Day 7 Week 1

Well, it's been a whole week. I've lost 5 pounds this first week of the New Year and 17 pounds total since last year.

This week and to date I've walked 4.6 miles, swam 1.66 miles and have eaten 18 bananas, for those who keep asking how many bananas I'm eating!

The benefits of just one week:

1. My belly feels peaceful.

2. I have no more of the magical expanding elasti-belly going on.

3. My waist is 3" smaller (full report at end of month)

4. I have not even the slightest water retention bump whatsoever on my ankles.

5. My mouth feels (and looks) so clean it's weird.

6. My sense of smell is incredible. I'm nearly knocked out when I walk into Whole Foods there are so many aromas in there.

7. My face is a lot more clear. I have no new break outs.

8. I'm not craving anything other than more fruit and vegetables.

9. I've had a lot more energy the entire week.

10. I spend a whole lot less time grocery shopping.

11. Unless I choose to make something fancy, I spend a whole lot less time on food prep. Grab some fruit and run if I'm short on time. Easy.

12. Even if I make something fancy I spend a whole lot less time on clean up and dishes.

13. Even less to clean: I don't get the stove or microwave dirty :D

14. I have a whole lot less trash since there isn't food packaging to contend with.

15. I'm requiring less sleep and feeling a lot more rested to boot. This morning I woke up at 4:30 am and wanted desperately to run out to buy parsley - LOL.

16. My borderline sleep apnea thing stopped (at day 3) where it feels like something was stuck up in there and flapping across some breathing port, causing all kinds of snorting and disrupted sleep. I'd suffocate if I was on my back. It's gone. Stopped. Amazing.

17. At week 5 of my surgery recovery, I feel at 100% and I never would have expected that.

18. My bikini line incision is fully healed and turning white. Past experience has been I don't heal well or easily. There is still swelling to go down over time and internal healing. But I have no pain, no pulling, no additional tiredness that tells me I need more rest or more nutrients. Still I am still mindful of my nutrition and of being in bed 8 hours because I know there is still internal healing going on.

19. I feel a lot more peaceful overall.

20. I have a lot more hope for the future.

One week down, 51 to go!

Day 6 Salad Salvation

Ask and ye shall receive...

Yesterday I was lamenting about the absence of salad dressing and how lemon and lime are great but I wanted something real. Tarah sent me a link to a lot of raw or nearly raw dressing recipes which I read blearily in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. Thank you Tarah, it was exactly what I needed to keep me busy! There were one or two that piqued my interest so I need to go back and check them out, but mostly all the ones that were close to legal for me were really just based in lemon juice.

Today it came to me I'd not even considered one of my all-time favorite salads, Tabbouleh. I make this frequently. I love the taste and it has a very basic lemon dressing. Ah, I see God was listening and heard my salad dressing cry despite my lemon angst. Thank you!

After treadmilling (new word! LOL) 1.6 miles and swimming another half mile today, I ran into Whole Foods to pick up some lettuce, parsley, & avocados. I love this lifestyle because I need no other section of the store, which is a huge time saver. On the way to check out I saw their fresh raw salsa, which I love. A quick label read made my heart jump with joy - it was gonna be legal with no oil and no sugar. It had salt as the last ingredient and I made an executive decision that whatever small amt of salt was added would be OK today and I gleefully popped it in the cart.

By the time I got home I was really, really hungry. I wasn't hungry after I swam so passed on my banana, which probably would have bridged the gap better had I eaten it. Once home I did not have time to make Tabbouleh because I needed to eat now, so instead I tossed half an avocado into a bowl with a chopped ripe tomato and cut some fresh corn off a cob and added a large scoop of salsa.

I sat down and ate in total nirvana. The salsa was so good, so satisfying, that I had seconds. I had to laugh when I saw that the main 'dressing' ingredient in the salsa was lime. Maybe I didn't need anything more real than that, after all. I'll be making this myself now, minus the salt.

Later for dinner I made Tabbouleh. I never liked it with Bulgar wheat so I never made it that way for us. Just the veggies and dressing. In the past when I'd make it I'd work at getting the oil/lemon/vinegar just right and have my daughter, who loves this stuff, taste it over and over til we got it just right. I had no recipe, I just winged it each time.

Well, this would be easier since I wasn't going to have to worry about getting the dressing just right. After thoroughly washing two big bunches of parsley I processed them in two batches, placing the first batch into a medium size bowl before processing the next. I added in 2 cups of chopped red grape tomatoes, a entire bunch of sliced white scallions, a half a chopped cucumber and then poured the juice of one lemon and one lime all over it. Done!

It was ever so slightly different in taste from my original version but definitely close enough, especially after the tomatoes and scallions and cucumber got into the mix. It became the familiar, addictive, beguiling mix that just begs you to eat more and more of it. That's the beauty of Tabbouleh. My daughter didn't even detect the missing ingredients and was surprised when I told her. I thought for sure she'd detect a change.

I enjoyed eating this more than words can say. It made my whole day. Plus, parsley is one of the more concentrated greens you can eat.

I'm going to be making/eating lots and lots of this!


Recipe:

2 large bunches of parsley
2 cups (or one small container) of red grape tomatoes (you can use regular tomatoes)
1 bunch of green onions (scallions)
1/2 cucumber
Juice of one lemon
Juice of one lime (or just use 2 lemons)

Thoroughly clean the parsley. It's one of the grittiest vegetables. I wash it once straight up in the sink then cut off the ends as close to the bushy part as possible then soak it in a lettuce spinner filled with cold water. Swish, rinse, rinse again under running water and then spin dry.

Hand chop the parsley or put it through a food processor. I've done it various 'sizes', from very chopped to fairly whole and just happen to prefer it chopped a lot smaller than larger. It's up to you.

Cut the red tomatoes in half

Slice the white part of the green onions, reserve and throw away the 'chive' part or save for another use.

Peel the cucumber half and then dice it.

Add all the vegetables to the chopped parsley. Pour the lemon and lime juice over it, toss and serve. This would also be perfect for my girls at BreastHealthOnline who follow the Healing Diet.

Day 5 Arby's by Osmosis

I've noticed this really strange thing happening the past few days. I've been enjoying food that is off limits simply through its aroma. Now, this flies in the face of other raw vegan's experiences. People usually complain about enduring meals with others who are eating cooked foods, because it makes them want it. But, I've had a different reaction.

Tonight my daughter wanted a French Dip from Arby's. This isn't something we do a lot but it's certainly a lot more do-able since I'm not having to buy a sandwich for myself. I ordered for her and made our way out the drive thru. As I drove off I realized I was really enjoying the aroma of her meal but that I wasn't craving it or feeling, well, anything about it at all. It was almost as if because I bought it and could smell it I was satisfied. It's a strange but pleasant experience!

This is not to say I don't crave things. I do. I just know I need to eat again if I'm craving something.

Today, however, I was craving real salad dressing and that was hard. If I'm going to spend a year doing this I'm going to have to find better recipes or create my own recipes for salad dressing. I keep reading about simply lemon and lime juice and those are great. I'm a huge proponent of lemon juice but I really am craving something more on my salad.

I considered having salad dressings be my one caveat. It seemed a small price to pay to continue eating so healthily. Then I remembered the times I had bad bloating just from dressings and decided to hold out for a better plan/recipe or perhaps a sign from God. Help. LOL.

If anyone has a great salad dressing recipe that is hewn from raw food materials and doesn't contain garlic, oils of any kind, salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar, cheese, or any number of artificial ingredients, please let me know!

Day 4 Feeding Your Inner Monkey

So, what if you lived on a planet where you could eat unlimited amounts of food and in particular, all the sweets you wanted, all the time. No limit. Just whatever and whenever you wanted it and you'd be healthy, you'd feel great, you'd have tons of energy and you would never have constant cravings for anything anymore. Would you want to move there if it wasn't only in your dreams? Well, I'm here to tell you you're living on that planet and, more importantly, that is how you're supposed to eat here.

I remember hearing before my daughter was born how even babies would prefer sweet things over everything else. This depressed me. I'd battled my own food issues for years and now I needed to keep her away from everything bad. I'll never forget the first time I gave her oatmeal. I no sooner set the bowl before her when my mother suggested she pour sugar all over it, "because it's really good that way", she said. GAAAAAAAA!!!! I tried my best to manage the relatives and shopping excursions and I can barely talk about all the 'chocolate holidays', that is, until school started. Well, I'd have an easier job holding back the ocean with a broom. Sugar, sugar everywhere! For starters, kids' birthday parties and even in the classroom, times that by 30 and your kid is completely sugared up all the time. Sugar seems to be all kids live on. It was enough to make your head spin.

Many of us constantly 'fight' ourselves and our children's sugar cravings in all forms and if that wasn't enough, we also really desire to eat as much as we want. Why are we the only species at total odds with ourselves? You don't see Prairie Dogs on diets, do you? You don't see them on treadmills and you don't see them trying to figure out what the heck to eat. I could cite an endless list of animals and with the exception of your dog and my 22 lb cat, we, the people with the big brains are the only ones having this problem. One day it made me wonder what cavemen ate. I figured they were vegetarian. They sure as heck weren't heading for the Arby's drive thru, you know? Okay, maybe Dana's ancestors were but really, no one else *laugh*

But, my past experience with vegetarianism left me weak, sick and exhausted. As much as my head and heart wanted me to do it, my body wasn't willing. I was told by the medical profession I was 'protein deficient', and that I simply couldn't follow a vegetarian diet. I followed the 'blood type diet' for a while, mine being type O (which indicates meat…), but my weight still 'flourished'. My energy continued to plummet and I had a persistently bloated belly. A colonoscopy looking for Celiac was returned normal.

Even earlier than that I was told I had 'candida' and if you were told you have that, then you know it appears to be a sad, endless, lifelong battle. I took it seriously and spent 9 months eating 'perfectly' and lost all of 5 lbs, but never lost the 'candida'. I swear there were days I considered entering myself as my own float in the Macy's Day Parade. I kept reading and working on it, but I didn't really getting anywhere. I never really lost a significant amount of weight and I never was 'bloat-free'. My thought processes kept taking me back to my favorite haunt: The caveman days. I'm an artist at heart and you have to know what your base is before you can deal with it. Painting with oil paints? You must use an oil based solvent to clean the brushes. Ditto for water; you'd wash the brushes in water because that's the base. In human beings, our base surely must be the cavemen.

This led to a discussion with my friend Lori B. I told her I wondered what the cavemen ate, as that's probably what we should be eating. I could not have been more surprised when she started talking about the Paleo Diet. I'd never heard of it and was astonished I'd not even thought about what our ancestors ate until very recently. But, when I looked at it, something seemed really wrong to me. I saw plates of cooked meat and prepared dishes. I wholeheartedly disagreed that our first authentic ancestors that sprang forth our DNA ate cooked meat, or ground/baked grains for that matter, so the only logical choice remaining was that they ate raw food which probably included raw meat along with their 'fibrous plants'. In today's society eating raw meat is absolutely unthinkable to most, and for many good reasons. This leaves us with a big chunk of missing data. I'm not saying early man was absolutely a vegetarian and I wasn't in search of a vegetarian agenda, but I do know he didn't start out eating cooked meat. If the Paleo diet had touted raw meat, despite how socially improbable that might have been to make it fly, it would have at least been believable to me.

I started my own research on caveman. Much of the info I found simply talked about when they started eating cooked meat and how the researchers started to see disease states at this point. But something else was eaten before that point, before that first carcass fell into the fire, and since researches noted they 'started to see disease'', what were they eating before the disease came onto the scene? Cavemen were not roasting weenies straight out of the evolutionary box and you know it. It was like pulling eye teeth to get to the bottom of it. The info was sketchy and the articles mainly just said 'fibrous plants' which would not be the steamed broccoli I ate while being 'vegetarian'. Hmmm.

I did a search on raw food and came upon Steve Pavlina's blog. I found an amazing blog detailing his 30 day raw food trial (see my link list). First thing I noticed was he was eating tons of bananas. I hadn't read the entire blog or links yet and thought to myself, well, if I do this I'll eat less fruit as that's way too much fruit! I couldn't even conceive of eating even one whole banana a day at that point. It took me a few days to realize I hadn't gone back far enough. Our genetic coding goes back to before we walked upright. Like it or not, our earliest ancestors are primates and a whole new genetic code didn't just spontaneously imprint upon us simply because we finally stood up and walked on two feet.

So, the answer was our closest and earliest ancestors, the primates, who ate (and eat) fruit and vegetables and nuts. In particular, lots of fruit. A very large percentage of their natural diet is sweet fruit. They're coded to seek out sweet fruit, along with some plant matter and some nuts - whatever they can pick off a tree, hand crack and consume. They're also coded to eat as much as they feel they need and they don't limit themselves to a half a banana a day as the American Diabetic Association suggests for you and me. Now, I agree with the ADA for the SAD diet but I don't agree with the ADA diet in reference to our genetically coded diet.

That was it. I finally saw modern man's sweet tooth connection that we're all wrongly and endlessly beating ourselves up over, which is further compounded by a fruit phobic society. Oh don't eat too much fruit! You'll spike your blood sugar! You'll get the runs! Even the food pyramid restricts it. But in 4 short days I learned that if I ate enough raw fruit, vegetables, and some nuts each day that I would not crave anything else and I would not spike my blood sugar despite the rampant ADA's banana warnings.

This is how we're meant to eat, and much to my surprise, I have found that to be absolutely true already at this early stage. Any time I've even half thought of something else I realized I hadn't had anything to eat for a while. Once I go grab a banana or something, I'm perfectly fine. I'm not craving a thing. Not chocolate, not bread, not donuts, nothing. Absolutely nothing and I was fully at this level by day 3 and not only am I eating bananas, I"m craving them. This, from a woman who wanted something sweet to eat after every meal for the past 46 years. Of course I did! Even after some ginormous Thanksgiving dinner, I still wasn't satisfied because I'd still not eaten what I was genetically coded to eat - something sweet!


I'm at day 4 now. My copy of 80/10/10 just arrived today. This is the raw food book by Dr. Douglas Graham at Foodnsport (check my links section). I realized I needed this as he has so much more experience than I do and I want to do it right this time. Previous attempts at vegetarianism have failed and I read others that say the same thing. This person seems to really have the anwer and I've lived it for 4 very happy change-filled days so far. If you're interested in this lifestyle, besides following my 'guinea pig' status, I'd highly recommend getting the book to explore more for yourself. It is also available at Amazon. In the book you can choose to transition at your own pace. I just started it but it seems a lot of thought went into reaching out and reaching you and what might work best for you. In my case, I finally had to just grow up and devote a year out of an entire lifetime to finally taking care of me.

Whatever you choose to do with your diet, I really encourage you to devote a year back to yourself in some way. In the meantime you might dream a little and think about... what if you lived on a planet where you could eat unlimited amounts of food and in particular, all the sweets you wanted, all the time. No limit. Just whatever and whenever you wanted it and you'd be healthy, you'd feel great, you'd have tons of energy and you would never have constant cravings for anything anymore. Would you want to move there if it wasn't only in your dreams? Well, I'm here to tell you you're living on that planet and, more importantly, that is how you're supposed to eat here.

Day 3 Paging Dr. Bayer

It's slightly in the background now, but I woke up yesterday morning with a hang-over type headache. I took two aspirins and dove back under the covers with my favorite overweight orange feline for another 30 minutes. My headache hung in the background on and off all day. Nothing huge, just slightly annoying and then it raged back a bit before bed. Two more aspirin and off to sleep I went. Yep, these are the effects of giving up virtually everything 'good' in life, as some may see it.

But, the benefits are starting to trickle in and they far outweigh any soon-to-be-gone-forever headache. For example, my belly is peaceful. *hold for a moment of that music they play when you're in awe of something* The absence of constant low grade pain and mild to wild bloating is truly something to behold. The projection of my belly is also different. Not quite so fluffy. But what's most notable is it feels good inside. Cue more of that music, please.

The 'baggage' under my jawline, second in abhorrence only to my bloated belly, has noticeably decreased and my skin appears to be healing from its last freak out. I mean break out.

The weirdest thing though is my mouth feels so clean it's almost annoying. I'm not talking about my teeth, though yeah, they're clean but my mouth itself. It's very interesting and I expect it'll improve even more. I now can tell my mouth and gums and tongue have been covered in some heavy slime for lack of a better word. Ew. Oh yours is, too, trust me. Along with it dissipating I noticed my sense of smell starting to heighten. I noticed it this morning when one of my blankets had a smell I'd never noticed. I'd not washed the blankets in a while but I'd never noticed it had this slightly unpleasant smell. Into the washer everything went. I'm also doing saline sinus rinses everyday, but have done them regularly in the past and never improved my sense of smell. I also feel less 'full in the head' and I suspect I will soon have happy and free sinuses, which would be a total boon. Not to mention just another way to say buh bye to another doctor...hallelujah...maybe no more chronic sinus infections since my brain surgery.

Oh, and I've lost 3 lbs. I will expect to have an upfront loss and then a more gradual loss over time. The calculator tells me that if I lose around 1.54 lbs a week I'll be at my goal by next New Years Eve. I have no idea how plateaus work with this lifestyle but I guess we're going to find out.

Dinner last night at the buffet was interesting. Martin joked that I could not go past 'this section' - which of course was the salad section. Yep, that's fine. I told him, "Look, I'll be back at the table eating sooner than you - catch me if you can!" LOL!

Of course, I had to kinda note all the bowls full of stuff I could not have on the salad bar alone. Their fruit offerings left a lot to be desired, just cantaloupe and honeydew. Not even a banana. I had to force myself to not look at the bowl of fruit so covered in whip cream that you couldn't even identify the fruit beneath. Ew. I think I liked the other location we go to better as they had more fresh fruit. Hmmm. I piled some spinach on my little plate, some raw mushrooms, cucumber slices, tomatoes and shredded carrots. I'd leave the fruit for later. The sunflower seeds were all roasted, processed, salted and dead. No thanks. Maybe I should start carrying some raw sunflower seeds in my purse.

Upon returning to the table, Martin makes this face :/ and asks me where the dressing is. "Umm no dressing.", I said. He replied,"WHAT? OMG you can't eat just that!" "Umm, yes, I can! No icky dressings, thanks, though", I said. He says, "Well they have low fat, don't they?" AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! I can see it's going to be a long year and this is just one person I'm dealing with so far. "Honey," I said, "It's actually not the FAT that's the problem. It's all the chemicals and dairy and spices and - bleck - I'm done with it. This is fine! It's really fine." He stared into his mixed batch of stuff and shook his head.

But, it was fine. I admit had I normally been there I would have had all that other stuff and it was a slight shock and a little weird but I have to realize what I stand to gain. Then I discovered the mushrooms tasted great all on their own and the carrots were really sweet compared to the rest of the mix, and this is only day two at this point. I have gotten used to other new food before and liked it. I can do the same with this. It's not that I didn't like it, I did, I just have to give myself time to adjust without all the 'normal' stuff we do to food.

We came by my house to grab my daughter's skates and I grabbed a banana at the same time. He looked at me funny. I said, "Hey, get used to it. I eat all the time." And I have to say, it's not a problem. It feels natural.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you just why it feels natural. In the meantime, don't forget to check out my Fitday journal if you want to follow my food and exercise. Hopefully I won't need 'Dr. Bayer' for much longer.

I'm off to go throw myself in the pool! YAY!

Day 2 Apple + Apple

Can't remember the last time I had so many new starts. As of yesterday (the 1st...) I'm the thrilled new owner of an iMac. Buh bye PC. So, apples in my diet and on my desktop - it's all good! It's kinda like working organically. No more worms, viruses or things I don't need polluting my system. YAY!

Speaking of apples, my ex-BF (who is just a good friend now) called me this morning about our plans to do some shopping and then grabbing a bite to eat this evening. I had already warned him a few days ago of my impending food changes and said that if we were to eat out, I'd need somewhere that had salads and/or fruit. He's a pretty healthy guy but I was really happy when he took my plan to heart. Sadly, the first thing he said was, "Well then let's go to the Cheesecake Factory, they have great salads!"

Umm yeah and CHEESECAKE! Yikes, I get to face cheesecake at day 2? Seriously, I have no desire whatsoever for cheesecake but the truth is, I'm just going to get a big bowl of salad with no dressing and nothing fancy - no candied walnuts, no seeded flatbreads, no funny fried noodle things poking out from everywhere. That's gonna be hella-expensive for just some greens, plus no fresh fruit available. I suggested we go to Hometown Buffet instead as I'd be able to pick exactly what I wanted, plus I have a coupon for a free meal. It doesn't get much better than that! So in his message this morning he 'warns me not to eat too much this morning' since we're going to eat out to a big buffet for dinner.

OKAY! Let me just make this very clear to people who might be considering this lifestyle change. It's imperative you eat enough food everyday and even more importantly, throughout the day, lest you be running yourself over to Arby's and having all of the '5 for $5' as my friend Dana says. If you stay well-fueled on the foods you're supposed to eat, you simply will not want the ones you're not supposed to eat. That's what makes this different than how I've ever eaten before and I'm not alone in that discovery.

So, sorry Martin. I'm going to fill up on a lot of fruit for breakfast and lunch because I need to eat and I'll be really ready to eat again later on today, trust me!

Day 1 ...and I'm Feeling Good

I thought this day would never arrive. All these years of learning, contemplating and changing my diet so I could eat in a way that was totally natural to monkeys. LOL! Finally January 1. I'm so ready to do this. I didn't even go crazy and eat a bunch of stuff I'd 'never get again'. I'm so over that. I had a few things in the last days: A cup of coffee, a little chocolate, a sandwich on Christmas day but nothing crazy. Thing was, those things weren't even good when I ate them. So, I'm ready!

Got up today, had a great breakfast of a banana, orange, pear and cantaloupe. Walked 1.5 miles and swam .6 of a mile, or 10 lengths. Hey, I gotta work back up to my former two miles in the pool, which will be 132 lengths. I can't even imagine that right now and I did that for years. It used to take me 2 hours. Today I eeked out 10 lousy lengths. What a joke but hey, gotta start somewhere. I really thought I'd kick out more than that. Well, just getting over surgery. Yep, that's my story. You know what though, I am such a fish I just love how I feel after I swim. I nearly cried when I got back in the pool I was so happy to be there. The pool is salt water so no chlorine but the jacuzzi has chlorine. Hate to admit it but I love how I can still smell the salt and the chlorine on me when I'm done. I LOVE TO SWIM! In fact, my custom license plate frame says, Swim More. Quack Less.

Had a big salad for lunch. I was so craving it. First time in my life, however, I've not had salad dressing. I admit I stood there making one of those :/ faces for a while, trying to think of what was legal to pour over it. I know I can make a pureed red pepper and tahini dressing or something but I decided to just tough out out. I sprinkled the teeniest amount of ground red pepper and off I went. It was very good. I didn't miss the dressing at all. All the veggies were great. I probably shouldn't have had a whole avocado - it spiked my fat for the day but it was pretty ripe and needed to be eaten. C'est la vie. The rest of the day may still balance it out, though.

Some of the questions I have about what might be possible:
Can I reduce the puffiness in my face, jawline and around my eyes?
Will I finally wake up after just 8 hours of sleep and actually feel really good for once?
Will I finally have energy to get through my day instead of dragging myself through it in tears?
Will my skin clear up and stop breaking out?
How flat can I get my belly?
Will I look younger? Many people guess I'm mid 30's right now. What will they guess when I reach my goals?
Will I no longer need vitamin supplements?
Will this help me endure menopause thanks to my recent hysterectomy? I hope so!
Will I ever be able to bend over and put on my shoes without needing a nap afterwards?
Will the vision come back in my right eye? The loss is considered congenital but once in a while I will actually have crystal clear vision out of it. It's a very, very rare occurrence but I'd love to regain my sight in that eye. The fact it returns once in a blue moon tells me there is hope for the future, despite the doctors being clueless and pessimistic.


Some of the other things I'm looking at doing for myself are:
Going to bed by 10 pm so my body doesn't kick in its 2nd wind and screw up my cortisol.
Getting up early everyday and getting my 'me time' in before the onslaught of my life takes over.
Cleaning up/out one room at a time of clutter. No, my house doesn't look like some NY apartment with paths everywhere. I just want to clean out the cabinets and closets so I can find stuff and think again!

My first pick: The kitchen pantry. I'm going to schedule a day for this and then get on it.

Enjoying my waterlogged self today very much and feeling good!