Still At It

Well nobody's perfect and certainly not us. We fell for a lot of temptations on a vacation to Houston with family this fall and it was so hard to get back on track but we did miss eating raw and the way it made us feel so great. So here we are in Dec/January and we have been doing much better! I have learned a few things since starting this blog:

1. I'm glad I didn't buy my own Vit-A-Mix because it's so loud and so far my blender and Magic Bullet have been just fine. Although the V.A.M. is good to use if you are going to put a whole food in there to be blended and that is my goal down the road but I will buy some hearing protection first :)

2. I'm glad that I have stuck with my cheap RonCo food dehydrator. When I'm a pro at this raw food thing then I will buy the ultra nice dehydrator with a thermostat.

3. I added a good quality probiotic to my diet.

4. Entirely cutting out ALL sugar has been key to keeping my bloodsugar at awesome levels which also allows me to feel great all day long and not grumpy and tired.

5. Our daughter cannot have ANY sugar, grains, dairy, or strawberries. These lead to either a rash on her face, a horrible temper, or all the above plus a very snotty nose. Eliminating these all at the same time have made our days much happier with much less discipline needed.

6. Rent workout DVD's from your library. It keeps things fresh and without having to buy a collection of your own. We have found this fun to do together and kids love watching grownups do exercises...mostly right by your feet.

So 6 positive things since we've started...not too bad!

Preparing Meals

We're over one month into our raw food diet. It's going well and I am getting better and braver at preparing our meals. Breakfast starts out by making a smoothie in my vita-mix blender. Good pairings are frozen banana, raspberries, blueberries, flax meal, 8 oz water, and spinach. Another yummy recipe is frozen banana, frozen peaches, frozen cherries, flax meal, 8 oz water, and spinach or other leafy green. Work up to how much of the greens you put in and if you need a sweetener then raw agave nectar is excellent.
Lunch is still hit or miss but I have been pretty good at cutting out soft drinks for the past week. I was trying to get away with it but it wasn't working because they always make me get sick in about 5 or so days. They weren't worth it and I've noticed that redness on my face has cleared up.
Dinner is usually fun to make but I really have to plan one or two days ahead of time what I'm going to prepare. Carol Alt has a good book called the Raw 50 that has good recipes but take a while. I like to create things so I'm enjoying it but if we don't have time then I make much simpler meals.
My husband has lost about 13 pounds; and me about 4 pounds and 1% body fat. I think we're looking and feeling better all the time!

My Hand Me Down Vita-Mix

My grandparents bought a Vita-Mix in the 80's and I think I saw them use it a couple of times. Of course nobody in my family ever gives anything away so they still have it but now it's home is in my mother's house and as of this weekend it has come to live with me for a while.
I found a recipe to make an avocado soup with all kinds of other veggies in it. It sounded pretty good but keep in mind you can't really heat up the mixture like you have learned to do your whole life. We kept an opened mind as we tried our soup last night....and it was pretty bad! Maybe I made it wrong but it was really frothy. So we had as much as we could handle before we gagged and made a peach spinach smoothie for dinner instead. I don't think we will ever forget that soup for as long as we live; it made quite an impression!

Staying Raw on Vacation

This weekend we traveled up to Colorado Springs. It was great weather but I think I was going through a cleansing effect. I've heard of it before but had never experienced it for myself. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't pleasant. For about 3 days I felt like I had the flu which consisted of body aches and fever. It was weird because I didn't feel the kind of sick I would normally associate with a flu so I am guessing it was a cleansing effect from all the good healthy food I've been eating lately. It's crazy to think that my body would purge out all of the gross stuff it's been collecting for a while that way but at least some of it is gone!
We did much better than normal when we ate out which was all of the time. At least on this vacation we would eat salads first instead of filling up on all of the favorite appetizers we would have devoured before our change. I think we are headed down the right trail so far.

The first ups and downs

We are very early in our quest. Today started a little rough because it's very difficult to give up a dish that we are so good at making and enjoy. I'm not going to point fingers at who is having a rough patch in our blog because it is personal so I'll just keep it anonymous for now. However, later in the day things perked up after one of us noticed some physical changes for the better! That can really make you reevaluate the situation and then feel better about the decision you made to eat raw and leave the comfort food behind. This is harder for some people than others. We have found in our first 5 days that we have lots of extra time on our hands so we have to be creative and think of beneficial things to do with that time. Who wouldn't like a little extra time?

We drove to a neighboring town and found a great Greek place someone has mentioned before and found a mostly raw lunch. It was awesome! Then we went to a health food store and checked out a new golf store that turned out to be a place where you can play simulated golf with your own clubs! That sounded like a great date night for us in the future.

Who knew eating a raw diet would make you have lots of free time?!

You're So Young, You're Healthy...Right?

Well, maybe but maybe not. We have our share of health problems and we don't need anymore coming our way. Our blog will be an account of how we are reversing our ailments and also instilling values in a family. We have skin issues and blood sugar issues to name two good reasons to switch to a raw food diet. Now, if you are wondering if we are going to eat raw meat, then let me tell you that we will not do that. We are excited for what's down the road for us so keep checking our updates as we get more familiar with what we are doing!