Day 3: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

Tonight marks the end of day 3 of The 21 Day Sugar Detox for Rich and I. We had another successful day! The book says we should be thinking, "Am I going to make it through this?" Sure, there has been a little bit of uneasiness today, but I never questioned whether I'd get through it. In fact, I spent some time with my cousin, Kim, who has a wheat allergy. (She's also a teacher -- yay for similar schedules!) As we so often do, we went for a long walk (3.5 miles), and we got to talking about things she can (and cannot) eat. She's also trying to lose a bit of weight and is having a go at a high-protien, low-ish carb diet right now. Because of the 21DSD, Kim and I are eating many of the same things. Many staples on a gluten-free diet really mirror the staples on the 21DSD (almond and coconut flours, fresh fruits and vegetables, and so on). I think just being around someone who is of the same mind set (both in diet and weight loss) really helped me to get through the day. Another thing that really does help is the support I'm getting from people on Facebook. Many people have liked my posts and several have commented either asking for recipies* (more on that later, gater), giving encouragement, or asking questions. Having that support, whether it be face-to-face or online, has been really uplifting. So thanks!

While neither of us really felt that the 21 days would never end, Rich is still craving diet soda something fierce. He's an avid...avid soda drinker (really he likes most varieties of drinks), so living without it has been tough for him. Especially since I bought three 12-packs of soda about a week ago! The book also points out that you may experience "fatigue, cold- and flu-like symptoms, low blood sugar, or self-doubt. Day 3 is the beginning of some of the hardest days for most folks!" Ouch. Okay, so most of that wasn't true for either Rich or I, but I certainly had some flu-like symptoms/low blood sugar issues early in the morning. I got up with Rich to make him a breakfast smoothie, and all of a sudden I felt a little like I was going to throw up. Then I felt a lot like I was going to throw up. Feeling like this in the morning on occasion is actually nothing new to me (I'm convinced I have some sort of equilibrium/temperature regulation issue), but I knew it had to have had something to do with cutting sugar completely. out. of. my. diet! I never threw up thankfully. I just nicely requested that Rich not touch me as he was so sweetly trying to do and sweated it out for a few minutes. After that, I was good to go. I drank a smoothie of my own (pumkin spice) and felt much better.

For lunch, we both had leftover beef and bacon cottage pie (yum x 2!), and for dinner I made lemon chicken with artichoke hearts and broccoli on the side. Honestly, the recipe didn't sound or look that fabulous to me from the start, but I'm all about experimenting my way through this. In the end, my instincts were right: neither of us really liked it all that much. Rich said it just tasted like "chicken and vegetables." Booooring! Especially for the amount of work I put into it (not a ton, but enough for it to be better than "chicken and vegetables"). After dinner, we went on another nice long walk (2 miles) and shortly after headed in for bed. All in all, it was a good day.

I'm hoping to update daily, if for no other reason than to document my thoughts and feelings throughout the 21 days. I hope you'll come back and cheer for me along the way.

Check out other posts in this series:

Day 1: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

Day 2: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

*I mentioned I would elaborate more on the recipies thing. I'm still researching what I can and cannot publish on my personal blog. While I know very few people read it, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to the woman (and the village of people who helped her) who wrote and published these books. I'd love to share the recipes with everyone as I know it must be frustrating to read how delicious the meals are and not get a chance to try it yourself, but I want to make sure to do it the right way. I'm looking into it, but in the mean time, because many of you have asked me for the recipe for the beef and bacon cottage pie, I will type it out and private message you on Facebook with it. That, I believe, is just fine and dandy since I'm just sharing a single recipe with a couple friends (something I could do if we were both sitting on my couch talking about it). Either way, thanks for your interest. I hope you continue to follow my journey. P.S. Rich also shared that he was a "little light-headed and tired," but he also said, "that means it's working." Every cloud has a silver lining! :)

Day 2: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

Tonight marks the end of day 2 of The 21 Day Sugar Detox for Rich and I. We had another successful day! The book I purchased suggests we will either feel that "this isn't so bad" or we'd feel like, "will this get easier?!" We are both definitely in the "this isn't so bad" camp. Also suggested in the book is that we might feel "no symptoms at all, or headaches, mental fogginess, or hunger." Well, I can't say that I wasn't hungry at all today (helping my mom dig out of her flooded basement was pretty physical), but I don't expect to feel stuffed on the second day of a life-style change when I'm watching every ounce of food that goes into my body. Rich even remarked that he's feeling great. He says he was in a good mood at work today, which is the opposite of how he's felt for the past few weeks. Crankypants. (Update: I just heard him open the refrigerator and groan. When I asked, "What?" he replied, "I'm thirsty." That's code for, "I want a soda!"

Our dinner tonight was fabulous. We had Beef and Bacon Cottage Pie (a recipe from the cookbook). It consisted of bacon and beef (obviously), green beans, carrots, onions, butternut squash, and a delish spice mix that's also featured in the cookbook. I only included about half of the spice mix for fear of it being too intense, and it turned out great. Rich even approved of the butternut squash, a vegetable he's never tried before and actually side-eyed when I showed him the casserole. I told him he had to try it, but he could scrape it off if he didn't like it. I'm happy to report that he loved it!

I have nothing to report on the weight-loss front, as I'm resisting the urge to weigh myself at all throughout the 21 days. (Sanfilippo suggests that if you want to weigh yourself, you should do so at the beginning and at the end, but not at all in between.) However, Rich, Carly, and I went for a 3-mile walk around the neighborhood. We didn't venture too far because it looked like more rain was on its way. Aiy yai yai. So many folks around these parts have suffered terrible losses due to flooding. I'm talking totaled cars, water up to your waist, ruined finished basement kind of flooding. We are so thankful we didn't flood (our street flooded up to the sidewalk), and we're so thankful that the flooding at my parents' house wasn't worse, but we are thinking about those who have had it much worse.

I'm hoping to update daily, if for no other reason than to document my thoughts and feelings throughout the 21 days. I hope you'll come back and cheer for me along the way.

Check out other posts in this series:

Day 1: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

Day 2: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

Day 1: The 21 Day Sugar Detox

Throughout this past school year, I was super focused on my diet and was exercizing several times per week. With the exception of a couple short breaks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and the occasional weak moment), I was able to maintain that focus for many months. This focus helped me to lose almost 30 pounds over the course of about 7 months. While a slower pace than I'd hoped, a loss is a loss, and the real goal was to live a healthier and more active lifestyle. At the beginning of June, I hit a wall. Work was stressing me out (I think I filled out 56 pieces of meaningless end-of the year paperwork, the kids were actin' kinda cray cray, and my evaluation results were looming), end-of-the-year parties were bumpin' straight jumpin', and Rich's birthday, Rich's dad's birthday, and my dad's birthday were all in the mix to round out a month-long over-eating fest! As so often happens when one is "on a diet," I was waning mentally and chose to give myself a couple breaks. ("I deserve it. I've worked hard this year!" "I'll get back on track tomorrow.") I figured I'd just need to get through the month of June and then my focus would magically reappear.

Spoiler allert (or for those of you hopeful individuals): Magically reappearing focus is not a thing.

Flash forward about 3 weeks. We'd been planning a Caribbean cruise since February. That would happen at the end of July. (Side note: We had a blast.) During aformentioned cruise, we ate, ate, and ate some more. We also did some hiking, golfing, surfing, and swimming which helped to off-set the caloric intake a bit, but two months worth of not thinking about what I was eating was really taking its toll. When all was said and done, I gained about 7 or 8 pounds over the course of 2 or 2.5 months. Stepping on the scale actually had me breathing a small sigh of relief since I thought it was going to be much worse; however, a gain is a gain, and wasn't the real goal to live a healthier and more active lifestyle? It's so frustrating how slow the process of losing weight is and how quick gaining it back can be!

Flash forward to the beginning of August. I was home from the cruise, Summer vacation was winding down (Waaaaahhhh!!!), and I needed to get back on track. Seriously. I had heard and read about The 21 Day Sugar Detox from a couple sources, and after reading into it a bit more, I thought it was something we could do. I hemmed and hawed over it a bit, but in the end, I ordered 2 books: The 21 Day Sugar Detox and The 21 Day Sugar Detox Cookbook, both by Diane Sanfilippo. In fact, I had some old Amazon gift card dolla dolla bills y'all, so I used those, and my total investment so far (besides food) has been about $6. If you had to pay full price for both books, you're looking at about $42.00 total. I read the introduction in the first book in about an hour one night. Some of the things Sanfilippo says really struck me. She explains the difference between good carbs and bad carbs. She also explains that our body (and in particular our liver) functions to flush our system of toxins, so in order to make our body's job easier, we should take steps to put the right things into it. That way, the body can focus mostly on environmental toxins rather than food-based ones. She details how one can expect to feel from day to day when completing the detox (some definite ups and downs, but definitely more ups). Basically, she advocates for clean eating. There's so much research to suggest that clean eating is best for our body, and Sanfilippo takes the guess work out of the transition.

After reading, I whipped up a meal-planning calendar which was a little overwhelming. Many of the ingredients were ones I wasn't used to cooking with, but I was determined to keep an open mind. Once that was finished, my mom and I made a trip to Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and the Bulk Food Store (for spices). I spent about $250.00, which is certainly not chump change, but included in that total are things like oils, flours, spices, and other staples that I will have for months. I estimate that I'll end up spending about $100 per week on fresh ingredients, including vegetables, fruits, and meats. Yesterday was our first day on The 21DSD, and we were very successful. The best part? We had lamb burgers for dinner! They were topped with an avocado mix that was delish. On the side was a salad with a homemade balsamic vinegar dressing. While I'm not a huge meat lover, my husband is. Finding a diet (diet in the most general sense of the word, not a temporary way-of-eating) that works for both of us has been a challenge. Sanfilippo really provides some yummy recipes that incorporate delicious things (bacon anyone?) that most other diets really limit. The way I see it, it charges us to get back to our roots. And when I say roots, I mean eat like cavemen. It makes sense, no? These are the things our bodies were naturally meant to digest. Why fight it? So far, my meat-lovin' husband has been happy.

After the 21 days, the idea is to transition to a paleolithic (paleo) life style where you're preparing and eating similar things with a bit more wiggle room. I'm very excited at the potential this holds. All that said, though, I'm cautiously optimistic. I still have a lot of questions about whether or not we can sustain it. For one, it can be costly; but if we're committed to healthier bodies, that's okay. For another, the world we live in doesn't always support this type of life style. It might be difficult to have lunch with friends or attend gatherings where folks are eating fried foods. For example, I'm going to a crock pot recipe exchange on Thursday (What will I cook? What will I eat?) and Rich is going on a fishing charter with his dad and grandpa next week. Like anything else, it takes time to adjust to. Once adjusted, I think we should be able to figure it out. One more thing: Sanfilippo says that weight loss isn't guaranteed over the course of the 21 days, but she says most people experience weight loss. I do hope to lose some weight. I feel like I'm bound to if I'm cutting sugar out of my life. Plus, sugar aside, if I'm eating any better than I was eating during June and July, I should at least shed a few pounds. I'd really like to get back to where I was at the end of the school year. That means losing 7 or 8 pounds in 3 weeks. That's a pretty lofty goal, I realize. I'm going to call it a loose goal because while I hope to lose the weight, I'll be happy with anything. After all, the real goal is to live a healthier and more active lifestyle, right? ;-)

Speaking of active, I'm off to take a long walk with Rich and Carly. I'm hoping to update this daily, if for no other reason than to document my thoughts, feelings, and progress over the 21 days. I hope you'll come back and cheer for me along the way!

Queen of the Castle - DIY Upholstered Bench

Our little Carly is quite the princess. She's slowly inching her way up to queen status, and I didn't help matters when I gave her a thrown on which to sit.

Our front window has always been a design dilemma for me. For one thing, it's huge. Ginormous, really. Also, it is fashioned with...wait for it...vertical blinds. Ugh. What is this, a doctor's office? But what's a good solution? While there are many options, I have yet to figure out the perfect one.

Before getting Carly, I toyed with the idea of putting a few arm chairs and maybe a table in front of the window. I also really liked the idea of a long bench that offered extra seating. Once we adopted Carly and made the decision that we wouldn't let her on the couch, I thought she should have something comfy to lay on too. As a bonus, she would get to look out the window and go crazy staring at all the rabbits lurking on the other side. Pesky wabbits.

I made a trip to one of the local Salvation Army stores and quickly found exactly what I needed: a small and basic wooden coffee table. I think I paid a little more than $20 for it.

She's really excited about her new bench. Can't you tell? 

I also scored a piece of upholstery fabric for under 3 bucks at the same Salvation Army. Yahoo! What you see is the back of the fabric. I did wash it, but as you can see, I did not iron it. It's just not my thing, okay?

After securing the find of the century a run-of-the-mill coffee table from the 90s, I ran to Joann Fabrics with a 50% off coupon in hand. Here's where it gets ugly. A 4-inch piece of foam that I had cut to the length of my coffee table was 60 dollars. Six. Zero. Whoa, Nelly. I knew it would be expensive, but dang, girl! Figuring I was in pretty deep at this point, I went for it. I also grabbed a large sheet of light-weight batting.

After getting my loot home, I enlisted the help of my favorite husband, Rich, to help me pry the table top off the base. There were several screws involved which were pretty easy, but the thing was also glued down. Once we got it off, I used a marker to trace along the outside edge of the table. Then, I used a serrated bread knife to cut that baby down to size.

Next, I laid the still-not-ironed fabric flat on the floor face down followed by the batting followed by the rectangular cut of foam followed by the table top face down. Before laying the foam or table top on my fabric, I made sure to keep them in line with the pattern on the fabric. It's hard to see in this picture, but I could see the pattern through the back, so it was pretty easy in this case. 

After folding the batting and the fabric over the sides for a rough-measure, I cut the batting so I had enough to wrap and staple. Then, I cut the fabric about an inch and a half wider. Because the pattern on my fabric was pretty linear, it was easy for me to cut a straight line.

I wrapped the batting around and used a staple gun to secure it in several spots. As you can see, I wrapped it kind of like I would a gift. I tried a few different ways, but I thought this looked the best. 

Using the same gift-wrapping method, I wrapped the fabric around and folded the longer edge inside of the batting to give it a more finished look. Again, I stapled in several spots to make sure it was secure. In order to smooth out the many wrinkles, I just made sure to stretch it a bunch before each staple, always making sure to keep it lined up nicely.

Before reattaching the table top, I sanded and stained the legs with Poly Shades Mission Oak, the same color I used on the library file cabinet I worked on a while back. I used the same method this time -- sanded, stained, rubbed with steel wool, stained, let dry for 24 hours.

Finally, using the original holes and screws, my darling husband secured the new bench top into place.

This picture was taken the day we finished it, so you can see the wrinkles really weren't a problem in the end. I really do need to get in the habit of ironing, though. This project sure didn't teach me any lessons.

As you can see, Queen Carly really enjoys her spot on the thrown. Check out the dog-nose-window behind her. She's regal and she's artistic. We got really lucky with this one.

And because I can't resist, this:

All in all, I spent about $75. Considering similar items often cost $150 or more (I've seen them at as much as $699), I'm happy with the outcome. Plus, I can't really put a price on that cute little sleepy face.

A Home With a View

I think I need a little Summer in my life. You? 

Two summers ago, I shared with you that we got our house painted. Well, part of our house anyway. Unless we want to fork out the dough for new siding (or figure out a way to paint that too), we're stuck with the yellowish-beige we inherited with the house.

While it went a long way to spruce up the place, we still felt it was lacking in the curb appeal department. It had come a long way from here, though:

I think my camera must have been on a crazy setting for the "after" picture, because the roof sure does look red. It is a reddish-brown, but it's not quite that ruddy. Anyway, we continued to make some for-now improvements including planting some Idontknows, Whoknowswhatthoseflowersarecalleds, and Okaythesewilldos, 

but planting flowers annually (annuals?) that will just die and never come back just seems like a waste of money (and time and effort) to me. It's just not one of my priorities.

So we saved up some cash and hired professional landscapers. Always a good decision. Check it. We went from this:

See that funny, overgrown tree on the left? Oops.

Wowzas.

Yikes is right. Yeah, I heard you. RIP silly little crooked slab o' cement.

to this in 3 days flat:

We wanted a nice paved walkway. They delivered.

Semi-circular paved porch that stands up to the height of the doorway?
AND it's level? Yes, please.

Because they're so expensive and this one was in such good shape, we
opted to save this cute little Japanese Maple.

Curvalicious.

We sure did go with a herringbone patter. Mmm hmm.

We are very happy with it. The part we love most is that it's low-maintenance -- note the Evergreens galore. However, we did hem and haw over the color of the brick, and if we're honest, we're not 110% pleased we picked the red tones, especially since the paver bricks and the porch stones (the ones on the edge that create the semi-circle) didn't end up being exactly the same color. I hate to be picky -- it's a curse -- but I can't help feeling like the exterior of the house still needs...something.

I've had it in the plans to paint the existing mailbox, porch light, and door hardware (or purchase new ones) for a couple years now. I also think some vertical visual interest (something that unfortunate overgrown tree offered) would help. I'm hopeful that in a few years, things will start to grow up and out to fill in those empty spaces. We promise to keep it trimmed, though!

Those things will probably go a long way; but what about that brick? Concrete-colored brick just isn't my idea of pretty. I'm tempted to try my hand at staining the brick, but boy does that scare the living daylights out of me. I'm not certain that's a project I can tackle, and if I mess up, then what?! It doesn't seem that hard, though. Advice? 

About a Boy

I'm so excited to share this little update!

My cousin, Tara, is having a baby boy in 5 short weeks. This time has just flown by. I can't get over the fact that it really feels like a month (maybe 2) ago that she was telling me she's pregnant. Almost immediately, I decided that I wanted to help her decorate the nursery by buying her little one a dresser. I had big plans to buy an unfinished one from Ikea, and paint it to coordinate with the colors she chose. After much deliberation, I ended up purchasing the HEMNES dresser in gray-brown. I figured I had more choices this way because the gray-brown color as-is could be a nice natural-looking element that might still coordinate with the light gray crib across the room; but I could also still paint the whole dang thing.

While mulling it over in my head, acting on a tip from my aunt, I visited a local boutique called Gracious Seasons and discovered they carry CeCe Caldwell's chalk paint. I picked up several samples, a tub of wax, and a couple brushes to play around with. I did play around and it is some pretty cool stuff! I'll definitely be working with it...on a future project.

I considered color-matching the crib, but worried that it would be too matchy-matchy or not match enough. After she shared her wall color choices with me, I considered using one of them to paint a simple stripe or two across the top of the dresser. I considered hand-painting an argyle pattern across the middle drawers. In fact, I found inspiration from all over the Interwebs:

this sweet little chevron number,
something striped like this,
and these cool little squares that wouldn't change the look of the dresser too much.

In the end, I just wasn't convinced I wanted to do any of them. I felt very paralyzed when I considered that this boy might use this dresser for the next 5? 10? 15? 20? 25? 30? years. I just didn't feel right about altering its look too much. After consulting the mother-to-be, I felt confident that the dresser was a good color. After thinking about it some more, I decided on a less-permanent option: exchanging the hardware.

Below is what I started with. The hardware that came with the dresser wasn't too shabby. The knobs are made of metal and had a nice weight. If left as-is, they would have worked just fine, but I just had to add a personal touch.

Forgive the super-close and pretty dark photos -- the dresser is currently sitting in the middle of the craft room and there's not a lot of wiggle room, the lighting is bad, and I have no interest in opening the shade for natural light because I'm a vampire.

And here's where it ended up:

Aren't the new knobs sweet? I picked all 12 up at Hobby Lobby where they were on sale for 50% off. I spent about $23. It really lightens the whole thing up and gives it a more baby-ish vibe. I went in searching for 12 of the same, but I'm glad it worked out this way. For one thing, they didn't have 12 of any one kind. For another, I think the varying styles give it a very whimsical vibe. Because the drawers get slightly bigger from top to bottom, I decided on a small, round, and white knob for the top 4 drawers, a slightly larger green one for the middle 4 drawers, and a larger-still black and white chevron dude for the bottom 4 drawers.

I plan on giving her the original hardware so she can neutralize it if she ever wants to, but for now, I think it's pretty cute!

I also picked up this cute little tray on clearance for $5.20. The clearance at at the Lobby of Hobbies is pretty beefy right now. I imagine they're trying to clear out last year's stuff.

Tara thinks she wants to use the dresser as a changing area, so I picture the tray holding things like powder and Butt Paste. I love that Butt Paste is an actual thing.

Also, Carly helped. 

I'm so stinkin' excited to meet that little boy. I sure hope this dresser serves him well for a long, long time.

Can anyone hear me?

Hello again! I've been very neglectful of this little blog. While I know I don't have many followers, I do love writing and crafting so it's a shame I've treated it so. Many of the same things consistently go through my mind when thinking about my little slice of the Internet:

• Should I continue to write when I feel like no one is watching? 
• Should I even care if people are watching?
• Is what I write authentic? I like to think it is, but being an avid reader of several popular blogs, I see a lot of inauthentic (from my perspective) content.
• Speaking of those popular blogs, it'd be great to one day have even half as many followers; but is that possible when it feels like they have such a large piece of the pie and when it feels like blogging is slowly becoming a lost art?
• Are the projects I do in my home too influenced by Pinterest and the Internet in general? I would really like to focus on finding my style, and that's hard when there's (awesome) inspiration coming from every direction. 
• Is home decorating what I'm really passionate about? I'm definitely a lover of all things home and all things pretty, but is it what really gets my gears a-movin'? I've toyed with the idea of altering the main content of Walks Like Rain. My main focus right now is work. Work. Work. Work! Because of that, I pour all of my energy into the content that I teach. Should this be a teaching/education blog? Would I be doing myself a disservice to "bring my work home," or would it give me a platform (albeit a small one) on which to stand? 
• Am I wasting my time? I have a passion for writing, but wouldn't it be more productive and possibly even lucrative to write something else? A short story? A novella? A novel? Articles for a teaching periodical? Heck, maybe even a book for teachers filled with tried-and-true teaching strategies?

At any rate, I have clearly been thinking about the blog. Honestly, it pops into my head at least once a week. Between working full time, finishing my first master's, and now working on completing my second master's, I find it hard to fit it in. I will say, though, it just hasn't been a priority. I tend to grind my teeth when I tell someone about a book I just finished and they retort, "Oh, it's so nice that you read so much. I don't have time for that." I (sometimes) politely tell them that they do have time for it, they just don't make it a priority. The blog is to me as reading is to that person. (I kicked butt at analogies in middle school.) If I really believe in it, I need to make it a priority.

I do realize that there aren't many people who consistently read this blog while it was active, but I'd like to pose the question: Should I keep chugging along? Please let me know what you think. 

Thanks to anyone who's still listening! :)