DR. BRONNER'S MILD LAUNDRY DETERGENT MIX

Here's the recipe to the mildest and cheapest laundry detergent you can possibly have in your cupboard. Especially good for people with allergies or for your children's clothes.

• 1 dl Dr. Bronner's Unscented Pure Castile Soap (easily ordered through FeelUnique.com)
• 1 dl baking soda
• 1/3 dl salt
• 2 dl water

Mix the baking soda and salt in warm water until disolved, add the pure castile soap. Use the mix as regular detergent in your wash.

HOMEMADE ECO MUESLI

For all of you who know me, you know I'm quite ECO-conscience. And one thing I have been looking for is eco muesli. Not one out there has tickled my taste buds, so what better way to get exactly what you want? Make your own of course! :)

Here's my own muesli from this morning with loads of goodness for me and the baby growing strong within. And it's 100% organic. Both the baby and the muesli. Haha!

Yummm!!!

VISION OUT OF SYNC

06:30 and I've been awake for long over an hour now. Having trouble sleeping lately. One week of my sick leave has passed and I'm starting to understand why the doctor felt so adament in making sure I rest. I have been in more pain than usual and with the little miracle baby growing, it's putting some serious pressure on everything, including my myomas (muscle knots). It's really uncomfortable and painful to say the least. My early contractions aren't making it easier to cope either. All this pain is making me feel nauseas as well. But the part of me that has a hard time connecting with everything that's going on is... my brain. I have been so frustrated that my body decided to, in my mind, give up. I had a rosy vision of me keeping my morning running regime, instructing my classes at the gym, be active, glowing, vibrant, being in sync with the life growing within me. Wrong!!! Don't misunderstand me now, I feel blessed to be pregnant with a life growing inside of me, with or without all the complications, but the reality is just not matching up to the vision I had. Here I am, already been admitted to the hospital having problems with large myomas that may later down the line complicate the actual birth of the baby. I also have severe pelvic girdle pains to the point where I can barely walk, or have to stop completely until it subsides. And to top it all off, I've got heavy, painful early contractions that puts me at risk of delivering too early and the baby at risk for health complications if that happens. Yes, according to the doctor, this is serious shit, and I get it, the severity of it all, I really do, but still... it's not matching up to my vision... And I don't understand why... What happened?

Next step is acceptance rather than frustration. Not quite there yet though.

PREGNANCY AMBIVALENCE

So this thing with pregnancy memory loss, most of us know about. But pregnancy ambivalence. Come on! I started cooking dinner and was aiming for quinoa with fish and veg. It changed during the course though and I made veg stir-fry. However, that didn't quite suit my taste buds either so I fried some turkey burgers. Nope. I didnt' want that either. So what did I end up with in the end? Spinach, cottage cheese, tuna and quinoa mixed with cucumber, tomato, red onion and avocado oil. Yup! What to do with the veg stir-fry, turkey burgers, fish and rest of the quinoa? Let's just say the dog is the best fed organic pooch in the neighbourhood. 😉

ALMOND MILK PART 2

Finished making my almond milk today. After letting the whole almonds sit in the water overnight, I blended them up real good together wih the existing water. Have seen other recipes where they change the water and blend it in fresh water instead, but I didn't bother as I feel it's a pity to waste precious water with almond goodness extracted into it.

After blending the almonds and the water for several minutes, I separated the almond pulp and the milk that was created from the blending through a cheese cloth attached onto a pan. See pic below. It look a bit of time to wait for it to drip through, but it was worth it. I finally extracted 600 ml of milk and used the leftover pulp to sit in a new batch of water to see if I can extract even more almond milk out of it.

The coffee today with my own homemade almond milk tasted looovely! I must say, it actually tasted nicer than the one bought in the store. Big success!  :)

DETOX AND LIVEFIT TRAINER

Since Big J moved in with me and I'm no longer the only human living in the flat anymore, I must say I have been struggling. Before, I could mind my own business, eat whatever I wanted however boring it could be, train whenever, sleep whenever, do whatever whenever. But as soon as another person lives with you that you actually care for, it becomes harder. And as a woman, I think we automatically feel this calling of taking care of our man, which shifts the focus from ourselves instead of trying to find a balance.

So, I have gone through a period of 5 months where I have strayed from my usual diet and training regime and finally I've had enough. Don't get me wrong, I've had a good time, I'm not gonna lie, but when the jeans are getting too tight that's when I have to set my foot down. Honestly, I am dead scared of going down the dangerous path of obesity again, which I know won't happen again, but the fear is there, in the back of my head.

Like so many other people after New Years, I am jumping on the detox bandwagon for 30 days. Unfortunately, I have been sick with fever and a throat infection, but I am back to writing my food journal and restricting calories as well as carbs. It's good to be back on track!

Next step is to chose a training program. I thought I might just go back to my old one I did with upper and lower body split supersets, together with my classes I instruct at the gym, but I had such good results last year doing the first 5 weeks of Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer that I'm gonna go back and finish it. This time, I will start in week 5 phase 2 and go from there.

But for now, lots of tea with lemon and honey. Gaaah!

 

ALMOND MILK RECIPE PART 1

Now that almond milk has finally become a little bit more popular, it's nice to see it popping up on the supermarket shelves. However, thesupermarkets have forgotten one important thing: to buy the non-sweetened almond milk.

Read somewhere it's supposed to be quite easy to make your own almond milk, so this time I'm going to try to make my own instead of buying. It will reduce the cost by more than half. Yay!

Step 1:
Steep 2 dl organic almonds in 10 dl of water a minimum of 5 hrs, preferrably much longer for a sweeter taste, which is what I'm going to do. I'm actually leaving it overnight. Add a tiny bit of organic vanilla powder in the water for a vanilla tasting almond milk. And let it all sit...

To be continued...