My Current Obsession-Lakewood Organic Juices

I want to let you in on a little secret: I am not a multi-millionaire because of this blog.

Can you believe that? I bet you thought I was rolling around in money while laughing and throwing it up in the air.

Sorry to burst your perception bubble of me. I barely make enough to pay my hosting fees. But, I love this too much that it’s worth all the time and effort spent.

Photo Source
I choose not to do paid reviews, mainly because I’d feel like this guy. If I love a product, I’m going to tell you about. Simple as that. No money is exchanging hands. And, I like to keep my ads to a minimum so that my site is easy to navigate and not cluttered up.

I’d love to make more money (who wouldn’t), but I’m more interested in having loyal readers than dollars. The money will come with time, I hope.

All of that said-there are a few times when blogging has its perks. A reader, who happens to be Lakewood’s eastern regional sales manager, contacted me and corrected my description of their product on my Facial Moisturizer Recipe.

(Thanks, Pamela for catching my mistake!)

Then Pamela sent all of these juices to me-for free, with absolutely no strings attached. She didn’t ask me to talk about them, or even ask for a mention.

Hello.

My frugalness went out the window and I opened them all simultaneously. I couldn’t even wait to get properly cute for the photos or for Biceps to take them. I came straight home from Crossfit and poured myself a glass of the Pomegranate Juice first.

This is Delicious with a capital “D”. I have never had pomegranate juice, but now I may not be able to live without it. And it has a huge amount of Vitamin C and tons of other great minerals and vitamins.

I now like to drink it out of a wine glass and feel fancy.

 

Then, I tried a shot of Aloe Vera. I love that this Aloe Vera has no preservatives, no sodium benzoate, no potassium sorbate and no citric acid and no preservatives.

Biceps and I are feeling a little run down and I noticed that this had 160% of vitamin C. This was so delicious, I drank the entire 8 oz without taking a breather.

Lastly, I tried this and loved it. Plus, with a little splash of vodka, you have a fancy mixed drink. Not that I would know anything about that. But, I bet it would be good that way, too. (Hint, hint eastern regional sales manager for Grey Goose Vodka.)

Thanks again to Pamela and Lakewood Organic Juices for hooking a sister up. I owe you a huge hug and a high five! I highly recommend all of their products-and remember-I’m not getting paid to say this. This is my honest, 100% pure opinion.

And, Grey Goose manager, I’m waiting for my box.

Cross Fit-My Current Obsession

I don’t get into new fitness crazes. They’re just not for me.

But, I do enjoy those leotards. Holy cow.

(I am not getting paid, endorsed or receiving any kickbacks for this post. I am just sharing with you something that I love!)

I have never done jazzercise,

Photo Source
pole dancing or ‘Sit and be fit’.

Photo Source
See, I’m old school. I like the good old fashioned clanking sound weights make as I struggle through a set. I look forward to eating my raw eggs in the morning, strapping on my chuck taylors, my gray hoody and then running up an extremely long set of stairs while it’s snowing.

Photo Source
And, I have always enjoyed eating healthy-minus the occasional cravings of mozzarella sticks which produces the overwhelming feeling of regret the next day.

Photo Source
I did share with you how much I liked P90x. This is a difficult workout that incorporates all of the old school aspects that I love, along with a great butt kicking from Tony Horton that makes you want to die.

Biceps and I have done P90x for three plus years, while mixing in some of our own workouts/runs/bike rides. It’s good for me to have a definite start and stop to my workouts. Otherwise, I get distracted emailing all of you back….

Photo Source
Anywho-every once in awhile, I need to mix things up. I decided to try a Cross Fit Class at my local YWCA when I was given a free 7 day pass from a friend. I fell in love and am currently scheming how to come up with monthly fee in order to become a full fledged member. (I am thinking of selling off my plethora of cat fur to that strange lady that knits purses out of animal hair.)

Cross Fit mixes cardio, weights, stretching and endurance. Every day I come home very sore, but loving the amount of energy that I’ve expended. Then, I complain about it to Biceps until the next class rolls around. He’s such a patient man.

If you’ve done Cross Fit or P90x, I’d love to hear what you have to say!

Playing with my Food-Happy Faces

Do you ever notice patterns in your life? You tell the same jokes. You recount the same stories at parties as fall back conversation. You wear the same outfit relentlessly because you know it’s cute…
 

…you do weird things in the kitchen to creep other people out.

Like playing with your food when no one is looking…

…which eventually is so irresistible to others, they have to join you.

Lately, I’ve been noticing a pattern when I’m cooking in the kitchen.

It started off slowly.

But then continued to grow into an obsession.

Maybe it’s a lack of real faces surrounding me that prompts me to create ones from inanimate objects.

Whatever the cause, I love to see “happy faces” in my kitchen, whether animal, mineral or vegetable.

It seriously never gets old.

Seriously.

What weirdo thing do you do?

My Current Obsession-Liquid Stevia

I am NOT getting paid to say any of this, NOR am I getting any free product. (But hey, Stevia makers-if you want to send me some free stuff, I won’t ‘return to sender’. Hint, hint.)

Biceps and I are on the path to paying off my student loans, our rental houses and our personal home. (You can read about that here.)

That said, we are trying to find extra ways to trim our budget without feeling like we have no life. We still want to enjoy life and its simple pleasures.

Our morning cup of coffee is one of our life’s simple pleasure. I require a tiny amount of sweetness added to my coffee-Biceps, on the other hand, requires a lot of sweetness added to his.

We were buying Splenda packets-but at $7 for 200 packets, I realized we were spending $.21 (4 packets for Biceps, 2 for me) every morning sweetening just our coffee. This amount didn’t include how much we were using to sweeten strawberries, yogurt or cereal. That may not sound like much, but over the course of a month, I was buying close to two boxes of Splenda and spending $14 to sweeten our lives.

I also didn’t like how Splenda was processed-it is zero calorie due to the fact that the sugar is run through chlorine. I did a little research and was dumbfounded at what I thought was a “safe” sweetener actually isn’t safe at all-and it could cause weight gain. Bummer.

“The inventors of Splenda admit around fifteen percent (15%) of sucralose is absorbed by the body, but they cannot guarantee us (out of this fifteen percent) what amount of chlorine stays in the body and what percent flushes out. New chemical sweeteners (like Splenda) and the sweetener blends (aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K blended together in one product) may be causing users to show signs of weight gain, disruption of sleep patterns, sexual dysfunction, increases in cancer, MS, Lupus, diabetes, and a list of epidemic degenerative diseases.”-source

Since I am always looking for ways to save some serious dough and I am also wanting to decrease our nasty intakes, I decided I needed a better option. My mother-in-law convinced us to try liquid stevia, due to the fact I couldn’t stand the licorice aftertaste of the powdered Stevia.

We have found love. The 8 oz unflavored Stevia was about $7 at Whole Foods. The flavored Vanilla Creme Stevia was on sale for $11. (I ended up liking the unflavored more than the Vanilla Creme.)

We only need to use a few drops to sweeten our coffee or yogurt. The 8 oz bottle was purchased at the end of January and we still have 3/4 of the bottle left.

Knowing what we know about aspartame and sweeteners, I love that we are no longer ingesting nasty toxins and are replacing it with a natural herb. And knowing what we know about our budget, I love that we are saving money. I’ve figured over the course of a year that we will save approximately $140 a year on sweetener.

Boo yeah.