Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Eating grass

Today is Day 1 of my Strawberry Moon's A Little Bit Fruity juice fast.  I was inspired to try this by one of my knitting friends.  I'm hoping that taking a few days off from constantly thinking about what I'm eating next will help me to reset my eating habits.  Post-fast, I'm hoping to stick to a healthy low-calorie diet and lose some of this weight I've gained over the last 10 years.  Zach wants to lose a few pounds too, so I'm lucky enough to have his support.

So without further ado....

Day 1

Breakfast was delicious.  I had Carrot Pineapple Lime juice, and it was delightful. Less sweet than I expected, although I could say that about all the juices.  I'm definitely glad I went with the fruity fast, because I am definitely not ready for the hardcore veggie juices.

I'm normally a breakfast eater, so it was kind of hard to get myself out the door without eating anything.  In fact, I was so disorganized that I even forgot to take my morning vitamins!  I'm laying my clothes for tomorrow out in preparation of tomorrow's chaos.  I am very routine oriented, so changing up the start of my day is tough.

According to the schedule Zach laid out for me (juices evenly spaced throughout my waking hours), I was due for my 2nd juice at 11am.  I was totally fine until about 10:30, when suddenly I couldn't stop thinking about doughnuts.  Why doughnuts, I don't know, since I very rarely eat them (I even abstained during the last few weeks at work when everyone was bringing them in!).  I held out though, and drank my Spinach Celery Cucumber Apple Lemon juice.  I learned something right off the bat with that one: I HATE CELERY JUICE!  It just tastes like dirt.  But I gamely got it down, and wasn't at all hungry, even by the time 3pm rolled around and it was time for my 3rd juice.



Even though I wasn't really hungry, I was determined to stick to the schedule.  I am afraid that if I start getting hungry there will be no stopping me and the whole rest of the fast will be miserable.  Kind of like the idea of eating small meals throughout the day, I guess.  So at about 3:15, I cracked into my afternoon juice: Orange Almond Coconut.  Now, I really expected this one to be sweet.  Orange, afterall, is one of my favorite flavors, and it is sweet by nature.  But I was a little disappointed to find that the juice really just tasted like an almond milk/coconut water cross.  No hint of orange that I could detect.  It was still good, but would probably be more satisfying to someone who drinks milk regularly.

On the drive home from work, I felt satiated, but had a bad case of the munchies.  Maybe three days of fasting will help break the "I'm just eating because I need something to do" syndrome.

Finally, the culmination of a day of fasting, I thought for sure Juice #4 would be delicious.  But oh, my dear God, was I ever wrong.  Celery Cucumber Kale Spinach Parsley Apple Lemon Ginger was horrible.  Again, the celery flavor was overwhelming, and the only other flavor I could really taste was the parsley.  Although there was an afterburn from the ginger.  I suspect I would have found it more palatable without the celery.  I still wasn't hungry after this, but I desperately wanted to eat the rye crackers on the counter because I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth.

So. Day 1 is done and I'm getting ready for bed.  I still don't feel hungry, and I also don't feel as tired as I read I might be.  We'll see what happens tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Embracing the bus

Okay, not really.

I got a new job. At first I wasn't thrilled since it is on the East Side and takes me an hour and a half to get there whether driving or riding the bus, but I've discovered that the job is actually fantastic.  The people are great, I'm constantly busy, the company seems fabulous, and it is right in downtown Bellevue, so there is a plethora of shopping and eating establishments within spitting distance.  The people watching pretty much sucks, since it is the East Side and everyone either works at a tech company or has just adopted the wardrobe (button up? check.).  If anyone knows of any great stuff to do or places to knit, let me know!


So the real news is a chicken update!  The girls are so big! And the coop is nearly done.  All we need to do is add hardware cloth to the windows, build the nestbox and roosts and paint!  I'm thinking it is all going to happen this weekend, which would be fabulous, because Merci has lost all her tailfeathers being cramped in the brooder.  












Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sunshine and grapefruits

WooWEE!  This month has been full of excitement.  Since the job offer I received (which I did end up accepting), Zach and I went to visit my little sister in California, I started work, and the chicken coop is more than half done!

First, a few highlights from our trip to SoCal: 





It was wonderful, and I feel like my sister and I are finally really relating as adults.  She is a wonderful woman with lots of big hopes and dreams, and I'm really lucky to call her my friend as well as my sister.

We got back from California Monday night and I started my new job Tuesday morning.  It's crazy, and the commute is so bad I've already started looking at home listings online, but the job itself and the people I work with seem great.  It will be really busy all the time, and they offer a lot of training and opportunities.

Today, Zach and his buddy moved the pieces of the chicken coop from the garage out to the back yard and put them together.  The framing is all done and the back wall is attached.  Sad to say, I forgot to take any pictures, but Zach will be working on it again tomorrow (assuming the skies don't open), so I'll get some shots then.  The girls are going to be so happy to get out of their brooder.  They are all fully feathered and it's getting crowded in there!