30-by-30: go to a Michigan football game outside of Michigan

Anyone who’s ever told you that holding a full-time job, taking 7 ½ graduate school credits, and planning a wedding, all at the same time, isn’t tough to do… They were lying. So please forgive me as this blog continues to get brushed to the side, only to be updated when something monumental occurs.

Maybe this isn’t monumental, but it is a good excuse to blog. I checked off one of my 30-by-30 items!

#3, go to a Michigan football game outside of Michigan

Over Labor Day weekend, Fiancé and I made the trek down to Texas to watch Michigan take on Alabama in the Cowboys Classic. For anyone who cares anything about Michigan football, you understand why I’m not going to say another word about this game.

Luckily, there were lots of other amazing things about this trip.

We stopped in a lot of cities, including overnights in Nashville, Memphis, and Indianapolis. We saw over 2,500 miles of the countryside. We even ran into some of our neighbors in Nashville… Neighbors that we had never met before, that happened to be making a similar road trip, that wound up in the same honky tonk as us, with whom we just happened to strike up conversation with, and figured out we live 3 blocks from each other. Random!

Nashville at night.

Speaking of Nashville, I want to live there. I got to wear cowboy boots for nearly 24 hours straight. And the country music was ridiculous. So many talented artists just working for tips. I’m doing everything in my power to get back to Nashville ASAP.

And did I mention the FOOD?!

Amazing. All of it. Yelp and I really did a good job of finding some shady yet amazing roadside eats.

Fiancé and I travel really well together. I think this is probably a really important element in a relationship between two people that love to travel. This time, I did most of the planning (where we were staying, where we were stopping, timeline, itinerary, etc), which meant Fiancé didn’t have many decisions to make, which was fine by him. We both didn’t mind going to bed late, getting up early, and hitting the road before the sun rose. I love road trips, and I hope that we can continue to take family trips like these with our children someday.

If you hadn’t guessed from the opening line of this post, another large milestone is on the horizon (#6, finish my master’s). I graduate in April, but I hope to post more between now and then. And if you can’t find me here, be sure to check on the wedding website, troyandmariaswedding.com for all the wedding-related details I won’t be sharing here.

Cheers!

Juicing Journey: Day 3 Update

Sorry for the delay! Here is the final chapter in the juicing journey.

7:00AM: wake up and am feeling ok until that hungover feeling hits again — headache, dry mouth, sore throat. Bummer. Gotta get to work this morning, though.

8:30AM: trying to make these juices last so I delay my first green juice for as long as I can. Suck it down and realize how sick of this juice I am.

9:00AM: everyone at work thinks I am crazy for doing this cleanse.

10:30AM: PAM juice is so delicious. I’m trying not to be hungry, but am thinking about what I will and will not be able to eat the rest of the week with my post-cleanse tummies. D agrees it will be rough going.

12:30PM: it’s probably not a good thing that it is quiet at the office today — all I can think about is food. I literally gag down the final green juice. I just can’t stand the taste of it any more.

2:00PM: both D and I decide that we will break the fast tonight. Thinking about the upcoming days at work, neither of us want to be either hungry or uncomfortable as we navigate the post-cleanse.

3:00PM: it’s becoming increasingly difficult to resist my drawer of salty snacks these last couple hours of the work day. Items on my desk are starting to resemble food. That can’t be a good sign.

5:00PM: when I get home I finish the last of my cashew milk. I skipped my final CAB juice, as there was no way I was drinking a final glass of dirty beets. The cashew milk was filling, but I was still craving salt.

6:30PM: I couldn’t hold out any longer and made myself some kale chips. I could not wait to get those salty leafs into my mouth. I snuck a piece of raw kale as I was prepping. Chewing is weird.

7:00PM: kale chips are ready! I put them in a bowl and eat them like popcorn. They are so delicious, and I eat every last one.

7:15PM: get an almost immediate stomach ache. Guess salt wasn’t exactly what the belly wanted.

7:30PM: sooth belly with tea and lay on the couch the rest of the night. D and I both complain about stomach aches and share what we are most looking forward to eating again: carbs.

10:00PM: eventually go to bed, proud that I was able to get as far as I did on the juice cleanse.

When I wake up in the morning, my first thought is, “I get to eat today!” However, this is not the end of the journey. Since the end of the cleanse, I have had to reintroduce food to my stomach. The day after breaking the cleanse, the only thing I was able to eat was applesauce and a few almonds. This entire week I have found that it takes much less food for my body to feel full, which has caused me to eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. As of today, I have not had any meat, caffeine, alcohol, or refined sugar since beginning the cleanse. I feel great, my stomach is flatter, and my skin is clearer. I hope to be back very soon with some thoughts on juicing, cleansing, and the overall experience.

Thank you for taking this journey with me, and a special thanks to D, who was a total trooper for attempting this experiment with me.

Cheers!

Juicing Journey: Day 2 Update

In case you missed it, I’m doing a juice cleanse! Here’s Day 2…

9:00AM: woke up and had a cup of tea while Fiancé scrambled around to leave for his work trip. I’m not glad that he’s leaving, but at least there won’t be anyone around our place cooking delicious smelling food. Not feeling so hot today – a kind of hungover feeling, sore throat, dry mouth, headache.

10:00AM: after dropping Fiancé off at the airport, headed home for my first green juice of the day. Glad I made it the day before, because I was in definite need of nourishment.

10:30AM: thought I would come home and fall asleep, but the house was a mess, so I spent some time cleaning. For the past few days I’ve had counters full of produce that wouldn’t fit in the fridge, and it was starting to smell…

12:00PM: PAM juice time is my favorite time. If I ever juice again, PAM juice will be at the top of my list, probably because it tastes the most like what I used to consider ‘juice’.

12:30PM: D and I have been commiserating over text. Neither one of us are very happy at this point. My day of relaxing on the couch turns quickly turns unbearably boring as there is nothing on TV except reality shows.

1:30PM: time to do the last of my juicing. Prepped and juiced 3 green juices to finish out the cleanse. I am so glad to be done with this little machine for a while.

2:00PM: mix some tea with the spicy lemonade. The taste is not so bad, but the burning in my throat is horrible.

2:30PM: still horizontal on the couch. Decide I need a distraction and buy a movie on-demand – 21 Jump Street. Not too bad. Does its job to distract me for 90 minutes.

4:00PM: hold nose and finish the horrible-tasting CAB juice after doctoring it up with some leftover lemonade. D informs me that hers is much more palatable after peeling beets. People, peel your beets. Blech.

5:00PM: still not interested in any of the wedding or house hunting shows on my DVR. Find a horrible Kristen Bell movie and watch it in entirety.

6:00PM: realize I’m not really focusing unless the characters are eating food.

8:00PM: cashew milk not as yummy as last night. Bummer – this is really getting old.

8:30PM: finally decide I’m enough of a mess to warrant a shower. Standing for 20 minutes is the most difficult thing I’ve done today.

9:00PM: watch a markedly terrifying episode of True Blood. Scripted TV succeeds in distracting me, but I do find myself sympathetic of hungry vampires… They can’t eat solids, either.

10:30PM: call it a night and think I’ll fall asleep immediately. No such luck. Feels like I wake up about 20 times during the night. Not a good sign of things to come on Day 3…

One more day to go… cheers to that.