In a Real (Dill) Pickle

Since I have an abundance of fresh veggies and fruits as I mentioned a few days ago, I have been on some kind of a crazy food preservation kick- but I’m still lazy. I have an over-abundance of lemon cucumbers, but had a problem with them having a thick skin. After some thought, I decided to make refrigerator pickles with them, choosing the refrigerator options to avoid the extra steps involved in a water bath. I peeled the skins and placed them in a mostly white vinegar brine with dill and garlic, Himalayan salt and cracked pepper.  I made a small jar with apple cider vinegar just because. Easily some of the ugliest pickles I’ve ever made. I hope these little bastards taste better than they look. 

Always An Underachiever

It looks like my posts are becoming almost a yearly thing. I'm getting off a weird sickness right now, and with my reemergence into the real world I've gotten back into making foodstuffs. Simple things, as I've got a toddler and am still not 100%, but anything is something, I suppose. We are in the height of summer, and fresh fruits and veggies are in season, ripe and in abundance. I picked up beaucoup strawberries Thursday of last week before I got sick, along with a cucuzza (which delighted my little one), and some creole tomatoes. By the time I felt a little better Sunday night many of the strawberries had spoiled, the rest I sliced in halves and popped in my trusty way old Ronco dehydrator, and Elle was thrilled with the result. After that I loaded the dehydrator with some figs from my mother in law's tree she was kind enough to send my way, and they should be done tonight. Home dried fruits are my favorite- it's been years since I've messed with the dehydrator, but they are so easy and honestly that's all I can muster in this insufferable Louisiana heat.

Walsh Pilates of Baton Rouge

Another fitness studio I frequent often is Walsh Pilates on Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge. The studio is a classical Pilates studio featuring the reformer, the tower, the chair, and other classic Pilates equipment. My Instructor of choice is Melody Benton-Thompson, and I started by taking her Reformer/Tower Therapeutic Pilates classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, later progressing to her Pilates Reformer Level 2 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:00. As someone who took mat Pilates for years in college I thought I was totally ready for these classes, they would be a breeze, and I’d be in the most advanced classes within two weeks. Yep, that wasn’t the case! Turns out the difference between simple mat Pilates and Pilates on the equipment are so day and night they might as well be completely different disciplines. I was constantly challenged and tested in classes, and welcomed the challenges whole-heartedly. At times the machines and exercises tapped into my inner circus performer, which left me giggling. My OCD loves how clean the studio is, the instructors and students are all pleasant, and I love the individual attention I receive in my classes (classes are limited to four people, so no one is overlooked- very important for form and all sorts of good stuff). This is one of my favorite places to take classes in Baton Rouge and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a studio offering classical Pilates in a way Joseph Pilates would approve of.

The Juice Fast- A.K.A.: The Failure Post

Hey Everyone!

So my three day juice fast has come and left, and I am sad to report I failed miserably. I meant to post each day of the fast. I meant to do a lot of things. What did I do? I can't really remember, because I was so fuzzy, lightheaded and dumb my memory of the fast is more like a long hallucination. Day one started out simply enough. I had my six juices I had picked up the day before from The Big Squeezy in Baton Rouge (at the tune of $49 a day plus tax). I read the directions and followed as specified on The Big Squeezy's website, and drank the juices in the order listed on the bag. I say website because when I picked up my juice the girl who checked me out was new and couldn't answer any of my questions. I did fine, except ran into a problem. If you drink a juice every two hours and only have six juice that means unless you stay up for only twelve hours you're going to be without nourishment for a few hours. I've got a life, damnit. I've got stuff to do. So I did what any red-blooded starving American did. I ate a baked potato from Whole Foods. So day 1: utter failure. Rinse and repeat on day two. Except on day two extreme lightheadedness and irritation set in. And then there was day three. OH DAY THREE.
So the thing with The Big Squeezy is you get two days of juice at a time. You make an appointment to pick up the juices, they're ready (in theory) when you get there, and you grab them and go. Easy, right? EXCEPT IT DIDN'T WORK LIKE THAT THE THIRD DAY. And I was hungry. And I was cranky. So when I placed the order and made my appointments to pick up the juices the girl who took my order asked what time I would like to pick up my juice on Sunday. I asked her their hours on Sunday and they said from 7 a.m. to whenever. I told them I would be there at 9:00 am for the rest of my juices.
Guess who doesn't open until 10:00 on Sundays? Guess who was stuck sitting around until 10:00, and even then still had to wait for them to get the damn juices together? Guess who was starving and quite over The Big Squeezy after their half-assed excuse blaming "the new girl" again after pulling up my paperwork and seeing their error. Yep.
It probably didn't help that I nixed caffeine and any unnecessary medication during the fast. I feel it was poorly instructed on their part and poorly executed on my part. I probably don't have the willpower required to nix food, caffeine, and modern medicine for three days. I also might have tried to cut out too much at once. Either way my experiment  was a blatant failure. I think the next time I attempt a juice fast instead of buying expensive premade juices I'm going to make my own. I have a Breville juicer and juicing manuals, but thought buying the juices premade and set out would be the way to go for a first fast. I was so wrong. Luckily for me no one was seriously hurt, I didn't incurred jail time, I have not been disowned by any of my friends, and I'm only out $160 and three and a half days of my life.
Oh, and I forgot to mention a few more things of note. After the third day I crashed. Like laying in bed, crying, just all around feeling horrid. My transition back to my normal plant-based vegetarian diet was rocky and at times *ahem* uncomfortable. I also had a severe spike in asthma attacks during the fast which was EXTREMELY unsettling, and likely explains a lot of the lightheadedness and passing disorientation.
My original intent for the juice fast was for detox purposes. I'm not sure if I succeeded in detoxing, I think I may have screwed that part up with the potato. Hopefully my next *homemade* fast will yield clearer and healthier results.


Edit: Does anyone have any suggestions for my next juice fast?  I'd love to hear other's experiences and comments, opinions, any feedback below!

Welcome to Skinny Cult!

Hey good-lookin'! Welcome to my blog and my first post. I'm a thirtysomething-year-old Louisiana native who resides in the booming metropolis that is Baton Rouge. I hold a full time job, I'm a business owner, wife, and doting mother to a spoiled Yorkie by the name of Gigi. My husband owns Full Blown Paint, a custom paint and graphics shop operating out of Gonzales, and we both own Stitch Cult, an online retail store selling kustom kulture tshirts, custom handmade bags, purses, and other accessories. We are both avid fitness enthusiasts. Joel prefers weightlifting and bike riding, and I'm game for anything from yoglates to Pilates to yoga to barre to pole fitness and the list goes on! You can expect some workout tips, reviews of local fitness crazes, summaries and reviews of new diet fads, pretty much anything that is upcoming in the fitness world- but I'm drawing the line at colonics. Ain't no way. If you have any tips, suggestions, or anything you like to hear about feel free to drop me a line at stitchcult@yahoo.com. I look forward to embarrassing myself on the World Wide Web for you guys!

Love,
Lacey