Rory's Blind folded Adventure

Last week Rory and I were talking about what we were going to do for his next raw food recipe video and he decided that he wanted to do his Green Vanilla Bean Shake, mostly because everyone we know loves it. What's even better is that the shake is super easy to make, so easy that it could be done blindfolded!

So that's what he did, he did the video blind folded. You have to see!



It was a really fun experience for us, so I just had to share it here on my blog. I love the part where he is trying to find a glass and he is reaching out for the cupboard and cannot find it anywhere. Anyway, hope you like it!

Raw "hot" chocolate

Our Christmas holiday was a lot of fun. On Christmas day we opened gifts, did crafts, played games, and watched a movie. The following day we went to my mother's house and did the same thing. It was like having Christmas twice! I know Isabel loved it. I hope your holiday went well!

Rory created this wonderful, easy "hot" chocolate that we enjoyed Christmas day, and every day since. Of course, it isn't actually hot, but we did warm it a little in the Vitamix. If you don't have a Vitamix, you can do it in a pan with a thermometer.

3 cups almond milk
4 Tbsp cacao
4-5 Tbsp raw honey (do it to taste)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or about 1/2' piece of bean

Blend it! if you are using a Vitamix, allow it to get slightly warm. if you are using a regular blender, transfer it to a pan and gently heat it on low until it reaches your desired raw temp (around 115F usually) This will probably make about 3 servings.

It tastes really good, and almost as if it has marshmallows melted into it.

Do you ever get tired from all this fast food?

Everything was going so well, I lost about 1.5 lbs of the 2 that I gained in CT. I've been eating all raw, until today. I wasn't even really paying much attention to what I was eating today, since I was so busy. Tonight I was sitting around with Rory and complaining about how sleepy and tired I am. I was so tired I could barely get up to go to the bathroom! He asked me what I ate today...hmm I had french fries and some hot cereal. Rory jumped right up and made me a nice green smoothie and some salad and now I feel so much better.

It's amazing, and almost scary, how much cooked, and junk food affects a person. I used to feel tired all of the time, and I never knew it was from the food that I was eating. Now, when I do eat those foods again, the tiredness is almost a shock and I can't even function. There are so many people that I know in their 20s and 30s that say they feel so old and tired. I used to think, pre-raw, that it was the stress of our fast paced world, but now I realize that it is the food that we eat!

How are you celebrating your holiday? We have a family tradition of eating tacos on Christmas, and this year we will not be breaking that tradition. The non raw foodies in my family will be eating traditional tacos, and the vegetarians will be eating vegetarian tacos. We will be eating raw tacos. There are so many wonderful recipes out there for raw tacos, but since I don't like to eat a lot of nuts, and we are so busy during the holiday season, we will be making our easy raw taco recipe. So many of our non-raw friends have tried them, and they all love them. We are making enough to share with anyone who wants them.


Have a great holiday!

This is kinda a silly vid I did to share our Christmas tree on Rawfu. Rory is "singing" (you may want to turn off your speakers to avoid hearing him sing)

1 vacation lb down and resolutions

I've been trying hard to lose those 2 lbs that I gained on vacation, and so far I have lost one of them. This week I have been craving a lot of pears, so I have had about 4 or 5 a day. I am also eating a big salad each day and drinking a green smoothie. The hardest part is turning down Rory's dandy blend smoothie, it's the best in the world! But it is a nut based smoothie, so I am trying hard not to drink any. (He plans to post about that smoothie on his blog and on YouTube in the near future.) Hopefully the next pound will be just as easy, and I can concentrate on losing all of the others that I need to lose.

Have you thought of any resolutions for the new year? When I do think of one, I like to think of only one, otherwise it gets too complicated and I end up doing nothing. This year I have decided to concentrate on my own health, instead of the health of others. I keep telling friends and family all about the benefits of green smoothies and juices, nutrients of different fruits and veggies, etc. But rarely do I incorporate these things into my own diet as much as I tell others that they should. So this year, I am going to eat a much more healthy diet. This includes drinking more water, since Rory always tells me that I don't drink nearly as much as I should.

Off topic, one of my dearest, beautiful friends has a wonderful Etsy page full of gorgeous jewelry that is actually made from recycled materials. I just hope that you check it out because I know that she puts a lot of love and care into each piece, and they are all just so wonderful! Here is the link to her Etsy page: Recycled Revolution

Back from CT

Wow what a vacation! I honestly don't know where to start, but I can tell you that we had a really great time. There is so much more to do in CT than there is in Nowheresville, PA. There was a Whole Foods (actually, a few of them) that we spent over 5 hours at one evening (no joke!). There are no stores like that within 4 hours of our home. Rory had a great time at the raw restaurant, Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, and even visited a few times. We had such a good time, but I won't bore you with all the "spending time with family" details. We actually decided to move to CT in the early Spring!

This is me and Isabel on Rory's Moms' couch.

Regretfully, I was not able to stick to my diet 100%, so I ended up gaining 2 pounds :( I hope to lose those pounds quickly.

Taking a road trip

On Wednesday, Rory and I are heading up to Connecticut to visit his family. I am the one driving the entire 7 hours, and I am not looking forward to it! Rory is packing a lot of raw food for the journey, including, but definitely not limited to: salad, bananas, smoothies, citrus fruits, and trail mixes. One drawback to eating raw is that we have no need to stop at a restaurant to eat, which means I will be stuck in the car the whole time, besides bathroom breaks. Isabel will be doing her school work in the car so that she has less to do when we finally get there (she is home schooled). I am making a very large mix MP3 for some music, and maybe even a few motivational cds. Victoria Boutenko has one that I really enjoy, Spiritual Awakening with Raw Food. Also, I have a few of David Wolfe's that I have not even listened to yet.

Rory's family has embraced the raw food lifestyle very well. Following his footsteps, both his sister and his mom have incorporated many raw food dishes into their menus, and have already seen the health benefits from it. I am not concerned about finding raw food when we are there. Also, the grocery stores in CT have so much more variety than they do here in "nowheresville, PA". So that will be exciting. Last but not least, Glen Colello's cafe, Catch A Healthy Habit, is only blocks from Rory's mothers' home.

All in all, it should be a fun trip. But I am not looking forward to sitting in a car for 7 hours, staring at the same old boring road the entire time while Rory and Isabel play games and nap. booooo!

What a fun day!

Oh my! Rory and I had so much fun last night. I was in tears, tears of joy! It was one of the happiest moments I've had on this raw food journey. I hope that in a few more months, we can do it again. Want to know what we did?

Well, I said in a previous post that I lost 42 lbs so far, but I can't see it anywhere, except maybe a little in my face. Bummer, that's a lot of weight to lose with no obvious difference. If I GAINED that much weight, I would definitely see it!

Anyway, we are going on a trip next week to see his family, whom we haven't seen since our wedding day 2 1/2 years ago. Rory is super excited to show off his new, raw, muscular, sexy bod. I feel like I look pretty much the same. In fact, because we spent so much money buying Rory 2 new wardrobes (half way through we bought him a bunch of new clothes, then he lost more weight and we had to do it again) we never had any money to buy me some new clothes. So there I was whining and complaining that Rory is going to look really good, and I am going to look like crap, wearing rags and such. Rory looked in an old box of my clothes and finds this really beautiful winter wardrobe that I haven't worn since we first met 5 years ago. I gained a lot of weight since then, so I set that in a box saying to myself "maybe someday I will fit into them". I hopelessly told Rory, "Don't bother with those, they haven't fit me in years". He pulls out this beautiful jacket, made of brown woven cloth. It was actually what I wore the very first day we met. I picked it out because I knew I was meeting him and I wanted to look nice. He always loved it on me. I told him I tried that jacket on last year, and I couldn't even zip it closed. Rory, never the one to give up hope, begged me to try it on. I begrudgingly got off my butt and put it around my shoulders, slipped my arms in ("gee, this is kinda roomy") and to my astonishment, I was not only able to zip it up, but there were quite a few inches between me and the fabric. It looked great!

For the next hour or so, we tried on everything in that box, and everything fit wonderfully. In fact, we tried on some of my winter stuff that did fit me last year, and it seems that they are much too big. I guess my weight loss is showing after all, and now I have a whole new wardrobe! Thank you Rory! Thank you raw food! And thank you ME for sticking to my raw food diet!

Our Raw Thanksgiving

We had our Thanksgiving a day early since Rory is busy working Thanksgiving day. It was so delicious! We ate jalapeno burgers and avocado fries inspired by The Sunny Raw Kitchen. We changed the recipe a bit to appeal to our fav tastes and they were just wonderful! Rory made some great raw ketchup for the fries and burgers! I also made these green beans that taste JUST like buttered green beans. We don't eat legumes too often, but they are great for special occasions!



Bunch of green beans
salt to taste
pepper to taste
nutritional yeast to taste
hemp oil

Drizzle a little hemp oil over the beans, add seasonings and dehydrate at 105 degrees for 30 minutes.

I also made a refreshing green apple juice to wash it all down.

Mix of greens
3 apples
Blend and strain through a mylk bag.
Add ice AFTER straining.

For desert I made an apple ginger pie in a mug. Regretfully it didn't last long enough for a picture but I can still give you the recipe.

Crust:
2 cups soaked walnuts (if you already dehydrated them, add about TBSP water)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp raw honey

Filling:
4 apples
1 cup raisins
2 Tbsp raw honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp ginger (this can be omitted or amount lessened if you want just apple pie)

Process the crust ingredients in your food processor. Press this into the bottom and sides of the mugs leaving some left over for the top of the pie.
Process the filling, straining the juice if there is excess. You will know if there is excess when you see little ponds in your processor. Put the filling in the mugs. Cover with the remaining crust. I added a little cinnamon on top of the crust to make it look pretty. This can be refrigerated or eaten immediately. This made 3 mugs of pie. It is super yummy!



I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving!

Our trip to the soup kitchen

Today Isabel and I went to the soup kitchen in Gettysburg, PA to volunteer along with Isabel's Brownie troop. I have been to other soup kitchens before, but this one was interesting. Of course, there just happened to be a parade at the exact time that we had to be at the soup kitchen, so we had to park about 12 blocks away and walk in the freezing cold. I didn't know exactly where the place was, so I had to ask people. "Excuse me sir, do you know where the soup kitchen is?". Finally I came up to a woman that said she didn't know, but her church pastor would. She hurried me along to meet him and she yelled, "Do you know where the soup kitchen is? This poor woman and her daughter need to get there before it closes!" Isabel was embarrassed, but I told her that so many people actually DO need to get there before the soup kitchen closes so that they do not lose their lunch. No one should be embarrassed about needing a free lunch. I'm sure we all could use one every once in awhile!

So anyway, we finally trekked up to the back door of the place (these kind of places are always in the back to hide them from view) and a very friendly woman was there waiting for us. I told her about our adventures of getting there and she said that a lot of people don't know where the soup kitchen is, and wondered how we could change that. (signs maybe???) A few minutes later, the rest of the troop arrived and we headed downstairs to the basement (not only is it in the back, but also in the basement!)

It was actually quite cozy there in the actual dining area. All of the tables were decorated in Thanksgiving style vinyl table cloths with little turkey center pieces in the middle. Their meals were served restaurant style, where a volunteer carries out each plate already served to each guest sitting at the table. All the other soup kitchens I had been to were more cafeteria style. All utensils and plates were disposable, to save on permit costs and from buying so many heated dishwashers. Also, many of the guests have illnesses that apparently could cause problems if the utensils were not cleaned properly. The guests were always allowed seconds, because for many, this was their only meal of the day. In one week they serve a little over 200 guests. More guests in the summer than in the winter since many children eat lunch in school. Although, because of the economic climate, especially in this area, the soup kitchen has been busier than ever.

The brownie troop, being too young to do any real work, made a fruit salad instead. The soup kitchen has been trying to offer healthier food to the guests, since many are obese and unhealthy. According to their statistics, 1 in 5 guest has diabetes. Are they sick because they are poor and can't buy healthy food? Or are they poor because they are sick and have too many medical bills and can't work? That's the eternal question. We may not be able to answer this question, but we can offer better choices and nutrition education to people in both categories. This is another step that the soup kitchen in Gettysburg is trying to take. Each month they have 1 or 2 guests come in to talk to the soup kitchen patrons about healthy food alternatives. I thought that this was a wonderful idea. So many of my friends, family, and acquaintances tell me that they don't know how to buy or make healthy food. This should be something that is taught in grammar school! I commend the soup kitchen for sharing such priceless information with those that need it most.

When we were leaving, Isabel said that she would love to come back and help out at the soup kitchen some more. Regretfully, she has to be 12 years old to actually volunteer, and she only just turned 9. I told her that in a few years, we could go to the soup kitchen and help out as often as she liked. At this point she pointed to the "good deed" pin on her brownie uniform and said "I did a good deed" as she flipped it over for everyone to see. Yes you did do a good deed, Isabel, and I believe that you will have many more to share with the world.

Nightmares!!

I have been so busy this week making Christmas gifts, that I barely had any time to weigh myself! That's a good thing though, since it seems that I have not lost any weight. *bummer* Another thing that has been going on with me is constant nightmares. For many nights in a row now, and none of them have anything to do with each other. Just a random string of bad events playing through my mind while I am sleeping. I wake up and try to forget what I just watched in my mind, and I fall back to sleep and have another nightmare. By the time I wake up in the morning, I am tense and exhausted. It's driving me crazy! I should probably not dwell in them.



My daughter and I are going to a soup kitchen to help out this weekend. She is pretty excited, and I am hoping that this will be a good learning experience for her. We are going along with her brownie group, and our goal is to help provide healthier options in the soup kitchen. I will let you know how that turns out.

More weight loss and enzymes

This week I have been craving so much fruit! We bought in season fruit, so we have a lot of grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, and of course we had to buy bananas. I am in my glory. By this time next week, I will probably have sores on the sides of my mouth from all of the citrus, but it's worth it. I did lose more weight, but nothing to throw a party over. The scale this morning said 265.6. Better down than up! It moves so slow for me, but in a way I am glad for it. Dr. Doug Graham says that it is best to lose only 1 lb a week, otherwise you will be hungry. Plus, I fear that if I lose too quickly, I may have too much excess skin.

The last thing that I wanted to mention was enzymes. I don't have much to say about them, but my husband wrote a really interesting and well written post about enzymes. He really breaks the science down into something that seems so easy to understand that I wish I had him for a science professor in college! I really hope that you check it out, here is the link Rawdawg Rory - Gotta Love Enzymes.



There is currently a tornado warning here in PA, and the weather doesn't look too good. I took 4 pics of the weather 15 seconds apart. Crazy!


I am going to sign off here. Thanks for cheering me on!

I'm all mashed

I caved today, ate some mashed potatoes. I just boiled the potatoes, added a little salt, and rice milk. Now I can't stay awake to save my life. Remind me never to do that again! Good night!

The scale moved!

It's been a few days since I posted last. Someone in my family was pretty ill, so I spent some time making "feel better' concoctions. I did get on the scale today, and it said 266! Yay, it moved! I've been working pretty hard, both with my exercise challenge and my raw challenge, but neither of them have been 100% all of the time. I am definitely working hard though.

Most of my meals are: bananas for breakfast, tomatoes for lunch, and a big salad for dinner, with a few green smoothies mixed in. Friday's are the hardest for me, because we always get something to eat at the natural food store when we go shopping. I always want to get dolmas - sometimes I have the willpower to get something else, but not always. I am hoping that when the Raw Fu challenge starts on the 15th, that will really get me motivated.

Rory is a real inspiration, he lost so much weight that today he lost his wedding ring :( We may never get it back, but now we have a plan to get it tattooed on him. I don't want to it be a tacky tattoo though, so we will have to work on the design a bit. He wants me to get one as well, but I never felt like a tattoo person, so I told him that we would wait.

Air Cars: A New Wind for America's Roads?

I just wanted to share this article, and let you know that I want one! I don't know how long this article will last, so I will give you the gist. "A new carmaker has a plan for cheap, environmentally friendly cars to be built all over the country".


These cars will run on air pressure. Now, the only problem is that they can only go 35 mph, but if you live in the city, that will not be a problem. Imagine how much money you can save and how much smaller your carbon footprint would be!

I thought that I wanted a smart car, but this tops it!


Plus, this air pressure car looks really futuristic, which shows that we are finally moving into a cleaner, better future.

Exercise challenge going great!

My 30 day exercise challenge that I have embarked on is going really well. I found inspiration from another woman from Raw Fu who said she made a chain link, and each day she ate raw she added to the link. I decided to take her idea, and incorporate it into my exercise challenge. Each day that I exercise, I add a link to my chain. I decided to make min holiday colors, since it is nearly that time of year. I am also doing it with my daughter, so she has her own chain, and when we are done, we have holiday decorations! She is super excited.
I weighed in today, and it said 270.0, so it is moving, though not as fast as I hoped. I think I will start to add juices to my menu, and see how that works out.

A Rise in Kidney Stones Is Seen in U.S. Children - This really gets me upset - my ramblings

I was reading the news today, and I saw this article in the NY Times titled A Rise in Kidney Stones is Seen in U.S. Children and I was astonished! But, I wasn't at the same time. I have been to my daughter's school and I have seen the food that the students eat. I have watched people in the grocery check out lines, and I see what they buy for their family. In fact, I used to buy that stuff too. The article states that children around the age of 10 years old are getting kidney stones, a problem usually afflicted on older generations, because they are eating too many salty processed foods and not drinking enough water.

When I gave birth to my daughter, I decided to raise her to be healthy and as a vegetarian (not knowing later that we would switch to raw vegan) and at the time, I didn't know how to prepare any food. When my daughter was a year old, I went to college and we shared a dorm. All of our meals were prepared for us, which meant that I never had to learn how to prepare food. I spoke with other mothers at my college, and maybe 1 or 2 out of the MANY that I knew actually knew how to prepare a meal. I mean a real meal, not Betty Crocker in a box. Luckily, for me, while I was in college I met my husband, who can make anything, but not everyone is that lucky. Most of the women I knew from college are now married and have children, and they buy them Betty Crocker in a box, or Hamburger Helper, because they know how to make it. When I talk about raw food, or even healthy food, they always say that they don't even know how to make real mashed potatoes! I think this is where we are failing. Somewhere along the line, parents stopped teaching their children how to make food, and schools stopped teaching students how to make food. Now everyone thinks that meals come from a box. It's difficult to make homemade meals these days! It's hard just to find the ingredients in the grocery store.

So these poor kids are eating processed food, but what about their drinks? I have actually seen with my own eyes, a mother give soda to an infant in a baby bottle. I have seen it, and it was in my family! People actually believe that drinks like Gatorade are good for them on a daily basis. Even water is flavored these days. A friend of mine has a flavored water filter in her sink! I think right now it is cherry flavored. If people could drink more real, fresh water, they would be more able to flush out the toxins that are put in their bodies from food.
In the process of making meals in a box, the manufacturers need to make processed food taste good. This means adding more salt, preservatives, and other nasties. The consumer buys their products, and eat them for each meal, 24/7 and wonder why they get sick! I feel bad for these children with the kidney stones, unless they can see beyond these boxes, they may live their entire lives in misery.

I'm no saint either, I still feed my daughter vegan food. This week I bought her soy dogs. I had told myself that I would not buy her anymore processed soy foods, but sometimes they are just easier. She also eats whole wheat bread, which is full of sugar and other yucky ingredients. I realize that I have to work on things in my own home, and I am proud that my family has come so far as we have. My husband is 100% raw, I am working on becoming 100% raw, and my daughter is about 60% raw. This is so much better than we used to be. We used to eat pretty much nothing but cheese, pasta, and soy products. My husband has lost a ton of weight, my daughter used to be overweight and is now "normal", and I am in the process of losing weight.

Even if people do not embrace raw food, I truly believe that the dynamics of American health will greatly improve if parents learn how to make food homemade, and if people just began drinking more water.

30 day exercise challenge

Hi! It's a great day! Except for the fact that I have no heat in my house and I GAINED weight! That's right, gained weight. I now weigh 270. I can't believe it, I've been so diligent. But, I am not going to let it get me down, instead I am going to start a new challenge for myself. I realize it will be difficult to work on two challenges at once, but I think I can do it. With the support of my family and friends, and everyone online, I know it will work.

My new challenge is to work out 30 minutes a day for 30 days. I want to see if this will speed up my weight loss (I don't doubt it). It's getting pretty cold out, and I can't handle cold weather, so I will have to do all of my work outs indoors. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do, but I plan to do some yoga, aerobics, and strength training. Not much strength training, but just enough to firm myself a bit each day. My husband has been wanting to do more strength training, so maybe I can convince him to join me on this challenge. Maybe Rawdawg Rory can do a 30 day strength training challenge! I dare him! (I know he will be reading this). SO I will keep you posted on how I do this challenge. Maybe if I am feeling outrageous, I will post pics!

Today I day 1 of the 30 days. I plan to start with some stretches, yoga, and then some aerobics. Hopefully by the time I am done, I will enjoy exercising, but I can't promise anything.

Feeling good and close encounters

I feel pretty good today. I got on the scale today and it said 267.0! I decided to go to the bathroom and then see what it would say (I get so giddy over this stuff) when I weighed myself again it said 268.4! What!?! I hate scales sometimes. It's okay though, I know I am losing weight and feeling great.

For breakfast today I just had a banana, since I wasn't that hungry. For lunch I made myself a collard wrap with diced tomatoes and seasonings as the "meat". It was really yummy. I also had a green smoothie. I always feel so much better with green smoothies. In fact, I think that is how I lost the 30 something lbs to begin with.

It's Halloween season! Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love to see all of the costumes and the haunted houses. If I had more money, I would buy an old barn and really spook it out for Halloween. When I was going to college, there was an old barn on campus that someone had actually died in. That place was spooky! It was also on an old Indian Reservation. Once, at night Rory and I were out very very late walking around and we heard some creepy noises about 20 ft away from us. There was nothing there at all, but we definitely heard it.

Another time I was really creeped out was about 5 years ago at Devil's Den in Gettysburg, PA. I went there at around 1a.m. with a friend of mine and we were hanging out on top of the rocks talking about all of life's b.s. when this glowing light started slowly coming toward us. It moved really slow, and you could tell that it was coming closer, but the light wasn't getting any brighter or larger. My friend called out to it, but there was no response. It could not have been a flashlight, because no one could have walked where it was. My friend freaked out, and jumped off of the rocks. Those rocks are pretty high, so it was a very dangerous jump for him. I was pretty freaked out too, but I took the safer path and rushed my way down the normal path. We jumped into the car and drove away pretty quickly. Now when I see all of those "ghosts of Gettysburg" books out there, I don't just snicker at them, I feel like there may be some truth behind all of that tourism propaganda.

Single Nonvoter Tipped Election

I just HAD to share this video with you. It's super funny!

Rainy day blues

This is going to be a very short post today. I lost a pound since yesterday! So now I am at 268 lbs. It's a terribly rainy day and I am sleepy and still feeling cranky. I will probably take a nap and wake up just in time to catch tonight's episodes of Rawkathon.



You know, I took this pic to show just how miserable I am, but now I see that my face actually looks a lot thinner!

I'm cranky

I finally gave in and looked at the scale today. Good news and bad news. The good news is, I didn't gain any weight. The bad news is, I didn't lose any weight. It's okay though, I am just happy that I don't have to work anything off.
Today was pretty difficult for me because it was shopping day. Usually I love shopping day, because we go to so many fun places to get our food. Today though, I was just hungry, and cranky, and I couldn't wait for it to be over. My daughter and I often by ourselves a couple stuffed grape leaves, but I couldn't this time, so that was pretty depressing. Instead I ate a banana. Bananas are good, but not as good as stuffed grape leaves. If I HAD bought the grape leaves, I would be writing a post about how bad I felt for messing up again. Instead, I didn't eat them, so I don't feel bad. I would say I feel great, but I feel kinda annoyed...at everything. My husband is making a smoothie, so the Vitamix is going and going, and it's so irritating. I think I am still getting used to being 100% and maybe tomorrow I will feel better. Besides, it's the weekend!
My daughter is not 100% raw, but I try to give her about 70-80%. Tonight for dinner she had toast, one had Rory's raw unchicken salad, one had diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning and olive oil, and one had carrots with salad seasoning and hemp oil. I looked really healthy, and very tasty. She loved every bit of it. Rory said that it was a good transitory food, but I just thought it looked YUM. Of course, I didn't eat any of the toast. My daughter loved it, and says she wants to eat it all the time. Honestly though, I don't want her having so much bread, but now I have another healthy meal for her.

Day 5

Well, it's Thursday, and I am scared to look at the scale since I ate poorly on Tuesday. For breakfast today I enjoyed another apple cinnamon "cereal" with buckwheat. I shared some with my daughter too, and she loved it. She asked if we could eat it every morning! I may get tired of it, but luckily we could easily change the flavor by adding different spices, fruit, or seeds. For lunch I enjoyed a green smoothie and a tomato. It's nearly 6pm and I am starving. My husband is making an unchicken salad wrap for dinner. When it is finished, I will take a picture of it and share it with you.
I had this song in my head all day today. Now it will be in yours. Teehee! Enjoy!



Here is the pic of the unchicken salad wraps I promised. They were so freakin good!

My first failure was my first success!

"We may not have control over how long we will live, but we do have control over how well we live" ~Nomi Shannon
Last night was a night of revelations and a night of falling off the wagon for me. Yes, I did it, I cheated, but I decided not to beat myself up about it and just continue with my raw food experiment unscathed.

On our way to the Halloween party that my daughter and I were invited to, I kept telling myself that I would not eat anything there unless it was raw. I committed myself to this. When we walked in, the first sight to be seen was an enormous Halloween decorated table covered from end to end in baked goods, snacks, and other things I shouldn't even be looking at. It was excruciating.

This was a party for my daughter's Brownie troop, which she just recently joined. I had only met about 2 or 3 of the other parents so far, and none of them were at the party. I am usually pretty quiet, so while I was trying to find my "in" to the conversations, my stupid f*%@ing eyeballs kept forcing themselves in the direction of the annoyingly delicious food on the table. I wanted to scream! Instead, I went outside, sat in the car and played with my cellphone. Eventually, once I was feeling more composed, I decided to chance another try at socializing. Well, as soon as I walked in the door and that junk food covered table was in front of me, staring me in the face, I broke down. My right arm involuntarily reached out for a plate, but my left arm pulled it back. The right arm forcefully twisted the left and shoved it quickly into my tight left pocket. The right arm, no longer under my control of course, picked up a plate and placed it in front of me. Then it continued by placing various foods on the plate, including but not limited to popcorn, pretzels, and chips.

In the middle of this dramatic struggle, one of the women I had befriended once before arrived at the party. We began talking and I mentioned that I felt so horrible about eating the foods on my plate, but that I just couldn't help myself. She said that if I was going to eat them, then I should enjoy them. She explained that by expressing negative feelings toward the food, it pretty much destines the food to go to all the wrong places on my body. At that point I decided that her words of wisdom were just that, very wise. My right hand gently let my now sweaty left hand out of my left pocket and we enjoyed the rest of the party.

Now, don't get me wrong, I won't be ending my raw food experiment here. I knew I was going to make at least one mistake in the beginning and I am actually happy that I did. Now that I know that I do not HAVE to eat a certain way, I am more likely to actually eat that way.

Later last night I watched Nomi Shannon on Rawkathon with my husband. Nomi helped me to clear the air of any more guilt residue that I had from the Halloween party. She stated, "It's only your food, it's not your religion...it's what you do most of the time that counts". So maybe I wasn't 100% raw yesterday, but that doesn't mean that I won't be today!


This is a picture of my daughter, Isabel, in her Halloween costume for her party.

Day 3, very very early

It's the very very early morning of day 3. You would not even believe how much weight I have lost in just these past 2 days (today doesn't count since it hasn't started yet. I now weight 270.4 lbs! It's amazing. My Wii Fit says that I am losing weight too fast, but my husband says that my weight loss will slow down and that my body is adjusting to the lack of cooked fats. Whatever works!

I've been really hungry and craving things that I don't normally even eat. I haven't had dairy products since I can remember, but I am craving a burrito from taco bell! I am eating constantly, but maybe not the right foods for me.Luckily I somehow scheduled the start of my raw food experiment with the first day of the Rawkathon, which is a "free 7 day, worldwide online living food event". Amazing stuff really. This event is helping me stay inspired. The first night I listened to Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com and he said that he was a type O blood type, and therefore he needed more protein. I had an epiphany! I am also a type O blood type, and I definitely do not eat enough protein, which may be why I could never stick with the raw diet before. I would always say "I'm hungry, I need something heavier", and then I would end up eating something cooked. My husband says that I should drink more green smoothies, eat more bee pollen, hemp protein. He had tons of ideas for protein, but honestly I don't remember all of them. When I ask him later I will be sure to carry an notebook and pen. I think that knowing this information will really help me this time around.

Last night on Rawkathon, I watched David Wolfe go insane! He was talking faster than a teenager with juicy gossip! I could barely keep up, but the stuff he was saying was so inspirational. He says that we need to get into the flow and the things that we want will just start appearing in our lives. We need to write it down and have goals, realistic goals, and the universe will just start making them appear for us. A lot of the stuff he said was reminiscent of the movie, The Secret, but he said it so much better.

I also watched Dr. Graham which I found so inspiring. He raises his daughter as a raw vegan on the 80 10 10 diet. My daughter always says she wants to be 100% raw, but in practice she can only really eat 2 raw meals a day. Of course, I didn't start her on a raw diet until she was 8. Dr. Graham and his wife started their daughter from birth. They say that when she was only 2 year old but has the mental capacity of a 3 year old and that her health is excellent! I wish I had them for parents!

Anyway, that's all I have for this very very early morning. Here is a pic of the lunch I had yesturday. It was sliced avocadoes, diced tomatoes, lime juice, dulse flakes, and pepper. It tasted really good and took care of my savory food craving.

first morning thoughts

I just woke up and was looking at the news when I found this article called 5 things I learned from Jilian Micheals and she talks about weight loss, NOT being about willpower. She says "Losing weight is not about willpower--it's about moments of bravado, like the moment when you ask your waiter to take the bread away from the table right away." Wow! I guess I don't have willpower. When I go to a restuarant, I love those little freebies! I really need to be stronger if I am ever going to make it to my weight loss goal. Micheals also says that she pours candle wax from the dining table onto her food to prevent from eating it. That's hard core! Maybe I should stop worrying about how long I slaved over the meal and I don't want it wasted and start thinking about how I am wasted my own LIFE making sure I eat every bite.

So anyway, today is day 1! YAY! For breakfast I am having some raw cereal - buckwheat (soaked and dehydrated), sliced bananas, raisins, and apples in a bowl with almond milk. It should be tasty.

My secret

Tomorrow is day 1 of my challenge. I decided to start before the holiday mini challenge just so that I can get a head start. The longer, the better...right? I am sure that sometime in the beginning I will fall off the wagon, I just hope that I can get myself right back up again. Today I spent most of my time thinking about all of the foods I will NOT be eating the next few months. My husband says I should concentrate on all the new foods that I WILL be eating starting tomorrow. Easy for him to say, he hasn't had any cooked food since...I can't remember when, actually.

Okay, well I wanted to divulge my biggest secret in this post, just to let you know where I stand in the world. I weigh 275 lbs at this moment. That's actually a good weight for me compared to what I was just 2 months ago. at that point I started incorporating more raw into my diet and reached 275lbs from 306lbs. That was a major achievement for me because my entire life I was never able to lose any weight, no matter what diet or exercise program I was on. If I was exercising a lot and getting my sweat on, I would stay the same weight and never lose a pound. But, if I was not exercising, even if I was dieting, I would always gain weight. I was never able to actually lose weight until I started eating raw foods. Plus, I am not even exercising! I know, I should be, but I just don't. My weight loss goal for tomorrow until December 24th (the day the mini challenge ends) is 20 pounds. That gives me 67 days to lose 20 lbs, which is about .3 lbs a day. Are you excited? I am a little nervous.
I hope you come along for the journey with me, I could definitely use the support! And leave comments as well, so that I know you're out there supporting me.

Why a blog?

This is the most recent pic of me that I could find. I hate getting my picture taken, but on this day I had no choice.


This is actually my first post...ever. After watching my husband lose so much weight and becoming so healthy, I decided to take action myself and become much more dedicated to the raw food lifestyle. I have been eating raw food for quite awhile, but never like my husband, Rory, has. He ONLY eats raw food, I ONLY eat it when I feel like it.

I didn't always look like this, it all started in college with the "up all night" junk food binges and continued afterwards because I became ADDICTED to unhealthy food. About this time 2 years ago, I decided that I was going to change my life. I have almost always been vegetarian, but that didn't always mean eating healthy. I ate a lot of cheeses and fast food. My husband became a raw foodist quite awhile ago, and I enjoy the foods he eats very much, but I never went 100%, probably not even 50%. So I decided I was going to try harder with a healthier diet and exercise, but it wasn't until now that I got the motivation.

So starting next week, on Sunday October 19 I will finally start working on what I wanted to start 2 years ago. I need a lot of motivation though, which is why I am doing this blog - for community support. I signed up for Rawfu but have not received any response from Bunny yet about joining for the holiday mini challenge, which runs from Nov. 15th-Dec. 24th. It's been about a week since I signed up, and she says she would get back within 24 hours, so I will give it another week and maybe try again.

I remember in high school a good friend of mine got an old vitamin bottle, took the label off and created her own beautiful label for it that read "WILLPOWER" and told me to "take some" when ever I needed it. Of course there was nothing in the bottle, but every time I looked at it, I had the strength I needed to succeed. Hopefully I can muster up some of that strength now.