Getting Better

We went out again last night for a jog. This time I was able to go the enitre three miles again without stopping. I was so happy about that. It was still a lot harder and we jogged slower than before but at least I can do it again. I wanted to go out on Sunday but my whole body was just way too sore to be able to do it. I had to rest. We plan to go out again tonight. We might do the hill tonight to try to build our leg strength back up. I'm not sure yet. I am so glad that my hubby got the pool this year. It is wonderful to get back from a jog all hot and sweaty and jump in the pool. What a reward!!!
Yesterday I ate about 7 bananas. That is all I really wanted. I cut them up and mixed in some agave, macadamia nut butter and raw cocao and it was sucha treat. Yum!

It's been awhile

Hello!

Wow, it has been a long time since I have blogged. If anyone is actually reading this (which I very often doubt) I am very sorry. So much has happened. I will do a quick recap.
#1 We did our very first 5K on June 14th. It was suppossed to be on July 4th but we found one sonner and since we were ready for it we decided to go for it. It was so much fun and such an amazing sense of accomplishment to be able to jog the whole way, and not be the last ones to cross the finish line!!! That was cool. I finished in 36:30 and my big helper finished in 34:58. Not bad!
#2 Two days after the run my hubby left for a 2 week business trip. We can not go out jogging when he is gone. It was so hard.
#3 Then my computer went out and we didn't have any internet service. Or phone. For about 1 week. What a pain that was.
#4 I ended up eating some SAD food, was not able to jog and went on a downward spiral. It was a mess and I am just now coming out of it. Not being able to jog made it harder for me to stay raw. Jogging really was a motivating factor for me because I knew that if I didn't eat raw, jogging would be harder. I loved the feeling that I had when I went out jogging, strong and capable, and I knew that raw helped to that end.
#5 So today I got back on track with eating raw. I also went for a jog after 4 weeks of not jogging and 3 weeks of binging on SAD. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. I did not feel strong and capable. I felt heavy, lathargic, fat, and exhausted. My whole body ached and I could only jog for 1 mile before I had to stop and walk. All said, I think I jogged a total of 2 miles or so and walked (gasping for breath and wishing that I were back home) for the remaining mile. It was so discouraging to have come from doing so well to this. I almost cried. Ugg! Our next 5K is on July 26th. We signed up for three runs this summer and I want to do another one at the end of August as well. I am glad that I have already paid to do this next 5K or my downward spiral would continue. So anyways I am pressing on. I hope to be able to jog the full three miles again before the 5K in two weeks.
On an interesting side note, my little helper bounced back to jogging much easier than I did today. She jogged the whole way, albeit much slower than before. She is not raw. I think that my problem was compounded by the fact that not only had I stopped jogging for 4 weeks but I stopped eating raw. So my body was like "What are you DOING??!!" I felt like I was back in high school being forced to do timed runs and failing miserably while feeling like a total failure. It was really awful. I know that eating raw helps me to meet my goals of wanting to be strong and be able to one day run in a marathon. I honestly don't kow how ANYONE can run on SAD. I can't. So, if I want to run, and I do, then I have to eat raw. There is no other way!
I will post more on our progress later.

Sorry for the Absence

Everything is going great here with eating raw and jogging. I have learned how important it is to have a partner to go out jogging with. One day I went out without my big helper and boy was it harder. Having her with me helps so much it is just amazing. We really encourage and push each other to try harder and do our best. The other day I mapped out a four mile course to try jogging and on Saturday night we set out to do our longest jog to date. The goal was to jog the entire 4 miles without stopping. As we came to the end of 2 miles and tured around I began to question my sanity. What was I thinking? I talked myself into keeping it up through three miles since I knew that I could do at least that much. As soon as we turned the corner which marked the completion of three miles and one left to go my legs all of the sudden got so heavy. It was like they were saying "hold up there, we did three miles, that's it, I'm done!" I think our bodies get accustomed to what we ask of them and don't want to do any more. We both pushed through that last mile and were very happy to have jogged for 4 miles without stopping. I want to try to do that more often if possible and keep upping the ante, so to speak, to go further and jog faster. June is going to be tough because my husband will be traveling a lot on business so I won't be able to go out to jog. We are going to have to take turns onthe treadmill which I do not like because it sort of skips and it's just not nearly as nice jogging on a treadmill in the basement as jogging on our lovely raod in the fresh air. I've got to figure something out though. I don't want to lose what we have accomplished.
Eating has been great. I am mostly enjoying fruits and salads and smoothies. Geting fresh greens from the CSA has been delightful and yummy. I love this time of year when everything comes alive and the weather is warmer. I am still anxiously awaiting June when the delicious local strawberries will be ready to pick. Yumm! They are so good! I have lost a total of 26.5 pounds in the 6 weeks since recommiting myself to raw foods and taking up jogging. I am very excited about that and looking forward to being able to fit into some more of my clothes in the next month or two.

Oops I did it again!

..............jogged the whole three miles that is! Woooohooooooooooooo!!!! Iam just so thrilled about this. It felt so good to be able to jog the whole way without stopping again. We we even able to pick up our speed a bit, it didn't take as long to accomplish the jog, and it wasn't as hard as it was last time. It was pretty cool. I felt like I had to jog the whole way again tonight. I felt like if I didn't then the fact that I did it before would be some sort of fluke or something, like it was just luck. I really think jogging the hill helped quite a bit so I want to try to do that once a week. It made the other hills along the three miles easier to manage. It is really just an amazing feeling and I am quite proud of myself for being able to do it again. And my big helper, I am immensly proud of her, beyond what words can express!!

It is so cool how my exercising affects my eating. I don't want to eat SAD garbage because I know that it will affect my jogging. It's a really weird thing for me. I am so happy with what I have been able to do so far that I don't want anything to mess it up. It's like, I don't want to eat that BP&J because then I may not be able to jog as well, ect.

Ok, I promise that I will post some pictures soon. I have lots of yummy food pictures to post, I will do it soon! Right now I am tired and that is all for now.

Amazing news!!!!

I am so excited right now that I can hardly conatin myself! Yesterday we went out for our usual jog. As I said in my last blog post we added an extra mile to the entire distance bringing it up to just about 3.2 miles. Last night we went out for our customary jog. Since I had already jogged a full mile I wanted to at least go that far. Once we had gotten to the end of the road I decided to turn the corner and head up the hill jogging to see how far I could go. When I got up the hill I figured I might as well continue down the hill as well and then there was a nice straight-away for the next half mile so I kept on going. Once we got to the mile and a half turnaround I was pretty spent and really ready to stop, so I asked my big helper if she was ready to take a break but she said she wanted to keep going so I (reluctantly) followed along and kept on jogging. By the time we got back to the hill we were so close to the two mile mark that I pushed really hard and we made it the full two miles jogging without stopping! I even kept going a little wasy further until we came to another big hill and that was all she wrote. The last mile we jogged and walked, doing more jogging than walking. This is just so incredible for me I can't even explain it. I could never run a whole mile before, not even when I was in high school and we had to run a timed mile. I could never go the whole distance without stopping and I was a good 40-50 pounds lighter then than I am now. After we jogged the first two miles I felt like breaking out in praise and worshop songs, I was just so elated! This was a huge milestone for me. So tonight we went out for our jog again and I was hoping to be able to go at least the first two miles again without stopping. My ankles hurt really bad and I wasn't comfortable jogging for at least the first half mile. I really wanted to stop after the first mile was gone but I kept on going to the one and a half mile marker and then I really wanted to stop but once again my big helper said she wasn't tired and kept going so I followed along. We made it to the end of two miles and kept on going. I jokingly called out to my big helper and asked her if she was trying to go all the way to which she replied yes and told me I could stop if I wanted to. Well I'd come this far, might as well push through to the end. I am so very, VERY happy to report that we jogged the ENTIRE three miles without stopping once. This is so incredible and amazing for me and I am so proud of my big helper and how well she is doing too. Tomorrow we are going to take a break from the three mile distance run and do some hills to try and build up our leg strength. Right now I am tired and sore and happy!

I have a confession to make

OK, here goes...are you ready for it..... I am addicted...to oranges! Phew, I feel better now that I got that off my chest. I can't get enough of their juicy delicious orange goodness. I could just eat them all day long. Oh, they are so yummy.

The other day I made some really amazing dip that I am calling Green Goodness dip. I originally intended to use it to dip baby carrots and cut up cukes in but I still had some fresh greens from my wonderful CSA farm so I added a bit more vinegar to the dip and Voila! salad dressing. It was really good!

Last night we upped our jog. I added a little over 1/2 mile one way so our total round trip is just about 3.2 miles. Perfect for getting ready for the 5K. I was able to jog almost the whole entire first mile!! I am so please with this. It is really amazing how much progress we have made in such a short amount of time. By going further last night we both ended up jogging about two miles total, maybe more. I am so excited about this! I can feel it getting easier each time I go out and I am able to go up some of the hills now too. I am not nearly so out of breath and wheezy and gaspy afterwards either. Yippee!!!

Tomorrow I am getting my case of oranges in. They better be tasty! The co-op lady said that they were sweet like candy so if a SAD food eater thinks they are sweet I'm sure I will too. I am a very big orange snob though. I only like certain ones. I will keep you posted!

Have a great raw day everyone.

Ramblings

Hello,

I know it's been awhile since I have posted, but I am still staying on track. I had to work through some stuff last week that I found rather interesting so I thought I would share it here.

I had some very bad cravings last week. It was really cold here and the weather really affected me. I wanted some nice warm soup and bread. I struggled very badly through Tues, Wed, and Thurs. to the point where I finally told my husband that I felt like I was doing raw against my will. I know that sounds kind of odd huh? What I meant is that I know that raw works for me and it makes me feel great. I lose weight and feel alive and healthy. But it can be so hard. Sometimes I feel trapped by my food choices, or rather by what I choose not to eat. It is sort of hard to explain but in essence I was having a hard time last week and literally took it one day at a time, complimenting myself on each day I made it through. I am not the kind of person that can just have a little cooked stuff. One bite sends me over the edge and I eat everything! I wish I had the self control as some of you who can eat some SAD and then jump right back into raw. I can't do that and end up having a series of "last suppers" before getting back under control, usually a month later. So anyways I really struggled through Tues, Wed, and Thurs and just had an awful hard time with it. Then I woke up Friday morning and it was gone. There was no more battling or struggle. I was happy on raw again and didn't want to eat SAD! Yippee! I am happy to have made it over that hurdle which will only fuel me through the next one and with each obstacle I overcome I will be better equipped to handle the next.

Another interesting thing I noticed, my husband told me that he needs to go on a business trip in June. He will be gone for a total of three weeks. Originally it was just two weeks, but now it has been bumped up. When he told me I was very upset. All I wanted to do was eat something. Pizza, chips, ice cream, whatever. I wanted to stuff my sadness in food. Then I started planning in my head all the food I would make and eat while he was gone. Mind you, this was not a good list like mangoes, avocadoes, raw crackers, but rather a bad food list. I stood there literally battling within myself for ten minutes before I came out of it, and thankfully I didn't eat anything bad for me. I am obviously a very emotional eater and I still think I will have a hard time while he is away. I would much rather focus on what I can do fun with the childern while he is away and get some exercise too. That also is one of the (many) reasons that I was upset. While he is gone I can not go out jogging at all and I want to be able to do that 5K on the 4th of July. So I need to figure how I can get ready for that with him being gone. Any recomendations would be highly appreciated!

Also I did a lot of browsing this past week at other raw sites. While looking at Heidi and Justins blog at http://rawfoodrightnow.blogspot.com/ I decided to research some local CSA's and found a super little farm. I am so excited about getting fresh produce this summer from them. We went out there this morning to check it out and they are so amazing! They are growing a huge variety of food and are trying to be as self sustaining as possible. I left with a strong desire to get a greenhouse and a bag of salad greens which I am presently enjoying. I want to look into greenhouses more. It would be so amazing to be able to grow food year round and not have to buy it from the store. They even had an avocado tree! It takes 9 years for them to produce fruit but once they start they produce a lot! That would just be so amazing. I also found a co-op locally that I ordered a case of oranges through. It was a really good deal, 56 oranges for $29.00. I will get those on Friday.

So, I guess that is all. I am off now to research greenhouses!
Have a great raw day.

Rain, rain go away

It is raining here today. For some reason the rain always makes me feel like baking. I posted earlier that the weather, now that it is getting warmer and nicer, was helping me to want to stay raw. In the same way this rain is bringing me down. It is very cold today. It was raining last night too so we were unable to go for our walk/jog. Looks like we will miss tonight too, which is very upsetting to me. I really look forward to our walk/jogs and they help me stay motivated too. I shall have to try to get some T-Tapping done today, I've got to do something. I am having some weird food cravings lately too and looking at SAD foods going, hmmmm, that looks sooo good right now. I am still raw and pushing through. I'm not sure what I am in the mood for. I marinated some mushroom caps over night and now I am dehydrating them for supper tonight. I'll make some filling for them later. I also just made myself a raw chocolate shake for breakfast which is quite yummy. So I am doing ok, I just need to make it through this spell and remember why I am doing this. I want that wonderful raw feeling back, the living, loving, happy to be alive feeling that I had before. So rain, rain go away, you are getting me down and making me crave things that are not good for me!!!
Also rain, dogs, wet dog smell, eeewwww! nough said.

ahhhh....food

I made it! A seven day juice fast. It always feels so weird to eat after doing a fast for any length of time. I felt like I was betraying myself when I had a juicy orange for breakfast this morning. It was yummy though. I need to get back on track with the daily breathing and T-Tapping. The weekend slipped by and I didn't do either one. I did manage to get out for a walk/jog yesterday with my big helper and that was a good workout. So, I will cut this short and do some aerobic breathing while the baby is sleeping and the children are enjoying the beautiful weather we are having right now.

I'm almost done

Hello all!

I am still going strong. Sorry I haven't posted for a couple days. I am still doing my juice fast, so don't worry! Today is day 6! I have just been so busy these last couple days. I am trying to get in a lot more exercise. I have found myself with a bit of a "The Biggest Loser" mentality of exercise, exercise, exercise. So I have been doing the areobic breathing exercises with Greer Childers. Also incorporating T-Tapp. And now I have added walking/jogging into the routine.

Yesterday I did not get any breathing or T-Tapping done, but I did take the children on a trip down the road. Actually it was a trip UP the road as we have a HUGE hill right down the road. I had two choices as to where I could take them, either towards the river, which is a longer walk but easier, or towards the horses, closer but much harder. I was not sure if our three year old would be able to make it all the way to the river and I wanted to see how well she could do walking because I would like to start taking them hiking now that the weather is nice. I didn't want to bring the stroller because if I did she would not have even tried walking very far but would have immediately wanted to use the stroller. So I choose to take the shorter, harder trip. I strapped the baby onto the front of me in her baby carrier and away we went to go look at the horses. They happen to reside right at the top of the very large hill. The children all did very good, but I ended up carrying our three year old up most of the hill. She was walking really weird and I found out when we got home that her shoes were too small for her and hurting her feet! Poor girl. She did a good job though and, given the correct shoes, I think she will do very well on our first hiking expedition. The children were rewarded at the end of their long trek up the big hill by being allowed to feed the horses some carrots, so they had a good time.

Last night, after my husband came home I was able to go for a walk/jog. I have a goal of being in good enough shape by the 4th of July to be able to do the 5K road race that is held nearby. Our oldest daughter, who is 11, wants to do it with me, so we headed off together to walk/run for two miles. We started out walking a bit, then we would jog for awhile, then walk again and then jog some more. It was actually quite humorous as I was afraid of pushing her too far, but in the end I told her to go ahead and keep jogging if she wanted to because I was holding her back! I was still wheezing and trying to catch my breath two hours later. At first the jogging was ok but by the time we were halfway through I felt like my legs were concrete and I was jogging through thick wet cement. It was really bad. Here's to hoping I will improve. I have always admired runners and I have always wanted to participate in a run. This is very good motivation for me and having my big helper along made the whole thing a lot more enjoyable and made me want to do better for her.

So that's it. The fast is going great and even though I hurt so much from my exercising, I feel really good about it and want to be able to do more. I want to be strong!

still going strong

Hello!

I am still at it! I didn't get a chance to post anything yesterday but I have persevered. I did part of the T-Tapp level two yesterday. I didn't make it all the way through but did at least 15 minutes. Those T-Tapp DVD's are really tough. Wow! My legs are very sore, but it is a good sore you know? It feels good to be doing something again!
The fast is going very well. I have been very faithful to it. Even when my husband brought home ice cream! Augh! I just made up some delicious freshly juiced orange juice and I was fine. Last night I had some grape/apple juice. It was really good. When I took the grapes out to start juicing them they looked so good, they were nice and firm (I am a grape snob!) that I almost popped one in my mouth! Good thing I caught myself in time. The juice was very good. Usually during the day I am drinking carrot/apple, and then at night I will make a "dessert" juice as a treat for staying on the fast all day.
I am feeling more like I can succeed this time. It might be the weather. It is finally starting to warm up here and I can actually see grass in our front yard. Winters are so tough. I really do enjoy eating raw though. I feel so alive and vibrant. Even when I indulge in a delicious raw dessert I don't get that full, heavy feeling. I just feel fresh and clean. It is very hard to explain.
So today my goal is to do the breathing exercises again. Yesterday just slipped away and I never got a chance to do those. Part of the problem yesterday was that little baby girl never slept for more than 5 minutes at a time yesterday. I also hope to do the T-Tapp basic workout plus. Now I'm off to make some carrot juice!

Ouch!

Oh, my arms are so sore and tired right now that I am having a hard time typing. This will be a short post. I need to go lay down!

So yesterday went well with the fast. I also managed to do the T-Tapp basic workout plus hoedowns. I didn't get a chance to do the aerobic breathing. Hubby went shopping and got me some more carrots to juice and also some grapes and apples and oranges and pineapple. So I should be set on that for a few days.

Earlier today I made several batches of carrot/apple juice and put it in the fridge so it will be handy later when I need it. I did the aerobic breathing this morning. It is very hard to concentrate on it with the children around because they like to do it too which is so funny! I can not do it with my husband around though, it is just too ridiculous! Then, just now, I did the T-Tapp beginner/rehab tape which is so hard. I got through the arms and hoedowns and that was all she wrote. I'm pooped! The children all wanted to do it with me and that was pretty humorous as well. They actually kept asking me when we were going to do it! It is good for them to have some outlet for all their energy since it is still too muddy for them to go play outside.

Ok, that's it. I need to go lay down. My arms are so sore. Doing well on my fast and exercise goals. I'll post more later.

IBM has a good idea

Hello all!

I have been inspired of late by IBM's new motto. Stop Talking, Start Doing. Good idea. Their commercials are hilarious by the way. It got me thinking though. I have been talking, not always aloud but definately internally, a lot about how I want to be an all raw vegan, with no slip ups. I want to get back to how I was three yars ago when I was all raw for five months. I want to get in shape and exercise because I want to go hiking and run in a marathon. I keep talking, but I haven't started doing. I keep derailing myself and making excuses. Well no more excuses. It is time for me to stop talking and start doing!
I was on and off raw all last week. My husband was away on business and I used that as an excuse to eat bad. Yesterday I succeeded in staying all raw by clinging to my new motto. Today begins day one of a juice fast. I am not sure how long I will be fasting for. At least a week. I need to seriously detox and break this addiction to sugar and flour that I have. I am also trying to remember what I did last time that made me so successful. I need to research again and remember all the reasons for eating raw focusing promarily on health and not weight loss.
It has been hinted to me that perhaps I am a bit extreme. Well, maybe I am. But this is the only thing that works for me and I have to do what works. It is time for me to be the good example to my children by making healthy choices. In times of weakness instead of grabbing food, I need to grab onto the only One who can really help me and get into my Bible and pray for quidance and help.
So anyways that is where I am at. I plan on posting daily here about what I eat (or drink while fasting) and exercises done. I have T-Tapp DVD's that need to get dusted off and used again! Also I will be incorporating Greer Childers breathing exercises as well. So here goes! I am off to T-Tapp! I'll post more later.

I'm Back

I am back (again!) I have been trying to get back on track again. Today is day four. I am working through some issues and trying to maintain control. So often we stuff food in our faces instead of dealing with our issues. I have this image in my head of how I look but when I see myself in the mirror it doesn't match that image in my head. That can be very depressing which tends to make me want to eat bad stuff which just makes me look worse and it is this vicious cycle that I am trying to get out of. It doesn't help that I am surrounded by SAD food all the time and literally when I have a weak moment everything is right there at my disposal so I have to have extremely high will power to not just eat something. Also none of my clothes fit me so I never look good and I have boxes of clothes in my basement that USED to fit me when I was raw for 5 months a couple years ago and lost so much weight. I don't want to buy new clothes because that would be like saying that I am ok at this weight, and I am not.

"Green" Day

In honor of St. Patty's day we tried to have a green day today. Not so hard to do when you are a raw vegan! We had grapes for breakfast (alas, they were red!) and deliciously yummy green smoothies for lunch. They were so simple but really tasty. I put in pineapples, spinach, frozen bananas, and fresh bananas, and a little agave. Very, very good! Then for supper I made the traditional Irish fare of boiled dinner for the SAD eating members of my family and for us rawies I made fetuccine alfredo. Now let me just state right here that I usually do not go for raw recipes that are suppossed to imitate their SAD counterparts. I would rather like it for what it is and not be comparing it to the SAD version because usually there just is no comparisson no matter how much we kid ourselves! I mean, raw pizza will never imitate SAD pizza. With this being said, I made the BEST alfredo ever, SAD or raw, it was so good!!!! I used a recipe I found on http://www.goneraw.com/. I had to use some cashews for the macs but it was mostly macs. I tweaked it a little and added in a little nama shoyu and some nutritional yeast and extra spices. I also used my secret weapon. Oh! It was so creamy and rich and well, just incredible. Ok nough said, here's the picture!

We also had a very nice salad to go with it but I didn't want the salad to take up room on my plate where I could have that yummy alfredo instead!! It was very rich and very filling.
My big helper decided she wanted to be all raw with me today and of course my little golden boy was as well. No one (except me) stayed raw over the weekend as we had birthday parties (SAD cake) and the Clifford thing, but they jumped back in this morning with no problems.
Ok, that's all for now. I hope you enjoy the picture. It does not do justice to how great this dish tasted though!

Raw Birthday

So today is our oldest daughters 11th birthday. I just can't believe that she is 11 already. Where did the time go? She is so grown up! Anyways we have a tradition that on birthdays the special birthday person gets to pick out what they want to eat for the day. It actually started out with just dinner but has somehow evolved to them picking out all three meals. It can be pretty interesting depending on which child is having a birthday!

Our daughter decided she wanted an almost all raw birthday. Here are some pictures of our raw food!


For breakfast we had Maraw's pancakes with orange cream sauce and blueberry syrup. These were so good and very filling. All of the children loved them! I made a double batch and they ate them all!



For lunch she choose to have a salad with "steak mushrooms" and creamy dressing. This was a very filling and super yummy salad. I love adding the steak mushrooms to my salads. It makes them so tasty!


She choose to have a SAD vegetarian supper but she did want a raw cake and here it is! She choose the crumble apple strudel bundt cake from Living Cuisine by Renee Underkoffler. It doesn't look too pretty but it was quite tasty!

So here is the low down on the day. A couple of really cool raw things happened. I was a little hesitant about having her eat mostly raw today. I know that sounds weird but I wanted her to be able to eat what she wanted for her birthday. I didn't want her to have a meal that she didn't like on her special day. After she had the pancakes I asked her what she thought of them. She said that she really liked the pancakes and that she actually prefered them to regular SAD pancakes because they tasted better, made her fuller and were just so much healthier. Isn't that cute?! Needless to say I was very relieved to here that. I know she likes the "steak mushrooms" those are one of her favorite things. I was a bit worried about the cake. I had never made it before, but it came out very good and the children all liked it. So it was another good raw day. I even made a yummy smoothie for supper fom the leftover frosting that was still in the blender. I just added two bananas, a little water and some of the leftover blueberry sauce and TaDa! a Yummy smoothie for supper!

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures! My little golden boy stayed raw with me in the face of a very yummy looking vegetarian dinner. He said he wants to eat what I eat. He is so cute and sweet. I have been back on raw for a week now and I am very happy. I have a rough weekend coming up so pray that I do well, stay focused, handle the stress, and stay RAW, RAW, RAW!

A trip to the ER

Today my 6 year old golden boy cut his hand with a knife while chopping carrots up and we had to go to the ER and he needed 3 stitches. He was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BRAVE!!!!!! I was soooooooooooooo proud of him I can not even express it. He didn't even cry when they stuck a needle in him three times!!! and wiggled it around!!!!! to make his hand numb to put the stitches in! He was just amazing and the doctor and the nurse could not get over how great he was. They said that they have seen adults more wimpy than he was.

After we left the ER I was very tempted to just go through the drive thru and get some donuts. The children were hungry, we hadn't had supper and I was exhausted from being in the ER for so long. Right as we got there three ambulances pulled in and so we had to wait for so long. All of the children were so well behaved and I was so proud of them. I had some money so I could have gone and grabbed some donut holes for them. I DID have the foresight to pack some bananas and apples before we left for the hospital though. So when we left the hospital, like I said, it was late, past supper time and we were all hungry and tired and I really felt like caving for donuts. As we seatbelted in the children were all saying that they were hungry and I said do you want an apple or a banana? Now I said it as a question as if they had a choice of having an apple or banana or something else. It was sort of an open ended question if you know what I mean. And they all answered with either apple or banana as if there were no other options so they were all content with that and I said to myself, you know what, I need to be the good example here and if they are all very content with apples and bananas then I can be too. So we didn't get donuts and we had raw chocolate banana shakes when we got back here. So, ALL of us were 100% raw today. Pretty cool!

A Good Day!

Yesterday was so awesome! My children all one by one decided that they wanted to eat raw with me. All of them!!!!! So we had smoothies for breakfast, apple salad for a snack, and blueberry smoothies for lunch with apple pie for dessert. At first they were just going to eat raw during the day and then eat a regular vegetarian dinner. But my three youngest decided that they would rather have a salad with me instead and didn't eat the SAD meal I made for my husband. So four out of our six children (counting the baby who is nursing exclusively) were all raw all day yesterday and the other two were 75% raw. This is very good!!!! The really cool thing is that they all just decided on their own without any persuading from me. In fact I wanted to make it clear to them that they didn't have to eat raw and that if they wanted to have regular dinner they certainly could.

We have been all raw today as well. they want me to make raw burgers for supper but I don't have enough time to have those tonight so I'll start them for tomorrow to have. I think I will make nori rolls for supper tonight to give them a change from salad, even though they like it, it is nice to have more variety for them.

This weekend I don't expect them to stay raw. Friday is our oldest daughters birthday and she has requested raw pancakes from Maraw for breakfast and a raw apple cake from Living Cuisine by Renee Underkoffler. She is having a cooked vegetarian supper, but hey, not bad right? I don't want to push them, I want it to be their choice. I definately don't want them to have the food issues I have dealt with for so long! Then on Saturday we are going to a childrens event at a local college. We have gone the last two years and it is quite fun. They pick a character (this year it is Clifford the Big Red Dog) and that is their theme. They have coloring contests, cookie decorating, story time, movies, book sales and a person dressed up like their theme character to take pictures with. It is really fun and they have always enjoyed going. If they want to eat cookies I will not tell them no. Also we are going to the in-laws on Sunday to celebrate two of our childrens birthdays and they will eat whatever is there probably. If any of them stays raw through the weekend I will be very surprised (pleasantly!) Like I said though, I don't want to
push it on them and be legalistic about it. I am sure that after eating cookies and cake this weekend they will notice a difference in how they feel after eating mostly raw all week. They are very smart children. Even my meat loving son has declared to me that he only wants to eat raw, vegan and vegetarian. I thought that was cute! And this was all unprodded by me. I just tell them why I eat what I eat and let them figure things out themselves. Our oldest daughter said that after her birthday she thinks that she would like to eat all raw too. She is having her favorite SAD food for supper on her birthday and I don't think she wants to miss out on that!

So, things are going good here. It definately makes it easier on me to not be the only one raw and having them eat raw all day with me helps so much!! The pie I made yesterday came out really good and I just basically threw things in.

Ok, thats it now. I need to go start the burgers if we want to have them for supper tomorrow!

I made it!

Hello!

Today marks my second day being raw (again!) I am happy to have made it through. One thing that really helped me today was that our 6 year old son wanted to eat raw with me. He told me to make sure I remembered to feed him just "healthy raw" as he said. Too cute! So we both had a great raw day today. He especially wanted to have my homemade dressing. I am not sure if he will want to eat raw again tomorrow, but, one day at a time right? I even made it going out shopping which is usually a hard thing for me because of all the goodies, but I was good, and I really feel like my sweet little guy helped me through. I didn't want to let him down.
Here is what I ate today:
smoothie with bananas, pineapple, and stawberries
smoothie with bananas and pineapples
orange
salad (loaded with tomatoes, cukes, 1/2 avocado, sunflower seeds and homemade dressing with apple cider vinegar)
2 dates
a bowl of strawberries with coconut

Another good thing about my little guy eating raw with me is I didn't eat the whole avocado because we shared it. I bought a bunch of dates today. I want to make some goodies to help encourage all of the children to eat more raw. We are going back to fruit for breakfast too. That was a rule we used to have and now I am bringing it back. We have apples, bananas, oranges, and I can make smoothies. No more cereal!
That's all for now!

Starting over

Ok, I know that I have been gone for a really long time. I am sorry. I totally fell off the healthy raw way of eating and I just cold not face getting back on here and fessing up. But here I am. I have regained almost all (if not all, our scale is broke which may be a good thing) of the weight that I lost. I was doing so well too. I did a 7 day fast and got down to 175 and was able to fit into some new clothes. So I am upset with myself to say the least. But I need to just begin again and stop beating myself up.
The good news is that I am excited about eating raw again. I had gotten to the point where I felt trapped by raw food. It is very hard to be the only one in the house that eats 100% raw. The children do love to eat fruits and veggies, but they are not all raw, and of course my hubby eats SAD. So it is tough. But I just need to overcome my cravings and focus on being healthy while trying to get the family to eat as much healthy food as I can. Our oldest is now a vegetarian. My meat and potatoes husband agreed to go vegetarian for a month starting at the beginning of January and we are still pretty much adhering to that. The two times we have had meat with a meal my oldest daughter has not had any and she told me that she doesn't want to eat meat anymore!! :) Our three year old doesn't eat meat either. And our 6 year old son told me tonight that he wants to eat raw with me. I'm not sure if that will stick or not, but it made me happy and I told him that he certainly could. We need to buy some more fruit though!!
So anyways, I'm back. I will be updating. I apoligize for neglecting this so long. I am glad to be back on raw again.