Day 365

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Well, it's the end of my first 365 days. It's been such a wild and interesting year. Besides the Jerry Springer Edition, there was a lot of personal growth as well as learning curve about going Raw. It's still the single most compelling thing I've ever done. The benefits so outweigh eating any other way. I'm hooked and have developed habits I will not be giving up.

Yet, it's not been easy and it's true that it can take a year and more to transition. I will admit I certainly did not reach any weight or body goals at all. But, I wasn't raw the entire time, either. Stress, my mother, my teen, my life - all took tolls. At first I thought that switching to so much orange juice probably was not a good idea. In fact, if I look back it was when I started doing that when things stopped going so well, except then I realized when I started to not feel well was when I inadvertently added a bunch of toxic fluoride to my life - goodbye ACT and Crest! Geez! I've also done other juices - such as BreastHealthOnline's Super Lemon Recovery juice which is posted with us as well as at LiveStrong.com Though with the OJ, I will say that I was pretty much never sick with a cold in 2010!

But, the biggest gain of 2010 was learning to give up salad dressing. I know, laugh all you want but I'd like to propose you try it :) I discovered I had the answer back when I was 19 when my friend Richard Conger back in my home town of Wrightwood, CA taught me to juice and eat what would now be considered a vegan diet. One of the salads he made all the time had avocado, sesame oil and garlic salt. It was my all-time favorite salad and I've eaten it through the years.

I started making this salad again and realized I did not need the sesame oil. I simply used the garlic salt. And at that point I stopped using salad dressings forever. It was liberating because I was very stuck at that point.

I also worked on me a lot. I got a lot closer to God. The 'Ten Monks' CD saved my life :) I listen to it all the time and now I let God do all the heavy lifting. I just have the fun of pointing at what I might like to possibly do and then leave the rest to him.

I discovered a lot about me. I said NO a lot to people for the first time in my life. I left many situations where I wasn't being treated well. It got easier and easier and now I can say no and much worse (laugh) whenever I feel the need.

I'm still working through Geneen Roth's Women, Food & God. Highly recommended as are her audio sessions at her website. Go. Do it. Your over-eating or poor eating is really a doorway or your insight into what's eating YOU. It's very simple and when you open that door and let it be, the food problem falls away. The challenge is opening that door before you open the fridge. It's do-able. DO IT.

Last year I was part of a gym but once my mother fell ill I went infrequently. This year I have a few friends to go to the Y with me, along with my daughter and so I'm hoping to make much more physical progress this year.

I am not disappointed that I didn't get farther along in Raw this year. I'm grateful for all I learned and looking forward to...the next 365 days.

I hope I can post more this year. We'll see. Happy New Year to everyone.