'Tis the season to be baking ...

Hope things have been kosher with you since my last post. We're doing well here, just enjoying every single second of the Christmas spirit that's swirling around daily, and hoping it doesn't slip past us too soon. Z has been fighting off what we believe to be a nasty cold, sincerely hoping it's not another flare up of his sinuses, like last Christmas. (See: this post from last February.)

As I mentioned, we have been sucking in every second possible of Christmas music, decorations, prepping for the upcoming feast (at our house) and lots of fires in the fireplace. Christmas is in a mere 7 days, and I'm already anxious about it's departure. I cannot put into words how much I love this season, and how happy my heart is during these last months of every year.

One of my favorite ornaments on our tree.

Another one of my favorites.

One of Aaron's favorites.

My best friend's tree at her home.

My parents' tree at their home.

Aaron's creation outside our house.

As well as his tribute to the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

The fun Christmas tree aisle at Garden Ridge.

Cozy kitty.

Keoki trying to cuddle up with Z by sitting ON the iPhone he was playing on.

Z, trying to be accommodating. Ha.

Aaron's busy season at work happened the last few weeks, so he was out the door by 6:30am each day, not to return until about 9:00pm every night. Now that he's finally done with that phase of his job, he's still feeling the ramifications of such a crazy schedule.

Poor guy sits still for five minutes, and passes out.

I have been busy planning a party for Z's 3rd grade class this coming Wednesday, as well as making a list & checking it twice when it comes to baking supplies. I'm going to be a busy, busy girl the next few days.

One pile of things to make.

Another pile of things to make (for Santa & his elves).

Last pile of things to make.

Whew! Like I said, busy girl. I also made a recipe tonight that my Mom gave me last night (thanks again, Ma!) which turned out DELICIOUS. They are called Amazing Gluten-Free Layer Bars, and that is not a lie - they were, indeed, amazing!

Before.

After.

Yum! I'm not much into giving gifts, so much as I am into giving FOOD. Yes, my neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family get lots of goodies every Christmas, and I'm glad I haven't heard any complaints yet. I, too, love receiving food from friends and neighbors, because honestly, I have everything I need. Ok, aside from this one coffee mug Aaron showed me ...

Seriously?! A camera lens?! Brilliant!

A bigger, travel-mug version. Love!

And I suppose I would be lying if I said I didn't wish this was coming to my house when I see it barreling down I-35 each day:

Hey, a girl can dream, right? But I know, in my heart of hearts, that I am so lucky to have so much when others out there have so little. Something that seems so as simple as a holiday meal is a struggle for many families out there, and I do not take my good fortune for granted. No way. I'm so thankful and grateful to have my family, my friends, our health, each other's laughter, and lots of scrumptious foods surrounding us this year. I hope every one of you has a truly magical holiday, however you choose to spend it. Since I will buried in baking for the next few days, I will catch up with everyone again after Christmas. Until then -- Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and God bless us all ... everyone. (<-- insert Tiny Tim's small, British voice here.)

Love & peace.

Christmas in two weeks? Seriously?

Hello friends. As you may notice, the blog looks different, and consists of a color you all know me to primarily HATE. I was feeling the need for a change, and the disco balls sucked me in. I figured if they happen to drag along some pink in the mean time, so be it. For some reason, it works in my eyes. If I could change the background color and still keep the groovy disco balls, I would, but we're all going to have to just put up with pink, because I ain't getting rid of those disco balls. (Not yet, anyway.)

I haven't written in about six weeks, mostly because of the trouble I had been having with posting pictures recently. The process became not-as-easy-to-do as it once was, so it turned me off from blogging for a bit. You know how much I love to take pictures & post them for the world to see, and having that ability taken away from me left me annoyed. Therefore, I pouted a little and refrained from posting. In addition, I had been toying with the idea of moving my blog to tumblr (another blog hosting site), and had been researching the switch. Either I'm not interweb-savvy enough to figure it out, or it can't be done, but I gathered that I wouldn't be able to merge this blog with a new one on tumblr, so this blog (that has held years of posts) would cease to exist. The thought broke my heart too much to follow through with, so I decided to just stay put, and change the look of my blog - hence the pink disco balls.

So, here we are, back in the saddle. Pictures have been working, for now, so I'm crossing my fingers that things will stay that way ... and let's catch up.

Halloween came & went, and it was a blast - as always. We decorated the house and scoured the neighborhood for candy with Z that night. His costume choice this year? A special forces guy. Yeah, that's right, I have a 9-year old badass wannabe.

My friend (who also happens to be my boss) Amber, decided we should dress up at the office this year. I went as Coach Sue Sylvester from Glee, she was Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, and our leasing manager was a penguin.

Cool sidenote: I'm a Pinterest junkie, like most 30-something women in the world, and I made something that I found on that site. A little treat for Z's class ... witch hat cookies.

So, HA! I can finally wear this badge loud & proud ...

November brought some long-anticipated cooler weather, and bunches of birthdays & anniversaries. My Dad turned 65, and we indulged ourselves on PF Changs to celebrate his achievement. Thanksgiving arrived and we again indulged ourselves in the usual turkey-day fare. It was every bit as scrumptious as it's been every year since I was a kid, maybe even a little more so because we hadn't been eating much meat or gluten in the weeks prior. The very next day was "black Friday" for the rest of the world, but in our little world, it was Aaron's birthday. For the first time in 11 years, he didn't have to be at work on the day after Thanksgiving, and that, in itself, made his entire day. To make things a little sweeter, my family, Ken, and I all pitched in to buy him his dream gift -- a Kindle Fire. He had been drooling over these little marvels of technology for a few months, but he was always on the fence about e-readers. We went ahead and decided FOR him, and nudged him into the future of books. He was ecstatic, and has been spending lots of time exploring his new toy. I have become a widow to the Kindle Fire, but hey, that's ok with me. I love to see him so happy. I'm guessing these Kindle Fires are a hot commodity this Christmas, because it took an act of God to actually get one from Best Buy ... they were hidden quite well, padlocked in a cage, located near the ceiling ...

Next thing I knew, December was here, and what does that mean? I turned another year older. Welcome, 37. I don't feel like I should be getting acquainted with you yet, but hey, not much I can do to stop it. We had a small gathering at our house to celebrate, and Aaron made a recipe out of one of my favorite cookbooks:

(Yes, I'm still bitter about that show ending, and I must still indulge my inner mobster-wife. Long live Carmela!)

I picked out a recipe called Spaghetti Pie, found all the ingredients, then Aaron brought it all to life for us to enjoy. Here's a picture of Aaron's creation, below the picture from the book:

Impressive, no? It was delicious, and enjoyed with crusty bread & butter, as well as lots of laughs. It doesn't get much better, if you ask me.

Most recently, we have erected the giant Lawson Christmas tree, and have been enjoying it thoroughly on a daily basis. This year was the first in a few years that we didn't want to set the thing on fire while trying to put it back together. Decorating it was fun, and full of excitement and Christmas hope, as it should be every year.

(excuse the messy coffee table, por favor)

And that pretty much catches us up. Z is doing great in school, and was recently invited to a summer camp based on his academic performance & testing scores. Soccer is over, and we're enjoying having our Saturdays back, though we haven't done a whole lot with them so far. The cars have behaved themselves for the past few weeks (*knock on wood*), and our jobs are plodding along swimmingly.

Now that I know I can post pictures once again, I vow to blog more regularly. I'm very excited about Christmas coming, I just can't believe it's only 14 days away. Time flies when you're old, er, having fun. Hope all has been well with all of you, and I'll be back ... soon!!

Love & peace.

In summary ... finally.

How's that for an anti-climatic ending? Sheesh - sorry. All three of us got knocked down with a terrible case of allergies, just as the cleanse ended. The last thing I wanted to do each day was get on the computer, after having just spent all day on the computer at work. Forgive me!

So, we finished! Hooray!


After all was said and done, I can't believe how fast it went by. The first week dragged, but then that way of eating became our "normal", so days started cruising by way faster. Since many of you have asked, I'll summarize the pros and cons of the cleanse.

PROS:

- We slept better. Without a doubt, some of the restful sleep we've had since before we became parents. I guess when your body isn't working extra hard to expel or process all the crap you've put in it, it can do it's intended job & concentrate on actual repair and restoration.

- We woke up easier. Even without coffee, yes, it's true. The alarm would go off, and I found myself not needing to hit "snooze" seventeen times before getting out of bed. I guess getting super good sleep will make it easier to pop up in the morning.

- There were no afternoon dumpy lulls. That infamous time of day, between 3:00pm - 5:00pm, when everyone dips down mentally and wishes they could curl up for a nap became a thing of the past. I used to have to fight to keep my eyes open during that time of day, EVERY SINGLE DAY. But, I noticed once we changed our diet, and helped ourselves become more balanced, that feeling vanished.

- Skin cleared up. I used to get these red, dry patches of skin on my arms and my legs, constantly. No amount of Aveeno Intense Relief cream would make them go away, so I had started to wonder if maybe I didn't have a slight case of psoriasis & I was about a week away from going to see a dermatologist. Glad I didn't, because within a week of changing what we ate, all of the patches disappeared. Amazing. Clearly, I was having some kind of reaction to what I ate, but since I eliminated everything from my diet at once, it is hard to say what caused them in the first place. I'll keep an eye on it as we phase things back into our diet.

CONS:

- Eating healthy is expensive. It's just a fact. I understand the logic of spending the extra money, because it'll save you trips to the doctor and expensive prescriptions later on in life, but there's no denying how painful of a hit it is to your wallet. We made adjustments to our budget, and cut back in other places, but it's difficult.

- Taking on a diet like this is not easily accessible outside of your home. Granted, I live in a very hippy, vegan-friendly, nature-loving city, and though there are more restaurants here that cater to that lifestyle, we still had to really research to find them. And, once we found them, eating out as a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free vegan came with a big price tag. If I was a bazillionaire, I would open up a chain of restaurants across the country that catered to a vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free diet, so people would be more apt to giving the lifestyle a try. But, until people start demanding a better standard for what they put in their mouths, and stop shoveling in crap from The Olive Garden, Chili's, & Cheesecake Factory into their bodies, things won't change.

- Eating healthy can be, well, boring. Most people - me included! - get excited going out to eat, knowing they'll get fare they don't usually cook at home, and that fare is usually greasy, sodium-laden, unbelievably delicious nonsense. Veggies, tofu, tempeh, and brown rice don't hold the same appeal or flash, by any stretch of the imagination. Things weren't ever bland, but they weren't blow-your-socks-off scrumptious, either. I love the social aspect of eating naughty things, because it's fun, you're usually committing these culinary crimes with a friend or two, and food memories are something you never forget. Those kind of food memories were never made over a salad, I'm pretty sure. So, I did miss some of the excitement that came with the old way of eating.

So, as you can see, we noticed some really good pay-offs, as well as some put-offs. We totally understand if this way of eating is not for everyone, because we were "everyone" as recently as one month ago. Overall, though, we're really glad we threw ourselves into this and have no regrets. In case I didn't explain it enough during the cleanse, the whole point behind changing what you eat is to help balance your body's pH. Your body will always perform better and feel better when you are more alkaline than acidic. The book we followed went into great detail about this, and it also listed foods and their alkalinity or acidity. Cells need oxygen, they love it. Eating alkaline rich foods gives them that oxygen they crave. On the flip side, cancer cells hate oxygen. They can't do their nasty little thang they do when in an oxygen-rich environment. Acidic foods deprive your cells of oxygen, helping give cancer cells the perfect environment to grow. When you eat crappy, greasy, salty, fat-filled foods, your white blood cells spike - the same thing they do when disease or infection occurs in your body. This way of eating & living has proven to be key in the author's life, as she began this change in diet because she was diagnosed with stage IV, inoperable, untreatable cancer. Her cancer was so rare, they didn't know much about it, except that no chemo or radiation would help. Doctors found her an amazing case-study, but could offer her no real options. She was given a grim diagnosis, and an expiration date not far off from her diagnosis date. Now, 8 years later and having changed her diet to include alkaline rich foods, her cancer is dormant, and her tumors have not grown. Her grim diagnosis has morphed into an exceptional outcome, and she has earned herself the precious gift of time. It's truly something to think about.

After eating that way for three solid weeks, it was hard to transition back into foods of the past. We did NOT go crazy or binge, but instead we tiptoed back into meat & dairy. (We are still avoiding sugar.) Meat went ok, though we've only had it twice so far since the cleanse ended, and dairy was different for both of us. It hasn't seemed to bother Aaron when he's had some milk or cheese, whereas it has torn me up both times I've tried. Instead of forcing my body to digest something it clearly feels better without, I'm going to skip dairy from here on out. I was never a huge dairy eater/drinker in the first place, so this isn't a big sacrifice for me. I'd rather skip the cheese than feel nauseated after eating it. I know, I bet you never thought you'd hear me say that.

My proudest achievement in all this? I'm still soda sober. I have been able to stiff-arm my biggest vice, even post-cleanse. It has been 31 days since I have had a soda, and I'm stunned. I never thought I'd be able to do that. In days of old, I usually only had one a day, but I looked forward to that one-a-day like a kid looking forward to Christmas. We have eased back into drinking coffee, but only one cup on weekends. It gives us something to look forward to - a nice treat for getting through the week. Otherwise, we're still drinking our lemon water with cayenne pepper each morning, and green juices afterward. Feels good.

I'm so happy to say that I have two friends who have decided to buy the book and start the cleanse for themselves. Yay! One of them is doing great on it, the other is struggling a bit more. Either way, I'm glad to know our healthy attitude was contagious. It is very hard to make changes when you've been doing things a certain way for decades, & I'm so proud of them for even trying.

Thanks again to all of the people who were so supportive along our journey. I had a friend tell me years ago that it takes 21 consecutive work-outs to change and WANT to work-out, but only 3 missed workouts to send you back to square one. I wonder if that's why this was a 21-day cleanse? It does seem to be true for us - we did 21 consecutive days of changed eating habits, and now we WANT to eat this way on our own free will. Change can be scary, but it can also be beautiful. Here's to health, happiness, and feeling pHabulous!

Love, peace, & veggies.

Day 20

This is us today.

Pushing through, though, and headed towards the finish line. Game days/weekends are tough, when nothing sounds good but greasy, horrid, disgustingly delicious food.

Z is spending the night out, so we're going out to a play to keep our minds off the crankiness, and have some laughs. We can do it. (Right?)

Highlight of the day: a friend texted and said she & her husband were inspired by us, and bought the Crazy Sexy Diet book today. They are starting their cleanse on Monday. Hell yes! Love it!

C'mon day 21 ... I need the impending sense of accomplishment to shift my mood. No more cranky-butt Lawsons tomorrow.

Love, peace, & veggies.

Day 19

I'm still a little in shock that today is day 19 of the cleanse. Day 21 is in sight! I'm sitting here at work, having my usual breakfast ... one of these:

Followed by one of these:

I will say that since we know we're almost done, the cravings are coming on stronger than they ever have. I've been daydreaming about things like sandwiches, barbecue chicken, garlic breadsticks, fettucine alfredo, cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, PIE, parmesan Goldfish, yogurt pretzels, Frosted Flakes, Einstein's Asiago bagel with a plain shmear ... ahhhhh. All the food of the good ol' days. I promise though, I'm not going to pig out on day 22 or gorge myself on the things we've eliminated so far. And not just because I think it will make me incredibly ill, but because it's too hard to deny how good we've been feeling. Being off all that junk has felt pretty darn amazing. My sister's birthday marks the end of our cleanse, so it'll be interesting to see how my tummy tolerates her birthday dinner & a tiny piece of cake.

I've had to take the last two days off from exercising, because my right hamstring needed a rest. (Wow, was that painful.) I've been loading up on protein the past few days, as well as icing it at night, so I think I'll be in good shape to try and workout tonight.

Today I'm meeting Aaron for lunch, since we now work so close. What will be our lunch fare? Why, Veggie Heaven, of course!

It's a vegan, gluten-free dream. Tofu cooked all different ways, vegetable proteins, veggies, rice noodles, brown rice - you name it, they've got it. Added bonus? They are within walking distance of Aaron's work. Thankyouverymuch!

Looking forward to kicking day 19's butt, and heading strong into the weekend ... day 20 & 21!

Love, peace, & veggies.

Days 11-16

So, we are in the homestretch. WOW! Can't believe it's already the final week of this cleanse. Time flies when you're having fun, right? That is definitely true. We have just incorporated the new food and new changes as a new lifestyle, and it's been pretty easy these past couple of days. I will say that Sunday was challenging for me, and I had to fight through a lot of cravings and food porn swirling around in my head. I think that probably had something to do with the time of the month, if you catch my drift. *cough cough* Enough said about that.

Proud to say, though, I fought through the sexy mental food images and all the urges to eat whatever my little PMSing heart desired, and I did not cheat or stray from the cleanse. Aaron is doing so well, I'm still amazed. We're both sleeping fabulously, feeling energized, exercising, and all-around feeling on our game. All of that is directly related to this cleanse and the changes we've made about what we put in our bodies. It's amazing how when you make a decision to do something, even if it seems radical, and stick to it, other things will fall in to place. We are living testimony to that.

So, we've still been discussing and brain-storming about what we want to keep doing after our 21 days are up. So far, our list of "keeps" is:

- Almond milk in place of cow milk

- Vegan butter/cheese

- Green drinks

- All the hippy, non-sugar cereals

- No caffeine

- Sea salt instead of regular table salt

- No whites (bread, sugar, salt)

Aaron is even stretching a little farther and is aiming to stay off coffee. He loves the way he feels in the morning after his lemon water with cayenne pepper, and his cup of decaf green tea. I struggle with the concept of ditching coffee altogether, but I've clearly proven that I can live without it. It will come down to a matter of choice, and I'm still on the fence. I simply love it, more than I love most food/drinks, and it'd almost bum me out to say "adios" permanently. I will keep thinking on that the next few days.

Things we plan to pull back on after we're done?

- Salads, just for a few days. Can't. Take. Anymore.

- Gluten-free bread, simply because of cost. $5.89 a loaf makes me cry.

- Frozen dinners. Those have been handy, but the gluten-free, dairy-free ones are also costly.

- No meat. We will phase it back in, but on a very limited basis, and only local. (We love you, Bastrop Cattle Company!)

Both of these lists will change (most likely grow) over the next couple of days, so I'll do a final list of "keeps" and "outs" at the end.

Last thing before I go, I think I fell short on protein the past few days. My muscles have felt weaker than usual, and I have pulled both hamstrings, as well as my arms while doing yoga and working out. I had begun eating less beans last week than I started out eating, and my body let me know that that's NOT ok in a few painful, but loving reminders. I did make a conscious effort to beef up (for lack of a better word) my protein intake today, and I'll continue to do so until we're done. If any of you ever try this cleanse, don't skimp on the protein. It'll hurt!

Remember the perk of this cleanse? Yes, shedding excess garbage and weight. Total of pounds lost so far: Aaron = 9lbs. Me = 7lbs. Not bad for 16 days. I love how changing to this lifestyle eliminates the craziness of having to count calories and follow diets. Good things just happen naturally once you put better (see: plant-based) stuff in your face, and commit to working out so your heart stays happy. Beautiful.

Bring on day 17!

Love, peace, & veggies.

Days 8-10

Things are putting along, doing good, feeling GREAT, having fun with our new culinary adventure. Only complaint? Salads are getting old. Yes, it's true, and we knew it was coming, but we are definitely becoming weary of salads. You can dress them up a ton of different ways, and I think we've tried them all by this point - none of the fanciness changes the fact that it's still a salad. I know they're super good for you, and we're saturating our systems with alkalinity (yay!), but damn. We sorta kinda dread salads at mealtimes now.

One thing I made for us this week was organic tomato soup with vegan gluten-free grilled cheese sandwiches. Deeeeeelish, if I do say so myself.

Look at those gorgeous organic tomatoes on the side. Mmmm!

It even looks like a real grilled cheese, right? It was so good!

Courtesy of Amy's, with some vegan cheese shreds sprinkled in.

Especially good if you dunk it.

At this point, we have noticed one more thing about this change in diet -- both of us sleep better. We have been making a concerted effort to get a solid 8 hours of sleep each night, and boy, do we sleep gooooooooooood. Like a rock, I tell ya. No waking up mid-way through the night, no tossing & turning, just amazing, uninterrupted slumber. No wonder we wake up better each morning, even without the coffee!

We've been asked by many over the past few days, "what will you do when the cleanse is over?". Good question. We are talking about it, deciding what we want to continue, what we miss, and how things will go. Once we have figured that out, I will pass that info along. For now, it's looking like we will phase meat back in, but only sporadically, and maybe only one or two kinds of meat. And I'm not even going to lie -- we all know I'm going to drink coffee again. But, maybe less (trying to keep my acidity in balance), and maybe decaf? The deliberation continues ...

Added bonus: we're both down another pound. Wurd!

On to day 11!

Love, peace, & veggies.

Week 1 - DONE!

Holy guacamole - week one is OVAH! Woo hoo! Happy dance!

Still doing good, still feeling good, and still going strong. (Aaron is having a rough day today, but he's pushing through it like a champ!) Kris' book warned that about now, we would be hearing negativity from people around us, in the form of questioning why we're putting ourselves through this. That has definitely not been the case for us - we've had oodles of support, tons of curiosity, and lots of encouraging pats on the back. Our friends ROCK! Yes, we get the occasional neighbor, soccer parent, or random co-worker who will make a half-joking, half-shitty comment about how insane we are, or make that face that clearly says they think we're stupid, though they are trying hard to not to articulate that with their words. But, that's ok - they don't bother us because we're doing this for us, not them, and it's awesome. I'm proud of us, and I'm celebrating the small victories, like not having had a drop of caffeine, a sprinkle of sugar, or a bite of meat for seven days. It's mind over matter, and I know now I am capable, if I really want to do it. Our bodies are bowing to us in gratitude.

Still getting creative with food. I've become quite the researcher this past week, and it's slowly sparking that food creativity I talked about a few days ago. I have learned to scour every corner of HEB, because you never know what hidden treasures you will find. Por ejemplo:

Tofu fried brown rice with edamame, carrots, mushrooms & onions.

YUMMERS! Totally good. I also found Aaron some tofu red chili tamales, which he liked (forgot to take a picture). We were a little worried about facing our first weekend on this cleanse, because we had a UT game to get through without "game food", and because we usually eat out on weekends for fun. Well, I bought a can of organic fat-free refried beans, some tortilla chips (we can have them as long as they're blue corn), I made some salsa, bought some vegan cheese shreds and guess what? NACHOS! Aaron sprinkled some of that cheese into the beans, heated them up and we had our own revised, healthy version of "game food".

Sorry, not the prettiest picture - snapped it after we had been munching for a bit.

Yum.

Thanks to my Mom for this recipe.

Cheese that's non-dairy. Who knew?

Action shot! First dip in beans, then salsa. Mmmmm.

You could definitely say that cravings are beginning to rear their ugly little heads. We have both daydreamed about how good a bacon cheeseburger would be, how sinful Pei Wei would taste, how amazing some ice cream might be ... and luckily, we have options! Good people out there have made something for everyone, you just have to seek it out. We made a run to Sprouts tonight for some indulgence, and this was our loot:

Aaron had the Amy's bowl for dinner, and I opted for making my own personal gluten-free, vegan pizza. I know, it may not get your blood pumping, but to this gal, it was fabulous!

Bless you, Sprouts. GF dough without eggs.

Add some organic tomato sauce & vegan cheese ...

Pizza!

Since we found "ice cream" for non-dairy/no sugar eaters, I snagged a chocolate pint made from almond milk and Aaron opted for a coconut pint made from coconut milk. Both were sweetened with cane juice.

Definitely two thumbs up. Granted, I'm not a huge ice cream fan to begin with, so this stuff was good enough for me & rocked my socks. Aaron is more the ice cream connoisseur, so I'm sure he would've much rather had the creamy goodness of Blue Bell, but he liked his Coconut Bliss just fine for tonight. We are also allowed to have one small piece of dark chocolate (70% or higher) if the sweet tooth won't stay away, so we bought two different kinds of those, as well as a box of gluten-free, sugar-free cookies. Didn't try any of those tonight, but I'm sure we'll bust into those during this week.

All in all, it was a great first week, full of exploration and trying new things. No complaints other than the occasional headache. One thing we have noticed for sure is we now actually feel hungry. We don't just eat because it's "lunch time" or "dinner time" - we have definite feelings of hunger and being full. It doesn't take much to fill us up these days, either! We never realized how much we were probably overeating before. Also, Aaron has lost 6 pounds, and I've lost 4 pounds - a nice side effect.

On to week 2!

Love, peace & veggies.

Days 4 and 5

Finally! I think I'm over the headache-y hump. Yesterday and today were fantastic, with only slight tinges of headaches each day. They came & left quickly both times, which was nice. Clearly, my body is still adjusting to the new way we're doing things these days, but overall, I have a feeling the worst physical symptoms are behind me.

I have to say that tonight I finally got creative about dinner, branched out, and the risk paid off. I decided we were going to have vegan BLT's, so I headed to HEB and grabbed some smoky bacon flavored tempeh. What the heck is tempeh, you ask? Soybeans, essentially, but technically it's a "highly nutritious fermented food made from soybeans, with a high protein content."

I fried this up in some healthy (but often misunderstood) coconut oil, toasted up some Udi's gluten free bread, piled on sliced tomato, green leaf lettuce, and subbed guacamole for mayo and voila! I have to say, it was surprisingly similar to the real thing, sans the grease, and it was GOOD. I wasn't sure how it would go once I opened the tempeh package, but thankfully it tasted better than it looked. That stuff downright scared the hell out of me at first.

(Sorry for no pictures of my food so far, I'm going to try and fix that over the next few days.)

At this point in our journey, I have to give props to my husband. He amazes me every single day. That he was even willing to do this in the first place is quite something, but the fact that he has abstained from meat, Red Bulls, and sweet tea for five days straight is downright amazing. Even just a few weeks ago, I would've never thought he would make it this long eating vegan. No complaints, either - just positive attitude, supporting text messages when I'm sniveling about everyone else in my office eating pizza, and a completely open mind about whatever food we might encounter over the next two weeks. I adore him, and have fallen in love all over again with this new, vegan version of my man. He's the bomb-dot-com, and I'm grateful he was willing to take on this challenge with me.

Good, solid sack time is a part of this cleanse, and it hasn't taken long to get used to sleeping more at night. My body literally starts to gently shut down around 9:30pm every night to go into cell-reparation mode, so I will pay attention to the signals I'm getting (think: incessant yawning) and hit the hay for now. No complaints the past two days, only good stuff. Love it.

Bring it, Day 6!

Love, peace & veggies.