The 3 Day Juice Cleanse - BluePrint Cleanse

To cleanse or not to cleanse, what is the purpose?!

http://blueprintcleanse.com/

I decided to partake on a juice journey.  I ordered my 3 day juice cleanse from BluePrint.  You will receive emails from Blueprint explaining what to do and how to prepare for your cleanse.  

Why did I decide to try this?  A few reasons actually.  

1. I have been gaining weight and eating a lot.  It has caused some serious belly budge and nothing I have tried seems to have worked to make it go away, so why not try this extreme.
2. I needed a jump start to eat healthy.  I don't eat terribly healthy.  I do serve up healthy foods for my kids and make them eat their fruits and vegetables, but I'm sure a majority of my main dishes have a ton of preservatives. And who can resist some nightly chips and queso?! So why not do this and be really, really healthy for a few days.
3. I thought I would be cool if I did it.   It's the "In" thing to do right now.  (although I am usually 2 years behind on the "in" thing, so this may be an untrue statement)
4. It would take a lot of will power for me to do, so let's test my will power.

So - onto the Juice!  I won't go into the details that anyone can look up on their website.  I ordered my juice.  They made my juice.  They shipped my juice. I stored my juice in my garage fridge for 3 days.  Yes I am slightly anal and they had to be in order and a line for each day.  And yes, my Juice shared space with my beer.

Blueprint sent me an email to tell me to start and how to prep for my cleanse.  Because I am not the healthiest eater or remotely close to a vegan I chose the easiest cleanse they had to start.  I am not a good "prepper". I tried, really I did, a little bit.  I tried to eat a little more fruit and eat a little less a couple of days before starting my first juice day.  I however failed in the long run and had 2 beers and a glass of wine before bed while visiting with my mom that night, oops.  I was however a good planner.  I went and bought different green and herb teas that I could drink in between the juices as they suggested.  It was great that I found some for my Keurig!  I looked for the other not so pleasant pills and with my limited time and only one grocery store stop I didn't find them so I drank a smooth move tea on day two that I had at my house.   

Day 1 - I woke up in the morning and grabbed a warm glass of water, squirted some lemon juice in it and a straw to help me get it down faster.  I got ready as I always do, but without my morning coffee.  I made a cup of tea after my lemon/water.  I was hoping to wait awhile to drink my first green juice and then span them out over the day.  I didn't want to start drinking all my juices and then at the end of the night be wandering like a crazy person around my house trying not to eat anything.  I drank my first juice after a little time at work.  I ended taking awhile to drink it because I had a meeting and didn't bring it with me and this put my timing off a little from what I had planned, but oh well.  I made it through the day easily drinking my juices, tea and water.  That night I had a tea before bed and all was good.  Yay!  Day one complete and I didn't nibble on a thing.

Day 2 - Woke up again, felt okay.  I made my warm glass of water, squirted in my lemon juice and drank it, I was not feeling any love day 2 for the lemon water.  I made some tea to drink.  I packed up my juices for the day and headed to work.  Note:  Do not smoke in the morning after your first day of your cleanse if you are a smoker until after you have had your first juice.  (Again, I said I am not the healthiest person).  I did not feel good in the car and thought for a second I might get sick.  I couldn't finish my tea on the way to work and left half in the cup.  I made it to work and read some emails and drank my first juice and Yeehaw, I was good to go again and it didn't take long to feel good.  I seemed more clear headed and ready to keep moving through the day drinking my juices.  Halfway through the day I couldn't believe I wasn't hungry yet and I didn't have any horrible side affects. However, I was thinking a little too soon.  Late afternoon the belly started to rumble and bubble a bit.  I sat at my desk going "Nooooo, not here at work!"  I got the hell out of the office at 4:30 and not a minute later and high tailed it home.  Made it home and all was good and a few extra trips to the bathroom on day 2 that night and all was back to normal.   I even cooked 2 meals that night.  I made a spaghetti bake to freeze and made Wild Rice hot dish in the crockpot.  The hardest part of this cooking night was not popping random foods into my mouth.  I discovered that I do this a lot when I cook.  Mozerella cheese - pop some in; piece of chicken, much on an almond, etc you get the picture.  I had to keep my hands away from my mouth. Yes, I apparently like to torture myself and was really testing the will power. Day 2 left me feeling great and I was happy.

Day 3 - Glory Day!  I had made it 2 days without touching even a piece of gum.  I couldn't be prouder of myself and I felt great.  Day 3 morning was not going to get me down.  I traded in the lemon juice water for a warm glass of cucumber water and then drank a cup of green tea.  This left me in a much better morning space than the previous two mornings.  I made it through the day with no instances of bad bathroom behavior at work and headed home to drink my last 2 juices of my cleanse. I really felt good all day and had an amble amount of energy.  I snuck in a hot stone massage over my lunch hour to continue to release toxins from my body (also suggested by Blueprint as part of the cleanse, a good reason to get a massage right?!)  Friday is always movie night at our house with the kids, movie and popcorn.  I have to be honest I knew my cleanse was coming to an end and I always think of the end as in I finished the last juice, but I know it really should be until the next morning.  I held restraint and didn't pop any snacks into my mouth.  I stuck with the program.  I was so proud of myself that I made it the entire 3 days.  I really thought for sure I would cheat at some point and take a nibble of something (Blueprint does have an approved cheat sheet as well).

3 Days Worth of Juice ! 

All that goodness- YAY!

I woke up on Day 4 and I was so happy to have a cup of coffee and yes, I was bad and added creamer, but I did leave out the sugar.  Baby steps to health.  I felt pretty darn amazing and my body showed it and so did the scale.  I wish I had weighed myself before the 3 days, but I had a good idea of what I had weighed and the drop was good and I wasn't doing the cleanse to lose weight anyway.  I could not believe my belly, it was flat again.  Where had all the bloat and hangover go?!  It melted away during the 3rd night and went somewhere. The sides of my waist (or if you have "love handles") were curved in again, another added bonus!!  My neck and face area was slimmer, I swear!  I felt amazing and couldn't believe the results after 3 days.  I also had a thought that I could have easily completed another day of juicing if I had more juice.  I was a little nervous to start eating again and scared of how my tummy would react to digesting again. I'm not a good "prepper" and not the best "post cleanser" either.  I ate some cucumber slices until around noon that day and then we had gone out to eat so I ordered a Mediterranean omlet with some kind of weird cheese and kale.  I figured the kale was a good call and eggs would be a good too.  All was well and I proceeded to slowly put things back into my diet over the next 2 days.  I did some thinking about how I felt during the days of the cleanse as friends asked me different questions.  My main question was about being hungry all day/everyday and the truth was, I wasn't.  It is a little hard to explain, but I don't recall being hungry on any day, even in the mornings.  I felt content is the best way that I can describe it, very content. 

I am definitely looking forward to my continued juicing with Blueprint now that I found out I can get them at Whole foods and save a ton on shipping.  I may add this to my monthly return or every few months and see where it leads me.  Maybe I can gain one healthy habit or cut one out after each cleanse.  The first one is leaving the sugar out of my coffee in the morning.  Baby steps to a healthier me! 

Grandma's Airport Arrival

We were getting very excited for Grandma to stay with us.  She was coming to visit and watch the kids over Spring Break because our daycare was closed for the week as well.  We decided that she should stay for 3 weeks since she officially retired and make it a nice long visit.  

My kids love to color and make signs and such and I thought it would be super fun  for them and Grandma if we made signs to hold up at the airport like the pick-up services do.  (And yes, I wanted to see if I could make her cry).  I picked up some poster boards and different colors and sizes of sharpie markers and we took a few nights perfecting our very bright and large signs.  

We got up bright and early Saturday morning to pick her up at the airport at 7:30am.  Yes, her flight was coming in that early!  She sent me a text when they were leaving Fargo and her flight was delayed, but United wasn't updating their flight status to show it online or on their app.  I had just left the house with the kids in tow and turned around since we were only two blocks from the house, but United still was saying they were arriving 18 minutes early.  Needless to say, I was in a tizzy and didn't know what to do.  I didn't want to miss her coming up the escalator and seeing the signs we worked hard on.  We were home for about 10 minutes and I loaded the kids back in the car and decided to head to the airport anyway.  The kids get very restless waiting in the airport, but we didn't have to wait to terribly long.  

My mom didn't know the kids were coming and she thought I was picking her up at the pick-up spots outside the airport.  I asked her to text me when she was getting on the subway.  We started holding up our signs as loads of people from different flights kept coming up the escalators.  We got many looks from people with our bright signs and they thought it was super cute.  She finally came up the escalator and really didn't look because she wasn't expecting us there and then it was hard to miss the neon signs and she realized it was us.  The kids were excited and happy and she was surprised.  It was a successful job!  Although she didn't cry, she said she almost did.  

Archery Lesson

Junior has a toy bow and arrow that he has played around the house with and really likes.  I had found a Groupon for around November for archery lessons for 2 and thought it would be a fun Christmas present.  Of course I forgot to print out the certificate and give it to them as a Christmas present (so much for shopping early, it got me nowhere).  I finally got around to setting up there lesson though and the kids were super excited.  We drove up to Fort Collins into a chaos of traffic, people, and road closures.  I wasn't thinking when I scheduled the lesson two weeks before that it would be the St. Patty's Day parade and we were driving through town right before it was starting.  We muddled our way around though and made it to the lesson.  The kids did really good.  Junior was a natural and Katelynn caught on after a few arrows and coaching.  At first I was pretty impressed with the coach, he was really good with the kids and patient, but then discovered these lessons were not very structured or private.  The lessons were in their store and it was a Saturday morning and they were busy.  They had to help customers in between working with the kids and there were other people shooting as well.  It was a little nerve racking.  The upside was they would have let the kids shoot as long as they wanted to and paid no attention to the 30 minutes we had paid for.  All in all it was a good experience and the kids enjoyed it.  I will be trying out another place soon and see how that one goes for lessons.

Valentine's Prep 2014

Today me and the kids ran errands and got the kids Valentine's.  I love putting together little bags of goodies together with the kids for Valentine's Day.  There usually isn't a lot of other things going on in February and it makes for a fun afternoon.  First each kiddo picked out their Valentine's they wanted to give out at the store and then picked candies and bags to pack.  Katelynn decided this year that she needed to pick one type for the girls and another for the boys in her class.  She was fabulous this year about writing all the kids names and hers on all of her Valentine's.  Junior didn't get into it quite as much, but he did hang out around to help eat some of the candy.

Junior turns 5 !

It's hard to believe that Junior has already turned 5.  What joy he has brought to us.  He has the best little smile and such a good heart.  He is a little stubborn when it comes to homework from preschool and helping clean up, but he is a pretty sweet little boy to have around.
We finally gave Junior a big birthday bash this year.  We rented out a gymnastics place and invited friends to join us for 2 hours of fun. Junior loved it.  We gave him some presents at the birthday party and then when he woke up on his actual birthday Sunday there was a big fancy new bike waiting in the living room for him!  He can't wait for the snow to melt to ride it.  I should note that we had his birthday party on Saturday since his birthday this year fell on Super Sunday and the Broncos were in the Superbowl I figured we would have a low, low turnout if we did it on Sunday.

Here are a few pictures from his birthday.

Visit from a HS friend and night out Downtown Denver

My girlfriend from High School was working in Colorado Springs for a week and decided to come out a few days early to stay with us and visit.  I was so excited!  We decided we would grab a hotel and hang out in Downtown Denver for Saturday night and then rush back to watch the Vikings game the next day.  Sad to say, but out of the 13 years I have lived in Colorado I had yet to spend a night out downtown.  I did some research and talked to a few friends for recommendations on places to go.  

Lezlee got to our house around noon and it was a gorgeous day out.  We grabbed a few beers and hung out under the misters and caught up for a bit.  I had to rush out to a bridal shower for a few hours so she stayed with the kids and Dan and got ready and then it was off to Denver.

We checked into our hotel and got did what girls do - primping and a little pre-gaming for a night out!  We headed out and our first stop was Katie Mullen's Irish Pub across the street from the hotel.  We sat on their large patio area and enjoyed some calamari and did some people watching.  

 

 After the Irish Pub we made our first attempt at the free public transportation downtown.  We hopped on the bus not really knowing what we were doing or really the direction it was going.  Needless to say the bus we hopped on was going in the wrong direction and we rode it the few blocks to the end and then just stayed on the bus until it started back up and went in the direction we wanted to go.  There was a strange guy that also didn't get off at any of the stops and walked toward us and then stopped.  I'm not really sure what his intention was, but he stood there for a minute and then decided to get off the bus.  Lezlee was hilarious and said, We are going to get killed on this bus!  I just said, Nah - that's nothing compared to the crazies that I ran into on the Boston subway.  We talked to a few nice people on the bus as we were heading in the right direction and then I saw a street that I recognized for one of the places we wanted to go and we hopped off.  We wandered around and noticed how extremely dressed up people were downtown for a night out and/or date night - wow!
We were head to The Green Russell where there is a semi-hidden speak easy bar.  We walked through an old diner looking door and were in an old era it seemed.  You just kind of had an awe moment of the neatness of this place.  We were seated at the bar and given the bar menu.  We went with the Bartenders choice drink.  The bartender then talks with you about what drinks you like and what liquors you enjoy and proceeds to mix up a unique one of a kind drink just for you.  It was an experience in itself watching them mix drinks and chip ice from a large ice chunk.  We stayed at this place for quite awhile and tried a few different drinks.  

 

Back out downtown in the hustle and bustle we started walking again and found one of the other places on our list, the champagne bar, Corridor 44 .  This bar was in a small space and had a small outside patio and was jam packed with people.  We were able to get a drink quickly, but the prices were a little steep so we grabbed a cheap glass of wine for the experience (never the best idea with champagne - you pay for what you get) and hung out for only a short while. 

Next our adventure took a to a nightclub where we also had one drink and danced to one song and then got the hell outta there.  For me I felt a little too old for the crowd and just wasn't feeling the "clubbing atmosphere".  We were getting hungry by this point and attempted to go to a seafood restaurant, OceanPrime,  but were told they had had a charity event for the night and would be adding 20% to each bill for the charity so we bailed.  We found somewhere else to grab a beer and some food.  After that it was back on the bus.  We got off the bus when we were by the 16th Street Mall and I saw Coyote Ugly.  It was last call and I wanted to check the place out.  I was sadly disappointed at the lack of crowd.  I thought that we were closer to the hotel than we were and Lezlee decided she was done walking in her wedges for the night.  We grabbed a guy on a bike and paid for ride to our hotel, it was hilarious!  We crashed at the hotel and got up early, grabbed a starbucks and headed back to the house for the Vikings game.  

I was glad I made all of our football food the day before so I only needed to toss it in the oven and re-heat stuff.  We made a pitcher of beer margaritas and settled in for some football.  It was a fun game to watch, but alas the Vikings let the game go at the end.  Lezlee and I took a trip down memory lane with old photo albums and laughs for the afternoon.

Lezlee had never had a ride in a Corvette so I talked Dan into taking out the vet and she got her first ride.   

It was a fabulous weekend and I was sad to see it end, but look forward to her next visit to Colorado.

Corn Roast Festival 2013 - Loveland, CO

There were so many exciting things happening in Northern Colorado this weekend.  The kids and I first went to breakfast at Perkins and then happened to be at the location where the USA Procycling tour was racing by.  We checked that out - the kids were none to impressed really, but it was the beginning of the race and they cyclists were all packed together and went by in about 3 seconds.  A lot of fanfare for a little amount of time.  Later we headed off to Loveland to go to the Corn roast festival.  We couldn't wait to eat some corn!  I met a couple of my friends there and we all hung out for a majority of the afternoon and listened to the talent show, ate more corn, and danced and listened to a band.  The kids enjoyed it to because they got spoiled!  It was a fun afternoon.  Although Junior was tired at the end of the night and started having a little melt down.  We kept telling him he was ruining his painted face, but at that point he was spent and it was time to head home. 

Not so happy anymore :(

Last Year of Preschool!

Junior was excited and a little nervous to start school.  He told me he was going to be a little shy and asked if that was okay.  I said it was.  He was a very happy camper to use his new backpack.

 

 

Drive Inn Movie Night

Since it was getting close to the end of the nice nights we decided to take the kids the drive inn theater to watch the new movie Planes.  Me and the kids had never been to a drive inn before.  We were all pretty excited.  We each had our own bag of popcorn, a few snacks, and a cooler full of drinks.  We arrived pretty early to be sure and get a good spot.  We were amazed at how big of deal some people made of the drive inn.  People had some serious set-ups of tables, chairs, food, blow up mattress in their truck beds, it was pretty crazy.  We enjoyed the movie, but it was a little late and poor Katelynn's allergies decided to go haywire and by the end she was pretty miserable.  We did make it through the first movie and then called it a night.  I really liked the movie Planes as well.

First Day of 2nd Grade!

It was a rush to get all of our school supplies and get ready for Katelynn's first day of 2nd grade when we got back from our trip to Minnesota.  We had one week to get everything done and get back into a normal schedule.  All went well and she was super excited to be a 2nd grader!