WEEK 1 = SUCCESS

DIY is an acronym created just for me. I like to do it myself! But sometimes "IT" is beyond me and I need a little help. Like when it comes to motivation and know-how to make some HUGE changes in my diet and life. Last Monday (July 5th) I started a 21 day raw foods cleanse with the help of the great folks at The Garden Diet and actually made it through the first week without cheating! Err... Except for the compulsive trips to the bathroom scale, which I had banned myself from making... Excessive weigh-ins aside, I am feeling more in control of my food consumption, more in control of my entire life in general. Not to mention I've "let go" of four lbs. This cleanse is easy for a few reasons:

Each week is completely laid out for me, including daily menu, shopping list (for the week), recipes, support group forum (with an assigned pal to help motivate me and for me to motivate), weekly phone calls, email support, etc. The other big factor for me is that the food and recipes are yummy! What's not to love about apple pie for dinner? And finally, and I think the biggest reason I am succeeding, is that I can eat as much of any of the meals as I want. I am not going hungry.

I chose raw foods for two major reasons. I need/want to lose weight, and, I absolutely need/want to improve my health. It's no secret that whole foods are the most nutritionally balanced. Any time food is consumed in it's most whole, most natural state it will provide the very most nutrition per calorie. I guess what I'm getting at is that I wanted every calorie to count. Each time I open my mouth to eat something, I want that something to be helping me to feel better too. BUT...it has to taste good!

This is not my first ride in the raw foods rodeo. I've been researching the benefits and pitfalls of it for five years. There is a whole culture devoted to this lifestyle. Although I'm not really jazzed about being labeled a raw foodist (cuz I'm not really jazzed about wearing any type of label), after a week of feeling more energetic, experiencing more mental clarity, and yes, even some nasty detox symptoms, I'm thinking there is something to this raw foods business.

Stay tuned.

TO STRESS OR NOT TO STRESS...

I can't remember everything about my earliest years but I can remember worry. I have been a worrier from as far back as I can see. As a survivor of abuse (survivor sounds much better than victim) beginning at an early age, I think becoming a hyper-worrier (yes I made that word up) was one of my survival tactics. There is no good use for my hyper-worrying anymore, yet, I still worry incessantly! I worry that my kids will get really sick, or hurt, or sleep wrong and wake up with a kink in their necks, or die. I worry that my husband will have heart disease, or cancer, or a mid-life crises, or love his duck boat more than me. I worry the inside cats don't get enough fresh air and sunshine, or that the outside cats will fight with the neighbors' cats. I worry that all the windows and doors won't get locked at night, and then worry the house is too locked up to get out in case of a fire. I worry that I have health issues, and worry that my worrying will contribute to more health issues. I worry about my brothers, my sister, my parents, my cousins, my friends, my gray hairs, my weight, my height, my yard, my inability to stop worrying... See a pattern here?

They call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and for me, there is an emphasis on stress, stress, stress. From the moment I wake up, till the moment I finally fall asleep I am in a battle with myself to keep the worrying under control. Now indulge me while I toot my own horn a lil' bit... I HAVE made monumental improvements over the past 18 years! Life is the best it's ever been for me. But there are lasting effects, and my visit to Urgent Care last night was a not so subtle reminder that more improvement is needed. It's scary when your heart starts to beat out of rhythm, when you feel dizzy and short of breath! I've had these heart arrythmias for the past two years or so, but never like tonight, and I'm thinking it's time to take them seriously. So here's the short list of the current health issues I want to make progress on:

Fibromyalgia
Insomnia
Raynaud's Syndrome
Arrythmias
Anxiety
and of course I want to attain a healthy weight.

Is that too much to ask? Without worry, and stress, and physical illness, I wouldn't even be the same person. And yep, that worries me... Because what if nobody recognizes me? Or worse, what if nobody likes me?

I'd sit here and stew over those worries if I could, but I think I forgot to lock the bathroom window downstairs... Gotta go double check!

HOPING THINGS GO SMOOTHIE THIS WEEK

Yesterday day I started a quest to drink more green smoothies. My plan is to eat/drink only green smoothies all day until dinner. So what is a green smoothie? The big secret behind the green smoothie is that we (as in the partakers) are trying to consume as many green leafy plants as possible in a day, by masking the taste and bulk of them with fruit! I've learned a few good variations on the basic recipe, but my favorite goes like this...

4 cups fresh squeezed orange/pineapple juice (not pastuerized)
1 whole bunch greens of choice (spinach, kale, dandelion, lambsquarter, etc.)
1 ripe banana
handful of frozen berries

I place all ingredients in my Vitamix blender and blend till I get smooth-ie. Then enjoy!



For an absolutely amazing explanation of why leafy greens are beneficial to great health, I highly recommend reading Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko.

For a condensed video version of how beneficial greens are, and on how to make your own green smoothie click here.

"GROATMEAL"

One of my favorite new meals is groatmeal! I've never been able to stomach oatmeal in the mornings. I have a thing about textures, and slime, and memories of brothers dangling giant loogies over my head as I lay helplessly pinned to the ground. Groatmeal is not slimy, and it tastes so yummy!

To make groatmeal you will need to start by soaking raw oat groats overnight. Oat groats are simply the oat seed (grain) as it is, directly from the oat grass when it is harvested. It is what oatmeal looks like before it is cracked or rolled. If the groats are raw, since they are essentially a seed, they are still alive with all the nutrition and enzymes intact. That's what I'm going for in my food nowadays, since I am trying to help my whole body heal through proper nutrition. The soaking comes into play because I want the oats to taste good, to be soft and chewy, and most importantly, to have begun to release all their hidden nutrition. By soaking them overnight, I am basically sprouting them. Plants are at their highest nutritionally when they are newly sprouted. After soaking overnight, I place them in a colander/strainer and rinse them. Next I place fresh berries and/or cut up fruit into a big cereal bowl. I've tried raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwi, banana, etc. Why not mix it up a little?! I sprinkle the fruit with about 1 tbsp. of chia seeds (I'll talk more about chia seeds some other time) and then add about 1/4 cup sprouted oat groats. I drizzle the bowl with raw agave syrup, a little cinnamon, and top the whole thing with raw almond mylk.



Sometimes I garnish with sunflower seeds, nuts, or coconut flakes. Healthy and delicious!