Cleanse complete!

Wednesday was the last day of our cleanse. Yay!!! We are SO excited to add some new foods to our life. We weighed ourselves yesterday just to see how much we have lost. (I was telling Jesse that I didn't feel like I lost anything- we weren't trying to lose weight, and I didn't feel any different) Well, come to find out I lost around 10 pounds- shocker! and Jesse lost around 12 pounds. When I realized how much I lost I realized that I need to try on that dress that I bought for my brothers wedding... you know, that strapless dress that I don't want to fall off of me! Ha! it totally doesn't fit anymore, thankfully Jesse's mom is a sewing genius and said she would help me out.




This was my lunch today... I think the colors are just beautiful!

 Since you probably don't care to hear about my dress woes... let's continue on about this cleanse dealio. We finished, which means that now we can start to reintroduce foods to our diet. We are supposed to do this slowly, but we also need to let our bodies guide us in this. We decided to add dairy first, (so that we can have coffee again with some milk!) Now here is the thing, we have decided to do this "Real Food" thing after our cleanse (my momma would be so proud!) This means that we are going to cut out processed foods, read labels- if we can't understand what the ingredient is- we won't eat it, we are going to try to buy organic, local food as much as possible- especially with our dairy and meat! For grains, we are going to try to make sure that it is the least processed, and sprouted when possible.


I am really excited about this! We are going to be doing most of our shopping at Farmer's Markets and the amish health food store that we found. Yesterday, because we started dairy, we also went to a cheese shop in Gap.. it was amazing! I think grocery shopping is going to be a lot more fun! Down side: its definitely more expensive. We think its worth it though, put good things into our bodies and maybe we will spend less on doctor bills, and our food is so much richer and tastier! Summary: we are cutting out all of that added crap that is added to natural ingredients. I have found some great web sites for recipes and tips: http://www.foodrenegade.com/, http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/, http://www.nourishedkitchen.com/, http://www.eatnourishing.com/ I really feel that this is the way that God intended us to eat and nourish our bodies. Also, it is so good for local economy and community to be buying local, and what better place to do it than Lancaster County! We are going to Green Dragon Market today... yay! Shopping at these places is so fun! You can typically get good prices, and you have more interaction with people.


So how is reintroducing things going for us?

Great! Yesterday we added dairy, we started with some organic, local yogurt and some quality cheese (aged gouda from Holland with natural salt flecks in it from the aging process- so so good!) Honestly, I felt better adding dairy into my system. I felt better than I did the whole time we were on the cleanse. It also made ehemmm...eh.. bowel movements easier for me. Jesse felt a little gurgly at first adding dairy, but after that he felt fine. Today we added coffee (we just couldn't wait any longer!) and grains. I am still feeling really good! Tomorrow, as long as today continues to go well for us, we will probably add eggs. I know we are speeding up the process a little faster than recommended, but with my brother's wedding next week and traveling, we want to be able to eat foods without worry. We do want to let our bodies guide us, but since we are still feeling great we feel comfortable to go ahead and add something each day. We are still trying to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. We are also going to be a lot more careful about portion sizes.

These pictures are from Longwood Gardens, we went last week with Jesse's parents, grandma, and Nate and Dar.

Right now I am making Baked Oatmeal with steel cut oats. I am using a recipe that I found on Food Renegade, although I think I might change it up a little.

Ingredients:

-3 cups steel cut oats

-3 cups water

-6 tbsp yogurt

Mix these three ingredients in a large bowl, cover and let stand for 24hrs.

Strain the steel cut oats the best you can. Then mix in the rest of the following ingredients:

-4 cups milk (Food Renegade calls for Raw milk)

-1/3 cup whole wheat flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

-2 tbsp vanilla extract

-1 egg (beaten)

- 1/4 cup maple syrup

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- pinch of nutmeg

-pinch of salt

Grease a 9x13 pan (I used butter, you could use coconut oil). Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 45 minutes or longer until set at 325 degrees.

I am pretty excited to see how this turns out! I will let you know if its good.