Smoothie Day – Healing Journey Day 29

Journal:
This morning started out well. I was able to sleep in and even upon waking up, didn’t have to rush to go anywhere. We had until 2:00 to check out of our hotel room which – even though we didn’t stay that long – was really nice.

After showering, packing up, and leaving the hotel, we went and got some breakfast/lunch. We went back to the smoothie place we had yesterday and I got the same Marathon Smoothie but with a bit of a tweak: I asked for less ice and added pineapple juice. It was so much better today.

After driving to my mother-in-law’s house, we stopped at a local supplement store that also sells smoothies in house. So I ordered a custom smoothie that was simply water, frozen bananas, and frozen berries. This one did not taste so great, but I ate it anyway.

For a few hours in the afternoon, I visited with my mother-in-law and took a nap. I woke up in time to get ready for church and make a small smoothie before we left. This time I made a smoothie with two bananas and about a cup of raspberries. This one was pretty good.

Church was ok. The sermon was good, but the music beforehand involved a mini-rock concert that I felt was definitely not the time nor place; I actually felt like it took away from the service. The praise team leader was jumping all around the stage with his guitar, head banging the whole time, and encouraging the drummer to always play louder. Sometimes, the drumming took over the whole music so that if it wasn’t for the words on the screens, I wouldn’t have had any idea what they were singing. It honestly was a bit much.

After church, we had a bit of a surprise: My mother-in-law took us out for a late supper. When she asked where I would like to go, instead of saying my usual, “Oh it doesn’t matter to me at all.”, I requested Chilli’s right away. The reason being, is that this small town that she lives in does not have a “restaurant” that serves smoothies. Not one at all. And instead of completely blowing this smoothie day again, I knew that Chilli’s has a salad that they put a lot of fruit in. And out of all the restaurants in town, it’s the only one I know I could still eat raw at and eat fairly light. Guys, I told you… it’s back to being dedicated!! I know it wasn’t a smoothie, but it was the best case situation. And even though I knew it wouldn’t fill me up, I was sticking with my game plan.

So at Chilli’s, I ordered the Caribbean salad. It contains greens (including spinach), pineapple, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, red bell peppers, green onions, cilantro and sesame seeds topped with some lime. I then added some slices of avocado to it. Oh it was so good! I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though, as I predicted, it did not fill me up.

Following supper, my husband and his mother stopped at Cold Stone for ice cream. Did I fall for this stop? Nope. I waited until I got home to make a smoothie.

For the smoothie that ended off my day of eating, I blended two bananas, a cup of raspberries and five deglet dates. The deglet noor dates are actually my favourite, though they seemed less sweeter than the ones I usually get in Canada which is surprising. But, I am happy to say that I stuck with raw foods today, primarily being smoothies. I am getting back on track!

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue still clean in the morning (surprising!).
-Didn’t feel so well after eating all of those salted chips last night and such high fat.
-Was nice to eat out with family and still stick to raw foods.
-Smoothies are not so sweet without added sugar so definitely looking forward to moving past the smoothie stage though I think I’m going to be doing smoothies for a little longer as my full smoothie days hasn’t really been a “thing” lately.
-Digestion is top notch when I’m NOT eating cooked foods. There is definitely a difference.

Weight at the end of the day = 178 lbs (down 0.6 lbs from two days ago)

Total Calories = approx. 1719 (85% carbs, 12% fat, 3% protein)

Day 10

This morning, I woke up at 5:30 sharp. What time was my alarm set for? 7:00. I have so much energy I can’t even finish sleeping in the morning! Seems a little strange…

So the first thing I did was drink a cup of water. Time to start getting the body hydrated!

For breakfast, I had an organic mini seedless watermelon. Almost halfway through the melon, I started wondering how I was even going to finish the thing. It was a beautiful red flesh, sweet flavour, and very little white flesh melon. So delicious. Somehow, I just kept eating and ate the whole thing!

I got ready, went to my chiropractor and acupuncture appointments, and then starting thinking those food thoughts again… I wanted so bad to stop and get sushi. Oh my goodness, it took the whole drive home for me to talk myself out of going. Not that it’s not vegan (cucumber rolls, avocado rolls, etc…), but it’s definitely not rawtill4 and I really don’t need to spend the extra money.

Somehow, I did it again! I beat my mind, came home, made a sandwich with Silver Hills Squirrely bread, an avocado, some lemon juice, cucumber, this raw ranch dip, and some salsa. I then had another fifth of my fresh mango cake with some vanilla coconut yogurt on top. Not the best raw meals, but it did stop me from spending extra money and it will tide me over for now.

For supper tonight, I’ve asked my husband to go to our stir fry place where I can get different fruits and veggies that I want, served with rice and noodles. I can’t believe I’m craving rice! I used to dread eating it. I have such a craving for it today!

After my husband came home, we got ready and went to our stir fry place. Oh, it was so good! I made a mix of carrots, bean sprouts, cauliflower, chick peas, tofu, mini corn-on-the-cob, pineapple, dried cranberries, peanuts, kale, noodles, and coconut rice. I use sweet and sour sauce and coconut milk as a topping. Oh it was so delicious. I even indulged and had a green onion cake. It was just so good and so filling! I couldn’t eat it all.

After we came home and let the food digest a little, we got ready and went to the gym. I did 30 minutes of treadmill cardio, followed by some variations of lunges, walking high kicks, stretches and the chiropractor exercises. It was a good energizing workout.

When I got home, I finished that fantastic stir fry. In fact, I wished I had more. Maybe next time I’ll make my stir fry bigger! 🙂

That was basically it for the day. I’m feeling good!

Day 5

Another morning where I got to wake up on my own. No alarm clocks needed. Too bad this wasn’t every day!

The first thing I did when I woke up was drank a bottle of water. I know for an absolute fact, I did not get even half as much water in as I should have yesterday. So without a thought, I chugged a bottle back.

For breakfast, I ate four mini red bananas. If you haven’t had red bananas before, you should try them! They have a hint of raspberry and are super yummy. However, be careful. They take FOREVER to ripen, but when they do, they ripen really quickly. I had a bunch of 8, and 4 are ready. The others are still very hard.

After breakfast, we got ready to go to the gym… except we didn’t go to the gym. We went to the mall instead.

On the way to the mall, we stopped at Tim Horton’s for my husband. I was so proud of myself! I did not indulge in a single doughnut or a single drink! I was so hungry (4 mini bananas were definitely not enough). I waited until we got to the mall and then bought those Korean potatoes I’ve been eyeing for a long time. They were so good – well worth the wait!

We shopping for 4 1/2 hours! But we managed to get him everything he needed which was good. At least for his first day of his new job. We’ll have to shop more tomorrow.

After coming home, I was so tired from shopping. I ended up taking a nap while my husband went to the gym without me. Then, when I woke up, I started my phone calls. Not including my husband’s mother and grandmother, I also had 4 of my own to call (mom, stepmom, two grandmothers). I’m not much of a phone person, so it’s unusual for me to call that much but it was good to talk to everyone.

While I was on the phone, I ate a big salad made from 50/50 Organic Mix, organic blueberries, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, soya nuts, organic cucumber, and my usual dressing made from avocados, a spoon of vegan cream cheese, and salsa. Yum! Yum! Yum!

We went and got groceries at 9:30 p.m.! We never go that late, but even after my husband came back from the gym, he had to call his mother and grandmother for Mother’s Day. So it took quite awhile.

While we were shopping, my husband found these organic jalapeño corn chips that he ate while we were shopping (don’t worry, we paid for it still). I tried one and they were absolutely delicious.

After we got home, right before I went to bed, I took two pieces of Silver Hills Squirrely bread, and put a little peanut butter and a little peach jam made with stevia. Takes me back to the pb&j sandwiches as a kid. Yum!

Day 3

I am paying for what I did last night. I never want to eat that much deep-fried food again.

I woke up in the middle of the night as dry as the desert. My mouth was so dry and I craved water. I did not get in near enough water yesterday, possibly not even half as much as my goal is. I feel awful.

I chugged down some water and realized as I was laying in bed trying to fall back asleep that I had pains from my neck to my lower abdomen. Greasy food… I strongly dislike you. My body is paying for my stupidity.

After I got up and made lunch for my husband, I took a 4L jug of water, and started drinking. My goal is to have the 4L finished today. My usual goal is only 3L, but I think I owe it to my body, especially after all that unhealthiness last night to give it some extra water to flush the nastiness out. Ugh… hopefully you’re sensing how awful I feel.

After drinking about 1L of water to start off my day, and waiting about a half hour, I ate my breakfast. Today, my bananas from the Organic Box were ripe and ready to be eaten. Remember, when you eat bananas, they shouldn’t just be yellow. They should have lots of dark spots on them. That is when they are the best ripeness. I attempted to eat 6 (I know it would even be awesome to eat 10) but because I’m still getting used to eating so much, I could only get in 5. So a 5 banana breakfast it is!

I had to run to meet a lady at a different mall today. It was good. Got there on time. Found her. Everything went smoothly. But I decided to take a quick run to the health food store there to get some hairspray that I needed. Of course, I walked by the food court, really wanted some Korean potatoes, but since I’m trying to do raw foods until 4 p.m. each day, I continued to walk by. Instead, I picked up some Solar Raw kale chips with my organic, cruelty-free hairspray. Oh they are delicious! You could never guess it’s not cheese on them. Almost completely organic, and the Solar Raw brand is a farm that grows all their own organic products using solar power! Love it! Look up the brand and see for yourself! The only thing was, they are so rich that I could only eat a small handful. I will be snacking on these later (or tomorrow).

As a late lunch, I put together a massive salad. I used some 50/50 Organic Green Mix, 1 organic raspberry (unfortunately one had moulded and spoiled a whole bunch of other ones), organic blueberries, three sliced organic strawberries, some organic cucumber, a yellow rainbow carrot, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and soya nuts. For a dressing, I mashed 2 small avocados with a teaspoon of vegan cream cheese (not my favourite, so masking it with other things) and salsa. Oh so delicious, and very full!

After my husband came home, he suggested going out for frozen yogurt. It’s a hot day, our first “hot” summer day, so I said, “Let’s go!”

They had two vegan flavours today: blueberry sorbet and peach sorbet. I totally forgot how flavourful sorbet was! So sweet and fruity. Yum! Of course I put some fresh fruit toppings on it, as well as a couple candy embellishments as a treat. This is a late snack/supper. I’m still very full.

We went to the gym, and I had a good workout. I focused on different variations of squats, push-ups, and some planks. I did a variety of stretching, my chiropractor’s exercises, and 25 minutes of quick-paced walking. It all went very well.

For supper, I finished off the little bit of kale chips my husband left, ate 3 mangos, and then sat around with my husband trying not to fall asleep (sometimes I’m a night owl, sometimes I’m not). However, my husband mentioned that he wanted pizza, so we ordered pizza, non-cheese breadsticks (for me), Coke Zero, and Cinnamon Sticks. I was so proud of myself that I did not even look at the pizza (cheese, chicken and beef), and I didn’t even take one gulp of that Coke Zero! Not that Coke is not vegan, but of all the chemicals that are inside that thing. I did eat my cheese-less breadsticks with marinara sauce (normally would be so unhappy that there was no cheese on them… talk about cheese-addicted!), and I ate a couple of the cinnamon sticks (could have definitely gone without these). But overall, not bad with all the temptation around me!

Just before I went to bed, I finished my 4L of water. Definitely the most I’ve ever drank in a day, and I was so happy!

Week 5 Day 4

There is really not a whole lot to report to you today. I took the rest day that I needed. I had a great day at work, and to tell you the truth, I really can’t even tell you why it was good. There was nothing bad about today at all.

Tonight, my husband realized that we barely have any groceries. I haven’t even thought of groceries since I’ve had my food ready to go. But it was already fairly late in the evening by the time we both got home, talked about our days, and he had gotten ready to eat supper. So we decided groceries could be gotten tomorrow, and for tonight he’d get some food at Wendy’s.

Since my method seemed to work last time, I assessed my calories that I had left and researched the menu before we went. I had just enough calories for a grilled chicken wrap. And it turned out to be just enough to keep me satisfied while my husband had a burger, fries, and frosty. Oh that frosty looked good. There’s that sweet tooth coming out in me. But I held strong and was so much happier that I did. I didn’t need it.

After we got home, my husband started getting ready for the gym. I wanted to go but knew I had to stay home. I owed it to those sore legs to let them rest. So when he left, I busied myself with dishes, laundry, and finally taking a hot bath with bamboo oil. If you’ve never tried bamboo oil, you should. The stuff is amazing for sore muscles. I would say either comparable or even better than epsom salts. Unfortunately I don’t know where you would find it (maybe health food stores?) because I found it in a shop in my favourite place in the world: St. Andrew’s by the Sea. But seriously check it out!

So here is what I ate!

Meal 1

Granola/Yogurt/Berry parfait. Thought it was a little small, but honestly filled me and was so good!

Meal 2

So filling. Grapes, cheese, rice crackers, and apples.

Meal 3

Ancho Chicken Bowl. Rice, shredded chicken, blacks beans and a cilantro/corn mixture. This one packs some heat!

Meal 4

The most delicious egg white salad I’ve ever had! With tomatoes, celery and rice crackers. Yum!

Meal 5

The most amazing chicken salad spinach salad. No extra dressing required. Even has dried cranberries!