Day two...back on track

Despite being out until almost eleven last night and having a heck of a time sleeping due to pain and a stuffy nose, I managed 20 minutes of yoga this morning. Quite pleased about that. I didn't think I'd be able to do it all (gentle or not!). I also dragged my way through the rest of my morning routine and my weekly chores. It's tough today because I'm tired and it's extremely cold and dreary outside.

After a veggie burger and a nap I tackled one of my bookcases. I only managed to cull a few books from it but that's okay at least it's something. Then I cleaned the bookcase out before returning the books, wiped down the walls and entry window and washed the rug. The entry suddenly looks better. And it took me less than 1/2 hour (plus the drying of the rug). We build these chores up in our minds until they are these huge gigantic jobs that we don't want to tackle but they usually aren't that big at all. Tomorrow is a pretty busy day so I don't know that I'll have time to do anything outside of my usual stuff. Thank goodness housework doesn't go anywhere. Lol.

On another note, I spent 10 minutes in front of my meditation altar this morning after the yoga. I felt such a wonderful sense of peace after sitting with the silence and just "being". It isn't always like that. Sometimes your mind won't co-operate or the grocery list plays in an endless loop in your head. But then other times, it really does live up to what it's sold as and you can feel it...Peace.

For dinner tonight I made a pepper and mushroom fritatta, then steamed some chard and seasonned it with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I also made roasted rosemary new potatoes, a perennial favourite around here.

There are three of us sick with a cold here. Amazingly, I am not one (so far!). I'm going to go and make sure everyone is on track to get to bed early tonight and get some extra sleep. Bliss!

Day Two...going green

Continuing on with our green changes I made a few more today.

4.I got rid of the ripped, still moldy no-matter-how-many times I wash it, PVC filled plastic shower liner. I resurrected the terry cloth shower curtain that I had tucked away and put that up instead. Yay...no more toxic fumes in the shower!

5. I've got 1 1/2 rolls of paper towels left. In the interest of making those last as long as possible and hopefulle not buying anymore I cut up a bunch of older stuff to make cleaning cloths. Then I cleaned out the space under the sink and reorganized it to make room for the basket full of cloths. I don't know how well this one is going to go over with the husband and the kids, but they aren't the ones who launder the darn towels anyway...so there!

6.I'm going no 'poo for the duration of this project!! Everytime I say this to someone their reaction makes me giggle. Needless to say it's not what they think it is. I've gone NO SHAMPOO people. Ahem!

In the perrier bottle is what I will be washing my hair with: baking soda and water. I mixed 2 Tbs. of baking soda with 2 cups of very warm water and shook to dissolve the baking soda. I used about 1/2 of the bottle in the shower today. After I rinsed really well (important since you don't want to leave a gritty residue behind) with water I used the second bottle. It contains about 1/4 apple cider vinegar and 3/4 water. To this I added a few drops of lavender and rosemary essential oils. It helped me to smell less like a salad :) I used about 1/3 of the bottle.

The results were good this time around. My hair looks and feels clean and is soft. Supposedly the first week or so of doing this you can end up with greasy hair but after that your hair adjusts and looks and feels good. Time will tell. I'll keep you all posted!

We ate dinner early tonight because there is an Elder Blessing Ceremony tonight at the Beaverpond. I'm hoping I won't be too tired to go. So I just made quick sweet potato fries (oven roasted) and fresh tomato sandwiches. Summer is so sweet...

-Carolyn

Maddie's Perspective: Day Two

I have to make confession:

I cheated.

You know how everyone has those little things, that they seriously can't stand doing, or not doing? Well, I'm seriously OCD, and I have alot of those things. One of them? Eating burgers without cheese. It sounds weird, but I can't do it. I start feeling nauseous, and it's like eating soup that's only broth. You aren't eating soup are you? It's not complete! Not only that, but I really really really hate the taste of ketchup, but I have to put a little bit on my burgers or else it the mustard is all unbalanced...Anyway, I really hate ketchup so I use cheese to cover up the taste.

Unfortunately, soy-rice-vegan-unmeltable-grobely-whateverthechunkitis "cheese" is disgusting.

Not only that, but my veggie burger was on a bun. Which is still vegan, but not gluten free so that's kind of breaking the cleanse. Though, my mom put the veggie burger on the bun without asking me, so I really had no say...

Well, the bottom line is; I could NOT stand eating the burger without cheese. So I caved. But it's only day two, so it doesn't really matter anyway. It's not like it's half way through or anything.

Other than that, the day went well. I had a smoothie mom made for breakfast (which she secretly destroyed by adding spinach...sheesh mom, you could've warned me!), bean soup, gluten-free and sugar-free crackers, and hummus for lunch, and then the unfortunate cheese incident happened at dinner.

And I warn all you vegans...that cheese is DISGUSTING. Maybe we should've gone with the other one...


Oh well, tomorrow's a new day!

-Maddie :)

Day Two

Well, today was a little tougher. I had a headache all day, presumably because of a serious lack of caffeine. But, I didn't cave. Proud of myself for that :)

When I got around to reading the day two chapter of Freston's cleanse book I was in for a bit of a shock.

She gives some good advice: substitute 10 to 30 minutes of exercise for your morning coffee, drink more water and get lots of rest. Then she gives a list:

what to avoid

- coffee, tea, caffeinated sodas (or sodas with guaran), green tea

- energy drinks

- dark chocolate

- coffee-flavoured desserts

- over the counter medications containing caffeine

enjoy

- herbal tea

- decaf coffee

Did you read that??? Decaf coffee!!! After two mornings of teeccino when I get up the thought of even decaf coffee is unbearable. I should have read all of the chapters of the darn book ahead of time :)

This has been my morning breakfast drink. Teeccino made in the French press, with a teeny tiny touch of stevia and some soy creamer in the cup. I had to get the creamer. I'm used to drinking my coffee with half and half and the Teeccino was so strong and dark I couldn't drink it. I think tomorrow I'll mix the Teeccino and decaf coffee half and half. I do like the Teeccino flavour but a touch of coffee would be nice...just for the taste.

After my morning brew I made a smoothie with a frozen banana, some frozen mixed berries, almond milk, ground flax seeds and a big handful of spinach. I was worried that it would be all green but it wasn't. All I could see were some tiny green flecks and I honestly couldn't taste a thing. I drank half and left the other half for Madison when she got up. She drank it without knowing about the spinach...she was nicely surprised when she found out. HA!

These crackers are so very, very good! Wheat free, gluten free, sugar free and organic. They taste like savoury sesame snaps. I enjoyed some of these with hummus and a bean and vegetable soup for lunch.

In the afternoon I made a green drink out of organic apple juice, water and some "Perfect Greens" powder. I was a little hungry in the afternoon so I had some cherries after the green drink and that did the trick. If it didn't I would have had a brown rice cake with almond butter or something.






This is the salad that I invented and made up for dinner. It's a roasted vegetable salad served over mixed greens and it was yummy!!

I roasted cubed sweet potatoes and halved red new potatoes tossed with olive oil at 400 degrees . When they were almost done I added a bunch of cut up asparagus. While they were still warm I mixed in (gently so the potatoes wouldn't break up) my dressing. This was made with garlic, grainy Dijon mustard, 1/2 a juiced lemon, balsamic vinegar,celtic sea salt, thyme and parsley. Don't ask me about the measurements because I didn't use any. Just add, mix and taste until it's right :) Before serving put mixed green in a bowl. I used romaine, spinach, parsley and a tiny bit of fresh basil. Dump the potatoes and asparagus on top, making sure to include any dressing left in the bowl. I topped it off with red pepper, cut in a tiny dice.

Madison, her friend Holly and I had this salad with veggie burgers. The rest of the crew had real burgers. I had vegenaise, mustard and fresh tomato slices on mine. We tried the soy cheese I had bought. Good grief that stuff was awful!! The texture was strange, the flavour was yucky and the after taste made me feel sick. Needless to say it didn't make it onto my burger, which was Yves brand and tasted just fine :)

Well that's it for tonight.

More tomorrow!

-Carolyn