"make juice not war" ~ Kris Carr

So work has been a little stressful this week; long hours coupled with way too much comfort food is bad for one's jeans so I decided to do a juice cleanse. I purchased Kris Carr's crazy sexy juice and smoothie e-book and so it's the perfect time to get going. Additionally, the babe is gone for a week so I can experiment with all kinds of new age remedies.

Juicing requires a good juicer - being my father's daughter I initially purchased a Breville dual-disc juicer a while back. It made lots of juice very quickly but the juice oxidizes quickly and after a day in the fridge, it looks disgusting. So I recently purchased a Hurom juicer, which is a slow, masticating juicer and makes delicious juice. I started my diet yesterday with a lovely green juice from Kris's book. All was well until the afternoon when my stomach felt like it would explode and the sounds coming from it were astonishing. I immediately made myself a kale salad with chicken. I know! Today I made another yummy green juice this morning and this afternoon graduated to a new recipe called Mexican ... something or other. Peeps, I took a sip and thought I would regurgitate my juice right out of my mouth. But, I am brave and I downed the concoction down. A half hour later I thought I was going to puke (sorry, TMI!). Peeps never, ever juice an entire bunch of cilantro as a newbie juicer and drink it. It is NOT a good thing!  I settled my stomach with a turkey sausage (definitely not included on the cleanse). Sigh! Obviously this is not going well. Has anyone done this before? Any advice?

On the menu tonight - raw carrot ginger curried soup made in my vitamix? Can one's teeth fall out from not chewing? And is wine not just pressed grapes?

around the house

It snowed buckets of snow last night and so today I am being lazy. Hanging around the house and walking from room to room. I purchased a new iMac 27" screen computer and I cannot get over how fabulous it is! Photos, online magazines, blogs...everything looks huge and wonderful. The best part is that it was paid for from funds in my wellness account at work, hence barely cost me anything. I know!

The other thing I did was check in with my new year's goals to see where I am at. Actually doing pretty well. Here is what I have accomplished:

• saved money, quite a bit so far, A+ for that
• lived frugally, also an A+
• shopped my closet, have not bought anything except shoes with a gift certificate my sister gave me for Christmas, so check mark on that
• learned to make body care products, namely, body lotion, hydrating creme and soap. Next weekend I have a face cream class and a liquid soap class.
• paid off debts, A+ on this one
• de-cluttered, this is not a once a year thing, it's a lifestyle for me

I still have things that I have not done, but there are almost 10 months to go still so I would say I have had a good start.  One way to accomplish your New Year goals, if you make any, is to check monthly where you are at.  Goals are only dreams, unless you proactively assess where you are at to make them a reality.

the anatomy of pink

This weekend I:

...  am baking bread
...  got my first-ever manicure, milky pink nail polish, in this color,
...  a reward for breaking a bad habit - can you guess which one?
...  purchased new pink hyacinths for my dining room table
...  looking at real knitting patterns here
...  specifically, this one
...  in the mood to knit something interesting
...  and, maybe bake something like this

happy weekend everyone.