3 Day Refresh - Day 2 and Day 3

The other day, I was talking to my 10 year old son about making healthy choices when eating and how it is important to eat our vegetables.  I mentioned broccoli in particular during this discussion knowing that my son is at least willing to eat it most of the time.  He proceeded to tell me that he cannot eat broccoli.  He indicated that "Broccoli looks like trees, trees produce oxygen, and I need oxygen to breath.  We should just eat meat."

By the end of Day 2 of the 3 Day Refresh - I was right there with him on his ideas of becoming carnivores.

One thing I don't care for with the 3 Day Refresh program is while they include protein drinks, there is no meat at all included in what you can eat throughout the program.  Saturday night, while my family ate delicious  Thai Peanut Stirfry, I ate a measly plate of green beans.  Only 6 ounces of green beans to be precise.

Sunday morning, the final day of the 3 day program, I was exhausted.  I drank my morning Shakeology and just moped around the living room all morning.  By lunch time I was starving.  As much as I do not enjoy being a quitter, I do not like being hangry even more.

I ate nachos for lunch Sunday afternoon.  They were glorious.  And I had spaghetti and meatballs with garlic toast for dinner. It was pretty darn amazing as well.

I don't know what my results truly would have been had I finished the 3 Day Refresh, but as it stood, I lost 1.6 lbs.  I think I am going to attribute this to eating less than 1,000 calories for two days in a row, not the miraculous power of the 3 Day refresh.

While this product may work for some (power to you). I am going to be taking Beachbody up on their 30 Day Money back Guarantee on this particular product.

Orange Glad - September 2013 Unboxing

Recently, I've become slightly addicted to monthly subscription services.  I actually receive three of them at this point, although the Orange Glad Dessert Subscription is really on a trial basis at this point, this is the first month I've received it. 

 

Orange Glad is an organization that just recently began.  September is only their third month that they've been in business.  Orange Glad is a company that had a brilliant idea to deliver delicious confections to people's doorsteps.  The idea of home delivery, while not revolutionary (tons of companies deliver stuff to people's houses all the time), has been taken to the next level when they brought about the idea of delectable treats being delivered without having to get up off the couch to pick them up.  Absolutely brilliant in my opinion.

Anyways, as I stated before, September is sort of a trial month for me with this new confectionery treat box thing.  I thought I would give it a whirl, since I love sweets.  This month's theme was "cookies." 

The box arrived within a day or two of receiving the email from Orange Glad indicating it had shipped.  It came in a Priority Mail package that was stamped "Fragile:  I'm Perishable Keep Me in Shade."

 

Once opened, the goods were wrapped in tissue paper and confetti, as well as it had an ice pack in there to keep the items that could melt (chocolate) from doing just that.

 

 

Here's what arrived in the box:

 

Kelly's Kookies:  Chocolate Dipped Macadamia Shortbread

 

This was honestly probably the tastiest shortbread cookie I have ever eaten.  It was melt in your mouth good.  It had butter overtones with just the right amount of chopped macadamia nuts.  The chocolate just completed the cookie.  This was definitely my favorite item out of the box.  This is an item I would purchase again.

 

 

Cinderella Cakes:  Oreo Cookie Cake Push Pop

 

While I love the idea of a push pop with cake and frosting type fillings in it (completely could eat and do other stuff without sticky cake fingers...), I was not so impressed by the execution of this particular item.  The chocolate cake portion of it was okay, the cake was moist and tasted like your basic run of the mill chocolate cake.  The Oreo buttercream was not my cup of tea though.  It had a strong smell, sort of like fake vanilla extract?  It also had a slightly off flavor, compared to what I would expect an Oreo buttercream to taste like.  I was not impressed with this particular item.

 



Cinderella Cakes:  Lemon Sugar Cookie

 

This is another item I was not incredibly impressed with.  While the item itself had okay flavor, it wouldn't be what I would expect if I was purchasing an item from a bakery.  Neither the cookie or the frosting had a tart lemony taste.  It was a very neutral lemon flavor.  The outside of the cookie was touted as being slightly crispy with a chewy middle.  I found that the cookie wasn't particularly chewy, regardless of whether it was the middle or outside of the treat.  This item wasn't bad, it just wasn't something I would go out of my way to purchase on it's own either.

 

Modern Bite:  Designer Chai and Almond Spice Cookies

 

The Designer Chai and Almond Spice Cookies were a pleasant addition to the box.  Per the information card that came with the box, they can be custom designed or have a logo added to the top of the cookie to match whatever occasion you are celebrating.  The flavor on these were perfect.  The chai and almond spice flavors had just the right amount of presence in the cookies to make them a delicious addition to any cookie platter.  This is an item I would purchase again.

 

JJ Bakery:  Almond Nougat

 

While the fifth item that was supposed to be in the box was an almond nougat, this particular item was missing from the box.  I did contact the customer support from Orange Glad and I was pleased to see that they were very quick about responding to the issue.  They have emailed me already and indicated that they would be mailing the missing nougat to me promptly.  As I am writing this, I haven't received the lost nougat yet, but I have confidence that it is going to be arriving any day now.

 

 

Overall at this point, I am not overly impressed with the Orange Glad box.  While I very much enjoyed receiving sweets in the mail, I really was only impressed by one of the four I actually received.  The box is normally $15/month plus shipping, so I'm not sure each item in the box was worth, flavor wise, about $4 (taking into account the shipping, and the item I did not receive).   

 

I'm thinking maybe I'll give them one more chance to impress me.  They did have great customer service (Thanks Angela from Orange Glad Support...heehee she had the same name as me), and sometimes these subscription type services have a down month.  The first two months they've been around, the snacks looked delicious...so possibly month four will be better than month three.

 

Here's hoping October is more impressive than September.

 

 

 

Fifty Shades of Grey

This past few weeks, I have been waiting to read the book everyone seems to be talking about, "Fifty Shades of Grey."  While I have wanted to read the book and find out what all they hype was about, I also had mixed feelings towards it due to the fact that I have read both good and bad reviews... Needless to say, my curiosity won and I asked my husband to pick up the book for my birthday.

While it is no Charlaine Harris or Patricia Briggs book, it was an (eyebrows raised) interesting read. 

**Warning Spoilers**

The book starts out with a woman named Ana who is in her twenties, who is so naive, it is almost laughable.  While I'm sure there are some twenty year old women who not only have never had sex, but also never have never had a relationship of any sort, it is certainly getting more and more rare these days. 

She meets Christian Grey in an interview she does for a friend, since her friend is on the school newspaper but is sick.  Christian Grey is a twenty something year old rich CEO (almost as laughable as the virgin) who is deeply into BDSM.

They start a relationship, and basically are trying to come to a compromise of how things will be since he is a bit twisted and she is so naive.  By the end of the book, the reader is left hanging to find out what will happen between Ana and Mr. Grey.

This is all amidst the almost constant monologue of Ana's inner goddess and Christian touching, as the author so eloquently puts it (lol) Ana's sex.  Why can't the author just call it what it is?  And Ana's inner goddess needs to put some duct tape over her mouth... although between the duct tape and Ana's almost constant lip biting, the reader still wouldn't get much beyond all of the heightened hormones and contant intercourse, since Christian would just be in a state.

Don't get me wrong, the story was interesting... Interesting enough I will continue the trilogy to find out what happens between Ana and Grey, but the writing lacked a certain finesse.

If you're looking for something with some real literary meat, stop reading.  Fifty shades of Grey will not meet that need.  But if you're looking for something that is meant for light reading with a bit of romance and a bit of kinky scenery, Fifty Shades of Grey is a match for you.