A New Twist On General Tso's Chicken: New Recipe Of The Week

One of my favorite Chinese dishes is General Tso's Chicken. That little bit of spicy taste without making steam come out of my ears is awesome. I found a paleo recipe called General Tso's Meatballs so it was a no-brainer that I would try it for my New Recipe Of The Week. The recipe was easy to prep, easy to cook and probably took about 30 minutes from start to finish. It was delicious and it is a five star recipe in my eyes mouth. I made a few minor changes in the recipe. In the meatballs I used ground deer meat instead of ground chicken/turkey and I omitted the almond flour and egg. I doubled the recipe for the sauce and used the ingredients suggested for making it a paleo dish. I also used red pepper flakes instead of the dried chilis. I can't wait until tomorrow to eat the leftovers for lunch. The next time I make this I'm going to double the recipe and see if if freezes well. If the sauce doesn't freeze well, I can make the meatballs up ahead of time and then just whip up the sauce when needed. I definitely see this as being a "go to" recipe if I have some of the meatballs frozen.

General Tso's Meatballs and Crunchy Roasted Broccoli

Tonight I got really energetic and tried a second new recipe. To be honest, someone posted a recipe for Crunchy Roasted Broccoli on facebook and it looked so delicious I decided I had to try it. On my way home from work I stopped at the store to buy some fresh broccoli. This vegetable dish was super easy and super delicious, another five star recipe in my mouth!

I don't know what I'm going to do when summer gets here and I can't coat veggies with olive oil and put them in my oven. I'm guessing I'll be using the grill a lot!


Crunchy Roasted Broccoli
Preheat oven to 375°
Chop a head of broccoli (do not rinse, immediately prior to preparing!)
Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic (I used garlic powder)
Put broccoli, garlic, 2 tbsp. olive oil, and a few shakes of salt and pepper in a ziploc bag.
Shake it up!! (I laid out the broccoli on a cookie sheet and drizzled olive oil over it)
Spread out on baking sheet, place on top rack, and bake for about 30 minutes.
Broccoli will be crunchy and delicious!
Yes it was!!! 

I haven't found too many issues with eating healthy except finding enough storage space for all the fresh produce I buy. I like to keep it in one of the drawers in my refrigerator, but invariably I have to use a second drawer and the bottom shelf for all the colorful fresh foods I bring home on shopping day. Just out of curiosity I googled "refrigerator vegetable crisper" and found an article on The Proper Way To Use Your Refrigerator Humidity Drawers. Hmmm, who knew! Did you know? I sure didn't, but now I do. I need to go do some investigating of my refrigerator drawers and begin making proper use of them. My husband has his own mini fridge that he uses to keep his Diet Dr. Pepper cold. He goes through a ton of Diet Dr. Pepper (that's another story for another time) so we load up the mini fridge each week and he always has cold pop. In a perfect world we'd be keeping fresh produce in the mini-fridge instead of pop.

I Love My Spiral Slicer & New Recipe Of The Week

 I love zucchini, but I can't spell it. I always have to have spell check correct it, I suppose I should spend five minutes and learn how to spell it! My favorite way to prepare it used to be slicing it, spraying my griddle, cooking it a few minutes on each side, sprinkling it with a little salt and then eating it! Simple and so delicious. It's one of those veggies I don't really like to share, but since I'm a nice person I do. However, I eat a lot of it as I'm cooking it so I get way more than my share.

Brieftons Spiral Slicer

Since I've quit eating pasta for the most part I've wanted to get a gadget that makes noodles out of vegetables like zucchini. (Yes! I spelled it correctly and it didn't even take me 5 minutes to learn)! I've done a bit of searching online for these different types of veggie noodle makers and I asked for one for Christmas. I went with a less expensive version, one that is fairly small, so it takes up very little room, requires no set up and it is very easy to clean. It is the Brieftons Spiral Slicer and so far it has served my purposes quite splendidly. For example, now I don't have to get my griddle out to cook my beloved zucchini. I twist it through the spiral slicer, add a bit of olive oil to a skillet and cook it for a few minutes. Much less trouble than getting out the big ole griddle and since I've gotten the spiral slicer I've had zucchini 4 times. In the past I have rarely had zucchini except in the summer.

Spiral Sliced Zucchini

Utilizing my spiral slicer I made my new recipe for the week. Chicken Bacon Alfredo from PaleOMG. I haven't tried many recipes from this site yet, but hands down they have one of my favorite recipes: Paleo Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Okay, back to the Chicken Bacon Alfredo. It was super easy to make because I already had some pre-cooked chicken breasts in the freezer. This is something I always have on hand. I also had some pre-cooked bacon in the freezer as well. Keep reading for my tip on having these kinds of things on hand to make your life so much easier. Basically, all I had to do was thaw out the bacon and chicken and heat it up. Then I mixed up the sauce. I didn't follow the recipe exactly. First, I used my zucchini noodles instead of the squash used in the recipe. Then, I mixed the sauce, bacon and chicken all together and poured it over the zucchini noodles. Finally, I topped it off with some grated Parmesan cheese.

I made this up for my lunch for tomorrow and Tuesday, so I have no idea how it tastes. I will edit my blog with that information sometime tomorrow.

It's lunchtime on Monday and I am now trying my Chicken Bacon Alfredo. I like it. I'm pretty sure my husband will like it too. This is a fantastic lunch recipe as well. This one is a keeper!

Now for some of my time saving tips for busy cooks. Cooking in bulk and flash freezing. When I'm cooking chicken I almost always cook way more than I will be using for the meal I'm preparing. I do this when boiling, baking, stir frying, etc. Then, whatever I don't use I flash freeze. To flash freeze you will need cookie sheets that fit in your freezer, parchment paper, ziplock bags and note paper. After cooking the chicken, let it cool completely. Then put parchment paper on your cookie sheet. Lay the cooked chicken in a single layer on the parchment paper. The edges can touch but just barely. Then put it in the freezer overnight. Write a note that says something like "Chicken flash freezing" and put it on your counter where you will see it in the morning. If you are like me you will completely forget about it if  you don't leave that note on your kitchen counter! When you see the note and remember what you did the night before, grab a ziplock bag and put the chicken in it. Zip it up and throw it in the freezer. Now you can take out one piece at a time if that is all you need. Beware, when you take it out of the freezer it will look drier than a piece of leather and you will think you have ruined some perfectly good chicken. Never fear, when you warm it up, gently, in the microwave it will be just like it was when you put it in the freezer. When I cook bacon, I usually do it in the oven and I do two pounds at a time. I flash freeze it the same way. The things I flash freeze: raw sweet potato chips or fries which I use to make oven baked chips or fries, all kinds of fruit which I use for fruit smoothies. Fish, chicken, pork, beef, onions, peppers, pressed garlic, ground up ginger root. I'm always experimenting with freezing stuff so it is ready to use. It makes my meal prep in the evening so much faster!

What About Those Quests For 2014? Week #1

About a week or so ago I sat down and wrote out some major quests I wanted to accomplish in 2014. Then I wrote out specific goals to help me accomplish those quests. Today is my first post to track my progress. I will break these down a bit differently for tracking purposes.

Daily Goals:

1.  Shine the sink every night before going to bed.
2. Swish and swipe my bathroom daily (hair off the floor too).
3. Swish and swipe Gary's bathroom on even days.
4. Do one load of laundry daily, including drying, folding and putting it away.
5. Clean off the hot spots.
6. Deal with the mail every day.
7. Read 30 minutes daily from a non-fiction book. 
8. Drink water and plenty of it

Weekly Goals:

1. Contact A.J. and Daniel at least once a week.
2. Blog once a week, even if it is just a partial blog that needs more work before it is posted.
3. Once a week, update the orange notebook with money spent during the previous week.
4. Get your online Reading Comprehension class DONE! Do at least two lessons a week.
5. Get the Reading Buddy lessons done. One lesson complete per week starting Jan. 6th.
6. Eat to be healthy, eat Primal 80% of the time, but make some conscious choices to enjoy the foods you don't typically eat.
7. Prepare one new recipe weekly and post it on your blog.
8. Do a 15 minute (minimum) Yoga workout at least 3 times weekly.
9. Running: Keep running in your fat-burning zone (HR 126-135). One run per week can be at a comfortable pace.

 Monthly Goals

1. Have a "date" two times a month with Gary. One time I plan/one time he plans.
2. Send two cards to friends or family monthly.
3. Call two people monthly just to say hi.
4. Scrapbook once a month.
5. Rubberstamp once a month.
6. Work on a "you've been putting it off" project once a month.

Special Goals

1. Set up a "Rewards" account ($20 monthly). Rewards can only be purchased if earned and if there is money for them. 
2. Apply Quality Matters to your online Reading Comprehension class. Due date August 1, 2014.
3.  Develop a Reading Buddies class.
4. Develop a combined Reading Comp/General Studies course class.
5. Complete your first Nerd Fitness Challenge starting Jan. 6th. Continue to level up my fitness by doing the challenges throughout the year (complete at least 4 NF Challenges in 2014).
6. Complete at least the first level of the Dumbbell Workouts (Beta version) in Nerd Fitness Academy.

REVIEW OF MY GOALS: WEEK #1

Daily Goals

• I pretty much nailed these except reading from a non-fiction book 30 minutes daily. However, I spent a great deal of time reading through educational information as I was prepping my Intro. to Education materials.
• I am VERY PROUD of the fact that I shined my kitchen sink every night except Friday when I went to bed super early (6:00PM) because I wasn't  feeling well. Shining my kitchen sink means washing ALL the dishes  and cleaning off ALL the kitchen counters. Preparing meals is much easier when you are starting with a clean area. 
• As I was focusing on completing all these daily goals I kept thinking about what is going to happen when I get super busy, because it is going to happen, and I don't get some of them done. I came up with a plan, NEVER SKIP A DAILY GOAL TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

Weekly Goals

• I didn't do as well with the weekly goals as I did the daily. 
• I did not get any online Reading Comp. lessons done, but the class got cancelled so it wasn't a priority. 
• I didn't get a Reading Buddies lesson planned.
•  I need to write my work goals down at work somewhere so they are visible. I have all my goals written out at home on a board that I look at several times a day. I need to do the same thing at work, it will keep me more on track.
• I only did 2 yoga workouts (one of them 30 minutes long) instead of 3.
• I didn't run at all, as a matter of fact after Monday of last week I didn't do any of my regular workouts because I was staying up too late working on teacher stuff. Last week was an exception, exercise is a part of who I am, ignoring it completely doesn't happen often.

Premier Procrastination

For those of you that don't know me, I am going to let you in on a couple tidbits of info about me. If I were to list the my top characteristics they would be that I'm:

• Highly organized
• Very detail oriented
• A take charge person
• Methodical & systematic
• An over-achiever
• Creative

With all of these superb qualities I have never turned in a late assignment or been late with a project for work or any organization I'm a part of. With that being said, I am a premier procrastinator. I don't think I was like this when I was a kid. I remember my mom saying that I used to drive her crazy with school projects because no matter how much time I had to work on them, I wanted to do them RIGHT NOW! My how things have changed!!!

Right now I  have a list a mile long of tasks I should be doing:

• Instructor sheets for Intro. to Education and Reading Comprehension
• Update my Reading Plus introduction information
• Get my schedule set for Reading Comprehension for the semester
• Get Weeks 2-15 lessons done for Intro. to Education
• Create the new lessons (already planned out in my head) for Reading Comprehension online
• Make the SI bookmarks 
• Make the SI posters 

Yet here I sit blogging away about procrastination. Well, I do have a goal this year to blog once a week so at least I'm accomplishing one of my goals!

When my oldest son, A.J. was in high school we were talking about procrastination. He shared with me that he remembered when he learned what the word procrastination meant. He was just a little guy, probably 6 or 7. He said he was in Sunday School class and his teacher, Ethel, used the word procrastination. Ever the inquisitive child he asked her what it meant. She said something like, "It means waiting until the last possible minute to do something because you don't have to do it right now." He said he thought to himself, "I am good at that. I like to procrastinate." I got a good laugh out of that. Imagine a child that young recognizing the fact that they tend to procrastinate. I will add that A.J. is the ultimate procrastinator. He didn't get in any hurry to enter this world. I remember when I was in labor and the doctor told me it was time to push. I pushed for an hour and 45 minutes. A.J. must have realized there was no reason to be pushed out right then so he took his merry time, much to my chagrin. As a mother, he used to drive me crazy because he never did his homework until the absolute last minute no matter how much I hounded him. It's a good thing he's not the type to stress out about anything because it was nothing for him to be working on an assignment 10 minutes before it was due. The difference between him and myself is that when I've procrastinated and am that close to a deadline, I get really stressed about it. Not A.J. He just rolls with it like it is no big deal. I hate to think that I am the one that passed on the procrastination characteristic to him, but I guess I'll have to take the credit for it. 

So along with all of the superb qualities I possess, I must add I'm a premier procrastinator to the list. Alas, I must end this blog promptly because deadlines are looming and I have procrastinated long enough!

A Snapshot Into The New Year - Quests for 2014

As the new year was approaching I was thinking a lot about 2014. I am now 50 years old and as I'm aging I'm realizing NOW is the time. If I want to do something I need to do it now. I don't have any huge plans, my life is pretty simple. We (Gary and I) are limited in what we can do because of our financial situation. No, we are not having financial problems, but we still have some debt we are working on getting rid of and we've made a commitment to pay off our debt and save money for any extra-curricular activities/vacations we might do. That means we stay home most of the time. Our big splurge is to go to Family Video every couple of months and rent $12 worth of movies! In the summer we have bike dates. We ride our bikes to the donut shop to have breakfast or to Dairy Queen to get an ice cream cone. Our simple life is fine with me, I learned a long time ago, money is not what makes you happy.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Looking back on the last year, I see some things I'd like to change in my life, and I can think of some new things I'd like to do, but haven't done because it is just easier to come home, sit, get on the computer and spend my time interacting online. Most of my goals for the coming year are small, but I believe if I am consistent in achieving these small goals by the end of the year I will feel like I've accomplished a lot and have become a better person.

In the spirit of Nerd Fitness (I love this site) I am going to create quests in different categories of my life. Then I'll have specific goals that will help me achieve each quest. Some of them will be for the year and some of them will be more short term.

Flylady Quest: Keep the house organized & out of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)

Flylady is an awesome site that can help you learn the tricks to help you keep your 

     house clean & organized by spending a few minutes a day doing "missions."      

1.  Shine the sink every night before going to bed.
2. Swish and swipe my bathroom daily (hair off the floor too).
3. Swish and swipe Gary's bathroom on even days.
4. Do one load of laundry daily, including drying, folding and putting it away.
5. Clean off the hot spots.
6. Deal with the mail every day.

Relationship Quest: Spend time making others in my life know they are important to me

1. Have a "date" two times a month with Gary. One time I plan/one time he plans.
2. Send two cards to friends or family monthly.
3. Call two people monthly just to say hi.
4. Contact A.J. and Daniel at least once a week.

Personal Quest: Do things I enjoy, things that will make me feel a sense of accomplishment and things that will make me grow as an individual.

1. Scrapbook once a month.
2. Rubberstamp once a month.
3. Blog once a week, even if it is just a partial blog that needs more work before it is posted.
4. Read 30 minutes daily from a non-fiction book.
5. Work on a "you've been putting it off" project once a month.

Financial Quest: Pay more attention to our money - having knowledge keeps you in check and you know it :-)

1. Once a week, update the orange notebook with money spent during the previous week.
2. Set up a "Rewards" account ($20 monthly). Rewards can only be purchased if earned and if there is money for them. 

Professional Quest: Get all those projects done that you've been saying you were going to do!!!

1. Get your online Reading Comprehension class DONE! Do at least two lessons a week.
2. Apply Quality Matters to your online Reading Comprehension class. Due date August 1, 2014.
3. Get the Reading Buddy lessons done. One lesson complete per week starting Jan. 6th.
4. Develop a Reading Buddies class.
5. Develop a combined Reading Comp/General Studies course class.

Food Quest: Eat for health

1. Eat to be healthy, eat Primal 80% of the time, but make some conscious choices to enjoy the foods you don't typically eat.
2. Prepare one new recipe weekly and post it on your blog.
3. Drink water and plenty of it (this is a new habit I've been doing for several weeks, and I don't want to stop).

Exercise Quest: Get stronger and more fit

1. Complete your first Nerd Fitness Challenge starting Jan. 6th. Continue to level up my fitness by doing the challenges throughout the year (complete at least 4 NF Challenges in 2014).
2. Do a 15 minute (minimum) Yoga workout at least 3 times weekly.
3. Complete at least the first level of the Dumbbell Workouts (Beta version) in Nerd Fitness Academy.
4. Running: Keep running in your fat-burning zone (HR 126-135). One run per week can be at a comfortable pace.

Wow, that seems like a lot, but with focus and determination I can do it. Now let's get on with the new year and see what the next 360 days will bring. 

Never A Girly-Girl, But I Had Dolls

Just before Christmas I had to go to Dillons to pick up my husband's prescriptions. As I was making my way out of the store I saw a display of dolls on sale. Something about the doll caught my attention. She could walk. Wow, that brought back some memories. I used to have a doll that could ride a horse and a tricycle and if you laid her on her back she would kick and wiggle her legs. I remember she had pink pants and a yellow and pink shirt and blond hair. I headed home and got on the internet to see if I could find pictures of the doll from my childhood memories. Jackpot, you can find anything on the internet!

   

Tippee-Toes Doll 

After doing some Googling I came across some pictures. She was called Tippee-Toes. I don't think I was much of a doll kind of girl since I wasn't really a girly-girl, but I do remember Tippee-Toes. She was so cool and I'm sure as a 5 year old I was quite impressed with the fact that she could ride a tricycle and a horse.


Thinking about my Tippee-Toes Doll got me to thinking about the other dolls I had when I was a little girl. There weren't many of them, like I said I wasn't a girly-girl, but I remember three dolls that I had as a little girl. Besides Tippee-Toes, I had Buffy and Crissy.

My Buffy doll had her very own miniature Mrs. Beasley doll. That was so cool! A doll with a doll! The Buffy doll was based on the little girl character from the TV show "Family Affair." Mrs. Beasley was very important to Buffy in the show so it would stand to reason that the Buffy doll would have a Mrs. Beasley doll. Of course the toy manufacturers produced a "real size" Mrs. Beasley doll just like the one on the TV show and a lot of little girls had that Mrs. Beasley doll, but I didn't get that one, just the miniature one that went with my Buffy doll. My Buffy doll had different clothes too. She had a short dress that was white with red polka dots and a red ruffled skirt. She also had a sleeveless orange jumpsuit with a short-sleeved white shirt that went under it. I think she had some pajamas too, but I don't remember what they looked like. Oh, I mustn't forget, my Buffy doll could talk. You just pulled the little string at the back of her neck and she would say something. I'm sure back during those days (late '60's/early '70's) a talking doll was impressive, at least to a 5 or 6 year old it was impressive.

Besides Tippee-Toes and Buffy, I only remember one other doll that I had. Her name was Crissy and she had red hair. Crissy was amazing because her hair could be either short or long, and if it was short you could make it grow by yanking on it. Well actually you were probably supposed to pull gently, but I thought it was pretty neat to just yank it, remember I wasn't a girly-girl. Then to make her have short hair again you just had to turn this dial on her back...and magic she had short hair...to my 6 year old mind it was magic! Crissy was really tall, had long legs, and a blue satin outfit, and she had that magic hair,that made her a spectacular doll.



Although I remember these three dolls, I don't really remember playing with them much. I'm sure I did, but by the time we moved to the farm (when I was 7) I was more of the jeans, cowboy boots, let me go outside tom-boy girl, with the exception of my Barbie Dolls. I loved my Barbie dolls and probably played with them until I was 10 or 11.

I remember being so excited the year I got my Barbie Camper. Now Barbie, Ken, and Skipper could go camping. I played with them at the top of the stairs and the stairwell was the lake. The could swim for ever in that deep lake. After their long day of swimming they'd go back to the campsite, cook dinner on the camper cookstove, then curl up in their sleeping bags and go to sleep for the night, only to repeat the adventure the next morning.

My barbies had quite the collection of clothes too. Barbie even had a pretty lacy dress that worked as her wedding dress. I must have been obsessive-compulsive even as a child, because my Barbie suitcase was always neat and organized and I knew where every outfit was. I spent hours and hours changing their clothes taking them on adventure after adventure. Even as I grew older my barbies had a soft spot in my heart. I never got rid of them. I really thought I'd end up keeping them for my own kids. I'm sure A.J. and Daniel would have loved getting my barbie collection, lol!

Since my mom and dad were still living at the farm and had plenty of room to store stuff I just left my barbies and the camper out there. Since I had boys and I knew they wouldn't want them I guess I was thinking maybe I'd save them for my grandkids. Who knows! When something brings us so much pleasure as a child I think we think that surely these toys/things will bring the same pleasure to someone else so we hang on to them hoping to bring that same pleasure to our kids or grandkids.

So what happened to all these dolls that were part of my life as a child? I don't really know what happened to Tippee-Toes, Buffy and Crissy. That is a question I'll have to ask my mom. We never had garage sales, so maybe she donated them to Goodwill or gave them to someone. Since I'd hung on to my Barbie collection I was able to pass that on to a special little girl. There were two kids who came to our church with their aunt when I was a young mother. At that time I was teaching Children's Church so I got to know Melvin and Amber. I had a soft spot in my heart for them. I don't think they had a lot, not like most kids did during those days. One day their house burned down and they lost everything. I don't know if the family had insurance, but it didn't matter to me, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my Barbie collection. The next time I made it to my parent's house I packed all my Barbie stuff up and the next time I saw Amber I gave it all to her. I don't know if Amber had as much fun with the barbies as I did, but in my imagination she did.

21 Day Sugar Detox Summer 2013

21 Day Sugar Detox Report

June 12, 2013 at 10:53am

21 Day Sugar Detox (21DSD) Report

I must say that was probably the longest 21 days of my life, or rather probably the only 21 days that I counted down since I was a kid and was waiting for Christmas. Alas, it is finally over and I have indulged in a pineapple strawberry smoothie, bierock and small cinnamon roll!

Twenty two days ago I embarked on an adventure called the 21 Day Sugar Detox. It is a plan that eliminates all the sugar and artificial sweetener out of your diet including cutting out foods that have naturally occurring sugars in them. Imagine a life without grains of any kind, any form of dairy, all fruits except 1 green tipped banana OR 1 green apple per day, beans, legumes, potatoes and any food which lists any form of sugar or artificial sweetner in the ingredient list. I will tell you this, it is doable because I did it with just one misstep (more about that later). I'm not really sure how I did this, my mind was just in the right place. Two things worked in my favor. The week before I started this I had cut out drinking pop. I'm so glad I did that the week prior to starting because I had horrible caffeine withdrawal headaches, but that was all over by the time I started this. The other thing that worked in my favor is I'm used to eating a grain free diet because I've been eating a Paleo/Primal diet for a little over a year now. So what did I eat, my diet consisted of meat, lots of veggies, eggs, lots of nuts and sunflower seeds, coconut milk and my beloved 1 green tipped banana per day. The plan does allow athletes to eat one sweet potato after a workout so that was a great treat to look forward to on the days when I worked out.

I didn't go into this plan with the purpose of losing any weight. As a matter of fact upon reading up on it I was seeing that many people didn't lose any weight doing this sugar detox so I really had no expectations about weight loss upon starting this. My main reason for embarking on this detox was to get my eating back under control. For about 6 weeks prior to starting this I had really let my healthy eating habits slide on a slippery slope and I was getting frightened that if I didn't do something I would keep on with what I was doing and gain back the pounds I had fought so hard to lose.

So what was the outcome of the 21DSD:
Pounds lost: 4
Inches lost: 7.25
Incredible knowledge and insight about food
Two exciting things happened during the detox, I lost 3 inches in my waist and 2 inches from my hips, and I gained some definite ideas about food that should help me over the rest of my life. I I will say though that I'm a bit surprised I didn't lose more weight because of what I was eating. I was eating a ton of vegetables which are low in calories and when you add in the other stuff I was eating it didn't seem like I was consuming that many calories. The one thing I wish I would have done different is that I wish I'd have kept track of my calories consumed just for curiosity's sake. However, if there is one thing I dislike doing it is tracking my food intake, it's such a pain! Even though I was surprised I didn't lose more based on my food intake I've always said I'd prefer to lose inches over pounds any day.

I didn't have as much energy as normal so my exercise suffered some. I didn't log nearly as many miles as normal and I backed way off on my bodyweight workouts. I was still exercising but I just didn't have the umph to do what I normally do. I am looking forward to some good workouts again.

What insights did I gain about food:
1) I CAN live without sugar!
2) I CAN go into situations where there are little or no healthy food choices (movie theater, family dinners, fast food joints, restaurants, etc.) and I can survive!
3) Choices are available in most situations and if there isn't an acceptable choice it won't kill me to go without
4) 21 days isn't forever, lol!
5) The Cheesecake Factory trumps the 21DSD!
6) Almost every canned or bottled product has sugar in it. The one exception I found to this is tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste (most varieties) do not have added sugars.
7) Almond butter is the bomb! (Maybe eating spoonfuls of almond butter almost daily is why I didn't lose more weight)!
8) Club soda isn't so bad.
9) There is no perfect time to do something like this, there will always be something special within the 21 day time frame so you just have to "bite the bullet" and do it.
10) No one is perfect, when (not IF, but WHEN) you fall down, pick yourself up, dust off and keep going!
11) Food is fuel BUT, food should also be enjoyed. Savor each bite of your meals especially if you are eating one of those meals you don't normally eat. Slow down, take your time, don't rush through your food. Enjoy the journey of eating!
12) On a daily basis we are confronted with junk foods. Seriously, until you do something like this you don't realize how many times you encounter junk food.

I was quite proud of myself for navigating through the challenge the way I did. I was in many situations where I had to take my own food so I would have something I could eat. It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, but it was doable. The one time I knew I was going to be tempted was when we went to visit our son in the Kansas City area (3 hours from our home). My all time favorite restaurant is The Cheesecake Factory and the 2 or 3 times I make it to Kansas City in a year I always go eat there. Our trip there fell on days 17 and 18...so close to the end of this detox and up to that point I had not fallen off the wagon. I contemplated what to do, posted about it on here, said I was going to be tough and not indulge and you all were so good and cheered me on. I will humbly admit when I ate at The Cheesecake Factory I fell off the wagon. I ordered an enchilada dish (green beans on the side instead of rice) and had a piece of banana cheesecake. I will say I enjoyed EVERY bite of that meal. I don't think I've ever eaten a meal and savored it like I did that one. The bottom line on this choice came down to the fact that I only get a chance to eat at The Cheesecake Factory 2 to 3 times a year and a fresh meal is WAY better than leftovers so I decided to go for it. Did I feel guilty about it, NO WAY! It was one meal out of 63. I was 98.4% successful during the 21 days and that is nothing to be ashamed about, especially when I walked away with so much personal knowledge about food.

Will this experience change the way I eat? Yes! Now that does not mean I'm not going to eat the piece of birthday cake EVERY time I have the chance because I am, l love birthday cake, the more frosting the better! The changes I anticipate in my eating are in regards to the junk that surrounds me on a daily basis. I would venture to guess that I encounter at least 2 to 3 situations a day when I have the opportunity to eat something that isn't so healthy. This was a real eye opener for me; all the times I had to make choices. I think the natural tendency is to say to ourselves, "Oh this one time won't hurt." But what we don't realize is that we have so many of those "one times" that they start adding up. So for me I think I will go with an eating plan in which I'm going to stick with eating certain foods (not as strict as the 21DSD though) and then loosen up a bit on the weekends, unless there is cake or The Cheesecake Factory, I will ALWAYS eat the cake with lots of frosting or eat whatever I want at The Cheesecake Factory, no matter what day it is, lol! That brings out a great point, I learned what my "go to" foods are; the ones I really missed. Fruit, popcorn, Chinese food, salad dressing, a little milk, cheese and butter, my protein shakes, and ice cream; these are the things I wished I could have had so these will be the foods that come back into my diet. The popcorn, ice cream and Chinese food will be occasional treats, but the others will be regulars. So I anticipate my weekly diet will include the following foods; meats, eggs, nuts, protein shakes, fruit, vegetables, some dairy, and salad dressing on my salads. Occasionally I'll have popcorn with butter, ice cream and Chinese food. When I go out to eat I'll order meats without the buttery creamy sauces and I'll have veggies or a sweet potato on the side. On the weekends I'll splurge and have the buttery creamy sauces, and go Mexican and have some chips and salsa, and I'll have dessert too! Now at least I have a better idea of what will work best for me by satisfying me as well as being fairly healthy.

Was the 21 Day Sugar Detox worth the 21 days of completely changing my diet, ABSOLUTELY, 100%, DEFINITELY, FOR SURE!!!