Rest Peacefully, Pounce
Yesterday one of our cats was diagnosed with heart disease. He was in pretty rough shape and it all happened rather suddenly, but it was time to put him to sleep.
Pounce was well-known for walking on people’s heads in the middle of the night, haunting the dinner table while we ate just in case some food happened to fall, and particularly for his adorably chubby cheeks and beautiful purr. We’ll miss him (Pounce is the brown one; his sister Sage, who is still with us, is the grey one):
Reflection on the No Processed Food Challenge
Today marks the eighth and final day of my challenge to myself to eat non-processed foods. It has been an incredibly successful week and discovering that it is possible to eat only natural foods and not starve (and still have a very wide variety of choices) has led me to the decision that this is absolutely something that I want to continue to do for life. Why stop now?
The point of the challenge wasn’t to eat healthfully for a short while and then suddenly cave into cravings and binge on McDonalds; the point was to see if I was capable of figuring out ways to not eat that type of stuff and be able to continue to do it. Even at 7-Eleven, you can buy apples, bananas, and oranges (who knew?!). And I haven’t really had any cravings for any fast food stuff. But my interest lies in how I can replace those foods with my own recipes and experiments, if I do happen to get cravings for them.
To try to eliminate all the rest of that processed stuff (the “extras” that we often don’t really take into account), every week this summer I’m going to find a recipe and make something that we usually turn to convenience foods for.
Tweet ThisI’ve been looking for a 0% trans fat whipping cream so I can try making my own butter (thanks to the Bag Lady for that awesome idea!), but even if I can’t find the completely 0% I might just use the other stuff that I found. It’s only 0.2%… but this hydrogenated business freaks me out, no matter how minuscule the amount 🙂
At any rate, making my own butter will be quite the experiment. My sister mentioned making hummus the other day, too, so that will be another good one to attempt. And with summer right around the corner, I’d love to try my hand at making ice cream!
Thank you so much everyone for all of your support and encouragement this past week! If you have any more ideas on foods to try to make, I’d really like to hear them so that I can try them out. As always, comments are much appreciated.
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Making your own butter, hummus and ice cream sounds like a great idea! Homemade hummus is so good- especially when you add your own twists to it like garlic, lime, etc!
I had an issue with a cake that through me off with my week. It was a combination of stress and bad habits. And when I put really bad food into my body, it takes a few days to snap back. Anyway…. I’m back now! I’ve marked the AM as an official new start in my mind. I’m right there with you!
And I am so sorry about your cat. I know it’s traumatizing when we lose pets close to use, but don’t forget how great of a life he had!
Thanks, Ashley. And I love your relationship with the cake! Stress will do that. I like the morning for it’s clean-slate feeling.
I actually don’t even like cake. My sister bakes it all the time, and I was stressed and tired.. so I fell into the habit of eating it without even thinking clearly about it. Therefore I was upset about it and ate more… which led to a horrendous number n the scale the next morning.. which led to more cake. Ugh. Monday morning is a perfect time to press restart. I love healthy eating, but I need to have a set gameplan in my head to combat those situations. How about, “Ashley- you will not eat this cake. Not one bite. You will eat well and feel great.” ? I think that’ll work 🙂
Sorry to hear about your cat.
That’s great that you have turned you are continuing with your challenge. I’m going to learn alot from you. 🙂
Sagan – I’m so sorry to hear about your cat – it’s like losing a member of the family when a pet dies!
Thank you for the shout-out! I hope your butter-making experiment turns out well.
And if you’d like a recipe for home-made ice-cream, let me know… but you may want to reconsider and try something else, especially when you find out what is in ice cream! 🙂
Sorry to hear about Pounce, I’m very sad for you.
I’ve never attempted to make my own butter, I’ll be interested to see how yours turns out. I have made my own hummus, and it turned out pretty well. Every summer I love to make my own ice cream. It tastes so much better, and can be a lot healthier!
hmmmm. did I see the word RECIPE Miss. Wanna Be A Guest Chef?
Im so impressed with what youre doing.
Im not there.
yet anyway.
M.
Ashley- my sister makes wonderful chocolate cake from scratch and I’ve been known to polish off huge slices of it even when it’s starting to get stale. Thank goodness there’s always a Monday morning to start over!
MizFit- I have the most awesome recipe for banana bread ever. It has tasty apple chunks in it:)
Also Gena and Bag Lady I’d love it if you’d share your ice cream recipes with me!
Sagan – I’ll have to dig around a little – haven’t made ice cream for quite some time. When I find it, I’ll post it on my blog for you.
Gena’s is probably healthier, though… mine is the old-fashioned kind — really fattening. But oh, so good!
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