Two Month Progress Pictures

Ok, so I took my two month progress pictures and I am not posting them. I lost 6 pounds this month, down to 185. I am a little, correction, a lot, disappointed with my numbers and pictures. I don't seem to look any smaller. If anything, I think I look bigger! So a big dissapointment for me. I think I lost all my weight in my head. I have this small head and then a huge body. I need to add in some exercise too. I am so upset about this. I really wanted a nice difference. So I am not posting pictures until I can see a difference. Otherwise it is just too depressing and it makes me feel like I am not making any progress.

Yesterday felt like Christmas here. A friend of mine did raw for a month in the spring and then went back to SAD foods. She had a bunch of raw foods in her house that she was not going to use so she brought them over here. I got a whole bag of almonds that were bought back when raw almonds were still raw almonds. Yippee!! Also I bought her raw cocoa. I am a chocolate lover big time so I was very anxious to make something chocolatey. So I made a chocolate banana smoothie. I followed the directions and added 3 Tbsp to my smoothie which consisted of 3 bananas and a little agave and water. WOW! It sure was chocolatey. The only problem is that after I drank it I got an annoying headache and felt really spacey. I just wanted to crawl in bed. I felt like I had been drugged. I still feel spacey now, the next day. So next time I will cut back on the amount I use, regardless of what they say. I guess I am not in danger of using all my cocoa powder too soon! That would be an expensive habit to start. I really don't like the way I feel, still, after having that. Weird thing is I have had raw cocoa before in dessets and never had a problem. It was probably just to much all at once. Lesson learned! Next time I won't follow the directions! LOL!

That's not Meat and a contaminated Christmas party

Sorry I have not posted in awhile. I keep meaning too and then just get too busy to do it. I have been trying to work on my book too when I have a few moments to myself.

Last night we had a family Christmas party to attend and I just have to write about it. My Memere (grandmother) was making meat pies for everyone (traditionl French meal) and my Aunt had asked that everyone else just bring a dish to share. Originally I had planned on bringing a salad, but opted to bring a veggie platter instead. I made a really yummy dip using cashews, lemon juice, water and a lot of spices. I was so happy about how well it came out! I also brought a SAD ranch dip. Well when we got there I got my platter all arranged and set out the dips. I put the SAD dip in the veggie platter center holder thing because it fit and my yummy raw dip was in a container that was too big to fit in the little hole. So I placed my dip beside the tray. A couple minutes later my daughter tried to dip a SAD cracker into my raw dip! Eeek! Then my son and someone else tried to dip their chip into it!!! Augh!! Contamination! I managed to fend them off and then promptly grabbed up my dip and took it away where it would not be contaminated! I felt bad because I wanted everyone to try it, but not if it meant that all of their SAD crumbs would end up in my raw dip. Next time I will bring two containers and put one out for them to contaminate all they want, and save the other one for me!

Also while we were at the party my family was helping me prepare a plate of food for my daughter. I told them, no meat. She is not all raw but I put my foot down firmly in the meat area. No meat. Period. Well my sister tried giving her some appetizer that had crab meat in it and I said "no she can't have that." My sister says "why not?" "Because it's meat" I say. "No it's not" she says. Then later my father tried to give her some shrimp. I walked upon the scene as he was handing it out for her to take (she's only 3). I said "She can't have that, she doesn't eat meat." My Dad says, "It's not meat, it's shrimp." So I guess that according to my family seafood is not meat. I'm not sure what it is then!

Other than that we had a good time at the party. One of my Aunts brought a fruit tray, so between that and my veggie platter I did not feel hungry, and had plenty to eat I had meant to bring along some date balls but forgot to make them before we left. But it turns out I didn't need them and did just fine.

So I guess that is all for now. I need to get back to my book!

Winter Wonderland

Hello,
This morning I woke up to this:

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's cold!!! My husband spent over an hour this morning snow blowing us out! It is so pretty to look at, but not a lot of fun to drive in. When the weather gets like this, I don't drive. I have a hard time driving in the snow.

I didn't end up making the nori rolls again last night. I just had an avocado with some lemon juice and sea salt and dill. Quite yummy. So simple, and so good. I just love raw foods!

Nori Rolls

Here is a picture of my supper from a couple nights ago. Yes it tasted as good as it looks, and yes I ate the whole thing. Every last yummy bite. It occured to me after I ate it all that I should have asked my hubby if he wanted to try it. Ooops!
The nori rolls were made with shredded carrots, shredded spinach and sliced avocadoes. The dipping sauce was made from about 1 Tbsp mac/cashew butter, a couple squirts of Braggs, a splash of water and a pinch of red pepper. I actually put a spoonful of the sauce on top of the nori rolls before eating them. It was so good I think I'll have some more tonight. This time, I'll share!

Pancakes

Hello everyone,

Last night I decided to make Maraw's (Anna's) pancakes to have for breakfast this morning. Well let me tell you I was pretty excited as everything I have made of hers has been amazing. When I tasted the "batter" I couldn't believe how good it was and how much it actually tasted like pancakes. So I was pretty excited to try them this morning. Here they are. They were incredibly yummy! Maraw, if you see this, thank you so much! You are amazing!

A Rawsome Salad

Oh yummy! I had the best salad the other day so I made it again last night this time adding tomatoes and it was even better! So so good! Here it is:

I sliced up some mushrooms and marinated them for 2 hours, then dehydrated them for about 2 hours. My salad was spinach, romaine, an avocado, 1/2 chopped tomato, and the mushrooms with a simple dressing of apple cider vinegar, agave, olive oil, and nama shoyu. It was unbelievable! This actually reminded me of a salad I used to enjoy before I went raw. It was served at Denny's years ago and I don't know why this salad reminded me of it but it did. It was their fried chicken salad and I would eat it slathered in ranch. Anyways this salad was yummy and delicious and I will definately make it again. If you try it please let me know if you enjoy it too!

One month raw progress pictures

Ok so here I am at my one month progress update. I weighed myself this morning and I lost 14 pounds. I am down from 205 to 191. I know I should be very happy, and I am. I just don't really see a lot of imporvement in my pictures. Maybe next month there will be more of a difference. Anyways the jumper I am wearing in the second photo I could not fit into last month. It is too tight right now but I wanted to wear it so that hopefully next month we can see how much better it is fitting. At least I can zip it up now, which is an improvement over last month, so even though I can't see a lot of changes I know something is going on. My husband says that he can tell I have lost weight so that is a good thing.






So there you have it. It is embarring posting these pictures. But I really want to see my progress on this raw journey and hopefully, next month, the pictures will look a lot better.

Thanksgiving

I made it through my first ever raw Thanksgiving. There's something to be thankful for! Here is my Thanksgiving menu:

For breakfast I had pineapple/orange juice and two persimmons.

Mid-morning snack was frozen cranberry salad. This came out really good and tasted a lot like the traditional SAD version I was trying to imitate.

Also for a snack was marinated stuffed mushrooms. These were so, so, so good. I had a few left over so I can pop them back in the dehydrator for supper tonight. These were stuffed with Maraw's corn nut dressing which is excellent!

Ok, main meal was steak mushrooms, corn nut dressing, and spinach salad with cranberry dressing. This was very good and very satisfying.

I am quite pleased that I was able to go through this major holiday and stay raw. I even resisted my homemade crescent rolls which are my favorites. A huge benefit to eating raw was I did not need to lay down and relax to give my body a break so I could digest all the food I had consumed. I felt great. Everything was very tasty. I am very happy to have done this!

Dessert was the pumpkin pie and date sqaures. The pumpkin pie was so delicious. I made the crust using pecans and a little bit of vanilla and it just complimented the pie so nicely. Even my husband said that it tasted good, which is huge! I just have to say that everything that I have ever made of Maraw's has been delicious! The date squares were very sweet and satisfying. This was a perfect ending to a woderful raw day!

I also made a sweet potato soup that ended up going down the sink. I soaked the potatoes all night like I had read but they were still starchy and the soup did not taste good. I am glad that I had not depended on that as a main part of my meal!

All in all it was a great day. We played games and did crafts with the children, watched the parade and a little football, read through our Thankful jar and just had a wonderful time enjoying our family, which is really what Thanksgiving is all about.

Pumpkin Pie

Here is my first ever attempt at a raw pumpkin pie. I think it came out very good!

I used Anna's (Maraw's) recipe from her wonderful magazine Purely Delicious.
I had some filling leftover so I will probably eat that later on.

So now I have made both of my desserts for tomorrow. I am going to start my stuffing in a little bit. I will try to post pictures of all the food as soon as it is made and ready to go. Or when I get a chance. Which will probably be after I eat it!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Date Squares

Every year in the past I have made the traditional SAD date square. This year since I am doing a raw Thanksgiving I decided to try making a raw version. So here it is. It came out quite yummy. Next time I am going to use brazil nuts for the crust instead of macs because I think brazil nuts have a buttery flavor.

I never measure anything when I create things but I'll try to post the basic concept later today. Sorry the picture is so blurry.

potlucks

We had a church potluck today and it was a doozy. It was all lasagne, pasta and spaghetti with lots of yummy looking desserts and breads. A raw foodists nightmare! I had wilty salad.
I have been doing good lately. I finally made a raw cheesecake and I am so glad I did. It was really good. I made a blueberry sauce to go over it and it come out very yummy. Thats what I need to take to these potlucks. Then I won't feel so deprived.
I made some carrot juice yesterday and put it into canning jars so it would be easy for me to drink some before church this morning but it had this white stuff in it and I don't know what it was so I had to dump it all out. I was so dissapointed. What a waste.

Stinky Raw

Last night my husband told me that I smelled like I was detoxing. He is not a raw food eater so it was an interesting comment. I have noticed the last couple days a metal taste in my mouth. Maybe that is what caused it. This is a down fall of raw for me. Because my husband is not raw we sometimes have smell issues. Usually it is me smelling what he ate, so the tables have been turned.
Tomorrow we are heading down to the in-laws for supper. That should be interesting. They are making lasagne so I will bring a salad, some grapes and apples and some kind of raw dessert for me to eat. Our almost 3 year old does not eat meat so I will bring a salad big enough for her, or something else for her to eat.
Guess that's all for tonight.

Today's the day

So this is the first day of my blog. I am hoping that by writing in here I can document my journey and be more accountable in my choices.
I first went raw back in '05 and lost a lot of weight. I have never looked or felt better. It wasn't just that I was thinner. My skin glowed. I felt radiant. I have the pictures to prove it too. We went through a very tough year involving moving, loss of job and income, fixing up a home, personal losses, ect. and through all of that mess I stopped eating raw and gave in to stress eating and gained back all the weight I had lost. So this is a new beginning for me. I have been raw for two weeks now.

I will be posting my monthly success in the form of pictures. This is something I didn't do last time I lost the weight that I wish I had done. My before picture is so awful that I don't even want to post it. I will wait until I have a one month update and post them side by side. Maybe that is a cop out, but it is what I feel comfortable with.

I titled this today's the day because so many times we put off what needs to be done until another day. Today is the day to take back your health and start a new lease on life by eating raw and living foods. I have never felt better in my life than when I was 100% raw. What a wonderful gift to give yourself.