Life with less sugar

I am into my second week of eating a sugar-less weekday diet. Since I believe in the slogan: "Moderation in all things" allowing a small treat on the weekends, I feel, would be prudent. I will have to say that while the small brownie on Saturday night was yummy, I noticed that afterwards I didn't feel that great...could it be my body likes the reduction of refined sugar after all???

I relied on a few food items to get me through the week-

-Freeze dried strawberries, mangoes, and pineapple from Trader Joe's. (no sugar added to these babies!)

-Grapefruit juice and seltzer water. (I'm also trying to reduce the use of artificial sweeteners)

-Green olives, the giant queen sized ones with pimentos.

-Cottage cheese.

-Some words from Brigham Young, including this: “Indulgence of appetite is not worthy.”

-Posting my sugar free days count on the blog, so thank you for keeping me inline:-).

It is not easy yet, this sugar free business, and the weight has not been sliding off, but I do feel better, not just physically, but mentally too-because I am being proactive with my health and being more in control of the dietary decisions I'm making.

Easter In Chico

We drove up to visit Chico this past weekend to be with Mike and Chelsie for Easter. The trip was much prettier than usual along the I-5 because of the amazing wild flowers that were in bloom. I have never seen so much lupine in my life. The poppies were starting to come out and there were blankets of some yellow flower covering almost every hill. And the hills...were actually green.

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Pea Soup Anderson's for the traditional Hap-pea and Pea-wee photo. Evan is perfecting his "trepidation" look.

Saturday morning brought our "Visit to the Market" where we love to see what the farmers and tradespeople have been working on. The Veggies were amazing. Even I was in awe of the beet display. My mom will be ecstatic to hear that I actually liked the yellow beets that we bought and cooked. (I must be growing up:-))

Beets, flowers cheese, pistachios, dried apricots, asparagus, scones and buns-all were delicious. But the best part was to see Mike and Chelsie.

Happy Easter to you all.

"He Lives"

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Here are a few photos of our most recent hike in the Cleveland National Forest. It was wonderful to be out on the trails again, after such a rainy weekend winter, but the rain and wait were worth it-the waterfall was unbelievable and unexpected.

It is hard to tell, but this waterfall is about 200 feet below the trail from where I am taking this photo. It was huge!

We went on two hikes this day, one was the very short El Cariso Nature Trail, a 1.2 mile loop around a hill. The fun part of this hike was the mine shaft. As you can see Ms. "Throw Warnings to the Wind" liked it too.

The second hike was called the San Juan Loop Trail. It was 2.4 miles, with an elevation gain of 320 feet. There were tons of trees shading the trail, and at one part the path followed a very full stream. Ferns and mosses were growing out of rocks and cliff sides. Small and kind of large rocks were everywhere on the trail and made walking a bit tricky-that must be what makes a mountain hike a mountain hike! About half way through the hike we could hear the roar of the waterfall. According to the map, we were close to a spur that led to the vista point for the falls. We were a bit nervous that the hole we saw in the chaparral we had just hiked by might have been the spur we had been looking for. A few dozen feet ahead, 2 chatty young women asked if we had passed the trail to the falls. If they hadn't seen it, we figured we must have passed it already! So we went back,( it was only about 50 feet,) and headed down what we thought must be the trail. It was a trail alright, but not the marked one. After some tricky maneuvering down the rocks, we arrived at a very secluded part of the stream. There were stone ledges that the water very prettily fell off of, but they were only about 8 inches in height. Even so, the place was very tranquil and made for the perfect rest spot. After a nice drink and bit of a relax, we hurried out in order to avoid any rangers and their finding us where we shouldn't be. The lesson learned: never trust the hiking skills of young talkative women who are not Ticklers. The trail to the falls was impossible to miss, they had walked right past it. Fortunately, we did not miss the trail or the falls. I never knew such a thing existed in Orange County. (Well, actually Riverside County, but it is close, and I'm sure water rights or something are involve.) It was a glorious outing!

I can't wait to do some more hikes in the mountains. The Holy Jim Trail is calling my name...