeper you may realize that these 'products' many people use on a daily basis are probably a large contributing factor to terrible diseases - actually many of the ingredients in everyday household products, food and beverages have been proven to cause cancer/heart disease etc.  Before we dive in, here's a full disclaimer: I am not the master of all things natural. I am not an expert. I did my own research and picked things that worked best for me. It's a good idea for everyone to do the same. I started with cleaning basics:

1. Vinegar
*Get yourself a gallon of distilled white and a not-so-large bottle of (raw) Apple Cider Vinegar ($6 for both)
Here's what you can do with vinegar, ready?

• Clean everything!
• Use 1:1 ratio of water & white vinegar for a multi-purpose cleaning spray. I use this (in a recycled spray bottle) to clean my kitchen, glass, my bathrooms. If you want to be fancy you can put an essential oil in there that has disinfecting properties. I have been using orange peels to infuse my vinegar too for a nice scent and extra cleaning power. I just let the peels sit in the vinegar for a few days or longer in a glass jar!
• Clean your floors!
• Using same solution, clean wood, laminate & tile floors. I use a recycled swiffer mop and cut old bath towels to size as a 'Swiffer pad'. Start with a damp towel, spray on surface and wipe
• Apple Cider Vinegar : A lovely skin toner
• Apple cider vinegar, while I did try it as a digestive aid (the raw stuff is just too potent for me) works really well as a facial toner. With a wet cotton round, put a few drops of it on and swipe over face
• Dishwasher rinsing aid
• Just put a small amount of white vinegar in your rinse-aid dispenser and it will help keep water spots off your dishes

2. Coconut Oil - The magical all purpose moisturizer ($8 - $15 depending on the brand & size)

• Trust me when I say you can throw all your lotions and potions away and replace almost all of them with this stuff. It's absolutely nuts to pay $10 and up for a crazy, chemical lotion that ladies can use to make their skin look shimmery, tan, or otherwise not normal. Healthy skin is the best look! I use in it's solid state and just rub a little on my fingers to apply. 
• Facial moisturizer - great for under and around eyes (better than the $18 cream I was using) and other dry areas on the face
• Any dry skin - use a small amount as a lotion
• A deodorant base (see recipes below)
• For hot oil hair treatment - do research on this there are many other oils you can use. I use just coconut with rosemary & lemon essential oil.
• I also use olive oil to remove make up, works well and makes your lashes really healthy and thick

3. Honey + Baking Soda - the best face wash you ever had

• The best way to do it - scoop out some raw honey in the shower, sprinkle with baking soda. Mix and apply to face for a cleansing and moisturzing everyday wash that smells fantastic.

4. Borax & Washing Soda ($4 each) - The way people used to clean things

• Dishwasher detergent (recipe below)
• Laundry soap (recipe below)

We've covered the products, many you can just swap out for what you're using. For those that really want to dive in (and by dive in I mean taking an extra 15 min of your time to mix some stuff up), let's get in to some recipes. 

DIY Deodorant (No I'm not kidding)

• Why DIY? Commercial deodorant is perhaps the most offensive stuff out there. Aluminum, parabens and many of their ingredients can cause cancer (see http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/AP-Deo). No joke. Get rid of this stuff but don't be smelly! When I tell people I make my own deodorant, they think I'm nuts, gross, or both. Most people don't believe it works. But I promise you it does, all the time, and there is no cancer-causing crap in it.
• Take your jar of coconut oil and bring to a liquid state. If it's in a glass container, you can set in a saucepan and surround by water. Heat until it's a clear liquid

Now Mix

• 5 TB liquid Coconut oil
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cornstarch (we're working on substituting Arrow Root powder for this - cheaper and more natural)
• Add 10 - 20 drops of essentials oils (I use lemon & orange but please DON'T use lemon in it if your armpits are going to be exposed to the sun).

This will become a deodorant-like consistency once it reaches room temp again. I keep in a recycled yogurt container and just grab a pea-sized amount with my fingers and apply. The coconut oil will work with your body heat and apply nicely. If it's too messy for you save one of your old deoderant containers, wash it out thoroughly and pour the mixture in there (however if you're going to do this I wouldn't recommend keeping it in a room above 75 degrees).

DIY Laundry Soap (not detergent)

• Why DIY? I had to really dig, but here is an ingredient sheet for Tide detergent : http://www.pgproductsafety.com/productsafety/ingredients/household_care/laundary_fabric_care/Tide/Tide_Liquid_-_Original.pdf. They make you go one click further to even find out what 'fragrance' actually means. That ingredient list is even scarier. Detergent frangrance is the one that bothers me the most now. I can smell the artificial fragrance on clothes from a few feet away, or in the gym or wherever I happen to be. There is definitely an element of the detergent that lingers in the clothes and comes in to contact with your skin. Also the price of tide is ridiculous - last time I checked it was $14 for a month's supply with just three people in our household. The following recipe costs about $3 to make and will last for likely 3+ months. It's cheap and easy, so you should at least try it!
• This is the recipe I ended up with -  I use only castile bar soap with it that has a natural (read : not chemical) fragrance. Dr. Bronner's Lavender is my preference here. This soap only has 5/6 ingredients, mostly fair-trade, organic oils.

1 gallon + 32 oz water

2/3 bar grated castile bar soap (or liquid castile soap, homemade if you're savvy)

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda 

In a very large sauce pan, heat water and bar soap until bar soap is completely dissolved in water. Remove from heat then add borax & washing soda. Stir just until mixed and let cool overnight. This will turn in to a thick pudding consistency. This is not going to be exactly like the detergent you're used to. You may have to shake it up each time you use it. Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup per load. **Update - we made a batch of this recently with our homemade liquid kitchen soap (soap made from scratch with oil/lye) and let me tell you, the consistency is really nice and it works very well! I'm thinking you can probably use Dr. Bronner's liquid castile too, which will make a much more liquid soap. 

Dishwasher Soap

• Why DIY? The dishwasher detergent I was using contained many ingredients, one of which is Sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). Here's a wikipedia article on that : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_laureth_sulfate, which states "Some products containing SLES have been found to also contain traces (up to 279 ppm) of 1,4-dioxane. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that these levels be monitored.^[7] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies 1,4-dioxane to be a probable human carcinogen". More cancer-causing stuff, on your dishes, that you eat on. I also read a really great article on the Crunch Betty blog about a child who had eaten homemade dish washer soap, which the poison control center explained was way less toxic (almost non-toxic) than Cascade, Dawn, etc.
• If you've made the laundry soap, you have 75% of the ingredients you're going to need already anyway. 

Mix :

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup citric acid (available on Amazon).

*Add a pinch or rice grains to keep this from solidifying (the citric acid causes this). Add a small scoop to each load of dishes.
*This is not perfect with glass, you may have to hand-wash your clear glass things every few loads, still working on this one!

So there it is, in a very large nutshell. Does it take a little bit of extra time? Yes. Is it going to save you money an have a healthy impact on you life? Yes! But it' pretty nice if you're out of laundry soap to just make a batch of your own and not have to depend on the store to provide it for you. Noah and I joke that a chemical-free lifestyle is a tiered process. This is tier one for us. Noah has dived in to tier 2 and is perfecting making his own soap (which is amazing already I think, btw) and we're growing a ton of Lavender that may or may not end up in some of the soap products. Tier two for me will probably be investigating making my own natural make-up. I use a lot of mineral-based makeup which is OK, but not great.

The whole task of trying to live this lifestyle can seem overwhelming at first, but we started replacing 'products' one by one until we found an appropriate solution for (almost) everything.

Please give me your thoughts or suggestions, now that I've fully unleashed my 'hippie-ness' upon you. I'd like to know what others have found useful or successful. I'm always trying to find better solutions, most of these work really well but the consistency of the laundry detergent could be better. 

Reflection : One Year Later

If in one year I said you could completely change your life, only for the better, would you believe me? I did. A short 12 months ago I made a commitment to myself. I said enough is enough. I knew I needed to make myself and my health a priority. I promised myself I wouldn't let my body hold me back from living anymore, because it did, in so many ways.

I had known that feeling of hating mirrors and thinking I was walking around in the wrong body for too long. Most of my life, actually. All the way back to being the chubby girl on the school bus that all the kids picked on and stuck gum in my hair. To my college days where when I got stressed, I ate - at 2am or 4am sometimes. And I would wonder why my jeans didn't fit anymore. Leading up to the start of 2012 where I was happy in life, but unhappy with what had happened to my health.

Last March I was done, with all of it. I was done feeling bad about myself. I was done with my successes in all other areas of life not be reflected by my physical appearance. In March last year, I somehow got the courage to step on a scale - in front of someone - and promised that was my starting point - I swore I would never see that weight again. NEVER. With friends an fellow competitors of DDC's first ever 'Slim it to Win It' competition, I started caring about myself again. I started trying new exercises which within weeks went from painstakingly awful to relatively enjoyable. I started caring about food as a fuel, and not as an emotional support. After four months of Slim it to Win It, I was down 28 lbs and 5th overall in the competition. But I knew that was just the beginning. I set a goal of 110 lbs to lose and I had barely made a dent. But it was something, it was SOMETHING. And as the weeks kept going by, there were more successes - but not just on the scale. My athletic ability was improving. I would seek out new things that I'd always said I would 'try one day when I was in better shape'.

The weight kept coming off, and I made new commitments - eliminating all chemicals from our house and in my beauty products (long post to come on this one). We (my love & I) started growing our own food last summer. Recently we started researching local meat options, caring about what - exactly - was in our food, where it came from and how it had made the journey to us.

This week, appropriately, I hit the 70lb mark. I have lost s-e-v-e-n-t-y pounds in a year. Yesterday when I was running on the treadmill, I celebrated that I didn't even sweat for the first mile. I felt light on my feet and I even enjoyed the last two miles. I made fitness not a chore but something I look forward too everyday. Something I miss when I've gone a day without it. I am the same person I was a year ago but I feel younger than I was when I was in my teens. I have made so many steps to live a long, healthy life. Although I'm still 40ish pounds away from my goal, I love myself - for the first time in a very long time, or maybe ever. I appreciate all the hard work to get me here.

If I think about everything I've done in the last year to get where I am now, was it all enjoyable? No, absolutely not. The first time I tried spinning, I thought I was going to break the bike. When I set a goal of running a 5k by the end of 2012, without being able to run a mile non-stop it was scary. But now I know that the best workouts are the ones that push you to your breaking point. The ones that you must complete and overcome mentally because sometimes you can't physically. And there were days that I had to talk myself in to doing a work out because I was so sore from the previous days'. But I did it, everytime. I knew the end result (which I've almost made it to) was going to be worth it. Every step I took was worth it.

So really, I guess I'm in the 'home stretch' now. And how wonderful that March 1st starts the second annual 'Slim it to Win It' competition. If I really am focused over the next four months, I can meet my 110lb weight loss goal. That is incredible. I'm ready. Ready to glide in to my 30's in the best shape of my life. Ready to be my best self. Ready to be, look and feel that way I have always wanted to. I'm almost there. I started at the heaviest I've ever been but used it as a starting point. I have made this a lifestyle, and one I am proud of living. Chapter 2 (of my life) is proving to be more incredible than I ever thought it could be, in so many ways.