my dairy-free adventure

One of my goals from the 52 Things in 52 Weeks challenge is to refrain from consuming dairy for one month.  I've read several blogs and articles that tout a dairy-free diet as being better for your skin, and I have skin that's as clear and beautiful as the skin of a 14-year-old boy, so I decided to give it a try. What could it hurt?

Turns out it was a lot more complicated and difficult than I had anticipated--tons of foods have dairy ("dairy") in them. Most commercially prepared breads, rolls, and buns have milk in them (I should've known that, but I just didn't think about it). Lots of chocolate products contain milk, and so do many other packaged foods. Who knew?

I sure didn't. I ended up starting and re-starting my month of no dairy several times, so I finally had to sit down and come up with some actual rules for my experiment:

• No cow's milk, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, or any kind of cream in their regular forms, including anything that has been cooked or baked using any of these products.
• Products that had been cooked or baked using butter were allowed sparingly. (Butter has only trace amounts of lactose in it, so I figured this was okay.)
• No food that contains any kind of milk or cheese product on the ingredient list. (I tried really hard to follow this, but I was not perfect at it.)

So here's how it went.

#4: Don't eat dairy for one month.

No milk: not very difficult (except when it came to hidden milk ingredients and cream).

No yogurt: not too hard.

No ice cream: a little harder.

No cheesy things: the hardest. No pizza. Or cheeseburgers. Or Italian food. Or anything delicious.

I know you're dying to find out if it helped my skin. And I will tell you—I think it did.

Results

I did an embarrassing thing and took a picture of my makeup-free face at the beginning of doing no dairy. I'm sorry if you're easily grossed out, because this is gross.

No idea why I felt the need to close my eyes. More dramatic?

And here's my no-makeup face after a full month of following my no-dairy rules.

Conclusion

I think a lot of the improvement shown in the pictures would have happened just with time passing; a month and a half would've allowed my breakout to go away on its own without any treatment or intervention. However, during a typical six-week period, my face would've broken out a least twice, so it seems possible that cutting out dairy kept my breakouts at bay. Another difference I detected was that blemishes that popped up seemed to heal and disappear much faster than they usually do.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of being the person who has weird dietary restrictions, especially since this is in no way medically necessary. But since I have definitely seen improvement, I'm going to continue eating as little dairy as possible. I can't say I'll be able to stay away from pizza much longer though...

52 things in 52 weeks: checking in

I am happy to report that I have completed a whopping 5 of my 52 goals so far. Go me!

I should also report that my goals have been slightly altered since I first posted them. I made a few of them shorter (lasting for one month instead of two or three) and changed the month of no eating out to a month of no eating dairy. 

Without further ado, here are the things I've completed!

#6: Go on a weekend getaway (alone).

You can read all about our adventure in my weekend getaway post.

#7: Floss every day for one month.

It is very, very possible (read: 100% likely) that I had never flossed my entire mouth by myself until this month. I am ashamed.

(I also never knew the actual technique for correct flossing. I may or may not have found this out halfway into my goal. Whoops.)

But now I can say that I have flossed every day for a month! A consecutive month.

Yes, I needed a reminder stuck to my mirror.

Once I started doing it correctly, I definitely noticed a difference in how clean my mouth feels. And I'm fairly confident I'll keep doing it at least occasionally.

#16: Strength train three times a week for one month.

Like everyone else in the entire world, I decided that 2013 would be the year that I finally got in shape and got to my goal weight. I'd like to think that I have slightly more motivation than the average person, since I still have post-baby flab to tone up, but only time will tell. At the very least, I know I can do strength training exercises regularly for a month.

I'm definitely going to stick with strength training, because it gets you awesome results! I wish I could show you a before and after picture, but alas; I am not that brave. (Also, I didn't even take any before pictures. So there's that.) Just know that I have started the ongoing process of recovering from pregnancy and childbirth!

#35: Do a cardio workout four times a week for one month.

This goal got a little tricky in the final week, because our elliptical broke down, and I am not a fan of running outside (and we don't have money for a gym membership). I improvised by getting my Dance Central on and finding random exercise videos on the Internet. Emerson was highly amused by all of it. (He laughs hysterically whenever I do lunges. Is that a bad sign?)

Now that I'm done with this specific goal, I'll probably go back to my regular schedule of doing cardio two or three times a week. I'll have you know that these fitness goals have helped me lose over seven pounds so far! Hooray for progress!

#48: Make homemade baby food.

I know this isn't a big deal to a lot of people, but it seemed daunting to me before I did it. As you may have guessed, I'm not a confident cook!

I cooked up Emerson some acorn squash, and he loved it.

Squash halves after being baked and scooped.

The final product. (This wasn't all of it. Just a baby serving.)

Emerson was intrigued.

You could say he was a fan.

Well there you have it. Five down and only 47 to go! Oh boy.

52 things in 52 weeks: weekend getaway

Two days before my birthday, Andrew's dad spontaneously offered (at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday night) to watch Emerson overnight (that night) so Andrew and I could have a fun getaway at the Oregon coast. (And he paid for the hotel! What a great birthday present!) (Did you like all my parentheses?)

We almost turned down his offer--we were worried that it would be too rushed, that we hadn't planned anything, that we wouldn't find a good place to stay, etc.--but at the last minute, we decided to go. I'm so glad we did! We had a wonderful time together, and I think we really needed a nice break.

Andrew called around and got a really good deal at a nice resort in Cannon Beach. We were right by the water, and the room was awesome.

So was our view!

On Saturday, we got pastries for breakfast at the local bakery and spent the morning relaxing and walking around town. We found this gem at the local grocery store. There was one for Democrats too. Segregation much?

Andrew tried his hand at a player piano.

And we saw bacon frosting in the local candy store. 

Then we headed up the coast to Seaside and took a walk on the beach. It was a little chilly, but overall quite nice and sunny for the Oregon coast.

Can you tell the sun was in our faces?

So now we have gone on a weekend getaway,* and I can check off #6 on my list! 

*I know that since this trip was one night (instead of two), it might not technically count as a "weekend getaway," but I am definitely going to count it. It was the first time we'd left Emerson anywhere overnight, and it was on the weekend, and it was fantastic. Not that I don't love my baby, but yeah. It was nice.

52 things in 52 weeks

I've been thinking a lot about how I want to change and improve during 2013. I came across the idea of doing 101 things in 1,001 days and thought I'd give it a try. I've seen it described as a cross between a to do list and a bucket list, and it sounded fun.

Then I sat down and tried (and tried and tried) to come up with 101 things I wanted to accomplish over the next 2.75 years, and it was overwhelming. So then I looked around on the Interwebs a little more and found the 52 Things in 52 Weeks idea. Perfect! 

So here is my list of 52 things I want to accomplish in 2013. Some are small, some are bigger, some should be easy, and some will be really difficult.

Two of my goals are pretty personal, so I decided not to include them here. Not everything needs to be shared with the whole world, right? And for the record, when I say juice (#32 and #36), I mean fresh vegetable and fruit juice made with our juicer. Not like a crazy cranberry-juice-only diet. And yes, reading 10 new books and trying 10 new recipes will probably be challenging for me! Don't laugh.

Here's to goals and dedication and adventures and commitment. Happy 2013!