I’m glad you all liked Angelina’s recap of the challenge!  She did a great job, and while I might have been a little more whiney, and a little less yoga-practice-y than she was in the challenge – I enjoyed it just as much!

As you can tell – I’ve been a little MIA.  The good news there though – I’ve got a back log of lots of fun stuff to show you!

As you might have guessed – over the past were – there may have been that whole Thanksgiving dinner thing:

PS: Dad stole my camera for a while – look how thrilled all of my boys are

I swear – we did actually enjoy spending time together!

Oh yeah – and we did that whole Thanksgiving dinner thing – not once, but twice!

Complain about having to split holiday/family time all you want – if I get to eat delicious meals 2 days in a row – I’m cool with just about anything!

My Thanksgiving meal contribution:

I especially love introducing the family to products I love when we share food on the holiday.  For example:  Bolthouse Farms Dressing!

Seriously – I do make a mean salad!

Oh yeah – and balls – I make means balls too!

I think I maybe can ACTUALLY bake – as long as it’s super simple recipes!  Yes I did make Mama Pea’s cookie dough balls again – but I surprised myself with the chocolate covered cake balls!   I’ll post the recipe tomorrow!

What was your Thanksgiving Day contribution?

Well kids, I’m back with the challenge recap!

If you remember in my November 1 post, I was just about to take on a 21 Day whole foods & yoga challenge.

If you remember anything else, it’s that I may or may not dream about living in an actual Candy Land from time to time.

As a quick refresher, the challenge deets were as follows:

Rule #1- PRACTICE:  Students commit to 5 days of yoga practice per week.

Rule #2- LISTEN:  Attend the 3 weekly Experience Meeting & Body Listening Practice on Sundays at 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm.  Practice Body Listening & journaling daily for 10 minutes.

Rule #3- GET WHOLE:  Nurture your body with only WHOLE foods making delicious, sustaining choices from veggies, fruit, nuts, fresh fish, unprocessed grains, etc.

Rule #4- HYDRATE:  Drink a half-gallon of water per day & limit caffeine to one beverage per day.  Consume no alcohol or soda/pop for 21 days.

So, how did Queen Frostine do?

Rule #1- PRACTICE: ? I nailed that one and while my home practice was no amazing synchronized flow, I did it anyways! Graceful or not, it was mine.

Rule #2- LISTEN: ? Man, did I listen??? I took notes on how my body felt after I put any morsel of food into my mouth. Not only did I listen to what was going on in my body, I listened to what was going on in both my head and my heart.

Rule #3- GET WHOLE: ? “Mark it, Dude!” I ate like the pilgrims for 21 days and I liked it!

Rule #4- HYDRATE: ? I chose this one, hard. I was drinking water like it was… well, water. I even went to my first sober concert since NKOTB toured in ’88!

And what did she learn?

Well, “What didn’t I learn?” is the better question. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this entire experience. I felt like a million bucks. I had a ton of energy. I felt lighter & brighter. I was seeing everything more clearly. I was riding higher than I’ve been in quite some time and wanting to share my wealth with everyone. This experience was much different than the last one. I think there were a few key factors that contributed to my success this time around.

1. I was prepared.

That’s a look at how the challenge began. I made a list of all of the things I wanted to eat for each week so I wouldn’t be left hungry and scrounging at 8pm. This was key and actually helped me save some money on eating out! BONUS!

2. I wasn’t alone.

I had 2 of these lovely friendy-pals (yes, it’s a real term) along for the ride and thank goodness I did! How’s a girl supposed to fight the urges of Christmas Ale and Breakfast Burritos without a little help from her girlfriends?

3. I was mentally prepared.

Or in other words, I was my own cheerleader. I committed to replacing all of the negative thoughts I had about what I couldn’t do, eat or say, with positive mantras. (Hmm, there may just be something to that whole positive thinking thing.) I learned to forgive myself, understand the lesson, then, move on.

What will she do now?

Well I walked into work on Monday, or Day 22, to find that surprise on my desk. (Thanks Allison!) And I’m happy to report that I have yet to open it. That makes 24 days without candy! (YEAH!!! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!) Can you believe it?!? While, I don’t expect to cut candy out entirely, (or even the next 24 hours) my goal is to really enjoy the indulgences with a little more control then I have had in the past.

This experience has been a very special one for me. One of self-reflection, empowerment, gratitude, awareness, strength and clarity. I’m happy that I was able to spend 21+ days cultivating those things.

I know for many of you in the land of healthy living, “Everything in moderation” may all seem like an elementary idea. All I can say to that is, “I’ll learn the lesson when I’m ready to.” But after 31 years of being an all or nothing girl, I may just be ready to take a new path. Instead of dreaming about living in an actual Candy Land, I may be ready to roll the dice and act like an adult; be responsible for my own financial independence, take risk with real estate ventures, get involved with the community; leave it up to chance.

So, who’s up for a game of Monopoly? Disney Princess version? Don’t mind if I do. I mean, we don’t have to give up ALL of our dreams.

Things I know:

1. I am NOT a baker.  If you’ve ever read this blog before, you know that.
2. I just CAN’T FOLLOW a recipe to save my life.
3. I loathe measuring – cooking measurements should be: a sprinkle, pinch, dash, handful, or ”whole lotta”
4. Baking handicap be damned – I needed to make these Mama Pea (Annie the Baker inspired) Dough Balls the entire blogging world keeps talking about!
5. I had to go to 5 different stores in order to get all the supplies, and I was STILL missing whole wheat pastry flour.  Does that tell you how badly I wanted to try these balls?
6. I have the maturity level of a 12 year old boy, because I’m taking every opportunity possible to says balls in this post (and then totally giggling, and repeating out loud “balls, heh!”)

My adapted ingredient list (thanks to helpful tweets from Monica and Mama Pea!)

I obviously bake often:

This was the first time I’ve ever used my hand mixer, and I believe, I got it as a gift at my wedding shower in August of 2007.

I don’t have a fancy stand mixer – so the hand mixer was just going to have to do!  

Aside from adapting ingredients and switching out the stand mixer for a hand mixer – I followed the recipe to a “T”! (exact recipe and measurements here!)

Step 1: Peanut Butter, Earth Balance, Vanilla, & Sugars getting mixed in 1 bowl

Step 2: Baking powder, baking soda, salt and flours in another (thank goodness for my color-coded bowls! )

Step 3: Slowly add the flour mixture into the PB mixture bowl and beat (doesn’t it look like Dippin’ Dots?!?!)

Step 4: Add chocolate chips and PB chips

Step 5: Be careful of spilling – as creatures living in your house may have become extremely interested in what you are dong…

Don’t give me that look!

Step 6: Put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill, while pre-heating your oven to 350.

Step 7: Realize you don’t have a cool cookie scoop, make do with this random melon-baller-small-scoop-ish thing you find in your drawer.

Warning: 4-legged creatures will grow more and more despondent, the longer they go without receiving some of the delicious treats.

They just don’t understand that whole chocolate=death thing.

Step 8: Take the chilled dough out the fridge – form into delicious balls (heh!) and line them up on the baking sheet.

Step 9/Good Hint from Mama Pea: I definitely did have to add some almond milk to the batter in order to get the balls to stick.  And by some – I mean about 1/2 cup!

Step 9: Cook at 350, for 10 minutes!

Step 10: Allow to cool, then DEVOUR!

For the record – these really ARE as delicious as everyone makes them out to be.  Annie the Baker & Mama Pea – you are absolutely genius!