Don't Wreck Your Head

Being Mom

A sentence I never though would come out of my mouth:

"No Hazel, (as I run across the room), that thermometer was in your butt! Get it out of your mouth!!!"

Yeah, I'm Lame

So, I'm lame. I know. We have just been so super busy that updating here has been the last thing on my mind.

I have still been doing Raw for the most part, with the exception of this past weekend. I fell off the wagon hardcore. I don't think I ate a raw thing at all. I also felt like crap and today totally feel like I am getting a cold. My throat is sore and my ears are itching. You know what I mean? Like deep inside? Ugh, I hate that feeling. I would rather be sick with the pukes, then have itchy ears.

I have been feeling really great doing this raw thing. I had all these lofty goals and was going to make these really elaborate dinner meals, but this is hard man. I really think it's almost impossible to eat full raw (meaning fancy "pasta" dishes and all) right away and have a family and other life obligations. It's easy to go full raw if you just eat salads, but that's not totally healthy.

I have just streamlined it and mixed it up a bit also. I do a green smoothie for breakfast usually every morning. Lunch is some sort of salad and I make sure I throw some sort of bean and nuts in that salad for some extra protein. I get a lot of protein from the smoothies, but I would have to have I believe 10 cups of spinach a day to get all the protein I need.  I do about 5 cups a day so yeah, not enough protein.

An afternoon snack is usually another green drink. They are really super filling. They are literally packed with calcium, protein, and folic acid. I feel so good after I drink one.

Dinner is where I am going to tweak this raw deal a bit. I made this raw "bread" last week and have been having that smeared with avocado, pesto (parm. cheese in it and it's the only non-raw food I get) lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and sprouts.  I have added a salad on the side sometimes, but not always. I honestly am not hungry at this point in the day.

The problem is, it's just not enough calories for me and here's why:

I have been doing boot camp at 5:30 three mornings a week and I am in love. I never thought that 5:30 would be my time of the day since I am a sleeper. I LOVE to sleep and if you know me, that is an understatement. That 5:30 camp though is my bodies time and I look forward to it. On those days, I find that I am less hungry than non-camp days, but I feel weak by the end of the day and usually get a headache.

Then, last night I got back in the pool (I used to be a swimmer when I was younger) with two friends who are training for a triathlon and I was in my element. Honestly, I really was. It was second nature to me and it's like it just all came back to me. I was even doing my flip-turns by the end (not great or like I used to, but doing them at least). I am going to add an hour of swimming to my work-out routine, but I am going to swim everyday in the evenings on top of morning camp, just taking Sunday's off. I could swim forever. I really could. Whenever I hear a runner say they could run forever, I never understand. I do enjoy running, but it's so hard for me. Obviously, I don't think I am the only person running is hard for. Any kind of physical activity is hard, but I guess, it's that I don't get excited when I get to run. Maybe? I don't know. All I do know is that swimming, while very challenging since I am not in great shape, is something that makes me happy the whole time I am doing it. When I push myself in other work-outs, I am not enjoying it the whole time I am pushing. I am glad after, but with the exception of some smaller exercises, every work-out is drudgery. When I swim and it's hard, I get excited. When my lungs are burning, I am usually smiling under the water because I am excited about pushing myself.

Since I really am going to be pushing myself with tacking swimming onto my routinge, and I already had not been getting enough calories, I really need to add something to help. I think I may add some tofu in my salad at lunch and a chicken breast at dinner. The protein will help with staving off hunger and it will add some healthy calories. I know that I could just eat more raw foods to get more calories and protein, but it's not easy to eat when you are not hungry. Eating raw really does curb your appetite and I also don't want to make my body eat when it's telling me not to. I think it's important to listen to when your body says to eat and when to stop. It's something I struggle with and I want to stay on top of that.

Sigh. I just feel good, well, with the exception of this past weekend anyway. I am so far away from the shape I want to be in, but for the first time in my life, I am really enjoying this season. Instead of looking ahead to the destination, I am taking the time to truly embrace and enjoy the journey along the way.

Awwww

Swoon...

I'm back Baby!

Eric and I went away to a marriage encounter weekend. It was so great to brush up on listening and communication tools. We have been married 7 years and you would think that we would have this communicating thing down by now. Yeah, you would be wrong.

It was so refreshing to sit in a room with 12 other couples and talk and share and learn and listen. I was moved and I feel blessed.

I love my husband and am immensely blessed to have him in my life. I want to walk through this life next to him and no one else.

Back to raw eating today. I did pretty well over the weekend. I tried to keep my meals as close to raw as they could be. If I couldn't do raw, I tried to eat as healthy as possible. We went to an Indian restaurant as a group Saturday night and I didn't even try there though. The food was pre-ordered for our group and so I chowed down since I didn't have a choice right?

I also started back at boot camp this morning at 5:30 and I am going to swim tonight with my friend who is training for a triathlon.  Good stuff!

My delicious boy is home all day today and we are going to have a blast.

I am actually enjoying this..

Welp, I am still under the weather, as they like to say. Who are they? I don't know. Moving on.

I am actually enjoying eating like this. To be honest, I really have no idea if it's because I am sick or what, but I am never hungry and when I am, I am completely satisfied by a smoothie or some veggies or fruit. I am curious to see what happens when I am 100%.

Today when I woke up I was actually feeling pretty decent. I made a smoothie of carrots, collard greens, parsley, two apples, a pear, and half a banana (Hazel ate the other half). It was scrumptious. Seriously. I could drink that all day long. I am also blown away at how filling it is. 

I made myself eat some lunch. I was really not hungry at all, but I know I need the food to get better and I need to keep my strength up. I just whipped up a little guacamole and tomato with these RAW chips from Two Moms in the Raw. 
I can't say that they are incredibly awesome or delish, but they did the trick today. I know as my palate changes, things that originally are so so, may become delectable. Who knows? Not me. At least right now I have no idea if I will start to enjoy those chips more. We will see. 

Tonight for dinner I am going to make what we had last night. We have life group tonight so Eric and Jagger will eat there. Hazel grazed all day. That's usually uncommon for her. She is pretty scheduled in terms of mealtimes and snacks, but today, with me being sick, it worked. By dinner, when I offered her some food, she didn't want it. Ok, off to bed it was then. Yay.

I am considering just going to bed and not eating, but I know I need to. I may just make another smoothie and save last nights left-overs for tomorrows lunch. Who knows? I like to keep myself on my toes you know? Surprise myself at the last minute.

Yum yum

Every one of these looks delish!

5 Easy raw recipe's

Wishing to get better any day now...

I'm still sick. Awesome. This flu that has hit this area is yucky. Very, very yucky. I woke up this morning and wasn't hungry at all. I half-heartily ate a banana and laid on the couch and counted down the minutes to Hazel's nap time. Oh, what a nap it was. Three hours long.

When I woke up I made some green juice and Hazel and I shared that. I figured I should make us some lunch because a good mom makes her kid food. I made myself another green smoothie and some edamame.
Hazel had the same as her dinner last night, but today I added some oranges. She chowed down.

After that I took some Ibuprofen and crawled over to the couch and laid there until it was time to get Jagger from school. Hazel hit me in the head with some toys a few times. That was fun.

I decided to make Raw Burritos for dinner. I used this recipe. I added a teeny, tiny bit of taco seasoning to the mix to give it a little more flavor for Eric. I also put cheese and sour cream out in case they were so gross, he just couldn't do it.

Jagger had a big 'ole plate of fruit for dinner and some cheese. Hazel had a bunch of fruit, cheese, and a little of the raw burrito. I was surprised she liked it, but she did.

I thought they were sooo good. I think I added a little too much onion, but I actually can't wait to have them for lunch tomorrow. I think it helps that I could eat avocado and tomato all day long.

Hazel didn't eat the lettuce part, but she had a little tomato and some avocado with the raw "meat."

Eric ate one. Ha! I was thankful that he did that. He said it wasn't disgusting, just different. He doesn't like avocado or tomato and I think that made it difficult to enjoy.

Jagger-Pshhh. Please.

I had half a Cherry Coke Zero today and I feel really good about that. I had no desire for it at all.

I really can't wait to order a dehydrator. I can make so many more things that I think my family will eat.

Tomorrow I am going to try to make the Big Matt with Cheese from the book Rawvolution.  Wish me luck! :)

Day One Down

Today was day one of raw food eating. It was hard because it was limiting. The problem is that I am sick. I was gifted the flu that Jagger had and so I don't have all the ingredients that I need to eat the way I would like us to. I did lay around a lot today and while I was resting, I read as much as I could about eating raw. Apparently expecting to eat 90-100% right away is really hard and not totally recommended. Starting slow and learning as you go is what the message boards have been telling me.

So, we are going to change the 90% goal to between 50-60% daily. I think that's reasonable. Maybe not, but it's the new goal for the week.

Last night I loaded up on Ibuprofen and made a run to the store for fruits and veggies for today. I had planned on heading to Whole Food or, if I was feeling completely better, out to Central Market in Ft. Worth (I actually cried the first time we went there. It's the little things.) today for the nuts and seeds and extra things that I can't get at Walmart. Well, I just felt like such crap today that I said forget it.

I ate raw all day (at least until dinner) and so did Hazel. Eric did not and Jagger only did for his snack.

Hazel and I started our day with a green drink (Eric had let me sleep in so I have no idea what Jagger ate before school). This drink is spinach, parsley, cucumbers, bananas, apples, and strawberries. I juiced the spinach, parsley, cucumbers and apples in the juicer and then threw that in the blender with the strawberries and bananas. Hazel sucked it down and so did I. It was delish.

A few hours later I had two bananas and an apple. For lunch I had another one of these green drinks. That is not going to be my plan, but I just feel so sick that the thought of making a meal was not something I was up to. Hazel had another one of these drinks also. For lunch she had grapes, blueberries, and celery with almond butter and raisins.

When I got Jagger from school he came home and his snack was a whole container of blackberries, some blueberries, and a banana. Hazel shared this with him.

Since I don''t have all of the ingredients I need for a decent meal (when I say decent, I mean one my husband and daughter will eat, Jagger is a lost cause unless it's fruit), I told Eric he had a pass for the night. He was very happy about that. Eric was in charge of feeding himself and Jagger tonight because I had planned on being in bed at that point. Ha!

Because I am so new to this, I plan on having the kids eat as much raw as I can get them to eat, but also continue with some of their staples. I don't know what I am doing yet and I want to make sure they are getting everything they need. For dinner Hazel had cheese, grapes, blueberries, edamame (she puts this away like nothing I have ever seen) and leftover sausage and green peppers from sausage sandwiches we made the other day.

Once the kids were in bed, I had planned on going to bed, but I wanted some soup. I am so achy, but I have no idea yet how to make soup on a raw diet and I know I don't have the ingredients. So, I ate the leftover Won Ton from Saturday night and an orange.

Here is our counter of fresh fruit and avocados. The fridge is packed with collard greens, lettuce, grapes, asparagus, ginger, and a bunch of other veggies. The pantry has sunflower seeds and that's it as far as the nuts go. I know I need more and plan to head out tomorrow to the store.

(I plan on weaning myself from that diet soda in the background. Piece of cake right?)

One of the books I am reading is Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. (Ani Phyo's website) My plan tomorrow is to make the Flax seed bread. I think that we will have some bread here and there (whole wheat), but I would really prefer not too. She shares how to make it without a dehydrator so I would like to try it.

So far, that is where we are at. Tomorrow I am looking forward to make some guacamole wraps. They were a little hard today so I threw a few in a paper bag along with a banana to ripen them up a bit more. Let's see if that works.

So, day one down. 29 days to go. I'm excited to learn a lot.

Going Raw

I'll be honest. I have been feeling like garbage for awhile now. It's time for a change. I have not been sleeping well, been irritable, dealing with pretty heinous PMS all of a sudden, and just down right, sluggish. Someone in this house has been sick since the beginning of January and it's just got to stop.

So, starting tomorrow, I am starting my family on a 30 day raw diet. Well, almost raw. It's going to be very hard to get Jagger to eat any of the food except for the fruit, but I am going to try.  It's going to be a slow start. I need to get a dehydrator and make "bread" that way since that may be a staple for dinner.

I would like us to do at least 90 percent raw for the month. That is what I am shooting for.

Anyone want to join us? I am going to blog everyday and take pictures of our meals. I'm also going to post about how we are feeling. Cross your fingers for us! I don't think this is going to be easy.

Daisy yells "NO, DON'T DO IT!" No more yummy scraps for her being dropped down by a certain 16 month old. Daisy won't touch fruits and veggies.

Achy Breaky

Today was a great day. One of the things I am working on is finding time for myself. I am slowly losing my mind, what's left of it anyway, by not engaging in a life for me. I have let that fall by the wayside the past year and a half while I focused on my kids and my husband and trying to form a life in this new state.

Today Eric let me sleep in and he really let me. I slept until 11:00! It has been years I think since that has happened. I think my body was just catching up on the sleep I lost from last week being up with Jagger at night.

Eric also had set up a massage for me in Dallas. It was so nice. I fell asleep during it and woke up snoring. Nice.

After, the fam joined me out in Dallas for dinner at The Twisted Root. My favorite burger place around.

I've been fighting a teeny, tiny sore throat since Thursday. It's kind of debating whether or not it wants to show up and I have been fighting it off. When we got back from dinner I just felt wiped out. Like I had such a busy day, right?!

Anywho, I started feeling a bit achy, so my ever so sweet husband went and got me some WonTon soup.

I will not get sick. I will not get sick. I will not get sick.

Tomorrow I am going to love on my family as much as I can. They are the best.