Saturday: Day #6 of my raw food detox

Yestday was different. I didn't feel like eating. I only had 2 green smoothies and some celery sticks. Then in the late afternoon I saw that my menstrual cycle has returned for the first time after labor. Isn't that a joy? lol. It wasn't accompanied by any of the normal ailments that I was used to having on my first day, and I know it's because of the detox. However, it does explain the craving for ooey gooey chocolate the other day! Why does that happen??

So today I was upstairs washing a baby bottle when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Is that me? I looked so thin to myself. I felt so lean and sexy! I quickly began passionately ripping off my clothes as I ran down the stairs towards Pierre's office...to weigh myself! lol. 182.0 lbs. I've lost a little over 7lbs in 5 days. It feels nice, but I'm not overly excited about that since this is only a one week thing - or is it?

I'm definitely getting tired of just the light salads, fruits and smoothies I've been eating this week...but I think with a little added fats and grains, I could keep this up. The two foods I definitely want to eliminate from my diet are animal products and gluten. I know that encompases a lot, but I find those to be the most harmful and addicting to the body. I want to leave those foods for occasional rare moments, instead of the everyday staple they have been in my diet. Notice I did NOT say I will never eat those foods again. I am no longer that naive.

My journey continues

Friday: Day #5 of my raw food detox

It's definitely early to be reporting about today's events, but there are some things I needed to write down and I didn't want to forget. Also, the day is pretty jam packed and I didn't want to NOT write. I will write more about how the rest of today goes tomorrow.

Last night I didn't go to be until around midnight again, even though Pierre took Juliette around 10:30 for the rest of the night. I think I got a little overconfident that I didn't need as much sleep because I was sleeping deeper (quality over quantity type of thing). Not true. When your body is detoxing, you need MORE sleep. Just because it is taking a break from difficult digestion doesn't mean it's taking a break completely. It's going in there and meticulously dealing with all the little issues we don't even see or feel, issues that would cause serious problems down the road if left undealt with. We really take our youth for granted. At this point we can pretty much do anything to our bodies and not feel a thing except for the occasional ache/pain/runny nose. Yet we see the serious health issues that plague the elderly of our nation. Those things didn't just happen over night, but after a lifetime of neglect. Anyway, I'm getting preachy. lol back to my day.

I ended up having to wake up around 4:30am to feed Juliette and I was like a zombie. I lost my balance and hit the wall (lol) on my way to the bathroom. I was in bed until after 10am this morning and definitely feeling that my body is working hard. The skin on my face feels sooo soft and the dark circles under my eyes have gotten noticably lighter to me. I've lost a few pounds, too. I haven't done any formal exercise this week other than those 15 minutes of Taebo the other day, although I've been doing lots of housework and carrying Joshua around. At 1pm, I'm going to listen to a live fitness teleseminar with Yuri Elkaim - leading fitness guru blah blah blah:) You can join in at this link . If you miss it, you can still go to that link and listen to it whenever you want (like the daylight diet teleseminar).

I was actually craving some ooey gooey chocolately stuff last night before going to bed. Don't worry, I didn't cave - but it was the first craving I had felt the entire week. No cravings this morning. I made a nice big green smoothie with apple, banana, pineapple, pear, kale and spinach. Why do I always use kale in my green smoothies? Because I don't like the way it tastes and I can't taste it in the smoothie :) Kale is wonderful for you. You can click here to read about all the benefits of this leafy green.

Why do I always end up writing more when I think I have nothing to write? lol

PS: I just realized the teleseminar is being webcast live as well. Yay! No phone necesary :)

Thursday: Day #4 of my raw food detox

I'm supposed to be showering right now. Pierre came home and is watching the kiddos for me so I can do that. Yes, even showers have to be scheduled these days. I'm upstairs on my bed on the laptop. How naughty. lol.

Anyway, today was good. I'm starting to feel light as a feather - although the scale quickly reminds me I am no feather, my friend. I experienced insatiable hunger today between 3-5pm, so I just kept eating - a HUGE salad, a mango, a green smoothie. Haha, writing that out it doesn't seem like I ate a lot but it felt like a lot compared to the past few days. Joshua, Pierre and I enjoyed some banana/kale smoothies today. Joshua is actually starting to ask for salad :) I feel my body getting into a nice rhythm and I'm starting to think about what I want my lifestyle to be like beyond this week. Good stuff.

In other news, I signed up for the Clutter Free Diva Program at rawdivas.com. I am super excited about that. I start next Monday. Here is the fabulous testimony about that. The program costs $198 (I missed the month of January when they were running a 1/2 price sale). It's a 30-day program and looks awesome, but that price was more than I wanted to pay for cyber support. So yesterday I emailed Tera (the main chic at Raw Divas), told her I was really interested in the declutter program and that I am a photographer/graphics designer. I asked if I could make an exchange for goods/services. She agreed and signed me up right away! Yeah boyeeeee. That experience totally changed the way I view business. There should always be an exchange, but it doesn't always have to be money.

PS: Has anyone listened to Paul Nison's Daylight Diet interview I mentioned in yesterday's blog? It's eye-opening. Just the one small change of not eating when it's dark out (or 6pm, whichever comes first) will really make a difference in your health. Try it! :)

Wednesday: Day #3 of my raw food detox

Whew. I heard day 3 is the toughest day. It is tough - but not in the way that I thought. I'm not craving cooked foods, fats or grains. I'm not yearning for chocolate or wishing for a glass of OJ. The food part of it is just fine, actually - except for the feeling that I'm losing my sense of smell/taste. I don't think that's supposed to happen. It must be this cold my body was fighting off making its last tada before exiting. I'll ask Paul Nison about it.

The tough part is totally emotional.

This morning I woke up to find my in-laws had slept over last night. Apparently Joshua started throwing up in the middle of the night and Pierre tried to wake me, but couldn't, so he called them and they came rushing over. The funny thing is that I had listened to Paul Nison's interview about his new book, The Daylight Diet, which basically says that if you don't eat after dark you will automatically lose weight and have much deeper sleep. He wasn't kidding! Due to newborn duties, I didn't get to sleep until after midnight - but I didn't eat after 6pm. The last thing I remember is my head hitting the pillow. I missed the entire hussle and bussle of Joshua screaming because he had thrown up, Pierre running around cleaning everything, Joshua then pooping so bad that he had to be thrown in the tub, Pierre calling his mom, and them coming over to perform some old skool remedies that had him running around just fine by the time I awoke. THAT'S deep sleep. I don't think I like it. Pierre said he even shook me.

I was very embarrased to have my in-laws thinking I chose to sleep in lieu of caring for my son who wasn't feeling well. How could I explain that I really didn't hear a thing? Not to mention the fact that when I did see Joshua in the morning and tried to give him a hug, he yelled, "NOOOOOOO" (in usual toddler fashion), wriggled out of my arms and went running to his grandma. On top of that, my home was not ready for middle of the night surprise guests (is it ever?) so not only did I come off looking like an unfit mother, I was a sloppy one, too. She took it upon herself to do some laundry I had in the basement because, and I quote, "if you are ever sick upstairs and someone comes over and sees this they will say, 'this woman is a slob'...that's what they'd say." Thank you. Although I was extremely grateful they had come over and done everything they did, I was a bit of an emotional wreck over the whole thing - detox or no detox - teetering between conviction and condemnation.

Once they left the day should've gone back to normal, but it didn't. This is the detox part. Everything just felt really off. I don't know how to explain it. I just prayed in my heavenly language and put on some praise/worship music. That helped. Things feel a bit more normal now.

On a lighter note (yay!), I made the most fabulous kale/pineapple green smoothie today. It was delicious, as opposed to the brown smoothie I ended up making yesterday without a recipe. lol. Pierre and Joshua loved it! The saga continues.

Tuesday: Day #2 of my detox

WHOAAA...this is awesome. I'm told that day 3 is the "make it or break it" day - we'll see about that. Day 2 is FAB-U-LOUS!! I have a TON of energy. In today's email I was told that adding some exercise to my week will double and triple my results - sounds good to me! So I put on my sports bra, dusted off my sneakers and decided to do 15 minutes of Taebo. I set my oven timer and before I knew it, BEEP BEEP BEEP! I had hardly broken a sweat...but definitely felt my muscles working so decided I shouldn't over exert myself on the first day. Normally 15 minutes of Taebo after such a long exercise hiatus would've done me in and exhausted me for the rest of the day. What a great feeling to do a little exercise and feel MORE energy.

In other news, I've prayed more today than I have in a long while. I'm excited to cuddle up with a good book this evening after Joshua is in bed (namely, the book of Isaiah). I'm starting to think about all the ways I can declutter and really clean my home. Love it.

I also realized something else. When I went raw for 35 days, I was making a ton of raw gourmet recipes (I'm actually craving the raw zucchini hummus...yum!!). I did not eat a lot of veggies as is, like I'm doing now. Even though everything I was eating was raw, it was all spiced up, dehydrated, smothered and/or reconstituted to taste like something else. Did I lose weight? Yup! Did I get my poor eating habits under control? Nope . If anything, they were made worse because the recipes I was making took so long to prepare, my life pretty much revolved around food. With this fast, I'm eating very simply, and rediscovering how good things taste in their natural state.

Awesome.

I also signed up for a 90 day program with the raw divas. They're currently on day #8 so I read all the blogs from the past week and am caught up. The first month is focused on not eating any gluten or dairy, which I'm not eating this week anyway. Good stuff.

AND I reconnected with my friend, Paul Nison, who is an awesome raw food teacher and lover of Yeshua. www.paulnison.com

Overall great day :)

Monday: Day #1 of the detox

As of 2:30pm today, I have officially been on a water fast for 24 hours. I was supposed to start at 6pm yesterday, but it was dinner time before I realized I was supposed to be fasting so I just skipped it and haven't eaten since. Technically I could eat now, since it's supposed to be a 24 hour fast...but I will wait until the specified 6pm to gorge on some bananas.

The funny thing is that I am not craving any specific foods. I'm craving television. I haven't watched TV in a really long time (don't remember when I stopped but it was sometime last Fall). I've watched certain programs on the internet, but that doesn't count. I'm talking about laying on the couch with the remote in your hand, flipping through the channels at whim, mindlessly listening to the noise of advertisers and laugh tracks (do they even have those anymore?). I'm talking about totally vegging out - no pun intended. That's what I'm craving.

I absolutely use food to entertain myself and avoid being truly present in the moment. Not all the time, but I do it. Without food, my soul craves another thing that would allow me to vacate. Funny how the thought of reading the Word hadn't even crossed my mind until a friend suggested it. I'm starting to understand how I got here.

As of lunch time today I am 189.8 pounds.

Starting a 7 day detox tomorrow

Since I got prego with Juliette until now, I have been eating horrendously and not exercising a lick. Juliette is 7 weeks old today and as she's starting her week of new beginnings, so will I. OK, I didn't actually plan to do this on her 8th week, but it sounds good and Hebrew and all that.

I will be doing a 7 day raw food detox. I've gone raw for 35 days in the past, only to return to eating cooked foods like no body's business - so I'm honestly a bit sceptic that 7 days will make any sort of big difference. However, like my pastor said today, I am not a sceptic - I am a creator. I am choosing to co-create the life that I was designed to have before the foundations of the earth. Yeah boyeeee.

The detox calls for fasting from 6pm tonight until 6pm tomorrow night (the first official day of the detox). The fast is broken in the evening with a monofruit meal. Then I will basically be having lots of water, salads, fruits and sprouts for 7 days. No fats like nuts or avocados which are very common in the raw food diet. This detox focuses on greens, which have basically become extinct around here.

My body is fighting off some germs and viruses right now, so I'm happy to give it a break from all the heavy digesting. I'm looking forward to getting back on track because I know that this food thing affects so many other aspects of life. I realize that my mental clarity and emotional fortitude depend so much on how this earth suit is functioning.

So here we go!

PS: Here are a few things I read today on the detox website that stuck out to me...

1. Honor where you’re at. You will ALWAYS be able to find something you don’t like about yourself. Whether you’ve got dimpled thighs, a bulging stomach, thick arms, or a double chin, you are deliciously sexy and desirable. Haha, that's great.

2. Honor your body and all the hard work it does. Every CELL is carrying on an orchestra of activity in your honor. So celebrate it. Indeed.

3. Digestion and managing emotions require so much energy from the body's resources that it has a hard time doing both simultaneously. This is why when some people are stressed or upset, they lose their appetite. It’s also why others of us, who are more likely to suppress our emotions, will EAT when we are stressed. This suppresses our body’s ability to process and experience our emotions as they’re happening. Whoa.

WARNING: do NOT join facebook!

I joined facebook and I'm stuck now. As of February 4th, they signed a new Terms of Service saying that they can do whatever they want with any of your information and photos (including leasing them to 3rd parties) even if you delete your account. In other words, everything you upload to facebook can be used in any which way they want, forever.

Read about it here.

I'm starting a petition and will fight back (you know me!), but I'm just sending this out as a warning. If you are not a member of facebook, do not join now.

Yadi

Uh...

Yesterday I had a dull headache for the majority of the day until it turned into a full blown migrain in the evening. This morning I awoke with the dull ache again. During the prayer call, Gloria said she needed prayer because she has had a headache for two days - so of course I piped in with a "me, too!" Pastor Dan said that it was a spiritual attack to keep us from hearing and writing down what Yahweh was trying to tell us. There ended up being two more people with headaches so he told the four of us to close our eyes and write what we see, no matter how [adjective that would cause us to think we shouldn't write it].

Joshua is asleep in his crib. Juliette is asleep in her moby wrap (which I got yesterday and LOVE)...so this is a good time for me to close my eyes and write.

I see a grey concrete wall, like the Berlin wall or something, and soldiers standing guard with their rifles, marching back and forth. They are wearing dark blue uniforms, hats and long black boots. They are young boys. I see planes flying overhead. Bombs falling. It's a war. I see civilians running for their lives - women with long dresses holding children in their arms. I see abandoned sheep. Literally, sheep, in their pens, abandoned. I see an older man sitting behind his desk, smoking a cigar, watching all the commotion out of his window, sitting back and observing it all. He is the cause of the war.

...and now both childen have awakened. Figures. lol. I'll be back.

Sweet sound of construction

Last year in March a tree fell on our home (read post here). This week they started the construction to fix it all - the roof, chimney, front porch, and gutters. Another tree fell in the back yard a few months later, breaking the fence, and they're fixing that as well. Yay! I've never been so happy to hear such loud obnoxious noises and to have half a dozen strangers in my yard all day long. Good stuff. In other news, just when I decide to really advertise myself and get my photography business out there (through my lactation specialist, midwife and others), my computer decides to completely crash. I cannot access any of the photos I have taken (although Pierre assures me they're all still there and I have seen them remotely from one of his systems). I cannot get to the pictures on my camera, nor can I access photoshop...AND all my email access has been suspended most likely because my computer was sending out viruses. Can you imagine the withdrawal I'm going through??! Haha at destruction thou shall laugh. That's hilarious. As soon as everything is up and running again, try and stop me! I'm still taking photos even though I can't get to them. So what. Just do it. In yet other news, Pierre and I had an awesome talk this morning about his ultimate calling and we're both ready to truly seek Yahweh and move forward with what has been confirmed over and over. He realized that everything I've been trying to accomplish with POC, the school, dance, music, etc, can only go so far without him embracing what he's called to do. He's not just there to cheer from the sideline as he thought, he's there to be a major part of it all. If anything, all that I am doing is a small part of what he's supposed to be doing. We're sober and ready to step into divine destiny together. He promised not to let me die spiritually. I promise not to let him slink back ever again. Yahweh is reconstructing our home in more ways than one.