Smoothie:

• 1 banana  (~100 cal)
• 1 c frozen strawberries (
• 1/2 c cantaloupe
• 1/2 c pomegranate juice (~70 cal)
• 1/4 c almond milk (~15 cal)
• 1/2 scoop protein powder (~50 cal)
• 1/2 scoop ground flax seed (~35 cal)

SNACK: 10:00

• Banana (~100 cal)
• 1 T Peanut Butter (~100)
• 12 oz mango tea

LUNCH: 12:00  - Small taco salad

* Lunch was a challenge because I was at work and had already eaten my little salad and then we had panko breaded shrimp and the smell of homemade dessert was traveling through the kitchen. Not to mention that my boss knows shrimp is my favorite and he kept offering me some and everyone was ooohing & ahhing over the new flavor of ice cream :0) BUT I did it!!! No shrimp, no homemade rolls, and NO dessert!

• 2 c. lettuce
• 1/2 c. quinoa mixture (~150)
• 1 T Salsa
• 1 T Non-dairy mexi cheddar-style dip (~ 25 cal
• 12 oz peppermint tea

SNACK: 4:00

• Somewhat healthy (lots of nutrients) chip dip  & chips :o)
• 1/2 c quinoa mix (~150 cal = protein from beans and quinoa and veggies!!)
• 2 T non-dairy cheese dip (~50 cal)
• 1 oz organic corn chips (140 cal)

EXERCISE: 5 mile bike with dogs
30 min Turbo Jam Fat Blaster DVD - got me sweatin'

DINNER: 7:00
* Just felt like snacking for dinner - catching up on Grey's anatomy

• Small orange
• 2 Breakfast cookies  - yummy!
• raw carrots, celery, and cauliflower
• 4 T Cilantro Lime hummus
• 8 Nut & rice crackers (~ 65 cal)
• Cantaloupe

SNACK: 10:00

• popcorn w/ earth balance & sea salt

Day #3

Woke up: 9:30 am

 

Brr, it's a cold, gloomy day out there...rainy & windy...I think I'll stay in my PJ's

 

 

 and maybe cuddle with Lola :o)

 

10:00 am - 12 oz White raspberry tea

 

BREAKFAST - 10:30 am

• 1/2 c oats + 1 c H2O
• Cinnamon
• 1 banana, sliced
• 1/3 c. Unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Wedding, wedding, wedding....making lists, called hotels, finished invitations, updated website, ordering

 

SNACK: While on computer (1:00 - 1: 30)

• 1/2 c. watermelon cubes
• 1/2 c. cantaloupe cubes
• 1/2 apple, sliced
• 1 oz raw almonds

LUNCH: 3:45

• 1/2 c. leftover rice salad
• 1 c. carrot & celery sticks
• 1 c. chopped cauliflower
• 2 Tbsp local Roasted Red Pepper Hummus -  I measured out 2 Tbsp of my usual Salsa Ranch but then had to dump it back because I forgot about dairy. Hummus is good though!

DINNER: 6:45 --> Big tacoTaco salad

• Green leaf lettuce
• 5 corn tortilla chips
• 8 black olives
• 1/2 c. quinoa mixture (red bell pepper, orange bell pepper, cilantro, jalepeno, tomatoes, onion, red quinoa, taco seasoning, black beans)
• 1 T local salsa
• 1 T local cheese substitute
• 1/4 avocado
• + 1/2 c more of quinoa mixture by itself - up my protein w/ the quinoa and beans!!  :)
• 32 oz spa water (lemon & cucumber slices -- SO refreshing)  

8:00 - 1 Gluten Free fruit sweetened raspberry fig bar (~60 cal)

Made dough for 'Breakfast cookies' (Pomegranate juice, Oats, goji berries, raw almonds, raw cashews, PB, vegan butter, mashed banana) I hope the final product tastes as good as the dough. It's in the freezer hardening up so I can cut it into slices. So I had a few samples of dough too :o)

10:30 - heading to bed!

Day #2

Again, this morning I slept in. I'm still trying to catch up from our Vegas trip. I woke up at 9:15 am to a crazy,weird dream. I got up and let the dogs out, fed, and gave them water and then decided to feed myself. MMMmm, a cup of dark coffee with a hint of whipped cream on top sounded delicious! Oh wait....no caffeine, no sugar, and no dairy! There goes that idea :o) Caffeine doesn't only mean coffee...I can't have green tea, dark chocolate, or coffee-flavored foods either. This could get challenging!

For now, I'll focus on why I should't take in caffeine. If you are addicted to caffeine, within one day of not having it withdrawal symptoms can set in: irritability, drowsiness, fatigue, headache, and anxiety but it should only last for 2-9 days for most and doesn't take place at all for some. How does caffeine wreak such havoc on our bodies? Caffeine is a central-nervous-system stimulant that affects our perception, our mood, and our behavior. It raises the levels of the nerurotransmitter dopamine in the brain, which temporarily increases feelings of pleasure. However, like any other stimulant, a dependency can build up quickly and it can take more and more ceffeine to get these same feelings. In addition to increasing dopamine, your central nervous system mistakes caffeine for adenosine, a naturally occuring chemical in your body that's linked to calming and sleep. Caffeine binds itself to adenosine receptors in the brain, blocking their effects. This leads to a short-term feeling of alertness and levels of anxiety and restlessness can  also increase but the need for sleep or rest still remains. Caffeine further exhausts the body by stimulating our adrenal glands to produce adrenaline (remember the "fight-or-flight response?"). During this response, your body also produces higher levels of the stress homone, cortisol. In normal levels, cortisol helps with glucose metablism, regulating blood pressure, lowering inflammation, and raising immunity. However, caffeine can keep cortisol levels artifically high and can lead to lowered thyroid function, cognitive problems, decreased bone density (mine is slightly low) and muscle tissue, higher blood pressure, lowered immunity, and an overall inflammatory reaction in the body. Sounds good enough reason to me. For now I'll stick to herbal teas and decaf if I'm feeling a coffee craving coming on. I LOVE the taste and smell of coffee more than it's effects anyways :o)

BREAKFAST: 9:45 am

• 1/2 c. old fasioned oats + 1 c. H2O ~150 cal
• 1/2 banana ~50 cal
• 3 strawberries ~
• Cinnamon
• 12 oz of decaf white raspberry tea

EXERCISE: 11:45 --> 5.25 mile bike ride with Lola which 4.5 miles into it she decided to speed up and then stop right in the middle of the trail and take a poo.....why?!?!? We walk around a park area half way through and she sniffs, pees, sniffs, pees, and sniffs some more but has to wait to poo until she's running full speed down a paved trail!!

LUNCH: 1:10 PM

• 1/4 c Quinoa simmered in 1/2 c H2O (~180 cal)
• 1 tsp Earth Balance vegan butter (~25 cal)
• 2 stalks of asparagus, sliced
• 1/4 yellow pepper, chopped
• 1/5 large red onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 portabello mushroom, chopped (marinated in fresh garlic and balsamic vinegar overnight)
• 1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) (~40 cal)

SNACK: 2:00

• Small Pink Lady apple

SNACK: 3:00

• 1 c watermelon cubes

4:00 - Sitting down to figure out a few menu ideas for the next few days and having a cup (12 oz) of decaf white tea.

I'm going to make a batch of Breakfast cookies to alternate with smoothies and oats for breakfast.  For dinners I'm thinking homemade  blackbean veggie burgers and sweet potato fries, Edamame soba salad with miso vinaigrette and stir-fry veggies (Dane chicken stir fry with spring rolls), and Basmati and black-eyed pea pilaf with herb roasted veggies (throw steak and potatoes on grill for Daner). Getting some hummus, gluten free crackers, and nuts for snacks to go with my usual fruit/veggie snacks :o)

Just went and bought $150 worth of wholesome goodness!! Now going to have a snack.

SNACK-6:45

• 16 Almond Nut Thin nut & rice crackers (~130 cal)
• 2 T dairy free cheese dip (tastes like yummy nacho cheese made locally from oats :) SO good and only ~50 cal/2 T)

DINNER-7:30 - 1 c. of Sweet & Tart Wild Rice Salad

• Wild rice
• Roasted yam, cubed
• Red onion, minced
• Apple, chopped
• Dried cranberries
• Tossed with EVOO, apple cider vinegar, and Agave nectar 

EXERCISE: 9-9:30 --> 30 minute jog with Bea Dog

32 oz H2O

1 (gluten free fruit juice sweetened) Raspberry Fig bar

12 oz Rainforest Red Tea (Acai & tropical fruit )decaf tea

To bed: ~12:30

Vegas Detox!!!

As many of you may know, my weekend was spent in Vegas with my girlfriends and Dane was at Lake Tahoe with his guys. Friday, my beautiful friend, Steph, gave me a ride to the airport. I was ecstatic and couldn't sleep on the way there. Two hours later I was running towards Shyla for a big bear hug! I hadn't seen her since February, which was much too long! We took a shuttle to our 2-bedroom at Summer Bay Resort, which is a block behind the Flamingo. It's gorgeous with a fireplace, full kitchen, bar, 3 flat screen tv's, patio, 2 king size beds, washer & dryer. We could have easily stayed longer than three nights! We freshened up a bit and then took off to walk to Margaritaville. Yet the weather proved to be a bit too hot for Ms. Bodine and we ended up hopping in a taxi before we were barely outside of the resort gate. Ha! It was around 4 but we didn't have dinner reservations until 9:30 so we decided on a few appetizers. MMmmm, nachos and spicy chili-rubbed shrimp cocktail. The nachos showed up and they were about 4 times the size of any plate I've had before and by the time we finished it looked as though we were just starting. The shrimp was amazingly messy yet oh so tasty! However, I did end up peeling a few for my buddy because her fake nails were getting in the way. :) Love ya Shy!! We hung out there for a few hours and each had two drinks and probably about 5 glasses of water a piece to keep us cool before deciding to head home. This time we figured we better walk due to large amounts of appetizers we just took in and stopped at the convenience store for some Corona Lights and a lime. The other girls were having plane problems and specifically requested we have drinks ready for them when they arrive (aaahhhem..cough..Krissy!!!). Kristen got in just in time to enjoy a drink and freshen up before we took a cab to the Stratosphere. Denise's plane got in a little after 9 and would have to meet us there. We got to the stratosphere and headed up to the 107 Lounge for a drink while we waited for a table and Shy had forgot her ID!!! Thankfully Denise was still in the room and able to grab it. We ordered two bottles of wine and each got a soup or salad and one appetizer. My crab cake was the best one I've had by far and then talked our waiter into taking pictures for us before heading down to Aria. We waited in line to get into the nightclub Haze before learning that it was $20 each to get in and decided we'd head back up to one of the bars. We spent the remainder of our evening at City Bar over some delicious 'Sex and the City' themed cocktails and mojitos quizzing a group of Canadians about the capitals of the states and then met up with our friends, Samer & Stu, from Bozeman. It was a great night and I believe we made it home before the sun came up this night!

Saturday morning started with some whole wheat toast topped with fluffy scrambled eggs (made in the microwave -good idea Denise), cheese, and salsa before heading to the pool to relax in the sun. Then we all began to get ready while we waited for Kara to arrive. When we heard the knock on the door, there were some excited squeals and hugs before she quickly ran to the bathroom with her Spanx on and Corona in hand to get ready for our night out. :) We ordered pizza and fried appetizers and finished decorating our room with the usual bachelorette paraphernalia until the taxi (or so I thought) showed up. We all ran
outside naughty straws in hand and to my surprise there was a limo waiting for us!! Upon jumping in we were handed roses and a bottle of champagne and jammed out until we showed up to the Excalibur for the big show, Thunder from Down Under (which I don't think I need to explain). Aussies and minimal clothing is all I need to say about this! The girls brought up on stage were fully embarrassed, one girl even opted out of a competition because her mom was in the crowd. Needless to say, we spent the evening laughing and ended the show with a souvenir picture. Then we hopped in a taxi and headed to Aria and thanks to Kara's PR skills, we spent most of the evening at Haze nightclub. We started out with a round of expensive drinks and danced to some great tunes before we made our way back upstairs to the bar and pulled out the bachelorette dare deck!!! Kara was dealing out the cards as fast as we were completing the tasks, I think we even made it through the deck twice! Ha! We made it home but not without a shuffling little penguin and the sun already shining :)

Two hours later we were awake and looking through pictures and sipping smoothies. We lounged around until 11 and then changed into our matching tanks (very cute girls), pulled our hair back, and put on another layer of make-up and headed downstairs to meet yet another limo. We drove around for two hours sipping mimosas (well most of us)  and stopped to take pictures at the Vegas sign and wandered around Fremont street before we had to take a detour to our resort to drop one of our little penguins off and then headed to Ceaser's Palace. Once inside we walked in circles until we found our way to Qua Spa. For only $45 we were treated to 3 hours of perfect relaxation! We soaked in different temps of roman baths and were in and out of an herbal steam room and an Arctic ice room where it snowed. We relaxed in the tea room where we sipped a delicious peach white tea and snacked on pretzels before taking a quick little nap on some heated chairs. We then took a taxi back to the room and relaxed before heading out to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for dinner and drinks. After what seemed like 5 trips up and down the stairs we found a table and ordered a plate of nachos to share and Kristen and I shared a portabello mushroom burger. MMMmmm.....delicious!! After enjoying a live band and almost shivering to death, we ventured outside and walked up and down the streets taking random pictures and meeting random people. A few people must have mistaken us for celebrities as they wanted their pictures taken with us! Ha! Just kidding. We ended the night just sitting and met some very interesting people. One which was supposedly a masseuse and my girls talked him into giving me a massage and lucky for me, I ran away right before he started throwing up!!!! YYUUUCK! His friends were quite disappointed when we asked them all to leave us alone. Oh man....that was pretty much the end of our night and we headed home and sadly packed our bags. Shy got a 30 min nap before she had to catch her shuttle back to the airport and the rest of us left at 6:30. We were EXHAUSTED and as much fun as we had, we couldn't wait to get home to our beds!

I just want to take a moment to say, "Thank You!!!" My friends from P'wood had an amazing weekend planned but I wouldn't have expected anything less because they are the BEST! Shyla, Kara, Krissy, and Denise....you truly made my bachelorette party! It will be a memory that lasts forever and we'll all laugh about the image of twirling boxers overhead, the moon, losing someone, paper bags in limos, and the many other extravaganzas. Ha! We had so much fun and they are the sweetest, most caring, and loving girlfriends you could ever ask for. Thanks again girls! I <3 You all!


Anyways, after 3 days in Vegas....who wouldn't need a detox?!?! Kristen & I decided we'd spend the next three weeks following our own detox programs. I'm doing Kathy Freston's 'Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind, and Spirit.' The main nutritional part is to refrain from eating the "Big Five." This includes caffeine, alcohol, gluten, animal products, and sugar. At first glance, there may seem like there's nothing left to eat but there are still PLENTY of options!! What you include in your diet is as important as what you exclude. Life can still be fully enjoyed! I'm not going to lie, thinking about a day without chocolate made me a little sad but I'm sure I will feel so much better without relying on sweets & caffeine each day. Who knows, maybe it is the gluten that has been giving me these rotten tummy aches lately?!? I'm going to document how I'm feeling, my challenges, and what I eat for each meal. I'm doing this partly to get back on a healthy track after much slacking with the stress of finals, celebrations of graduation, birthdays, and weddings and partly to get into a little better shape for my big day! Can you believe it's only 37 days away?!?! This coming Sunday, Dane & I will have been together for 8 years and our 2 year engagement has now dwindled down to 37 days?!?! Time sure flies when you're busy and having fun! :)

I was absolutely exhausted this morning and slept in until 9:30 am. I woke up and thought about what I could eat that didn't have gluten, sugar, animal products, caffeine or alcohol (Just kidding) in it. I did have some oats but was feeling a little lazy so I relaxed a bit more before heading into town around 11:30 for a meeting. Afterwards I did a quick trip to the grocery store where I mainly bought produce. I am going to have to make a meal plan for the next few days before I can get the rest. I had a banana on the way home around 1:30 pm and then made myself a big salad.

LUNCH: 2:30 pm

• 3 cups of green leaf lettuce
• 2 carrots peeled and sliced
• 1/2 medium cucumber
• 1/2 pear
• 1.5 T vinaigrette
• 4 corn chips

EXERCISE: 4 mile bike with dogs

DINNER: Smoothie

• 2 bananas ~200 cal
• 1/2 c frozen fruit ~50 cal
• 3 strawberries
• 1/2 c Acai juice
• 1/2 scoop non-dairy protein powder + 1/2 scoop ground flax

SNACK:

• 66 g of popcorn kernels (air popped) ~240 cal
• 1/2 Tbsp Earth Balance (Vegan butter) ~40 cal
• sprinkle of sea salt

To bed around 11:30-12