One Week Down!

Day 6:

Today, Sunday, was a pretty chill day. I just stayed home, cleaned, watched tv, nothing special to report.

I had my breakfast shake with black coffee & water. The book says not to drink liquids with your meals as it hinders digestion--so drink A LOT of water the rest of the day, but not 30 minutes-1 hr before or after meals. I'm a little unclear where the shake lies in with that rule though, since the shake is liquid itself....I still drink my cofffee with it and a small water. *shrug*

Last (!!!) lunch shake. No pic.

Iced tea. I ran out of green tea, so I called my Dad and told him to bring me over a box of his haha cheap-o, but meanwhile I made iced oolong tea. Close enough. Of course, once again I oversteeped it. Strong taste, but more antioxidants I guess. That's what I'll keep telling myself.

For dinner I cleaned out the fridge a little: baked chicken, brown rice with coconut oil, steamed broccoli with coconut oil, and organic mixed greens with avocado, olive oil, & balsamic

I ate lunch really late--at 4:30 pm, so I couldn't have dinner 'til 9. Brutal! I wasn't terribly hungry, luckily, but I did get a headache around 8:30. Must eat at more normal hours! After next week, when eating lunch instead of just shakes, if I still feel blah and hungry all the time I think I'll have to nix her meal timing and go to a 4-6 small meal a day plan. I know an integral part of the Virgin diet relates to her 3 meal a day only philosophy, but if that isn't sustainable for me I shouldn't be uncomfortable for the duration of the plan only to quit it immediately after, you know?

BTW , I skimmed through the book again and the diet (cycles 1 and 2) last 49 days not 42, oops. Good thing I checked! Well, I would have eventually, but still. 7 more days of torture. Just kidding, it's not that bad.

Day 7:

I weighed myself yesterday and I was down about 3 lbs, but today I was back up 2 of the 3. Rude. Must be fluctuating water weight. My Dad weighed in for the first time (he always does on Mondays) and lost 10 lbs!! 

I worked out and did 30 min elliptical plus light stretching

Had my shake and black coffee around 9. This time I added a few kale leaves to the shake. Didn't taste it. Phew. Sometimes I taste the spinach when I add it, but I think I add way too much. Just a little does the trick. 

My dad is following the "rules" and having his last shake lunch today, but I'm a rebel and am switching to food. It's Monday! New week! Maybe that's why he's losing more than me. JK. Kinda.

But first, it appears I had green tea at some point. I guess I can stop taking pics/keeping track of every beverage now. That seems silly. 

I made lunch just before 2 pm. Roast beef lunch meat in a brown rice tortilla with organic mixed greens and mustard with blackberries and pistachios. Ahhh a real lunch. Of course, our 2 pm patient walked in while I was stuffing my face. At least I just had to wave to them and not actually talk, so that was a plus. It always seems like when I take a BIG bite of something someone walks in. 

 

I wish brown rice tortillas wouldn't change texture so quickly when you heat them. But at least they taste good. 

Ok, I lied. Here's another beverage pic. I know Kombucha, especially fruit-flavored has sugar in it (fruit juice/puree), but I bought a few before the challenge and don't want to waste the money. They're expensive even on sale! Sooo I'm mixing 1/4 a bottle (1/2 a serving) with sparkling water to get the benefits without much sugar. Mmm Kombucha.

 
  
My aunt came over for dinner. I made grass-fed roast beef, but it was super tough. Rude! Next time I'll try the crock pot, but I thought that would make it too shreddy and I wanted thin slices. Better moist shreds than tough slivers--Lesson learned. I also made mashed butternut squash (soooo good), garlic olive oil green beans with almond slivers, salad with kalamata olives/avocado/evoo/balsamic, and roasted potatoes. I ate it all except the potatoes.

 Plus I ate more of all the veggies (and another bite or two of meat...). I was hungry!

I left work a tiny bit early to cook the meal, so after cleaning up the house (feels like all I ever do--ahhh part of being a homeowner!), so I've been in bed doing work I brought home. Can I just always work from bed? Haha.

I'll be back with Tuesday and today in a bit!

xo,
Amanda

Not As Ragey

Oops forgot to e-mail myself my post again. Maybe instead of writing them on emails I should just write straight to the blog and save it that way, huh? Duh.


Day 4:

I got 7 hours of sleep, finally something kinda decent, but still woke up really tired. Need to catch up, I suppose.

Yesterday I felt better having my whole morning shake at once, so I elected to try that out again. Only, no small apple before the gym this time, which was probably not the best idea. I was hungry, but alright.

Did 31 minutes on the elliptical, worked out at a moderately difficult pace, but could have pushed myself.

Breakfast shake was a mix of everything. My Dad forgot his shake ingredients at my house, so I just dumped mine and his together and split it in half..then he spilled some, so I added a little more. What is it with us and spilling these shakes? Even the shakes don't want us to drink them! It had the leftover coconut milk "hot chocolate" from last night, more plain coconut milk, sunwarrior vanilla and chocolate, homemade cinnamon almond butter, chia seeds, frozen strawberries, blackberries...I think that covers it. Also had a blueberry coffee with coconut milk & vanilla stevia. Trying to cut way back on stevia, but I guess it won't kill me and it sure makes some things more enjoyable. 

Tired at work. Having trouble concentrating. Not too unusual for me lol, but it's even harder to get things done!

Made a green tea with a little almond milk a little before 2 pm. I tried to drink it unsweetened, but it tasted weird to have it with milk but no sweet taste. I added 3 drops of vanilla stevia, but probably could have done even better with 2. I used to use maybe 4-6 drops. Improvement! It said to steep for 1-2 minutes. I probably left it in for 6 or 7, but it still tasted weak! Weird. Yesterday I left it in FOREVER and it was soo strong...not in a good way. I used to LOVE green tea, but now I think I MUCH prefer black. Darn.

  I'm still dreaming about dinner all the time, but the hunger discomfort isn't as dire during the day.

Made my lunch shake at 3. Have a tiny tiny bit of heartburn or something right before I ate. Weird. Maybe it's just gnawing hunger pangs lol. Shake consisted of chocolate sunwarrior, homemade cinnamon almond butter, frozen strawberries, blackberries, and frozen mixed berries. Another seedy "peanut" butter and jelly shake. Extra thick. Not good, but also not a chore to eat. Er drink. Not much eating going on...

I did notice I wasn't as ragey about food today! I still wanted dinner, of course, but I didn't have an immediate need to rush to it. Still, I made dinner in about 15 minutes total. We had salmon cakes topped with avocado, another arugula salad with avocado, & brown rice with coconut oil. The salad and rice were fine, but I thought the salmon cakes were soooo fishy tasting. I think I just wasn't in the mood. Bummer since it was my ONE meal, but oh well. My dad liked it at least and it got rid of most of the salmon leftovers.

I went to bed at a reasonable time, although my dogs woke me up at 3 am! I thought a burglar may have been in my house, or possibly my Dad (I didn't know what time it was until after)--nope, no cat burglar's here--just dog trash machines! Yep, Bella knocked over my garbage and Buster decided to go join her. UGH! At least we were safe....but c'mon, really???

Day 5:

I didn't write anything this day as I went, so this is all from memory.

Breakfast was, of course, a (stupid) shake. From now on unless I really shake things up (ha, no pun intended), I'm not going to list out the interchangeable ingredients. Plus black coffee. I'm bringing back the black! I used to only drink coffee that way, I don't know when I switched over to a "cream" (usually almond milk) & stevia girl. I'll still doctor up my flavored coffees, because I find that brings out their flavors better, but regular coffee is black all the way now.

 Lunch shake was around 3:30 pm at the office. To cut costs my brother is going to clean the office on Saturdays now instead of a janitorial service, so I tagged along with the intention to get some quick work in. Instead, we quickly realized the cleaning service brought their own supplies and we were out. We didn't even have a vacuum bag. Oops.  He emptied out the trash (and discovered the giant recycling receptacle is gone! UGH there comes my rage...) and off we went to buy supplies. Hopefully the office will survive not being vacuumed or polished for a week! I think we can make it ;). 

 I opted out of a workout and instead went to see a movie-it had been awhile! I had a green tea while I waited to get going. I also had 2 fiber pills (a serving is 5 but that seemed ridiculous). I think you're supposed to take them before meals, but oh well. I don't know if fiber pills are at all necessary. You get pleeeeeenty of fiber in veggies, thankyouverymuch, but I had the pills and was STARVING, so I tried a couple out. Hey, it's probably not a good thing to overdo regularly I wouldn't imagine, but it worked. I wasn't that hungry for dinner. WEIRD. That's not to say I still didn't tear into my food like a beastly savage when it came time!!

Dinner was a little interesting. My Mom was dying to see Parental Guidance--kinda off for her, since she usually hates comedies, but she's branching out. Anyway, we decided to see it at the movie grill. I had been eyeing their new menu the other day and noticed a kale and avocado salad. I wasnt sure if the lemon tarragon dressing would follow the Virgin Diet rules, but the rest was a-okay (it also included lemon, kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, and roasted garlic). I ordered it sans dressing and brought my own in a tupperware in my purse + some baked chicken tenderloin pieces. I felt so weird bringing my own food, but it was DELICIOUS! The dressing I made was just evoo, lemon juice, parsley, and a pinch of dill. No picture because it was in a dark theater. Duh.

The movie was pretty good! Really cute. Bette Midler sure got pretty skinny, huh? I mean she looks "normal," but good! Good for her. Can I say good one more time? 

Before bed I had about 3/4 a mug of decaf peppermint green tea. Yummy. 

One thing that has surprised me is how the lows I've experienced with this program are coming out in emotional ways--iritability and so on. Not that it's been that bad, but still. I don't consider myself an emotional eater AT ALL, so it's kinda interesting to see what hunger does--even though you're not supposed to be hungry following the plan, I sure am!!!! My Dad, who is more of an emotional eater, hasn't had hardly any trouble (or so he claims!). Sure he's a little tired of the shakes and would rather eat food--including pizza, which he's said about 10 times--but overall he hasn't been hungry or moody at all and we've eaten almost the exact same things. Hmm!! We'll see how the rest of the experience goes.

xo,
Amanda

Day 3 Grump

I left my laptop at the office (on purpose), but I forgot to e-mail myself my post first! So here it is now...I really did have the intention to post last night at least ;).

Day 3:
Woke up around 7:30. Didn't want to split up the shake, so I just ate a super small apple around 8 and worked out (22 minute elliptical, 8 minute treadmill, 3 minute stair master, & stretching). Not the greatest workout...I didn't feel like pushing myself today for whatever reason (lazy...). 

not the exact apple I ate, but for size reference...

Made a full shake when I got home around 9/9:30....vanilla sunwarrior, homemade vanilla stevia and cinnamon almond butter, blackberries, frozen mixed berries, and I forget if I used almond or coconut milk...I think coconut. This was thick and smooth. Much better than seedy! Still didn't taste amazing. I don't really get the sunwarrior hype--it tastes chalky to me, but an improvement. It reminded me of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in chalky shake form lol. I also had a mug of coffee with coconut milk-no sweetener. 

Started to get hungry again around 11:00/11:30, but manageable even at 12:30. Aim was to hold off to 1:30-2:30 before having lunch.

Had some green tea to get in some liquids/help stave off a little hunger. Riiight.

 

I'm still having candida-like symptoms. Sore tongue and an odd taste in my mouth that is driving me CRAZY, especially since I can't chew gum or mints. Maybe I need to bring a mouthwash to work....I guess the candida die off makes sense, as this diet is maybe even MORE restrictive than the yeast-free diet. Though I think the bad taste is partially from the green tea? But that wouldn't make it this bad in and of itself. Yuck!

I made my lunch-shake a little after 3:30. Wow, I made it the full 6 hour maximum and didn't die. ;) Chocolate sunwarrior, a mix of hemp seeds/flax seeds/chia seeds, frozen berries, and almond milk. This one tasted chalky and seedy, but the flavor was almost good. Really good with some sips. I'm definitely a chocolate shake girl, not that you can taste much more than the berries anyway. Didn't finish this shake until 5. Bad again! I was doing so well. But I guess I drank the majority of it in a reasonable time...

Juust before 5 pm I got EXHAUSTED. To be fair, I only got in about 6 hours of sleep last night, so I'm still working on that. But wow that was a fast depletion of energy. Felt a little out of it and almost headachy too. Is it dinner time yet? Commence the daydreaming of salmon....drool. 2 hours of work to go...

At the end of the work day I made my dad look at my tongue (pleasant!) and he agreed it was coated in white. Yep, candida. Guess I needed to make these dietary changes after all. I'll keep telling myself that every time my stomach grumbles, lol.

Irritability finally set in around 7/7:30 pm. I just wanted to eat and sleep and everything was mildly annoying. Apparently I was bitching a lot, because my Dad said I reminded him of our cat, Henry, who complains all day. RUDE! All I said was I was hungry, tired, and missed my dog(s). That's pretty much standard for any day, sheesh. I'll show you complaining!!! lol

I made dinner as quickly as humanly possible! I ate a bunch of pickle slices and half of a brown rice tortilla while it cooked. Man did that tortilla hit the spot. I probably didn't sit down to eat until 8:30?And  I couldn't find the asparagus I had been craving. I wanted to have a meltdown. Just kidding. But I was disappointed. I subbed boiled brussels sprouts and once they heated through I sauteed them in a little coconut oil spread. With that, I also had baked/broiled salmon topped with sliced avocado on a bed of arugula that had been dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, pink salt, and pepper, and on the side I had the other half of the brown rice tortilla. My stomach must have shrunk, as I had to put about half of the salmon and 1/3 of the brussels in a tupperware. Well, stomach shrunk or I served myself twice what I normally would have. Could be that :-P. I wanted a HUNK of salmon, and I did deliver. 

I tried out a dessert of warmed coconut milk, cocoa powder, and vanilla stevia, but it was kind of too sweet. Gasp. I drank a little, but once it cooled down I dumped the rest in the blender to mix with my morning shake ingredients. Oh goody. *sarcasm*

I went to bed around midnight, finally a semi-decent hour. 

xo,
Amanda

Virgin Diet Virgin

Happy New Year. I didn't purposefully start this plan because of the new year, I just wanted the holidays to be over. Mmm cookies. I also had a final lunch meal (in & out double double animal style....jelly?) and final dinner meal (a few bites of steak, a lobster tail, a mound of crab legs, champagne, and so on). Not to mention copious amounts of chocolate the few days prior. But once the clock struck midnight...no mas. I'm still kind of mad I didn't get my frozen yogurt fix, even if it is a little cold.

I'm supposed to keep a food journal throughout this process to be able to look back and remember how I felt during different parts of the program. I figure a blog is just as good, if not better.

 Day One:

Day off=Leisurely morning. Ate about an hour and a half after waking up, around 11?

Half a shake before working out. Vanilla sunwarrior, chia seeds, coconut/almond milk, blueberries, and frozen mix of berries

Felt comfortable. Not hungry. Didn't have any food cravings. I got this.

Went to the gym and did 45ish minutes of cardio (elliptical, treadmill, & 5 min on the stair stepper) + light stretching.

A little hungry after, felt ready for second half of shake. Same ingredients, I think. Got delayed runnings errands and did not eat for awhile, maybe another hour or a little longer? Finished shake and had a black coffee with a little peppermint stevia alongside around 2? 2:30?

Felt OK, but started longing for solid food.

Had another shake about 2 hours after that?  4:30? Getting a little late there, especially for "lunch." Chocolate sunwarrior, raw salted almond butter, almond/coconut milk, blueberries, and blackberries.  Felt a little hungry, but manageble. Again, still really wanting food. Kept thinking about dinner.

Had dinner around 8? Romaine leaves with red pepper hummus spread on them and a mix of ground turkey, kale, and black eyed peas with spices, eaten lettuce-wrap style. SO glad to eat. Had to dump my first batch of kale and restart dinner, as the spice I tried to use said may contain soy or milk. Ugh! Must pay closer attention from now on.

You're not supposed to eat within 2-3 hours of going to bed. I made some homemade almond butter around midnight? Had a small taste. Quality control, y'know. Half a tablespoon at most? Hopefully no plastic included. I kind of wasn't paying close enough attention and broke the tamper. If you're going to jack up your kind of brand new Vitamix, I guess breaking the $12 piece was the best thing to break. Reordered a new one. Watched bad tv. Took a bath. Read. More bad tv.  Ended up staying up til 2, so I could have had a real snack even at midnight. Darn! 
Day Two:

Half shake before working out. Around 8 am? Vanilla sunwarrior, hemp seeds, coconut milk, blackberries, raspberries. Not into the shakes. Don't really like shakes/smoothies without banana for sweetness/thickening purposes, but slurped really quickly through a straw made it alright. Too many seeds!

16 minute elliptical, 15 minute treadmill.

Drank other half of shake, but very slowly. Need to pick up the pace on the second half of breakfast. Didn't even finish this one until after noon! Maybe 12:30.  And this time I added the rest of an avocado I had on hand  (1/4?) plus a bit of dark chocolate cocoa powder (unsweetened, of course) to the ingredients from earlier. It had a smooth, pudding-like consistently. Slight bitter taste, but not bad. Still would rather have a proper meal. Also drank a coffee with coconut milk & vanilla stevia. Wondering if I should give up coffee for a bit (the plan waivers, but ultimately says it's OK) in favor of green tea, but not ready to give yet ANOTHER thing up. One cup a day should be alright with tea otherwise.

 

Tory Burch thermos my brother got me for Christmas

Got a headache that lingered awhile starting maybe 1:30 pm? Hungry and tired of shakes already, but still trucking. Supposed to "eat" every 4-6 hours and drink lots of water (but not when eating), but so far that isn't working. Is it week two yet?

Around 2 pm I made (and spilled. and remade) half of a lunch shake (didn't have the other half to make due to said spilllage). Chocolate sunwarrior, ground flax seeds, almond milk, and raspberries. Will need to supplement with an additional snack today to make up for lost calories/nutrients, especially since I work until after 7 tonight. Hallelujah more real food. Holding off as long as possible, though.
Mediumly (new word?) foggy headed and very very tired. Only slept maybe 5 hours, though. Wasn't tired until 2 am, as previously mentioned. Lately I go from wide awake to DEAD tired with little in between.

Finished lunch half-shake around 2:45. Still starving. Still headachy. If no relief by 3 pm, decided I'd bring in the advil troops. This program better help me become less inflammed, dammit. It's feeling a little like a torture treatment! Foooooooooooooooood.

Caved at 2:51 and took 3 ibuprofen. Work your magic, drugs.

Made a small snack a little after 4: cherry flavored black tea with a little vanilla stevia & 2 small lettuce hummus wrap leftovers from last night. I shoved them down asap, because I was in the middle of working, but man did they hit the spot. I could have had 4 more. OK, maybe two more. 

About 6:15 I made the same leftover snack. Now I'm second guessing the way I've interpreted the plan. Well, I've quite literally interpreted one of the charts, but then in the actual chapters it comes across much different and MUCH less restrictive. In the literal plan she says for the first week you have a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, dinner, and an optional snack. Yet, in the chapters she says to build up to 10 servings of veggies a day. There's no way to do that with one meal and a snack! Argh contradiction city!

You're also really not encouraged to snack or eat more than every 4-6 hours, oops. Maybe I should add a few servings of just veggies to the side of the shakes for staying power...I felt a little blah in my throat (?) after the second round snack and a lil stomach achey. Whoops. And dinner won't be toooo far behind. My tongue started to hurt too and I had symptoms from candida. Weird. No more snacks for me, though maybe more substantial shakes with sides of veggies from now on....

For dinner I had made crock pot beef stew. I forgot the carrots, so it was essentially grass fed stew meat, a little red onion, and sweet potato with spices. It was kinda bland, but I wasn't that hungry anyway. Didn't stop me from having another half bowl. What?

I either forgot to take pics or purposely spared you from bad pics. I don't know if that makes me a bad blogger or if I should say you're welcome. 

This is kind of boring, but oh well.

xo,

Amanda

 

Virgin Diet

Just a quick post at work before I really get to it tonight.

For starters, my resolution this year is to blog at least 3 times a week (but I'll be happy with once, minimum). Last year I wanted to run a 5k. Unfortunately, currently I can't even run more than 45 seconds or so without getting winded. Sad but true. I still have pretty decent endurance in terms of the elliptical and things like that, but running is a whole other issue for me. I lose running power LIKETHAT. But this year, I really want to stick to my resolution! To blog, not to run. But running again more consistently would be good too :).

I also have 3 or 4 product reviews I am SO behind on.

& so many pictures in my phone--which I'm not sure if I should delete or do a photo dump.

I miss blogging so much! I really want to figure out a 3-post-a-week schedule that works for me that is sustainable. Just need to work out the days and times and get to it! I'm finally settled into my house (I can't believe I haven't even done a house post. Or holidays. Or anything)....

I want to post not only food/fitness stuff, but fashion, makeup, home decor, whatever. Food Fashion Fitness Fun ;).

BUT, for the next 42-ish days I have a more specific DAILY update (even if I have to put together a couple days in one post lol).

My Dad wanted to do the new JJ Virgin Diet and I agreed to try it with him. Basically, it's an allergy/food intolerance elimination "diet." Normally I don't believe in diets--except the overall diet you eat--but I'm tired of feeling like crap a good majority of the time. As you guys know, I struggle with a lot of body pain issues. And stomachaches too. This plan is supposed to help eliminate inflammation in the body and figure out if you have issues stemming from your body being intolerant to common food allergens (even if you don't have a true allergy). For 21 days I can't eat ANY soy, gluten, sugar, peanuts, corn, eggs, or dairy. Pretty crazy, huh? After the 21 days, you reintroduce some of the foods one at a time and see the reactions (or lackthereof). She suggests you continue to leave corn, sugar, and peanuts out of your diet 95% of the time going forth, but that's not too realistic. Peanutbutterwhat?Still, if I DO feel better I'll assess then. If not, oh well at least I'll be eating clean, healthy foods for a month and a half. No harm there.

Let's do this!

xo,
Amanda

Mirror Model

I have recently taken to photographing myself in my mirror wall every morning before work. Hopefully this will motivate me to dress cuter and maybe even more professional. I dabble in between wanting to look all buttoned up or not really caring. Luckily my job allows the flexibility, though I do think a happy medium of a creative yet polished appearance is best suited to the environment. But most days I seem to only be bothered to throw on jeans (black pants if I'm feeling UBER fancy) and whatever top seems relatively work appropriate. Always a work in progress, I certainly am, but then again aren't we all? I used to be all fashion all the time, but then adulthood hit...and my style took a hit. Funny how that works.

While I would LOVE to mimic fashion blogs with professional-looking, stylized outfits and backgrounds, clearly my super infrequent posting as of late proves I'm lucky if I make time to snap a sub-par iPhone photo before running out the door. So, for the foreseeable future that's the best I can do. 

But you're not here to read this post, are you? Let's let the mirror do all the talking.

(Last-Last) Monday:

Oh, oops. I guess the mirror aspect didn't start until Tuesday. This is more of an overhead "selfie" at work kinda shot. Y'know, to get the ball rolling. Trying to show off my new shirt, but the lighting was horrific. At least my hair looked nice. That's rare-ish, lol.

Bella got in on the action, too. 

  Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, looking like a fool with your pants on the ground

Anyone but me still reference that song, even just in their head? Probably not.


She hadn't worn clothes in awhile--the horror! So natch, I had to go all out. I bought her those jeans two Christmases ago, but they're a tad too big in the waist (clearly), so I was going to exchange them for a different size. Looks like I never made the return, as I found them in a pile with the tags still on, sooo I thought I'd give them another try just for a laugh. She's so adorable. Squish Squish Squish. I mean rhinestone jeans for dogs? Really? It's so ridiculous and amazing I had to.

Tuesday:

  I'm batman.

 

at work. with dry hair. I promise I'm not orange in real life. Florescent lights are just SO flattering!

Wednesday (Halloween!):

 

                                               Hmm this turned out to be a bit of a hot mess

 

I'm a mean mean mommy. He loves clothes, but costumes make him hate his life. This was a repeat costume, but he sure makes one handsome moose. 

  She, on the other hand, loves any and all dress up. That's one proud (repeat) chicken! Repeat rooster has a much better ring to it, but she's a lady, c'mon!

Thursday:

 Ignore my weird facial expression, please.  My neighbors ended up inviting me over for wine and getting to know each other that evening. I was just glad I hadn't stripped down to pajamas yet and was wearing something cute that day. A rarity on both accounts, especially post-work! Ha. 

After all, this is my motto...

 I love that so much. TRUTH.

Friday:

At our office, Casual Monday is more appropro than Casual Friday (it's our primarily administrative day with few patients coming in), but most weeks I end up participating in both. Not that either is a far stretch from my every day choices :-x. I just feel slightly more justified, I guess!  

 

what up, Buster in the far right corner? He isn't living with me as often as I expected just yet--still working on the whole potty training thing even though he's, um, older than I want to admit! Buuut, he was happy to make an appearance this morning!

 My fave "pirate boots" as my chiro lovingly refers to them. I think they're on their last legs (ha, pun not originally intended), but I've been saying that for over a year now....can't. let. go! 

Saturday I wore the same thing as Friday (I'm a dirt bag that way. It happens pretttty often, not gonna lie) and Sunday who even knows? I just remember thinking it was not even worth iPhone documentation if that tells you anything. I don't even remember what I did Sunday now, hmm.

(This Past) Monday:

 

Again with the awkward face and sun shining in...I'm gonna have to figure out a better place to stand...

Tuesday:

 

No time for pics this morning, so this was taken late at night. Hence looking a bit haggard. Hey, two days this week I didn't immediately change into pjs upon walking in the door. That's got to be some type of record!

Wednesday (Today!): 

All my photo options from this morning were pretty douchy, so this is the best it gets, friends. I'll work on it, too.

                                       xo,

                                       Amanda