ISO Pampering!

Pampering? I remember what it was. I did it often before I had a child. Do I need it? Yes, Please!

This has been the worst week. My DS decided to become a different child during our morning routine.

Day 1 - "Milk!" You want milk sweetie? "NO!" Alright, I will continue doing what I am doing and just pour the milk anyway. I don't let him near it until he asks for it. DS sees it..."Milk Peese!" Ok, sweetie here you go. He no longer wants it and pours the milk all over the table. UGH! Time out he goes.
Day 2 - Exact same!
Day 3 - Momma caught on and used a sippy cup with a lid. Crisis avoided! DS refused to eat breakfast and screamed and cried all morning instead.

I know it doesn't read like much, but I miss my son when I'm at work and enjoy every minute I get to spend with him. I love(d) our mornings. They are usually quite pleasant and fun. I get kisses and hugs and leave for work and all is well.

This week however just was so stressful. He decided to push boundaries which is normal for a two year old, but Mommy is less patient during the week. I get up at 5:30am; shower; make breakfast; pack lunches; run out of the house and commute 1 hour in traffic. I don't deal as well with boundary pushing as I do on the weekends.

I decided I needed Pampering. I have been hearing about Lush, but had no idea what it was.  I went to Lush on my lunch break...I was a Lush virgin when I went in and a Lush addict when I left. I love the stuff. I try to be mostly natural. (I would do a lot more if I didn't work 40 hours a week. I do what I can and hope for the best. I'll get into the things I do to be more "natural" in another blog post.) In any case; Lush was just perfect for me. Everything smelled DELICIOUS, but wasn't overpowering. I have a very sensitive nose. I can't walk into a Yankee Candle and not get a migraine. I can't wear perfume without getting a migraine. I can however lather myself in my Lush Percup massage bar and smell my hands uncontrollably all day and still remain migraine free! This is a huge plus.

My First Lush Haul

• Mint Julip
• D'Fluff
• Ocean Salt
• Ro's Argan Body Conditioner
• Bubble Bar - The comforter
• Bath Bomb - Baby Bot
• Fun bar
• Massage Bar - Percup
• 3 samples

So far I've tried most of my haul and have been completely thrilled with each purchase.

I can't wait for this weekend when I'll actually have time to take a bath with my Bubble bar.

Let the Pampering commence!


Day 4 - Perfect Angel (Today)

Shakeology

I thought Shakeology deserved it's own post. First and foremost Beachbody is a MLM company. Some people refer to them as pyramid schemes. This means that people buy into them and resell their products. It is EXTREMELY difficult to find a non-biased review due to this.

I am in no way affiliated with Beachbody. I'm not a coach, and I don't make money from them. Hell I just started working out to Beachbody videos 5 days ago so I really have no vested interest. I did however really want to try it.

The reason Shakeology interested me so much was the ingredients. It does not have the same ingredients as other protein drinks I have had in the past or read about online. It also wasn't filled with artificial sweeteners or sugar which I really loved. I am not looking for a protein drink as much as a nutritional supplement. I found a few other Meal Replacement shakes that happen to be vegan that did come close to the ingredient list from Garden of Life.

I still couldn't help wanting to try Shakeology, but I wasn't going to fork over $120 for a taste. I found a Beachbody coach and purchased the sample pack from her. Hey if I can help someone else make some money so be it.

REVIEW:

I tried Greenberry first because I read it was the worst. Recipe below:

1/2 cup unsweetend Almond Milk
1/2 banana
1/4 cup frozen mango
water and ice to thin it out
Blended it up in my Vitamix

The best way to describe it was it tasted "healthy". It didn't taste bad, but I wouldn't refer to it as the most delicious shake I've ever had either. As I was drinking it I started liking it more and more. I tend to like the way protein bars taste. You know when someone says "Yuck, it tasted like vitamins!" Well I'm the person that will say oooo Yum to that product. I guess I like the way vitamins taste. In any case, if it can do what they say it can (very skeptical), I'd buy it. I'm also going to try the shake from Garden of Life.

Does anyone know of any other protein/meal replacement/nutritional supplement shakes without artificial sweeteners? If so; please let me know.

                                                                               

Losing the baby weight

Long time no post... It's been 2 years since I last updated. I cannot believe how many things have changed since then.

-Married

-New House

-Baby

-Got a Vitamix! (It is really life changing. I LOVE IT!)

Here I am still complaining about losing this baby weight and my son turned 18 months on the 6th. It has been a year and half since I had him I am still carrying 30 lbs of extra baby weight. It's not like I was super skinny before, so yea, this sucks! I have been procrastinating buying clothes, bra, underwear, etc all because I do not want to buy a bigger size. It's depressing and the only person holding me back is me. Kinda sad when you think about it. I am my own worst enemy. 

I decided to make a change on Sunday. I had purchased the ChaLEAN Extreme workout program in 2012 and used it twice? I made the decision to start doing it ASAP. The problem is that the cardio videos were way too long. I got Focus T25 and made a hybrid workout schedule that will work for me: 

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=e53j5icgnepq1mpsjc7uuhsghk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

Yup! I'm HOT! Literally. 

This means I need to take at most 40 minutes for myself each day. This is of course after working all day, commuting 1 hour each way, making dinner, talking the dogs and baby for a walk, bath time, baby bedtime routine, and ME time. Then TV time with the hubby hopefully some game time and bed by 9:30pm EST. It's slightly crammed, but I'm making it work.  I'll even post a picture of me all red faced and tired, but still smiling!!

My husband even started joining me on the ChaLEAN workouts. It makes it more fun to watch him suffer too. :) I am excited to take this baby weight loss journey. Not because I love to torture myself or exercising, but to prove to myself that I can do it.

Green Smoothie Recipe

This is my favorite Green Smoothie recipe:

8oz of milk (any kind. cow, soy, almond)
1/2 cup (or so) Dole Frozen Mango Chunks
1 Banana
Baby Spinach - Handful
-add some water if it's too thick

Yummy! It's simple and taste great! I swear they are addicting.

Sunday is only 1 day from Monday :(

I've been terribly busy for well over a month now. I feel like I will never ever NOT be busy again. I had to work on an off all day yesterday. It's crazy!  Yes, I am just complaining to complain.

Ah....That feels better!

My Ninja

I finally did it!

I bought a Ninja Pulse. For the past few years I've wanted a Vitamix. They are really cool and are like a food processor and blender mixed in 1, but they are $500. I just can't bring myself to buy one if I am not 100% certain I am going to use it and use it often.  I do however still want a blender that can make a green smoothie that isn't chunky and wouldn't mind some food processing ability too.

Then one day I was watching TV and an infomercial came on for the Ninja. It seemed to do almost everything the Vitamix did for less than half the price. I don't normally trust things I see on TV and in my experience cheaper is NEVER better so I just put it in the back of my mind.

Well...My husband and I were at Bed Bath and Beyond and I see all the Ninja varieties available and they are even cheaper than the were on TV. I decided to give it a shot. If it can do most of what the Vitamix could do, but slightly worse; i'd still be thrilled.  The coolest thing and the reason I picked the pulse was because of the 3 16oz portal cups that you can make smoothies in. I guess similar to the Magic Bullet. This allow me and Eric to make different types of smoothies without having to wash the blender in between. It's SOOOOO much easier.  It's really freaking awesome to be quite honest.  I can now make green smoothies that are perfectly smooth. That's all I really wanted it for, but now that I have it I am going to have to give food processing a try.

This week I am going to make hummus and I'll post a review with pictures with how my Ninja Pulse handled it.

If you are looking for a good blender that does job and does the job pretty well without breaking the bank...Try out the Ninja. They are on Sales at Bed Bath and Beyond for $80.00 right now.

To be or not to be....

...a vegetarian.

I am dumb. I watched a video on animal slaughter and was ready to become a vegetarian. I understand that we have billions of people to feed in this world and it's hard to kill an animal in a nice way, but we have to change something. It's just life long suffering and then we kill them in the most brutal way. It's like the people doing the killing forget they are living things. It should be a quick and swift death, not long drawn out and painful. I don't know I just was disgusted with what I saw.

I thought to myself...Hey I was vegan for quite a while when I was younger! It's really not a big deal to not eat meat. I like it, but I like vegetarian food too. I can do this! I use soy milk in my coffee already. Then I looked down at my prized possession...My Coach purse is made of leather!!!! Not just that, I have leather seats in my car, the gummy vitamins made with gelatin that I eat every morning, and much more. How can I say to myself...I won't eat meat because of animal cruelty, but look at my new Coach purse! :-/

I feel I try to do my part. For the most part all my body products are not tested on animals. I used body wash that is from the Body Shop. My face creams and shampoo's are Aveda. I use mostly 7th gen products for cleaning and I try to bring reusable bags grocery shopping.

Does every little bit truly help?

My manager said to just do my best. Whatever made me feel better is what I should do. That's what Eric said too. I just don't want to be labeled a hypocrite.  I don't eat meat, but by golly I wear it! Dammit....