Whatever Friday

Wow, Friday could not come sooner this week.

Well, if we’re being totally honest, November could not come sooner. But whatever.

Okay…so let’s get started!

1. Thanks for linking to the Halloween party last Friday! So many cute ideas. I totally had planned to do a Halloween round-up this week….yeah…that didn’t happen.  Hopefully next week? Or, sometime before Halloween?

I’m also WAY behind on my reader. I hope to catch up soon. {Hahahahahahaha!}

Thanks for sticking with me through the crazy times, y’all are so awesome!

2. This week, I tortured myself writing posts about sugar when I couldn’t eat any (more on that in a minute).

I begged your forgiveness.

I used Dorothy-logic to call these cookies Skinn{ier}.

And I birthed a candy baby.

3. Last weekend my husband and I went to Tahoe. We hiked, we relaxed, and it was wonderful. We also went out for every meal and drank lots of wine. Which led me to #4.

4. I did a cleanse: the Dr. Oz 48-hour Weekend Cleanse. I did it during the week because, well, the weekend is when I like to drink wine. And, strangely enough, that’s not included in the menu.

The point of the cleanse is not to lose weight, but to kind of reset your body and get you thinking on the right track about food again. It was intriguing to me because there was actual food that could be eaten during it; not just drinking gross juice. And, it was only 48-hours. I can do anything for 2 days. {Well, almost.}

Breakfast was quinoa with rice milk and prunes. Actually, it wasn’t horrible. There was just a lot of it, so by the end of the bowl I had to force myself to eat it. Oh, and coffee is not on the menu. But I broke that rule. I would have failed the cleanse for sure without it!

Lunch was a blueberry banana smoothie with almond milk and flax. I really liked it, and will make it again for sure. {Also, I think I really like almond milk.}

Dinner was cabbage soup – which really scared me but was actually good. I changed the recipe a little (I used half water and half vegetable stock). By the second day it was the best thing I’d ever tasted.

For snacks, you get juice or veggies. There are two juice options, but one needed a juicer. I drank the pineapple-pomegranite drink and it was actually really good. The menu is not really clear about the snacks – if you can have a combo or just one you choose. I used a combination of the juice and the raw veggies listed.

All the recipes, and the plan for the cleanse, as well as a shopping list, can be found here. {FYI, you don’t have to buy everything on the shopping list. Choose what you’re going to have for snack and edit accordingly. Also, you probably have some of the spices and stuff on hand already.}

Result: well, I don’t think I lost weight, but again, that’s not the point (according to Dr. Oz). I do feel a little more bloated (TMI alert) because well, my body didn’t, um, cleanse. But I think that’s just my weird body chemistry/issues that I always have. (I guess my digestive system requires preservatives and refined sugars to work, who knew?) Mel did this with me and he, um, had no issues.

I didn’t really feel hungry…but I did feel weaker for the 2 days. I purposefully didn’t to super hard workouts so I wouldn’t be extra hungry, and good thing. I wouldn’t have had any energy!

What I did get is a new view. I think it reset my eating habits a little. Am I going to eat baked goods today? Yup. But am I going to eat the entire batch of cookies? No. And, I have cut up veggies in my fridge…so I think I’ll eat those too. Honestly, I didn’t crave cookies and crap during the cleanse…so I’m hoping the effects last to help parlay me into losing the 20 5 pounds I need to lose.

Mel said he’d do this again a few times a year. I would too. He now wants to find something longer…with more food options though. Anyone know of anything?

5. Online BlogCon is almost here! If you haven’t registered yet, you have 1 more week; registration runs until Friday, October 19th at 9:00pm EST. Once you register you can enter to win one of the fabulous giveaways from one of our sponsors. And, we’ve been doing some gift card giveaways in our private FB group. Register today; these giveaways are only running through next week!

And Oh Em Gee, look what Aimee (from Shugary Sweets) made for us!

Isn’t she (1) an artist and (2) totally fabulous and amazing????!!!!! Thanks Aimee!

6. Speaking of Online BlogCon…we have another giveaway!

You know the Six Sisters’ blog, right? Who doesn’t? They are kind of a blogging superstar – and they reached their stardom super fast. They are even hosting their own blog conference in February, the Build Your Blog Conference 2013. I can’t go (boo!!!) but Ashton is actually a speaker! They’ve written two e-books on blogging: Six Sisters’ Success: 10 Ways to Grow Your Blog and 10 Ways to Make Money Blogging. The Six Sisters’ are giving away five (5) sets of their e-books to Online BlogCon attendees!

 7. I want to know the pros/cons for BlogHer vs. Foodbuzz. Anyone?

8. I read this book and it was really good! Thanks to Kristin for recommending it. 🙂

Thank you all for reading! I love having you come and visit me.

What are you all doing this weekend? Anything fun?

Have a great Friday! See y’all soon. 🙂

xo, Dorothy