Liver Detox

Tomorrow my hubby and I are starting a 9 day liver detox program. You guys know how I love a challenge - remember Vegan Week??

I thought I'd share our progress with you over the next 9 days. We're following the recipes in this book:

I chose it for no other reason than I saw it in the library and it the program features real food, you know, not just smoothies and juices and the like. 

Why are we doing it?

I have some liver issues and I know my liver function isn't great at the moment because my symptoms are quite bad. I've been having 3 - 4 day headaches, waking up feeling very tired, and I've felt generally "toxic" for a while. I can't process highly fatty foods usually (which is part of my liver problem) but lately I've had trouble with anything even remotely fatty. Alcohol is also a write off - even one glass of wine.  My husband is doing it because I'd like the company on this little journey and he's a good sport.

What will we be eating?

We can eat wholefoods, fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, smoothies and decaffeinated drinks. No coffee, caffeinated tea, red meat, poultry, wheat or dairy. We are mostly GF in this house for Ben who is coeliac and my husband who is gluten intolerant (and probably undiagnosed coeliac himself). I don't eat dairy, so I think the eating plan will be OK. The cost was the same as my normal shop and I bought extra meal ingredients for the kids who won't be doing the detox. We'll also be taking liver supplements and probiotics (I take these anyway).

What do we want to get out of it?

I'd like to feel more energised and I'm interested to see if eliminating toxins has an effect on my headaches and joint pain. I'm also keen to break my chocolate cravings! I think my 3 coffees a day husband is really going to struggle tomorrow and Saturday but will hopefully feel better by early next week.

What preparation is involved?

I worked out my shopping list and ordered my groceries online this week to make sure I got it all. I love online shopping - I've felt happy all day knowing my food is going to appear on my doorstep this afternoon without me stepping foot into a supermarket. I wrote out a detailed menu plan including meals for the kids. The key to following the recipes is having everything at hand, otherwise I think it will be easy to make something else or buy food instead. I stopped drinking tea two days ago in preparation and have had the most monster headaches which I think is a sign of addiction to the caffeine in it. I've been drinking a lot of water and red bush or rooibos tea instead.

What about exercise?

Along with the eating plan we'll be following a detox program from  My Yoga Online . You need to be a member to do the programs but there's lots of free info on there as well. The program has detox recipes and tips and yoga practice videos to do at home specifically for detox. 

So that's the deal, I'll keep you updated with how it goes!

She's Nine.

Well hello there. It's been quite a while hasn't it. Life became that little bit crazier in February when I started a part time job from home. Then we had another very unexpected and rushed move in March and a trip home to NZ in April. Busy busy busy. I'm loving the fullness of my days though, even if it is a balancing act sometimes!

I thought I'd write a quick post today to share something special that happened in our house a couple of weeks ago. Our big girl Jemima turned 9. Now if you have read any other party posts of mine, you'll know that we tend to do big themed parties in this family. Jemima has inherited the party planning gene and with characteristic intensity she was sorting out themes 11 months in advance. I was bracing myself for something huge and complicated, and quietly wondering how I was going to pull that off while working 25 hours a week and trying to keep up with all of the other mum jobs I have to do.

Blessedly, she came up with the idea of an 'Instant Restaurant" and wanted to invite just her closest family friends. This girl of ours is a cooking reality show addict and she could think of nothing better than being a chef for a night. Menus were planned, ingredients carefully written out and decorations organised well in advance. She wanted a winter theme and she was set on doing the entire thing herself.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the newest and greatest restaurant the Blue Mountains has ever seen... Dancing Ice.

Done and Dusted!

Today marks the end of my two month No Shopping Challenge. We've been super busy lately with our wee one starting school, beginning a new job, and packing up the house for yet another move. The end of the challenge has kind of snuck up on me.

It's been a challenging, enlightening, empowering, and educational two months.  My desire to buy things for the sake of shopping has well and truly gone and for that I'm thankful. I now look around the shops with a different perspective, and I'm much much better at saying no to myself.

We've saved quite a bit of cash despite having some big bills come up and it being an expensive time of year. We've learned the lesson (finally!) that just because the money is there, it doesn't mean it's there to spend. I have loved having money left before pay day and a nice little bundle sitting in a savings account.

I still like online shopping. It's still a danger zone for me for sure. My way of keeping this under control is to write a detailed list of things that I think I need (winter clothes for example) and then I am only allowed to look for those specific things. I'm looking forward to a modest bit of shopping now that the challenge is over.

I did pretty well sticking to the rules but I  did say I would be honest with you so I'm admitting to buying pizza a couple of times when I was too tired to cook. We also bought some plastic crates for moving although they were kind of essential. That was it.. no clothes, books, coffees, shoes, meals out, or anything else. I'm happy with that.

Over the next year we're going to keep up most of the challenge, especially with grocery shopping and no spend weekends. I hope we can stick to it.

How did your challenge go?
What was the first thing you bought when it was over?

Crop & Swap

Today was our local Crop & Swap meet. I took along organic unsweetened yoghurt, eucalyptus laundry gel, four kombucha cultures, some cheesy bread rolls, and some chai tea mix and I came home with:

GF date cake
Savoury quinoa bites
Anzac biscuits
Rocky road
Sweet tomato and eggplant chutney
Blood plum jam
Apple sauce
Rose hip jelly
Nectarine chutney
Mint jelly
Pumpkin
Sorrel
Rosemary
Lemongrass
Tomatoes
Spinach
Eggplant
Bay leaves
Muesli
Coffee
Body scrub
Strawberry plant
Food grade bucket (for sauerkraut etc.)

.... and not a cent exchanged hands. Pretty good huh?

The Crop & Swap is the perfect way to shop if you're in the middle of a No Shopping Challenge like we are. I'm starting to think that bartering and swapping would be fantastic any time, not just in the middle of a frugal challenge. How great would it be if people could get rid of their excess produce and gain something back all without spending anything?

I'm off to enjoy an Anzac biscuit. Have a great Saturday!

How to build a robot out of recycled materials

This morning we woke up to rain and mist and no real plans for the day. Since we're not spending any money at the moment due to our No Shopping Challenge we decided today was a perfect day to hang out at home and get creative.

Ben was given this great book by his Auntie for Christmas. It has cool ideas for making robots using odds and ends that you have lying around at home.

We didn't end up doing a project from the book but it did give us inspiration to do this:

We had an old laptop with a broken screen stored away in a cupboard and it was the perfect thing for Mr J and Benny to dismantle. Ben loved using the screw driver and taking the pieces out by himself. Pretty soon we had a big crate of wire, circuit boards, and pieces of metal.

Next came construction:

Then spray paint using some leftover car paint we had in the laundry.. and gluing the cool pieces from the lap top in place.

 This is a great up cycling/recycling project to do with your kids. Everything on "Otto Ankle" (that's what Ben named him!) was found around the house. If you'd like to make something like this yourself here are some ideas of what you may need:

• Old electrical equipment such as a stereo or computer. Make sure the battery is removed if you're taking apart a laptop and be sure to supervise your kiddies just in case as there are some sharp metal bits inside.
• Cut off cords from broken appliances
• Tin cans
• Plastic bottles and lids
• Duct tape
• Insulation tape
• Super glue
• Cardboard tubes
• Sharpie pens
• Spray paint or regular acrylic paint
• Wire
• Cardboard boxes in various sizes

We've started a collection of things of this nature for Ben to make stuff with, that way when we find something interesting it's easy to add it to the box. We're going to keep the box up high so he has to ask to use it (otherwise I foresee some 2am building sessions). Council clean up days are a great way to build up a stash of interesting building materials or ask around your friends to see if anyone has any electrical equipment they want to get rid of.

Happy building!