The lesser of TWO evils... (The beginning of the End)!!!

Dear Diary, 


I am just catching up on the last two blog posts from deborah and Rebecca as I was in heaven (I mean Hana) this weekend... We just got home about 30 minutes ago, and as my husband unpacks the car and my son unwinds I am contemplating "As we're coming to the end of this first 30-day experiment, I'm trying to draw some conclusions about what I want my next 30 days to look like." Perfectly said Rebecca, I am right there with you. On the drive back from Hana, in the pouring rain, I starred out the window thinking about the past 30 days of this experiment; and how it has literally transformed me inside and out. I feel like it has changed the cells of my body and my being as a whole. More importantly, I am thinking about and 'planning' my next 30 days, and how to embrace this transformation as my new normal! 


With that said, I have a lot of 'homework' in my near future... I am still awaiting the arrival of Eat Right for your Type book (mainly out of curiosity), booking my first series of Colon Therapy sessions, and making an appointment with my Naturopath. Even though I feel like, for the most part, this experiment has been a success I am having one MAJOR issue and I can't seem to just 'let it go'... I NEVER get colds. I mean, I maybe get a simple cold or flu once a year that might last for 2-3 days. But nothing that a little homeopathy and homemade honey/cinnamon tea can't take care of. Since I started this Raw Detox Diet (aka experiment), I have been "sick" with a sinus cold for about 80% of the time. Thats not the 80/20 I was aiming for... 


When we started, I thought I got some sort of bug/virus while traveling from the mainland and spending way too many hours in the airport; but that sinus cold lasted for a good 2 1/2 weeks! Seriously! I just got over that 'sickness' and finally felt 100% for about 5 days. And now, I am sick again! Sneezing, watery eyes, and completely congested. YUCK! What the heck? I mean, I feel like I am the 'healthiest' that I have been in years, maybe ever! I am eating 80-90% raw foods, juicing 2-3 times day and teaching/practing yoga 4-5 days a week! I should be feeling great, right?


Hence making the appointment with my Naturopath. I have a sneaking suspicion that since I have completely altered my diet, that the 10-20% of non-raw foods are destroying my immune system. I mean, I could not be getting more vitamins and minerals, right? I guess, I'll leave that question up to the professional... 


I am very frustrated though, and dread the answer I can assume is coming... No wine, no chocolate, and NO DAIRY (of any kind). I haven't been eating very much dairy, but I do on occasion enjoy a little organic goat cheese, raw cheeses, and/or have a cappuccino/latte w/ steamed "milk". I always try to opt for Almond milk, but sometimes (esp at Starbucks) I am left with 2 "bad options" Regular COWS milk or SOY milk. Which is the lesser of two evils? I still don't know. Obviously, I should just never got to Starbucks... Duh? But, I too have my weaknesses.


So, like I said, this leaves me with lots of 'homeowrk' for the next 30 days, and my "new challenge"... No coffee! Oh dear God, did I just say (type) that out loud? I think this might be my greatest challenge of all times! I am terrified. I am going to quit cold-cucumber, and let you know how its going in a few days... Nope, I am not done blogging about all this... I am also going to cut way back on chocolate, even the Raw Chocolate Mousse that has come to be my new best friend. And finally, say farewell to DAIRY for good. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! 


Somethings got to give... There's no way that I can be eating this "clean" and healthy and be getting sick! Especially, when I NEVER got sick before. This is craziness!!! So onto the next experiment, the next 30 days, and yet another life transforming entirety. Yet again, to be continued...


*Would LOVE to hear thoughts, suggestions, or any/all advice...

Experimentally and sniffily yours, 
Maggie 

One Good Thing Leads To Another (Day 27)

Dear Diary,

Style Me Pretty

Have you ever heard the saying, You can't be successful in just one area of your life? Well, I think that's true. I find that any success I have in any area of my life tends to show up in other areas, too. Maybe it's happiness, maybe it's confidence, or maybe it's just that sense of accomplishment we have when something goes right. We carry that with us and it just gets into everything, doesn't it? This clean way of eating is having that effect, too. It's moving into other areas of my life, as well. 

I've started looking at my house differently. It's so easy to let things accumulate, isn't it? Yesterday's newspaper, last semester's files, and all that stuff in the garage ... It's going to take an act of congress to get that stuff cleared out. I was thinking about all the stuff that crowds us into our tiny home, that chokes down our living space and robs us of our joy in the present. Isn't that the way in so many areas of our lives? There's stuff that gets pushed to the back of the closet that just kind of takes up permanent residence there. It takes up room and serves no purpose save to rob us of our living space. I think we do the same thing with thoughts and emotions, don't we? Shoving them out of the way where they just pile up in some forgotten corner of our heart? I actually said out loud while I was thinking this, I want to have room for my life now! My life today! And in that same moment, I thought about my body, about how the crap that I've eaten, off and on for so many years, may be robbing me of my joy in life today. I want room in my body for the food I'm eating now, room in my life for the now.

This kind of gets back to what I wrote earlier this week so I guess it's a thought that I'm still processing. There's been plenty of talk 'around the water cooler' about that last post, so it seems like people think about it - even if they've been afraid to discuss it. I'm really glad for a place where we can talk about the changes that are taking place in our days, in our kitchens, in our homes and in our lives. Maybe the junk in our bodies is symbolic of the junk in our lives. Maybe clearing out the internal junk is just the first step and maybe that success is just going to get all over everything.

I'm hopeful.

Happy Weekend,
deborah

Rediscovered My Roots and Feeling More Grounded (Day 26)

Dear Diary,

Sorry I'm late.  It's been a busy day.  I had about twenty people at my house this morning for a coffee and play-date.  It was fun but hectic.  My house was filled with some of the women I hold dearest, their delightful children...and the yummy smells of steel-cut oats on the stove, pumpkin bread baking and coffee brewing.  I also made some muffins, defrosted some banana bread and put out an array of fresh fruit.  Oddly enough, my favorite food of all time (any baked/bread item) didn't even tempt me.  I was nursing the last dregs of my new favorite Tingly Juice, (Deborah's carrot-ginger-grapefruit combo) and looking forward to my first cup of coffee with the gals, and while removing the muffins from the tin, a piece broke off in my hand and I popped it in my mouth.  Without even thinking.  But the taste...it was so weird.  Aha!  Sugar.  Deborah just emailed me something about the fact that she had not eaten refined sugar for 26 days and she's right.  We haven't.  Amazing.

This Eating Plan has had it's ups and downs for me.  But recognizing that simple fact - NO SUGAR - has made me want to pat myself on the back.  Pretty big change.  And I don't even want the bad foods very much anymore.  So that's the good news.  The so-so news is that I haven't stuck to my Raw Til Dinner plan for the week.  And, until I got that note from Deborah, and was able to see the forest for the trees again, I had been feeling frustrated with myself:  where's my willpower?  I wanted to do a juice fast for pete's sake and I can't even go raw til dinner?

Maybe I'm a wimp, but I just can't go through the whole day without something more than raw vegetables and juice.  I tried juicing more.  I did that. I tried drinking more water.  Way more.  And less coffee.  And always water-and-wait before eating, just in case it was thirst not hunger.  But I woke up in the middle of the night feeling hungry.  Couldn't fall back to sleep after breastfeeding because my stomach was growling and I was miserable.

And on Wednesday morning, while scrubbing and chopping the Harmony Stew veggie mix I was preparing for dinner I found myself popping bits and pieces of parsnips and unpeeled carrots into my mouth while I chopped.  Later that morning, while making dinner for a friend who just had surgery,  I started nibbling on raw sunchockes (another vegetable I just became acquainted with this month!) and more carrots.  I was that hungry.

I find that giving my kids some of their old comfort foods really creates a willingness to try something new.  Here we have Harmony Vegetable Stew (with coconut milk and butternut squash and curry) with good ole corn on the cob, steamed peas and organic milk.

Remember when I said I hate feeling full?  Well, I hate feeling hungry too.  I think what I hated about feeling "full" was feeling bloated and uncomfortable and like the food was just going to sit there in my stomach indefinitely.  I never feel that way on this "diet" - at least not anymore.  Not when I don't eat nuts/dried fruits.  The feeling I get from satiating REAL hunger is relief.  Satisfaction.  I love the "clean" feeling my body has from running on the fuel of REAL fruits then veggies.  And I love that little buzz I get from the Green Lemonade and Tingly Juice.  What I don't love is when, by 2p.m. I have a headache.  And I'm tired.  And I can't concentrate.  And I just NEED to eat.  And there's where I had still been ending up every day until yesterday.

I had tried eating nuts/dried fruits in the afternoon and ate WAY too much in order to feel satisfied.  That didn't work.  I tried eating more fresh veggies and juicing more.  And drinking more water.  And that didn't get rid of the afternoon hunger problem.  Here's what did:  starches.  I have been trying to avoid this category the most, but maybe I shouldn't have been.  On Wednesday, I caved at lunch and had a sweet potato.  And then finished the other half of Katy's sweet potato.  And I felt SO much better.  All afternoon.  And Thursday, with my big green salad, I ate a little  leftover Harmony Stew with a sprinkle nutmeg on top and felt so much calmer.

I have been thinking a lot about what Maggie said yesterday, about me being me and you being you.  Natalia Rose doesn't lay out one specific set of rules for every person in every situation.  Nor, I imagine does any good nutritionist.  There are general rules of course.  But there needs to be flexibility because people are different and maybe need different foods.  And maybe even for one person, the nutritional needs vary day by day due to activity level and stress and social situations.  That's where we need to apply Common Sense.  Sometimes I get so focused on Following the Rules (or am in some imaginary competition with myself to not mess up) that I can't see the forest for the trees.  Come on, Beck, is it really "better" to suck down coffee so I can stick to my arbitrary decision to eat all raw til dinner or to grab a sweet potato?

As we're coming to the end of this first 30-day experiment, I'm trying to draw some conclusions about what I want my next 30 days to look like.  What works, what doesn't.  For today, it's lots of water.  Not too much coffee.  80% Raw Fruits and Veggies.  Try hard not to miscombine.  And don't be scared of starches.  It's the middle of the afternoon, and here I am typing and not crashing.  As far as I'm concerned, that's no small potatoes.

Until Tuesday,
Rebecca