Mark's homemade salsa

Jimmy Johns Avocado Spread

Salad, salad, salad!

This salad made me so happy! It was extremely fresh and a good compliment to the pizza that I made! I found the most phenomenal pizza crust, gluten free (this may fall under a cheat item, in fact, several of my items may from this) and I used a little italy pizza sauce (2 g of sugar) and I mixed the vegan cheese with a little bit of regular shredded cheese and this is honestly one of my most favorite meals now. Very filling and satisfying and I still feel like a human when I am done eating it...not weighed down or bogged down like when we eat take out pizza! Honest success and something I will continue with going forward!

Vegetable Soup Prep

A few days ago I uploaded the finished product for my vegetable soup. This is some of the prep work for it. I googled vegetable soup and I believe this came from the food network website, under Alton Brown. Made from vegetable stock, fresh diced potatoes, carrots, green beans...in my finished product I added some rice noodles just to make it a more hearty meal, but I do not even believe it may have needed it! And it produced a lot of leftovers which is always happy!

I am staying as focused as possible and am very interested to finish out this week. I splurged yesterday and did a Jimmy John's lettuce wrap, filled with avocado spread, loads of cucumbers and tomatoes, with some oil and vinegar, it was so delicious and more filling then it sounds, I promise! Also, their commercials do not lie, they are freaky fast!!!

Yay Tea!

Making the kids tea!!!

Did you think I forgot about you?!

Things have been busy, busy, and busier!!! I have a lot of pictures to upload of some of the things we have tried and experimented with. Hang in there, I will upload and post very, very soon!

Namaste!

Homemade Vegetable Soup

More to come on the food network recipe I tried last night!

Yawn...

So exhausted from this entire week but keeping the eyes open long enough to make homemade vegetable soup! My first try tonight was an epic fail when I accidentally flash fried the garlic in the first step. Good thing we have two stock pots!

The adventure of eating out, thank you Treehuggers.

On Monday evening I believe, Mark and I opted for dinner out! We played it somewhat safe, thanks to our Groupon, and hit up Treehuggers. I absolutely love Treehuggers and they were beyond accommodating and easy to talk to. I wish I would have remembered to take pictures on my phone and upload them directly, but, they made me a panini that was on gluten-free bread, grilled zuccini with a red pepper pesto spread. I had to substitute breaded zuccini for the grilled, and another type of spread for the red pepper pesto. It came with curried carrot salad, but after 2 bites I was sure it was not necessarily for me! We did do the sweet potato fries, which may or may not have fallen under what we are "allowed" to eat, but if they werent, I was glad that I fell off the wagon with these! It was nice how they really made sure I was aware of what was going into my panini, and that they were willing to work with me to substitute or leave out certain items. The setting is awesome, they have tweaked the inside slightly, and the tiny twinkle lights were neat. They also have a lot of take home goodies, although my son was the only one that benefited from that. You can buy their gluten-free bread, which is fantastic, and they have vegan bakery and sorts of fun things!

How are we doing you might ask? We are doing alright, doing the absolute best that we are able to do. In reading the chapters each night it is so interesting to really think about the things she says and realize what you are going through in attempting this process. On a bright note, without dairy and without gluten, my sinuses have been so clear, and my reflux has been nearly non-existent. It is interesting to see how things like that effect you and you might not even realize it.

Drive safe.
Namaste!

Short, sweet update!

Just a minute to pass a long a vent or two...if any day was going to be the day, today would be the day I am going down!!! Up since 5:00 a.m., had my "second job" first this morning from 6:45-9:45 a.m., and made it to work around 10:30 a.m.! On my way to work around 6:00 a.m. I ate half of a gluten-free english muffin with my vegan butter spread and tofu based cream cheese! My entire morning was focused on my lunch salad...sadly, the salad ended up in the garbage. My luck, my oil and vinegar became this odd sludge in the bottle while in the fridge (I am hearing now this is normal), so I asked Frank to bring me some dressing from a local deli, well, this dressing happened to have, what I believe is mold of some sort, or at the bare minimum, a growth. I discovered this after pouring it on my salad, so, lunch around 2:00 p.m. consisted of the Edamame crackers from Trader Joe's because I had over prepared with my salad! Of course the snow outside is going to delay any rushing home to safety of fruits, veggie and options!!! Sigh. Hope for the best.

Namaste!

MORE DETOX FROM THE WEEKEND

Here are some pictures from basically the only other recipe that we attempted this weekend. It was given to me by Frank (my boss) and it involves several long steps...those are cannelloni beans (I may or may not have spelled that correctly) that you soak in water overnight, then drain from that water and then cook the beans in some olive oil, sage, an entire head of garlic and some peppercorn. You cook those for several hours. When you drain the beans you save the liquid they cooked up in for the next process. Once those are done you can just salt and pepper and enjoy!

The second phase is the soup you see pictured. You use a few cups of the beans, a few cups of the juice they cooked in and mix in tomato, carrots and celery. Now, we used a rice noodle and we temporarily forgot that they get milky and sticky, so the liquid of our soup was milky and thicker than I had hoped. It was a good, filling, warm dinner last night. There is quite a bit leftover, and Frank told me another option for the leftover beans, make a bean dip! I will be attempting that tonight I hope!

Namaste!

WEEKEND DETOX HAPPENINGS

Happy Monday everyone! Sorry that it has been a few days, I am sure that you were all on the edge of your culinary seats...we survived our first week of the detox, and somewhat shocked ourselves. We are learning quite a bit about our kitchen and each other! Friday was the hardest day for us because we had used all of our creativity (and groceries) by Friday morning so we were left scrambling somewhat on meals. Lunch that day I headed to Giant Eagle's salad bar, which happened to be a large disappointment, but I spruced it up to the best of my ability. Snacks have been fresh fruit, and a lot of it! When dinner rolled around, and our original plans changed from Chipotle with my family, we were left struggling. We went for the vegan pizza crust and made a simple tomato and garlic pizza. The crust was a bit dry, but I used some olive oil and pepper to drizzle and that helped tremendously. Here are some pictures...

Edamame

Mark with an after dinner snack thanks to Trader Joe's!

Short update...

So much happening between my second job and grad school! Spent the afternoon working on a fun recipe, can't wait to share!

DETOX RECIPE - Stuffed Peppers

Mark and I tried out a recipe from the back of the Quantum Wellness handbook, and we were very surprised with how flavorful they turned out. We only made 2 since it is only the two of us eating and, to be honest, I don't know how that amount of rice, etc., stuffed 6 peppers anyhow! This was very filling and satisfying, and warm. All things we were hoping for. It took about an hour start to finish, we had modified the recipe based on our time and what we had, but check out the pictures!

PRODUCE DELIVERY - Monday night

More produce from Blueskygreenfields! We went out on a limb and picked out potatoes, tomatoes, a papaya and mangos! Again the strawberries were fantastic, the best of the season, and the apples have already been eaten. I plan to use the kale to make kale chips tomorrow! Great options all around.

DETOX CATCH UP

Good evening one and all!!! I got caught up with school and second jobs, what have you, so, here I am!

Detox is going well...the last few days have been very interesting. Check back tomorrow for loads to talk about!

Pictures to keep you intrigued. Yay for breakfast smoothies! I threw together some almond milk, strawberries and blueberries to get myself going the last few mornings! A success in my book!

Herbal Teas

When Mark and I and the kids went to the food show again this year to see one of our favorites, Guy Fieri, we spent a lot of time in the local, organic section. We met a wonderful family who is running Storehouse Tea. What really intrigued me was the tea accessories that they had to offer, and the sample of mint tea they were handing out was absolutely wonderful. If you are looking for a local company who has some new and interesting things to try, check out their website:

http://storehouseteacompany.com/index.aspx

Namaste!

DETOX DAY 1

Yesterday was our first full day of the cleanse/detox (or maybe they are the same thing)...not an entire disaster! Mark and I had some very meaningful, thoughtful conversation Sunday night about what we think eating healthy means to us and how we want to define it once this 21 day period is over. He really enlightened me about what his thoughts were during the grocery shopping at Earth Fare, and how frustrating it was for him that there were so many wonderful gluten free options, but then they would have sugar (even minimal sugar at 1-2 grams), and so he would have to put the item back. This really frustrated me, I want Mark to be able to enjoy what we are doing and in my eyes, as the book and the instructor both said, do the best you can...if we are going from high volume sugars to something that has 1-2 grams of sugar, I view that as a success, and I was sorry that I didn't realize this for Mark sooner. We discussed thoroughly what our next round at the grocery shopping store will look like!

I did find bagels that were gluten free and very low in sugar and used a vegan butter spread and tofuti cream cheese for breakfast and found that the sesame based bagel was very good and filling! Mark spent a lot of the day snacking on his cashews! Dinner...we had found a pasta noodle that was gluten and sugar free, and had 2 ingredients, rice flour and corn flour, so we did a simple pasta last night (basically due to time constraints), and whipped up our own pasta sauce in less than 30 minutes! We bought a tomato sauce in a can and a tomato paste in a can from Trader Joe's with the equivalent of 2 grams of sugar I believe, we added fresh garlic and parsley and used some italian seasoning from the cupboard. We thought it was good for what we did! We cut some fresh cucumber and were very satisfied! Our son was not entirely sold on the pasta noodles, which was fine.

Late night, grabbed a breakfast cookie and cup of hot herbal orange tea!

Hope those of you trying this are doing well!

Namaste!

Amy

Breakfast cookies complete and Michael Symon

Sunday night I attempted the breakfast cookies from the back of the book, Quantum Wellness, which our cleanse reflects. My biggest hangup on the entire cleanse is what do we do for breakfast? These cookies seemed to be the answer, or so I thought! The recipe calls for peanut butter, which I substituted almond butter since I am allergic to peanuts, and, I tried 2 stores for the goji berries and could not find them, so we went without! The other ingredients were easy to find, raw almond, bananas, pumpkin seeds...I actually made these while Mark and I watched Wasted with Michael Symon on the Food Network. Talk about a wake up call, that show was remarkable and really shows how unrealistic our standards are as Americans, if you weren't able to catch it, I am sure the Food Network will be re-airing it. And it has Michael Symon, yay for local boys making a difference! Anyhow, I actually really enjoy these cookies, but they are not a go to breakfast for me, they are however, my comfort food for late night! When the snackies hits me around 8:30-9:00 p.m., I make a cup of hot herbal orange tea and grab a cookie and it is completely satisfying! I would like to try it with an apple juice base as opposed to a pomegranate juice base, and bless my boss's heart but he brought me parchment paper, so then next time I make them it may go down a bit easier...oh, I also have to think the sister of the year for letting me take her Ninja food processor so I could make said cookies. Natalie is a long time vegetarian and will do anything to promote this diet in Mark and I!

Just so I am clear, the final outcome of the cookies is not the more flattering of pictures, but they are so good and satisfying!!!

Namaste!

DETOX DAY .5

Today was the day! We had our first meeting of the minds at the yoga studio relating to the 21-day Quantum Wellness Cleanse that kicks off, well, today/tomorrow, which is why today is labelled detox day .5. Our instructor for the cleanse said that today was reserved for shopping and that tomorrow would officially kickoff the Detox, however, Mark said we were not going to delay the start any longer!

At the meeting this morning Mark was the only male in the group of 20! What a trouper he is! The group spent the hour discussing the basic components of the cleanse, as well as what a general grocery shopping list should look like. These items included vegan cheese, vegan mayo, smart balance vegan butter spread, where to find whole grain bread...we did not go too in depth about veggies and fruits for the obvious reasons...we discussed tempeh, tofu, soy...almond milk, soy milk...all kinds of fun, new items! People had remarkable suggestions for what brands were better than others, and what things to try over others. We were able to spend the last several minutes meditating together and wrapping up the session on a positive note.

Mark, the kids and I headed out to grab up some of the suggestions and filler items that we are going to need for the week and beyond. You knew it was going to be a great day when heading into the parking lot of Earth Fare the sun was shining and mine and Mark's song began playing. We tried out a new Earth Fare and good thing us hippies are patient people (I am laughing out loud), because this place was packed and the lines wrapped almost to the back of the store in some instances. But we plugged on a head. We picked up some wonderful vegetables and fruits (not too many since BlueSky will be delivering tomorrow), and were able to pick up some staples, like peanut butter. The majority of the time was spent staring at the vegan case, where we picked up cream cheese, american cheese and cheddar cheese. We got an entire cart of groceries and we got $10.00 off our entire purchase! There was also a run to Trader Joe's after Earth Fare, basically for food to please the children! All in all, it was a good shopping expedition.

The pictures above is what we did for dinner. We did the frozen bread that people suggested, and used a piece of the rice cheese in american and in cheddar and made toasted cheeses with tomato. In the back of our cleanse book there was a recipe for "green bean fries", simple and effective! Fresh green beans boiled for 3-5 minutes, then sprinkled with some garlic powder, salt and pepper. The kids inhaled them, as did Mark and I. I enjoyed the grilled cheese quite a bit. I had heard horror stories about the vegan cheese substitutes and was pleasantly surprised. Mark on the other hand felt like he did about a lot of the things we had tried, that it just didn't taste like much. At least we are opening up options for ourselves.

For lunch today, I did eat another one of the raw trainer meals, but I forgot to take a picture! It was a buckwheat pizza crust with what seemed like a marinara and chopped veggies for the top! I ate this and enjoyed it thoroughly, but only after I attempted the rawvioli, which was not something I could stomach. It was made from turnips and it just did not appeal to me at all, so after 1 bite, I knew that was not an option for me! We did order this weeks sample pack from raw trainer, and it has things like an oatmeal, a chili, a faux chicken salad and a broccoli salad!

Thoughts for this week's meals? We are not entirely sure! Mark sees a lot of peanut butter in his future, however I am not that lucky since I am allergic to peanuts and to sunflower seeds. I hope to be running out shortly to pick up my sister's food processor to work on making a breakfast cookie suggested in our book but I could not find GOJI berries for anything! More to come tomorrow.

Namaste!

Merk's birthday dinner...the follow up.

As I am sure you saw from the pictures that I posted later last night, that the recipes that I made came out beautifully, unfortunately, they were not as delicious as they had looked. Basically, the recipe was spot on with how I made it, however, we are just not familiar enough with those spices, and the eggplant was overwhelmingly spicy.

THE EGGPLANT: With the eggplant recipe from Bon Appetite you were to take the olive oil and mix in 7 spices, which included cinnamon, cumin, paprika, red pepper flakes, coriander, fresh ground pepper and some garlic. Not completely unfortunate, however, the spices collectively were just too overbearing for our taste buds and only 1 of the 4 of us actually finished the eggplant. I believe I had a total of 3, maybe 4 bites.

THE BULGUR SALAD: We all agreed, at least I think we agreed, that this was really very good. Made from bulgur, currants (bless the staff at Heinens who searched high and low for those currants for me), lemon juice, cilantro and some parsley, I believe (double checking on that shortly). The salad was light and refreshing. We all agreed that it makes a better side dish for a summer outing, as opposed to early January, but we all enjoyed it.

THE HERB/CHARD/FETA SOUP: This soup has pucker power! As I said before, somewhere, you can only eat a small amount of this soup, and it has to be piping hot! The flavors worked well, however, we thought the lemon juice and feta were a bit overpowering and made you literally have a sour face, in a good way. I enjoyed it and we had a good laugh starting out our dinner with the colorful soup.

THE PORK AND DESSERT: Okay, I did not make the pork, however, Mark loves pork so his bestie Shaun made that and Amanda made our dessert. The pork was by far the hit of the evening. Extremely flavorful and I would share his secret, but, its not my secret to share. The dessert was homemade angel good cake with a raspberry puree. The kids absolutely could not get enough of this, thanks Amanda!

The so called "last meal" before our morning meeting for the detox!

Namaste!

Amy

Spice Eggplant, Bulgur Salad and Herb/Chard/Feta Soup

More details to come but I could not resist posting these pictures tonight! I am honestly so proud that I was able to accomplish these dishes and that they mirrored the pictures from the magazine!


Publish Post

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MERK!

Hi all! Today was Mark's birthday, although I stayed strong all day, we did celebrate this evening with some cupcakes!!! Again, we are just in the week, well, the final 48 hours up until the detox begins, so were safe!

To celebrate Mark's birthday he promised to do a blog post this weekend on the caesar salad that he had from raw trainer! Very interesting thoughts I cannot wait until he shares them! I ate the angel hair pasta made from zucchini and the meatless balls, which I ate on the run at my second job. I have never had so many people stop to tell me how wonderful my dinner smelled and question what it was. I ate the entire thing, it was the perfect meal to get me through an extra 5 hours of work last night. Unfortunately, Mark did not take pictures of the caesar salad, and I did not take pictures of the pasta, we just could not refrain from jumping into eating!

We hope to get a produce order in by noon tomorrow, same with another round of the raw trainer food sample pack...but time is ticking and our morning is packed! Don't forget to check back, the eggplant dish is being tackled tomorrow, as is the herb/chard/feta soup! I would like to wrestle with a chili perhaps on Sunday, so I am going to begin looking at some options there.

Have a great evening and Namaste!

Kale, Kale, Kale...oh and Ginger Root Soup, again!

Hey all! Somewhat of a quiet uneventful day. I started in on the Mediterranean Kale Salad that I previously ordered today at lunch, and had some more of the ginger-root chicken soup. I really enjoy that soup. I am going to upload some pictures tomorrow of the Kale Salad as well as the "Angel Hair Pasta" and "Meatless balls", both of which came from the sample pack from the raw trainer.com. Her food is very good and since it is pre-made it is very convenient, especially since I am on the run tonight!

This weekend we are going to be experimenting with quite a few recipes. Saturday it is going to be an eggplant and bulgur dish, as well as a herb/chard and feta soup courtesy Bon Appetite. Sunday, well, who knows what Sunday will hold. It is our first meeting at the yoga studio to kick off the 21 day detox and we are really looking forward to gaining a lot more knowledge on this subject. After that we plan on hitting the stores to acquire as many goodies as we can to help in the convenience of this process! I am sure we will come up with some great things to make Sunday and I will keep you all updated as the process continues.

Namaste!

Ravioli

Good afternoon all! Last night we devoured the Ohio City Pasta ravioli that I ordered with our BlueSkyGreenFields order from Monday night. I had ordered a spinach ravioli and a four cheese ravioli. Exceptional! First of all, it took roughly 6 minutes to make, from frozen to the table. We used a light spaghetti sauce and made some crescent rolls to wrap the dinner up. Now, this is just the week up to the 21 day detox, so we felt good about our choice here for dinner, especially since both kids LOVED the ravioli...well, Raiden not so much the spinach ravioli and what an experience it was for all of us when he tried it! Mark and I talked about other quick meals we traditionally make and used the comparison that this meal could have been "manwich" and we were much happier with this choice. We will be ordering more Ohio City Pasta with the next go around, especially when the detox does begin and we need to cook quick, easy and simple for our kids. Thank you again to me fabulous hand model, my Mark!

Oh, Oh, Oh...as I write this post I am currently sipping on my green apple smoothie from rawtrainer.com and I am loving it! It has been a good replacement for my afternoon grazing at work. It is refreshing and tasty, and hey, its in my new glass Starbucks mug, which makes everything happy.

Namaste!

Ginger Root Cleansing Soup

I found a recipe in the Bon Appetite (again, thank you to my wonderful Aunt Margie for sending it to me and to Mark) that was for a ginger root chicken soup. The pictures do not do it justice, I promise you that, but I wanted to upload them regardless because I am proud of Mark and I...basically Mark for cutting up the organic whole chicken that I picked up at Earth Fare. We did not eat this last night for dinner, however, I brought it with me for lunch today. I used shrimp chips to dip in it, and it was very good. The chicken was nearly perfectly seasoned from all the goodies we included. Mark and I both agree that the broth was extremely oily, but since you can't necessarily eat large portions of this at a time, it might be alright. One good lesson I learned, ginger root is very, very powerful! The entire house smelled of ginger!

Photos of the first produce delivery!

Alright, here are some photos from our first delivery of produce from blueskygreenfields. The pineapple and strawberries we cut up immediately and the family agreed that it was by far the best pineapple we have ever had. I was a bit disappointed that we were missing 1 item, but I emailed the company and they remedied the situation immediately, so, I understand completely that things happen and it is a matter of how a company handles said situations and by far they did a great job!
Freash parsley, lettuce and cilantro:
We ordered gala apples, lemons, avocados, pineapple, parsley, cilantro, strawberries:
We also ordered 2 pastas from Ohio City Pasta:

Namaste!

Earth Fare shopping

To celebrate the New Year, on the recommendation of a friend, I headed out to a yoga studio roughly 45 minutes from my house for a one hour and fifteen minute power vinyasa class! To say that the class was worth the drive was a complete understatement. The class was remarkable. Very focused, yet the atmosphere (which was more than likely 90 degrees) was light and happy. The teacher, Shane, was very uplifting and enlightening and pushed us to wonderful limits in our first "down dog" of 2012!

Mark and I have planned to go shopping tomorrow morning, to compile recipes tonight and hit the ground running. We had planned to head to Earth Fare, however, Earth Fare is around the corner from the yoga studio I visited this morning, so I decided to have a go at it by myself! Although preparing for our detox, I also had to be mindful of the dinner we are having with friends next Saturday to honor Mark's birthday. With my current issue of Bon Appetite (thank you to my lovely Aunt) in hand, I headed in to find everything from my ginger root to garlic, to my whole organic chicken. For Mark's birthday dinner I will be making an eggplant dish, as well as a soup. Even though these do not fall under the detox, its before the 8th so we are safe! I did pick a number of items up, or tried to, that would help us a long with the detox. First, finding products that are gluten free, sugar free and on and on is a task in and of itself! I was able to find a pizza crust (now if I could just find a recipe for a sauce that does not contain sugar), and some other staple items that I know will make the month of January run much smoother. Oh, and I did find all the goodies for the eggplant recipe and the soup! I also picked up ingredients to make a cleansing ginger broth. It calls for chicken, which is how we are going to have it today, however, I am going to try to make is sans chicken for the detox. Trial and error may be the key this week!

Namaste!

The first RAW and ORGANIC order

Another local yoga studio that I have attended has started to offer fresh, organic produce, delivered right to the studio. What you do is visit: http://www.blueskygreenfields.com/ you can scroll through their long list of produce and other various items, place your item online, and they will deliver to the local yoga studio. All you have to do is make time for the pick up and grab some time on your mat while there. Toward the end of last week I placed a smaller order, roughly $40.00, and will get to pick my order up this Monday night I do believe. At this time I cannot say one way or the other how it will work out, but, in theory its brilliant!

In addition, the same yoga studio has coupled with www.rawtrainer.com for delivery of many of their food products, all raw of course. I placed an order for $50.00 of the small sample pack (which will feed 1-2 people), as well as a $20.00 order of the green smoothie (possibly apple based if I remember correctly). I will pick this up also at the local yoga studio, again grabbing time to visit my mat.

Why does either of the above items matter? Well folks, simplicity. Mark and I agree that the only way the month of January is going to work with the detox is to be as overly prepared as possible. Moments of weakness are going to come when we don't have the right food available to us. We are attempting to be as proactive as possible and avoid those weak moments and have started by sampling both the produce company and the raw trainer sample pack. If we like what we ordered, we will have that option available to us, at a minimal cost. Although we would like to be able to believe that we will be able to cook fresh or eat raw daily, having the most options available to us is our key to success!

Namaste!

The decision...

Good afternoon one and all, I hope that this New Year's day finds you all happy and healthy, focused with a positive outlook for the year ahead of all of us. Let me introduce myself, my name is Amy and I am about to embark on a 21 Quantum Wellness detox cleanse. I am not alone, thankfully, my husband, Mark will be joining me on this venture. This particular detox is being offered through my local yoga studio. As many yoga studios this time of year, they are offering excellent opportunities to reset your system. Although I have yet to read the book this detox will follow, the basic guidelines are as follows: NO sugar, NO animal, NO gluten, NO animal bi-product, NO alcohol and NO caffeine. I would be certain I am missing certain key components, however, you get get the basic foundation of the detox. Over the course of the 21 days we will meet 4 times at the yoga studio to meet with fellow "detoxers" to exchange recipes and to support one another through various yoga flows. The actual detox will begin Sunday, January 8.

A few questions to be answered I am sure...first of all, why did I decided to do this, and why am I pulling poor Mark into it with me; and, what does this blog have to do with the detox? Although Mark and I basically live a health lifestyle, there is always room for improvement. The bottom line, I have gained 15 lbs in the last 6 months, and the bulk of it being gained since I began grad school at the start of September. Prior to starting grad school I practiced yoga regularly, 3 or 4 time each week. Once school began that quickly dwindled to once if I was lucky enough. In scaling back my yoga practice I did not, however, scale back my eating habits. Lets be honest, I like to eat! In moving forward I knew that I had to begin my new year with a drastic approach to weight, health and life in general, and wanted to more than anything to have Mark along with me on this journey. So, against what he would call his better judgment, he agreed to join me. We have registered with the studio and are on our way! Why the blog? Why not! I have already had quite a few people ask me a series of questions about the why, the how, the when...what better way to please the masses and give all the answers here! I am laughing right now, no, no, no, I do not have all of the answers, but, I would like to document for myself, Mark and anyone else that a lifestyle transition may or may not be as hard as one would think. I am not entirely sure how this will go down, but we will have a lot of laughs in the interim!

Here is the breakdown:

Mark is 6'3 and roughly 210 lbs

I am 5'3 and roughly 140 lbs

I have not taken our formal measurements to date, however, will be sure to get those posted some time this week.

Namaste!