We're still cleansing and it's been quite the ride. We're past the first week mark now, actually we're 10 days into a 21 day cleanse. So about 1/2 way! We're craving meat! But we're planning quite the celebration for when it's over.
The cleanse, in a nutshell, is a mostly raw, vegan cleanse. It's basically sugarless, with a few exceptions, caffeine free, and alcohol free. Here's a typical day...
Wake Up - lots of water
Breakfast - green smoothie
Throughout the rest of the morning - more water and tea
Lunch - big salad and something small cooked. (samosas, rice and veggies, udon noodles)
Throughout the rest of the afternoon - more water and tea
Around 3 or 4 - a snack. Either raw nuts and dried fruit or a rice cake with peanut butter
Dinner - big salad and another something small cooked. We've done burgers one night, we've done rice, we've done hummus and veggies, we've done vegan chili.
That's about it! We've both definitely been emotional during the cleanse. I've been teary and crabby. Ryan's mostly just been crabby and hungry. But now that most of those toxins are leaving our bodies we're feeling calmer. We're definitely sleeping WAY better at night and I have a lot more energy (that may have something to do with the no running for two weeks thing too).
We're also taking some vitamin supplements, which has been interesting to learn about. And slowly making the change to better-for-us-and-the-environment cosmetics and household supplies.
There are certainly things that we'll incorporate into our lifestyle even after the cleanse is over but I am just not ready to give up my morning cup of coffee and we're both not ready to give up alcohol and meat!
If you're interested in more information read this book: Crazy Sexy Cleanse by Kris Carr.
MULUB,
Taylor
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Fritada
Someone out there is searching for fritada recipes from Ecuador! We'd love to tell you everything we know about fritada and Ecuador!
Crazy Sexy Cleanse
Ryan and I started a post marathon cleanse on Monday. It's from the book Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. This woman is seriously inspiring. She was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer, changed the way she lived her life, became her own health advocate and is healthier then she's ever been. This all might sound familiar if you saw her on Oprah or her documentary on TLC called Crazy Sexy Cancer. Check it out...
Now that we're back in the States, we're still trying to figure out 'what does healthy mean'. In Ecuador it was drastically different answer than here in the States. This cleanse is just the next part of that journey. So far it's been full of lots of green juice and salads.
We're having to learn how to cook differently, as it's a vegan, gluten and (processed) sugar free cleanse. There are a lot of ingredients that I've always shied away from in the past that we're having to confront. It's intimidating, to say the least. And when you're hungry and just want to eat, it's frustrating. But we're working on it.
Any ideas or suggestions just pass them on!
In other news I am now, officially, a marathoner. It was quite the experience! More on that later though!
MULUB,
Taylor
Now that we're back in the States, we're still trying to figure out 'what does healthy mean'. In Ecuador it was drastically different answer than here in the States. This cleanse is just the next part of that journey. So far it's been full of lots of green juice and salads.
We're having to learn how to cook differently, as it's a vegan, gluten and (processed) sugar free cleanse. There are a lot of ingredients that I've always shied away from in the past that we're having to confront. It's intimidating, to say the least. And when you're hungry and just want to eat, it's frustrating. But we're working on it.
Any ideas or suggestions just pass them on!
In other news I am now, officially, a marathoner. It was quite the experience! More on that later though!
MULUB,
Taylor
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
How early is too early...
We're planning this wedding, right. We're super excited about it! Especially now that the big stuff is over. We've got a date, a location, two officiants and a hotel! We've started working on all of the rest, or at least some of the rest. But there's just so much to do!
A girl comes into the salon last week and hands Ashley, the other receptionist, a printed out excel worksheet with these categories... Name, Role, Phone, Hair, Make Up, Mani, Pedi, Misc. And it's all nicely filled out with all of her wedding party, family members, etc for her wedding day. Then she hands Ashley a hand written schedule and politely asks if she'd make all of these appointments for her. Now, I'm sitting there thinking, 'WOW she's really organized; her wedding must be right around the corner.' Then I look at Ashley entering the appointments and they're not until the weekend after our wedding. WHAT?
Talk about making me feel like a slacker. The bride and I get to talking and she's like, 'oh you should see my wedding binder at home. It's all organized and filed and blah, blah, blah.' So needless to say I went to the store and bought a binder and have been slowly assembling it! Although, most of its contents are lying in various states on the floor in the living room.
Then another girl was in the salon yesterday talking about her wedding coming up on Saturday and her wedding purse. Apparently she through out her shoulder carrying her wedding purse. I kept racking my brain, 'what the heck is a wedding purse!?' Well, for those of you like me, a wedding purse is a bag that you keep your wedding binder and all other pertinent wedding information in. And hers was just so heavy that she hurt her shoulder from carrying it.
Also, I can't tell you how many time's I've already heard "Oh well, we're already booked for that weekend." Like seriously, it's over a year away!
Bottom line, I need to get a move on. That's why I'm meeting with Sarah today and hopefully we'll be really super duper productive!
A girl comes into the salon last week and hands Ashley, the other receptionist, a printed out excel worksheet with these categories... Name, Role, Phone, Hair, Make Up, Mani, Pedi, Misc. And it's all nicely filled out with all of her wedding party, family members, etc for her wedding day. Then she hands Ashley a hand written schedule and politely asks if she'd make all of these appointments for her. Now, I'm sitting there thinking, 'WOW she's really organized; her wedding must be right around the corner.' Then I look at Ashley entering the appointments and they're not until the weekend after our wedding. WHAT?
Talk about making me feel like a slacker. The bride and I get to talking and she's like, 'oh you should see my wedding binder at home. It's all organized and filed and blah, blah, blah.' So needless to say I went to the store and bought a binder and have been slowly assembling it! Although, most of its contents are lying in various states on the floor in the living room.
Then another girl was in the salon yesterday talking about her wedding coming up on Saturday and her wedding purse. Apparently she through out her shoulder carrying her wedding purse. I kept racking my brain, 'what the heck is a wedding purse!?' Well, for those of you like me, a wedding purse is a bag that you keep your wedding binder and all other pertinent wedding information in. And hers was just so heavy that she hurt her shoulder from carrying it.
Also, I can't tell you how many time's I've already heard "Oh well, we're already booked for that weekend." Like seriously, it's over a year away!
Bottom line, I need to get a move on. That's why I'm meeting with Sarah today and hopefully we'll be really super duper productive!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Hiatus. Is it over?
I know, I know... sorry. Now we're moving on.
Here's a quick update on all that's been going on:
Ryan is working 50+ hours at a Japanese restaurant in Rockford. You know the kind where they cook in front of you, it's that kind! He's really enjoying it because it's busy and he's learning how to do something new. He works everyday, doubles 3-4 days a week, and has Sundays off.
I'm working about 30 hours at the Salon... of all women. It's what it is, which is work.
We're still living at my parents' house. We're loving not paying bills and very, very grateful for that.
We've been visiting Ryan's family a lot lately. I think our relationships are deepening, which is something Ryan and I hoped would happen while we're in closer proximity.
The marathon is this Sunday... WHAT? If you'd like to donate click here. Training has been hard but so much fun. I would definitely do it again. But I am looking forward to just running an hour and not being so gosh darn hungry ALL OF THE gosh darn TIME!
We're totally slacking on the cooking for ourselves realm. But after the marathon is over we'll be back with a vengeance. We're planning on doing the Crazy Sexy Cleanse from Kris Carr. I'm excited. Then we're thinking about doing either P90x or Insanity or Shred. I'd eventually like to find a yoga or pilates studio too.
It's been great to see our friends more often, although to be honest... we don't see them as much as we'd like. We're trying to do better at that.
Wedding planning is in full swing. I even made a binder! Crazy, I know! We have a lot of ideas but I'm having a hard time doing more than just thinking, 'oh it'd be fun to do this...' Hopefully as we get closer it will become more concrete and less abstract!
Here are a few things that we've been loving about being back in the States:
Edward's Apple Orchard
Sunday/Monday Night Football with friends
Having a little bit of money in the bank
Being able to be present and be helpful with our families (Matson's included :)
Until next time....
MULUB,
Taylor
Here's a quick update on all that's been going on:
Ryan is working 50+ hours at a Japanese restaurant in Rockford. You know the kind where they cook in front of you, it's that kind! He's really enjoying it because it's busy and he's learning how to do something new. He works everyday, doubles 3-4 days a week, and has Sundays off.
I'm working about 30 hours at the Salon... of all women. It's what it is, which is work.
We're still living at my parents' house. We're loving not paying bills and very, very grateful for that.
We've been visiting Ryan's family a lot lately. I think our relationships are deepening, which is something Ryan and I hoped would happen while we're in closer proximity.
The marathon is this Sunday... WHAT? If you'd like to donate click here. Training has been hard but so much fun. I would definitely do it again. But I am looking forward to just running an hour and not being so gosh darn hungry ALL OF THE gosh darn TIME!
We're totally slacking on the cooking for ourselves realm. But after the marathon is over we'll be back with a vengeance. We're planning on doing the Crazy Sexy Cleanse from Kris Carr. I'm excited. Then we're thinking about doing either P90x or Insanity or Shred. I'd eventually like to find a yoga or pilates studio too.
It's been great to see our friends more often, although to be honest... we don't see them as much as we'd like. We're trying to do better at that.
Wedding planning is in full swing. I even made a binder! Crazy, I know! We have a lot of ideas but I'm having a hard time doing more than just thinking, 'oh it'd be fun to do this...' Hopefully as we get closer it will become more concrete and less abstract!
Here are a few things that we've been loving about being back in the States:
Edward's Apple Orchard
Sunday/Monday Night Football with friends
Having a little bit of money in the bank
Being able to be present and be helpful with our families (Matson's included :)
Until next time....
MULUB,
Taylor
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Let me start by saying there have been many a thoughts and many a conversations since the last post. We still aren't in a routine and that makes it hard to blog regularly. Here are just a couple of things that we've been up to...
- Chuki got neutered and is signed up for his first private lesson training session to try and figure out what makes his crazy with other dogs and with the vet. We're both really hopeful and just me, I'm a little nervous.
- Ryan had one interview last week and has another one this week. He's still applying and looking so if anyone knows of anything out there, he'd love to hear about it! We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed.
- We picked the first actual thing from our garden, besides just herbs. It's a pepper and we're going to use it to make Green Chicken Curry tonight. We had to put up a fence around our garden because the little rabbits ate all of the snap peas. But now we've got some room to plant a couple of more things so we're headed to the store soon (we keep saying today, but then today comes and goes).
- The big conversation that we've been having lately is about food and what is important to us and then how that fits into our budget. For example, does 100% organic really matter, and if it does what can we afford to buy/week. We're really happy with Anderson Organics and we're really happy with the eggs that we're getting from the Griesbachs! We've been doing a lot of chicken research lately. I mean what do those labels at the super market really mean? What's the difference between cage free and free range and free roam. Or all natural and pure. We finally decided on a chicken to buy from pure chicken. Check out the company it looks pretty legit. We can't afford to shell out $20 for ONE organic chicken but $8 for a healthy chicken sounded better. We'll let you know how it tastes.
- Wedding planning is going well. We're getting there, slowly but surely. Our Wedding Elf, Sarah, has been a HUGE help in the creativity department (seriously she's amazing!). We've got about 8 or 9 venues in the Seriously Possible column and a whole heck of a lot in the I Dont Think So column. So I'm feeling not-so-overwhelmed and actually really excited about the wedding. I know I'll feel REALLY excited once we have a venue and date but that will come. We're having engagement photos taken next week when dear, dear Brad is in town! So we're moving in the right direction.
- As far as social life... We went to our high school friend's wedding on Saturday and that was a TON of fun! Ryan has seen the guys a couple of times, I've seen Amy a couple of times. Hannah and Brian came up for the weekend which was SO much fun! We had a PERFECT day this past Sunday that ended in a grill out with great friends and a camp fire with s'mores.
- Things we're looking forward to... Visiting venues, going into Chicago this Friday to celebrate Hannah, Brad coming to town, the 4th of July, going to watch my little cousins in their Track regionals, family reunions on both sides, and lunch with Jenna, amongst many other things!
MULUB,
Taylor
- Chuki got neutered and is signed up for his first private lesson training session to try and figure out what makes his crazy with other dogs and with the vet. We're both really hopeful and just me, I'm a little nervous.
- Ryan had one interview last week and has another one this week. He's still applying and looking so if anyone knows of anything out there, he'd love to hear about it! We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed.
- We picked the first actual thing from our garden, besides just herbs. It's a pepper and we're going to use it to make Green Chicken Curry tonight. We had to put up a fence around our garden because the little rabbits ate all of the snap peas. But now we've got some room to plant a couple of more things so we're headed to the store soon (we keep saying today, but then today comes and goes).
- The big conversation that we've been having lately is about food and what is important to us and then how that fits into our budget. For example, does 100% organic really matter, and if it does what can we afford to buy/week. We're really happy with Anderson Organics and we're really happy with the eggs that we're getting from the Griesbachs! We've been doing a lot of chicken research lately. I mean what do those labels at the super market really mean? What's the difference between cage free and free range and free roam. Or all natural and pure. We finally decided on a chicken to buy from pure chicken. Check out the company it looks pretty legit. We can't afford to shell out $20 for ONE organic chicken but $8 for a healthy chicken sounded better. We'll let you know how it tastes.
- Wedding planning is going well. We're getting there, slowly but surely. Our Wedding Elf, Sarah, has been a HUGE help in the creativity department (seriously she's amazing!). We've got about 8 or 9 venues in the Seriously Possible column and a whole heck of a lot in the I Dont Think So column. So I'm feeling not-so-overwhelmed and actually really excited about the wedding. I know I'll feel REALLY excited once we have a venue and date but that will come. We're having engagement photos taken next week when dear, dear Brad is in town! So we're moving in the right direction.
- As far as social life... We went to our high school friend's wedding on Saturday and that was a TON of fun! Ryan has seen the guys a couple of times, I've seen Amy a couple of times. Hannah and Brian came up for the weekend which was SO much fun! We had a PERFECT day this past Sunday that ended in a grill out with great friends and a camp fire with s'mores.
- Things we're looking forward to... Visiting venues, going into Chicago this Friday to celebrate Hannah, Brad coming to town, the 4th of July, going to watch my little cousins in their Track regionals, family reunions on both sides, and lunch with Jenna, amongst many other things!
MULUB,
Taylor
Monday, June 13, 2011
Mint.com
As part of our financial learnings we signed up for mint.com. Does anyone else out there use it? I don't think it's very easy to use/user friendly. We actually signed up for it back in Ecuador but because we weren't using our cards EVER it didn't really do anything. We're trying to use cash for things back here in the States too, so I don't know how practical it is for us. I do like that it reminds me when payments are due, when accounts are low, and the goal feature. But I don't like that I can't set up payments with it. Anyways, does anyone out there have a good budget tool for cash purchases too? I wish I had a smart phone that could download those cool apps, because I've seen some good ones for budgeting cash!
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