Winnie-the-Pooh

I've been playing a lot with honey in the past few years and truly enjoy it and feel that it does have amazing qualities...however, I am Winnie-the-Pooh when it comes to honey. Once my honeypot is open, I like to have more than a small smackeral of it! My waist starts to expand and before you know it I'm wearing yellow with red! I also think that honey has something to do with my kids' teeth issues! I give them natural vitamins with natural sweeteners instead of the pills made from synthetic chemicals and chemical sweeteners. I also found out two months ago that the toothpaste that we've been using for about a year and a half was sweetened with honey. How I missed that on the list of ingredients all that time I am unsure...however, now we've got major tooth issues to deal with. Of course I see everything that happens through the eyes of "food", while my husband is very traditional in his thinking (we used non flouride toothpaste, so that must be the reason) while my mother in love (feeling more like "law" these days!?!) feels that we are doing our kids a disservice by not feeding them milk and milk products. She feels that they are calcium deficient and that's why they have cavities. No matter the reason, we need to deal with this and it's going to cost a lot of money and time not to mention the trauma to the poor wee ones! We need to re-examine what we've been doing and change things (already changed the toothpaste, anyone know of a good natural toothpaste with flouride - we're going to brush with it once a day to help the teeth for now). We are trying to use this situation as a learning experience, and hopefully we'll all come out of it better people! Tuesday July 7, 2009: Yoga and Breathing exercises Lots of water, 1 litre before 10am apple macadamia nut butter - 1 tbsp. two raw bliss spheres from Nature's World - date, carob, coconut, cinnamon. Went out to dinner for anniversary to a cute restaurant called "Wilbur and Sebastian's". Wilbur for the pig in Charlotte's Web and Sebastian is the lobster in Little Mermaid. It's a cute place, the owner was raw for about six weeks she told me but could not continue, found it too hard to do. They do homestyle cooking, everything is fresh and most is organic...my husband's back was hurting badly so he was in so much pain he could hardly eat! Poor guy! I keep telling him to go raw, maybe it would help but alas, it hasn't happened so far! Amazing tea at "Cafe Divine" and even bought some it was so good, reminded me of spiced mulled wine or apple cider! With honey of course! :) Had huge salad that they made especially for me. Nice! Mixed greens, red onion, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, cucumber. Oh and a glass of wine... Had about 2 litres of water total today. Exercise, housework only. Wednesday, July 8, 2009: Today at 12:34:56 07/08/09 was a neat time, I was somewhere on public transit I believe, went on a "field trip" with the kids today!) to see dinosaur exhibit. Only 1 litre of water today Apple raw bar mini carrots Bliss Sphere Huge salad: mixed greens, spinach, broccolini, pea shoots, clover sprouts with the vega oil dressing. Bliss Sphere with 1 tbsp. of macadamia nut butter Camomile tea at Cafe Divine - LOVE their teas, they come from NY somewhere and are packaged here. YUM! The fat is creeping up again and I'm eating more emotionally this week so far as my daughter's specialist appointment for the dentist is tomorrow morning. I know that "all is well" and that everything will work out in the end, it is just the unknown that I focus on. Trying to focus on the positive and not have my emotions affect her or my son. They are troopers and I know they can do this with style! Now I just have to follow their lead! I'm off to bed early as it's an early wake up call. Cheers to our half way point, have we come that far already! Looking forward to the next five weeks, must find that book! It is not available new from our Canadian online book company, so will go looking! Night all!

Inspired...

End of a long weekend of enormous amounts of work in the back yard. I know I've been writing a lot about this but it has literally consumed me for three days, like nothing else recently! Today it was all about watering and learning more about the plants and what they need and where they should (or should have) been positioned. Some will have to be replanted, but in the meantime I'm thrilled with how our back yard is coming along. I must think of this as a journey, not a destination of "garden's done". Today while talking with my sister outside, I mentioned that on our raised wooden patio area I (it is triangular against the fence of two different neighbours, shaded by big pine trees) would be a great space for socializing if we had somewhere to sit. I asked my hubby to make some benches along the fence, and make them storage benches as well, with a simple hinge lift top. He likes that idea...and we could also get one of those covered outdoor fire pits, and make it a real meeting place for our neighbours. This way too I'd have a place to put all the kids' outdoor play stuff and not have to worry about the eye clutter when I look out the door. There's even room for a small garden shed (just one foot deep, five feet tall and maybe three feet across) where I could keep gardening tools at the ready). So tomorrow after the kids' swimming lessons and some dinosaur learning (we do theme weeks in the summer this week is dino dig week) we'll clear the deck off, decide what to keep and give away and go looking for some nice cushions that we can use on our new benches. That's next week's building project. The other idea that I had is that it would be the PERFECT space for outdoor yoga for one or two, so I'm working on making it a very calm, soothing place, maybe a fountain somewhere, for a trickle of water effect. Any other suggestions? I'm really starting to have fun with this now, progress, not perfection! Here's what I ate today:

Sunday, July 5, 2009:

Fasted on water until 2pm. Hulk sauce: 3 apples 1 tbsp. vitamineral green 1 bunch of parsley 1 scoop of sproutein 1/4 cup water (or more to help blending) Blend in vitamix and ate out of an old fashioned milk shake glass. I always enjoy my food more if I eat them from a beautiful vessel. Dinner: HUGE salad. One head of romaine lettuce One container of pea shoots 1 container of alfalfa sprouts 2 tbsp. cashews (Fat?) 1 bunch of broccolini (I think that's the name?) Dressing: 2 tbsp. vega dressing (28g fat) 1 tbsp. stone ground mustard 3/4 tbsp. agave 1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar Snack: 1 tbsp. macadamia nut butter (12g fat) 1 tsp. raw cacao 1 banana Mash together and eat! Hmmm...looking back, that's more fat than I wanted to eat today. Start of a fresh week tomorrow, looking forward to it! Sorry for the squished writing, I'm having trouble copy and pasting into blogger from another site I write in?! Melinda

Soil Toil

It was another hard day in the garden but not without its rewards! It's really starting to come along out there and we got so much planted today. I was blessed to have my mom here to help me today and it looks great! We planted loganberries, cranberries, an apple tree, too many herbs to name here, peas, tomato plants, salmon berry, and some hostas, ferns and other decorative bits and pieces. I'm still on the lookout for a huckleberry tree as it was my favourite as a kid and I'd like to have one back here. My friend said she could get one from her yard, so perhaps tomorrow...it brings back memories of when my sister and I would spend hours picking huckleberries for hours to make a huckleberry pie (the non raw variety!). I'd love to try making a raw version soon. Tomorrow it's more herb planting, two fig trees going in the ground, and I must thin out my veggie garden so I'm going to put in some of those veggies into the other garden beds we've designed.

The family also got to spend some time at the Maple Ridge Farmer's Market. We haven't been to this market in over two years and they've really improved and have a lot more farmers and artisans there. There's even a stage with entertainment. That's where we got the ferns and hostas.

This evening it was time to face temptation again with my neighbour's son's birthday party. I ate A LOT of fruit there, and lots of celery and some romaine leaves (meant for their burgers, but hey...) We had a great time and I did not feel deprived at all. "Food, not Filler" is my mantra these days. It's amazing how much I used to fill up on stuff that had no real value and the fact that I spent money on that before is astounding to me now. Instead, I made a purchase from upayanaturals.com, a Canadian company that sells quality raw and living foods. Can't wait for my "present" to arrive in the mail shortly. It's FREE shipping all this long weekend in honour of Canada Day (which was July 1st). Which reminds me to say Happy July 4th to all of those celebrating today!

What I ate today:

July 4, 2009

3 litres of water. I'm drinking so much water in this heat. We've had very hot weather this past while.

Breakfast: Pint of blueberries

Lunch: Green smoothie (that was more blue than green!):
1/2 cup blueberries
2 cups water
1 banana
green lettuce
celery
five strawberries with the tops on of course! :)

Later, about a half hour after lunch: 1/4 of an avocado sprinkled with kelp granules (my daughter begged for the rest!)

Snack:

Cacao pudding:

This made 3 servings (one for me, one for daughter, one for son)

2 bananas
1 avocado
2 tbsp. agave
2 tbsp. cacao
Processed in food processor and yum!
My kids liked this so much that I'm going to add a tsp. of green powder next time and see if they notice! :)

Dinner:

Handful of blueberries
pint of strawberries
small bunch of grapes
two rings of pineapple
5 celery stalks
4 leaves of romaine lettuce

I think I ate higher fat today than I have in a week. I guess it's about 2/3 of an avocado...actually that's way lower than I used to eat fat wise. I have to admit, that I'm feeling clearer, way more energy, and my digestion is amazing at the moment. I've also noticed the clothes possibly getting bigger?! I've also done a lot of exercise in the last few days...I'm interested to see what the scale says tomorrow morning.

Cheers!
Melinda

Blood, Sweat and Tears...let me explain...

Quite an emotional day here today.

Blood = from my son's head.

Sweat = mine from working so hard on the back yard garden.

Tears = mine, my son's and my daughter's.

First here's what I ate:

4 litres of water

1 apple, one plum

Blender shake: 1 tbsp. maca, 1tbsp. cacao, 1 banana, 2 cups water, 5 strawberries, 1 scoop of sproutein. Didn't taste great so you may want to adjust if you try this one...

Coconut water from one young thai coconut. 1.5 cups

I can't believe that's all that I ate today?!

Spent the WHOLE day outside digging, shoveling, wheelbarrowing soil, building up the beds for the edible garden. I will not need to work out this weekend!

Now, let's get into the Blood, Sweat and Tears portion of our day...

Blood from my son's head - this happened twice today! First he was climbing on my friends' wheelbarrow while she was busy helping out and fell out of it, hitting his head on the cement patio. No concussion, and no abnormal tiredness or tingling so we waited it out. Then an hour later he was rolling around on the grass out front and when he got up, bashed his cheek, beside his eye on the wheelbarrow again! Magnet!

Sweat - I got an amazing workout today...Outside working from 9am until 7:30pm. We took a half hour break twice in the day. My clothing was soaked so I soaked in a long shower and a bath afterwards. Sipping my coconut water which was diluted with water.

Tears - My son's, due to his two injuries! Mine and my daughter's tears were due to the news from the dental visit she and my son had today. NOT good news, many cavities. I'm in shock and dismay. I do not use flouride toothpaste and my husband has placed the blame on me for this news. My kids are not raw, they eat all types of foods, but we are very strict at home about a whole food diet. They do not eat much sugar at all, except fruit sugar. They have fruit for breakfast every day and for a snack each day in the afternoon. We brush two to three times a day and floss every night. Has anyone had this type of situation happen to them? Their kids? How can I turn the situation around?!? My husband is adamant that we now use flouride toothpaste every time they brush. I am very against this but he believes that my no flouride way has gotten us into the situation that we have now. I'm sure that it's not the only factor but it's hard to argue against this when my husband is so mainstream! So my day has been one of many ups and downs.

The garden beds are ready, but the plants have yet to be planted. I'll include some pictures when it is all done.

One positive is that when I'm stressed, I usually eat and eat and eat. I managed to eat very little today because I was SO busy in the yard. Felt very grounding working out there in the beautiful sunshine with a great friend who was amazing to have with me and helped support me with the issues that arose today.

Thanks for reading my rant. Looking forward to a fresh new day tomorrow!

Eat raw, live well (remember to brush your teeth!)

Celebrations!

I am truly blessed to live in Canada, especially the West Coast. Our small community has so many great things that we can get involved in on Canada Day. We did some things at the park with the kids, relaxed in the back yard most of the afternoon and then had my parents over for dinner. Then it was off to the fireworks. They really put on a great display this year and the turnout was as incredible as the show!

Today we planned out all we need to do for the edible forest garden in the back yard...it's going to be a lot of work but the rewards will be great! Again, I will post before photos and then some as we go along tomorrow. We'll get most of it done then and add to it as the months progress.

Here's what's been sustaining me this last couple of days:

Wednesday, July 1, 2009:

2 litres of water today

Breakfast: Apple with cinnamon sprinkled on

Plum and 2 apricots

Lunch: 1 Thai wrap with chutney from Gorilla Food

1 slice of watermelon and 1/4 cup blueberries with a handful of grapes

Dinner: Soft fruit salad: 1 plum, 1 peach, 1 nectarine, 5 strawberries, 1/4 cup blueberries

Snack: avocado

Stopped eating at 7:15pm

Thursday, July 2, 2009:

Breakfast: Peach

1/4 of a watermelon

Lunch: Warming Chia Pudding - 1/3 cup chia/sprouted buckwheat mix, 1 cup water, 5 brazil nuts, 1 date, 1 banana, cinnamon and nutmeg. Blend everything and pour on chia mix and let set for 10 to 15 min. if you can wait that long! YUM!

1 hour bootcamp today! Boy did it feel GOOD to be back exercising. It was a circuit day. Interestingly enough, I was 4th in from the run around the lake, and the 4 ahead of me were all 16 year old hockey players. All the regulars were behind. Not tooting my own horn here, but look what raw foods can do for your exercise! Also, finished first on the sprints! I do have to work on my abs though! Flexibility seemed good. Sweating felt great!

Had a huge green smoothie when I got home - spoonful of sproutein, alfalfa sprouts, pea shoots, a banana, 1/2 cup blueberries, 1 pint strawberries (with greens still on of course), 2 cups of water. Blended in blender!

Stopped eating at 8:15pm.

I've also done yoga at home for 20 min. both days, as well as some rebounding, only about 5 min. a day so far and will build up to 15min. per day.

Here's to having the most amazing day ever! Chat more soon!

Eat Raw, Live Well!
Melinda

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...