Best news in a while!

I have such gratitude today.

I woke up with a headache two days ago, have not been sleeping well, and have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster in the past couple days but...

I was so used to waiting 40+ days in between periods that it surprised me...I got my period this morning!

Yes, I have been tracking my cycles with Clearblue for the past 3 months and this time it was day 34. By my calculations that means it's been 28-29 days. Regular cycle for me after about two years of irregularity!!!

Coincidence that I've been playing around with the Raw Til 4 diet for about a month or two? I THINK NOT. :)

Picking Myself Up

After my second day all raw (fruit) during the day I am finally feeling better.

Here was part of my lunch yesterday:

Unfortunately, I drank too much at a work party and then went to a low-grade Chinese buffet afterward with my s.o. I guess I can't be "normal" and eat like others and I'm officially okay with that. On the ride home, we had to pull over so I could find a bathroom to vomit. SO NOT WORTH IT.

This diet is the way to go. I need to forge ahead.

Food

I definitely believe I can do the high carb low fat vegan (Raw Til 4) lifestyle because it not only makes sense, but it's about FOOD.
If I could do an all fruits n veggies diet right now, I would because I know it would be optimum. However, coming from a life of pasta, bread, fish, chinese, indian, etc. etc. etc. it makes so much sense to do Raw Til 4. I've mentioned that there is a great group on Facebook of the same name and it has a guidelines document, but this is essentially it:

Fruit until 4pm - A LOT of it, preferably calorie dense like bananas, dates, etc. "Monomeals" - one kind of fruit at a time - are the best for smooth, effecient digestion.

Carb up for dinner! AT LEAST 500 calories of rice, potatoes, corn pasta, veggies, and low sodium sauce. (no overt fats like oil)

I remember a Raw Group event that I attended in NYC at least 4-5 years ago. It was held at Bonobo's, actually, and I do still love their food though I always thought their presentation/eating space was bland. I had worked a long day at work and was quite hungry. I used to get the little salads at Hale and Hearty (place where they toss a custom salad) but always the cheapest ones with the "basics" (onion, cucumber, and one more veggie I can't remember, and sometimes croutons when I was "treating myself") so I'm sure I'd had one of those at least 5 hours previous to this. So I wait around and everyone's just sitting there, not really talking. So I'm like "well, I guess I'll order real quick" and I ordered the largest salad with some veggies, maybe some of the nut pates (yummy) but not much.

I went back to the table and only one or two others had any food and everyone stared at me. Gawked. And I'm like okayyyy, I'll just nibble. Slowly, the latecomers showed up and people finally got food. Little salads that they poked their forks in and played with. Overall, there were nice people and one very large woman who was doing a juice fast (I thought how brave she was and what a warrior). No one got dessert - amazing fruit sorbets and honey ball thingys - so I didn't (mostly due to my wallet).

Later, I mentioned something online on the forum about "nice to meet you" and I must have had a question and the "leader" responded: "Oh, you're the one with the huge salad". -I was salad shamed! It seems funny now, but really, what kind of bull$hit is that?

The other Raw Group event I attended, not the same group, mind you, was at some kind of holistic meeting center with a bunch of small spaces for rent. The "leader/speaker" talked for a while and made us repeat "cooked food is poison". He went on to say a lot of good things, as I recall, about raw fruits and veggies, etc....and then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell over. I hope I didn't scream but I might have. After they revived him, he said he was sorry and that he hadn't eaten for a few days. *Now, I am not necessarily condemning fasting for spiritual growth because who am I to question the ways of people who have done it for thousands of years?* BUT it perturbed me. A LOT. Some of the group somewhat angrily rebuffed canceling the rest of the workshop just because he had collapsed. I did not and I left.

I am recounting these stories because I (thank god!!!) do not have an eating disorder. I have wonderful self-esteem (I try), am loved, and am a staunch feminist in a society where women kowtow in mind, body, and spirit on a consistent basis. I want to eat and I want to be healthy. PERIOD.

Yes, I hope to be much more fruit n veggie based but this lifestyle (Raw Til 4) is so awesome right now that I am just trying to focus on staying with it! I fell off the wagon this weekend and my body is very unhappy. But I am back and forging forward.

Also, for example, eating a bowl of corn pasta (WAY better than the whole wheat or brown rice stuff in my opinion) just makes me happy. Granted, it took me 33 years to realize it's not the PASTA I adore, but the fat. Okay, so I like the pasta a lot, but I ADORE the fat. I never put that together, if you can believe it. Even now, my s.o. is having problems eating a large bowl of pasta with low sodium sauce. This is a man who, before meeting me, in his singledom, ate entire Stouffer's (Hungry Man?) lasagnas. Yes, the big frozen ones. It's the fat and salt, hello???! It makes so much sense now. Salt is so goddamned addicting. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I can't have any. The actuality is much harder, but we'll see.

So far today for breakfast I've had 10 bananas. (split into 2 smoothies, one with some frozen blueberries) Lots of water (sorry, not sure how much)

I'm having the very practical problem of not having large enough containers. The other day my husband's container exploded out of the fridge when his coworker opened the fridge door [too packed --> 80 employees one fridge (sounds like 2 girls one cup = DISGUSTING! Lol)]. One container down! I'm looking for mason jars and big glass jugs that can measure my water effectively.

Love to my mother on her birthday. I miss you so much <3

Trying to Post More

So after a couple weeks high carb low fat vegan (Raw Til 4 group on Facebook is great), I fell off the wagon this weekend.

I have realized a few things:

I thought there were cravings and hunger. But honestly, once I have gotten back to bananas and fruit, I realize that what I have always thought of as hunger are also cravings. Not I need chocolate now! Not salty or sweet crazy cravings. But rather, "I'm hungry. I'd like a ___." When I eat bananas, for breakfast for example, I never crave them but when I'm drinking my smoothie it feels RIGHT. It's a different kind of hunger and sense of being satiated. So if I stay on fruit and high carb, I hope this will be a way of life.

I've also realized that it's harder to go back to a SAD diet filled with fat because every time I fall, my body rejects it more. I.e. my stomach hurts, my body aches, and I feel generally crappy.

I Needed to Hear This!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGGQxJLuVjg

CSAs

My lunch banana smoothie is one I left in the work fridge form yesterday for time-saving. It seems to have separated into foam (which I've gotten through) and juicy banana liquid. Blech. Almost spat that out onto my keyboard but restrained myself. What is up with that, fair bananas?

There are these cashew cluster things at work that I believe the office manager gets at Costco. Man, are they good.

I hope they're not insanely bad for me, but I don't think so.














I am thinking about joining a CSA. The commitment scares me but I've gotten over that in life so why not with vegetables? :)

This one I have bought from at the farmer's market, as well as attended their pot luck/pig roast which was so awesome.

Johnson's Backyard Farm

This one is the oldest in the state, supposedly:

Tecolote Farms

And this one is just cute and in a "blighted" neighborhood which I love:

Green Gate Farms

I wonder if there are a lot more pros than just buying what I want at a farmer's market.

Hmm...

Lunch piccy

Thought I'd throw this in here. My second banana smoothie for lunch and my apple snack. :)