September Challenge: Rounding the bend.

Eight days to go! Can it be? This month has been much more simple than I thought it would be (but that may have something to do with the fact that I'm only doing half of what I actually wanted to do). Yoga three times a week? I've done it twice. Walking every day? I've definitely improved, but it hasn't been quite as regular as that. Meditating daily? Not since the first week, I don't think! Yikes.

Also, I cheated a little and got on the scale halfway through. I was down six pounds in the first two weeks, and I'm quite happy with that. I was unofficially hoping for a loss of eight pounds during the Wellness Challenge, and I am thinking that I can get there.

It's been a little while since I've posted, and we haven't been taking photos as regularly, I don't think. The good news is that this way of eating is becoming just normal life, so we're kind of forgetting. And parts of it were normal life even before the detox began: we usually have plain yogurt as a morning snack; we often have hummus and rice crackers in the afternoon; our dinners are normally veggie-centric. I think the thing I'm missing most is tomatoes and tomato-based dishes.

Also, we're definitely noticing the lack of alcohol! We feel a little boring most of the time, but I'd like to cut back on that anyway. Nothing wrong with enjoying a glass or two of wine with a meal or while out with friends--no need to consume the whole bottle. (Right?)

My list of can't-wait-to-make dishes is growing.

- Moroccan Stew
- Le Creuset Cajun Salmon
- Veggie Shepherd's Pie
- Linguine alla Vongole

Most of this stuff is very healthy--but all of it involves tomatoes! I will keep up with the food photos and posts after September is over.

I'm excited for my Lymphatic Drainage Massage tomorrow evening. The RMT is coming over from 6-8pm. I've never had an LDM before, but it's apparently very good for detoxing!

Some food catch up:

This was Sunday's brunch at 2pm, after a morning flush. (We fell asleep during our mandatory resting period from 10.45am to 1.30pm!) We made omelets with basil, green onion, and a bit of goat cheese, and gluten-free, wheat-free waffles with almond butter, banana, honey, and cinnamon. Delicious!

Sunday night's dinner. Another time that we did Joshi's, we came up with a 'detox shawarma plate' and decided to try that again. It's SO delicious. These are chicken thighs, seasoned with salt and pepper and sliced atop a bed of brown rice (Marielle threw some cardamom pods in the water while it boiled--yum), which we threw in a frying pan with some green onion, lemon juice, parsley and olive oil once it was ready. Served with a big green salad with feta, some avocado slices, a mixture of hummus, lemon juice, and yogurt, and some lemon-tahini dressing on top of everything. This was SO satifying (and felt like a cheat, although it was 100% Joshi-friendly).

On Monday night, we had a repeat from last week, which was a veggie stirfry sprinkled with toasted almonds, but we didn't get a photo of that. It was great though! Tuesday night is our game night with a couple of friends, and it's always a little difficult to try to eat Joshi when out, but we managed really well! Tina supplied the chicken breasts (ours were seasoned with only salt and pepper, and she put barbecue sauce on theirs), which Meagan and Marielle barbecued to perfection while Tina and I prepped salads! Marielle and I brought prepped lettuce, arugula, carrots, celery, red cabbage, green onion, and red onion, and I threw some chopped walnuts in the oven when we got there for roasting. Meagan provided some feta cheese, which we managed to finish off between four salads--YUM! Marielle and I brought our detox dressing and they used Kraft, and they added cucumber and tomato to theirs as well.

We were stuffed after all that! But we made room for some dark chocolate while we played Scattergories later with our tea! (I won. Heh.)

Yesterday we booked a day off work to do some shopping, and by the time we got home we'd been on our feet for hours and were totally wiped. We'd planned salmon en papillote, which is delicious but also really simple. We were famished and craving carbs big time, so we boiled up some brown rice macaroni and threw the rest of our walnut-arugula pesto into it, and added some raw crushed garlic at the end. It was GREAT!

The parcels included a base of leeks, bok choy, green beans and garlic, and we put some ginger and fresh cilantro on the salmon.

 I will definitely update this weekend, since we're thinking about trying out Asian lettuce wraps with ground turkey on Friday night, and we're hosting a Joshi dinner party on Saturday for my grandmother's 88th birthday! She probably wouldn't want her age posted for the world to see, but I seriously doubt she'll be browsing the interwebs anytime soon...