Well it's officially day six. Starting on day 5 I did make a little change. If I feel that I want to eat dinner with the family, I can eat a sensible dinner. It's funny, even though I had dinner last night, I found that tonight I didn't even care to eat. It makes it a little easier to know that you can have something to eat if you want to, but since you can, you really may not even want to.
I am a total weirdo.
As of right now, the juicing has me having a lot of extra energy. I don't feel like I need to take a nap in the middle of the day and I no longer feel hungry anymore. I'm thinking about starting to up my exercise due to my energy amounts.
Tonight I was online and found a new item that I want, so I asked my husband if I could buy it as my Christmas present.... it was a wheat grass juicer. I've heard so many good things about wheat grass, that now I want to try it out.
I love how I feel while I am juicing... :)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
I'm at it again... Day 4
It's been awhile... :)
So a couple days ago, I started to have some pains in my side which reminded me of gallbladder pain. It really made me freak out since I don't want to have my gallbladder removed. I consider it a blessing in disguise because I probably needed something medically to happen in order for me to recommit myself to being more healthy. So I decided to start to try a juicing fast again - goal...60 days..... (trying to copy Joe from FSND)
I found the first day much easier since I was in pain in my right side and it was my constant reminder that I needed to juice. By the second day I only had pain for about 15 minutes throughout the entire day. By the third day, my pain was completely gone, and they were having a potluck at work.... Believe it or not, I did not touch a single thing except for my juice, and I was very proud of myself. Now on day four, I am feeling pretty refreshed when I wake up in the morning and not having very many food cravings - it is more so just having the desire to want to eat. I relate it to the feeling a smoker may have when they want to just go through the motions and hold something in their hands.
I will admit though, that I do allow myself to eat raw fruits and/or vegetables if I feel the need. Usually I will only have an apple or kale, though with each day, although the need for eating them is becoming less and less since the juice is filling enough.
I want to be able to weigh myself, but I haven't quite decided when I am going to do that. The scale has been my enemy so many times with each effort since it doesn't move in increments of 20 on a daily basis... (lol...) For that reason, I am purposely avoiding the scale until I have seen majorly noticeable results so that I can keep my focus on the other benefits of juicing.
I have missed blogging... but I do intend to try to make it more of a priority. Hope everyone is doing well!
So a couple days ago, I started to have some pains in my side which reminded me of gallbladder pain. It really made me freak out since I don't want to have my gallbladder removed. I consider it a blessing in disguise because I probably needed something medically to happen in order for me to recommit myself to being more healthy. So I decided to start to try a juicing fast again - goal...60 days..... (trying to copy Joe from FSND)
I found the first day much easier since I was in pain in my right side and it was my constant reminder that I needed to juice. By the second day I only had pain for about 15 minutes throughout the entire day. By the third day, my pain was completely gone, and they were having a potluck at work.... Believe it or not, I did not touch a single thing except for my juice, and I was very proud of myself. Now on day four, I am feeling pretty refreshed when I wake up in the morning and not having very many food cravings - it is more so just having the desire to want to eat. I relate it to the feeling a smoker may have when they want to just go through the motions and hold something in their hands.
I will admit though, that I do allow myself to eat raw fruits and/or vegetables if I feel the need. Usually I will only have an apple or kale, though with each day, although the need for eating them is becoming less and less since the juice is filling enough.
I want to be able to weigh myself, but I haven't quite decided when I am going to do that. The scale has been my enemy so many times with each effort since it doesn't move in increments of 20 on a daily basis... (lol...) For that reason, I am purposely avoiding the scale until I have seen majorly noticeable results so that I can keep my focus on the other benefits of juicing.
I have missed blogging... but I do intend to try to make it more of a priority. Hope everyone is doing well!
Monday, September 26, 2011
So this is love....
Howdy people...
It's been awhile since my last blog post... I first want to say sorry in advance.
Work and school have been keeping me extra busy, but that is no reason to ignore my blog. There is another reason my blog was ignored... It's because I wasn't being very raw...
I'm not too proud that I turned my back on the raw stuff since I know that it is the way to go. My problem was with my "all or none" mentality. I either was going to eat perfect or I wasn't going to try to do good... at all... It got really ugly.
Since then though, I have been rethinking why I do things. I was having a conversation with a co-worker about how I thought our bodies are created to be vegan (he didn't agree, which is fine) and then it made me think... If I really feel that way, what is stopping me?
I'll tell you what was stopping me... CHEESE/Dairy.
Yep, that's it. I could totally go the rest of my life without meat, but the cheese and dairy stuff... omg.. I'm in love with adding it to everything. Obviously that comes with consequences though (cancer, heart disease, cheese on your nose, etc.)
So I decided to challenge for myself one day at a time. Day one. Vegan 100%. Mind you, I wasn't eating 100% raw, maybe more like 45% raw.
Day one went pretty well, so I decided to carry the challenge over to another day.... Day two.. also went pretty well...
By day three though, I wasn't really craving cheese anymore. So I didn't really think it was much of a challenge to avoid it. So I decided I would challenge myself to make new vegan foods I have never made before (even if not raw, just vegan).
..... I fell in love all over again....
I made a vegan cheese sauce, and had it with Ezekiel bread... omg..forget about it. I found it on vegweb.com and added a few little tweeks to it.
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
(I also added a few dashes paprika, chili powder, scallions, and pepper)
1/8 teaspoon dried yellow mustard powder
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons vegan margarine (I highly recommend Willow Run for this sauce)
Directions:
1. Mix dry ingredients, add water, whisk until clumps are gone.
2. Put in pot with margarine, and heat on medium until hick.
This is a very thick sauce as it is best suited for things like Alfredo, macaroni and cheese, etc. It shouldn't get as thick as mashed potatoes, though, so be careful. You can add more water if you make it too thick, but it's supposed to be pretty thick.
Mixing salsa with this for nacho cheese with chips is great; adding onion powder and extra margarine works great to use in a scalloped potato recipe; extra garlic, margarine and parsley for Alfredo. Try scoops of it on vegan pizza.
_____________________________
Day 4 of my challenge brought me to creating a vegan reese peanut butter cup... (not for everyday consumption, but great for a treat) YUM...
What will day 5 bring?
So yea.... it's super yum, but obviously not raw. So why am I posting it here? Well, because I wanted to let you know that I am going to have 2 blogs now. This way I won't keep having my internal conflict about being a bad person if I post something that is not raw. So without making a long story longer, here is my new page... :)
http://rockstarvegannurse.blogspot.com/
It's been awhile since my last blog post... I first want to say sorry in advance.
Work and school have been keeping me extra busy, but that is no reason to ignore my blog. There is another reason my blog was ignored... It's because I wasn't being very raw...
I'm not too proud that I turned my back on the raw stuff since I know that it is the way to go. My problem was with my "all or none" mentality. I either was going to eat perfect or I wasn't going to try to do good... at all... It got really ugly.
Since then though, I have been rethinking why I do things. I was having a conversation with a co-worker about how I thought our bodies are created to be vegan (he didn't agree, which is fine) and then it made me think... If I really feel that way, what is stopping me?
I'll tell you what was stopping me... CHEESE/Dairy.
Yep, that's it. I could totally go the rest of my life without meat, but the cheese and dairy stuff... omg.. I'm in love with adding it to everything. Obviously that comes with consequences though (cancer, heart disease, cheese on your nose, etc.)
So I decided to challenge for myself one day at a time. Day one. Vegan 100%. Mind you, I wasn't eating 100% raw, maybe more like 45% raw.
Day one went pretty well, so I decided to carry the challenge over to another day.... Day two.. also went pretty well...
By day three though, I wasn't really craving cheese anymore. So I didn't really think it was much of a challenge to avoid it. So I decided I would challenge myself to make new vegan foods I have never made before (even if not raw, just vegan).
..... I fell in love all over again....
I made a vegan cheese sauce, and had it with Ezekiel bread... omg..forget about it. I found it on vegweb.com and added a few little tweeks to it.
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
(I also added a few dashes paprika, chili powder, scallions, and pepper)
1/8 teaspoon dried yellow mustard powder
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons vegan margarine (I highly recommend Willow Run for this sauce)
Directions:
1. Mix dry ingredients, add water, whisk until clumps are gone.
2. Put in pot with margarine, and heat on medium until hick.
This is a very thick sauce as it is best suited for things like Alfredo, macaroni and cheese, etc. It shouldn't get as thick as mashed potatoes, though, so be careful. You can add more water if you make it too thick, but it's supposed to be pretty thick.
Mixing salsa with this for nacho cheese with chips is great; adding onion powder and extra margarine works great to use in a scalloped potato recipe; extra garlic, margarine and parsley for Alfredo. Try scoops of it on vegan pizza.
_____________________________
Day 4 of my challenge brought me to creating a vegan reese peanut butter cup... (not for everyday consumption, but great for a treat) YUM...
What will day 5 bring?
So yea.... it's super yum, but obviously not raw. So why am I posting it here? Well, because I wanted to let you know that I am going to have 2 blogs now. This way I won't keep having my internal conflict about being a bad person if I post something that is not raw. So without making a long story longer, here is my new page... :)
http://rockstarvegannurse.blogspot.com/
Monday, August 22, 2011
If one things is for certain....
The last couple weeks have been filled with numerous changes. I started working part time, school starts today, my son has started school and I will soon have another son start preschool. All of these changes had me thinking about the changes I have been trying to make this summer (raw/vegan). Why is it when any other thing starts or stops that I forget what goals I have for my body?
I used to get so mad when I would think about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I thought come on people, you really had to try that apple when God specifically told you not to? As if there was not enough other options to choose from. I had it made up in my mind that if God would have picked me as Eve, that I would have made the right choice. I really truly believed that with all my heart. These days however, I could only hope that I would have made the right choice. If there is anything that I am known to make a bad choice with - it is over food. Granted Adam and Eve didn't have the food addictions that the processed foods we now have give... Ok, sorry, I shouldn't make excuses for my bad choices...but I was truly angry at them for messing it up for the rest of us.
So what causes us to make the bad decisions? I seem to think that I have more than enough time to make up for bad choices. I try to rationalize, really, what is one more day going to make a difference... there is always tomorrow. Perhaps that is why God wanted us to always focus on today, since tomorrow will have it's own worries. For me, all of my tomorrows never show up since I'm always thinking about the day after. I don't want to look back on my life and remember all of the days that I wished away because I'm always wondering about how it will feel to be at the goal. I want to enjoy my life journey and minimize the poor choices.
None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, yet we can make decisions today that would improve our chances.
So back to the garden... I wonder what kind of apple it was? I mean, if it was a honey crisp apple...
I used to get so mad when I would think about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I thought come on people, you really had to try that apple when God specifically told you not to? As if there was not enough other options to choose from. I had it made up in my mind that if God would have picked me as Eve, that I would have made the right choice. I really truly believed that with all my heart. These days however, I could only hope that I would have made the right choice. If there is anything that I am known to make a bad choice with - it is over food. Granted Adam and Eve didn't have the food addictions that the processed foods we now have give... Ok, sorry, I shouldn't make excuses for my bad choices...but I was truly angry at them for messing it up for the rest of us.
So what causes us to make the bad decisions? I seem to think that I have more than enough time to make up for bad choices. I try to rationalize, really, what is one more day going to make a difference... there is always tomorrow. Perhaps that is why God wanted us to always focus on today, since tomorrow will have it's own worries. For me, all of my tomorrows never show up since I'm always thinking about the day after. I don't want to look back on my life and remember all of the days that I wished away because I'm always wondering about how it will feel to be at the goal. I want to enjoy my life journey and minimize the poor choices.
None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, yet we can make decisions today that would improve our chances.
So back to the garden... I wonder what kind of apple it was? I mean, if it was a honey crisp apple...
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A new year, a new me...
Well I am officially 29 years old now. I decided that I wanted to make an extra effort to work on my health. The past couple of days I have not paid any attention to what optimal things I should be putting into my body. My body feels absolutely disgusting on the inside. Instead of celebrating with junk food and cake, I have decided to start the 29th year of my life with healthy foods....I am hoping to be a vegan all year, but I will be content by just being rid of meats if I'm not the perfect vegan.
This morning I had some raw granola and a banana with a big glass of water. It was so refreshing and it gave me a few ideas on some more raw recipes that I want to try out. It also reminded me that eating raw foods doesn't have to be all complicated since fruits and veggies by themselves are so yummy. It's hard to believe I even was able to get off track since things were going well for quite sometime.
I think that I feel more motivated than ever since I started having undesirable symptoms as a response to my bad foods I was eating. Here's to the last year in my 20's.... I hear the 30's are where it's at!
This morning I had some raw granola and a banana with a big glass of water. It was so refreshing and it gave me a few ideas on some more raw recipes that I want to try out. It also reminded me that eating raw foods doesn't have to be all complicated since fruits and veggies by themselves are so yummy. It's hard to believe I even was able to get off track since things were going well for quite sometime.
I think that I feel more motivated than ever since I started having undesirable symptoms as a response to my bad foods I was eating. Here's to the last year in my 20's.... I hear the 30's are where it's at!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
What are you full of?
Believe it or not, there are many qualities I have that I am proud of. I have a record of being very good at goal setting (in the academic and business world). If I have set my mind to completing something, there is a force inside me that pushes so hard even when I want to give up to keep going. Recently I was told that I have a "bulldog mentality" by a person who I care about - who was complimenting me on how hard I work towards achieving what my mind is set on. I always was proud of buying a house at 19, starting a business at 21, starting a family at 23, and now graduating college and starting a second career at 28. I never felt I was destined for great things, but I knew how to make things happen.
I have never been able to figure out this food nonsense though. Notice how I called it nonsense. In reality, food makes perfect sense. I've studied it so much to the point I know what I should be eating yet once I have a setback I have a hard time getting back on the boat and become even more discouraged by how quickly I find myself back at square one. It's simple, the crap that is on TV is typically bad for you and the stuff that grows out of the ground is what God intended for our bodies.
I once read that you can know who you really are by an analogy of a glass of liquid. The story goes on to say that you may feel you have things under control when your glass doesn't spill over from being too full. The part that I found significant was when the story said that you truly find out what you are made of when your cup becomes too full and you discover what spills out. Lets just say that lately my cup has been spewing out all over the place and I'm not to excited about what the contents of my cup are. I recently was offered a job, that I will be starting in the next few weeks and I can honestly say that I am kind of nervous. With me accepting this job, there will be many changes in my home life and it has caused me have an attitude of fear that I am not enjoying. Then throw in the staggering strep throat running through this house and the major scrub down of the house (which was well needed, though still not finished).
We have all heard the term "emotional" eating. I have never been able to relate to this concept because I have always considered myself a happy person. I have always thought that I just ate when I was bored and never tied that into emotional eating. I always thought that it meant that you had to be some crazy person who is always crying while shoving things into your face. If there have been moments of sadness with me, I find that I don't want to eat at all.
So how does this tie into my glass of liquids spilling over? I have found that as my glass has been overflowing some of my negative traits that I am not proud of are now being displayed. I have so many thoughts of the unknown swimming around in my mind. I even asked my husband to stop talking last night about the millionth thing that he wanted to buy that would make our life "easier." I explained to him that right now I need to avoid thinking about anything new until I have started working and some of my thoughts are straightened out. He went on to discuss other tasks that need to be done including the lawn. Needless to say, the lawn is not where my thoughts are.
I eventually talked to my husband once the kids were in bed and apologized about how short I have been with everything around here and explained my fears and disappointments with the upcoming job and food choices as of late. He was kind enough to understand, but must have quickly forgot by this morning when he was talking about the lawn again and briefly mentioned his desired "purchase" then asked me why I was so crabby.
My response to him was, well.... less than kind. I told him that part of the reason I appreciate him working outside the home was all I need to do is look at the clock to know when his talking will stop. That didn't go over too great and now I am getting the silent treatment. I am wondering if it is a pun to consider his silence well deserved by me. :)
My poor husband.
I don't mean to air dirty laundry to the world, but I couldn't help but reflect on how much of a toll changes play on our attitudes. This post has gone on a bit of a tangent, but my point was to say that I typically appreciate who I am as a person. When it comes to food though, I find that my cup spills over very quickly. I can only assume that it comes from my inner disappointment and feelings of inadequate-ness for not being able to just "figure it out." I remind myself that I have a choice in the matter yet continually make the wrong ones. I don't get it... and I don't like it....
I found that when my glass spills over, I have been full of fear and anger toward my lack of self control. I can only hope that the spilling over is getting the bad parts out of my glass and I am left with a glass full of positive traits that I admire and model for my kids.
Now I need to go call my husband.... :)
I have never been able to figure out this food nonsense though. Notice how I called it nonsense. In reality, food makes perfect sense. I've studied it so much to the point I know what I should be eating yet once I have a setback I have a hard time getting back on the boat and become even more discouraged by how quickly I find myself back at square one. It's simple, the crap that is on TV is typically bad for you and the stuff that grows out of the ground is what God intended for our bodies.
I once read that you can know who you really are by an analogy of a glass of liquid. The story goes on to say that you may feel you have things under control when your glass doesn't spill over from being too full. The part that I found significant was when the story said that you truly find out what you are made of when your cup becomes too full and you discover what spills out. Lets just say that lately my cup has been spewing out all over the place and I'm not to excited about what the contents of my cup are. I recently was offered a job, that I will be starting in the next few weeks and I can honestly say that I am kind of nervous. With me accepting this job, there will be many changes in my home life and it has caused me have an attitude of fear that I am not enjoying. Then throw in the staggering strep throat running through this house and the major scrub down of the house (which was well needed, though still not finished).
We have all heard the term "emotional" eating. I have never been able to relate to this concept because I have always considered myself a happy person. I have always thought that I just ate when I was bored and never tied that into emotional eating. I always thought that it meant that you had to be some crazy person who is always crying while shoving things into your face. If there have been moments of sadness with me, I find that I don't want to eat at all.
So how does this tie into my glass of liquids spilling over? I have found that as my glass has been overflowing some of my negative traits that I am not proud of are now being displayed. I have so many thoughts of the unknown swimming around in my mind. I even asked my husband to stop talking last night about the millionth thing that he wanted to buy that would make our life "easier." I explained to him that right now I need to avoid thinking about anything new until I have started working and some of my thoughts are straightened out. He went on to discuss other tasks that need to be done including the lawn. Needless to say, the lawn is not where my thoughts are.
I eventually talked to my husband once the kids were in bed and apologized about how short I have been with everything around here and explained my fears and disappointments with the upcoming job and food choices as of late. He was kind enough to understand, but must have quickly forgot by this morning when he was talking about the lawn again and briefly mentioned his desired "purchase" then asked me why I was so crabby.
My response to him was, well.... less than kind. I told him that part of the reason I appreciate him working outside the home was all I need to do is look at the clock to know when his talking will stop. That didn't go over too great and now I am getting the silent treatment. I am wondering if it is a pun to consider his silence well deserved by me. :)
My poor husband.
I don't mean to air dirty laundry to the world, but I couldn't help but reflect on how much of a toll changes play on our attitudes. This post has gone on a bit of a tangent, but my point was to say that I typically appreciate who I am as a person. When it comes to food though, I find that my cup spills over very quickly. I can only assume that it comes from my inner disappointment and feelings of inadequate-ness for not being able to just "figure it out." I remind myself that I have a choice in the matter yet continually make the wrong ones. I don't get it... and I don't like it....
I found that when my glass spills over, I have been full of fear and anger toward my lack of self control. I can only hope that the spilling over is getting the bad parts out of my glass and I am left with a glass full of positive traits that I admire and model for my kids.
Now I need to go call my husband.... :)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Being Sick...and Setbacks...
Wow! I first would like to say sorry for not posting in a long while. I came down with strep and was knocked down quite a few notches. I've never had a strain of strep that was so tough on me, but I was down for 3 or 4 days.
During that time my husband and my Dad were extremely helpful with making sure the workings around the house and kids were taken care of. I feel extremely blessed that I had help! I found myself feeling bad though since I am the one to normally make dinner. I felt even more guilty since we needed to go grocery shopping before I even got sick.
Needless to say, since Dustin was in charge of the cooking, the family had a little setback in the food department. Once I was able to pick up a few things from the store, Dustin also mentioned that he wants to have more of "his foods" in the house.... great...
So, we did get some of his foods. Not nearly as much of it as what used to be in the house, but I feel like my sickness was a major setback to our lifestyle. I keep trying to rationalize it in my mind since we are still in the transitional phase that setbacks are to be expected. So why does it bother me so much?
I can only assume that its so difficult on me because it requires me to have self control... With all of the old junk I used to enjoy in the house, I find myself having a little bit of it myself. I try so hard not to get mad about it all. If I am being perfectly honest, I know I have even thought about how much easier changing my eating/exercising habits would be if I was single without children! But then I quickly come back to reality and realize how miserable I would be.... Healthy physically, but an emotional disaster with out my family. So, I'm thinking that's not a legit option worth pursuing..lol..
There is a part of me that does not even want to post this particular blog, but I feel its only fair to share the ups and downs with you. Changing any habits are going to have roller coaster experiences with some having more loop-de-loops than others. I've also noticed that I receive more feedback from people who are able to relate when I do post about my shortcomings. We are human. We will make mistakes. The ultimate goal is to make less and less, but I promise that my mistakes will ever make it all the way to zero.
I am deciding that instead of feeling sorry for myself about our setback, that I really need to dwell on what wonderful health my family has even with our less than perfect eating.
Now if you will excuse me, I have a banana calling my name...
During that time my husband and my Dad were extremely helpful with making sure the workings around the house and kids were taken care of. I feel extremely blessed that I had help! I found myself feeling bad though since I am the one to normally make dinner. I felt even more guilty since we needed to go grocery shopping before I even got sick.
Needless to say, since Dustin was in charge of the cooking, the family had a little setback in the food department. Once I was able to pick up a few things from the store, Dustin also mentioned that he wants to have more of "his foods" in the house.... great...
So, we did get some of his foods. Not nearly as much of it as what used to be in the house, but I feel like my sickness was a major setback to our lifestyle. I keep trying to rationalize it in my mind since we are still in the transitional phase that setbacks are to be expected. So why does it bother me so much?
I can only assume that its so difficult on me because it requires me to have self control... With all of the old junk I used to enjoy in the house, I find myself having a little bit of it myself. I try so hard not to get mad about it all. If I am being perfectly honest, I know I have even thought about how much easier changing my eating/exercising habits would be if I was single without children! But then I quickly come back to reality and realize how miserable I would be.... Healthy physically, but an emotional disaster with out my family. So, I'm thinking that's not a legit option worth pursuing..lol..
There is a part of me that does not even want to post this particular blog, but I feel its only fair to share the ups and downs with you. Changing any habits are going to have roller coaster experiences with some having more loop-de-loops than others. I've also noticed that I receive more feedback from people who are able to relate when I do post about my shortcomings. We are human. We will make mistakes. The ultimate goal is to make less and less, but I promise that my mistakes will ever make it all the way to zero.
I am deciding that instead of feeling sorry for myself about our setback, that I really need to dwell on what wonderful health my family has even with our less than perfect eating.
Now if you will excuse me, I have a banana calling my name...
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