The Skinny On January

Apparently I have been complicating things. That is according to my husband and a good friend. See, when I lost the weight before I just did it. Unfortunately Nike already coined and patented the phrase "just do it", because it’s a darn good one! It’s true though. There doesn’t need to be labels, guidelines, etc. I have been over thinking things. I have been told by these wonderful people in my life that I need to get back to my basics. I don’t need to be vegan or 100% raw, but do what feels right to me.

This picture was from my journey last time. Oh, and that is my adorable daughter! When I became healthier before, that was my goal, to become healthier. Honestly, it really is what I thought about. I wanted to be able to get down on the ground and play with my kids in comfort. I wanted to have more energy and better moods. I wanted to make sure that I would be here to chase after my grandkids and their children! People asked me how I did it and my response is always "I walked 6 days a week and ate healthy…there’s no secret". I just ran into an old friend last night and that is exactly what I told her.

I literally thought, "Is this good for my body" when deciding what to eat. Healthy to me meant the following:

-No artificial colors, flavors or anything else man can think of.
-No MSG. This includes yeast extract, carrageenan, and many more. (Brandon is going to do a post on this!)
-No "natural flavors" or "spices" unless it listed exactly what they were in parentheses afterwards.
-Nothing with hydrogenated anything.
-No white foods…flour, rice, etc (with some exceptions here or there).
-Only raw milk and cheese.
-When I had a treat I got the best. Oh man, there was a gelato joint in TX that was outstanding called Pacuigo. Irreplaceable! Oh my gosh, I just looked and they are having a franchise here in Phoenix in Spring 2008. Watch out! That is sweet!
-Only Ezekiel bread products (for toast, sandwiches, grilled cheeses, used the tortillas and raw cheese for homemade pizza).
-Sometimes raw whole wheat tortillas that we’d cook at home.
-Only rice or Ezekiel pastas.
-Home made smoothies from all fruit and home made soups in the Vita Mix.
-Fresh, raw juice from our Jack La Lanne juicer.
-Beans, brown rice and yummy dishes like fried rice or chili.
-As many raw fruits and veggies as I want.

I never told myself I could not have something. If I really wanted it, I ate it. I used portion control naturally though, never forced it.

So, why am I not doing this now? If it worked before, why am I trying to fix something that’s not broken? Is it in my nature? Am I just trying to find a better way" Who cares. I think I’m just going to do what worked before. I felt great and I lost weight because of it. The lost weight was actually a great side effect of getting healthier.

With all that said, I’m going to take a break from writing out what I’ve eaten and trying to label myself. I’ll still be here, posting away. I want to be healthier, less weight on me and to help people do the same. That’s not going to change!

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We’ve all had those days where we woke up late and had to rush our way to work, school, etc. Maybe the power went out to your house during the course of the night, and when it came back on, the time on your alarm clock was way off. Or maybe one of your kids woke up in the middle of the night, say 2am and stayed up until about 4am. You went back to bed and were so exhausted, you ended sleeping through your alarm. Or maybe you turned it off and thought to yourself “I’ll stay in bed just ten more minutes” only to wake up two hours later.

We’ve all had those things happen. Instead of just embracing the extra sleep (obviously we needed it) and calling in or rescheduling, we have the habit of panicking instead.

The first reaction is to jump out of bed and scream “Son of a… I’m late!” The first thing you do is stub the crap out of your toe as you run to the bathroom. You growl in pain and anger, looking down to see that your pinky toenail is cracked and bloodied. Great.

You then hobble into the bathroom and start the shaving process; depending on sex, either your face or legs. During the course of shaving, you cut yourself bad. The bleeding doesn’t stop. You grab a big piece of wadded up toilet paper and apply pressure. The blood soaks through and you have to grab even more toilet paper, wad it up and press it hard against your wound. Five minutes later it eases up… a little.

Then you hop into the shower and turn on the water. As you turn the knob, it breaks. How are you going to turn the water off now? Usually the water takes a short time to warm up, but today it’s not getting hot… at all! So you suck it up and grit your teeth through a forty-second freezing shower. When you finish it takes you a couple minutes to figure out how to shut the water off. By the time all‘s said and done, you’ve spent about twenty minutes in the bathroom when you meant to spend five.

After you dry off, you run to your closet to get dressed. Then you remember… you were going to get up early and iron a shirt. You don’t have anything clean without wrinkles in it. Now you’re screwed, right? Another ten minutes goes by as you iron your shirt. But then, you can’t find any socks that match. What’s going on today? Argh! By the time you find some socks that somewhat resemble each other, you’ve spent about twenty minutes in your closet when you meant to only spend about one.

At this point, forget about eating anything. You don’t have the time to even grab something to go. You go to grab your car keys, but you can’t find them. Where’d they go? They’re around here somewhere! Then you remember… your kiddo was playing with them last night, but you don’t know where the rascal hid them. After thirty minutes, you finally find your keys in the oven, of all places! Makes you realize that maybe you should get some duplicates made in case this happens again.

Then you get into your car. You start your car, only to realize that the gas light is on. You’re just a hairline over empty. You remember that since you were going to get up a little early, this wasn’t going to be a big deal, considering you didn’t feel like filling up on your way home yesterday.

When you get to the gas station, every pump is occupied. You wait several minutes until a pump finally opens up. But this one has a note over the keypad where you slide your debit card into. It reads “PLEASE PAY INSIDE.” You slump your shoulders in dejection as you go inside and wait in line. But that takes forever as well. The lady in front of you needs Powerball tickets. She buys thirty tickets… and wants to pick the numbers all by herself. Argh!

By the time you leave the gas station, you’ve spent twenty minutes there when you meant to spend about three.

As you get onto the freeway, you see that traffic is backed up. At this point, you just want to go home and forget about your destination, but you can’t. You’re stuck in gridlocked traffic on the freeway. After twenty minutes of inching along only a mile, traffic picks back up. You see flashing lights and police cars and realize that there was an accident in the opposing traffic lane, and the reason it took you twenty minutes to go a mile was because everyone on your side of the freeway was rubbernecking to see the accident. Argh!

By the time you arrive at work, school, etc., you’ve spent nearly two hours panicking and stressing as you rushed and rushed to get to where you needed to be at a somewhat decent time. Instead, you are way too late, really frustrated, and freakin’ hungry. Remember- you didn’t have time to eat.

We’ve all been through this kind of morning and it’s no fun. So what do you do in this situation? What if you wake up late and have to be somewhere right away?

What you should not do is worry. So you slept in. It happens. Your teacher or boss has done it. Everyone has. So who cares? If you have to call someone and let them know the situation, then be responsible and do it. Let them know when you’ll be in, and when you do, make sure you give yourself enough time to do what you need to do without stressing. You shouldn’t have to rush through shaving, showering, eating, and just dealing with life, period. Things happen, so give yourself the time to deal with those things. But don’t rush. It never pays off. It only creates stress, panic, frustration, anger, irritation, negativity, etc.

Have you ever heard the saying “go with the flow?” There’s more to that saying than you think. Life is all about flow. The minute you have to force things or rush things, they never work out how you want and you just get frustrated, among other things. If you can learn to offer zero resistance to things that come up in life, and instead just deal with them as they come, one situation at a time, chances are you’ll have a more peaceful existence.

I’ve since learned how to do this and I can tell you, honestly, that my demeanor is much more relaxed and laid back. I used to be a rusher, not just in a situation like this, but all the time. It’s no fun, very unproductive, and the stress is very detrimental to your health, both physically and mentally. Life is not meant to be lived that way.

Just go with the flow. You’ll get there when you get there.

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We’ll be hosting another blog carnival on February 15th, 2008. This will be a carnival about anything raw foods. So if you have a blog post that has to do with raw foods, then submit it here. Can’t wait to read it!

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• Upcoming Blog Carnival on January 15th, 2008
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OK, so you are probably thinking, "Man, starting a raw challenge right at Christmas time is not too bright. This girl must not think things through!" Well, I have no shame in telling you that you are right! I’m giving myself a big smack on the forehead for you!

The Saturday before Christmas we went to my Dad’s house. I was all prepared to eat raw food, so I thought. The crunching of chips and bright colors of the cookies form the local French bakery would not leave me alone. They followed me all around the house and pestered me until I gave them a nibble. Well, I couldn’t just tease them, so I had to go all they way. After 5 Christmas cookies and a sugar rush that had me racing around and jumping up and down, I thought, ‘Hmmm. Maybe not so good". After they were fulfilled and got what they wanted they left me! They left me tired, unfulfilled and bloated! I was so tired that night, I had to keep my eyelids open with toothpicks. The next morning I could not get out of bed until 10:40 am! This is someone who is up at 6 am with her kids every morning. When I eat all raw, I do not feel anywhere near this. I was cranky all day too. Ask the hubby. It was not a good day. Sunday and Monday I focused on eating high raw, but not 100%.

I had the yummiest vegetarian Lebanese food on Christmas. My grandmother is part Lebanese and she pays a Lebanese woman to make our family recipes every year for Christmas. That’s right, grandma pays someone else to do it. Christmas Scottsdale style! It was so delicious. I’m not going to lie. I’d eat it again! The day after Christmas I started all raw. While everyone else ate the leftovers, I had 2 huge salads and veggies. It was actually really good. Then my evil aunt brought over cookies again. Damnit, it’s like an affair that won’t end!

Something that I am concerned about it my daughter. She is 11 weeks old and I think all these changes are effecting her a bit. When I eat all raw, I wonder if I am releasing toxins in my breast milk. I can not be sure if she wasn’t feeling well on Christmas because of eating raw or eating cooked. I can not tell how long what I eat effects my milk.

I have been thinking of eating a high raw diet and transitioning into all raw. I know that after eating 2 days all raw, I feel like a different person. I feel healthy, happier, more energy and there’s not bloating/gas. I have to find how I can do this while nursing and taking care of a family that doesn’t want to be 100% raw. My husband eats vegetarian and raw to support me, but he doesn’t mind cooked foods and some meat. He wants them sometimes. Which is fine. Also, I have my kids to think about. They look at me in the afternoon, with a look that says, "Woman, how about a real meal here? You are starving us!" I guess this is all part of my journey, right?

So, for now I am putting the raw challenge on hold. I am going to do what worked last time I got healthier and lost weight. I ate a very high raw diet, with healthy vegetarian cooked meals. I ate raw dairy as well. And…..I walked.

So, that is what I am going to do. It may change tomorrow, so stay tuned!

*I didn’t have a picture of me exhausted, so I thought a picture of Brandon and the kids passed out would do. I don’t know how he feels about that though. LOL

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We’re hosting a blog carnival here on January 15th. If you’ve never heard of a blog carnival, this is how it works.

You go to blogcarnival.com and find our carnival. Our carnival is under the medicine, health, & fitness category under the name of carnival of holistic nutrition. Read the requirements of the post carefully. After you do that, go ahead and submit your blog post info related to our carnival. Make sure to do it by the end of the day on the 12th of January.

Once you do that, just come back and check out our blog on January 15th for your post and the other posts as well. And don’t be afraid to Digg or Stumble that post.

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• Blog Carnival on February 15th, 2008
• The Skinny On January’s Whereabouts
• Need A Map To Our Site? Read This!
• An Interesting Read if You Have Some Time
• Maintenance Issues