A New Home!

Hello Bloggies! Long time no see!

I am ALMOST completely finished with school 4-eva, and I’m pretty sure I told you I had big plans for the blog, right? Well, here it is: Simply Sarah!

It’s my new home! After this post, I’ll be linking from the new site, so please take note of the new domain: http://simplysarah2010.wordpress.com

I hope you enjoy the new spot; I’m very excited to see you all over there!

Take that, cravings!

I’ve been making messes organizing the hizzy all afternoon and working up an appetite! I tried to kill the cravings with another juice, but I was still jonesing, and actually starting to get worried… Thoughts of pizza…bagels…scrambled eggs with cream cheese on toast… floating all around me. What can I say, I get crazy when I clean! Anyway, in an attempt to keep myself in line AND compromise on what I clearly wanted, I came up with this:

DELICIOUS CREAMY CHOCOLATE DREAM

It’s really very simple.

• 1 cup (or however much you want in the mug) almond milk
• 2 tsps raw cacao powder (or any unsweetened coco powder)
• a little raw agave nectar to taste
• dash vanilla
• dash salt

Put it all in the Vita!

Blend on high speed for about… 2-4 minutes

The Vitamix starts to heat it up after a little while, so I consider this concoction to be fairly raw. However, you can definitely make it in a regular blender and then heat it up on the stovetop — or add some ice and make it a milk shake!

So creamy!

It was so thick and frothy, it totally soothed my cravings and filled my belly. Alright, back to work!

hump-day madness

Helloooo! I am feeling so much perkier now that my debate is over and done with! Thankfully it wasn’t as torturous as I’d imaged it would be. I’ll tell you what WAS torturous though…

my tummy!

You see, I’d gotten myself into a nice little class-day routine: I get off the train, hit the Starbucks, and partake in an Earl Grey latte, or Vanilla Rooibos latte, with an appropriate accompaniment — say, dark chocolate covered graham cracker? Then I go to class. And I am happy! Yesterday, however… I only got a cup of green tea!

I’d had my afternoon juice about 30 minutes before leaving for class (about 45 minute commute) and because it was the afternoon and because my tummy was clearly expecting a treat and a latte, I quickly became RAVENOUS. It didn’t help things that I was nervous about my presentation. However, I trucked through it, and it sucked! But boy, did I eat my little heart when I finally got home!

Course 1:

Delicious lettuce with raw corn, goat cheese, plenty of Paula Deen’s House Seasoning (YUM) and lemon juice with a touch of raw agave. I murdered it!

Course 2:

Steamed broccoli with Paesana Marinara, goat cheese, and of course, more of Paula’s seasoning. Yes, that is the same bow as the salad. I was too hungry to be using many bowls!

And so, I made it through Rose Cleanse Day 1. It was NOT easy. But it was done.

I was incredibly hyper after dinner, which is very atypical for me. I mean, I not a naturally hyper person anyway. But I was bubbling all over the place. Hubs even asked me, on the phone, if I had been drinking! Only veggie juice, baby! I wonder what that’s all about? Being that I slept in until forever today, I’m not going to say I have eons of energy, but I do feel good today. I’m not hungry yet, so I’m sipping on some water. Later on I’ll make my juice and get things rollin’!

Today I’m dedicating to putting things in boxes. Hubs and I getting ready to show this place on Monday, and let’s just say… I haven’t yet unpacked from the wedding. So… Got some stuff to do

See you all later, and have a fabulous Wednesday!

return of the veggies on a budget

Why hello there! I’d just like to let you all know that I’m blogging instead of prepping for my debate tonight. I have exactly 6 minutes to finish this post. Let’s see how it goes

My first order of business as Wifey was to retire Hubs’ water bottle:

I can’t make out the “sell by” date on this bad boy, but I’m pretty sure it’s been around since like, 2006. Hubs drinks lots and lots of water, and it was slowly killing my insides to think about what exactly might be…inside this. So, I upgraded him.

Isn’t she pretty? It’s a Brita “Vintage” pitcher. He hasn’t met her yet, but I’m sure it’ll all work out just fine.

And while we’re in the fridge, would you care to take a peek inside?

We are JAM PACKED with veggies. Here’s the story:

Yesterday, one of my bloggy pals told me that Natalia Rose had posted the Rose Cleanse on her member’s website (yes, I’m a member, whatevs). I immediately ran over there to take a peek and said: OMG I’m doing it. As did my bloggy pal. It’s really nothing different than the cleanses she talks about her books, but it just details all the little questions I’ve had. It’s a simple cleanse – juicing until dinner, dinner is a big salad and gently cooked veggies, so that your system doesn’t go all wonky as it detoxes. I had been doing something quite similar before the wedding, and felt great, so I make the executive decision to go forth and conquer the Rose Cleanse. I’m excited to have a buddy for accountability too, that should be make more fun and…. more happening

However, one of the things that almost prevented me from doing it was the $$ factor. I have spent mucho dinero on produce in the past few months, especially because of juicing, and after the wedding, I’m really not swimming in the dough if you know what I mean. However, I decided to make this a challenge — how can I make a juice cleanse affordable?

Enter one of those big super club stores that I’m usually petrified of.

As you may have noticed, my fridge is jam-packed. For exactly $54.97, this is what I got (and it’s more than enough for the week)

• 10 lbs carrots
• 9 romaine hearts
• 10 cukes
• 3 lbs broccoli
• 5 lbs lemons
• 4 heads lettuce
• 6 ears corn
• 1 large wedge goat cheese

I was amazed that I could get all of that produce for such a low price! People, USE your super stores! Some of the produce was not organic, of course, but some was! And for juicing, you just can’t beat that. So instead of exotic juices, I’m sticking with a simple, yet healthful formula:

1 head of romaine, 1 cuke, a handful of carrots, and a lemon.

Delicious. It made approx. 2 glasses of the above golden elixir.

Now, the real challenge will be getting through today. Tuesday the Terror has arrived, and I am, yet again, behind the power curve. I’ve got to review all of my notes for the debate tonight, and clean up my 2 page draft. I look forward to waking up tomorrow and having that behind me, if only for a few days.

Good bye for now!

the hungry bride strikes back!

Hello peeps!

How’s the married life, you ask? EXHAUSTING so far. Me and the hubs can’t seem to stay home at night. We have just been going, going, going since we got back, and it’s really gotten crazy up in here. First of all, my days have been spent glued to a book called “Beyond Freedom & Dignity,” and while it may sound interesting at first glance, that novelty wears off quickly enough when you have to write both a debate presentation AND a 10 page paper on it. I feel like my brain is turning to mush.

We’ve been doing way too much of this:

And attending plenty of events, like this:

And my goodness, I am TIRED. The hubs left this afternoon to hit up the DC area yet again, for yet another event. He’ll be gone until Thursday. SAD FACE!!!

But anyway, guess what? I’ve been eating like a monsterface. I have been an equal opportunity snackapalooza and after this afternoon’s offense, it is TIME to reel this bad Bride in. You know, ever since forever, I’ve restricted my eating in some way. No white bread, no pasta, no white sugar, no butter, no cream, no this, no that, blah blah, ble blue, etc. It’s like some sort of completely un-fun game that I’ve been playing for way too long. What in the world do I have to show for all of these restrictions? Well, a yo-yo type of number on the scale and the occasional binges that make me sick. My latest foray into restrictions — and the reason this blog got started — took me into an entirely new realm, where health was attempting to be the main idea. But I have to be honest here, I was on a serious wedding weight loss quest. And guess what else? I didn’t lose the weight. What I did do, was eat more healthfully than I ever have, and succeeded in feeling pretty darn good. However, ever since I said “I do” to the hubs, I also said I do to all of the food that’s been on my naughty list forEVER.

Say hello to french fries, nachos, pasta in cream sauce, Burger King (yes, I said), pastries,soda,  booze up the wazoo, etc etc. Just an all-out mess. We’ve been going to a lot of black-tie affairs, and when they pass the bread basket, I cheerfully grab a couple of rolls and slather them in butter while my tightly-laced female dinner companions stare in horror. WHATEVER. Goodness. I enjoyed that gosh darn bread.

But today, I went to WFs after the hubs left in search of goodies, and came back home with this little monster and his buddies:

Let me explain: “An extraordinary, crisp continental confection with rich smooth milk chocolate melted between two feather-light toffee wafers.” Yes. Indeed. Those little bastards are currently dead-weight in my tummy and shooting spikes of sugar into my blood and destining me for a huge headache in a little while. I feel HORRIBLE. I ate MANY of them. And now, my friends, I have finally hit my junk food wall.

Luckily, I know exactly what needs to be done to get my tummy back to feeling okay: Green Goddesses ALL THE WAY. And since the hubs is gone until Thursday, I don’t need to worry about dinner for a few nights. This will give me a good chance to reintroduce my body to … vegetables. It’s gonna be a shocka-roo. But I’m so ready for it.

I need all the energy I can get for these next few weeks, and as delicious as cookies and grilled cheeses are, they do not provide me with any kind of good energy. They just make me sleepy. So tomorrow morning, I’m getting this Bridal Booty back into shape. But a few things are very different than they were before April 17th.

• I don’t feel frantic about losing weight
• I don’t feel the need to eat only vegan, or any other restricted way of eating
• I’m focused on FEELING good
• I’m not going to force myself into anything

There’s no due date on losing weight now, and that’s a good thing. I’ve never been able to lose weight on a time schedule before, so it shouldn’t have been a huge shock that I didn’t do it for the wedding. However, I do want to get myself into great shape now more than ever… especially since the hubs and I have been baby-talking a lot. This bod needs to be in prime condition!

The biggest challenge for me is times of stress. I don’t think I’ve ever had this amount of stress on me in my life, so it’s definitely a learning experience. I have the tendency to overeat when I get overwhelmed, and to “allow” myself certain things that aren’t good for me to compensate for how stressy or unhappy I feel. Badness.

So, time to kick it back into gear. Did I tell you some wonderful person got me us a VITA MIX? Indeed. Indeed. So I’d love to get your favorite raw soup type of recipes and of course smoothie recipes, because I now have mad blending capabilities.

Anyhow, I’m back to the books and to digesting my cookies. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and here’s to a happy, healthy, and energetic Monday to follow!

I’m married!!!

I can’t wait until the prof shots roll in, but thankfully we have amazing friends with cameras who have literally uploaded like, 800 pictures to facebook. haha!!

The wedding was AMAZING. It is really true when they say that your wedding day just flies by, and you forget to eat, etc. I think James managed to sneak a plate at some point, but I didn’t! We literally stayed on the dance floor until the very last minutes of the wedding, and it was glorious.

Now we’re back and truly understand the custom of “The Honeymoon.” While we were in Puerto Rico, we barely had 2 minutes alone together — we simply had too many fabulous people to hang out with. Some of whom we haven’t seen in YEARS. So we are now fully exhausted and rolling into yet another insane bunch of things to do. Really, chicas, don’t have your wedding in the middle of finals.

Apparently I have two 10 pagers, a couple 2 pagers, and a science final… all due in less than a month. Then I graduate. So peeps, it is ON.

On the eating front, Puerto Rico, after Friday night, was a disaster — and that’s okay. I let loose and enjoyed myself, but my tummy was not happy with all of the fried food and stuff I put into it. Now that I’m back, it’s time for smoothie rehab!

Green to the maximum, my friends! I had started using dates for sweetener, and really liked that, but I’m out for now, so the mix was:

• baby spinach
• wheatgrass powder
• almond milk
• raw cacao
• maca powder
• raw agave

The wheatgrass has a very… GREENY taste, but it’s not too bad. And my body is soooo happy to have the green, lemme tell ya.

I have a lot of new ideas for the blogalicious, now that I’m past the wedding and onto a new life phase. However, it’s going to have to wait until I get through this last hump of school, because I have a LOT to catch up on. I’ll try to update a few times a week though, but don’t forget about me! Because I will be back.

For now, Hubs (HTB’s new name!?) and I are enjoying ourselves and the lovely Spring weather, and getting ready to make some moves.

Later bloggies !

“Toadily Insane”

Hahaha. This picture cracks me up.

This is a quickie post to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about the bloggyland! In fact, I’ve been taking pics and mental notes, but I’ve been running like a crazy frog (ha) and just haven’t had the time/mental capacity to sit down here and upload pictures and write a decent post. The wedding is in 9 days (GAHHH) and every day there’s something that goes haywire and needs immediate (clearly) attention. Plus, I’m scrambling to get as much school work done as possible.

Everything will be OK and the beautiful weather we’ve been having has truly been helping me to stay sane. So, I will try to post something of substance before we leave for the wedding, but if I do not, have a WONDERFUL weekend, a wonderful week, and I’ll see you back here on April 21st!

has this ever happened to you?

You go into grocery store for two things: almond milk and goat cheese. You come home with this:

the bountiful feast

Oops?  

Today is such a GLORIOUS day. It’s amazing how a little sunshine can turn life right around. I feel peppy and energetic — for first time this week I don’t feel like going back to bed!

The pups and I hit the outdoor shopping center around 8:30 for a walk prior to store openings and then I entered the Whole Foods and got sucker punched and loved it. Sigh. Well, I decided once in there that I needed some more vegetation AND that I would make HTB a special dinner. Here’s the hint:

slow coooooooookin'

Anyway, back to my shopping. I got my veggies — Beets, Kale, Avos. I got my fruits — Grannie Apps, plums, lemons. And then I got more stuff!

blue eggs!

I’ve been craving eggs a bit lately, and so I decided to get some. I struggled momentarily with this, because a part of me was like: gosh, you’re eating goat’s milk dairy AND eggs? That’s pretty much as non-vegan as you can get. And then I smacked myself in the face and moved on. I never said I was going to label myself as anything, and there I go struggling with myself because I felt like I wasn’t “allowed” to eat the eggs. The focus for me is not to be vegan, but to be healthy. I cut out meat and dairy, as well as processed foods and a lot of gluten products for my health and to slim down. I feel better eating that way. However, if my body is callin’ for some huevos, there’s no earthly reason for me, personally, to deny myself some. Sorry for the rant, but hey, that’s what the blogalicious is for.

Anyway, cute blue eggs. I’ll letcha know how it goes.

I’ve been craving my cuppa Joe these days, so I picked up some So Delicious coconut creamer, because it’s honestly the best non-dairy creamer I’ve ever tasted. The coleslaw is for HTB’s special dinner tonight.

And this is just a gratuitous shot of the beautiful produce. Love!

It seems so WRONG to have to write a paper on a day like today, but if I don’t write most of it today… well, it’s gotta get done by Tuesday, and trust me, I have plenty of things to do.

HTB was so cute this morning, saying adorable things like, “I can’t wait to get back home to you!” It’s nice when we’re nice . Perhaps that’s why I decided to make him a special dinner instead of serving up yet another leftover of chicken and broccoli!

Does anyone have lovely Easter plans? We’re going to HTB’s ex-assistant’s house to celebrate. We’re not religious and we don’t have family in this area, so it’s nice that she invited us for a second year in a row! I’m not sure about what I’m going to cook to bring, but I’ll definitely bring something healthy, otherwise I’ll totally succumb to the crispy onion green bean casserole

Have a wonderful day!

where did the week go?

Yesterday was such a weird day. Even though we went to bed at a decent hour, I was SO sleepy in the morning. I basically got up, let the dogs pee, packed HTB’s lunch, and got back into bed, all without completely opening my eyes. There’s no logical explanation for my exhaustion!

When I did finally join the land of the living, it was time to meet my friend Pat for coffee. I hadn’t seen her in …ages, like 2009 ages, so we had a lot to get caught up on. Her first remark was: are you ok? Look at your hair and your nails aren’t done. I’ve never seen you without your nails done ever! And yes, I did look a hot mess yesterday, and I haven’t gotten my nails done in… many moons. It kind of reflects the chaos lately. We caught up and then I hit the nail salon, and got my fakeys on (aka pink & whites). I don’t normally wear them, but I am for the wedding because I don’t want to have to worry about chips. Since they last for about two weeks, I got them yesterday and will get a fill on the Tuesday before we leave for San Juan. Should be fine and dandy. It feels weird to type with nails though!

the new claws

Anyway, back to how weird my body felt yesterday. I didn’t feel like eating anything, which is highly untypical for me. The only thing I could fathom eating was a couple pieces of sprouted toast. I didn’t have my veggie juice or even a big salad, which was probably a big mistake. I’m sure all of those good enzymes would have made me feel more alive.

Today, in order to make up for yesterday, I got an early start to my day and definitely kicked it off with a big old green juice:

• 6 stalks kale
• 1 cuke
• 1 heart romaine
• ginger
• 1 lemon
• 1 granny smith apple
• handful of spinach

It was delicious and refreshing! Although I’m honestly still dragging a bit. I’m waiting on that promised sunshine but it sure is taking its time. I’ve already gotten some major things done today like:

• One of my papers
• Email to realtor

And I’ve still got this to do:

• Yoga
• errands (dog food and goat’s milk cheddar namely)
• cook dinner
• class reading
• class

Bleh. I’m going to FORCE myself to have a great big salad with avocado for lunch, and cook up a butternut squash for din dins. I really need to get my body back on a good schedule, I feel all over the place and weird, and two weeks before my wedding is not the time for that!

It honestly feels otherworldly that the wedding is so close. When we first booked the date, April 17th 2010 seemed like eons away, and now… BAM, right next door. All of those little things that I always thought I could put off til next week actually have to be done now. I’m trying not to be evilicious though. It’s easy to get caught up in the stress and craziness and forget the whole point — that I’m marrying the man I love with all my family and friends around us. So what if the hotel is screwing up the group list? So what if the flowers aren’t perfect and some random thing doesn’t go exactly as I had envisioned it? I have to remember that I purposely planned this wedding to look more like a big party than a formal wedding affair. And like any good party, all you really need are: good people, food, booze, and good music. All the rest is icing on the three-tiered, buttercream filled cake.

Sammy Says…

RELAX

He’s really good at it.

Have a great Thursday!!!

the prodigal blogger returns

Good morning! It has been so long since I’ve blogged that wordpress didn’t even recognize me!

We’ve literally been traveling like it was our job (well, I guess it is HTB’s) and to be honest, I can’t IMAGINE what I was thinking when I planned to be out of town so much in March. Perhaps I thought, Oh, this wedding planning is a piece of cake, I can do it from anywhere! Yeah, sure. I’ve been so frazzled and insane over the past two weeks that even my dogs are looking at me funny!

Haha. Yes, I’ve been an evil little Bridezilla, just ask HTB (…or don’t. Please)! We finally got home on Sunday night from a trip to Maryland and New Jersey. In Maryland, HTB had an event to attend at National Harbor, which was quite fun, but not the best idea for my weight-loss crunch. You see, I was on a REALLY good roll before we left, and I did try hard to stay rolling, but…

AND

Well, those suckas did some things to me. Namely made me stuff-face after a few of them. I did have one or two very good meals, such as this one at Rosa Mexicana:

a salad with every veggie they had + guac

And I made myself a big gallon jug of Green Goddess, froze it, and brought it with me to Maryland. It traveled well, and since we try to stay at Residence Inns as much as possible, we did have a kitchen. Unfortunately, the Green Goddess only stayed Goddess liked for two mornings. After that, it was a step above sludge (the bad kind) so I had to nibble on the fruit for breakfast instead. Which was ok! I also brought along my yoga mat and a Rodney Yee and Jillian Michaels yoga DVD.

I have no idea why she would put something as inane as “Lose up to 5 lbs a week!” on this DVD, but hey, as we know, Jillian has been a little on the controv side lately with her gimmicks. This is NOT your typical yoga DVD. Moving from Rodney to this was like being splashed with ice cold water. As you can imagine if you are familiar with her, it was not at all relaxing or focused on bringing your inner self into a peaceful state by tiring your physical body, ending in a wonderful release in a Savasana pose, where you basically melt into the ground and relax for a few minutes. SORRY! Oy vey. She couldn’t be less relaxing, nor could she have bastardized the principles of yoga more, BUT… she sure provides a serious workout. I was sweating bullets and even HTB (who popped back into the room when I was about 3/4′s of the way through) remarked that at some point he’d have to try yoga because it looked really intense. Well, it was, and I am continuing to do the DVD because I think it’ll really target some areas I want to tone for my dress. However, for my sanity and peace of mind, I start my day with Rodney:

On Friday we drove two hours to New Jersey to visit HTB’s adorable 89 year old Grammy and his parents (who were also visiting). Of course, because people are not food, why would I pull out my camera?! Ugh. I promise next time to capture cute pictures of Grammy Violet, because she’s really the cutest ever. We had a nice visit, despite the lapses in eating that occurred (hey, can’t win ‘em all, right?). Then of course, we drove BACK to Maryland on Sunday to catch our flight. I’m not sure if I had mentioned it before or not, but after the wedding we are moving to Maryland. At this point, it looks like we’re focusing on the area near National Harbor, Fort Washington. HTB, financial whiz that he is, may have figured out how we can actually get our dream house so… stay tuned. Any bloggies in the DC area?

It’s been raining so much since we’ve been home, yesterday was REALLY tough for me. It’s always hard to get back into the swing after being away for a while and bad weather just doesn’t help! However, I did get my @$$ out of bed, hit Jillian’s mean yoga mat, and then braved the waterfalls for a trip to BJs and the supermarket to restock the kitchen. For whatever reason, I had absolutely NO appetite yesterday. Perhaps it was because I hate so poorly on Saturday and Sunday? I just don’t know. Nothing sounded good, except cookies, so I kind of putzed around until dinner time. I made an AMAZINGLY nice roasted chicken for him. I mean that, AMAZINGLY. My best ever! I finally figured out how to make a good one — don’t overcook it!

HTB  loved it and agreed it was my best. So yay for me. I also sauteed some kale, which was on sale at BJs! Another SCORE!

I was going to steam some broccoli for me, but the kale tasted so good, I had some of that instead:

With marinara and a mountain of goat’s milk cheddar. MMMMMMMMMMM.

So yesterday I got a lot of organizing done. I cleaned the casa, figured out wedding stuff, and now today I must sit my butt down for some serious school work. Class is at 3, so I’ve got some time. I’ve also got quite the headache and I’m not sure why, but when I feel a little hungry I’ll have my first fresh juice since Wednesday! I’m very excited about that, as I’m sure my body is. We is cravin’ some essentials I think.

I hope everyone is doing well! And wish me luck for these next two weeks, because peeps, I’m gonna need it!