Ten Things Thursday

So this 10 Thingy's is going to be a little different. Because mainly I'm going to talk about my new challenges, not only to myself, but with a little buddy friend of mine.

1.  I have decided to take the 10 Days of Real Food Challenge. Yup. Starting tomorrow, I'm gonna eat food for 10 days. Haha, just kidding. Gosh I'm so darn funny. Really, it's 10 days of eating clean. No processed crap, no fast food (goodbye Chipotle), no refined grains (goodbye donuts), no deep-fried goodyness (goodbye my lovely chicken strips), no NUSSING. No chemical packed, pesticide filled shit. It's eating WHOLE foods. NATURAL foods. Good for you all around foods. I'm kinda excited about it, I'm not gonna lie. It's not a 'diet'. It's just eating better. I'm going to try and watch my calories/fat/sodium but, really it's going to be more of a focus on not eating junk. I'm not doing it to lose weight. But I'm secretly hoping I will lose some because I'm doing this other challenge...but more on that later.
And I'm hoping at the end, I want to continue on my eating better mojo!
I'm doing it to be healthier.

2. Here's the rules (taken off the above Real Food website):
What you CAN eat:

1. Whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry
2. Lots of fruits and vegetables (we recommend that you shop for these at your local farmers’ market)
3. Dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs, and cheese
4. 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains (find a local bakery for approved sandwich bread and check the Understanding Grains post for more info)
5. Seafood (wild caught is the optimal choice over farm-raised)
6. Only locally raised meats such as pork, beef, and chicken (preferably in moderation)
7. Beverages limited to water, milk, all natural juices, naturally sweetened coffee & tea, and, to help the adults keep their sanity, wine and beer!
8. Snacks like dried fruit, seeds, nuts and popcorn
9. All natural sweeteners including honey, 100% maple syrup, and fruit juice concentrates are acceptable in moderation
10. Also check out the Recipes & Resources page for a more detailed list of meal options including links to recipes

What you CANNOT eat:

1. No refined grains such as white flour or white rice (items containing wheat must say WHOLE wheat…not just “wheat”)
2. No refined sweeteners such as sugar, any form of corn syrup, cane juice, or the artificial stuff like Splenda
3. Nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label
4. No deep fried foods
5. No “fast foods”

3. Now, the little lady Lisa, on the website, also emphasizes eating organic. Mmmmkay, I can handle that. Especially since she quoted this dude saying this: "Coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer – four of the top ten chronic diseases that kill most of us – “can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food” according to Michael Pollan."  Ummmm, who's hubby got diagnosed with diabetes a year ago....not having a family history of it.....nobody knowing why he got it because otherwise he was totally healthy......this hot, smart, and funny chica.  It just really hit home that maybe it's the way we eat, ya know? I mean, we are putting tons of chemical bullshit in our bodies every day! It's gotta effect us somehow, right? Right. (BTW, Honey, I'm going to try and force you beyond belief suggest that you try this with me. It'll be fun. I swear.)

4. I went to the store yesterday to stock up on all the organic essentials. BUT, I already had a lot fruit, chicken, lettuce, eggs, and others that aren't organic. No wasting in this little hacienda, so I just figured it'll be a slow transition into the organic lifestyle. Once I run out of my already overstocked pantry and fridge, I'll go back and restock with the good ol' organic way. It was actually surprisingly easy to buy organic everything, and really, it didn't cost all that much more in the long run.

One of the comments on Lisa's page was that even though this family buys organic, they actually equal out on what their non-organic grocery bill was because they used to throw a lot of the food out, now with buying organic, they don't. I hear dat! I'm constantly throwing money down the garbage disposal! And it just sickens me. But maybe with spending the extra money, and saving money on the fast food shenanigans, it'll all even out.

I'm also going to start a budget and really try to stick to it. 50 bones a week. That's it. That's all I get. If I go over, I have to subtract from next week. But if I go under, I can spend it on something fun! Like gas. Or vitamins. But that 50 is strictly for nutrition, it doesn't count TP and light bulbs and cleaning shit.

You don't count, you eat the same thing every day.

Sorry this isn't as scintillating as usual. Keep trudging through, you'll make it to the bottom....eventually.

5. I'm also going to give up beer. WHAT?!?! Apparently the food chemicals are already eroding my brain. No really, I just need a break. 10 days isn't so bad. Right??? RIGHT??????? I'll survive. RIGHT???? Ohmyprettybudlights I'm going to need y'alls help with this. Majorly. And if I became an insanely crabby freak, you can not judge. Mmmmkay????

I will miss you purple Jug N Plug coozie and my little Mr. Bud Light can. Don't worry, you're really not dead to me. It's only a little, teeny, weeny break from each other. We will be together soon! I promise.

6. On to the next challenge. Because why not complicate my life with more shit. It's fine. I will be competing with this here little buddy friend of mine, Jordan:

We will be doing the “Looking Hot for our Hunky Husbands Challenge”. For Valentine's Day. Ahhhh, aren't we sweet? No, not really. We just selfishly want our bodies to look better. That's all.

I'm so excited to have someone close to me to do a challenge with! Like, we will see each other....hopefully....and push each other and kick our asses and all that good stuff!!!

We will start our challenge this Sat. the 14th and end on Feb. 11th. It is weight based, so who ever loses the most weight, or percentage of weight, is the winner winner chicken dinner. We will weigh in every Sat. morning-ish and I'm also going to keep track of my body fat percentage too. Just for shits and giggles. And we'll let all you readers know our amazing progress on each of our blogs. Hers is HERE.

As a prize, the weeener (haha, I said wiener) will get a $25 gift certificate to Miss Victoria's Secret. Ya know, pretty things to wear for our hubbies and all. Not really, I just need new funderpants like it's going out of style. The 1998 granny panties have holes. Lots of holes. Be jealous.

Game ON!!!

7. Because I just have to throw random shit in here somewhere, the last thangs are going to be just that. Randomness.

Wanna know what my momma got me for Christmas? Well, I don't care if you don't care. You're going to find out anyway.

She made me a book!!! Not just any book, a book of all my blog posts from last year!!! How freaking badass is that?! She went through every single post and copied and pasted into a Word document, complete with pictures and everything!!! It's not printed yet, but I'm getting ready to start looking at doing that. She was going to print it, but you will never guess how many pages it ended up being......600!!!! Yes Six Freaking Hundred!!! Who knew I wrote a book last year. Hell, two books. Pretty much the best Mom ever. EVER!
Love you Jules!!!

Love this pic of her 'trying' to look mean! You're not doin' it right Jules.

8.  Winter has finally arrived in this here flat lands. Only took it until almost the middle of January the big lazy ass. Not that I'm complaining. I love warmth. Sun. 108 degrees sweating my tatas off. Love it. But last night at the grocery store, I went in......with only hurricane force winds and 30 degree temps. Came out.......blizzard. Stupid Kansas.

Pretty much thought it was going to be 24 inch snow drifts and downed power lines. Until I got home 30 minutes later, looked outside and noticed the snow stopped. And left me with this:

Just a dusting.

Way to go Winter, you failed again.
Spank you very much.

9. I have come to be obsessed with like a new TV show, that wouldn't be the typical 'lady' show. (Because we all know I'm full lady.) I completely blame this on Ryan, BTW. It's: Ax Men. Yes, you read that right. Ax Men. A show about dudes cutting down timber. It's official, I've lost it.

And my favorite character.............Shelby Stanga (yes, that is his real name):

And yes, those are cut off Daisy Dukes he's wearing.
Nothin' quite like a psycho Cajun dude that says shit like, "Com' on Paw Paw!!" Have no idea what that means, but I find it endlessly entertaining.

I know, I'm weird. You still love me.

10. Last weekend I went up to Kansas City to have a Sheik Family Christmas/Grandma Margie's 90th B-day Party! Ohhh Emmm Geeeee! So much fun! It's my Mom's side of the family and everyone but two cousin's were there. All the aunts and uncle, all the cousin's spouses, almost everyone! I took oodles of pics and can't wait to tell you all about it in a post this weekend! Suspense.....don't you love it?!

Until next time little snugglemuffins!!!