Detox - Halfway There

"I think I can, I think I can"

We are half way through this week long detox journey, and I'd say it is working (Daniel would say he's hungry). It's true, only eating fruits, veggies, and white meat is a little harder than people think. First of all its expensive, and second of all it is a huge drop in calories which puts a toll on you. With that said, I know I'm being cleansed... I won't give you details but.... yeeeah.

Yesterday we went to Newport, KY to the Barnes & Noble right on the Ohio River. It was awesome. We walked across the river on the Purple People Bridge and walked along the river boardwalk. It was nice to see people jogging, exercising, and enjoying the sunset. The boardwalk is massive!! I can't wait to spend more time there. They have restaurants on both sides (OH and KY), parks, trails, shops. I loved it. It made me feel like I was on the Brooklyn Pier in NY. It was hard not to try some yummy ice cream from a famous parlor... but we'll just have to go back after we're detoxified.

Tonight Daniel and I are going canoeing with his work. GE plans a lot for it's employees, I like that :) Hopefully we are able to interact with people and just have a good time hanging out!

I'm totally missing Colorado right now... *sigh*

Detox Week

It is detox week here at the Mesward household, and I love new adventures with Daniel. I have been thinking and researching the idea of a detox diet for a few months now. There are a lot of strange ways to go about cleansing your body, but I feel like we took a humane approach.

Some diets require you to only have green tea, honey, and some strange concoction for ten days... psh, we wouldn't last three hours. Others just make you take this magical pill and all of a sudden your cleansed (I'm dubious, and it's super expensive). I just did a combination and made up my own little diet. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who will humor me by doing it too.

What we do is basically take out most of the man-made foods in our diet and take an herbal cleansing supplement with our meals. It makes it easier since Daniel has to be gluten-free because we don't have to remove too much except for sugars. I didn't stock up on flavored yogart, ice cream, and milk this week. Instead we went to a farmers market to get some farm fresh veggies, and picked up a bunch of fruits from Sams. We got a lot of tea, some raw almonds and trail mix, and ta-da!! you have yourself a perfectly good detox diet.

News on other fronts:
None.

Online Coupons

Hi Fellow Frugal-ites,

I found some extremely valuable things on the world-wide-web this past week that any penny pincher will love! Love saving money? Love using coupons? Love your shoppers cards (even though they take up entirely too much space on your key chain and make it almost impossible to find your house key in a hurry)? Then explore and love these sites:

http://shortcuts.com/

http://www.cellfire.com/

You can put coupons directly on your shoppers card and the coupon appears when you buy that item! Amazing? Yes.

I was true to my grocery list last week and saved myself time and money at Wal-Mart. Because I made a weekly meal outline, I felt more organized throughout the week and did not have to throw together meals on the fly. It was lovely.

Friday, Nate and Rachael, Yachts

Yay for Friday!!! My first work week without Daniel is coming to a close, and I'm proud to say that I survived. I made many discoveries in Cincinnati, and I hope to dig a little deep and really get to know the city more. I found out that all my favorite grocery stores (the ones I can't find in Indiana) are only as far as 15 minutes away, and there are coffee shops and shopping galore.

Just before I left Terre Huate, I had the privilege to do a photo shoot with a couple that Daniel and I love. Nate and Rachael are not only our landlords, but they have been absolutely amazing friends. We always enjoy spending time with them and their little dog Sofi. So I asked them to be my guinea pigs because I was dieing to try out my new camera. We took to the Indiana country scene and they made wonderful models. Here are a few of my favorites ;0)








We look forward to hopefully seeing them here in Cincy soon (hint,hint Browns).

And another side note, Daniel and I are rubbing elbows with the rich tonight at a yacht cocktail party. I'm a little nervous... what am I going to wear?!?!?!

And another side note, I'm sitting across the street from a former beautiful church turn to Urban Outfitters. Awesome. I love it.

Tampons, Meals, and Blogs

Who doesn't like samples? Seriously. The only reason my Dad would go to Sam's Club on a Friday afternoon with my Mom would be for the free samples. Well ladies, here you go! A free sample for you!

Click on the link below for your free Tampax sample.

http://instoresnow.walmart.com/enhancedrendercontent_ektid71900.aspx

And here is my tip of the day for being frugal:

Planning your meals. There are a lot of bloggers out there that post a "Monday Meal Plan." I haven't decided that anyone who reads this blog would like a weekly play by play, but there are a few benefits to planning out your meals.

1. You have a schedule for yourself. You don't have to think last minute and stress yourself out over dinner. If you can take the time to plan it, dinner isn't a burden and husbands/families around the world will be closely knit (If momma ain't happy, nobody is.)

2. You stick to your list. I know that when I go shopping, I usually buy more than I need. Don't get me wrong, I'm really good at convincing myself that I really will eat 10 lbs of veggies in one week. Limit your waste, stick to your budget... life is goooood.

3. Husbands/families can mentally prepare themselves for meals the don't like. Sorry sweetheart, I make the meals so I get to choose them.

Here are a couple of my favorite bloggers that meal plan:
Learning The Frugal Life
Organized Junkie

Happy Tuesday!!

Cincinnati Impressions, Motion Sickness, Po-po

Lots and lots of changes have come into our lives these last few weeks. It is rather overwhelming, and at the same time interesting, for Daniel and I to pack up our things and move to Cincinnati. I’d never heard much about Cincy (okay really fast, why the “y”? It only makes it really confusing to everyone. However, only the people in the “know” (the locals) use the “y.” There is your how-to-fake-your-residency-in-Cincinnati fact). I remember a childhood movie, Babes in Toyland (1986), where the bad guy (Barnaby) was trying to gas his prisoners but they were immune because they were from Cincinnati. What a great movie feel free to watch and laugh at the 80’s here http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1898513177/. But, otherwise, Cincinnati was way foreign to me. Here are some of my very first impressions:

1. HILLY!!! Yay for hills. These aren’t baby hills either. Thank God, I need to get away from the flat land.
2. Home Depot. Made me think of Colorado and how much I miss it. I always wanted a Home Depot apron.
3. Biggs Hyperstore - a cross between Whole Foods and Kroger (King Soopers). Awesome.

We spent a lot of time around various part of Cincy. We took 3 different walking tours of downtown. It was so nice. Thought rainy, we saw most of downtown. I can’t wait to spend a lot of time down there getting to know it. I love culture and city people. Also, we have been to King’s Island twice. Woot! It rocks my socks off. And I have been testing out some advice on motion sickness, here is what I’ve experienced.

Test #1 – I took nothing. I had a pretty empty stomach, and was rather thirsty. I was so stinking sick by the third ride. I had a headache after the first, and almost puked on some roller coaster while being launched upwards (would gravity have punished me or the person behind?).

Test # 2 – Took Dramamine, 2 pills about an hour before we went. I was completely knocked out about 10 minutes after we started driving. After I stopped at a gas station and got some coffee, I was good to go. I ate a little popcorn that I brought just before going inside. Also, I started chewing some mint gum and made Daniel carry some crystallized ginger into the park with him (along with some headache meds… I was really prepared). Between all those things, I had a blast. I didn’t feel sick at all! I kept myself hydrated, my tummy wasn’t hungry, and I took all the meds. So Rach, in Guatamela… Dramamine, ginger, gum, water, and food. Remember J

This summer I’m really changing the focus on what I blog about. We are making a larger effort to being frugal and healthy. Those usually can’t be in the same sentence because healthy food is SO expensive. But, I’ll let you know the deals I’ve got, some tips I’ve discovered, and other people who are in the same boat. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be stretching your dollar to the max.

Daniel has been making some fun at me, but I’ve been really pushing the light and summery foods. Foods that don’t bog you down and foods that keep you energized. We both want to be healthier than we have this past year, and though we may not be able to be more active due to time constraints, we certainly have plenty of room to grow in the healthy area. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you what we do to be healthy and how we balance that with spending.

I know that at least one person like my laugh section, so here it is:

Laugh: I got pulled over by police on the drive to Cincy. I surprised myself. I knew exactly where my registration, insurance, and license were, and I didn’t freak out and start crying. Now, let’s talk about why I got pulled over. Daniel. With the bikes on top of his car and our frugality in mind, he wanted to stay at a speed that was getting great mileage. So being the awesome and submissive wife that I am, I followed him. So we pass the po-po, and I’m like, “Oh look, at least we aren’t speeding!” Soon enough both of them are next to us, one pulls behind me and the lights go on. Shoot. Watch Daniel keep going and the other officer pulls behind Daniel, the lights go on. Double shoot. He walks up and asks for all my information. He then asks if I was with the guy in the red car. I told him I was and that we were married in fact. He asked me why I was going so slowly and following so close, and I told him it was because my husband insisted on going slow to get good mileage. Then he told me that usually why people drive so slow is because they are either drunk, drugged and dealing drugs, or old. Thanks Daniel (p.s. I love you and don’t kill me for telling the story my way). It was at that point that I looked at him eyeing my strawberry, cilantro, and jalapeno plants in my front seat (they were my co-pilots). “Ummm yeah, those are strawberry plants.” He chuckled and said he was a farm boy and just didn’t recognize the cilantro. Phew. He asked if we were moving or on vacation and I told him Daniel had an internship in Cincy but that we’ve been in Terre Haute for Rose Hulman (which he was like, “oh wow, you have a smart one”) but we were originally from Colorado. He told me that my tags were expired (which they are in route… common people, mail sucks these days) and that he’ll just give me a warning. He said I should probably speed up and not follow so closely. After he went back to his car I was slightly upset that only time I got pulled over was because my husband was going TOO SLOW! It wasn’t for something thrilling and exciting, but that he thought I was drunk, old, and/or drugged. When the officer came back he said that he was talking to his buddy up with Daniel and that he said he was ways smarted out because this kid went to Rose, was interning for GE, and really tall. Laugh-out-loud. At least we didn’t have dull start to our summer. It’s always an adventure with my lanky, smart boy.