Thursday, January 9, 2014

Final Review of Dr. Oz 3 Day Detox Cleanse

Hello everyone! Happy New Year!

So I stuffed my face a lot over the holidays and I ended up gaining about 10 lbs. Not a huge deal, I'm still a healthy weight. But I ate a lot of sugar, and junk that just makes you feel crummy. I wanted something to kickstart me back into clean eating so I decided on the Dr. Oz 3 Day Detox Cleanse.
Dr. Oz 3 Day Detox Cleanse
I should preface this by saying that I'm a pretty healthy eater. I exercise fairly regularly and am generally very healthy. I love smoothies and drink them often, so I really felt like this wouldn't be that hard for me to do... other than the whole not snacking part. I'm the worst snacker!

It comes with a nice spreadsheet that includes all the items you need to shop for:


I got all my ingredients and I'm ready to go!

DAY 1:

The green tea was good. A little too sweet for me, which really says something because I like my drinks sweet. About one hour later is when my headache started. I'm a huge coffee drinker, so to go cold turkey was kind of hard on me.


The breakfast drink was yummy! A little more tart than I like my smoothies, but still pretty good. I'm starting this cleanse thinking, 'Ok, this is going to be easy if they all taste this good!'
Sorry for the red cup, you can't really see the drink but it's a nice berry/light red color.


Then behold, the lunch drink. YUCK. First of all the recipe makes wayyyyy more than one glass full of smoothie. It is SO pulpy no matter how long I blend it (which felt like forever). It's also very bitter and basically tastes like grass. But still, I got it down. Now that I've read some reviews I think I will cut the ingredients a bit.


For my snack drink I obviously decided on the breakfast smoothie. Honestly, I wasn't even hungry for a snack drink. I was feeling very full, but I had the snack drink anyway.
The dinner drink isn't horrible, but I'm not a fan of the cayenne pepper. I like spicy - but just in my food. It was kind of freaking me out to be drinking a cold smoothie with a hot pepper taste. It was hard to get down. And I forgot to get a picture of it, but it's like a light blueish color. I realized that the drinks all pretty much match the colors on the Dr. Oz printable sheet.

 END OF DAY 1!

The detox bath was nice, but I do those quite often anyway. At the end of the day I was feeling VERY bloated, and the detox bath did seem to help with some of that bloated feeling. I was not tired though; had plenty of energy. I was feeling pretty good!

DAY 2:

I decided to weigh myself just to see if there's any progress in that department, and I was happy to see that I'm down 2 lbs! In just one day that's pretty amazing, but I do realize a lot of it is just water weight.
I had my green tea again, but this time I cut back on the stevia. I have a headache again and I'm not as energized as I was yesterday. Surprisingly, I'm not hungry at all. I think I miss the idea of eating though, and that feeling of crunching something.
The breakfast drink is by far my favorite, so I enjoy drinking that one.
After the breakfast drink I get in my workout: 30 Day Shread with Jillian Michaels. I've done it a lot from level 1 to 3 over the past year, but I hadn't done it since about September. I'm trying to get back into working out again. I started with level 1 today. I had enough energy to go through it fine, but again I'm feeling more tired today than yesterday. I think that's also due to the fact that I stayed up late watching Downton Abbey. Ooops.
This time for the lunch drink I put in only 2 stalks of celery and went a little lighter on the kale (I didn't pack it so tight into one cup). I also chopped both those up as much as possible. This helped with the pulpiness and bitterness a lot. Since I didn't use as much stevia in the morning for my tea, I used some in this lunch drink and that also helped with the taste. All together with the slight changes, it was much better. Still not my favorite.
Starting to feel a little bloated again, but not as bad as yesterday. My headache is wicked though so I had to take some Ibuprofen. I'm starting to get a little hungry now, but nothing too bad.
I had the breakfast drink again for snack drink. I'm feeling better; not so tired or hungry.
Time for the dinner drink, which I am not looking forward to. I just put the cayenne pepper in a little amount of the drink and drink that fast, that way I can enjoy the rest. It's still not great, but much more doable now.

END OF DAY 2!

Time to detox. I'm feeling pretty good, but still a little tired. I still had bloating today but not as bad as day 1. Hmmmm, I think I can do this! I think I can make it!

LAST DAY, DAY 3:

I wake up feeling great! I got plenty of sleep which obviously helps. I decide to weigh myself again and I'm down another 2 lbs, so 4 lbs total. Pretty exciting!
First I have the green tea again which I'm really starting to like.
I have the breakfast drink which I really look forward to now. It's so yummy and I have to lick the almond butter off the spoon after I've put it in the blender. Mmmm almond butter. My body feels a lot better; I can tell the detox is working its magic.
After the breakfast drink I do my 30 Day Shred level 1 workout. I'm really sore from yesterday's workout, which just proves to me that's it been too long since I've worked out. I'm glad to get back into it!
I made the lunch drink the same as yesterday but this time I also added ice and it was MUCH better. For some reason the colder drinks just taste better.
Feeling tired again and bloated. 
I had my snack drink later in the day, so it was hard for me to finish my dinner drink when it was time.
Time to detox!
And I'm DONE!!!

FINAL RESULTS ON DAY 4:

Final results on the scale: Lost 4.8 lbs, so I'll go ahead and round up and say 5 :) hehe. I honestly think it might be more once my bloating is down some more... I'm still feeling pretty bloated.
On day 4 I made the breakfast drink again because I enjoy it so much. I'm going to eat real food today but still stick to healthy things to ease my body back into food. I'll probably make a spinach salad for lunch and some turkey chili for dinner.

Big notes and tips I took away from this:

  • I was not as hungry as I thought I'd be. These drinks are very filling. Even on Day 3 I wasn't hungry.
  • I feel like the lunch drink needed alterations, so with the cut back of celery and more blending it was doable. If you only use 2 stalks of celery in the drink then you can eat one or two celery sticks, which I found helps with the wanting to crunch something feeling.
  • The cayenne pepper was rough for me. I had to "shoot" it in a small amount of drink, so that I was able to enjoy the majority of the drink without it.
  • The ingredient list doesn't account for your snack drink. I had to go back to the store to get more bananas. I had enough of everything else, because I had a lot of that stuff at home prior to this detox anyway.
  • I had a lot of bloating which was uncomfortable, so I drank a ton of water in between the detox drinks which seemed to help.
  • The drinks (especially the lunch one) take up a lot of prep time. So I suggest doing it ahead of time so that you're not too hungry when it's time to drink one. I had my lunch one at about 1:00, so I'd start prepping for it at 12:30.
  • The drinks taste much better cold... I threw in about 5 or so ice cubes to each one.
A few pros and cons: 

PROS:
  • It's only 3 days long, which is pretty doable.
  • The drinks are filling; you're not very hungry.
  • It feels like the detox does what it states, which is detox your system.
  • An added bonus is you lose weight (at least I did).
  • You really feel so much better in the end. Even my skin looked better!
CONS:
  • The lunch and the dinner drink aren't that good (personal opinion).
  • There is no food for 3 days, which can be difficult - but then again this is a JUICE cleanse.
  • I experienced a lot of bloating which was very uncomfortable.
  • Very tired for the first couple of days and low on energy.
 FINAL THOUGHTS:

Overall I would definitely recommend this cleanse if you're looking for something to detox your system. It wasn't too hard to do, and the results were satisfying. I feel much better, have more energy, and am down 5 lbs which actually makes a big difference in how I feel. I would definitely do it again when I feel like I need another detox!

I will post an update in a couple weeks to say if the 5 lbs has stayed off or not. I always like to see if others were able to keep it off. 

Hopefully this might be helpful to those of you that might consider this cleanse. Let me know in the comments if you try it and what your results are like!!

**UPDATE from Day 5**
I'm down another 1.5 lbs! Most if not all of my bloating is gone, so that must be what it was. I also ate really healthy on day 5 with another breakfast smoothie, spinach salad, almonds for snack, small grilled chicken dinner. So total loss so far is about 6.5 lbs! :)

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Monday, August 5, 2013

Betty Lou - the Pin-Up

I love genealogy, it's one of my favorite pass times. I am very much into my family history and I've done a lot of work on my ancestry tree. The members in my family know how much I love it and have kindly sent me boxes of photos, documents, newspaper articles, year books, locks of hair (!), etc. I've been able to get pretty far on my family tree with a lot of the information I've received.


Some of my favorite photos I've received are these pin-up pictures my grandma (my dad's mom) took for my grandpa who was in WWII. They were the cutest couple, married 64 years (would have been longer if he hadn't passed away in 2006). They were always so in love and very inspiring. Anyway, since I love all things pin-up I just had to share these pictures of my grandma, Betty Lou! The year was 1945, she had just had her first born Johnny, and her husband was in WWII. They were to have two more boys over the years. The youngest is my dad, James.


 Betty Lou with her first born, Johnny.







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Monday, June 10, 2013

Acting... My New Career?

Hi everyone!!

So, I'm really bad at blogging... I just don't keep up with it. But, I figure since I have some new things going on in my life I might as well talk about it. This is somewhat of a diary for me and a way to get out my thoughts!

As most of you know, I'm a stay-at-home mom to almost 4 year old twins. I LOVE my job! It's the best and I feel so lucky that I get to stay home with them. London is on the autism spectrum and goes to preschool, but Lyla won't be starting preschool until August. I had been going to school myself in my "free time" and I just recently graduated with my degree!!

Now that I'm done with school and have one child in preschool and soon to be my other child in preschool, I have been feeling like I have a little more time for ME. A few months back I came across a post on facebook from the Breaking Bad page that they were going to have a casting call to be an extra on the set of Breaking Bad (which films here in Albuquerque). I thought 'how fun would that be to just stand around on a cool set watching all the magic happen?'. Well, I kind of put it out of my mind for a little while. I caught an episode of BB a few weeks later and it reminded me about that post, so I decided on a whim to send an email asking what's involved in being an extra. I got a reply asking if I could send them my head shots. I was like a head what? lol... A little background on me: I've never really sought out the entertainment/hollywood business. I did a lot of plays and skits at church growing up. I was always an angel in the nativity or had some other small role. I did a video monologue for a friend of mine (who is now a big time, award winning director!), and in high school I did drama class and became a thespian. But it was never anything I really saw myself doing. The people in my drama class kind of turned me off about acting - they were very... well for lack of a better word, dramatic! I was always more interested in computers and administration/desk work. I'm also pretty sensitive and thin skinned and I know how hard those auditions probably are and all the rejection that comes with trying to make it as an actor. I also see the celebrities that are pounded down and criticized in the media and I'm just not cut out for that type of life in the limelight. I also have a bit of stage-fright and the thought of auditioning in front of people makes me a little sick!

Anyway, fast forward to today and I think about how fun just kind of being in the background on a TV show would be. They ask if I have head shots and I obviously don't. Well it just so happens I'm about to take a trip to AZ with a bunch of good mommy friends of mine. One of the mom's that is going is a photographer (amazeballs photog) that offered to take fun pics of us if we want them at a discounted price (boudoir style). So I signed up because I knew she's awesome and I really wanted to get some pics of me while I'm still young! The two things literally happened within days of each other, so I asked the photog if she knew anything about head shots. She offered to do those for me as well! So, I went ahead with it and got them done at an amazingly good deal.

I get home from my trip and get my head shots emailed to me and decide to go ahead and send them in to the casting people whose email I originally got asking to be an extra on BB. She tells me that they just wrapped BB (oops, too late!) but that she would love to have me come audition to be a stand in for the new movie Transcendence with Johnny Depp. I'm like, say what?! LOL. I have no knowledge of stand in's. But she tells me about it and I do some googling and figure I could at least try. I thought about not going and blowing the whole thing off but a big part of my curiosity told me to just go for fun and see what it's like. Well, I was so glad I did. Everyone was so nice and the energy was really positive. I got to see where they're filming the movie and all the cameras and lighting and all that fun stuff. It was exciting! I didn't get the stand-in role because the girl, Kate Mara, is 5'3 and I'm 5'6, a good 3 inch difference! Not sure why they even had me come in, but it was fun nonetheless.

Well, things just kept happening from there. I kept getting emails from casting directors to come in for parts. One guy asked if I would come do a part on the show Longmire on A&E which films in Santa Fe. I decided to go, and again had such a blast! I'm part of this debate team and I sit right next to the podium. I got to work with Robert Taylor and Lou Diamond Phillips and Katie Sackoff - all of whom are SO nice! My dad loves that show, so he was very excited. I have since started recording it, and I like it too! I'm excited to see my scenes!



After I did that first job (and got paid! I didn't even know you get paid for these things!), the offers just kept coming. I got another job and another and now I think I've done about 4 scenes on Longmire. It's been SO fun!!! Some of the days are really, really long and tiring with a ton of standing around or walking the same path 100 times in a row. But overall, I have really enjoyed this. I'll be working on it again this Thursday. I've also been getting offers for print ads for casinos or things like that, but I haven't responded to those. I even got an email asking if I'd do a tourism commercial for Ruidoso. I'm just not really looking to be a star or anything, so nothing of that has really caught my fancy... *yet*. And I don't want this to become work. As soon as it stops being fun, I'll be done. But I'm not going to be closed minded about any new opportunities that may come my way, who knows I may end up doing something I'd really enjoy!

I don't really see this being my new career; mostly for the reasons stated above, but I'm really loving the experience in the meantime. I enjoy getting out and working with adults and just doing something fun that is for me. The atmosphere is great and I find the whole process of making a TV show really interesting.

Anyway, so look for me on the show Longmire! I have long bright blonde hair, so I should be somewhat easy to spot! :)

XOXO - Tara

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Hi Everyone!!

Hi friends!

I have not written on this blog for over a year!! Oops!

I've been very busy with school and raising my two very active preschoolers! They keep me busy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Just wondering, does anyone have any ideas for a topic? Would people like to see a makeup post or recent purchases? I could share some more homemade body scrub recipes? I guess I'm just plum out of things to talk about right now!

Just for fun, I will post a dress that I am DYING TO OWN!!! It's ModCloth (of course!) and I absolutely adore it! Now, if I could only magically have an extra $138 lying around! lol

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Friday, January 6, 2012

New Years Goals



I'm excited to start the new year. Upon the new year comes reflections of the year past.
Life should slow down a bit now and it's a good time to reflect on the person I am, the person I WANT to be, and the goals I have set for myself. I refuse to call them "resolutions", because that seems to make them so fleeting, but I think it's a good time to reflect and renew my goals.
I reviewed my goals for this past year, and I actually held up pretty well on them. The eating less sweets thing was a struggle, and towards the end of the year it went out the window. :/
I added a goal for myself last March that I wanted to go back to school and finish getting my degree. I think I talked about it in another post. Anyway, I went back and I just got my final grades for the fall semester... I got 3 A's! I'm really happy about that! It was not easy to balance being a stay-at-home mom of two toddlers with going to school, but I worked hard at it and it paid off! My mom and my mother-in-law took turns watching the kids while I was in class, and I couldn't have done it without their support. So, that leads me to my first goal:

1) Get my Associate's Degree

I never cared about school in the past, never tried, never worked hard at it. I didn't see the benefits, I was young and just didn't care. And if it was hard I just gave up. In fact I think it's safe to say I hated school. Well, time goes by and you change and grow up and learn what you really want in life. Well at least that's what happened for me. Now, I actually really enjoy school. I'm in a whole new mindset about learning and working towards a goal, so school is easier for me than it ever was before. I completely determined and that really helps. I registered for Spring classes, and I'll be taking 4 classes this time, so I really hope it all goes well. I should have about two more semesters and then I'll have my degree!

As for my second goal... For Christmas, I gave out a lot of sugar scrubs that I made (I did a post about one) and they were a HUGE hit, so I'm thinking of selling them on Etsy! A new venture for a new year? Possibly. I really love making hair flowers and hair bows, but it's really hard to sell them and get them out there with SO many being sold on Etsy. I'm just one in hundreds of thousands that sell hair bows on Etsy. I'll probably still make them for facebook and for friends and family though, since they seem to be selling well that way. So my next goal is:

2) Broaden my hobbies

Things like selling sugar scrubs and hair bows gives me something to do in my free time (which isn't much, but still) and like I said, it's fun for me.
I'd also like to possibly learn how to knit or crochet, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get the time to actually sit and learn.
I've gotten back into reading. I'm reading the Hunger Games right now and it's awesome! I'd like to read at least 10 books this year. Which may not be much to most people, but for me it's a lot!
(Geek alert!!!) My recent Astronomy class has reignited my love flame for Astronomy. I have always loved all things space for as long as I can remember. When I was like 6 I put stars and planets all over my ceiling in my bedroom which I kept up until I moved out at 18, lol. Anytime anything about space or the universe comes on TV I'm glued. So, I'd like to get further into it just by learning more about it. I just got a telescope so I'd like to learn more about the constellations and where things are just by naked eye observation.

My third goal is basically ALWAYS a goal of mine...

3) Be Healthy!

I was doing SO well for so long and then come October I got really, really lax on exercising and eating healthy. It caught up to me, I think I gained about 6 lbs. Which isn't much really, but I hate it. I hate feeling tired and worn down from not eating right. And when I don't exercise I feel the effects. My jeans are too tight, which is completely unacceptable for me. I refuse to buy clothes in bigger sizes. Someone said it so well once, I can't remember who, but she said "I don't alter clothes to fit my body. I alter my body to fit the clothes I want." That's so how I feel, lol. So, I really have to get back into the swing of things. I need to get back on my treadmill and start doing runs again everyday. And I have to watch the sweets. I get carried away snacking on candy and cookies.

My fourth goal is a new one for me, lol...

4) Less "party-time" girl.

With all the holiday and birthday parties, I tend to get into party mode. Times have slowed down and I'd like to spend less time in party (drinking) mode and more time in quiet/spiritual reflection mode. We had been consistently going to church every week, and then the colds started, and then the parties started, and one thing led to the next and we missed like 5 or 6 weeks in a row. I start to lose focus and tend to forget who I am and who I want to be. I do not want to be the girl that parties too hard or drinks too much and tries to act 21 when I'm not. Cleary I'm not. I'm thrity freaking three now!! I can't hang with the big dogs like I used to be able to still function well the next day. Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT above a glass of wine every now and then. Mama's got to have her Moscato!! :)

And finally...

5) Spend more time teaching and doing activities with London and Lyla.

When LL were babies I spent a lot of time on flash cards, books, and other teaching tools because they would just kind of sit there fully attentive so I felt like it was a good time to do so. Along with playing with them of course. Now that they're toddlers, they are totally their own little people with their own little schedules and agendas. They are so good at playing independently that I have to wiggle my way in sometimes to be included. Since they're not going to preschool this year (maybe next year? I'm not sure yet), I'd like to get in more activities and teaching tools. Thanks to pinterest, and various other toddler activity websites, I've found a lot of fun, creative activities to do with them and I'd like to put those to action. Lyla is SO smart and longs for challenges and learning new things. London is SO active and practically a music genius that I know he'd benefit from a lot of new activities also, especially involving music or lights.

Well, that's about it for now. It's nice to have my goals written out so that I will see them and hopefully stick to them! I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC 2012!! May all your wishes and dreams come true this year!! XOXO

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The BEST Homemade Sugar Body Scrub



I have always been a huge fan of body scrubs, whether they be sugar or salt. I always love a good exfoliant!! I've been a fan of LUSH body scrubs and I've used many different other types over the years as well.

Well, with the help of Pinterest, I found a peppermint sugar body scrub recipe of which I tweaked and made my own. I didn't want to write about it until I had perfected it, and used it and got the results I wanted. I've been playing with the recipe for about 2 weeks now and I have to say that it's AMAZE-BALLS. I love it soooo much! I will never spend $$$ on high priced body scrubs ever again.

Being the generous person I am ;), I decided to share my recipe. I have bottled it up and am going to give it out to some friends for Christmas! I know that I would LOVE to receive a peppermint sugar body scrub during the holidays!! And the whole process is actually really easy!

Using this recipe, I was able to scoop all of it into about 4, 4-5oz jars. So it makes about 16-20 oz worth of scrub. :)

What you need:

Medium sized mixing bowl and spoon

3 cups of white granulated sugar

1 cup of *Sunflower Oil

15 drops of peppermint **essential oil. You can substitute the peppermint for lavender, eucalyptus, mandarin, vanilla, etc. I used peppermint because I feel it ties in well with the holidays.

Optional: Vitamin e squeezed from capsules. I took about 5 vitamin e capsules and pierced the end with a safety pin and squeezed the oil into the bowl. Just to give it that extra bit of nourishment for your skin.



Get started!

Combine your sugar and oil in a bowl and stir it up well, until there are no clumps. Then add your essential oil, stir again. Scoop into jars! For myself, I put some in a tupperware bowl. Voila!! Easy peasy!

*Using sunflower oil is an important step. I tried this recipe with olive oil and it did not come out as well. Plus the smell of the olive oil overtakes the peppermint, and not in a good way. I get the sunflower oil at a health food store. It runs about $13 for a 32 fl oz jar. I also love that it's organic! **I also get the essential oils at the health food store too. They run about $6-8 for a little jar, but they last a long time.

I have used this in the shower a few times now and it's amazing. The peppermint smells soooo good and it's the perfect amount of sugar/oil ratio. Your skin feels amazing and soft afterwards. I don't even need to use lotion when I get out of the shower like I usually do, and that says a lot coming from a girl that lives in the hot, dry desert! I have also used this on my face and have not had any breakouts. I can't say that will be the same for everyone, but for me it was no problem and my face is soft and smooth and refreshed!

To give as gifts:

The jars were purchased at Ikea, but you can get jars anywhere these days. Just the other day I got some bigger ones at The Dollar Tree. The little spatulas I got at Sally's Beauty Supply (I'm sure most beauty stores have them), and I made the tags on my computer. I tied the tag and spatula on the jar with a peppermint candy striped ribbon.

Sorry I have a crummy camera... I need to invest in a nice one soon. :)


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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cupcake Post

I made these turkey themed cupcakes last Thanksgiving and they were such a big hit, so I'm going to make them again this Thanksgiving! :)


They are VERY easy to make. I use milk chocolate icing and chocolate cake. For the face and wings I use the small Sandies that come in the 100 calorie packs, candy corn for the feathers, white icing with a black dot of icing for the eye, a small piece of rolled up fruit roll up for the waddle, and the white part of the candy corn for the nose. Just a note, don't stick the Sandies on until you're close to ready to serving them, otherwise they get really soggy. :)

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