Easter Glut

Wow. Easter was awesome, and unfortunately my sister's cooking was fantastic, as usual. I did pig OUT!
But now I'm home and today I spent cleaning the house and cleansing myself. I just drank tea today. Allowing my gut to cleanse. I've only been hungry a couple times today and every time I feel that hunger sneaking up on me, I chant my mantra... "hungry is good!". And in all honesty, it does feel good to get hungry. Man, I was miserable from all the rich food I ate at Easter. I felt like I'd eaten lead. Today I feel perky and energetic, just from NOT eating. Sometimes it pays to do without for a day.

So tomorrow, it's a green smoothie for me. I'll make a blender full of that tomorrow morning and will work on it throughout the day, and nothing for dinner. Most of the weight I've lost was from cutting out night time eating. It's amazing how much weight it packs on, just eating at night.

Tomorrow, I look forward to the energy and feeling of general well being that my green smoothie provides. But I better go to the store! The fridge is a little bare. I'll get some baby greens and cerlery and throw it into the blender with the juice of a lemon, a couple of ripe "nanners", an apple or pear or two and that should do it. It'll be green, sweet and delicious. It truly is a magical food, the green smoothie. I learned about it from the book "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko. Such a great little book, and it has some really good recipes in it. I want to get her book "Raw Family". It tells the story of her family; how bad their health was years ago before they went onto the raw foods diet. Did you know her son was diagnosed with type A juvenile diabetes when he was little? The doctors said there is no cure for it, but after going raw, HE NO LONGER HAS IT. That is blindingly amazing to me. Goes to show you, it is allll about the nutrition, and there's no better nutrition than raw greens, vegetables and fruits. No better in this world.

So, what did everyone do for Easter? Didja glut like I did? LOL.  I hope not, but if you did, don't sweat it! Climb back up on your raw food horse and go for the gusto! Have that green smoothie! Eat that organic apple! Make that nice marinated broccolli and sun-dried tomato salad! Eat your greens! (or drink them, as the case may be). Feel better and get skinny people. That's my plan!

Well, I'm off to play Farmville. If you hear sheep bleating and cows mooing, it's just me. :)

New Laptop, New Body

OK. As of right this very minute, I have lost a total of 30 pounds (since I half-assed started my journey into raw foods about 6 months ago).

Honestly, I have not been nearly as faithful to raw food living as I want to be, but it is getting better every week. I figure within the year I should be completely raw foods... no cooked anything. I think that is a realistic goal for me. I am normally an all or nothing kind of person (those type A personalities usually are). But with this, I am trying to be patient with myself and not freak out about it not being "all or nothing" all at once.

Even though I sorta look the same to myself in the mirror, the clothes tell a different story. I can ill afford new clothes right now, but when I practically walked out of my size 16s last week, I figured it was time to get a couple pairs of britches, size 14. Now, only days later, I am already having to hike-up my new britches every few minutes it seems like. Well, I am not complaining, mind you, but I am kind of dazed and confused. I have always had a horrible problem losing weight. Now, I'm not even trying to lose weight and it is just falling off, simply because of WHAT I am eating, and what I am NOT eating, as apposed to how MUCH I am eating. It's a strange experience for me.

So along with the ever changing and shrinking new bod, I've got a new laptop. Sold my left arm and leg for it (practically) but it's nice. My old laptop died on me yesterday, and I nearly threw myself in the floor and had a pure fit. Since there was no one here but me to appreciate a good floor-rolling fit, I decided against it and went to Best Buys instead. No, I didn't throw a fit on their floor, I just paid out the nose for my new HP widescreen notebook. Thank GOD for laptops... I won't ever buy another full size PC again. And my new best friend? Why, it's my Logitech wireless mouse... what a coup that was! My friend Colleen gave it to me and it's the coolest thing since the internet.

Found a local raw food group here in little ol' Tallahassee! They are 35 strong and counting. I can't wait to get involved with some of their potlucks and meet them.

Great books on the raw lifestyle that I highly recommend: Beautiful On Raw, by Tonya Zavasta; Your Right To Be Beautiful, by Tonya Zavasta; and Green For Life, by Victoria Boutenko. These books have changed my life, and I am not kidding about that!

Well folks, short & sweet as usual. I've got to go to bed. Nighty night!

Vampires, Stomach Virus and BBQ

A lot of water has swooshed under the bridge since my last entry. I won't bore you with all the gory details, but suffice it to say, it's been a rush.

I was at work one night last week and was bored, so I decided to watch a movie on youtube. I ran across Twilight. I've never really wanted to see it because I thought it was mainly a bunch of greasy kid stuff for teenage girls. But I thought, what they hey, I don't have anything better to do, so I watched it.

DANG.IT.

It was pretty good. So good, in fact, that when I got off work at 0700, I made a Walmart run and bought the first two Twilight series books. I read them in two days. Then I found the other two books online. I read them in two days. They just got better and better. I checked out the New Moon movie today and watched it tonight with my two daughters. I felt like and old vampire, lurking among the video stores, waiting for the release of this teeny-bobber movie. It was embarrassing. But worth it...so, so worth it. The movie was pretty good. It had all three of us holding our breath and clenching the arms of our chairs.

Anyway, since I didn't sleep or hardly eat last week, I don't have a lot to report on the raw food diet. About all I did was read. I did eat a few salads because, as I discovered, if you go for so long without eating, nothing sounds good to you and nothing tastes right when you do eat. I ate mostly salads and a few fish sticks (hey, live like a kid, eat like a kid).

In the midst of all that midlife crisis, I got the stomach virus. Yep, just like that poor kid in the movie. It was AWFUL. I had a fruit & veggie smoothie that morning, but I just didn't feel quite right. I had gone over to Cheryll's that morning and she and I took the grandkids shopping. She asked me if I felt alright and I said "no, not really, but why do you ask?". She said "you are really pale and your lips are blue". I thought I was feeling crappy from detox, which you go through when you are first going over to raw foods. Nope, my lips only turn blue like that when I am sick. I got her to take me home, which was a darn good thing, because no sooner did I get home when the bottom fell out of my entire digestive system. It was like New Years Eve at Krakatoa. Sooo, it may be a very long time before I can stand the thought of another fruit and veggie smoothie. Since they are kind of the epicenter of a good raw food diet, this may slow me down a little. But I'm not going to go down without a fight.

I started out about 7 months ago weighing 225 lbs. I am now down to 199. I guess as long as I keep trying, it's going to gradually get easier and more fruitful...literally and figuratively. My family (Mom, Aunt, Dad, sisters, etc) don't really know what to make of it. They probably think I'm not wrapped tight. My Mom thinks I will "get me a boyfriend" (ohdearLordnonotthat) if I keep doing what I'm doing. Yeah. OK. Look Mom, don't mess up my good thing here by praying for me a boyfriend. I got it made! I am my own person, for the first time in my life, and I certainly am not giving that away! No, I like men. I really do. But I admit I do put them into that same category as cats. Lovely creatures, as long as they belong to someone else and not me.

Today it was salad and a grilled boca burger. My son-in-law is a sweetie, and a wiz on the grill, and he lightly grilled a burg and some asparagus for me, but he did it last, so I could pretty much taste the chicken fat on my food. I made a salad of baby greens (weeds, I call 'em) with chunks of apple, tomato, avocado and asparagus with a grilled Boca on top. It was pretty good. I am finding though that I will have to give up all grilled food sooner than I expected. Anything grilled messes with my stomach pretty bad. So, it's just as well. It'll get me that much closer to 100% raw food if I forego grilled or cooked anything. And I am giving up meat anyway, because it really is not good for you and can't do anything for your body that raw veggies and fruit can't do better. So it's not too much of a hardship. When you get my age (48) you usually have something that you can't eat because it doesn't agree with you. Meat is that to me.

Don't get me wrong. I could tunnel my way through a chocolate cake or pecan pie. I have a horrible sweet tooth. That is my hardship... sugar. I love it. But I am cutting it back. I tried going cold turkey off the sugar and it made me want to pull everyone's hair out. So I just have a little in my tea or coffee. (Yeah, I'm still drinking coffee, though not everyday anymore...which is a miracle in itself).

Well, that's all the blather for today. It was trivial, but nevertheless a part of the picture. Maybe next time I'll have broken some horses or mud wrestled or something else interesting I can work into my vegetable tales.
We'll see. ;)

First Blg Entry!

I figured it was time I jumped off this bridge and started a blog. I ain't gettin' any younger, that's for sure and certain.

I am planning on beginning a raw food lifestyle (vegan, of course) and I want to journal my progress here. I am actually looking forward to it, but I feel fairly certain it won't always be easy. It'll be worth it in the long run, and one day when I am 90 and I still have my walking-around-sense and my hair, I'll say "sonny, I sure am glad I started that raw food lifestyle back when I was a Fall chicken". I have been studying the raw food lifestyle for some months now and I feel it may be the answer to a miriad of health issues that I have.

So, here goes. Hang with me people. It may not always be fun, but it'll never be boring! :)