Rice, Rice, Baby!

My check-in response came the morning of Day 14.  The world of rice is mine!  All my favorite kinds, so long as that's short grained and brown.  As much as I can eat, so long as that's 1/2 cup.  Banner day y'all.  Starch is in the house and in my belly.  The trouble is trying to decide how to eat it.  Do I split it up into 1/4 cup portions?  Or all at once in a single serving?  In my soup?  In my salad?  Variety is the spice of life, and since I can't have spices, I'll take variety.

Day 14 - 145.8 lbs
Rice in soup.  Very boring.  Never did like rice in my soup.  Though it made my soup meal nice and filling, a very positive change in my opinion.  As I'm bored with my soup, terribly so, I decided to mix up the order of preparation and break-down of veggies.  Instead of chopping, boiling, and simmering, I puréed and simmered.  I almost toasted the motor on my Vita-mix trying to use as little liquid as possible.  The recipe is ridiculous.  I'm supposed to be able to add three celery stalks, three carrots, an onion, one bunch parsley, two zucchini, two yellow squash, and some kale into a quart of purified water.  Ha!  Maybe the squash grow bigger in Seattle than Atlanta...

Day 15 - 145.0 lbs
Rice with sautéed veggies.  Ama-za-zing!  I shredded some fresh basil at the end for good measure.  I made an executive decision and decided that sautéing was OK.  If I'm allowed 1/2 of an avocado and olive oil as dressing for steamed veggies, clearly fats aren't a bad idea for cooked vegetables.  Best decision ever, and so far, no repercussions.  Most excellent day.

Two more days before the next check-in, which likely means three days based on their average response rate.  I don't think I'll be getting a new food to add at that time, but a girl can dream.  I try not to think too much about lentils, seeds, and nuts (oh my!) but fail miserably and frequently.

For distraction purposes I've been reading Crazy Sexy Diet and Crazy Sexy Kitchen by this superstar lady.  I do believe I will be borrowing heavily from her mantras and food practices.  There's a lot of good info in there that she's gleaned from a number of sources.  And it's one of those things for me... if you hear about it three times in a relatively short period of time you should check it out, whatever "it" is.  I spent the better part of today researching all my personal care products on the Environmental Working Group's site for rating hazards in cosmetics.  And then purging my cupboards of the most serious offenders, of which there were many.

Shocking I tell you!

I've now decided to make my own products.  I jumped on this bandwagon a few years ago but stalled as so many new hobbies do.  For now, I'm taking on facial toner and moisturizer.  Cleanser I'm leaving to the foofy experts because of my super sensitive skin.  I tried using unscented Castille soap but it was just too drying.  I went to my local foofy PCC and picked something that rated a 1 on the EWG site by Andalou Naturals.

My toner (4 oz):
rose water (5 parts), witch hazel (3 parts), and vegetable glycerin (a few drops)

My moisturizer (1 oz):
jojoba oil (2 parts), sea buckthorn oil (1 part), jasmine oil (few drops), carrot seed oil (couple drops)

I learned about sea buckthorn today.  Kinda of amazing stuff. G'head.  Click on the link.  So I mixed up my moisturizer (first timer) and applied after cleansing and toning.  Aaaaand my face turned orange.  I freaked out and ran to the trusty computer and found out these berries & seeds have a lot of beta-carotene.  Which washes off and does not stain!  Phew!  Close call as I've always thought Oompa Loompas were a little creepy.  The green hair was cool but no tangerine dream complexion please.  Now I'm considering taking a berry supplement because of omega-7, who knew about that?  I'm not sure if I bought the seed oil or the berry oil.  The berry oil is better so I'll call the store up tomorrow to see if they can tell me.  I've been spending more time and energy using all that Dandelion Botanical Company has to offer, which is a lot.  I've made tinctures, teas, and now cosmetics using their store.  Can't get enough - it's just too much fun.

And due to the wealth of information in amazon.com product reviews, I learned about Demodex mites.  Ew.