Got a Little Groove Going On...

Well in the last week I have seen great days.. good days and a couple of not very healthy cooked meals...  one being a Pizza Hut pizza (no cheese) and apple pastries they sell for desserts (probably not Vegan). 

I do see myself doing progressively  better with much less desire for junk and more desire for the awesome salads I have been making but the desire for junk is still there.. it's just getting slowly crowded out a little at a time.  I have been being more kind to myself when I don't make great choices which is such a wonderful change.  One of the reasons I am still so overweight is undeniably because of my militant thinking.   For the last few years it was if I didn't do fabulous why bother.. and the entire day was seen as an excuse to just say fuck it and pig out.  I've not been doing that. 

I find myself actually fine with fruit till like 2pm..

 My kitchen table... lots of fruit for me every day till 2-3PM.

Then when I am hungry again a salad or veggie wrap with maybe some homemade Raw vegan nut/seed cheese or nuts in general.  I have been honoring my hunger and letting myself eat the higher fat Raw if I need.

Romaine wrap with carrot, raw portobello, red bell, onion and Raw vegan "sharp cheddar" cheese.

Apple, Romaine, Walnut, Celery and Grape

I have had several 100% Raw days but I have stopped writing stuff down.. I did that for YEARS and it has never helped me... if anything it helped contribute to my all or nothing thinking.


STAYING IMMERSED IN THE LIFESTYLE IS KEY FOR ME!
I'm flooding my consciousness with many videos a day on raw food healing and those by people who just have made it their lifestyle.  I am not taking anyone as a "Guru" and not falling for any dogma either.  I have been in and out of the Raw food lifestyle long enough to know many people think their way is the only way and to me.. any way I can eat much more Raw is a step in the right direction, PERIOD.
 
I am planning another juice fast, just not concrete on when but I will know when the time is right.  The hubs has even shown an interest in doing 3 or 4 days with me.  I have completed three juice fasts..  3 days.. 7 days and 10 days.  I am aiming for 14 days for my next.

GOALS MOVING FORWARD:
Planning my menus and making other Raw besides a good salad needs some work and that will be a goal for the next few weeks.  Right now I am keeping it fairly simple with fruit till 2 or 3 pm or so and then salads or romaine wraps with nuts and Raw cheese or heavier dehydrated foods like crackers and raw bars.  

I recently made chocolate, orange, macadamia nut bars that were pretty good but not great so I won't post the recipe yet.  I have been buying Lara Bars but like most Raw foodies I know I can make them much more affordably.  Here is a pix though:

THE SCALE:
OMG I have not had the desire to weigh!!  I don't know what has come over me!!!  I spent the LAST 10 YEARS WEIGHING EVERY DAMN DAY!  It's strange.  I obviously want to lose weight but that's moved to 3rd place in priority under MY health and MY husband's health. 

I do plan on weighing the morning I start my juice fast though.


VEGAN:
All of my meals have been Vegan except maybe the apple pastry dessert things I had... That's ok.  a ridiculously HUGE improvement over just a couple of months ago!

FAVE RAW MEAL THIS WEEK:


Pecan, Raw Brussels Sprouts salad with Maple Vinaigrette.!  BEST salad EVER!  I say that every time I come up with a new salad LOL!  

Three Dinner Size Portions:
One head of Romaine shredded, about 25 brussel sprouts cleaned and shredded in food processor, 1/2 cup soaked, dehydrated pecans, 1/2 cup onions of your choice it's really good with Vidalia onions if you can find them. And right before serving (so they don't turn brown) I chop 2 green apples. 

DRESSING: 1/3 C good quality maple syrup, 1/3 C Braggs apple cider vinegar and a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  I have been craving salt for some reason lately. I added a little pink Himalayan salt to the dressing also.. #RawFoodForTheWin !!


So that's it for now!  I'm feelin' fine.  Hope you are too.

MORE DETOX, Feeling More Loving and Great Salads

80% raw for 5 weeks now.. tons of fruit and totally Vegan except for one meal (cheese on veggie pizza lunch).

WEIGH IN:
I have not had the desire to get on the scale which is SO STRANGE!!  I used to live or die by that damned thing.  I think this change is because I am doing this for myself.. meaning it's just going to be what I do.. period.  I know for a fact my body will release weight so I am just letting it do what it wants to do.  I also don't want to turn this into a diet in any mindset.  This is so much more to me that just about getting into smaller jeans.  On that note though I do feel smaller and am into a smaller pair of jeans.  I have like (4) sizes of jeans so I won't need to actually buy any until I get under a size 14.  

DETOX:
Well I am having more detox.. today my sinus is really yucked up and draining and I have an ear ache and the lymph glands in my neck under my ear are swollen.  I also had a bad day of breast pain two days ago where on and off all day I had stabbing pain in one of my breasts.  I have fibroid cysts in my breasts and I am sure my body is working on that.

IMPROVEMENTS!!!
A few things that have improved..
My hip and back pain are almost totally gone unless I am just on my feet all day.  I also have much less nerve pain down the front of my thighs (self diagnosed siatica).  It's about 70% improved.  I KNOW as the weight is released it will totally go away.

My depression has lifted a bit.  I look in the mirror and don't absolutely hate what I see anymore.. I feel more loving toward myself.  I also have wanted to be outside a bit and just this past weekend we bought me a new chase to layout in for sun because I have been wanting to get outside more which is a true improvement in my mood... I have spent months not wanting to leave the house unless it was absolutely necessary and have totally let my back yard rose garden practically die.  I have a home based business so I never REALLY had to leave very often anyway.

I bought some herb seeds and seeds for greens (spinach, arugula, chard and kale!) and am slowly working on getting them potted up.

They say when you go high Raw you really get an interest in growing what you can yourself because of a closer draw toward nature.  I think I am starting to feel that.  I would love to some day have a huge, amazing veggie garden and this year we are planting an avocado and a mango tree.

Another improvement is that my skin feels SO SOFT!   It feels silky.  It's interesting.

FOOD:
Well I have been about 75% Raw.. usually raw till after 4 or so... and a few times a week a Raw dinner too.  I am working up to a higher percentage but not being militant about it.  I am having fruit in the AM.. a green smoothie here or there.. the other day I made a spinach, cacao, frozen organic cherry and hemp seed smoothie that the hubs really loved.

I am having SALADS very often..

I have always loved a good salad so this is fairly easy.

This particular salad above was for "Taco" night.. black beans, mango salsa, corn, spinach, avocado and my homemade Raw vegan "Sharp Cheddar" cheese I dehydrated for sprinkling on top.

Salad above again has my favorite (right now!) Raw vegan "Sharp Cheddar" cheese crumbles.. and I made the "Crazy Cracker Lady's" recipe of her BBQ chips.  (you can find this recipe several places  online.)  The chips were more like crackers but good.. my only complaint was they took like three days in my Excalibur to get crisp and chip-like at 115deg.  I am still getting used to planning ahead of time enough.

 Salad above was so good!  I had found truly raw, fresh peas at the store and decided to give them a try.. not bad especially with raw corn and avocado.  Pretty salad that made me smile.

Tonight I am making one with Napa cabbage, carrot ribbons, thin sliced red bell pepper, pineapple, jalapeno, black sesame seeds and purple onion.. it will be gorgeous.  I am making a balsamic, ginger, honey, lime and sesame oil dressing.

I am having the occasional Vegan dinner.. I love beans of all types and brown rice.. the other day I also made a huge baked potato filled with guacamole and topped with kale and sundried tomato I had sauteed in coconut oil, it was THE BOMB!!

Detox, No Drugs and Yummy Raw Pad Thai

DETOX:
Achy.. lethargic.. sinus still slammed with congestion.   I have a pretty constant sinus yuck and I even feel a tiny bit of heat like a little fever in my head.  I KNOW this is one of the ways my body has always detoxed.  I want to take a BC powder so bad... This has been my ache and pain drug of choice for years!  I'm a Southern girl and everyone in the South of my generation knows about BC powders. I would never go anywhere without BC in my purse.  All my friends and family would know I had one to the rescue for them at all times..  it's very hard for me to NOT use one when I know it will kick my sinus headache but I have educated myself and know that if I take it my body just has one more toxin I have to deal with... so I wont.

I also have the beginnings of itching all over.  Our skin is our largest organ and a high percentage of our detox happens through our skin.  I always start to itch when I'm not dry brushing enough... so that's on the agenda before my shower today.

One thing of GOOD note is my food yesterday.   Totally a raw day.  I had fruit and nuts all day till dinner.. so far I don't worry about food combining because I have a strong digestion.   I know as I detox and become more clean it will help with the continued deeper detox and weightloss, to combine my foods correctly and to do mono fruit meals.

My dinner last night was one of my all time favorite raw meals.. Pad Thai.  This is a gorgeous salad and sure to impress anyone you are trying to win over to Raw.

RAW PAD THAI (for 2 huge bowls):

3 Whole Carrots (not baby)
2 Summer Squash
1 Red Bell Pepper
2 Zuchinni
4 Green Onions
1 1/2 C Shredded  Napa Cabbage
1 Large Handful Bean Sprouts
1 C Fresh Cilantro
1 Half Lime sliced in wedges
1/2 C Jungle Peanuts
Pinch Red Pepper Flakes Sprinkled over each salad

Use a spiralizer or I just use a veggie peeler and make ribbons with the carrots and zuchinni.   I cut the rest of the veggies in as thin match stick pieces as I can (it makes for a beautiful  salad).

I shred the Napa cabbage as fine as I can too.

To assemble the salad try to layer each ingredient on top of the other so you can see a bit of the ingredient underneath..  see mine:

The dressing I made this time was different.  I made an almond butter, miso and ginger dressing that was INCREDIBLE! !

NUT BUTTER DRESSING (makes enough dressing for 3 salads..) Next time I am going to try to make less by a third.. somehow, because we ended up pouring it ALL on our salads.. totally drenching them because the dressing was so damn good.. but honestly I didn't need the extra calories LOL!

INGREDIENTS :
3/4 C Nut Butter of Choice (I used raw almond butter)
2 Oranges Juiced
2 T Chopped Fresh Ginger
1 Heaping Tablespoon Dark Miso Paste (IMO this is not an optional ingredient)
1 Heaping Tablespoon Raw Honey (or sweetener of choice if Vegan)
2 T Nama Shoyu  or Organic Tamari if going gluten free
Good Pinch of Salt
Good Pinch Red Pepper Flakes
2-4 T water as needed to thin.

Whirl it all in your blender or Bullet.  This stuff is amazing and I'm going to use this as my dipping sauce for Summer roll veggie wraps next week!

♡You're Welcome! !

Ta Ta for Now~

Staying Off The Scale, More Detox and Green Goddess Dressing

I'm one of those weird morning people and to top it off, I love Mondays!
I love the feeling of a brand new start however it might come.

I am going to do several 100% Raw days this week.

Yesterday was 100%

PLANNING:
I have the next 3 or 4 days planned and figured out ahead of time, menus written, the grocery shopping in and I am good to go!  I have found out that for me I have to stay two days ahead of myself.  Mostly for soaking nuts and seeds and for the occasional dehydrated cracker/bread.. etc.

Day before yesterday I sort of pigged out on Organic peanut butter. And chocolate! The hubs did too.

I got organic peanut butter to make dressing for my Raw Pad Thai that I am making this week and it is so tempting to have PB in the house!


DETOX:
I'm still having sinus yuck and headaches (although more mild) late day and this AM I woke up with totally yucked up sinus.  Thank goodness for a Neti Pot!

All this week I am off coffee.  I lately have only been having coffee on the weekends with the hubs.  I enjoy our time together in the mornings because we really don't get it during the week.

This past weekend I made cashew cream for us to have in our coffee.

Night before last I made vegan stuffed bell peppers with this package of vegan hamburger:

 It actually was really good! I will try my best to stay away from processed psudofood just because it's Vegan but I had to try this... it's also soy free.

I would love to one day never need to use anything processed but it's good for transitioning and IMO I did great an ate a vegan dinner and I really enjoyed it.

This is high raw with the occasional cooked vegan food.



FOOD YESTERDAY
Fruit bowl for breakfast
About 2PM I made a great salad for lunch:

I mixed some fresh mango and campari tomatoes (the only decent tomato that I can find here without a trip to Whole Foods) and *dried tart cherries, poured balsamic on it...  had some of my RAW Pesto Pinenut Parmesan on top. (recipe here: http://highrawweightloss.blogspot.com/2010/10/day-4-in-vault.html ).  I love that stuff! Have to make some more.  

Re; *Dried Tart Cherries.. I have been ordering Montmorency Tart Cherries for their amazing anti-inflammatory properties.

 I get them here:
http://www.brownwoodacres.com/unsweetened-dried-tart-cherries/


I also ate lots of dried rambutan with my salad..  I got it from RawFoodWorld.com but they seem to be out lately.  I feel like I eat too much dried fruit but I am not going to worry about that just yet.

I have been eating a smallish handfull of these every day in one way or another.  They are tart but not too sour.  I love them in my fruit salads in the AM or in a veggie salad... lately I have been putting some fruit in my salads at lunch too.

DINNER:

Was another Salad!  and it was really good.

I made homemade Raw Green Goddess Dressing.




RECIPE:



1/2 cup raw tahini, soaked raw cashews, soaked raw macadamia or combo (I had soaked cashews and mac nuts)
Juice from one large lemon
6 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
6 Tablespoons chives, chopped  
Whole package fresh dill    (1 C approx)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
Garlic powder to taste (I know raw garlic would be better but for now it's just too strong for me)
2 Tablespoons Nama Shoyu orTamari
2 Tablespoons raw Apple Cider Vinegar
10 green olives

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth and creamy.



 RE: this dressing..
It's very herbal obviously.  and salty.  I was craving this and it hit the spot.  Don't give it a try until you are ready for something REALLY GREEN!

My Dinner Salad:  (a before and after dressing addition to see all the colorful veggies!

 Salad had organic mixed baby greens, fresh orange, celery, red bell pepper, shredded carrot, Vidalia onion, avocado, cucumber, campari tomato, my raw Green Goddess dressing, hemp seed and pumpkin seeds.

Lastly:  STAYING OFF THE SCALE:




I have actually stayed off the scale!...  and I'm not going to get on it for another week. I think that will make it like three weeks without weighing.

It's not that I'm NOT worried about losing weight, obviously I am, but working on a Raw food lifestyle to me is about so much more.  Like loving myself enough to just doing something GOOD for myself and for my health, freeing the real spirit inside me and working on my health, my beauty and my LIFE. That's a lot more than just the fat on my body.  I know THAT will be released. I'm absolutely 100% sure that this lifestyle works.

Loving myself enough to take the time to prep and do menus and READ!  I have studied so much over the years and I have not even scratched the surface of what this lifestyle can offer.



More to come~