Cleansing 101

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So we (Lauren (best friend for life), Tara (sister) and I), started the Catalyst Cleanse yesterday.  Actually, Tara is doing her own juicing, but she is following along with Lauren and I with the 6 juices every two hours.  It was a hard day 1.  I had a headache around 2:30pm, and Lauren and I had to remind ourselves that if we had eaten all the watermelon in the 4th juice, we'd be so full we'd pop.  Alas, Day 1 is done, and now we're on to Day 2.

Here are my thoughts on the different juices:

Juice 1: Cucumber, Celery, Apple, Parsley, Spinach, Lemon, Lime, Ginger

Way too much Cucumber Taste!  It's funny though, Lauren thought it was way too much Celery Taste.  Isn't it crazy how peoples taste-buds act so differently! Otherwise it was a nice green clean way to start the day. A little bitter for me though.

Juice 2: Lemon, Agave, Cayenne

Yuck!  That was my first reaction.  Pure yuck!  It was too sweet.  I actually had to water it down, it was too sweet.  I thought this was going to be lemonade-y, but it wasn't it was more like agave syrup-y!  Once I watered it down, about 3 to 1, water to juice, ratio, I liked it a lot.  It was refreshing and a nice little "snack"

Juice 3: Carrot, Apple, Celery, Lemon, Lime

THANK GOD!  I needed some substance.  Thank goodness for the carrots and apples in this mid-day Juice #3 that came right at lunch time.  I was really needing a juice with some substance. 

Juice 4: Watermelon, Lime

After not being able to open the first bottle of Juice #4, and having to get tomorrow's bottle out of the fridge (can't wait til I have to attempt opening it again), finally sipping this bad boy was worth the struggle.  Yum!  As Lauren said, this one was like a Watermelon Italian Ice.  Just enough sweet to get me passed the afternoon sweet/snack crave, but still refreshing!  Good Job Catalyst Cleanse! 

Juice 5: Cucumber, Celery, Apple, Parsley, Spinach, Lemon, Lime, Ginger

Same thoughts as Juice 1, because they are the same green concoction.

Juice 6:

YUM!!!  It's like dessert.  Thank goodness.  I needed something rewarding after today.  My boyfriend Danny brought Pizza Hut Pizza in the car on the way home and I needed all the willpower I could get not to have a bite.  I resisted!  This was a nice rewarding treat for being so good.  Kinda like ice cream in a bottle, but healthy!

The whole day in general wasn't too bad.  I thought it'd be a lot more difficult.  I did have a headache from hunger after 830pm, but slept it off and was feeling great morning of Day 2!  Onto more juicing!  Horray!

My Last Supper...

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Last night I had my LAST MEAL, before I started my the 3-day Catalyst Cleanse today.  I was cooking for Danny and I (and my sister who only ate the veggies, because she was already juicing), so of course I had to make enough protein and manly food for Danny, while satisfying my need to "ween" myself into the cleanse with some fresh veggies and raw foods.

What did I make?  Chicken with white wine sauce, (recipe to come at a later date - but YUM!), green beans and grilled veggies.  I always love when summer comes, because veggies are so fresh and grilling them brings out their flavor in such a simply way. 

I started with the basics: Eggplant, red pepper, and farmers market local jersey zucchini! 

(love that the farmer's markets are open in new jersey).

 

I kept it simple.  Just cut the veggies into strips (for the pepper) and eggplant and zucchini into circles (is that the right term, no, probably not.  Welcome to Erica's language.)

After they were all cut, I sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Now to the girll.  Just simply place them on the grill, so they start to sear and get the grill stripes.  I kept a small bowl of olive oil, salt and pepper next to the grill with a basting brush to keep the veggies moist as they were on the grill.

Viola!  The finished product.  Yum!  I love summer veggies.  The whole process takes about 20 minutes.

Juice Cleansing! A New First!

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I am often the friend who can be talked into doing things.  My philosophy is always try something once.  If you love it, do it again.  If you hate it, well, then you know!

About 5 years ago, I tried my first cleanse.  It was the master cleanse- you know, the one where all you drink is water, flavored with palm syrup, cayenne pepper, and lemon - the one all the celebrities were doing.   Aka you drink spicy lemonade all day long.  It was tough, but i kinda (secretly) liked it.

Well, lately my friends have been doing juice cleanses. lots of them. all different types.  The BluePrintCleanse and the Catalyst Cleanse have been the most popular, so when my best friend asked me to buy one courtesy of RueLaLa.com and join her, I jumped to it.

We selected a date, May 30th, as our start date.  HOWEVER, to our dismay, since everyone and their brother bought the cleanse from the same RueLaLa sale we did, there were no available weeks to start until July.  Bummer!  We totally wanted to get jumping before the summer was off to a start.  Alas, we settled on a July 18th start date for our 3 day adventure.

Fast forward to yesterday, June 11th.... I received an email in my inbox from "UPS QUANTUM VIEW" announcing that my catalyst cleanse shipment had just shipped.  SURPRISE! We are cleansing this week.  Boy oh boy, talk about jumping right into it. No time to prepare, mentally, no time to ween ourselves off of the sweets, alcohol, meats, etc.  Here we go head first!

Well my 18 bottles of juice arrived today, and I'm ready to start.  I'll keep you posted in the next three days on how its going...WISH ME LUCK!

30th Birthday Surprise!

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This past weekend was my best friend for life's 30th birthday.  Her birthday was actually Friday, 6/8/12, but we celebrated down the shore in the 08735, on Saturday night.  I am not the best at gift giving, and wanted to give her something she would enjoy.  She is really into "preppy" things and also loves her monogram, name, initial, etc. So i hit the web for some searching.

I was looking for presents on etsy.com, where I usually stumble across, and purchase jewelry - I know, BORING!  This time, I was searching for something a little more personal, a little more "30", a little more unique.  Well, I found the perfect gift, from smallcreatures - Amazing personalized labels for wine bottles.

 Wendy (from smallcreatures) was awesome to work with, and her labels made for a great surprise. I had her create three custom labels in black and white (classic), and I ordered 2 of each.  

The most painful part of the process was picking out the bottles of wine at the store.  I didn't want to take off the foil covering the cork, so I searched for bottles that had black silver, or grey foil, with no vineyard markings.  Boy was that hard!  I also had to ensure that the custom labels would fit over the front label, because I didn't want to take that off.  I used hot water and Orange Oil to take off the back labels, so the back was clean and free from markings.

This is the final result! I loved giving them, and Lauren loved receiving them! 

Definately something I would do again for a special occasion.

Who am I to start a blog?

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So you may be thinking it, because I certainly did..."Who am I to start a blog?"  Well, I've been thinking about it for a long time...starting a blog that is.  I finally got to the point where I said to myself, "Self, if they can do it, why can't you?"

A few details about me: I am always try to do new things, I love being fashion and trend forward (even if said trend never happens), I travel TONS, and I love to renovate and re-purpose old furniture.  Most people would probably see me as pretty interesting, but I always look at myself as normal. When I got to thinking about really doing a blog, I realized, "hey, maybe I'm not so boring.  Maybe, just maybe, people out there will enjoy my posts and my life's musings."  The only problem...where to start.

I needed a Blog name.  I needed something that screamed Erica.  I needed something blog-y.  I found my inspiration in a song my boyfriend Danny played for me the first week he knew me, Billy Joel's, Vienna.  I had never heard the song before he played it, even though I was a huge Billy Joel fan.  When I first heard it, I was shocked because it made me think of myself; going all the time, thinking I can change the world, never saying no, crazy kinda fun loving child (of sorts). So, when I needed a name, the first thing that struck me was Vienna, and alas, my blog was born.

So here it is; Slow Down You Crazy Child.  I hope you enjoy~!