Well I made it through day 2

but now I'm off the detox. Embarrassing, I know.

 I guess one of the reasons I write this little bloggy is to report on the strange, poorly timed occurrences that frequent my life. The following is a prime example.

 I made it through yesterday (day 2) pretty well. I  was even able to make Matt Shepherd's pie for dinner without breaking. The only thing that was weird  were these cold-like symptoms that I mentioned in yesterday's post. To be honest, I'd been feeling like crap since before the detox and figured juicing just made the symptoms worse for the first few days. Cut to me at 4:30 this AM, doubled over with a sinus headache and congestion that was less than cute.

As I drove into work today the headache was so awful that the road became blurry so I booked it to my doctor's office. As a quick sidenote, something I've never mentioned in this forum is that I'm prone to sinus infections and have had one on and off since September (why I've waited this long to go to my PCP about it is beyond me. lesson. learned), Long story short, now I'm on what can only be described as horse pills and have steroid spray for my nose which causes "minor nosebleeds". Lovely. When I asked the doc if I could continue on my detox she snorted at the question and I left the office slightly defeated and slightly  thrilled that I was now allowed to inhale some of the delicious mango I picked up at Trader Joe's yesterday.

So I'm sorry guys, I'm going to make another go of it after the holidays. My summary of the experience (the 2 whole days I made it through) is actually positive! I was definitely feeling less bloated and can confidently say the juice filled me up. I was never hungry, though I did realize I just missed the social aspect of eating-i.e. walking with friends to get candy in the afternoon, grabbing a latte in the morning, etc.

So let's all get through Christmas and I'll go back to posting on things like cookie recipes then I'll give another wack at 'er once we hit the new year. OK time to crawl back into my sick bed. I bid you all Adieu.

Juice detox day 1: Grumpy but still alive!

Alright folks, yesterday marked day 1 of this 10 day juice detox and  thus far I'm feeling real sluggish which is supposed to be completely normal for the first few days of this self inflicted torture experiment.

Why would you do this to yourself, Amy? I'm so glad you asked (that's a lie, i'm too tired to be glad about anything right now. Don't take it personally). Well, apparently this is the stage where toxins are flying out of my body left and right (hence the word detox, doy). Basically, not only am I shocking my body with a dramatic new diet, but the nutrients in all of the raw fruits and veggies I'm taking in are wreaking havoc on the junk that's been chillin' in my system for oh, ya know, my whole life. Womp. On top of the sluggishness, I'm experiencing some cold symptoms which are also supposed to be common side effects. Awesome.

Luckily, I've got my sister doing the detox with me so we can moan and groan through these first few days together. Here's the thing, Brooke is one tough cookie. If one of us is broken by this thing, it'll 100% be me. She may have already had to talk me off a cliff this AM as I bitched about the correlation between wanting a few chips and how life just isn't fair.

OK much more to discuss but this post is getting a wee bit long. Get excited for the day 2 review comin' atcha tomorrow. It's supposed to be the hardest day of the detox to get through so yeah, just thrilled about the next 12 hours. For now, enjoy the first few juice recipes I've tried out (listed below), as well as a few pics!


1. Joe Cross's (aka the guy who starred in the documentary 'Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead) Mean Green Juice Recipe:

• 6 Kale Leaves
• 1 Cucumber
• 4 Celery Stalks
• 2 Green Apples
• 1/2 Lemon
• 1 piece of ginger

2. Pink Delight (taken from this site)

• 8 ounces watermelon
• 4 ounces strawberries (if frozen thaw first)
• 4 ounces raspberries (if frozen thaw first)

*Pink Delight is best when made in a blender and then strained before drinking

Outrageous Thanksgiving Recipes

The feasting super bowl is upon us. Tomorrow our great nation unites via the heavenly combination that is stuffing and stretchy pants, and we shall rejoice.

Yes, I know that I have a 10 day juice cleanse coming up and I fully intend on prepping for it correctly,blah, blah, blah. But Thanksgiving is right up there with Christmas as my fav. holiday so enjoy it I shall. Since we have Thanksgiving #2 tomorrow (#1 was this past weekend in Upstate NY with my family, including this gorgeous cousin o' mine), and #3 is on Sunday, I've been hitting pinterest hard looking for both classic Turkey day recipes as well as a couple with some twists to try out this weekend. Here are the ones I'm drooling over as I shove non-fat greek yogurt in my mouth and try to pretend it's pumpkin pie (find all recipes on my 'Eat, Drink and be Merry' pinterest board):

A Spatchcocked turkey- admittedly not even interested in the recipe, just the word "spatchcock"

Quite possibly the best use of leftovers ever

Light and tasty 'leftovers quinoa salad' for when my pants won't zipper on Friday 

Pumpkin Bread Pudding-Or as I like to call it: Amy's "who needs pride when you can shovel leftovers whilst sitting inside the fridge door" midnight snack 

Popovers-(1) rip off chunk of warm popover (2) push loved one out of way (3) dip in gravy boat (4) repeat

Martha Stewart aka my homegirl's "Leftover" Shepherd's Pie

Cranberry Cosmo- because excessive family time is hard

Clam chowder and my attitude problems

I can be a bit "uppity" at times. One of these times was last night. I'd finally found a solid 2 hour window to work on my apartment and start getting through my last few boxes so I set to work. After awhile I looked around at the explosion of stuff that had gone off around me and felt a child-like meltdown start to set in. That's when my dear, patient beau suggested that I "cook something" since that always seems to calm me down. Feeling utterly defiant, I was all, "ummmm no, i don't think so" and then proceeded to pout and stomp around about nothing in particular for another hour. Finally, i became bored with my mood (most likely due to the lack of attention I was receiving from said beau) and decided to make clam chowder with buttery, toasted croutons (find the recipe here). I dunno if it was the delicious chowder or the goblet of wine I paired with it but the night started looking up after that. Did I tell Matt (said beau's real name) he was right in the end? psssht child please.

Friday Words of Wisdom

Heyoooo Weekend!

The Tale of the Polka Dot Jeans

I blacked out in American Eagle's sale section last week and purchased these for ten bucks:




Since then, they've been giving me the stink eye every time I open my closet as I've yet to actually wear them anywhere.Why, you ask? Not sure, I mean I wore this lipstick out last night like it ain't wasn't nothin' but for some reason I have no clue what to do with a pair of pale purple polka dot jeans (say it three times fast...).

Well I'll tell you what, I dunno how I dressed myself before the days of pinterest because all I had to do was plug "polka dot jeans" into their search engine and I was basically backhanded with a plethora of outfit inspirations. Admittedly, a few options are seasonly innapropriate (as I sit here staring at the sidewards snow out my window) but a little frost bite never hurt anyone, now did it?
















***like whatcha see? find the sources for all these images on my pinterest "style" board

Is it possible to post about a juice cleanse and not sound a bit crunchy?

There are a few reasons that I'm very clearly losing my mind. A lot of the time they have to do with my brilliant ideas. Well here's the most recent nugget of genius that I've concocted: Start running regularly again (Erg, that's not the crazy part) and complete a 10-day juice cleanse after Thanksgiving!

Yes, I've decided the holiday season is when i go all health nut on your asses and try to reset my body and mind via some good old fashioned juicin'. What's worse? I've dragged a family member or two into it as well! Yay for projection!

So what has possessed me to promote such a torturous activity upon myself and others? Well, I was recently reading here (one of my favorite blogs btw, add it to your daily read list) about the benefits of juicing. Sydney's post also mentioned the documentary 'Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead' (order the DVD here or just watch it on Netflix) that got her started on the whole juicing experiment.

A few key pieces struck a chord with me:
1. This cleanse is designed to promote health over weight loss - I'm not in the market to lose weight, I don't need to. What I do need is a good swift kick in the bum to get past this recent 'lazy, too much caffeine and rich food' stage.
2. Two of the many benefits of the cleanse strike a major personal chord with me- heightened energy and a clearer mind--- my ability to stop, breath, and smell the roses lately has been at a -43. My ability to climb straight into bed, grumpily after work, however, is exceptional.
3. I've seen too much illness and death in my family over the past couple of years. Seeing a loved one go from perfectly healthy one day to a stage 4 cancer victim the next isn't just crushing, it's a wake up call to those of us who are lucky enough to have a clean medical slate. I'm young, relatively healthy, and have no excuse not to live every day to the fullest. A big chunk of living life to the fullest entails taking care of yourself, non?... oh lord, I sound preachy. Ew. I'll stop.

Trying to find some glitter but i'm finding this to be scarily relevant in the meantime

Love me a good Starbucks cup moment