Smoothie Day – Healing Journey Day 31

Journal:
I slept really good last night. However, morning still came too soon. I wasn’t really looking forward to today anyway because it meant I was flying back home in the evening. Oh well.

Because I had a blender in my hotel room, I was able to make datorade for breakfast (blended dates with water). Seriously, I love datorade but this was just not as good. I really think these deglet dates are not the sweet quality that I usually get in Canada. I’m looking forward to getting back to those dates.

Immediately after breakfast, we got ready and checked out of our hotel. We were on the hunt for a new winter jacket. However, most stores had hardly anything out as the weather was still t-shirt weather in Colorado, unlike the snow that had already fallen in Canada. So, I ended up jacket-less. However, my husband did buy me an electric orange juicer that I’m so excited about and some books Barnes & Noble. Educators get a discount and even though I’m a Canadian teacher, they still allowed me to sign up for their education program. So if you’re in education and you haven’t signed up for their education program, do it!

Now, lunch time came and I made the decision to eat one last time with my husband before I left. He even continuously offered to take me to the smoothie place, but I told him it will be awhile before I see him again, so I just wanted to sit down with him and eat one last time. So we went to the healthy, stir-fry place again: Genghis Grill.

You know, the difference of how I feel eating raw foods versus cooked foods is amazing. After eating the cooked foods, I felt like sleeping, with a heavy stomach again, and even a bit of that pre-headache feeling. It bizarres me. This is something I would expect from eating junk foods, but not cooked foods. My body is definitely ready to go back to all raw foods, particularly fruit for awhile.

For the last little bit of my time before my flight, my husband and I just sat and talked. I was flying from a smaller airport so it was easy to monitor the security lines and how long it would take.

Part of the reason I agreed to eat stir-fry was that I was only supposed to have 20 minutes between landing and flying again in Denver. It’s not a massive airport, but it is quite large and is often busy. So that meant that there would most likely not be any time at all to go to that smoothie place I had seen coming through last time. However, my flight arrived almost 20 minutes early and thankfully, that had given me enough time to go to the smoothie place.

The smoothie place was called Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli (I know… strange sounding place to find all-fruit smoothies). They had four smoothie options, but I chose the Summer Splash smoothie. In it, there was apple juice, strawberries, bananas and peaches. Oh my goodness. It was so good! I highly recommend it!

And that concluded my food for the day. I left a very hot, nice, t-shirt weather state and landed in a snow-covered, freezing province. By the time I landed, went through immigration and customs, retrieved my bag, waited for my ride and drove home, it was 11:00. I didn’t have my planning done for the next day (our flight had a tailwind again and we arrived 30 minutes early… not even long enough in the air to finish a movie! But, it was late and I needed sleep because as always, work comes early. So to bed I went, leaving tomorrow as an unpacking, cleaning, getting situated day.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue lightly coated.
-Digestion not as great (too much cooked food).
-Cooked food left me feeling heavy and tired with a touch of pre-headache.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.6 lbs (down 1.4 lbs from two days ago)

Total Calories = approx. 1784 (84% carbs, 8% fat, 8% protein… awesome macro ratio!)

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)

This is What Happens When You Don’t Plan… – Healing Journey Day 27

Journal:
I knew smoothies were going to take a little more effort than everything I had done so far. It would mean getting a blender to blend my fruit anytime I needed to consume one. This generally works out alright as I have a blender at work and at home. Although it worked well yesterday, today was a different story.

I started out well. I brought a large watermelon and two small watermelons to work with, as well as the last bottle of that pear juice that tasted like liquid honey. I figured if these watermelons were a little less sweet like the last ones, the pear juice would perk it up.

When I cut into the big watermelon, water literally started pouring out of it. In fact, it flooded the cupboard and then the sink. I had a funny feeling this wasn’t a good thing. I then discovered that I could squeeze the two halves of the watermelon and the water would just continue to pour out. So needless to say, I lost my big watermelon.

I then cut into one of the small ones and it seemed to hold up like normal. So without tasting it, I scooped it out, put it in the blender, and poured in some of the pear juice. Then I blended it up. If I could only describe the taste of this smoothie to you. It was literally the worst watermelon thing I have ever tasted. Even so, I managed to drink down half of the smoothie. But the other half, well, I just couldn’t do it anymore;  I ended up pouring it down the sink. It literally was like drinking grass with a slight taste of pear. It was terrible. The pear juice did not do its job. I was so sad because it even looked so pretty… but I guess it’s another example of how looks can be deceiving!

Now, normally, I would have enough time after school to make a smoothie before doing anything else, but because I am flying out first thing in the morning, I had to run home immediately after work to take my dog to the sitter and still make it back in time for our staff/board social tonight. I literally had to fly to get this done in time. Somehow I managed.

Because I didn’t have time to go back home to make a smoothie, and because there was nothing there to make a smoothie with, I caved and ate some food. After a rough day, stress of getting things done in time, and literally living on a couple hundred calories of food, I was hungry to say the least. And this wasn’t a night I could just go to bed hungry and be fine because I knew I still had to stay up and do laundry and pack. Oh my goodness… I would really rather go back and change what I did. But since I’m keeping you guys updated on my progress, here’s what I ate: cauliflower, broccoli, hummus, rice crackers, samosas with chutney, Tostitos with salsa, baguette with a red pepper spread, quinoa salad, and juice (all vegan of course). Even now as I’m writing this, I’m cringing. My stomach is so heavy; it right away started feeling bloated. It even went as far as making my head feel taken aback (not quite headache status, but almost like a pre-headache). Oh man. I wish I could take it all back. The food tasted decent, and I’m really loving cauliflower and broccoli on its own, but the way I feel is not worth it. And thankfully, going back on smoothies will provide my body with enough fibre that it should clean out within a day or two. But even this should be an interesting venture because I’m not sure all the airports I’m going to have only fruit smoothies. Typically there is a sorbet or ice cream that is mixed in with them, but we will see what I can do.

Anyways, I finally came home after a bit of visiting at the social and now I’m just signing off on here for the night while I wait for my laundry to finish and finish packing. I won’t be eating anymore tonight, but will be drinking water for sure! I may make an early morning mango smoothie before I leave, but I’m leaving at such an early hour that I’m not sure that will even happen. I shall keep you posted tomorrow!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne the same.
-Noticing that my hair has grown so much in the past year since going vegan… wow! Even past students are beginning to comment.
-Cooked/high fat foods leave me feeling yucky; feeling bloated.
-Energy decent.
-Tongue actually looked like a brand new tongue this morning! So impressive!

Weight at the end of the day = 178.6 lbs (up 4 lbs from yesterday… not bad for eating a ton of cooked foods again!)

Total Calories = approx. 2213 (72% carbs, 22% fat, 6% protein… this is my best guess!)

Looking at the World Blindly

This world is one of deceit. This world is unfortunately filled with fakeness. This world cannot be taken for face value.

When I think about growing up, I think of food. Food is a huge part of life that nobody can deny. Without food, life eventually stops. There are family foods that nobody can recreate. There are traditional foods associated with different ceremonies and celebrations. There are comfort foods that are there for you when life goes downhill. And there are “healthy” foods that we are all told we need.

I used to be a dairy-aholic. In my family, the more cheese the better. Take a block of cheese out of the fridge, tear a chunk off, put it back and be merrily on your way. That was my upbringing. A pound of bacon for breakfast? You bet! I was oblivious to the truth.

As I grew up and got to where I am now, I have realized how blind I really was.

When we listen to the things people have told us without investigating for ourselves, we are leaving our entire lives in their hands. When we watch dairy commercials that promote the goodness of dairy and yet never look into the fact that some of the biggest dairy drinkers have the worst arthritis, we may end up the same way. The way dairy is designed causes inflammation in our bodies. The extra calcium actually leaches calcium from our bones, not into it. Milk cows have drastically cut their lives down because of the constant pregnation, something we fight to stop in third world countries because of the deaths and complications it has caused human women. Baby bulls are sent to slaughter because they are worthless in the dairy industry and treated as such from the moment they are born. Calves are pulled from their mothers within 24 hours of birth so as not to drink all of the milk that can be sold to humans. The dairy industry is disgusting.

And yet it’s not just the dairy industry. So much of what we are told is a lie. The media skews what it wants us to see. The meat industry will not let you into their slaughterhouses to see the abuse. The scientific studies are often revokable and untrue. Industries pay off publishers to post results that they want people to see. Our world is treacherous and ruthless.

So my question to you is this: Are you going to keep believing everything that you see? Everything that people tell you to believe? Or are you going to find out for yourself?

The Banana Problem

So, because I’ve turned vegan and have been researching a lot, I’ve learned that of course in order for bananas to be ripe, they should have lots of spots on them. The bright yellow bananas are actually still very starchy and haven’t had time for the starch to turn into sugar yet. So I’ve been trying to let the bananas sit longer. But I noticed that I don’t like the bananas as much. I couldn’t figure out what was going on!

I was watching Freelee’s videos (as usual) and I noticed when she would peel a banana, it would stay upright like a normal banana should. My very ripe bananas were almost falling over! Yet the peels looked the same… How are the outsides the same but the insides are so different? I was very frustrated. I couldn’t eat the banana as a banana and so was making multiple smoothies.

Today, since I’m coming off the two days I spent eating cooked meals and going back on RawTill4, I knew I needed to have more than the 13 oranges I freshly juiced this morning. That wasn’t enough. So I looked at my bananas, and picked fairly spotty ones, though not as spotted/almost brown looking as I had been leaving them to ripen, and let me tell you, I ate 13, as is, no smoothies. They were like banana sugar paradise! I have found the right stage for bananas to be! Now I understand what they are actually supposed to taste like! Yahoo!

So here’s what I figured out. Different climates will cause things to ripen in different ways. My fruit is not sitting in the sun, I live in a very dry climate (whereas she lives in a tropical climate), and so they almost certainly are not going to ripen the same way. Duh!

I am seriously so happy I figured it out. It actually saves on time for ripening, and I love them! Such sweet goodness! Have you ever had struggles with bananas? Did you know about the proper ripening of them? Leave your answers in the comments below!

Day 6

I had a terrible sleep last night. I apparently was hitting my husband throughout the night (woke up screaming the past 2 nights… don’t remember a thing), and was wide awake at 5:00 a.m. when I didn’t have to be up until 6:15 a.m. It was just one of those mornings…

I was in a rush because I also had to iron my husband’s new shirt for his new job. This took much more time than I first thought. So I literally ran around to shower and get ready.

I managed to drink a bottle of water once I got to work. Then a little later, I was able to juice my oranges that were starting to go tough and drink that. I only had one mini red banana that was ripe today, so that made a tiny snack.

For lunch, I had 2 mangoes. It’s not really that much, and I’m not really sure why I’m not hungrier than this. But I want to avoid the feeling of force-feeding myself (something I got myself into when counting macros), so I’m going to let my body sort this out. If I want more later, I have 5 more with me to eat so I am prepared.

I didn’t eat anymore mangos throughout the day, but I did have an IT meeting after school. They had some chip selections and an awesome juice that I indulged in.

The meeting took longer than we thought, and my husband needed more clothes for his new job, so I immediately went home and picked him up (no changing or anything) and went to the mall. It was almost at the end of the two hours before I stopped just as we were leaving the mall to get some more of those Korean potatoes. I also got a fresh kale, carrot and apple juice (may have had other things in it) that was amazing. I was full, and ready for another long sleep tonight.

The Most Emotional Spring Break

Wow. Where do I even begin…

This year I was actually looking forward to my Spring Break (for the first time since I’ve started teaching). I had the new passion planner my parents got me, I booked my days full of cleaning and catching up on life… and grading too.

On Friday, the very first thing that happened was my washing machine broke. I had so much laundry to catch-up on, but that was going to have to wait. Not a good beginning sign…

The next few days went rather well. Starting Monday, I found myself sticking to my schedules I had created, and conquering so much of the work that had been put off for way too long. I cleaned my basement, my kitchen, my entry, my stairs, my bedroom, part of my office, most of my bathroom, and even categorized some items I have to sell! It was so productive. And yes, I got quite a bit of grading done as well. I even spent excess time with my dogs and my skinny pig. I was so happy.

First, I got news that my sister was pregnant. Normally, this would be exciting news, except my sister’s life has been very rocky the last few years. She was currently with a not-so-good boyfriend, a not-so-good job, and renting a bedroom from a house – definitely not a place or situation to raise a child! She also has not had healthcare for years, and is not consistent with taking care of herself – not good for the baby, let alone her!

This turned into a very rocky situation of my step-father taking her to his hotel with him, her leaving behind his back, him buying her a plane ticket and her never returning to the hotel like she said she would. It turned into many phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages, few and far between responses from my sister, and potentially very bad situations that I cannot elaborate on at this time. What resulted of the situation was that my sister promised to be back in time for our day together on Friday which never happened. My step-father ended up picking her up on Sunday, keeping her with him Sunday night, and flying out with her on Monday. I was worried she would even refuse to get on the plane, but for some reason, she did it. Now she is home with my family who will help her get back on her feet and hopefully be able to handle her emotions at this time. It’s going to be a long road for her.

Amidst those difficulties, worrying and stress, my skinny pig died. After having an awesome week, being able to spend all that extra time with him, we noticed he was acting strange on Friday morning. So we went to the pet store, bought liquid vitamins to put in his water, and by the time we came home, he was dead. Mind you, he was at least 4 years old, if not more than that. So for a skinny/guinea pig, he was in the upper range of their age. It is just incredibly sad that he has been with us for 4 years and we have bonded with him so much. Our little guy’s passing was incredibly hard to take amidst everything else on this break.

As the title of this blog speaks, this was probably the most emotional Spring Break I’ve ever had. I hope it’s the last one like this I ever have. But from here, we can only move on and hope for better.

Week 10 Day 5

This morning, I absolutely did not want to get out of bed. I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe it’s the dread I have for parent-teacher interviews this evening. No matter what, I always get nervous. But either way, they must be done!

The work day was short, and even further shortened by the fact we had our Student Association speeches and elections today. It went very well, and I believe the students selected very good representatives for our school.

After the students left, instead of going out to lunch with my colleagues, I stayed at the school to prepare. Preparing for parent-teacher interviews is not easy. You have to re-read your comments, review the student’s work, select examples of student work to show, etc. I also like to have pen and paper ready to go in order to write down notes of what we talk about and suggestions that were made.

When it finally came time for parent-teacher interviews to start, I felt better but as always, like I couldn’t be prepared enough. Either way, the 13 interviews I had scheduled all in a row began. I was surprised how well the parents accepted some hard information, and how willing they were to work as a team on their students. As any teacher reading this will know, it’s a very relieving feeling to know that you can work as a team with parents and that you can support each other for the betterment of the students; something I appreciate so much!

It was a long evening, and I didn’t end up leaving the school until after 8:00 pm. I also hadn’t eaten much as I didn’t have any breaks since 2:00 pm when the meetings started. When I came home and ate, the carbs hit my system and I started fighting to stay awake. I didn’t want to take naps anymore as they always seem to make me feel worse instead of better. But when I’m sitting and trying to talk to my husband, yet my eyes keep shutting on me, I know I might even fall asleep on the 2 minute drive to the gym, and who knows if I might fall asleep at the gym? It hasn’t happened before, but it may.

So, we took a nap. But when the alarm went off, my husband looked at me and said he was too tired to get up. I can’t drive his truck and my car is still not running. So unfortunately, this meant no workout. But on the other hand, I got extra sleep. I will be playing catch-up with my workouts, but I can do that. My husband’s health is equally as important as mine and so I wasn’t going to argue, though I felt like it. I know love is not just said, but must be shown, and I’m not always good at that part. But tonight, my husband slept and I will definitely catch-up in the gym when he’s awake and ready to go!

Week 8 Day 3: Going Crazy

Today was a bit more stressful than usual. I have a big dentist appointment after school that I need to have my kids ready so that I can leave as soon as the bell goes while the other teacher will watch over my class, and yet have everything I need prepared including teeth cleaned before I see the dentist. Ah. All of this on top of trying to get as much grading done as possible since report cards are going to be an soon and upcoming deadline. Ah! Too much at once.

Somehow, I made it out the door to the dentist on time. Today was the day I was getting my Invisalign put on. But I definitely didn’t have any time to spare. In, to the washroom quick, and straight into the chair. First the polished my teeth. Then they put on these attachments to help the apparatus twist my teeth properly. Then they had to sand in between my teeth to make more room for movement. Finally, the plate got put on. Prior to leaving, the dentist made sure I knew how to take it off and put it back on as you’re not supposed to eat with it on.

Now, I had braces when I was in junior high, and I can remember the days of just laying on the couch in pain. But I don’t think I was as prepared for how much it would drive me crazy this evening. In fact it was driving me so crazy, and I was using every ounce of willpower I had not to take it off, that I ended up sleeping my evening and night away so that I wouldn’t be awake to have to deal with it. I didn’t even go to the gym. It’s messing me up so bad! I can’t even call it painful. But I can say that there was nothing more forefront on my mind than getting that tray out of my mouth. And I think the fact that I knew it was possible to take off made it all the worse. Ah! Sleeping away reality.

Week 2 Day 6

Oh how nice it feels to sleep in… those were my thoughts today! Of course, when I did wake up, I realized that I needed to get my butt in gear and get ready for my appointments. I had a massage, a chiropractor, and an acupuncture appointment back to back. I’m telling you, it was like being pampered in a spa!

As I was leaving, the fact that I had not eaten anything yet was starting to bother me. A few times, earlier in the summer, I would stop at the convenient drive-thru A&W on the way home. This thought crossed my mind again. But I began to mentally challenge myself. Do I really want something so greasy? Do I really want to waste my macros? Or possibly have a chance of going over? Is my body really being rewarded by eating that burger?

Then it hit me: It wasn’t the really the taste I was craving, it wasn’t really a love for the food, it was convenience, it was habit. How awful is that! Sure it would have been so easy to turn in, grab a burger, and satisfy my hunger sooner than later, but that’s not really what I wanted. I want to look good, to feel good, and to be in control of my body and the nutrition I feed it. So I kept on driving.

The rest of the day went well, until supper. My husband had to drive around to various tool shops looking for the right tools he needed for work. We had already driven around our side of the city, and decided we might as well drive to the other side of the city and get all the tool shopping done. So we planned on eating out (macros allowed for it).

Our favourite East Indian restaurant was on that side of the city. This restaurant has a buffet so it is very easy to control what gets put on your plate. But something happened that has never happened here before.

When we get buffet, the hostess always expects you to get up and start serving yourself. Then they always bring you a jug of water for your table. Well, this time, there was no jug of water when we got back. In fact, despite my trying to catch a waitresses attention (they were very busy), we probably didn’t have water for at least 15-20 minutes. When the waitress came over and realized, she gave me a look of horror and apologized so sincerely. I kept telling her it was ok, and she had a fresh jug of water rushed over to us. But that wasn’t the end. She also came over with a plate of 3 desserts. Oh boy…

The lady told us that as an apology she had picked out her top three favourite desserts from their storefront bakery and that she hoped we liked them. I felt so horrible. I could not eat them and run the risk of hurting her feelings, or I could eat them and let her know I liked them and that everything was good. Main point of the story, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and I felt really bad that she felt so bad, I tried to eat them. Half way through, she brought us a fresh, straight out of the kitchen dessert. Now don’t get me wrong, they were delicious, but FOUR DESSERTS! My husband took a couple bites to help me, and I tried to get them all down, but needless to say, I was STUFFED and managed only a bite or two out of the last one. This was the worst thing I could have done.

See, upon reflection, I could have politely ate one and then asked for a box for the rest. I could have figured out other ways of not hurting her feelings instead of just going to the worst alternative. Because afterwards, I felt SO SICK.

I did make it to the gym that night, but managed to only complete half of my workout which was a circuit of four exercises. I felt so awful. Not to mention I haven’t had processed sugar in quite some time, since starting this challenge. All I wanted to do was sleep so that I didn’t have to be awake and feel the way I did. It really was that awful.

What can I say to sum up this day? Lesson learned!