Summer Days of Fruitrition 2/7 – Healing Journey Day 62

Journal:
I did not wake up when I wanted to today. In fact, I had a huge amount of plans for today and somehow still slept in. I shouldn’t say “somehow” because obviously it wasn’t hard to sleep in. It felt really good to not get up for work today. I was happy to have the day off.

Upon rising, I right away started on my day. I started with typing up my devotional, did my fertility tracking on all four apps that I have, did both brain training sessions I have on my two apps, and began preparing foods for the rest of the day (put dates in a bowl to soak and figs in another bowl to soak). Now, because I had nothing ready to eat in the morning, this did lead me to eat something not raw for breakfast, so that part did not work out the greatest… However, I was set up for the rest of the day!

I did quite a bit of work on the computer while watching some documentaries at the same time. The three I managed to watch today were the following:

Excellent documentaries that I highly recommend watching! There is a lot of good information out there, we just have to look for it!

At 2:00 pm, I had an oil change, so before I went to the dealership, I quickly blended up a Datorade with 15 Deglet Noor dates. Unfortunately, I was really looking forward to it, but I put in too much water. It completed diluted the flavour.

After I returned from my oil change, I went ahead and made a snack from Medjool dates and Romaine lettuce. I always thought Deglet Noor dates were my favourite, but this batch of Medjool dates that I got far surpass my love for Deglet Noor dates. This snack is one of the best and comes highly recommended!

The next thing I tried to eat, following a webinar that I listened to, was some mangoes. The guide suggested 6 mangoes as a mono-meal. However, I only ended up eating 2, one of which burned my lips a little from being unripe. I’m not having good luck with these expensive mangoes…

I got the most exciting package this evening. I ordered it almost two weeks ago, and it just showed up. How excited and thankful I was!

There is going to be a long friendship with this machine. I’m absolutely beside myself that I finally own a Vitamix! Yes, I had an old Vitamix, but it was such a pain to clean and use. This is brand-new, beautiful, and mine. I can’t wait to make amazing recipes with this thing!

So to end the night, I rinsed it out and made the fig pudding using soaked, dehydrated figs, dates, and raw carob powder. It was ok, though I think I could have blended it a little longer. The carob powder was nice.

And that summarized my night. I did a lot of stretching and mobility exercises for my hip flexor pain again. I think it’s doing way better, but I just don’t want it to turn into a serious injury. So taking it slow and steady is the way I am going.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is bad.
-Energy is good.
-Hair is so-so.
-Mental focus is good.
-Digestion is ok.
-Productive.
-Feeling hydrated after consuming more water today.
-Hip flexor pain has improved today.

Weight at the end of the day = 169 lbs (same as the past two days)

Total Calories = 2380 (80% carbs, 9% fat, 11% protein… macros are almost spot-on!)

What in the World is Going On? – Healing Journey Day 20

Journal:
Today was actually a pretty good day. Now, when I say it was a pretty good day, I’m reflecting and realizing that my “good” days have taken on a whole new meaning themselves. A “good” day now would have been a “crazy” day to me before. But I firmly believe in celebrating what is good overall, so I will continue to say that today was a pretty good day.

I managed to eat 2 bananas in the morning. This was a feat. I can’t remember the last time I actually managed to eat before the afternoon. The bananas were ripe and sweet and I was thankful. I was not craving any cooked food whatsoever.

At lunch time, we ran into the first big issue: hot lunch was not ready. I, in no way, blame the person in charge. He was doing the best he could with none of his help showing up. In fact, I felt bad. Being the teacher I am, I decided to move our lunch time to after lunch recess so that there wouldn’t be a huge rush and extra time could be provided. After explaining this to my students, they completely understood.

Before my students came back in from recess, I decided to go see if any help was needed. Instead of giving assistance, they told me to call out my orders according to my list and simply gather what was needed for my class. So that is what I did. I had 8 orders for my class and I worked on transporting everything and having everything prepared for my hungry students to eat when they came in. However, because it was such a rush, I didn’t realize that I had also taken the lunch of a student who had been sent home in the morning. Because it had been handled, the hot lunch could not be returned. So I ended up splitting the lunch with another student whose father had not yet shown up with her lunch. This wasn’t even because I really wanted the lunch to be completely honest. But it was because I have a problem with wasting food. The cheese slice they added to the veggie burger? It definitely came off. Since being vegan, I cannot look at cheese the same way. And for anyone who has not read my other posts, I work in a school that does not serve meat whatsoever, so on any hot lunch day, meat is never an option. Everything is either vegetarian (like pizza days) or vegan, often with the option of either.

So, I didn’t end up with a super heavy feeling which I credit to not eating the whole lunch myself. However, I did not feel as “fresh” either. I’m not enjoying cooked food as much as I thought I would. There really is something to eating raw. I think my biggest struggle right now is that I’m limited to a single fruit per day and I just really want some veggies in there too to give me a break from the sweetness. But that day is coming soon. I just have to keep this up a little longer (especially since the past 3 days haven’t been 100%). Tomorrow, I have to clean up and do a full banana island day.

After lunch, my next big event happened during gym class for my students. The student whose parents still had not shown up with anything for her to eat was keeling over in gym. At this point, I asked if I could go into the canteen and pick a couple more things out for her. I sat with her while she ate the two things we selected. After she returned to gym, I looked at the clock and realized I had only about 5 minutes left until it was time to pick my kids up from gym. So I decided to head back into the kitchen to see if any help was needed in the clean up from hot lunch (again, one person doing everything). As I went in to help, the announcement went for what should have been a lockdown drill. However, a small and yet huge mistake was made. In a rush to fit our drills into the day, the script from the emergency paper was read and instead of using the appropriate words to say that it was just a drill, the script that meant it wasn’t just a drill was used. I can’t even begin to explain the stress and panic that occurred following the use of the wrong script. Thankfully, it ended up being just a drill with the wrong words being read. But as soon as everyone was given the all clear, many teachers ran to find out what happened and I think it is safe to say that this mistake will not happen again.

The rest of the day went fairly well, aside from an earthquake drill we had to practice later in the day. It was not the most productive day at work. But I came away from the day proud of my students and how they handled each situation. I am just happy we were all safe.

Though I did have a meeting of sorts again after school, I was actually home by 6:00 pm. It is a record for the past few weeks. It felt so good to just leave my classroom a mess, not worry about prepping for the next day, and not worrying about having to get up early the next morning to do it all again. I was home, I was safe, and for one evening, work could wait.

I would like to say the rest of the evening went well, but it didn’t. Around 7:00, I started wondering why my husband had not messaged me since lunch. He almost always messages me when he gets home around 6:00. And then I found out what happened.

A year or so ago, my mother-in-law was involved in a massive court case as her assistant had embezzled a bunch of money from the company. As she is second under the owner, she was just as much if not more involved with taking this lady to court than he was. While this was going on, my mother-in-law’s house was broken into: the door was kicked down, things were stolen, etc. Police were involved, the door was taken for fingerprinting, and the house was searched. Nothing ever came from this case, though suspicions were strong. She then installed some cameras along the driveway and put an electric gate at the end of the driveway as well. Nothing seemed to happen after that.

Well, yesterday, someone had come along and not only disconnected everything from her electric gate, but had also unbolted and stolen all of the electric gate equipment. To me, that took someone who had premeditated this as the person would have had to have all the right equipment to do it while also trying to be fast so as not to be caught when someone drove by. Though there is still a slight possibility it was someone looking to make some cash, it doesn’t seem likely.

Not only was that bad enough, the reason my husband had not contacted me was because someone had actually broken into the house again. But instead of just kicking in the door and stealing some things, they had turned on her gas burners and left them running. No, they were not ignited; they were simply turned on so the gas would continue to fill the house. Honestly, this is so much like a tv show. These are things you don’t think will ever happen to you. But this is real life and this is scary beyond belief. The worst part of it all is I had two of my dogs upstairs in a kennel. If they had blown up the house or burned the house down, my dogs would not be alive today. I freaked out. The worst part is, they called the cops, they came and took a look but of course could do nothing. The best advice they gave her was to set up cameras, fix the gate, and attach a sign at the beginning of her property saying that it was under surveillance. Even for myself, I find no comfort in this whatsoever. I think I’m still in shock now, even as I write this. This is one of my “homes”. This is my husband, my mother-in-law, and my dogs. If anything happens to them… I just can’t even fathom right now.

So needless to say, I didn’t leave the house. The gym was the furthest thing from my mind. And though I did manage to eat a total of 5 bananas today, only 2 of those were after I got home. My appetite was far from here. I’m on edge. I just can’t even imagine…

Review of Symptoms:
-Tired
-Stressed
-Not so hungry due to stress
-Cooked food is causing me to feel not as great.
-Acne is the same.
-Haven’t “eliminated” in several days…

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 lbs (still no weight change)

Total Calories = approx. 1237 (78% carbs, 15% fat, 7% protein… much better ratios today)

Canadian Soldiers… 3 Days to be Kicked Out!

Ok so here’s the deal. I love Canada. I’ve always been proud of being a Canadian. In fact, there’s nowhere else in the world I’ve ever dreamed of living (except for those few moments in the winter when we hit -50s Celsius… then my mind begins to wander…). But this bit of news I’ve heard recently has suddenly “burned my biscuits” (my husband hates that phrase!).

Last night, on the news, there was – as there always is – an update on the Syrian refugee crisis. As many know, Canada has said they would take 10,000 refugees. Of course this has started all kinds of uproar, but aside from that whole raucous, I was EXTREMELY disappointed with what I heard. Are you ready for it?

They are removing soldiers from the barracks in order to give housing to the refugees.

No joke. Now, this is not all military bases, but still! And do you know how long they have to move? 3 days. Honestly, 3 days. What kind of appreciation to our troops is that?

First, they are told they have to leave their home in order to make homes for refugees. Last time I checked, military paycheques weren’t the greatest. I’m pretty sure barrack living is much cheaper than normal housing situations. So we’re going to kick out our soldiers who don’t have tons of money, who probably don’t have a down payment for a house or a damage deposit saved up for a rental, possibly causing some of them to become rather “homeless” in order to save from refugee homelessness? Does this even make sense?

Secondly, they are being given 3 days. 3 days. The number keeps flashing in my head. In most rental evictions, you get a week. In extreme cases, maybe less than that. But the thing is, the soldiers didn’t do anything wrong. They’re being evicted on zero grounds of things they’ve done themselves. And we’re given them the glorious number of 3 days to restructure their lives. Yup, 3 days to find a place (this can take forever), 3 days to move, 3 days to uproot their current lives and create new ones. 3 days is a joke. This is ridiculous.

What do you think, am I being too hard on our government? Am I not seeing the whole picture? Is the thought that maybe we should treat our soldiers well since they are prepared to give their lives for our country ridiculous? I’m beyond bewildered.

Maybe this is wrong, but can we not put up temporary housing for them until something else is figured out? I know if I was running away from a huge terror, I would be happy to end up in a warm church room, or a town hall, or any building with a roof over my head and warmth. I guarantee food donations and other things will be coming in. I know people are willing to help out. So why aren’t we using vacant places instead of kicking our own residents out?

If you have any clear thoughts, definitely leave them below. This whole situation just blows my mind. Leave it below and let’s hear some other thoughts on this whole situation!

Fat Loss Pills – Let’s Get Serious!

Ok. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but that doesn’t stop the convincing ads you see in magazines and on tv, and that surely doesn’t stop people from buying them. So I’m going to talk about them one more time, and explain my experience with the last weight loss pills I tried.

Why am I against weight loss pills? Simply because they don’t work. Diuretics may work, but that is simply causing you to lose water weight, not actual fat. There are some carb blocking pills and hunger reducing pills, but why are you starving your body of the nutrients it needs? People end up spending way too much money on these “miracle pills” only to end up wasting their money because they simply don’t work.

Now, there are also very expensive, powerful weight loss pills that can work, but I will tell you one thing for certain: it is going to be very hard on your body!

My sister bought one of these very powerful weight loss pills, and she ended up having consistent nightmares and barely being able to sleep. The pills were just short of giving her hallucinations. Definitely not a good sign.

I bought a weight loss pill from the states (I’ve tried many brands before), but these were supposed to be powerful enough that you can only take one capsule a day. You know what the pills did? I didn’t lose weight. Instead, my throat burned like a hole was forming in it. It didn’t matter if I took the pill with food, or what I drank with it, this one simple pill a day was strong enough to burn my throat and irritate me for the full day. I even tried taking it every other day. But same results. I didn’t even finish the bottle.

So ladies and gentlemen, before you go out and buy all of these weight loss supplements and fat loss pills, please just consider that healthy and balanced eating mixed with some type of exercise each day is the healthiest way to go. No pill is going to be healthy for you, and it’s definitely not going to do the job that healthy eating and exercise can do. Put in the work and be proud of the body you create. Don’t harm it out of desperation to look a certain way. There are enough things in this world that harm us already.

Week 11 Day 6

I didn’t want to let my husband go to work this morning. The storm continued over night and the snow is well over a foot and a half deep. It’s almost -40 C and I know the road conditions are going to be terrible. But my husband still got up and went off to work.

On the way to work, he took me over to get my car from the school. He shovelled (for as long as the cold would allow him before freezing) to get my car out of the snow, and let it run for a few minutes. I told him to go on ahead to work, but he refused until he saw me drive the car out. Well, let’s just say, my husband is smart. For the first time ever, my car would run for a second and shut off. I would start it again, and it would shut off. My car was absolutely refusing to run in the cold. The poor thing. So, my husband took me back home before going to work, and I rescheduled all of my appointments again. Taxis are not required to have winter tires, and I refuse to either get in an accident or be stuck on the road in a taxi. Everything will have to wait for another day.

My husband ended up coming home early. If they dared to stop, the work van would have been stuck. So they basically did a loop from home to the shop to the site, kept on driving back home. It was so nice to know he wasn’t on the road and he could be home safe and sound.

We only went two places: GNC for some things I needed. Black Friday sales were on and we got an awesome deal on lots of goodies!

We also went to the gym. I did an excellent shoulder workout. My shoulders burned so badly. I didn’t take the time to do cardio though, because even though I had the day off tomorrow, my husband didn’t, at least not yet that we knew of. So I left with a satisfied shoulder burn!

I’m ready to go home and sleep well in a warm house tonight!