I feel like a whole new person!

It's been 10 days that I've been 100% raw. Woohoo! I've lost 5.5 pounds and 3.5 inches in my waist in 10 days! I've also been drinking a lot more water, so much has changed for me this year!

Rory and I were watching a video by Freelea last week and she said that she drinks 1 1/2 - 2 Liters of water each morning. I said to Rory, "How could anyone drink so much at once? I can't even drink more than 1 cup without feeling bloated and sick." He told me that my bloatedness after such a small amount of water was not normal, and maybe I am chronically dehydrated. I rarely do drink much water, maybe 1 cup a day and sometimes less. I drink so much smoothie I barely think about water! We decided that I was going to start drinking a bunch of water each day. Starting out kinda small, we filled a 1.5 liter glass bottle of water and decided that I would start by drinking that each day. And I have! I actually do feel much better for it, except that I am going to the bathroom a lot. Rory thinks I am still adjusting to the sudden increase of water, and probably my bladder needs to grow as well. I'm sure in a few weeks I will feel normal again.

Another thing I've been doing different is I changed the way that I eat, completely. I've done this 100% thing before, but last time it was pure agony. I was always hungry, grumpy, tired, and craving cooked food. I seem to have low blood sugar, so when I am feeling hungry, I get really irritable. I would wake up in the morning and I had to cut up fruit and put it in a bowl with maybe some milk. It took time, and in that state of mind, I didn't have time. It really messed with me. It's always been easier for Rory because has has more options with raw food. I can't eat nuts and seeds, so everything I ate was different. So finally I would have my breakfast, but then a little bit later I was hungry again, so I did it all over again. When it was time to make food for my daughter, I was hungry and always ended up eating some of hers. I always felt like I was hungry on 100% raw food, and so I figured maybe it wasn't for me.

Oh, but it is! This time, I have done none of that. I don't have cravings, feel hungry, tired, or grumpy. I don't even want cooked food. In fact, the last time I even thought about it was when I decided to give up the food I was making for my daughter and just say no!

What I've been doing really isn't that amazing, or difficult, or anything. I pretty much wake up, grab a banana and some water. Then, about 1 hour later I am usually hungry again, so I either eat another banana or some other fruit. Around noonish I make a big blender full of green smoothie. I used to share it among my family and only have 1 glass, but now I am selfish and I drink the whole thing myself. This takes about 1 hour. I don't really feel hungry again until later in the evening, so then I make a big giant salad. I always liked salad, but I hate the same old salad. So I make different dressings, or I marinate something, whatever it takes to make it different. I eat a lot of salad, and usually Rory makes me some sort of yummy smoothie to go with it. This is really working for me. I just eat when I am hungry, stop when I am full. I have to eat much more often, but Rory says that I am going to boost my metabolism this way. Yay!



Of course, raw food has a reputation of giving a person a lot of extra energy. With all this extra energy, I've been exercising a lot more, and getting tons more done around the house.

Tonight Rory and I are going to a friends house for a raw dinner, with a special guest. I'm not sure who it is yet since it is a surprise, but I know that he lives in Britain and he is a raw foodie. He has a website, but my friend wouldn't tell me who it is so I can't relate it. When I find out, I will definitely post about it.

I hope that you are having a great weekend!

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!

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.

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.