Green Smoothies and Pooping. Part 1 to changing my body.

Often times, my conversation are steered towards people's bowel movements.  You'd be surprised (or maybe you won't be) about how many people have issues with their guts.  I find it makes the world go round.  My husband often gets embarrassed about this subject.  

"You've got to stop talking to people about pooping." he says.  

Well, he's just never had problems.  If you don't have gut problems consider yourself lucky, otherwise, read on about ones journey through their bowels. 

Because pooping is a big deal. 

This is just my story and each person's body is different.  

I have been lactose intolerant my entire life.  I didn't really realize it until I was in high school and seemed to suffer some serious gas pains constantly.  (Laugh if you must, but in high school, it wasn't cool.)  I should have known, my mom and most of my aunts are lactose intolerant as well.  (Most Asians can't tolerate milk well anyway.)  

I remember rolling on the floor because my guts her so bad.  My mom would tell me to stretch, so I would.  It didn't really work.  It was finally in college that I decided to cut out milk.  Instead I drank soy milk.  (Which I regret to this day, don't take soy, try almond, coconut, rice) Now, I've never been able to just sit down and drink a cup of milk, never have, and still don't like to drink anything but water like this.  It was mainly for cereal and cooking.  

Flash forward years to when I got married and started taking birth control.  Again, everybody's body's are different and mine DIDN'T like the pill.  I was constipated for years to come.  I went to doctor after doctor, trying to find someone that could help me poop.  I was told to take in more fiber, take miralax, take laxatives, drink hot water with lemon, take laxatives, take suppositories, drink more water.  I had a few laproscopes done.  The Doc found that I had an extra 5 inches of colon.  (This often happens to elder people as waste sits too long and stretches the system because it's took full.)    It seemed to be the same answers everywhere I went. 

 So for the first 2 years I was married and on birth control, my bowels were constantly flucuating between super constipated (like we're lucky if I pooped every 3-4 days) or I was sick from the latest laxative.   As a result, I lost 20 pounds (which I needed to loose anyway) but I was none the happy with my bowel system.   What does bowels have to do with my uterus?  EVERYTHING.  I stopped taking birth control and basically suffered 2 more years of not knowing what to do.  

After having too many miscarriages and not knowing what else there was, I decided to talk to a friend's dad.  

It. Was. Life. Changing. 

(He's a health fanatic (meant in the most serious, complimentory way) and has researched healthy eating and habits his whole life.)  I hadn't really ever had a conversation with him before, and awkwardly, I decided to talk to him about pooping.  After two hours talking with him, I had a new book to read (Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management: Bernard Jensen), Apple Cider Vinegar, Black Walnut tincture, my very own enema kit, a recipe for a gallbladder cleanse, magnesium and many other natural cleansers.

He actually went and lived with Bernard Jensen in Mexico.  You guys, this author is a big deal in the health world. 

We discussed in detail my diet.  He told me to clean out my system with the enema kit and stop eating anything that had "tose" in it. (Fructose, cellulose etc.)  Basically, stop eating all processed foods.  Stop using hydrogenated everything.  He promised that if I cleaned up my diet and got my guts cleaned out I would be able to have kids just fine.  

He was right.  It didn't happen over night, it took probably a good year to feel like a completely different person.  Between his advice, Green Smoothies (Everyday), Footzoning (see my tab in the blog), Essential oils, whole eating, our lives have been completely turned upside down.  In the best way ever.  I felt super healthy, I didn't have gaseous pains, I was regular, I was pregnant and I felt like I was who I should have been all along.  I may be considered weird, hippy, anal, extreme (which I'm not even close to what I could/should be) but I know my family is happy and healthier.  I may have to spend more time in the kitchen doing more work, but it's all worth it.  

Think it's too expensive to switch?  Well, we spend $15 dollars a week on our Bountiful Baskets, which you see above.  I don't really buy meat, so it helps keep costs down.  I buy chicken once in a great while, mainly if we are having guests.  We've always had a garden so we dehydrate and freeze everything we can.   You guys, really, I know it seems like a trend, but we've been going strong in this healthy trend for 3 years now and have seen awesome changes with all of us. 

Not sure how to start?  Just ask me.  Green Smoothies are an easy way to start...but that's another whole story.  I was originally going to blog about that too, but this has gotten too long already.   Since we've started green smoothies, almost all of my family has joined in, and then it's gone out to the extended family.  Above is the Juice pack for an additional $8.50 with our Bountiful basket.   Nothing ever goes to waste.  We always eat what we can and freeze the rest.  

I better stop now before this gets any longer. I'm just a little passionate about a happy life. 

To redo, or not do, or to just sell it. #thriftedthursdays

I just can't decide how much I do or don't like this headboard we thrifted.  The husband wanted something that could hold books, which is very practical and useful.  But, I'm feeling this is too Pottery Barn or something for me.  I like the functionality, but it's just not what I want.  I don't know if I should try and redo it, paint it?  Or what.  I would prefer the slats the horizontal instead of vertical, but I just don't know.  The husband bought it because it was a good deal and we've been searching forever, but I'm looking for ideas.

Anyone?  Or, if you would like to buy it. . . let me know. 

Remodeling the Kitchen. Before, In Progress and After!

Before.  

Apparently, we never took before pictures of our kitchen.

(Pictures from the WFRMLS.) 

While these pictures actually make the kitchen look nice...they are quite deceiving.  No doors, dark paint...it was kind of a dark and dreary place for a while. 

These are the true colors. 

In progress.

We did the kitchen in quite a few steps.  One day, the husband's sister was in town, she happens to love to paint.  So we painted the uppers cabinets.  I decided I don't really want doors on the uppers, so we just painted what was there.  A few months later, we were so worried that #ohniceandchubby would start pulling everything out that she could reach from the base cabinets.  So we thought we should hurry and try to get it done. 

She never did.  She still hasn't even really tried to open the cabinet doors we put on.

  

Nonetheless.  We broke the bottom part into two different, well three stages.  Right side first.  Once that was done, we moved onto the left side.  The last stage was a bar, that I need to just clean up to take a picture. 

We couldn't afford new flooring, so we just kept the slate.  The husband ripped out the old cabinets and figured all the new cabinets out.  We bought our cabinets from Lowe's.  They are the unfinished already built cabinets.  We had priced out new doors to try to keep the existing bases, but they were too expensive and would have to be custom built.  It was just ridiculous.  So we signed up for the Lowe's card and got going.  

When I was feeling well enough (of course I'm always painting while pregnant and nauseous.) I painted the cabinets "Ridgeview," which is what we've accented all throughout the house. 

Our countertops are Beech Butcher Block from Ikea.  I almost had a heart attack during the whole process.  Ikea had just decided to discontinue their full butcher block line and was converting over to a semi-laminate butcher block.  Which, I didn't like.  So we bought what they had left, which was just barely NOT enough (as you can see just above just to the right.) We just hoped that we could think of something along the way.

A few days later, I got a wild hair and decided to call and see if they had anyone who just happened to return the same butcher block.  No one did, BUT they had just received a new order of Beech Butcher Block and it was now in stock.  Why the sales person didn't know there was another order coming in...I'll never know.  So the day it came in, I drove the truck down and bought the rest of our countertop! 



Isn't it lovely?  I told the husband we couldn't have some weird lacquer going on them, so he found some kind of nut oil that's non-toxic etc.  Our sink we found in the clearance section of Ikea.  We always hit the clearance section first, it's a must.) 




While, I much would have preferred some super nice custom cabinets or something, we realized that we may not be in this house forever, so for future rental purposes, we bought what we could afford.

Man, that husband of mine is AWESOME.  Seriously, all things are possible with him.  I really like what our kitchen looks like now.  It's such a difference.   I love it and him. 

After.

Ta-Da!  See how bright and happy it is now?  I'm not a color coordinating kind of person.  I prefer to put whatever colors I want, wherever I want, and I feel like my kitchen is the place I can do that.   I was also kind of modeling the colors and themes after this pin. 

I really like the open upper cabinets.   It's not as hard as I thought keeping it semi organized.  Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy cute thrifted containers and have everything exposed. Granted, I'm still working on some of the shelves as far as their cuteness goes.  And there is still a spot to the right that needs to be painted.  But one takes pictures when one actually has the kitchen cleaned right?!

See our magnet board on the end?  Which...apparently, needs to be painted still.  Whoops.  Our refrigerator may be stainless looking, but it's defiantly not magnetic by any means.  How lame is that?  So, the husband bought me some metal board and put it on the end of the cabinet.  I can't even tell you how often Aiko is there playing with the magnets and pictures.  We love it.   Our fridge is in a weird spot I'll admit and it's not quite finished.  We couldn't move it into a more practical spot without doing some serious remodeling.   We'll show you that one day when we finish it completely. 

I've been on an orange kick for a while, it's nice that it fits in with my kitchen too.   You may remember the slate backsplash that was in there before...well, it still is.  We tried to pry it off, but between the plaster walls and whatever the previous own put up the slate with, it will not come off.  So, instead, the husband covered it up with bead board.  I don't love bead board, it looks amazing, but was not something I would have chosen.   But it was the right price and easiest to cover up the existing backsplash. 

You'll see above the stove a space for a microwave.  I've been fighting it.  (The hippie in me would prefer not to have one at all, but I've lost that battle.)  I like hanging my pots and different things up there.  The husband even has a thrifted microwave to hang there.   The current microwave sits as far away as possible, which is shown later.  I hate appliances sitting on the countertops.   I only let the toaster oven sit out because I had to compromise. 

I do just love bright colors.  Rachel Ray has this awesome line that started my orange pot obsession.   I've never seen her show, but the pots were on clearance at Shopko and I've slowly been gathering up various colors.  The mixing bowls I thrifted the other day.  

Now, while I love my countertops, there are just a little touchy.  You can't let water sit too long otherwise it wears off the oil.  Which, it's good that it's gotten me in the habit of constantly wiping the countertops, but we've had them in 6 months and have had to refinish them again already. 

I just love it though.  Such a happy place.  I spend probably 60% of my day in here, cooking, vegging and feeding that baby!  So glad we have it done before this next baby coming!