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Janie's September 2002 Journal
Sunday 9/1: ~1pm: 5 HI apple bananas; 7 rambutan; 1 starfruit ~6:30 or 7pm: salad (~6 or 7 cups lettuce, 1 or 2 cups arugula) with tahini (2 heaping Tbsp.) - lemon (4 Tbsp.) - tomato (1 med.) dressing After doing a few handstands (oh yeah, forgot to put in the spotted handstands I've been doing for the last few days) and talking a bit, I got a really strong detox feeling and took a shower. I had the metallic taste in my mouth in the shower again - quite strongly and felt better while in there. After the shower it came back and I decided to take a nap. When I woke from the nap & had a BM (not stuff I've eaten in a while) I was fine again. My hubby ate all raw today until dinner. He ate at around noon: bananas (5 maybe?), atemoya (3 small) and papaya (1/2 med.). Our son wanted turkey dogs and asked my hubby to get them at the corner market. I asked for tomato too. He said it kind of caught him off guard. He had intended on eating raw, but when he was shopping and picking out the turkey dogs he thought they'd be a good thing to eat for dinner by habit. He had already decided to have them when he realized that he didn't want to have them. He felt it was too late 'cause his cravings had taken over and he felt unable to overcome it at that point. He said that he'll have to prepare himself better beforehand in the future. He also did a spotted handstand today. :-) I had another cleansing BM this evening. I'll try to be descriptive in the least gross way I can - strange stuff with mucus and corn kernels? I told my hubby about it and he was amazed. Neither of us can remember how long it's been since I had corn - probably months at least... Again, it's good to get rid of it, scary it was still there... I had another energy burst right before this last BM and feel ready for exercise and movement now! :-) The funny thing is that this is the time of night I'd usually be fading before I was raw. This is an interesting journey indeed. ;-) Monday 9/2: 11:30am: watermelon [hubby had watermelon too] ~2:30: 1.5 small papayas; 4 HI apple bananas [hubby had 5 HI apple bananas - 2 @ this time & 3 between breakfast & now] ~6pm: salad (~6 or 7 cups lettuce, 2 or 3 cups katuk) with tahini (2 heaping Tbsp.) - lemon (3 Tbsp.) - tomato (1 med.) dressing [hubby had cooked - turkey dog on whole wheat bread] I was all ready for action today & did quite a few rounds of assisted handstands. We don't have a good spot with a wall clear in our house to do them alone, so we're spotting each other. I think I did 4 or 5 of them for longer times than before. My hubby did about 3 I think for longer as well. I'm definitely getting better at them and there was even a bit of time where I balanced on my own. I remember when I started back doing handstands (after about 20 years of not doing them or headstands), I had trouble breathing upside down on the first one and a bit on the second one. The next day it was better & now it's just fine, so I can go longer. It feels like a really good thing to be doing and that my body appreciates it (although the during the very first one it was a bit confused. LOL). I'm so excited! I'm going to be working out with my friend who is a gymnastics coach in her gym! It will be so fun! We'll warm up together and I can do (or try to do at first) pull ups on the bars, do handstands against her wall & lots of other stuff. She'll have someone else there (me) to take care of her in case she injures herself so she can push herself harder. She can also help guide me in what I should be doing next to develop my skills, etc. We can talk and stuff too! It will be sooo fun! I can't wait until we start! :-) I'm going to be doing some bellydancing in a bit, after my dinner's digested a bit. Oh yeah, about the underarm BO - it's not that nice 'perfume' scent the last couple of days anymore (I should clarify that it wasn't a perfume cleanse - I haven't worn scents all my life). Now it smells like hamburgers! I know I haven't had one of those since before 1984, probably since 1982-ish. Gosh! Get that stuff out of me, quick! Ugh! To think it's still there... BTW - the metallic taste in my mouth's still happening in the shower too. Tuesday 9/3: ~11:30am or noon: 5 HI apple bananas ~4 or 4:30pm: 1/2 avocado & 1 med. tomato Had a bit of trouble sleeping last night. I had a little bit of that restless leg syndrome thing I used to have almost all the time. I've only had it once or twice since I went raw these last two and half months, so it's still better. Unfortunately, I also had to go in to do some work early this morning too - which made me a bit tired. On top of that, I ended up needing to stay up really late tonight (into the next day's morning) to help my hubby with a computer problem at his work... I need to catch up on my sleep now. It's going to be a long process though 'cause it's hard to sleep in on weekdays... Not much exercise today - too busy with work. :-( Oh well, at least all my days aren't like this anymore. :-) Not much of the metallic taste in my mouth in the shower today & the underarm BO is back to smelling nice again... Wednesday 9/4: 11:30am: 5.5 HI apple bananas; 1 red pear 6 or 6:30pm: salad (~6 - 8 cups lettuce, 1 or 2 cups katuk) with tahini (2 heaping Tbsp.) - lemon (3 Tbsp.) - tomato (1 med., 1 roma) dressing The second of the 3 bellydance videos I requested at the library arrived today. It's a longer one with a different approach and new moves (some the same). It did more warm up and explainations & then did a lot of the moves double time. My body got a bit confused about which movement it was doing when doing combinations of movements with turns when it came to the double time section. It was kind of funny - my body just decided to shake itself around a bit - rather than follow the directed shakes it was supposed to be doing. LOL It's funny to me when my body sort of spazes out at first on stuff that I know I'll get better at with practice. I think that given that it was the first time I did this one, I did pretty well. It was fun & good exercise - which was the point anyway. ;-) I'm going to make a point of going to sleep early tonight to catch up on my sleep. The fried oil & french fry detox scent in the shower was back today... it didn't stop until a bit after my shower this time. I also had some sort of familiar scent when bellydancing in my sweat, but couldn't figure out what it was... Thursday 9/5: ~noon or 12:30pm: 4 HI apple bananas; 7 rambutan (darn, think that's it for the season); 1 small papaya (fresh picked less than a minute before from my tree!) ~5 or 5:30pm: salad (~8 or 9 cups lettuce, 1 cup arugula, 1 or 2 cups katuk) with tahini (2 heaping Tbsp.) - lemon (3 Tbsp.) - tomato (1 med., 1 roma) dressing My detox in the shower today was a bit different - still french fry oil, but not the scent as much this time as the awful plastic coating feel on my tongue and mouth that I used to get from McDonald's fries. It took me a bit to figure out what caused it when I was a kid, but before I got to high school I had stopped eating McDonald's fries for that reason. The oil they used for fries would feel like you had Saran-wrapped my tongue, roof of mouth and inner cheeks when it cooled off (which would happen quickly if drinking a cold drink with the fries). I hadn't stopped eating fries at that point, but I didn't want to touch the McDonald's ones way before I was into health food. Now my detox seems to be bringing that stuff back out and/or up - ick! I also had some interesting passing food memory tastes in the evening: bread with margarine spread on it (but not melted) - used to have that in elementary school, and the rosemary-onion-potato soup my hubby made a couple of times. I think the soup memory was brought on by smelling the rosemary we have growing just outside our front door (if was raining heavily on it). It's possible that the bread and margarine thing was brought on by the McDonald's fry detox thing? It was kind of a strange thing, those memories, they were just like a craving - except I didn't feel a desire to have the food in the present (if that makes any sense at all). I could smell, taste, and feel the texture of eating them vividly - as memories, but strangly wasn't tempted to eat them. I could recall what they looked like and everything about them, yet I didn't want them. It passed within a half hour - they were at about the same time as each other - alternating. Friday 9/6: ~7:30 or 8am: 4 plums ~12:30pm: 6 or 7 HI apple bananas [hubby had 1 large mango; 10 rambutan] ~6pm: salad (~4 or 5 cups of: lettuce, katuk, alfalfa sprouts, grated beets, grated carrots, grated zucchini (sp?), sunflower sprouts, a few slices of cucumber, shredded purple cabbage, thinly sliced yellow & red bell peppers, 2 quarters of a med. tomato, baby greens, and more!) with a touch of tahini (think it was slightly toasted, so didn't use all of it), and lemon (or lime) squeezed on top. [hubby and son had cooked vegan stuff] Had the regular french fry detox scent in the shower again - thank goodness the McDonald's french fry oil stuff's done for now - ick! The regular french fry detox scent is actually kind of nice - will be glad when it's all gone though, 'cause obviously it shouldn't be there... We finally went to the restaurant that was supposed to have raw food and vegan food tonight. It was a very good evening and we all enjoyed our food. :-) Our son was wanting and asking for french fries at the beginning, but was really into the appetizer that my hubby ordered for them. He went with the waiter's suggestion and loved the entree too. Glad his vegan tastes are still active... :-) This restaurant was definitely a hit for our family and I feel pretty good about whatever my son gets there (even if he doesn't order raw, it's all vegan and organic, so it's quite healthy for eating out). We'll definitely go there again when we go out to dinner (which unfortunately isn't that often 'cause we're kinda' low on $$ in general). As I suspected, there really wasn't much if any raw food dishes, although there were a few that I would have eaten the last time I was raw (had Bragg's or Shoyu, sea salt, olive oil, nori and/or garlic) - even the salad dressings. I had brought 2 oranges, pecans and celery to keep in the car in case... The waiter was really good though and quite helpful both to my son (wanting french fries) and I (not wanting olive oil or salty stuff). He had an ingredient list for all the dishes that he brought to me to check out & I discovered that the only thing to get & eat the way I'm eating now was the side salad. I also noticed that one of the dressings had tahini and lemon in it and asked if the tahini was raw. He said it was & I explained that I don't eat olive oil, Bragg's or Shoyu. I asked if I could get a dressing made with just tahini and lemon & if the person in back wasn't sure how to mix it, I could give them the proportions. He said he'd see what he could do & make sure it'd be okay. I asked how big the side salad was & he said that since I wasn't getting the other stuff, he could see to it that I got more things added to my salad so that it would be substantial. It was and it was great! It was quite a deal too I think - in relation to what other side salads are like & similarly priced! This one was either all organic or close as well. Cool! We left an extra tip for the waiter. I think he's the best waiter I've ever had. At the end he asked me how the dressing worked out (they had put some tahini in a container & put lemon or lime slices on the side) for me. I said that it worked out fine, except that I think that the tahini isn't completely raw - that it tasted slightly toasted to me, but that it was okay and that I'd probably just get the lemon next time. It tasted good with just the lemon too & I really enjoyed the vegetable strips - I don't go to that much trouble myself usually. He said that maybe he could have some nuts or seeds put into/onto the salad for me next time instead and then sincerely thanked me for coming out to their restaurant. It was cool 'cause I know that he wasn't even the owner, so it wasn't from a profit perspective, you know. It was a really nice evening. The funny thing was that I kept expecting someone to feel weird about my requests (restaurant, family, etc.), yet nobody did - they even told me how they appreciated it and respected me for it? Wow! Such a difference. I feel so lucky to have a supportive hubby and child as well as a great waiter and willing chef. :-) My raw joy is just overflowing! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) !!! ;-) Saturday 9/7: ~12:30pm: 7 HI apple bananas 5:30pm: salad (~8 or 9 cups lettuce, 1 cup arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp.) - lemon (4 Tbsp.) - tomato (1 med.) dressing Well, I had a sort of 'hangover' from the dinner last night - from the salad - it had chopped fresh green onion tops and garlic chives.. I just love them, but apparently my body doesn't 'cause they not only give me bad breath (sort of expected), but they make me very thirsty the next morning. I had stopped eating them about a month ago 'cause I thought they did that to me, but I wasn't sure if it was possibly something else... Well, now I know. :-( I like them too! Well, I might not be completely giving them up (may have to learn this lesson a few more times), but will not have them regularly. I'll probably only have them when I go out... Then make sure I've got lots of good water for the next day.;-) I was fine by mid-morning (after drinking water a lot). My hubby and I went on a nice hike down a big hilly trail to a long beach at the base of cliffs today. We walked for a bit on the beach and then found a nice shady tree to sit and relax. It was so nice under there that we decided to take a nap. It was very pleasant to lie there holding hands with my hubby, looking up at the clouds passing by, breathing the fresh ocean air and gazing at the beach folage and surf while dozing off. Mmmm... It was a nice bit of exercise hiking back up the trail - quite humbling too. We felt so out of shape. We used to just walk straight up this hill, no problem, no stopping (years ago when we were raw before). Now we had to stop part of the way through in order to catch our breath. Then, to top it off, when we stopped a surfer dude came jogging up the path past us carrying his surfboard! LOL We both said that we have to get back into shape. ;-) It's weird, 'cause I've been feeling better than I did when I could do the whole hill fine. I guess I'm just not used to going up hills that steep anymore - we usually hike in somewhat flat places, or places with a much gentler slope. We were also more physically active overall - doing intensive organic farming with hand tools all day (digging, forking, etc.). Now that I think about it, we may not have been able to do the whole thing at first... I definitely want to start hiking that trail more often so that I can eventually jog up it too. :-) It was a good day though - haven't been to that beach in ages (probably years) - and it used to be our favorite... I'll be going there a lot more often now, just so I can 'conquer' that hill. ;-) Sunday 9/8: ~11am: 3 plums ~1pm: water with a lemon slice in it at my friend's house - yum. ;-) ~3pm: 9 HI apple bananas ~7pm: salad (~8 or 9 cups lettuce, ~1/2 cup arugula, 2 small sprigs of dill, 2 small sprigs of mint leaves, 1 small tarrogon sprig's leaves, 2 small curly & 1 small flat parsley sprigs, 1 small green onion top, 1 small oregano sprig's leaves) with tahini (2 Tbsp.) - lemon (4 Tbsp.) - tomato (2 roma) dressing The salad mix I got at market last had some fresh herbs in it as well, so I went ahead and ate them tonight... we'll see how it does for me tomorrow (probably a mistake, but they smelled so good and were raw, organic & fresh...). I had a good time with my friend today & we arranged regular workout days on Saturday afternoons at her gym (as well as salad lunch out at a restaurant Wednesdays). Yay! I haven't done any exercise in particular today yet, but the day's not over... I'm going to do something, just not sure what yet. Last night I did my previously regular evening stretches & found I lost some ground in the few days I skipped. Oops! I guess I better keep it up. Use it or lose it! ;-) Detox - I'm still having regular french fry detox scents in the shower & foreign BMs (foreign in that they're not what I've been eating lately). I can feel my bowels working on something now - has been working on it since the afternoon, gathering water in the area & all. It's surprisingly not uncomfortable though and very little gas with extremely minor bloating - will be interesting to see what comes of it... Underarm BO is fine - sort of neutral (not particularly nice or foul). I was quite thirsty today - guess it was my body wanting to gather the water to work on whatever it's doing in there... Exercise - I meant to go on another hike today with my hubby, but we discovered some projects that absolutely have to be done that are more involved than we thought, so we ended up working on them... My hubby went on a walk and lifted weights some while I was at my friend's house. He's better at exercise than I am in general. While exercise has always been my weakest health point, it has been his strongest for much of his life (until an injury stopped him for a while). We're theorizing that if eating raw is leading to exercise for me that maybe exercise will help lead to raw for him. He also needs more sleep... He's headed back to raw too, just in a different way than me. Monday 9/9: ~11:30am: 7 HI apple bananas ~5pm: salad (~6 or 7 cups lettuce, ~1-3 cups arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp.) - lemon (4 Tbsp.) - tomato (3 roma) dressing Well, I finally finished reading all the old posts on the VegSource Raw & Sports Nutrition discussion board, very educational. :-) Now I don't have as much to read though. :-( I hope the things I ordered from Dr. D.'s site arrive soon! :-) Exercise: belly dancing this evening, didn't do any yesterday tho' Detox: photography chemical scent in shower at beginning after workout (I did a lot of photography & developing of my own photos in college), then french fry again towards end Tuesday 9/10: 8:30am: 3 starfruit; 1 papaya 12:30 or 1pm: 7 HI apple bananas ~6pm: 2 oranges ~7pm: tahini (2 Tbsp.) - lemon (3Tbsp.) - tomato (2 roma) 'dip' eaten with 1 large red bell pepper I intended to eat oranges and nuts for dinner (partly 'cause I'm out of lettuce & greens besides the katuk), but then felt like I would have wanted more nuts that I should have that way today, so had the dip and bell pepper instead of the nuts. I cooked something for my son inbetween (which is why the delay between the meals - although it wasn't as much as it looks like. I'm putting the starting times - there was probably only about a 1/2 hr. at most of a gap). Exercise: 1 hr. Callanetics (from old video) between breakfast & lunch; 1/2 hr. bellydancing (from shorter video than the one I did yeserday) after dinner; and of course, stretches at night before bed... Detox: a bit of the metalic taste in my mouth at beginning of shower & french fry scent at end; really sleepy (but body not tired) in afternoon, so took a nap from ~4:30-5:30pm, awaking refreshed. :-) Body Restructuring: When I was belly dancing I noticed that I'm either getting more muscles or they're getting more defined 'cause I'm losing fat or something - I just noticed they were more noticable in my legs than before... I'm a long way from being muscly (sp?) or how I want to be in most areas, but it's cool to see the progress. Oh yeah, and also, those interested in cellulite - I've been noticing another reduction in it and the wavy thighs again this week. Also, my upper arm flab is gone, but I still need to add more muscle tone - story of my arms' life... My legs seem to be shaping up from my knees up so that if I wear shorts long enough or above the knee dresses you can't tell there is any left. It's still there though, and since my body fat % and weight is down close to where I want it, I've decided to step up my exercise to work on toning up my flab and getting more muscle. I don't want to get too skinny... Oh yeah, and my appetite has increased some too, so I'm eating more as well. This is a relief 'cause I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to maintain my body weight if my appetite didn't increase enough... Wednesday 9/11: Wow! I guess I've gotten a bit behind in posting these things - last one looks like it was Tuesday! Oops! Here is Wednesday... ~8 or 9am: 3 starfruit; 1 papaya ~noon: salad (~ 4 torn large lettuce leaves, 2 cherry tomatoes, ~a dozen mung bean sprouts, 1 or 2 red cabbage leaves chopped) at restaurant with the dressing I brought (2 Tbsp tahini, 4 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 roma tomato) ~6pm: 2 HI apple bananas; a few bites of several overripe Williams bananas; 1 date; 1 very large red bell pepper Well, wouldn't you know it? Just when my activity and appetite start to increase I have a food shortage?! Ugh! I thought that the salad being smaller than I thought it'd be wouldn't be too much of a problem 'cause I'd just eat more bananas at night. My friend had decribed it as being a really large salad & motioned its size, so I thought I knew how big it was. I guess there's more of a difference in perception of salad size than I thought. Oh well. I had fun. I felt satisfied enough at lunch to hold out 'till dinner for the bananas. I then discovered that the large hand of bananas I was counting on eating at dinner was too ripe & the other hand I had wasn't ripe enough. Goldilocks again - only this time I only had 2 bananas that were just right & the store was closed... See the unhappy raw food girl. :-( I tried to make do by eating other things, and found a date and a red bell pepper. The bell pepper didn't agree with the bananas and date & I didn't feel well. I decided to call it quits and just go to sleep. Exercise: Stretching - that's all I felt up to. I usually have been doing my exercise in the evenings... Detox: Forgot to record this - probably more French Fry scents in the shower... Thursday 9/12: ~2:30pm: 6 oz. raspberries; 5 plums ~4 or 5pm: 6 HI apple bananas ~7pm: 9.5 acerola 'cherries' Well, I started back on making up for the lack of food I had yesterday and this morning. It's a bit slow going, but I didn't expect to be able to make it all up in one day anyway. It will probably take a few days or so to gradually catch up - like when you stay up too late one night & have to sleep more for a few days afterwards to catch up. The lack of calories was really getting to me. I definitely need to make sure not to run out of food in the future. Even my hubby noticed & said I had been looking so awesome and vibrant since going raw, but that yesterday and today I was starting to look a bit peaked. He wanted to know if everything was still going okay eating raw and all. I told him it wasn't, that I hadn't had enough to eat, not enough calories - I had too little salad at lunch yesterday, not enough bananas or other fruit at dinner & nothing today yet at that point (which was about 2pm when we were on our way to the grocery store). He then understood & also understood why I was so intent on going to the store right then , which was our first opportunity. I think it wasn't just the lack of calories that affected me, but the increase in fat percentage. I realized tonight that when I ate the salad yesterday I had the same amount of dressing as usual, yet I ended up not being able to eat as many calories as usual. This means that my caloric percentage of fat intake increased - which would explain why I was feeling similarly to how I felt before... I decided to skip the fat today & I'm feeling a bit better - could be from evening without the fat, or from starting to increase my calories again, or something else... I tend to think it's a combination. The watermelon people were there at market today! Yay! I got a huge watermelon - could barely lift it out of their truck bed. Good thing I brought my son to carry things for me. ;-) He carried it home while I carried the rest of the produce I got. I was low on cash so didn't get all that much more - just a few hands of bananas, some arugula, the acerola cherries (no charge 'cause we donate stuff to the people at that farm a lot & gave 'em about 30 sprouted coconuts to plant recently), a pummelo, and some oranges. The rambutan guy was there again, but by the time I got there, the only ones he had left didn't look any good to me so I skipped them. Exercise: Mainly stretches again - felt like I needed to regroup a bit after yesterday. I did walk to and from the farmers' market twice today, but that's not much. I didn't have as much energy, although I could feel it building back and did consider some light exercise. I got sidetracked into a conversation and ended up not having enough time to do anything but the stretches after all. Detox: French Fry scent in the shower again... headache in the early afternoon/late morning - could have been from lack of food though... and more results from the bell pepper I ate last night in my BMs... Friday 9/13: ~9am: 4 plums ~2pm: 8 (or 9? - more than 7...) HI apple bananas 7 or 7:30pm: salad (~5-8 cups lettuce, 1 cup arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (9 cherry) dressing I'm starting to feel pretty much like my new usual vivacious self again. :-) I've got food, water, sleep, my loving family, and not too much fat intake - so I'm feeling pretty good again. Good enough to do some more exercise. :-) You know, that episode of low caloric intake & higher fat percentage was quite educational - I was starting to have cravings the night before last & yesterday - even after having the raspberries. I was mainly craving fish, but had some other passing ones - the fish one was quite prominent though. The cooked food was also more tempting... After I got some bananas in me I was fine again & I don't have the cravings anymore. Exercise: I'll do some stretching and probably some pushups, crunchie-type things, etc. and some stretches today. I don't want to do too much 'cause I'm going to work out with my friend at her gym tomorrow. Yay! It's going to be so much fun! Detox: Not much of a shower scent detox today, but my shower was a bit more rushed than usual too. The detoxing usually happens towards the end, so I may not have been in there long enough... still more results from the bell pepper I ate two nights ago in my BMs - wow! Did that ever not agree with me! Body Reshaping: I went to the store today to get another pair of pants - all my pants are too big, but I've been wearing them anyway 'cause I knew I'd be getting smaller still... Now, I'm pretty sure I'm at or close to the size I'm going to be, so it's time to try and find some pants to fit me. It's not easy when the style is the low-riding on the hip style right now - I always end up with them fitting great until I look at the back. I always have trouble with the hipsters making a big gap of fabric in the back, above my butt to the waist - just in the back. I don't know what it is, maybe my waist or butt goes in more in the back than most or something. Anyway, there's often such a big gap that you can see all the way down the back of my pants to where I'm sitting when I'm sitting down especially. LOL I remember my mom used to make V cuts and take them in at the waist in the back when I was a budding teenager & the style was on its way out... I may have to do the same now. Apparently some other people have the same problem 'cause at the 3rd store (there are only 4 to choose from), I found some that claimed that the waist was tapered. The gap was a lot more managable & my hubby thinks there's no need to alter them 'cause it's not that bad. Yay! I've got a new pair of pants! They look pretty good too - if I do say so myself. ;-) I'm back to my old size again too - 3/4. I had been wearing 9/10's of the same brand that were getting too tight (so that I should have gotten the next size soon) right before going raw this last time (almost 3 months ago). I guess that means I lost 3 or 4 pant sizes and 20-30 pounds in these last 2.5-3 months - loving every raw bite of it (well, except for when the fruit was too ripe or not ripe enough - but I would then switch after a bite). It's funny, after being overfat for myself and going back to my life's usual size, I feel more like wearing tight things and things that show off my trim stomach, etc. than I did before. I guess I have a new appreciation for it after having lost it for a while... Also, my skin's better than before and my shape is becoming better than it ever was too. It's kind of a hard thing to explain, but even though I'm pretty much the same size I was before & I still have some flab left that needs firming, my body is shaping itself slightly differently than before - and I like it better. Saturday 9/14: 8am: watermelon ~11:30: 4 HI apple bananas; 2 papayas; 1 date ~6:30 or 7pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (10 cherry) dressing I ended up having a slight shortage of bananas today again - not enough ripe at market. After eating the papayas and date I wasn't hungry anymore though, so it was fine. :-) Detox: I woke up this morning feeling dehydrated with some sinus mucus action? Strange, haven't had that since a week or two into this round of raw - though I was done with it. I wonder if the salad on Friday did it. It came with parmasian or some sort of granular cheese looking thing on croutons and bread sticks. Luckily they were all in a pile on the side part of the salad bowl so I fished them out onto the cracker plate and dusted off as much of the cheese or whatever it was from the few leaves that were over there. Unfortunately I couldn't get all that spice/cheese thing out of the bowl 'cause it had sunken to the bottom. There was probably about 1/16th - 1/8th of a teaspoon of it left. I figured it'd be okay. Now I'm wondering... Is that why I have congestion back again - or is it just another round of cleansing - or is it my dust/mould allergies catching up with me again... Before going raw this time I was having to sleep in a different room than our bedroom 'cause there was something in our bedroom (think it was the bed) that was giving me lots of sinus problems. We were in the process of getting ready to switch beds with my son & the pull out futon one in the living room - sort of rotation thing. It was taking a while 'cause our son's room was too messy to fit the larger bed... Anyway, in the process of going raw I figured that my allergies might be better too (as they had gotten last time I went raw). I spent more time in our bedroom & bed & it seemed to be fine. I started sleeping in there on the floor beside the bed to test out just being in the room overnight over time. It seemed to be going great - was sleeping quite well & no sinus problems for a couple of weeks. I was going to be moving onto the bed this week. Now, I've got this sinus stuff starting again - don't know what it is... Guess I'll just have to wait and see. Oh well. I didn't have the french fry scents in the shower today - had the metallic taste in my mouth instead. Exercise: My workout session with my friend was fun! I of course didn't last very long, but did better than I thought I'd do on some things, worse on others. Julie - I can't do a chin-up or a pull-up either. I can get slightly farther than just hanging, but not even 1/3 the way. It was more like 1/4 of the way. My friend spotted me so I could do 3 full ones. Then we got a mat for me to use to help spot myself while she did some front flips. I tried regular pull-ups (with the palms of my hands towards me) too with no better results. I thought I had heard in high school that that kind was supposed to be easier, but it seemed slightly harder actually... The chin-ups are done with the palms of your hands away from you. Anyway, I tried quite a few on the mat, then turned around and did a thing like it with my feet on the lower bar (was working on the uneven parallel bars). It was hard & humbling, but fun and I figure I'll get better at them over time. She had a different way of doing the handstands against the wall to start off with - facing the wall and climbing your legs up it. I'd been doing it facing away from the wall, so it was quite different. I'm not sure which way I like best. I think next time I'm going to do them facing away from the wall. Crawling up the wall from the side felt a bit weird & I had a bit of trouble sensing which way was straight and up that way. I think I was able to hold it a bit longer though, but I'm not sure... We did lots of lunge walks while we chatted, which was fun. We also did some good stretches while we talked too. We played a memory game on the trampoline where we would take turns on the trampoline. One of us would start and do something (like a bounce on the knees), then get off, the next one would do that first & add something, then get off. We would continue to review and add things for quite some time - until we were both having trouble remembering it all. LOL The last round for me was when I kept messing up and forgetting and she couldn't remember either so I ended up doing quite a few rounds trying to figure it out... It was good though. I found that I could just bounce around pretty well & easily, but got tired from the tricks (especially the pike jump and split turn). I felt quite floppy though - need to get my body to learn to be tight during it all better... We did other stuff too, but I can't remember what exactly anymore. I also will be doing my regular evening stretches before bed tonight too. It seems like I got my legs more than my arms this time though - it seems like I need to get more ability before I'm able to work out my arms well enough with my own body weight. Maybe I need to hit the free weights in the garage again a bit to be better able to do the other stuff... Sunday 9/15: ~11am: watermelon ~3:30pm: 5 large HI apple bananas ~7pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (10 cherry) dressing I discovered that I underestimated how big my salad was yesterday (& how big they've been all along). The container I used for salad yesterday was a 17 cup container & it was packed to the brim with salad... This is almost as much as I have on a regular basis. Detox: I had hardly any sinus mucus this morning and slept in the same way as I have been recently, so I guess it wasn't the room this time around. Yay! It was probably the cheese remnants in the salad after I tried to pick it all out... I was very tired today - muscles and sleepiness. I decided to sleep in and be lazy today - I think I haven't been getting quite enough sleep lately... It was good to sleep. I got up and ate yummy watermelon and stayed up for about an hour or so & then took another nap. After waking from that one I took my shower - I had intended to take it before the nap, but felt more like napping when getting ready, so switched it. Major french fry scent & exhale thing in the shower today - as soon as a drop of water hit my skin it was intense. I took an extra long shower to see if it would stop or lessen. It did lesson and almost stop eventually, so I finished off with the regular cold water rinse (and it started again). I was a bit impatient by then, so I just went ahead and finished my shower anyway. I forgot to mention that yesterday, even though I didn't have the french fry scents in the shower or notice them otherwise - my son said I smelled like them again after my shower. Go figure! I didn't smell them that time, but he did! LOL Exercise: Well, not much - just some stretching. My quads were still quite worn out and unpredictable from yesterday. I tried to a couple of handstands in the hall between the bookcases we have lining the hall. I thought I might be able to do them there if I did them the way my friend showed me. Strangely enough, the condition of my quads affected even that - since I had to go into them from the side & climb up with my legs. I guess a day off (basically) isn't so bad... Funny, I used to think it was great before. LOL Interesting: My son had been lazy about washing his dishes and they were piling up, so I went on a cooking strike - until he did all his chores and dishes. I would, however, still continue to make/prepare raw food for him. So, what ended up happening was that he skipped lunch and dinner. At about 8pm I washed some of the kind of lettuce he likes and told him about it. He ate a bunch of it from about 8:30 to 9 or so, and got one of those bursts of happy, joyful energy things I only got after being raw for a few days or week or so. He was bounding around the house, letting his arms flop around and having a terrific time, munching lettuce all the while. LOL I told him to be careful not to eat more than he was hungry for - not past full 'cause the affects would lessen then. I talked about how I feel like that almost all the time now. He has noticed me doing similar things myself at times, so knew I was telling the truth. It was great to see him feeling so good and eating the lettuce & noticing it and all. :-) Monday 9/16: ~10am: watermelon ~1:30pm: 5 HI apple bananas ~6:30pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (9 cherry) dressing Detox: Not really anything noticable in the shower or out today - maybe it's 'cause some of my muscles are still a bit sore... Exercise: Short hike down a hill & back to/from a beach with my son and dog - it started raining, so we left early; a tiny bit of belly dancing with 3rd video from library (mostly history of belly dancing rather than doing it); evening stretches Interesting: My son had a bunch of lettuce today again - at lunchtime this time, but also had cooked food so didn't get the results he had yesterday. At dinner he had a peanut butter and jelly mix he makes for himself at times and then asked me to make him a 'shake.' We just received Dr. D.'s "High Energy Recipe Guide" today and I was pointing out various things that were in it. He asked for a shake that wasn't in there specifically: banana, carob powder & vanilla. I said that I would make him one as long as he drank it 'cause I was having salad and wouldn't be having sweet stuff today anymore. He said he would as long as it was thick enough. So here's what I did: Got out the blender & put this into it: He said he wanted it for breakfast tomorrow, so I'm going to try to make it before I go to my early work appt. Tuesday 9/17: ~9am: watermelon ~11 or 11:30am: 4 or 5 HI apple bananas; 2 or 3 smaller bananas - don't know what kind (larger than lady fingers, smaller than HI apple bananas, tasted different than both)... 5 or 5:30pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, ~5 large leaves arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (8 cherry) dressing Detox: French fry scent in shower today mixed with a bit of onion scent - maybe onion rings and fries? I was never all that into onion rings, but a couple of years ago or so my son was really into them & got me into it for a bit too... Exercise: Had an extra busy work day, plus homeschooling so squeezing in exercise has been difficult today. I plan on doing belly dancing this evening - will go for the long version, but may end up doing the short one if my legs are still too tired. I'll also be doing my regular stretches & 'turning in' to bed early if I can. I have to get up early to finish a job I was doing today, hopefully finishing before I start the homeschool day with my son. He didn't do so well with a day's worth of assignments on his own - but much, much better than he would have last year (very encouraging). I also have a lunch appt. with my friend for a couple of hours tomorrow, so want to get the homeschooling going first (which means finishing the business work early & getting up early)... Son: I did make my son another banana-vanilla-carob 'shake' this morning and he loved it again. He didn't eat so well after I was gone & left to his own devices. We ran out of the lettuce he likes to eat straight and he didn't want to make a salad with what we have... He ended up munching on the organic vegan peanut butter cerial we have - straight from the box! Ugh! He also cooked himself some rice noodles and had other cooked food later - then was having trouble concentrating on his schoolwork (I should start pointing out the connection there too). Oh well, I look at it as every time I get some good raw meal into him is a step towards health, even if he doesn't maintain eating that way. That one meal could delay the onset of dis-ease that much or more, so it's always good. ;-) I also try to encourage him to pick food of his non-raw meals and minimize the damage - sometimes I'm successful. Teenagers! LOL ;-) Wednesday 9/18: 8am: watermelon ~1pm: salad at restaurant (~2 cups lettuce, ~dozen mung bean sprouts, 2 small cherry tomatoes, 1 or 2 leaves of purple cabbage chopped) with my own dressing (2 Tbsp. tahini, 6 - 8 Tbsp. lemon juice - no more tomatoes right now) ~6pm: 6 HI apple bananas Well, I met my friend at the restaurant again this week. This time I asked them if they could not give me the bread sticks, sprinkles or croutons & that I brought my own dressing. I explained that I ate only raw food and would like to have more lettuce & veggies in the salad instead of the other items. It worked some - they gave me more, but it's still not as good of a salad as the other vegan/raw restaurant offered. It was enough for lunch though. My friend said that she wanted to get a salad with her sandwich, but didn't want to get one that big. We plan to split a second salad next time. :-) Detox: Woke up this morning with a bump in my eyelid just like what I get after a sty gets out of hand & it gets clogged up inside. Strange that it happened so quickly - didn't even notice a sty to begin with. It usually takes a couple of weeks to get this way & there was no sign of it when I went to bed last night. I guess it's a cleansing thing to happen so fast? Who knows, could just be from the extra exercise. I usually get them after doing more exercise than usual - it could just be more of the same & a coincidence that it's more intense... I hope it goes away quickly too - they can get quite large at times... I hate hot compresses - they depress me for some reason & I'm no good at getting them hot enough to last past a couple of seconds. My hubby usually does it, but he's away on business right now. :-( If it's still hanging around tomorrow I'll have to figure out how to do them by myself. I had a few food memories today. The first one was a scent in the shower - of gravy with Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Sometimes I thought it was potatoes and gravy, or potato soup, or rice and gravy - hard to pin down. Sometimes it seemed like the vegan gravy I used to make & get at the HFS deli, and sometimes it seemed like the turkey or chicken broth gravy I made when we weren't vegan for a while. The only commonality was that it was gravy and had Bragg's in it. The other one was what could have been a craving if I had a different state of mind about it. I'll call it a food memory since it didn't make me want the food. It was about rice with melted cheese mixed in with tomato sauce. I used to have that a lot for about 6 months - about a year ago. The memory was of the sort of saucy kind of mix. The weird thing was that even though I could smell it, see it, taste it and even feel it in my mouth during this spontanious memory recall episode (while hungry no less), I didn't feel like actually eating it? It actually seemed a bit gross to consider actually eating it 'cause I could also remember how gummy my teeth would feel as well as how I'd lose energy afterwards instead of gaining it like I do now. I know that in the past I would have wanted to eat it when experiencing the same food memory. It's a very curious thing to me - why did it not produce a desire to eat the food? If I could determine that, I may be able to help others prevent their unwanted desires with this sort of memory - craving thing... Oh well, I guess I'll just have to ponder it more. Maybe I'll never figure it out... Exercise: I ended up doing both the long and short belly dance videos last night, as well as some dips off the arm of my chair (10) and 10 knee pushups (and stretches of course). Oh yeah, I also did some pretend weight resistance exercises with my arms. I'm not sure what I'll do tonight. The belly dance videos are easy for me to get into doing, but I'm trying not to do them every night (want to do more variety). I might end up doing it anyway. I think if I had a rebounder I'd do that just as easily... I really like bouncing. It's fun and joyful to me! :-) I can't afford one right now though, so I'll have to wait on that one a bit. I'll report back on tomorrow's log on what I ended up doing. Thursday 9/19: ~10-ish: watermelon (sort of ended up munching on it 'till 11-ish, was working at same time)... ~1:30pm: 6 or so HI apple bananas ~8 or 8:30pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, ~5 large leaves arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (1 med.) dressing Detox: Well, I still have the sty/clog thing on/in my eyelid. I washed my face with really hot water & soaked that eye during the rinses with an eye-wash cupped-hand sort of thing (with my eye closed though). I think it's helping. I had some fried oil scents/tastes/sensastions in my mouth in the shower again - mostly french fries, some reg., some icky McDonald's plastic-oil feel, some just fried oil stuff (not french fries, but something else not recognizable). Exercise: Last night I didn't end up doing any particular exercise - was pretty tired and a bit depressed about my sty thing. I just did some stretches. I was pretty tired by the time I could go to sleep tonight, so I just did the short belly dance video routine, about 20-25 dips off of the arm of a chair, 30 knee pushups and about half of my regular stretches. Friday 9/20: ~8:30am: watermelon ~1 or 1:30pm: 7 HI apple bananas; 4 rambutan ~8pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, ~7 large leaves arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (10 cherry) dressing Detox: The sty thing is getting better, but is still prominent enough that it could turn around and get worse still too. Hopefully it will continue to go away... it's a bit sore. I ate extra watermelon and drank extra water today to help it out. I realized that I've been having a bit of a mucus cleanse lately, but haven't really been paying very much attention to it. It hasn't been much mucus and it's been a bit thick - a post nasal drip kind of thing. Maybe the thickness is why the sty thing got clogged - maybe it's a mucus thing... and maybe more water will help thin it? We'll see... I should have had more water than I did. I planned to have citrus before dinner to add more juice to my intake, but I was gone until late & when I got home I just wanted to eat my salad & not mess with the citrus. I also didn't want to end up filling up on the citrus tonight. I had my mind set on the salad. Maybe I'll have citrus for dinner tomorrow or the next night & skip the fat - that might help too. I had more french fry scents in the shower today and some just plain BO like when I was eating cooked. I thought about using deodarant again, but it was not as intense so I decided I didn't need to. I guess I am cleansing through my skin a bit right now. Exercise: I'm going to just do some stretches and maybe some arm stuff tonight because I'm going to do another workout with my friend at her gym tomorrow. We got together for a bit today too & I said that I wanted to do the lunge walks at the end so I could do more this time. I also want to try the handstands facing out too. Last time she offered to spot me doing a back handspring and/or flips, but I wasn't feeling like I could deal with the spinning at the time. I had just done a lot of handstands & I'm still getting re-used to being upside down. Maybe this time I'll feel up to it - especially if I face out while doing the handstands. It would be fun to do flips! :-) I tried to do some cartwheels when she went to the bathroom towards the end last time, but my arms and legs were too tired already and they just gave out on me. I didn't even make one cartwheel. LOL I know I can do those still - well, when my muscles aren't already fatigued. I'm also going to try doing the pull-ups and chin-ups on the lower bar of the uneven bars this time. Son: He had the cooked peanut butter cerial for breakfast & a cooked vegan burger and fries for lunch, but then had raw-ish stuff for dinner. I went to the HFS this afternoon after picking him up from the place where he volunteers once a week. I always go straight to the produce section when I go to the store now & hardly go anywhere else except the bulk area. He's getting used to this and is starting to only get food from those areas as well - unless he remembers something he specifically wanted to get (like cheese & chips this time - I let him get the cheese, but not the chips). Anyway, he picked out some apples while I was getting tomatoes & then got excited about some pears. I got a container of raspberries (expensive here, but I splurge on them sometimes anyway) and asked him if he wanted potatoes (he did). We looked around for other stuff and got some other things too. At the bulk section he got some of the brown rice pasta he likes. He then discovered that they had some of the spiced nori sheets he likes. It's the only kind like that we can find that doesn't have sugar, additives and/or chemicals, etc. This one just has spice and nori, but they don't get it very often. My son usually gets them all right away. I only let him get a couple of packages today. On the way home he ate the nori and apples, then when we got home ate the raspberries - that was his dinner. Pretty close to raw and raw in some people's definition. I find it pretty cool 'cause it wasn't lettuce, which is the only raw dinner he's been into for years. This combined with the banana 'shakes' we're making is increasing his raw food meal options a bunch, which should mean more raw meals for him in general. :-) Hubby: Yay! My hubby gets back tomorrow! He's been away for a week and I've been missing him... Saturday 9/21: ~9am: watermelon ~2pm: container of raspberries (~8oz); 8 HI apple bananas ~5:30 or 6pm: 1 orange; salad (~17 cups lettuce, ~7 large leaves arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (10 cherry) dressing Detox: Still dealing with the sty/clog in my eyelid - seems to be either maintaining or getting slightly better. During my morning shower I had the on-again, off-again photo chemical scent towards the beginning, and regular french fry scent towards the end. After I worked out at the gym & went home I only washed my face before going to sleep (instead of another full shower). During the night I was smelling citronella salve really strongly. It was so strong that I actually got up to try and figure out where the smell was coming from. It took me a while to figure out what I had been smelling. I couldn't determine where it was coming from & asked my hubby when he stirred if he had used any. He said he hadn't. It was strange. Later through the night it changed to the scent of lavender oil - really intense as well. It was pretty overwhelming to me & I asked my hubby again when he got up to go pee if he had used any of that. He hadn't used anything like that either. At one point I thought it was coming from the towel I like to use as a pillow (thought someone had used it for something else by mistake), and got rid of it for the rest of the night. It wasn't until about dawn that I realized that it was probably coming from my face. About a half hour after I realized that, my hubby got up again and said that he smelled it too & that he thought it was coming from my face. I hadn't told him my suspicions about that yet, but it confirmed it... I guess I was cleansing them? I don't use things like that much - have only used lavender oil directly (when being massaged) twice in my life and once got some Dr. Bronner's soap that had lavender in it a few years ago. We used to use citronella salve to repel mosquitos many years ago. Exercise: I had a good time working out with my friend at her gym. I didn't do any flips or handsprings, but got a good workout. We saved the lunges for last & I didn't overdo them like before (although my legs were giving out still at that point), so I still felt like I could trust my legs going downhill or down stairs an hour later. :-) The handstands did go better for me facing out - it's so much more familiar. I still am having trouble with lightheadedness from being upside down and then going right side up, so I didn't ask to do the flips. We did lots on the trampoline this time & I learned a few new things. I'm still working on getting one of them down & doing one of them better. The pull-ups & chin-ups went well on the lower bar & I did other versions of things there, including ones that are kind of like some of the weight lifting moves with the resistance in a pull rather than push motion. Of course, I'm still not able to do any of these fully with my full weight yet (which is why I'm using the lower bar to spot myself). When I was working on those my friend did a few flips, etc. and some of what I was doing too. When I was doing handstands, she was working on the beam doing handstand presses with rotating splits and swing downs, etc. - cool! She decided to skip rope on the beam (says it's easier for her to go longer there than on the ground - I figure it's 'cause she has to concentrate on balance more so doesn't pay attention to how long it's been as much). While she did that I jumped around some more on the trampoline, practicing some of the things we had done before and just plain jumping for joy and fun. :-) Oh yeah, I also did a couple of bridges - never could do them before, so it was cool! My spine seems to be more limber than before... When I got home I felt like I needed more upper body work, so did some pushups off the side of the chair (20 or so), some dips (10 or 20) and some other resistance movements to work out my delts. Body Transformation, etc.: The last few days I had been feeling kind of lower energy and not as vivacious as I had been - it was more like before I went raw. After that day without enough food (and wanting it) I hadn't really felt my raw self. Today I got my energy, raw joy and all back - yay! Today both my friend and my hubby independently asked me if I'd been working out a bunch this week 'cause they both noticed a lot more definition in my shoulder area. Cool! That's what I've been starting to focus on developing - nifty that it shows! Sunday 9/22: ~10am: watermelon ~noon: 1 large mango; 1 HI apple banana ~1pm: nap ~2:30pm: 3 HI apple bananas (ran out of ripe ones, so stopped) ~3, 4 or 5pm?: 3 HI apple bananas while at beach (got a few at HFS - too much $ at that one) ~9:30pm: salad (~9-11 cups lettuce, ~7 large leaves arugula) with tahini (2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice), tomato (3/4 med., 6 cherry) dressing Detox: No scents in either shower I took today - or when I washed my face either. I guess the detox last night did it well enough for a bit. I do still have the sty/clog thing in my eyelid, but it does seem to be getting slightly better... Gosh, these things can take so long to go away. Exercise: I did some stretches in the morning when I woke up 'cause I remembered that I forgot to do them last night. It was probably 'cause I did the arm stuff & had already stretched before working out at the gym with my friend. My legs are still holding out fine & although my muscles feel like they've been worked, they don't feel sore. It feels just right. I was a bit more sleepy though, which is to be expected when you increase your exercise, so I took a nap today. This afternoon my hubby and I went to a beach we haven't been to before (well it was part of a large beach we had been to different parts of before). We had a good walk on the beach with intermittant (sp?) jogs and/or runs a few times. :-) We then went to a shady spot and hung out, talked, looked at the sky, etc. He noticed my feet were covered in sand from having been wet before I buried them earlier. He started to decorate them with shell bits and pieces - it was fun. He put shells as substitutes for my toenails (that were hidden under the coating of sand). It looked pretty weird and kinda' nifty at the same time. ;-) He then went further with it and put more on my toe joints. I then started to try to make a house of sorts with some twigs and leaf stems in the area (while keeping my foot still for decorating, of course). He then built a tee-pee thing over my foot and put a snail shell on top with a flag made with a leaf and twig as well. He got up because he noticed that there were a lot of vacated snail shells around and put one broken one on his toe. It fit like a ring on his big toe but covered the whole thing and looked like a huge gross toenail and he walked around with it for a while. It was so funny looking! LOLVM I was rolling on the sand with laughter. He found another one and tried it on his other toe, but it didn't fit right & then put it on my toe. I got up (sacrificing my other tee-pee'd foot's decoration) and walked a bit with it. It made my hubby laugh too. We had a good time & I ate some bananas there before we went back home. Dinner: We had planned to go to the vegan restaurant that has some raw food (that contains things I don't eat, but has salad and is willing to make something I do eat). We got all dressed up & drove there, just to discover that they were closed on Sundays. :-( Well, at least that's what it looked like - they were closed. There were no hours on the door, so we figured they must not be open Sundays. It's a new restaurant, and we didn't have their number so didn't call first to check... By the time we got back home (after the grocery store for my son & hubby to get more catsup & bread for their turkey dogs), and I washed my lettuce and made my salad it was quite late. I have to get up early tomorrow too - hope I can do it... Monday 9/23: ~7:30 or 8am: watermelon ~1 or 1:30pm: 7 HI apple bananas ~7 or 8pm: salad at restaurant (~1 cup lettuce, a few mizuna leaves, a few arugula leaves, about 1/2 leaf cabbage chopped, ~2 Tbsp. grated beets, a bunch of pea? sprouts - ick, didn't like them (& not sure they're actually edible), 3 thin 1/2 slices of small tomato, 2 or 3 thin slices of cucumber, a few thin slice/strips of bell pepper, 2 very thin slice/strips of avocado) with 5 very thinly sliced 1/2 of small lemon Well, it really does matter what day you go to a restaurant as to what the experience is like. We went to the restaurant I was so impressed about before tonight and had a different waiter (our other one wasn't there) and possibly a different cook/food prep. person too. Whatever it was, the salad was about 2/3rds the size of the one I had before (even though I asked for more 'cause I wasn't getting dressing) and the lemon slices were so thin it was difficult to squeeze them. I had explained to this waiter that the side salad was all I could eat on their menu 'cause I only eat raw, whole foods. I asked for lemon slices on the side to squeeze for dressing & since I wasn't getting a regular dressing asked if I could get extra salad instead. He said I could just have their lemon tahini dressing & I explained that I didn't eat Bragg's, soy or olive oil, which it contained and that lemon would do just fine. He did not seem to care or pay that much attention & I had a feeling that I might end up with steamed veggies on my salad or something after he walked away, and hoped it would be okay. What arrived seemed to be a regular side salad - with the tahini dressing they made (although it was in a cup instead of all over the salad). The waiter noticed the dressing and offered to take it & asked again if I wanted it anyway. I said he might as well take it 'cause I didn't want it, so he did. Our son loved his food again (although the portions were smaller, which he liked 'cause it was less veggies & not as much less tofu). My husband asked for the entree with the largest portions & was directed to something that was of a noticably smaller portion than the special he had gotten the last time. My salad had some weeds in it, which I picked out. To top it all off, we almost didn't go there again tonight because we discovered that our bank's ATM was broken & all the other ones gouge you so much on their end and our bank's end... Besides there wasn't any other one nearby, so my hubby suggested we find out if they'll take a local check to decide. When we arrived we asked the waiter before ordering if they could take a check because we didn't have enough cash and our bank's ATM was broken. He wanted to know if our ATM card was a VISA debit card & we said it wasn't. He said they could probably work something out & about 10 minutes later took our order, so we thought it would be okay. We were there for about an hour or so & my hubby and son got dessert later too, so he surely should have told us if it wouldn't work out within that time. When it was time to pay, our waiter was nowhere to be seen & the waitress that was working some other tables came over and asked if we had gotten our check and if everything was okay. My hubby then explained the thing about the ATM & check and all & she said she'd have to check on it. She then went towards the back & our waiter appeared. She asked him about it & came back and told us that they don't accept checks! We couldn't believe that he didn't tell us before - how were we going to pay for it otherwise? We wouldn't have ordered if we couldn't pay for it & would have come back another day when we had cash (or the ATM was fixed). That was kinda' the last straw for us in terms of the tip. I tipped way extra last time, and this time I had been feeling about leaving a standard tip ('cause of the difference in food and service), but now I felt like not leaving any tip at all. My hubby had to walk around and find another ATM, incur the extra double charges & walk back in order to pay, while my son and I waited wondering if he'd find any cash. Good thing he found one & it wasn't broken too. We took the extra charges out of the standard tip and took off a bit more, leaving only $1. If it had been like it was the other night, we would have left $10-$12 or more for a tip ('cause I would have tipped extra & had intended to before arriving tonight). My hubby was of the same opinion as I was - that we both felt like not leaving a tip at all. This is unusual for us. I don't even know if I've ever wanted to not leave a tip intentionally before. There may have been one time way, way in the past. I feel so strongly about it that I feel like if I ever go there again it will be when I know the other waiter is working (the one we got the first time) and definitely if the one from tonight is working I will not eat there that night. I think I'll start looking for a place with a good salad bar now as another alternate place to go... [update: Many months later I found out that the restaurant had changed hands & fired much of the staff, which is why the experience changed. The difference in our experiences reflected the difference in owners - too bad.] Detox: More of the lavender scent at night - not as bad though. I think some of it this time was coming from my sheets from before. I need to change the sheets now I guess... I forgot to record specifics on my shower, etc. for today & am posting it 2 days later - sorry, can't remember any more except the sty's still there. Exercise: Went to the driving range with my hubby and son for their PE class (not much exercise, but fun - I did putting mostly); some evening stretches & not much else today. Tuesday 9/24: ~9am: watermelon ~4pm: 7 or 8 HI apple bananas ~7pm: salad (~8-10 cups lettuce, ~3 large leaves arugula) with home-made! tahini (~3 Tbsp), lemon (3 Tbsp juice or so), tomato (10 cherry) dressing I finally tried to make my own tahini (with my hubby). We tried the champion first. I put in 1/2 cup of raw brown sesame seeds and not much came out. It seemed to not want to go through, so we added some lemon juice & it started flowing fine. We then tried 1/2 cup in the Cuisinart with the S blade as well. That did nothing, so we added 2 Tbsp. lemon juice - still nothing but stck on the sides. We added another Tbsp. of lemon juice with no better results. It seemed like it might work if we used a bunch more, but we didn't want that much. We took the stuff from the Cuisinart & put it in the Champion. We put all of the stuff through the Champion a few times & then decided to stop 'cause it might get too heated up from it all. It tasted pretty good, but different. My hubby liked it better. I liked it better straight, but not as much as a dressing. Maybe next time I'll do the tomatoes and arugula with the sesame seeds and lemon in the blender... I have a few days' worth of tonight's in the refrigerator now though, so it will be a while before I try the blender thing. So, we used 1 cup brown sesame seeds and 3/4 cup lemon juice total so far, but I will probably be adding ~ 1/4 cup more of lemon juice to the left overs... I yielded about 1 cup when ground. I saw an infomercial the other day for the Ultimate Chopper & it looked good for this & other dressings and dips. I don't know if I'll get one though, 'cause I already have a blender, Champion and Cuisinart. It is tempting 'cause it seems small enough to work and be easier to clean-up and all... I thought I might have seen it on Dr. D.'s product list, but can't get to his site right now for some reason? Anyway, in the meantime I'll be eating my leftovers & then trying it in a blender with tomato. I used to have some little plastic containers (~ 1 or 2 cups' worth) that you could put onto the blender & then store the stuff in afterwards. If I can find them I'll try it with one of those. They might work better. Detox: Sty/clog thing in eyelid still there, and maintaining. My hubby did a couple of hot compresses for me today. BM today that seemed a bit cheesy - was wondering if it stuck to my insides like it does on dishes. It seems like it did & is sloughing off now... Tiny french fry scent in shower, but quite minimal. Exercise: I'm taking it a bit light right now. I will be doing some upper arm stuff & maybe the short belly dance video & stretches, but not much else. Wednesday 9/25: watermelon 3 HI apple bananas, taste of garbanzo (chick pea) sprouts to see if they were done (they were & I couldn't resist eating about 3 or 4 of them) ~2 or 3 cups sprouted garbanzo beans & 1-2 cups of cherry tomatoes ~7:30pm: salad (~8-10 cups lettuce, ~7 small leaves arugula) with tahini (~1 Tbsp homemade, ~1 Tbsp from jar), lemon (4 Tbsp juice or so), tomato (1 medium) dressing I forgot to record what time I ate things today... At lunch time I discovered that I didn't have enough bananas of the correct ripeness - only 3 of them were ready. :-( I then discovered that my garbanzo beans were still good & they actually sprouted. Yay! I've been thinking of them for a while... They were quite tasty and fun to snack on with cherry tomatoes later, after I figured my bananas had digested. I think I may have been wrong though, or garbanzo sprouts don't agree with me that much 'cause I got some gas & a few little bumps inside my mouth on my lower lip. My hubby said he gets that sometimes and that he thinks it's an indication of a possible food allergy. Hmmm... I wonder if garbanzo beans will be a no-no for me after all. I still have more, so I'll have to give it another try in a couple of days. Detox: Sty/clog thing still holding strong; french fry scents in shower still tapered off; bumps inside my mouth on my lower lip could be detox, could be allergic reaction to garbanzo sprouts... Exercise: I ended up doing both the short and long belly dance videos last night (in addition to the planned upper arm stuff & stretches). I was dripping at the end & had to take a shower before going to sleep. It felt nice to stretch and go to sleep after the shower (I usually shower in the morning instead - 'cause I have long hair and don't like to sleep with it wet. I put my hair up, so it hardly got wet last night). Tonight I'll probably be just doing some arm stuff and stretches - not much time, swamped with work for my business & the part time job I have, lesson plans and curricula... Thursday 9/26: ~9am: watermelon ~4pm: 7 HI apple bananas 7:30pm: salad (~12-16 cups lettuce, ~1/4 cup arugula) with tahini (~2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice or so), tomato (10 or 11 cherry) dressing Detox: My sty/clog thing was draining quite a bit last night and today. It seems to be slightly smaller. :-) My sweat is kinda' smelly today - even after my shower. I took a lemon peel, scored it with a knife and rubbed it under my arms as deodarant. It worked perfectly. :-) I had a bit of the photo chemical scent in the shower today, but no french fry or other fried oil scent. I'm still having a bit of gas (from the garbanzos - either just them or their proximity to the bananas), and the bumps in my mouth come and go now. I haven't figured it out yet... Exercise: Well, it's another jam-packed day for me, so I don't know if I'll get to the exercise again. :-( I did walk to and from the farmer's market today and will do some light upper arm stuff and stretching though. Farmer's Market Fun: There were some cool things at the farmer's market today! The rambutan is on its way out, but there is still some left - for now, so I got about 12 of them and a large atemoya from the same person. That person also had - a durian! We asked how much it was and he said it was the only one he had right now (and that he'd be having more later), and was taking bids on it. He said he almost didn't sell it, so he could keep it for himself. My first in-person encounter with a durian. I wondered if I would find the smell good or bad - I've heard it's supposed to smell bad, but also that some people like it's smell. Almost everyone says that when they get it at the correct ripeness they love the taste (regardless of the smell). I sniffed it (carefully at first LOL) and actually liked the smell - which is a good sign. It was not a very large one, less than a foot in diameter, and there were about 5 or 6 people bidding on it. It was at $11 at that time and we were pondering whether we wanted to spend $12 on something we might not like & talking to a friend (who was in on the bidding) about going in on it with them, when someone came and bid $15 and he finalized it at that point. We were still not sure, so didn't speak up and nobody else did either. I think we'll go ahead and try one next time - when he has more. We found out that another farmer there is growing them too, but that they only got tiny little ones last year (the first year it beared fruit) so didn't know if they'd have any this season. That farmer had longon though & I haven't had that yet either. I've read it's description and wanted to try it, luckily she had samples. It was a lot like a lychee, with skin that's a bit easier to get into which is brown, thin and smooth. It has a slightly different taste, but otherwise very similar. We got two of her large baskets of them (~40 in each?) and I'll be eating them in the next few days. I also got a lead on where to find organic kumquats here on-island. It turns out that one of my clients who is a farmer taking some time off grows them. I put in a call to her as soon as I got home. I hope she has some & will let me get/buy some from her! I just love kumquats! :-) The watermelon people were there again today & we got 2 melons - an 18 lb crimson sweet and a 25 lb red seedless. Of course, when I got to the market the first things I got were my current staples: lettuce, bananas and watermelon. LOL I went for the lettuce first 'cause it sells out the fastest here & it's more rare to find. I then went for the bananas 'cause I didn't see the watermelon people, but would have gone for the melons next if I had seen them. Bananas are relatively easy to find at farmer's markets here. The organic farmers I like to get my bananas from the most gave me a bit extra today too, that was so sweet! :-) I also get soursop, pumelo and arugula from them at times. I got my lettuce and arugula elsewhere today - at an organic farmer friend of our's stand. They're the ones who gave me the lead on the kumquats. When I got home and after my hubby and I put away all the new food I ate some of the bananas I had gotten (didn't have any ready before then). Afterwards I felt so happy - that raw joy thing again! Yay! I've got lots of good food in the kitchen! Yay! I feel great! Yay! Life is good. :-) Friday 9/27: ~7:30 or 8am: Watermelon (not a whole lot - I guess about 3 cups or so?) ~1pm: 9 rambutan; 9 longon (then needed to leave) ~2pm: 30 longon; 5 HI apple bananas (resumed eating once I could) ~7pm: 1/2 pumelo; hummus type of thing (described below) on lettuce leaves - sorry, I forgot to measure the amounts... it was about 3 - 5 cups & I ate all but about 1/2-3/4 of a cup of it. After I ate the pumelo, I took my leftover homemade tahini and leftover garbanzo sprouts and dumped them into the Cuisinart with some cherry tomatoes, leftover reg. tomato from my son's lunch, some green onion tops (yeah, I'll probably regret it later - bad breath & thirst from tonight into mid tomorrow), a bit of arugula, lettuce and celery too. My homemade tahini already had lemon juice in it - it's how I made it, so that's why I said it was a hummus thingy. I don't think tomatoes are usually in hummus though - and it's not usually raw... It was really, really tasty to me - I made enough for my hubby and son to have some too. They didn't want any & I liked it so much that I ate almost all of it. LOL Actually, it doesn't feel like I overate though. (Whew!) I know just what I'm going to use the little bit that's left for - stuffing the yellow bell pepper I got at the HFS today. I'll have it tomorrow or the next day... Well, today was quite a varied day for eating for me. I ate all the rambutan that was good & a whole basket's worth of the longon (well, not quite a full one - my hubby got a handful out this morning first). I also had a pumelo before dinner and made up a hummus thing recipe. It was 4 meals rather than 3 like usual as well, and probably more calories (I hope). Maybe eating more calories will work out after all... I'll have to check if I did actually eat more calores or not. Detox: The bumps inside my mouth on my lower lip are gone now - I'll see if they return after eating more of the garbanzos tonight. No sign of them yet... My sty/clog in the eyelid thing has definitely gotten smaller. I can open my eyelid more than before (I was only able to open it 1/2 way for a while, now it's 3/4 or more). I've been washing my face several times a day with this and often smell the photo chemical and/or astringent scents coming from my face when I do so. It has been tapering off the last couple of days - as well as the french fry scents in the shower... I wonder if there's a connection - maybe I'm getting through with the skin detox for now & my body's going to move on to something else once my eyelid thing has cleared up? Body Transformation: I just love my new jeans - the ones I got recently that are my old size. I'm wearing them and dresses a lot (partly 'cause my other pants and shorts don't fit anymore, and partly 'cause I like the way I look in them). I've been getting quite a few comments from friends and clients about how good I'm looking lately too. Some of them know I'm eating all raw ('cause my son told them) and they've told me that they want to get together with me to find out how I'm doing it (but none have arranged it yet - although it's mostly been during this last week, so hasn't been very long). I'm having fun pulling out the few old favorite clothes I kept that now fit me again. I pulled out a ribbed tank top today and tried it on with my bra (never used to wear one with it). This bra is one of those kind that has smooth cups (to reduce lines from the seams) and as a result is also a bit stiff in its shape. It still fits me all around the edges, but I don't quite fill it up anymore. The thing is, you can't tell - it's kind of like wearing a padded bra, without the padding. Strange and not something I'd do on purpose, but I kinda' like the way it makes some of my clothes fit better... I used to wear it when I need to seem 'motherly,' 'conservative' and/or basically look older than I do without it (closer to my age, that is). Now, I'm enjoying it in combination with form-fitting clothes. My new jeans are a below the waist type, but not hip-huggers. If I wear a form-fitting top (or short one), you can see my newly returned small waist. If it's also sleevless, like this tank top, you can also see my newly developing muscle definition. So, I'm getting a bit narcassistic right now - enjoying my new shape. I'm wanting to try on clothes just to see how they look on me now. There are still some that I'm not completely satisfied with (my inner thigh wavies and thigh cellulite's still around, but is on it's way out), but overall I like how everything is fitting me. I'm looking forward to building more muscles and see how things fit then too. :-) Oh yeah, I'm also more into wearing jewelry now. I tend to be quite practical, but since I've been raw - even before the body transformation was evident - I've been feeling more 'girly' simulataniously with wanting to be more 'sportsy' - if that makes any sense. Anyway, I'm having quite a bit of fun just dressing and accessorizing myself lately. ;-) (giggle, giggle - yes, the raw joy thing is happening again...). Exercise: My hubby thought I looked so good in my tank top and jeans that he wants to take me dancing, not 'cause he feels like dancing in particular (although he will be), but 'cause he wants to go out and be seen with me. ;-) So, I expect to get lots of exercise dancing later tonight. I'll probably do some stretches before bed too. I'm going to hold off on the upper arm stuff tonight to save them for gymnastics stuff tomorrow (oh yeah, and skipped it last night too - it just got too late at night, should have done them while watching the new Friends episode). I figured out a place I can probably do handstands against a door in my house - I just need to move some stuff that's mounted on the back of it. Maybe I'll do that Sunday... Saturday 9/28: ~10:30am: watermelon ~1pm: 40 longon ~3pm: 6 HI apple bananas ~7:30pm: 1/2 pumelo; yellow bell pepper stuffed with leftover hummus from last night; salad (~12-16 cups lettuce, ~1/4 cup arugula) with tahini (~2 Tbsp), lemon (4 Tbsp juice or so), tomato (10 or 11 cherry) dressing I meant to eat the bananas right after the longon, but had to get ready to go (shower, etc.) and didn't end up eating the bananas until I was in the car driving... I finished all of our longon. :-( It's funny, when we went dancing last night we saw the farmer I bought the longon from. My hubby asked her if she still had more & she said she did. He then said it was a good thing 'cause I had eaten them all already. He was joking, of course, but I did actually eat them all today... LOL Detox: Didn't get any more bumps in my mouth tonight, so I guess it wasn't the garbanzos - or my mouth's given up on telling me about it with the bumps. The hummus I made is a definite no-no for me in the future - too bad, it was tasty and all raw... I'll have to try it in a few weeks or so without the green onion tops and see if that helps... I got gas, smelly farts (was calling them hummus farts LOL), bad breath, thirst, and a touch of constipation, which got worse this second day of eating it. Oh well, at least I'll know what I'm getting myself into if I ever decide to do it again... My sty/clog in the eyelid is definitely looking smaller, less red and on it's way out. Sometimes they have hung on for a few months at this point, but I'm thinking it won't be like that this time 'cause the rest has gone so much quicker. My other eyelid is feeling a bit irritated... I wonder if it's going to get a regular type of sty... I'll have to take care of it too for a while. Maybe I'll do a hot compress or two on it at some point. Exercise: Dancing was fun last night, although they said it was well ventalated (no limits on smoking in places here), we could still smell the cigarette smoke. Ick! I hate second hand smoke. It wasn't very bad though - couldn't see it, it was a fairly big place and only 2 or 3 people were smoking infrequently. It was tolerable enough that we stayed. The band was good & we had lots of fun dancing. I was dripping sweat. I seem to sweat so much more readily now, but it doesn't smell. I guess that part of my body's working real well now... When we left, got into the car, closed the doors before turning on the car & rolling the windows down, my hubby and I both had the sensation that we had entered a smoker's car. The smoke was on/in us & it was gross. I wonder if the workout of dancing was negated by the smoke exposure... I had a great time, but I'm not sure if I want to expose myself to second hand cigarette smoke again. I know how bad it stays with you from my past lung cleanse experience that was from exposure to second hand smoke years and years before. Hopefully, we can find somewhere else that has dancing outside and/or with no smoking... When we got home our son could smell the smoke on us as well. I took a shower, but didn't get my hair wet ('cause I don't like to go to sleep with wet hair) and we could all still smell it in my hair! That cigarette smoke is something! Blaa... ;-) Today I worked out with my friend at her gym. She didn't work out much 'cause she re-injured her tendonitus (sp?) about an hour before the end of the last gymnastics class she taught that day (which was about 2 hours before I got there). Luckily, to keep my salad dressing cold until I ate, I had packed not only the hard water fillable plastic cooler ice packs, but another ice pack made for injures as well (to make sure it stayed cold). I went out and got it and insisted that she use it. She stretched and chatted with me while holding it on her wrist & said it helped. It was one of those things where you'd get the ice pack for someone else but not yourself, you know? Anyway, she was able to do the trampoine add-a-trick game we usually do without pain (before the ice she wouldn't have been able to). I'm starting to get the full turn with a split in the air thing much better and consistently now. Fun! I still have to do extra bounces between the tricks, whereas she can go from one to the other with just one bounce inbetween. We both sometimes have to bounce extra if we forget what comes next though. LOL I also have to stop talking about whatever we're chatting about when I start to forget the order of the tricks or get to the end and have to come up with something at the end. After we did the trampoline for a while I did some arm stuff with the bars. I still can't do a full chin-up without helping myself, but I am getting stronger... I also went to the short parallel bar training set and did some dips two different ways. She chatted with me during this 'cause she couldn't do them with the injury. I then went and did some handstands against the wall. I was wondering if I'd get lightheaded again - seem to get that way when doing them there after everything else. Yay! I didn't get lightheaded this time and could actually hold them for a while and chat a bit. I'm still not doing them without the wall though - eventually I will. ;-) While I did that she did a few one-handed cartwheels off the side of the medium-low beam with the hand that wasn't hurt. We then finished off with lunge walks and quad. stretching. I did some more stretching before going to sleep. I was going to skip it 'cause I stretched before the workout, but my muscles didn't want me to go to sleep without the evening stretch. They kept on wanting to move and stretch, etc. & it was keeping me up. Once I stretched out a bit they were fine. Body Transformation: My friend and I went to Sears 'cause she wanted to bet some towels that were on sale during their credit card discount special & today was the last day of it. We went after working out in the gym. There was a well-used bathroom scale there - demo? I don't know how accurate it was 'cause it was so used and it was one of those that shows as '0' lbs beforehand alternately with a few lbs. above and/or below 0 if you press & release it. Anyway, I decided to weigh myself to see if I've been maintaining my weight or losing still. The last time I weighed myself was about a month ago on a similarly used bathroom scale at the county farm fair. The one at the fair read 107 lbs and the woman there said it was about 5 lbs. off, so that meant I weighed 102 lbs. Today's scale read 106 lbs., which has me wondering... was the farm fair's scale correct at 107, or have I gained 4 lbs. muscle since then ('cause I've continued to get smaller & firmer, not larger), or is it just a variance between the two scales apt to both be inaccurate? So I suppose it really was a waste of time to weigh myself on that scale 'cause it didn't really tell me anything... It was kinda' fun though. Maybe I'll go into our neighborhood's medical clinic and ask them if I can use their more accurate scale for a minute. I'm kinda' curious what's happening with my weight, even though it wouldn't make much difference in what I'm doing at this point... Sunday 9/29: ~11am: watermelon (~6 or 7 cups?) ~1pm: cucumber ~4 or 4:30: 7 HI apple bananas ~8pm: salad (~10-14 cups lettuce, ~2-3 cups katuk, finely grated: 1/2 zucchini, 1/4 small beet, ~8 baby carrots) with the regular dressing (~2 Tbsp. tahini, ~ 4 Tbsp. lemon juice, 10 or 11 cherry tomatoes) I felt like cooking a kind of fancy dinner for my son (and maybe hubby) and make a fancy salad to go with it tonight. My hubby had mostly salad with a bit of the cooked. My son snacked on some raw potato (ick), mushrooms and lettuce, but didn't have salad then had an all cooked dinner. Detox: The sty/clog thing in my eyelid has stablized a bit - not noticably worse or better from yesterday. Still have the hummus farts - oops! I guess I really shouldn't have eaten that. Live and learn... Nothing else in particular to report. I guess the cleansing's been put on hold to deal with the raw hummus thing I did the other two nights... Exercise: I am planning on bouncing for a half hour to hour on the rebounder I borrowed from my friend's gym. She said she wasn't using that one. Cool! It's not the Needak fancy one, but it'll certainly do - better than nothing for sure, much better! I'm going to do it while watching TV... and some upper arm stuff too (push-up things & dips, etc.). When I go to sleep I'll do the evening stretches. Monday 9/30: ~10am: watermelon ~2pm: 11 or 12 HI apple bananas ~6pm: salad (~10 cups lettuce, ~2 cups katuk, 2 roma tomatoes, <1 Tbsp. walnuts, finely grated: 1/2 zucchini, 1/4 small beet, ~8 baby carrots, 1 yellow summer squash) with 1/2 very large meyer lemon squeezed & broken up into it for dressing I decided to make another 'special' salad tonight with the grated veggies and all & try to do it without the fat (just using lemon). I know that the salad at the restaraunt that time tasted good enough for that... I didn't get it right & then added a touch of walnuts, but that didn't do it either. I think I'll go back to my regular thing again tomorrow. I still have 1/2 a beet left though - maybe I'll cook it for my son and/or hubby... Detox: Nothing in particular to report - all is about the same today... Exercise: I will either do 1/2-1 hour on the rebounder or a hula video (I rented a couple of videos from the library), then the now fairly regular upper arm stuff and stretches... I'm not sure if I'll get it all in before going to sleep though. Fun: My hubby and I are going to camp out in our back yard tonight! Fun! :-)
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