No more shying away from photos

I used to shy away from having my photo taken before I went raw. Since then I've made sure that we have an annual family photo session. I love to get photos taken by a professional so that the whole family can be in the picture. I'm the photographer in the family so usually I'm not in too many photos. It is so nice not to be concerned about my weight, seeing my face glowing when I get my photos back. How refreshing!

I'll include a few photos

I'll also post on my page as well...

Here's what the day looked like:

June 29th, 2009:
1 litre of water
Bowl of strawberries for breakfast
Cup of blueberry tea
HUGE salad for lunch, all picked frrresh from the garden! (various lettuce, and some chard)YUM, had it with my usual dressing - dang, said I wasn't going to be doing any sweeteners! Had half tablespoon of agave in that dressing...
Grawnola with hemp seed milk (1 tbsp. seed and one cup water)
Lara bar for dinner with
Celery and one tbsp. cashew butter and 2 tbsp. raisins
Lots of energy today, which was great.
Spent 40 min. sunning self while I read, half on front, half on back.
Did about 30 min. yard work as exercise.

Listening to the Raw Mom Summit again...such late nights! Good night!

Back Yard Edible Forest Garden begins!

Wow! What a day! Spent most of the day outside today. My weight stayed the same this week. Goals for week to come is to eat from garden more to save money, no sweeteners - honey, agave etc. less nuts/seeds. This has to be the answer to my weight loss, less fat! We were gifted a whole lot of plants from my brother-in-love. I cannot believe he's giving all of these to us! Three fig trees, mini kiwi tree, strawberry plants, wild cranberry plants, comfrey, and more that I cannot think of immediately. I am overwhelmed at their generosity! So he came to drop them off and ended up helping us prune two huge trees in our backyard...well he ended up in the trees for 8 hours! I also spent time thinning out our garden, as so many seeds sprouted there and we have many mini plants. I ate out of the garden all afternoon long...kale sprouts, some beet leaves, some lettuce, and some strawberries. I had woken up with a headache after eight hours of sleep so didn't actually eat anything until after noon. Water fasted all morning long and the headache was gone by noon. That's when the garden noshing began! Made a green smoothie later in the afternoon from blueberries, bananas, young kale leaves, and two apples. Shared that with the monkey in the tree! We were outside ALL day today and it was so energizing. I also went barefoot (unless it was dangerous - only about a half hour today) almost the entire day. That too was energizing. I LOVE my feet on the earth, it's so grounding! In more ways than one! This evening I ate a Lara bar and two of Bunny's brownies. Then I made a recipe of Storm Talifero's raw strawberry shortcake and ate two servings! It was SO good! The youtube video is here. Argh. Should have stayed outside out of the kitchen and in the garden! :) The trees look amazing and alive now, not dead wood all over. My dream of a backyard edible forest garden has begun. This has been something I wanted since we moved in here six years ago. The learning curve is steep, but I'm enjoying every barefoot step! This week is dedicated to turning our simple backyard into an amazing, whimsical edible forest garden...

Dancing while I clean!

Got through my father-in-love's birthday party tonight. My father-in-love and mother-in-love are very much SAD eaters and not too open to eating anything raw except some salad and will periodically try something I've made to be polite. They are resistant to my way of eating and scared crazy that I'll make my children eat this way consistently. They do undermine me with the treats and such and I find it very frustrating (they are part time caregivers while I work part time)...but we're working towards a better understanding for them about this way of life. SO, the dinner, my husband made, but I made a huge salad, as well as a raw dessert for those who would like to partake in a healthier eating experience. Here's what I ate today: June 27, 2009: Bunny Berry's raw brownie, (had two small squares) Lots of water Lots of tea - acai berry an apple HUGE salad for dinner - although I shared with the others! Three heads romaine lettuce two apples cut up 1/4 cup cashews 2 tbsp hemp seed 1 container of pea shoots with dressing: (from Brendan Brazier) 4 tbsp. Vega antioxidant oil 2 tbsp. agave 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp. stone ground mustard sea salt and pepper to taste. 2 more raw Bunny Berry Brownies! Yum! My kids were scrambling over each other to have more, lick the spatula, and everything. They kept asking to be my test tasters. Love it! My son especially liked it and he's not one for anything "raw", so very excited that he loved the recipe. Had a blast cleaning the kitchen floor today. Got our fuzzy socks on, got a bin of warm soapy water, soaked our socks and skated around the kitchen floor. The kids thought I'd gone off the deep end, but saw me smiling and we danced to "Blessed" by Brett Dennen while we cleaned that floor! Very uplifting song and experience!

More Raw Mom Summit and Natural Vision Improvement

I'm still listening to the Raw Mom Summit and my time here has been limited. I've forgotten to write down what I'm eating but will write what I ate here today.

Friday June 26

1.5 litres of water
Bowl of raspberries and strawberries for breakfast
Banana for snack
Another bowl of raspberries and strawberries for lunch (LOVE BERRY SEASON)
Bowl of grawnola with hemp seed milk (just hemp seed and water blended)
One avocado with sprinkle of sea salt for dinner
Most Amazing Shake Ever! 1 frozen banana, 1 banana, 2 dates, 2 tbsp. hemp seeds, 2 cups water (or a little less for thickness), 1tbsp. maca, 1tbsp. cacao. Blend and enjoy!

Exercise:

Something I have not been entering on here for exercise is house work. I think that when I'm sweating and doing the housework that I should enter it here, as I'm obviously burning calories. I've got to look up what kind of calories are burned by what types of housework.

Did 2 hours of cleaning today, felt like it so did it!

Ran around the playground and grass field chasing the kids all over the place! So much fun. I need to get back to exercise as Nature intended. Sweating it out in a gym does not appeal to me like it does for others. So one hour of running around with the family!

Off to hear more of the summit!

OH, forgot to mention that I went to a seminar last night on natural vision improvement! Amazing information! I am SO going to do this as I've got only a small prescription and have had since I was 17. I know that this information has come into my realm at this time because I'm ready to accept and use it! Take a look on the internet, about it...the possibilities are incredible!

I did the palming activities today and some eye massage. My eyes were very tired by the end of the day as I also didn't wear my glasses today. I had a short nap with the kids when they went to bed and this helped tremendously. When you think about it, with the invention of the light bulb, we no longer go to bed when it gets dark. Instead we use our eyes far longer than we did over a hundred years ago! We are also reading more than ever before with computers, books etc, than ever before. So, over worked eyes working overtime = tired eyes that need a break, not a crutch or a cast, like glasses. It all makes so much sense. The Bates method is the one that this practitioner uses. www.joythompson.com is her website, I suggest if you have glasses you check it out!

"If the rest of the body can heal when ill or injured, why not the eyes?"
- Wm. Bates, author of "Better Eyesight Without Glasses" and creator of the Bates Method of Natural Vision Improvement.

In health,

Melinda

Happy Father's Day and Happy First Day of SUMMER!

Wishing all the Dads out there a very happy and wonderful Father's Day. This last few days has been challenging! We've attended many functions and I've managed to stay 100% raw! I have not put a morsel of cooked food into my body for the entire duration of this experiment! It is really great for my self esteem as I tend to berate myself when I eat cooked, let alone some of the cooked food choices I was making before this group.

Here's What I've eaten this last couple of days:

Friday June 19th, 2009:

2 litres of water (8 cups)
pint of strawberries
2 apples
1 banana

Huge salad for lunch with raw dressing
Romaine lettuce
raspberries
apple

Snack - avocado with sprinkle of sea salt
Dinner - avocado in a salad of romaine lettuce with raw dressing
Snack - bowl of grawnola with cashew milk

Stopped eating at 7:15pm
No exercise today


Saturday June 20th, 2009:

1.5 litres of water (8 cups)

Raspberries and strawberries for breakfast - big bowl

Bowl of grawnola with cashew milk for lunch

Lots of veg and fruit at a kids' birthday party.

Green juice (YAY!):
pea shoots
alfalfa sprouts
black kale (whole bunch)
one cuke
three stalks of celery

Dinner: macadamia nut butter with hemp seed and raisins on celery

Snack: another bowl of grawnola (seems to be my go to food right now!)

Stopped eating at 8pm...latest I've eaten in a week!

No exercise today. :(


Sunday June 21st, 2009:

2 bananas for breakfast
fruit salad (raspberries, pineapple, watermelon, grapes, blackberries, on a bed of tossed organic greens with freshly squeezed oranges as dressing)
Also had some carrots on the side.

That was at the restaurant we went to for our brunch with the extended family. It is SOOOO tempting to want to eat so many of the items at a buffet. I think that was the most expensive salad I've ever eaten! :) I was able to enjoy what I ate even though I miss the other food I felt light and not overstuffed like the others, when we left. Even my kids were eating lots of fruit and not much of the other fillers. They did have dessert and some sweets, but nothing like what I've seen them eat before!

Snack: macadamia, hemp seed, celery combo again with a few raisins sprinkled in. (Loving this combo right now...)

Dinner: large salad - romaine, spinach, raw dressing, avocado and alfalfa sprouts

Snack: macadamia nut butter swirled with grawnola, and banana and a tbsp. honey.

Stopped eating at 8pm tonight. The weekends seem to be later for eating, will note that and try to end eating earlier in the day on the weekends. 7pm seems to work on weekdays for me, as hard as it is I don't get hungry until about 11pm or 11:30pm so then it's bedtime and there's no worry.

Great energy today (June 22nd)

Roller Coaster Days...

Woke late, feet hit the ground running today. No time for breakfast. Day off running errands, while kids at school in the a.m.

Thursday June 18, 2009:

6 cups water (1.5 litres)
Pint of strawberries as snack
Lunched on smoothie:
Blend together the following:
tbsp hemp seed
15 almonds
1.5 cups water
pint strawberries (with greens on - my daughter laughed thinking I'd forgotten to take them off...since reading Victoria Boutenko's suggestion to leave them on and add a little green to the drink, I do so)
1 date
1 banana

Dinner was simple due to many time factors:
6 stalks of celery
1tbsp hemp seed (aka aphids)
2 tbsp macadamia nut butter
1tbsp. raisins (aka ants)
Made ants and aphids on a log! Doesn't sound that appealing, will have to come up with some other name in the future!

Finished eating around 7:30pm as I wasn't at home before then to have anything.
No exercise again today...this must change as I don't think the scale has done much moving this week. Must also eat less nut/seeds.

Soaked and made cashew nut milk for tomorrow, pre-made my dressing for lunch, cut up some veg and pre-packed what I could for lunch tomorrow. Morning will be a lot smoother for sure!

Roller coaster of emotions today, been feeling a little off this last week, detox? Think that my T.O.M. is coming earlier/later? Haven't been keeping track, but if that's the case, no cramps or indicators that it's coming which is something new for me recently. Maybe my emotions today were due to mild PMS? Almost made a big purchase, tent trailer, but it fell through so that was stressful (at least that's how I reacted) but when it didn't happen I actually felt relieved after the initial disappointment. BUT the whole night all I wanted to do was eat, that's why I spent the whole night in the kitchen making stuff for tomorrow...keeping my hands busy!  I managed to get through the evening without eating and that feels good!

Here's to an amazing day tomorrow!

How's everyone else out there doing?

Store Wars Video

Wednesday June 17, 2009

2 litres of water
1 bowl of strawberries for breakfast
1 banana for snack in a.m.
1 Avocado mashed with dash of sea salt, on top of romaine lettuce (ate a whole head at lunch!) with pea shoots on top of that. Yum! I LOVE eating with my hands!
Snack - more avocado and pea shoots
Dinner: four pieces of nori, HUGE salad right from the garden that I am growing with my students at the school, YUM! and some grawnola with cashew milk.

Snack - banana cocao honey macadamia mixture. (emotional eating, not hungry this time but it sure tasted good.)

Finished eating at 7pm today. By stopping how late I eat, I've been feeling much better in the mornings. I do need more sleep though as I've really been sleeping in later than usual. Going to bed at 1am up around 7am. I know I'd feel much better with more sleep. Goals for next week starting to solidify in my brain.

By the time I figured out I hadn't had a juice today it was much too late to ingest anything. Juicing, although I LOVE it when I'm drinking it, I just don't make the time for it like I should be!

Entertain yourselves with this one!  I've never tried to embed before so hope this works!

Here's a humorous video about organic farming with Star Wars themed foods!

Raw Food Rehab

Two weeks ago I joined up with Penni Shelton from Real Food Tulsa.  She's running an experiment with a bunch of us who signed up to be guinea pigs.  We eat as well as we can, talking, blogging, experimenting and listening to her ideas on diet, exercise and well-being.  I lost 5 pounds the first week and none the second.  Hope to tweak a few things for this week.  One is to do a food journal and see where I may need some improvements.  I'm also trying to stop eating earlier in the evening...as I was eating pretty late before and would wake not feeling so great.  So I finish eating between 7pm and 8pm.

Here's what the first three days this week look like:

Sunday June 14th:

2.5 Litres of water (10 cups)
Hulk apple sauce (three apples, small bunch parsley, tbsp. Vitamineral Green
2 bananas
Green Juice (parsley, kale, romaine, mixed baby greens, cuke, lemon
Chocolate Pudding: 1 avo, 1 banana, 1tbsp agave, 1tbsp cocao
Stopped eating at 6:45pm
Exercise: 8 km walk

Monday June 15:

Water - 2 litres or 8 cups
2 strawberries, 1 banana, 1 apple
Huge Salad - apple, half cuke, greens and Vega dressing (4 tbsp vega antioxidant oil, 2 tbsp agave, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, sea salt and pepper to taste).
Chocolate pudding leftovers
half cuke
Exercise - none today :(
Stopped eating at 6:45pm

Tuesday June 16:

1.5 litres of water
Lime Lara bar
Grawnola with maca powder, macadamia nut butter, lucuma powder and 1tbsp. honey
Raw chocolate ice cream
4 sheets of raw nori
Yikes, not my usual day but was fiddling with recipes today and ended up eating more than I should have. Very dense foods, but energy level was high today!
Stopped eating at 7pm
Exersice: 20 min. walk

Carrotmob is coming to Portland Oregon if you're there this week.

http://carrotmob.org/

Kevin Gianni and Annemarie are also there speaking this week, on Thursday:

 http://rawmatrix.net/events/

Matt and Angela (Mangela) hold their wedding in S. Oregon (it's the week to be in Oregon, isn't it?!) this is the link for more info:  Raw Union

If you can get there it'll be amazing.  My work schedule could not accommodate my travel plans there but get there if you can!  Drop by and see Kevin and Annemarie on the way!

Eat Raw, Live Well!

Melinda

Getting the message out

Getting the message out to a larger audience is not as easy as I thought it would be.  Here I am, having read over 50 books on the topic, taken the Creative Health Institute's home study course, completed the Raw Food Nutrition 1 Course, completed a raw food chef course as well as having taken numerous courses and been on many informative calls on the internet.  Because I am not a registered dietician I cannot speak at a local rec centre about health and raw food nutrition.

SO, it's about doing this myself.  I keep thinking it'll get easier but have yet to experience that when it comes to getting the word out about raw and living foods.  Of course I speak to my students, parents, community, etc. about these things but more people need to know about this way of life and just what it can do for your body!

I'm working on the yahoo group still, being a perfectionist, I want time to make it just right!  I am still working on the book, so that too will help...but unless you're a published writer, or have mainstream certifications you will not be able to go the mainstream route.

It'll manifest just as it's supposed to but this is the best motivation I've had for a while now.  I don't like being told "no".  Have you ever been in this position?  How did you deal with it?  Did you just sit back and think "Well, it wasn't meant to happen" and give up?  Or did it motivate you like it has motivated me.  15 min. a day will change the world one small increment at a time.

Be bold!

Eat Raw, Live Well!

Melinda