Snippets// What Spring Looks Like

My parents went to China for about a month, and this is what we were treated to when they came back. While there my mom took a private cooking class for a few days and learned how to make authentic Chinese hot pot and brought home all the appropriate cooking utensils to do it. She went all out! There were so many delicious mushrooms, some stellar spicy cucumbers , a potato and cucumber salad, different broths for cooking meats and it was one of the best meals I've ever had. Asian style veggies have found a new and wonderful way into my heart and I can't wait for my mom to teach me her new skills because.......YUM.

 

Obligatory watermelon photo. It's not officially summer yet, but it's certainly getting closer!

 



My older sister Jasmin brought this bouncy house home for Violet from a garage sale. I don't know how much it cost but the memories and photos we've gotten from this contraption have been priceless. This is one extravagant toy that I will say is WORTH IT. I mean it was free for me, but you get it. She loves it, and bouncing around in there ensures she will be ready for bed, which I love.

 



I mean, get outta here with those faces. Hopefully Violet can have play dates with these gals once we move into my parents house. My parents are going to go live in California for a little while and take some trips to Ireland and back to China again and we'll get to live rent free for a bit. Hopefully we can save up some money...for something. I dunno. I've been going back and forth about buying or building a house, or to be a little more fluid until we decide if we want to settle here or not. Either way, we'll have some good money saved up and we'll get to have THE DOGS! No pets allowed in our place right now, I dunno- I think it will be a good experience for my little clan.

 





The clouds from a most impressive sunset the other night.

 

We hit up the splash pad which we will probably live at this summer. It is already SO hott and the fountains are always a good time. Plus I love Violet's swimmy suit. :D So diva, much wow.

I don't really like this photo of me, but Violet sure looks adorable and I'm trying to make myself be in pictures more, even though I'm not where I want to be health wise. It's an ongoing journey, but I love spending time with my girl and this day was no exception. She lights everything up and is so easy to please!

 



Splash pads mean shaved ice afterwards. She is eating both mine and hers, naturally.

 



The summer produce from the farm is starting! After picking these beauts we even dipped into the raspberry bushes and saw little pink fruits beginning to turn red and delicious. I'm thinking tomorrow when we head out there for work there will be some ready and I am so ready!

 



Totally feelin' myself in this photo. No filter, and confident. Date night with Cristian. We need to be more consistent with these but when your babysitters are in China it's a little hard. When they leave for Cali what are we going to do??

 

Haven't really been doing to many photos lately, but busy doing other things. Plan on getting a few more up here in the next couple days because you can never have to many photos!! Also...where is Cristian. Need more of that hottie too.
Till next time!

For Grandma//

 

Because this deserved its own blog post. Grandma and the pups, all of Violet's dreams come true!
I'm afraid this little girl is going to miss her grandparents dearly when they leave for 6 WHOLE months to spend some time living in California and visiting Ireland and China again, but luckily the dogs are staying here. Without them I don't think we'd survive. Soak up the rest of this year with your Ma&Pa dear!



Challenge// 24 Days, No Processed Sugar

Monday Day 1: I started off the morning with a bit of a headache. I was worried this was the start of the sugar withdrawals and that was discouraging, because we've been working so hard on cleaning up our diet. It was a false alarm though, and like I said in the previous post it was all because of little sleep. It eased off throughout the rest of the day after drinking tons of water, and getting in a small nap with Violet, which was welcoming. I made it to the gym for an hour of treadmill incline intervals which felt good, and then came home and ate dinner (Cristian made hamburgers). I had to improvise here, not use a bun and make a fresh tomato relish instead of using ketchup. It was actually really good.
I just kept waiting until about 9-10pm when the cravings usually start up. I did have some, but not nearly as much as the last time we went without processed sugar. At around 1030 Cristian and I split a serving of homemade vegan ice cream which staved off the rest of the cravings for the night

Overall, successful and no headaches.

I had trouble sleeping last night, which is another symptom of cutting sugar cold turkey (isn't it crazy how our bodies work? The more I read about sugar and the body, the more fascinated I am). I tossed and turned until about 5am, and then finally fell into a good sleep until about 1030am. Good thing Cristian went to bed early last night and didn't have to work today-it really helped me out to get a few hours in.

This morning has been good, again, no headaches so far, and we had a nice healthy breakfast.

Also, here's my homemade vegan ice cream recipe. It is delicious, SO simple, and easy to add different things for different flavors. I'm pretty stuck on this one right now though:

Homemade Vegan Ice Cream

2 frozen bananas

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 TBSP natural peanut butter

 

Blend, enjoy. I know we do!

Tuesday Day 2: A slow dull headache started around 1pm, but I'm blaming that on not getting around to eat lunch until about 4 o-clock (lots and lots of little errands to run), because after that it dissipated until about 630pm when I hit up the gym. I felt slow, and heavy at the gym despite doing the same interval treadmill workout I did the day before. I only made it for about 40 minutes into my workout when the headache came back full force- so bad and I started getting brain fog/dizziness. This is what a withdrawal feels like. I remember it well. After calling it quits 20 minutes early at the gym I headed home and devoured a date and cashew bar (no added sugar, and vegan). The headache eased a little bit, but continued on for the rest of the night, even after having a delicious rainbow chicken salad and later on in the night: more vegan ice cream which I added a tsp of cinnamon to this time (yum). I didn't sleep well either. More tossing and turning, and unlike the night before, some serious night sweats. My pillow was soaked, the sheets were soaked, the blanket on my side was soaked. My whole body was soaked, so gross. I haven't researched whether this could be part of the withdrawals, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it is because the only thing I've changed the last 2 days is eliminating processed and added sugar. Laundry here we come.

 

 

Today has been better. A slight headache in the morning which I think was a dehydration issue because of the last night. A big glass of lemon water got rid of that pretty quickly. I also feel a little bloated today-not sure what that's about but thought I would document it, We've had lunch and spent some time outside and I'm getting ready to gear up for an Insanity workout paired with a weight lifting circuit. I'm trying to keep cardio to a 2 times a week thing, and weights 3-4 times a week. I'm interested to see how my body is going to feel during this workout, simply because yesterday was so dramatic compared to day 1.

 

Another recipe: I made almond butter and both Violet and I have been enjoying having it on apples and celery. Super easy:

 

5 Minute Almond Butter

 2 cups almonds

Blend in food processor.

 

Note: At first it will turn into a dust like powder, keep processing and every now and then scrape the sides. Blend until the oils release and texture becomes smooth and creamy-may take up to 5 minutes :D

 

 

Wednesday Day 3 and Thursday Day 4: My workout on Wednesday went great! I did a weight circuit and while I sweat a lot more then usual, my body felt good. I also woke up with some nice muscle pain which is oddly satisfying. Unfortunately I also woke up drenched in sweat again (not as badly as the day before but still), and thankfully no headaches or brain fog. I had little twinges of cravings later in the evening but managed to hold off ( I didn't even eat any vegan ice cream) with water and some lemon. I woke up this morning (Thursday) feeling amazing. The odd bloating went away, again no headaches, but I still think I need to up my water intake. It seems like no matter how much I drink I can't get my urine to lighten in color (tmi?) We spent the day out at my parents house (they just got back from China) and had some lunch.

I just finished my workout for the day, a different weight circuit which really got my heart pounding. Felt the same as yesterday, strong but more sweat then usual.

I haven't noticed any changes in my skin or hair (and there may not be any changes to note in the long run) but we'll see how things go as I keep going on this challenge.

 

There are still things I need to work on with my lifestyle- somehow I always backtrack on getting enough sleep. However, not being able to sleep until 3am last night is probably linked to the lack of sugar. I'm not really sure when that part of the withdrawal will ease up, but hopefully soon because getting up in the morning has been really difficult since Monday Day 1.

Tonight I am having vegan ice cream, just putting that out there. But I made a really yummy and fresh cucumber lemon salad.

 

Fresh Lemon Cucumber Salad

2 large cucumbers sliced thinly (skin on/off, your preference)

1 cup sliced grape tomatoes

1/2 cup yellow bell pepper

3 TSPB fresh parsley

At this point if you're not eating it right away set in the fridge and mix all other ingredients for dressing.

2 1/2 TBSP fresh lemon juice

1 TBSP olive oil

1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

s+p

 

Enjoy! I have yet to see if this recipe stores well in the fridge over time, I will make a note of that later on and edit.

*store salad undressed.

 

 

Friday Day 5: I woke up Friday morning and guess what??? NO NIGHT SWEATS! No headaches, no bloating, no brain fog. I did a weight circuit which I felt sluggish through, but I was able to finish strong. I did have extreme cravings for some dark chocolate though, a craving not even vegan ice cream could quench. I didn't give in though, which is a huge feat! This girl loves her chocolate, a lot. And no I don't think there is anything wrong with that necessarily, just trying to keep to this challenge of which I have been 100% so far. Anyway, that's all I wanted to note about today.



Saturday Day 6 & Sunday Day 7:  On point, and ready to start week 2.

 

 



Real Talk// Healthy Resolutions

We've been WAY off track for a few weeks now, and sadly, both Cristian and I have gained back most of the weight we chiseled off over the last little while. I do a really great job of making healthy meals for us. Breakfast, lunch and dinner and even our snacks throughout the day are whole, and healthy. We are golden, but then about 10pm hits and we both get the munchies and end up caving in and eating too many treats right before trying to go to sleep. And I mean, it's a big enough problem as we've put weight back on. We certainly need to get back on track.

Starting tomorrow we're cutting out the late night bad snacks, with good snacks to slowly ease back into what we were doing before. We'll have fruit and nuts, or vegan ice cream, or something of that sort instead of the processed sugar food we've been binging on.

That being said, we've been doing much better at getting outside and being active which has made us feel a little better, even if the real goal is to get back down to optimal weights. Lots of fishing, we've biked up the canyon with Violet a few times, we plan on hiking more and more over the following weeks as weather permits, and we'll get back into our daily workouts.

I've been feeling for the last couple of weeks like taking a break from social media. I dunno. I'm wondering if just signing off for the summer is something that would help me with these other goals I have. Blogging is really important to me, this is essentially our family journal (though we do plan on podcasting in the near future), and I love putting our photos on here. I dunno. Maybe I can make it like a once every 2 weeks kinda thing and just abandon FB and IG for a few months.

I dunno, bouncing the idea around in my mind.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day and we'll continue this journey to creating a healthier, lasting, lifestyle. It's a journey, it will never be "over", but I know we can make tons of better progress if we keep on trekking.

Cheers!

The Next Morning
Monday June 8th
______________

So after some thinking last night I think I've decided to do a challenge for the next 24 days. No processed sugar, at all. We do a pretty good job of not eating anything processed in general, but I know it will help clean up my diet a little bit more if I strive for no processed sugar at all. I did this a little while back and it took my body 5 days to get over the withdrawals. I had headaches, dizziness, irritability, and sometimes even a little bit of unexplained anger. It was a rough couple of days, but after the withdrawals eased off I felt amazing. I  knew that time it would be hard because our sugar intake was WAY over what it should have been. I'm hoping since then and the changes we've made it won't be that bad, this time around, but I guess we'll find out!
I also had a goal last night to get up at 6 this morning to get to the gym. I couldn't get to sleep until about 3am so that didn't happen but I'll be able to get there after Cristian gets home from work tonight so....there's that.

Anyway, thought I would document  the challenge of no processed sugar for 24 days and note the results and differences in how I feel. It's early into day one, and I've got a headache which I don't think has anything to do with diet, but everything to do with little sleep.

A River Haiku #4

Warm sun on my face

dragon fly on my finger

slow moving river

 

 

I'm so grateful for these two.

And rivers.

Craft// Painting Pots With Aunt Tori

Violet: "Grandma and Pa are going to LOOOOOVVE this!"

A Moment I Want To Relive

Our first family vacation to St. George. One of the nights we were there, Violet was tucked up into bed after a long day of hiking through Snow Canyon and a dip in the cool pool afterwards. All was quiet except some crickets, and we were lucky enough the condo we'd booked had a balcony. We took some drinks out on the balcony and talked for what felt like hours about everything. Dreams of the future, plans for our family, about different parts of our childhood, our current jobs, our time together being married, things we've gone through, goals we've accomplished.
After  some time we got sleepy and retreated to the big king size bed that had Violet already claiming the middle and snuggled in for a good nights sleep.
It was perfect.

I think about this time a lot when things get hard. Hard in life. Routine, desperately trying to keep myself out of a rut. Trying my best to teach Violet, but also get done all the things I have planned for myself throughout the days. Working hard to keep our meals healthy and nutritious and myself on track with working out daily.

Going back to this particular moment puts some peace back into my mind, and comfort into my soul.
I'm looking forward to our 3-years-delayed-honeymoon to Colorado coming up. I can't wait to explore, and hike, and eat, just BE with the love of my life. It's going to be perfect! And I'm so ready for a some time away.

Anyway, back to the grind!
Cheers!