massmusings

Ever wonder what bloggers do when they're not attending events or taking photos of themselves? I've shared with you my weekend attire but here is a brief glimpse into a typical night with friends - a picnic on the floor of course!

Details: Tapestry- Urban Outfitters ; Jeans- H&M; Shirt- J.Crew; Sweater- J.Crew; Necklace-South Moon Under; Shoes- J.Crew

*Like this post? Good! You'll be seeing a lot more of Heather coming very soon!

P.S. If you're feeling kind of blah about Valentine's Day, please refer to my post last year. Also entertaining if you want to see how amateur my blog was when I first started. 

Today is my final update on my Eat To Live cleanse. I'll be honest, I definitely didn't follow it as strictly as I could have. But you know what? I'm totally okay with that because I haven't felt this good about what I put into my body in a really long time. 

First things first, I could never be a vegetarian, I just love meat way too much. That being said, I haven't missed eating meat as much as I thought I would. It's only been about three weeks and the only type of animal that I can remember eating (besides milk and eggs) is one fish at a restaurant. Other than that I've been getting super creative with my salads and eating about a bag of spinach a day (I'm not even kidding you, I really go through about one large bag per day). To supplement the veggies and to just switch it up a little bit, I have been blending my own fruit smoothies every day as well. In order to keep full, I allowed myself to finish the entire blender throughout the day- each blender holds about 3 full glasses. 

Unfortunately during the cleanse I caught the flu. I was leveled on my couch for four days and wasn't really eating much of anything. This was probably my biggest struggle while cleansing because I was eating a lot of toast (BRAT diet always makes me feel better when I'm sick). I thought that this would send me completely off track but it actually didn't. I was able to hop right back on the fruit and veggie train about three days into the flu and everything fell back into place with ease. 

I think my biggest take-away from doing this cleanse is that my body was starved of nutrients. I found that even though I was not necessarily eating unhealthily, I was relying too much on processed foods like power bars, and neglecting fresh, clean and natural foods. Going forward my goal is to continue eating as many fruits and vegetables as I want, drinking at least two Nalgenes of water a day, and to slowly add back in meat and cheese. I'm also going to try hard to find other creative ways to get protein into my diet and other creative ways to cook following Eat To Live as closely as I can. 

Hopefully my experience with Eat To Live has helped some of you re-evaluate the food that you are consuming. If you take anything away from my cleanse I hope that you realize it is not about limiting what you eat or restricting calories. It is about feeling healthy, listening to what your body needs, and feeding it accordingly. Add some exercise to the equation and you're on your way to feeling your best and feeling confident and that is what really matters.  

So this weekend I went to visit my beautiful friends in Baltimore. I'm obsessed with that city, in fact I almost moved there after college. It was so great to spend time with friends that I hadn't seen in a while but it was absolutely detrimental to my cleanse. I actually managed to eat salads and follow the plan for every meal except breakfasts which I told myself was okay (No way was I missing those bagel places down there!). So I had a cheat weekend, really not a big deal, except now I feel like crap. Literally my stomach has been so upset and still has that feeling you get when you eat too much sweetened stuff or are dehydrated. Very uncomfortable and I can't wait until a few days from now when I finally feel better again. *** I should note that I've been drinking about 2 nalgenes of water a day. 

That's pretty much it for now... I have some big things coming up on the blog (think outfit posts, 195 Webster and more) but for now I leave you with this: Ombre. 

I'm going to be blunt and honest: I've struggled with eating for essentially my entire life. Growing up as a dancer in front of a mirror, I always compared myself to everyone else in the room. It was common practice for our teachers to be strict in all aspects: technique, manners, facial expression, and of course diet. Naturally, any young girl in this situation would start to have doubts about her self-esteem and body image. Insert eating trouble here. Unfortunately, even though I had an incredibly supportive family, I slipped into a pattern known all too well by people with eating disorders. Luckily, since then I have utilized many tools and become more comfortable with food. However, I'm still always on the hunt for something that will make my body feel better and less weighed down by all of the processed crap that's out there. Thus, my new relationship with the Eat To Live diet.

Typically I eat fairly healthy things. I do not eat any refined sugar or white flour and I love fruit and most veggies. However, I'm definitely a salt lover. I love crackers, chips... anything with salt really. I'm also a sucker for Cesar salad, the creamier the better. Now as you all know, those things are fine in moderation. But, on a Sunday when I'm hungover, you better believe I'm stuffing about 85 breakfast sandwiches into my mouth. Eat To Live is great because it forces you to eat only healthy options, mostly focusing on vegetables.

I initially heard about the Eat To Live plan from my friend Jessie (she's essentially my personal health guru- this girl is an amazing cook and has a great wealth of knowledge for the best practices in healthy eating). At first I was totally against it, mostly due to my obsession with french fries. Almost a year after learning about it though, I've finally decided to jump on board.

Here are the sparknotes:

- created by Dr. Joel Furhman 

- eat as many vegetables as you want until you are full

- eat tons of fruits

- no meat, no bread, no cheese (you can technically have these in moderation for the life plan but not in the cleanse, which is what I'm doing)

- no coffee- stick to tea 

- don't snack between meals

Because I know that a lot of you are just as ADHD with long posts as I am, I'm going to include some links below for you to read at your leisure. If you are really serious about doing this, I recommend reading through everything (including at least part of the actual book) so that you are educated on your new eating plan. *DISCLAIMER- I am by no means a licensed dietitian or health expert. You should consult your doctor if you have any doubts about eating and exercise. 

Approved foods list 

Dr. Furhman website

A great blog post about the 6 week plan

Today marks the first day of my cleanse. After such a gross weekend of unhealthy eating, I was thrilled to only be consuming a fruit smoothie for breakfast. I even woke up a little earlier to blend one myself. However, by lunch I was feeling the hunger a little. No problem... I walked over to the cafeteria and made myself a nice salad, following all the rules. But once 3:30pm rolled around, I started to get a little hangry (hungry and angry). I started craving something with carbs in it which is a definite no-no at this stage in the game. Luckily I was able to make it through and distracted myself with a good, cardio-infused, gym session but it wasn't easy.

Every few days I will be blogging about my progress as a way to hold myself accountable. Hopefully I can inspire some of you to adopt a healthier relationship with food by doing this. To those of you who are with me, GOOD LUCK! 

(Please email me any stories about your Eat To Live experience)

Today, instead of doing a new SSS, I am going to give you all a little recap of Christmas at the Demont household in Maine. Every year after mass we spend Christmas Eve at my paternal grandmother's house and enjoy a meal and gift giving. On Christmas Day, we open gifts among the three of us (now four - Hi Drew!) Below are the pictures I took in attempts to capture the essence of my house at Christmas.

This is the main tree in our formal living room. It's the most traditional and probably my favorite. The tree skirt was made by my mom when I was a baby and she also created matching stockings to go along with it.

Seriously, my mother is a decorating superhero. She thinks of every detail!

The second of the trees featured on this post (in total there are 5). This is my mom's bird tree. My aunt also has a bird tree and I'll most likely continue the tradition when I get a house of my own. 

Formal dining room table centerpiece. 

Family china and silver that will someday be mine! Also, how cute are those wish ornaments that doubled as party favors?

This is arguably my favorite piece in our entire house. My parents purchased this chandelier in Venice, Italy. It's hand-blown Venetian glass and has to be installed piece by piece to ensure the proper weight balance.

The third tree is a bit more contemporary and has brighter colors and more abstract ornaments. It's located in the kitchen and has great light to accentuate the colors. 

This ornament is the family favorite. Each year when I was younger, we would always have a contest to see who could unwrap the "jingle girl" first. Looking back on it, I don't think that there was any prize or good luck associated with finding the ornament but it was fun so who really cares?

As I mentioned earlier, my mom made stockings that match the tree skirt. This is my stocking (my family calls me Katie)!

Our beautiful tree angel!

The full fireplace shot. 

By this point, dinner was ready and I clearly was already in line for the delicious food... not sorry about it.