30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge!

I recently got into juicing with my moms Jack Lalanne Juicer, from inspiration from my friend Kim! While I love using the machine and the juice is so fresh I also recently discovered a neat website dedicated to educating others about the benefits to drinking green smoothies. I was actually on Pinterest looking for recipes for juicing when I found an article from the Simple Green Smoothies website explaining why you need to rotate your greens. I posted the article on facbook to share with my friends who might be interested in reading it. The next day I received a text message from a distant friend whom I miss dearly (Paige) asking if I was going to join their 30 challenge, after I got home I looked more into it and its free and fun so why not! 

Background: 

A little background on why there is suddenly a fire under my (ars)  to get in shape and lose some weight. Bubba is almost 2 and I currently weigh the same amount I did when I was pregnant with him! Awesome! NOT! Do we need more reasons? Here's another, I am leaving on a trip in 8 months to a small paradise with just my hubby and amazing amount of wine and beaches.. I want to be able to enjoy myself and feel good about it.. nuff said!

After Bubba was born I just have not found motivation to work out like I used to. Nor have I found a good system for childcare to work out. Hubby has had a crazy hectic schedule up until a couple weeks ago and hasn't been home or able to be home in time for me to go to a class. :/

We both have been letting our weigh slide and so we agreed to motivate each other to work out and eat better. I got him the fitbit flex for christmas to help him track his progress. I am choosing to do this 30 day challenge and adding some other healthy boosters and plan to track my progress in MyFitnessPal.

Exercise:

Hubby and I are now on Week 2 day 4 of C25K program on our phones. It has actually been pretty fun! After we put the boys to bed, we suit up in our workout clothes and head to the basement. We turn on something entertaining we both like to watch and start walking for our warmup. One of us on the treadmill, the other doing laps around the basement (while also picking up toys, lol) Then we rotate whoever is running is on the treadmill and whoever is walking is off. (C25K is a free program that works by slowing getting you moving by off alternating between walking and running small distances, and slowly building up until after 8 weeks, you're ready to run 5 kilometers or 30 minutes non stop.)

After the 30 mins is over I do some circut work and and he does some more walking and or running then we stretch. 

I am over the moon excited to find out there is a Zumba class that has childcare available in my town. I just found this out and so I am going to enroll in the class and if hubby is home I will leave the kids, if he is not I will be able to bring them with and they can play while I work out for an hour. SWEET! I also like how they have 3 classes a week and one being Saturday morning! 

Diet:

We are going to continue to our clean eating diet of mainly meats, vegetables very little dairy and legumes, breads and starches. (paleo) and try harder to eat smaller portions. 

Like I said before I am adding some other drink supplements for me to my daily intake these include: 

• Jillian Michaels Detox Water: (60oz water, 2 tbs lemon juice, 1 tbs fresh cranberry juice, 1 dandalion root tea bag.) I drink this in place of my 8 glasses of plain water a day.
• Apple Carrot Ginger Juice: (3 apples, 1 carrot, 1 inch ginger root) This is my snack drink when I am feeling hungry between meals
• Green Juice Smoothie: (2 cups green leafs, 1 cup water/ coconut water/ green tea, 1 cup frozen fruit, 1 cup fresh fruit, 1 Tbs coconut oil/ avocado, 1 Tbs chia seeds/ 1 Tbs Flax oil, 3 tabs spirulina) either my breakfast or lunch meal for 30 days
• I also plan to eat more nuts for snacks. 

Goals:

After 5 lbs lost: Get my nails done. 

After 10 lbs lost: Treat myself to a day at The Float Tank!

After 15 lbs lost: Buy a new workout outfit

After 20 lbs lost: Treat myself to a massage!

After 30 lbs lost: New Haircolor & Cut!

After 40 lbs lost: $200 spree for new clothes

Taken 12/27/13

Pre-made detox water, apple carrot ginger juice and yesterdays leftover green smoothie

Smoothie boosters (Chia seeds, Flax Oil, Organic Spirulina, Coconut Oil, & Raw Local Honey)

Fresh fruit for snacks and smoothies

The recipe guide I follow

Simple Green Smoothies formula. (makes 2 -16oz smoothies)

Seriously you guys, wish me luck!! :) 

Wanna join me on this journey? Sign up here (no need to have a link, just your name and photo): 

Cloth Diaper Report- 18 Months!

     I have been a slacker I admit it. But, I wanted to update on our cloth diapering stats at 18 months! My current stash is a lot bigger than before about (30) shells and ( 28) pods (8 ) doublers (25) wipes (4) wetbags. Even though we have enough diapers to never have to reuse a shell more than once in a week, for this experiment I will be reusing the shells as much as I can to show those who are just starting out at this age how many the minimum could be. In fact a lot of times I reuse the same shell if it was just wet diaper, because every time you reuse it you are getting more use and saving more money. That is why I love AI2's!!



How many diapers (shells) a day used?  3

Changes per day? 8am, 9:30am, 11:15am, 1:30pm, 3:20pm, 5:45pm, 7pm

How many wipes? 1 in the morning, 3 if poopy, none for wet (average 7 a day)

What Brands were used? SoftBums, Rock-a-Bums, Mud Butts

What brand/ style fit best? SoftBums Omni & Rock-a-Bums

Were you able to reuse your AI2 shells during the same day? If so how many times? Yes about 2 times,

What fit problems did you have? None

What was the print/ color you grabbed the most? SoftBums Fluffy Saurus Rex Echo

Best on-the-go diaper? Rock a Bums  stuffed with a SoftBums Bamboo Superpod

What type of insert/ soakers worked the best? Really loving the large bamboo pods right now they are trim and absorb perfect amount for 2.5 hours.

The worst? Right now the large drytouch are only lasting an hour and half. which is fine for the first change before he poops bc that is usually an hour after he gets up, but otherwise I feel like its too short of time between changes. If I add a bamboo mini pod behind it its not bad & will last us about 2.5 hours.

Overnight? Bamboo Superpod  & 2 minis in OMNI shell

Did you have any blowouts? No

What was your washing schedule like?  We have a Top Loader Fisher & Pachel, I do a Cold quick wash, then a Hot wash heavy duty with 2 tbsp. detergent, then a Cold wash normal, I am washing 2x a week air drying shells, pods in dryer.

Detergent used? A Happy Green Life

Love it or hate it? Still totally in love with using cloth diapers! Everytime I have to use a disposable I hate the smell, the quality and the cost! All factors I never have to think about using cloth diapers & cloth wipes!

Things you learned? In a pinch a mini pod can be used as a emergency menstrual pad. (I will forever keep one in the diaper bag for this purpose!) lol

Fit pictures:

Connor picking out his clothes for the day- he only wants to wear vikings, football, or puppies. lol

Cant see his diaper but its too cute not to share, someone is attached to kitty & puppy.

Reading dads tab

decorating his tree 

Why I Spread Childhood Cancer Awareness

A while back I had posted a story about my brother who battled Osteosarcoma from age 16-19. He was on his way to becoming an amazing man when his life and our life as a family came to a unexpected turn down a aweful road of ups and downs through chemo, radiation, remission to his untimely death and I would never wish that upon anyone. I miss him everyday.  

Well for obvious reasons, Childhood Cancer Sucks! But now it is the #1 cause of death in the US! Being a parent that is frightening to hear. Do you want to know the statistics? 13,500 new diagnoses each year, That means that 1 in 300 boys will get cancer or 1 in 333 girls will be diagnosed before their 20th birthday. I have linked to 2 articles about this topic and although I can see a little biased point of view from the source I side with this article. Plain and simple her last statement in the article "Cancer rates have risen to epidemic levels if estimates now show one in two adults will get cancer sometime in their lifetime. With childhood cancer as the number one child cause of death, what kind of cancer odds will our children face in their future? Forget racing for the cure; we have to start focusing on the cause!"

- See more at: http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/12174-cancer-officially-number-one-cause-of-childhood-death-in-us.html#sthash.scxric9Y.dpuf

The other article that references this information: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/conquering-childhood-cancer/story?id=20348929

While I love that ABC News had a story to raise awareness in September for Childhood Cancers. They missed the point. Notice in the article how optimistic getting cancer is.. Yes we now have a 84 percent chance of surviving... and then go on to talk about all the drug and protocols that are available... I should say we have an 84% chance of surviving the most popular childhood cancer. I know that rate is not as optimistic for more "rare" cancers such as sarcomas.. While never once touching on the most crucial factor.. Prevention!

So what are we doing to prevent ourselves and our children from getting cancer?

We need to identify the most possible causes in our own lives and get rid of them or try to reduce exposure. If we are surrounded by thousands of things that are "possible carcinogens" don't you think all those things will add up? Thousands of products have been tested and have passed only based off their own exposure.

We need to educate ourselves on what are possible carcinogens and make a list of everything we eat and use and start living as carcinogen free as we can control. Because we cannot control the world, or our government by any measure.

If we want our children to have a future, we need to make some changes.

I will try to publish my list soon on what exposure our family has and what we plan to do to limit that exposure.

Thanks for reading, my only hope in publishing this post is to help raise awareness of this topic. I hope to save a child's life somewhere somehow. I know that this can be a controversial topic, I am not pointing fingers or trying to give anyone a bad name.

Our Childhood Cancer Awareness Flag

12 Months old!!

Ok this is a tad late but we just celebrated his first birthday this weekend.

It was a crazy year! One year ago today we were having a snow storm and the roads in CA were closed. The morning my water broke it was 47 degrees so the snow had been melting and they opened up the interstate 14 and we were lucky enough for that so we could get to the hospital in Lancaster, CA to deliver Con-man.

My water broke at 12:30am we left the house at 1 something and got to the hospital 45 mins later, my contractions were 3-4 mins apart & were very strong. We were admitted to triage and they only had one bed left, ha! After about 30 minutes a nurse finally came in and got me all hooked up and monitored. Connors heart rate was erratic, and even though we had been through this before I was concerned! I was dialated to a 4-5 when I got to the hospital and 80 % efface. They told me they were hooking me up to IV for fluids to help calm his heart rate, (really it was Pitocin to escalate the labor) I was extremely uncomfortable and wanted my epidural.. haha they told me I had to wait till I was in a room to order one, and that there was currently no laboring rooms open.. (umm seriously??) Within a half hour I went from 5-8.5 cm and almost 100% effaced. They found a room for me and sent me down.. I was ready to order my epidural.. they told me it was too late and by the time the anystiologist got to me (there were others in line in front of me) I would already be having the baby.. (Oh thanks..) Ok then I would like some pain meds.. they talked me out of those too.. gee thanks ..

once my doctor finally showed up 10 mins later I had already been at the verge of delivery.. haha begging to push (TMI sorry) I was so scared he wasn't going to make it out ok with his erratic heartrate still going crazy and I could hardly breathe they had a oxy mask on that felt like it was suffocating me, no wonder Dan wasn't very hands on.. I am sure he was kinda freaked out.. lol poor guy!

Well after 4 contractions of pushing Connor Nicholai Fredrickson was born at 4:49 am

Beautiful baby boy! 8lbs 7 oz and 21inches long.

 

He is still such a beautiful boy and we love him dearly! It is so amazing how much personality and bonds he has made in just a year. He and Caiden are already best buds and have an unheard language of their own. I fell so blessed to have such amazing children in my life!

 

Ok on to what Bubba is up to now a days.

 

He loves to walk, loves walking around the house and exploring. He loves seeing what Cade is doing and playing right with him. Chasing after him or driving cars around the floor with him. They are seriously cute!

 

Eat: He still likes pretty much everything and when he is done he will tell you or throw his food on the floor or squish it in he lap.. yes awesome!

 

Sleep: He went through a not wanting to nap phase that thankfully he grew out of quickly and is now sleeping great again. He still taking 2-3 naps depending on the day and what we are doing, totaling 3-4 hours

 

Play: His favorite toy is probably a ball, he always has one in his hand or is chasing after one. He points to a ball and says ball even!  lol but he does like other toys too cars, bowls, cups..

 

Speech: He sticks to Dada (anytime im on the phone or he sees a picture on the wall) Ball, mum, num num, all done, & signs all done and more and yes ..

 

Routine:

8:30am-9:45am wakes up

10:00 am breakfast

11:00 am Play outside if nice or else inside

12:00pm snack

12:30 Bubba nap

2:30 Boo Boo nap

3:00 Bubba up & lunch

4:30 Boo Boo up & lunch

5-6 Play outside & make dinner

6:30 dinner

7:30 Bubba bed

8:30 Boo Bed

 

Its been such an amazing year watching them both grow and see the friendship bloom. They are both seriously cute!. Love being their Mom!

 

 

 

 

 

11 Months

Phew this month sure past us by quickly!!

 

Eat: he loves chicken & avocado, & bananas & peaches & watermelon!! We are still nursing and he is pretty happy with it.

Sleep: He has been taking 2 -3 naps a day totaling 3 hours, he likes to go to bed around 7:45 -8pm

Play: he is really into cars, balls and movie cases!

Whats New? Connor started walking everywhere half way through this month and he is very good at it.. The stinker also figured out to crawl under the gate to go upstairs.. :/

Speech: He says dada frequently and ball and signs more and all done.

Routine:
730: wake up nurse
8:00: eat bfast
9:00: playtime or errands
10:00: bub nap & nurse
11:00 -12:00 lunch
1:00 boys nap & con nurse
3:00 snack time bub& playtime
4:00: snack time cade
5:00: errands / make dinner
5:30: bub nurse & nap
6:00: dinner
7:00: playtime with dad
7:30: bubba nurse & bed
8-830: Cade story time & bed

Cloth Diaper Report -12 months

How many diapers (shells) a day used? 2, (changes: morning, after nap, after dinner & before bed)

How many wipes? 1 in the morning, 3 if poopy, none for wet

What Brands were used? SoftBums, Rock-a-Bums, Mud Butt

What brand/ style fit best? SoftBums omni & Rock-a-Bums

Were you able to reuse your AI2 shells during the same day? If so how many times? Yes about 2-4 times,

What fit problems did you have? None

What was the print/ color you grabbed the most? SoftBums Firecracker Omni

Best on the go diaper? Rock a Bums

What type of insert/ soakers worked the best? Really digging the rockabums soakers with the grey fleece top they hold up good for 3-4 hours never worry about poop.

The worst? Grovia poop gets between the two layers = messy

Overnight? OS Bamboo pod in OMNI shell

Did you have any blowouts? None

What was your washing schedule like? Hot wash heavy duty, then a warm wash normal, washing 2x a week air drying shells, pods dryer
Detergent used? Using Tide original powder.
Love it or hate it? Hate how I never can smell his poop but then again that's not all bad.. I usually change him regularly so he doesn't go long with a dirty diaper before I'm caught by surprise.

Things you learned? Hmmm spraypal is my new bestie!.

Fit pictures:

Storytelling Time

I finally finished my pregnancy album I made for my pregnancy with Bubba!! Hey only took me 11 months.. lol Now I need to get started on his first year album.. I might get that one done by the time he's two! ?

Shutterfly has some really great storytelling albums that make it look like you spend a ton of time on designing them but you really only need to fill in the pictures and text. Shutterfly is a company I love to support because they donate so much money to families in need and who do marvelous things for their community!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

Freezer Crockpot Meals

Me and a group of my friends got together one weekend day to put together some freezer meals for all of us. We have all seen it done on Pinterest and they make it look so easy!

We decided each of us would pick two recipes, then we would buy enough so each person coming could bring home 20 freezer meals. There was 5 of us coming so each of us had to multiply our recipes by 10!

(The math still gets me all confused.. haha)

Here are the recipes:

Cashew Chicken:
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/10/slow-cooker-cashew-chicken.html?m=1
Honey Sesame Chicken:
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/01/slow-cooker-honey-sesame-chicken-recipe.html?m=1
Penne Pasta:
http://www.fiskerellibellies.com/2012/01/pasta-lasagna.html
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas:
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/2012/02/freezer-meal-creamy-chicken-enchiladas/
Teriyaki chicken: http://melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/09/freezer-cooking-slow-cooker-meals.html
Black Bean and Corn Salsa Chicken:
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/09/slow-cooker-black-bean-and-corn-salsa.html
Orange-Apricot Pork Chops:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/01/orange-apricot-pork-chops-in-crockpot.html
Lasagna:
http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/lasagna-recipe.html

Tortilla Chicken Soup:
1 pkg of red beans and rice (Zatarain's)
1 1/2 lbs diced chicken
2 cans (15oz) diced tomatoes
2 cans chicken broth or 1- 32oz
1/2 onion, diced
Dash of chili powder
shredded cheese
Tortilla chips or Fritos
Sour cream to top
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in gallon ziplock bag, double bag it for security.
Defrost overnight in fridge, place in crockpot, cook on low for 4-6 hours
Serve with cheese, sour cream, and chips

Potato Soup: (doubled)

1/2-1 lb of bacon, crumbled

1 large can of chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 8oz package of cream cheese

8-12 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 clove of garlic, minced ( optional)

Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat over med. heat until potatoes are cooked through.

Here is my grocery list: Just for the 2 recipes I brought.
*30 lbs chicken breast or tenders
*5 cups honey
*3.5 cups soy sauce
*2.5 cups diced onion
*2 cups ketchup
*Minced garlic
*5 cups cashews
*Jasmine rice
Flour
Cornstarch
1.25 cups rice wine vinegar
10 tbsp brown sugar
Fresh ginger
(* indicates Costco purchase)

How It Works:

Get your friends: Get a group of friends that want to spend an afternoon chatting, drinking coffee or WINE, and who also want to save some time not having to prepare meals throughout the month, and save money buy buying in bulk.
Plan a day: Once you have figured out who is going to come, pick a day when everyone can be child free for 4-6 hours. (2 for the shopping, 4 for the prep)
Decide how much to make: We picked 2 recipes each for 5 people, which ends up making 20 meals for each person, or 100 meals total. Keep in mind how much room you have in your freezer. 18-20 is the max my freezer can hold. If you have a deep freezer your could do more.
Get the Food: Since chicken is so popular in so many recipes it would be smart for you all to go in on a big bulk chicken buy from a food coop or farmer. We however didn't do that but instead just bought all our groceries individually at local grocery stores or Costco. When picking recipes think about how many onions you might have to cut up or potatoes you might have to peel. lol
Bring Supplies: You will need enough measuring spoons and cups for each person coming, will need enough gallon ziplock bags for each crockpot recipe we just got a big bulk box of them at costco. Will need enough baking containers recipes that require baking instead of crockpot. Gallon pitchers to hold the gallon ziplock bags. Also enough bags to bring all your meals home in.
Prepping the Food: To save time we all precooked our meat before meeting up at our host's house(if the recipe called for that). Then when we got there all we had to do was assemble the recipes.
Assembly: What we found was fastest was to set up an assembly line, 1 gallon pitchers work fantastically for holding gallon ziplock bags for the crockpot meals.

1. So we set up 10 pitchers or pots to hold the ziplock bags for the first recipe.
2. Set up an assembly line each of us responsible for putting one ingredient in each bag till all the ingredients are in the bag.
3. Then we zipped them all up and set them outside (it was 25 degrees out) to chill until we were all done.
4. Reset the ziplock bags in the pitchers and pots and fill with next recipe.

If your doing pasta or lasagna or something that needs to be baked, it works the same just filling some aluminum tins instead of ziplock bags.

If everyone helps prep and assemble each recipe at a time it will go faster than everyone trying to do their own at once.

We each spent an average of $175 on our groceries for our 2 recipes we brought ingredients for.

Which ends up being $8.75 each meal

End of the Night

 

100 Freezer Meals Prepared!

The Dishes.. lol

Tortilla Chicken Soup

Gallon Pitcher holding a Gallon Ziplock bag

Cloth Diaper Report-Month 11

I kinda feel like each month I do this it's so similar. So this month I am going to do something different.

First let me start off with my inventory. Lets just say it's grown a lot since bubba was born.. Lol. darn you SoftBums Calendar Bums!!

I am not going to list off each shell individually that would take me too long but there are:
9 Omni shells,
10 Echo Shells,
1 OS bamboo superpod,
9 OS bamboo pods
1 OS dry touch superpod,
4 large dry touch pods,
6 large bamboo pods.

I am going to see how many times I can reuse the shell in a day and document how many changes and shells & pods we go through till wash day which is once a week.

Day One:
Shells used: Firecracker Omni, & Black Tie Echo
Pods Used: 2- OS Bamboo pods, 2- large bamboo pods, 1 large dry touch pod.
Changes: 5
Wipes: 3

Day Two:
Shells used: Lime Omni, Blueberry Echo, Sprout Omni
Pods used: 2 Large bamboo pods, 3 OS Bamboo pods
Wipes: 6

Day Three:
Shells used: Nuclear Pumpkin Echo, White Tie Safari Omni,
Pods used: 2 Large bamboo pods, 1 large dry touch pod, 1 OS bamboo pod
Wipes: 4

Day Four:
Shells used: Snowcone Omni, Chocolate Omni,
Pods used: 2 OS Bamboo pod, 1 bamboo mini (dh thought it was a large bamboo) 2 large bamboo
Wipes: 5

Day Five:
Shells used: Ebony Omni, Peace-o-phants Omni
Pods used: 1 OS Bamboo pod, 1 OS Bamboo superpod, 1 OS dry touch superpod
Wipes: 3

Day Six -Wash Day:
Shells used: Midnight Owls Echo,
Pods used: 2 large dry touch pods
Wipes: 0

So overall: we were able to use 2-3 shells a day, changing 3-5 times a day. It was a messy poop week apparently because he is getting 2 teeth. We used a lot more wipes than usual.