Fat, Sugar = Weight gain

   My mother called the other day and she had been doing a vegetarian type diet. I asked her how she was and she said that started to eat a little meat again. She did this because she was detoxing to fast and getting sick. She also was so frustrated because she had gained back the 10 pounds that she had lost.
Because of this I want to share what I have learned about meat, and sugar.
  First, I want to talk about what happens when we combine fat or meat with sugar or fruit.
When we eat fruit the sugars hit our system really fast. We are talking about within 15 minutes. It then goes through the blood stream, then from the blood stream to feed our cells. The whole thing happens really quick. This is good!!! This is what is supposed to happen. We need to feed our cells the right kind of food. High carb, low fat, low protein,  mostly raw diet will feed your cells the sugars that they need.
  Here is what happens when we combine meat and fats to our diet. When we add meat and fats to our diet the fat goes into our blood stream and can stay there between 18-24 hours. When we add the sugars to our diet, the sugars go into our blood as well. The fat that is hanging out in our blood slows down the sugars from escaping the blood and feeding the cells. This is also how we spike our insulin and can cause ourselves diabetes. This happens because the sugars cannot go anywhere. And when the sugar can't go anywhere they get stored for later use. Also known as fat. Fat as we know is just stored energy.
    I am not saying that you can't ever eat meat again. I was thinking about how to solve this issue of combining the fat and sugars. This is what I came up with. For those who are wanting to work their way into eating vegan mostly raw, but are getting sick from the detox this is what I suggest. Not tested or proved just makes sense to not combine the sugars and fats.

   Monday:
  Breakfast- As much fruit as you desire!!! Make sure to combine correctly or you will have a gurgley stomach.
  Lunch- More fruit mixed with a salad. Check out fullyraw.com for ideas on salads
  Dinner- Salad with fruit, or a dinner with high carbs such as vegan soup with base of tomatoes. Next cut up and cook, carrots, potatoes, celery, onion, peas, beans, corn, ect. To season your soup use herbs and spices. Do not use salt! My husband thinks that I am crazy but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cilantro. Or you could use rosemary, thyme, and parsley. Or Tarragon would be good. Play with your spices. Add garlic powder, Onion Powder, ect. Look up other soups and use the spices that they use.
Try and eat high calories on this day. Carb UP!!!! 2500+

Tuesday:
Breakfast- Veggie juice with a lemon or lime but no other sweet fruit. If you feel you need something to sweeten it up a little try Stevia drops, or Doterra oils. Orange, or lemon would be good. :0)
Lunch- Salad with no fat and no sugars. Try some Doterra oils again to make some type of dressing.
Dinner- Meat and salad or other non-starch veggie. Broccoli, Celery, Colaflower (Potatoes), Green beans, ect.
  Eat this early around 3:30pm if you need something before bed make it a non-starch veggie again. No Fat No Sugar.
Eat low in calories this day. Your meat will have a lot of calories so if you only count your calories on your meat days that will work. I would try and get around 1500. No lower then 1200 and no higher then 1850. This high number should be if you are a man or if you are usually eating 3000+ calories a day.
                            
Wednesday:
 Veggie juice with Lemon or Lime or oils again no sugars and no fats.
 Lunch Salad or other veggie non-starch low fat low sugar.
Dinner eat after 3:30pm this gives your system 24 hours to deal with the fat and protein in the blood.
Fruit and veggies again!!!! Or other starchy food. Potatoes, carrots, ect. Salads with fruit based dressing. Mmmmm I will post some dressing ideas at the bottom of this post. :0)    
Try  and hit around 1800-2500 calories.                   


Thursday:
  Same as Monday

Friday:
Same as Tuesday

Saturday:  If you feel like you want to splurge this is this is the day to do it. Your blood has little sugar in it if you ate like Tuesday.  Pizza? Tocos? Stake with potatoes? Pasta with French bread (My personal weakness)  Whatever you want go for it. Just know that because of the salt you will weigh more so DONT step on the scale until Monday or better yet weigh once a week on Thursday. The day before your splurge day.

Sunday:
  Feel free to just drink a LOT of water this day and give your system a break. Let it clear out and clean up before you start your week again. I heard once that our systems work 24/7 and if we want to be healthy to let it have a day of rest as well. I think it makes sense so I usually do at least half the day fasting from food. If you feel you need something make a veggie juice or just some greens. Make it a light day. No fruit and no meat. Veggies only IF YOU FEEL YOU NEED SOMETHING.

If you like this way of eating stick with it.  However, if you feel that you want to work your way to raw vegan, only eat meat once a week. If you do this then choose a day maybe your splurge day. Then you just have to follow the day before the meat and after the meat. The rest of the days EAT!!! CARB UP!!!! Fruit? Salad? Soups? Potatoes? GO FOR IT!!! Don't worry to much about counting calories.
  Please do some activity. It can be even putting your arms in the air and back down 20 times 3 times a day. Or it can be running for miles, Swimming, Weights. Whatever. the point is to one or more times a day depending on your physical strength to goout of your comfort zone. Push yourself and know that it is only going to last for 1minute or for 1 hour ect.
The body heals fast and when we push ourselves we might be sore at first but soon your muscles, lungs, and heart will catch up.
  We can do hard things right? RIGHT!!!
 Go and find your reason WHY!!! Also, when you feel like you really want something write it down and make your list for splurge day. ;0) You only have to stick to it for ___ days. That's easy.
If you are like me I just got so tired of having my hands swell that I am on day 2 of High Carb
80 10 10 diet. I like the way that it makes me feel. I don't much like the swelling and heaviness that I get by eating food that is processed or fried.
  One other thing I want to talk about here. It is important to be kind to yourself. If you "mess up" get back up and try again. It is a process. Learn to love yourself and learn to take care of your body. You only get one. If you are on the road to health be patient. It is a learning curve. You are beautiful just where you are. I want you to know that it is not about the number on the scale. It is about how you feel mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
If you feel like giving up. Let me believe in you until you can believe in you.
 Hugs, Emily

Savory Dressings can be used on the no sugar or fat days with your salads.

Tomato Dressing
4-5 Big Stake Tomatoes or 2-3 Cups cherry
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1/2 Cup Sesame seeds
1 Clove Garlic
Pinky of Ginger
2 TBSP Lemon Juice
Blend and enjoy store the rest in a jar in fridge

Cucumber Dressing
2-3 Cucumbers
3-4 Cups Chopped Celery
1 Bundle of fresh Dill
2 TBSP Lemon
Blend and enjoy Store the rest in a jar in fridge

Chili Lime Dressing
1/4 Cup Lime Juice
Tamarind Sauce (This is in the produce department and it looks like a brown bean with a hard shell. Take the shell off and then soak them in water. If you can take the beans out it will make a sauce that is sweet and a little sour. They are actually very good and can take the place of Soy Sauce.)
1 TBSP Coconut Sugar or Stevia if you are using on a no sugar salad
1-2 Cloves Garlic
1/2 -1 Tsp Chili Powder More to your liking.
Blend and enjoy

Sweet Dressing

Honey Mustard
1-2 Cups of Lemon Juice
1- 1 1/2 Cups Dates (Soak to soften but then drain the water or save it for another time)
1/4 Cup of Ground Mustard
Blend and enjoy

Orange Pineapple Dressing
1-2 Cups of chopped Pineapple
1-2 Cups of peeled and quartered Oranges
1 Red or Orange Bell Pepper
Blend and enjoy I am going to try adding Cilantro

Peach Dressing
4-5 Peaches
1-2 Orange Peppers
1-3 Cup Avocado
Blend and enjoy

Mango Date Dressing
1 Pineapple
3-4 Cups Mangos
1 Cup soaked Dates
1 Large TBSP Rosemary
Blend and enjoy

Day 7 Season there of.... Part 1

   So today was a near perfect day for food today. I received my book and I have been reading and learning. I also have been reading the banana girl e-book. They are both informative, and I am hoping that the 80-10-10 book will give me a lot of information in general but also about the food combination.

I did the best I have done thus far as far as raw goes. The only cooked food I had today was a bite of the kids pasta (Brown Rice and Wheat combo)  to make sure that they would eat it. I also was not to tempted to skip my salad and eat the pasta instead. Which as really nice. The only reason I did take a bite is because I make my sauces and I need to make sure that I didn't need to tweak it. Besides that I did all raw.

My tummy is not as gurgly today. Which is nice. 

Food I had today

Breakfast: Frozen Banana, Strawberries, Raspberries, Dates, blended

Chopped Banana, Plum, Mango

Lunch: Grapes, Apple, Banana

Dinner: One head of Butter lettuce, Celery, Cucumber, Salsa Raw, Tomato's, Avocado 3/4ths,

2 bites of the pasta.

Exercise: I didn't wake up this morning I was very tired and needed the sleep. Tonight I am going to get on youtube and do a yoga video in my room.

So day 7 and it was a little easier.  As mentioned my tummy isn't so gurgly and bloated from not being used to eating all/mostly raw. I also didn't need a nap today. Not sure if it is because I got about an hour extra sleep or if it is because I have more energy. Maybe a combo.

So, I wanted also to quickly talk about the two different ways to go raw. I have done them both. The first is going high fat the second is high carb low fat.

.When I fist went raw I did the high fat version. I ate a LOT of nuts and Raw deserts. I also tried to make a lot of fancy meals. It was hard and I gained weight. Not what I wanted; also my family missed cooked food. We did that for around 4 weeks before I went back to clean eating. It was hard and to much prep for me.
  The second way of going raw is what I am doing now. High carb low fat. I actually really  love that I can eat as much fruit as I want and that potatos are good, as well as brown rice. Anything that is high carb low fat and unprocessed. I am NOT hungry and so far I am eating about 2000-3000 calories a day. Which is weird because I am really not used to eating this much; thanks to the bananas and mangos I can hit that number. I am not used to thinking that eating this many calories is good for me . We have all been trained to starve ourselves and to stay within a certain calorie range, between restricting calories and working my tail off is how I lost my initial weight. I was eating between 1200-1600 calories a day and working out for about 2 hours 5-6 days a week. It was crazy!!!  I kept falling off of the wagon. Then telling myself that it was ok, I would start again tomorrow. Now, I am eating all that I feel like, more actually and I can still fit into my size 8 jeans they feel a little tight. However, I really am not worried about it. I was told when doing the research part of this that I would gain a little at first. The banana girl it was about 14ish days then she started to become less bloated and her body started to adapt to eating the high carb food and eating around 3000 calories a day. I am really taking a leap of faith and going for it!!! I wish that I would have found this earlier. Better late than never right?
    Next payday for our food shopping I am loading up on the fruit!!!! Right now I have a lot of healthy food like celery, cucumbers, lettuce, apples, pears, had grapes but the kids finished them off. Still have some eggs, as well as yogurt, cheese, some meat. Other clean eating foods as that is what I was doing before this. When those are gone I will not be replacing them!!! We are going to do this as a family. I'll keep you posted on how that is going. I will also take a picture of my fridge. I need to go through and clean it out. I do this every other Thursday to get ready for Friday and Saturday. Which are my shopping days.
     I am excited to take this journey with my family. My hubby is always asking me to "help" him loose the weight as I have done. He doesn't like that I weigh less than him. He is a smaller guy and has a small frame. I am not a big heavy muscle person but I am naturally sturdy. I like to say athletic. :0) I don't want to be "skinny". I like to look healthy and fit.

    As I started to write this part of my post I got into a lot of research about health and it might take me a little bit to put that together. I will finish that and post it at a later date. For now I want to post a list of fruits in the season there of.
   Fruit in the season. I am going to post this list as a month to month list. So according to the month of the year when it is in season. Please note that this list includes pre and post season. Which means that IF you can find it and If it isn't to expensive. If you can't get it without paying an out landish price for it. Other wise wait a month and it will be in season. :0) Not all of the fruit is on this list but the most common that you can find in the store.

 January
Bananas, Kiwi, Oranges, Papayas, Tangerines.

February
Bananas, Kiwi, Oranges, papayas, Tangerines

March
 Bananas, Kiwi, Strawberries, Tangerines, Oranges, Strawberries (pre-season)

April
  Avocado, Banana, Mangos, Oranges, Papayas, Strawberries, Tangerines,

May
Avocado, Banana, Blackberries, Cherries, Mangos, Mellon, Oranges, Papayas, Pineapple, Strawberries

June
Apricots, Avocado, Blackberries, Blueberries, Banana, Cherries, Figs, Grapes, Mangos, Mellon, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pineapple, Raspberries, Strawberries, Cucumber, Yellow Squash, Zucchini

July
Apricots, Avocado, Banana, Blackberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Cherries, Figs, Grapes, Mangos, Melon, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pears, Pineapple, Plums, Cucumber, Tomato, Yellow Squash, Zucchini

August
Apples, Avocado, Banana, Blackberries, Blueberries, Dates, Figs, Grapes, Mangos, Mellon, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pears, Pineapple, Plums, Raspberries, Cucumber, Bell Peppers, Tomato, Yellow Squash, Zucchini

September
Apples, Avocado, Banana, Blackberries, Blueberries, Dates, Figs, Grapes, Papayas, Peaches, Plum, Pears, Persimmons, Pineapple, Pomegranates, Strawberries, Cucumber, Bell Peppers, Tomato, Yellow Squash, Zucchini,

October
Apples, Avocado, Banana, Blackberries, Blueberries, Dates, Figs, Grapes, Papayas, Pears, Peaches, Persimmons, Plums, Pomegranates, Strawberries, Tangerines, Bell Peppers, Tomato

November
Apples, Avocados, Banana,  Dates, Kiwi, Oranges,  Papayas, Persimmons, Pomegranates, Tangerines, Bell Peppers, Tomato

December
Avocado, Banana, Kiwi, Oranges, Papayas, Persimmons, Pomegranates,

Well, my friends that is all for tonight. Time to tuck my children in and do some yoga and work on my relationship with my Savior.
 Hugs, Emily

Day 5 raw til 4 Paradigm shift

   Good morning all! As I have said before, yesterday was my husbands official birthday. I always let me family choose dinner on their birthday, and my husband didn't know what he wanted. I decided to make breaded and fried pork chops, mash potatos, milk gravy,  and veggies.
Why am I telling you this? First of all I NEVER!!!!!!!!!! Cook like this. But he LOVES it when I do. I grew up eating a lot of this type of food. If you have read "about me" you know most of my story.
  I divert the reason I tell you what I cooked for dinner, is because it was his birthday I gave myself an excuse to splurge. Oh, man!!! It was soooooo...... PAINFUL!!!You thought I was going to say good huh. Well, no I was bloated, not only bloated but in actual PAIN!!!! My digestive system was doing summersaults. NOT good. Lesson to be learned. I need to have a paradigm shift.
   What is a paradigm shift? It is a change in basic assumptions. In other words a change in how I think or believe. At least when it comes to what is truly good and what is good according to my subconscious. (I will be talking about this later. Our subconscious.)
    I thought that because it was a birthday I could have the day or meal "off" and it would be ok.
Not so, and my body was the one to tell me.
   This was a good lesson for me. At first I thought about not writing about this. I don't like to "fail" again I am working on shifting my paradigm. Did I fail? Maybe? But, I can tell you that I was sure glad when I woke up today and all I wanted was my juice!!!

It is amazing how food really does determine how you feel. Yesterday after I ate that dinner I was bloated, in pain, and so drained. I actually slept it off. I did NOT like how it made me feel. After eating mostly raw and vegan in just a few short days my body was trying to heal itself. So what do I do? I put a wreaking ball through the process that is what it felt like. Today I am back on track and feeling better.
  As I was thinking through this experience the thought came to me "what do I want"? "Is it worth it"? The answer is YES I do want this and I do want to make this change.
   The changes that I am feeling in the few days that I want to keep are....
Energetic
Light Non bloated
Faster Metabolism I can tell because I am always hungry.
   I like the way that this feels. It is better than  anything  ever tasted. I am reading a book called fit2fat2fit. And I like this saying. "Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels"-Unknown. I am slowly learning this. I don't always love the way my juice tastes but I do love the way that I feel after I drink it. I like fitlife.tv On there he talks about our tastes changing over time. He uses the example of beer. When in college he didn't like the taste but he wanted the buzz so he pushed his way past the taste. After so long he actually liked how it tasted. I am hoping this is what happens to me. I like the way I feel so I am willing to plug my nose and close my eyes and drink the juice because it FEELS good. 
  I am not saying that from here on out I am going to be perfect at this. I thought that on my first day of the 30 day raw challenge. But I am sure going to try and remember how I feel eating this way vs. the way that I was eating.
I have to say that I have always tried to be healthy. I am always reading "diet" books because I like to learn. Some of the things I have tried others I have not. Some things feel right others don't. This is not my first time going raw. I will post about that in my next post.
   For now I want to go back to my question I asked earlier.  "Do I feel like I failed". No, I learned a lesson and I am back on the wagon. Getting back on IS HOW we find SUCCESS. It is a process of finding why we do things and if it is worth the effort. I can honestly say that after you get past the rumbling tummy from doing a 360 degree diet change.  That this is worth the effort, and I DO like the way I feel. I love that I can eat ALL of the fruit that my little (healthy) heart wants to.  I say 30 days but I think that I am going to make this a life style. :0) We shall see, but for now this is the way that I feel.
   Hugs, Emily

Lunch a few days ago. Mmmmm

 

This was 1 Pineapple

Frozen then thawed Mangos

Frozen then thawed Strawberries

all chopped up and placed in a bowl.

In a blender

Frozen Raspberries

Frozen Mangos

Banana

Is you like it a little sweeter add

4-6 Dates

Blend till smooth.

add to chopped fruit. Enjoy!!!!

 I always have to share with my kids. So I make extra for them.

 

Bread

  Growing up my mother taught us the importance of being able to make bread. It is the staff  of like if and when tragedy hits or if you are just short on your payday and you need to make your money stretch.  But for me, I love the way it makes my home smell. I love the way it brings the kids into the kitchen so we can talk. I love the smiles I get when I share it with neighbors and friends. Fresh baked bread makes people happy. And that is one of my favorite things to do is to make people happy.
   So here is my basic bread recipe
   Heat your oven to 300
Basic Bread
6 Cups Warm Water
1 Cup Honey or Sugar (Use Honey for Wheat Bread. Use Sugar for White Bread)
3 Tbsp Salt (I use Sea Salt but any table salt will do)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
2/3 Cups Oil (I use Olive or Canola but again any will do)
2 Tbsp Yeast

Mix this together for a few seconds and let it sit for 5 Minutes.
Turn off your oven!

If you want to add any seeds or grain this is the time. We like Millet, Steal Cut Oats, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Sprouted Wheat, Quinoa, Anything. I have only done this with my wheat bread however. But it might taste good with your white bread. I do know that if you want to make potato bread now is the time to add your instant mashed potato or left over home made mash potato.

Mix in 9 Cups of Flour. When it gets to thick to mix with a spoon it is the fun part. Make sure your hands are washed and place 3 more Cups of Flour into your dough. Start to knead it. Do this for about 3 minutes adding flour if needed. You will know that you have enough flour when you push on it and it bounces back. It will still be a LITTLE sticky. Wash your hands spray them with cooking spray and go back to kneading it for about 3-5 more minutes. This last part of kneading is best done on a clean, dry surface with a little flour on it. I like to use my table it is low enough that I can really do some folding and pushing. We need to kneed the dough to build up the gluten in it. This is what makes it not fall apart after it is cooked. So don't be afraid to work it!

 Let me try and explain how to knead your bread.
Pull your bread from the opposite side of you and pull it toward you. Then with the heal of your hand push it away from you. Turn your dough and do it again and repeat.
  I remember I had a room mate once who wanted to learn to make bread and I was coming back from my job or school or something and she was trying to make bread. She had her dough but when it came to kneading it she was just poking it. That picture came to mind when I was thinking about kneading it. I had to tell her that she couldn't hurt the dough and that is why people like to make bread when they are mad because they can beat it up and it still turns out great. LOL
So DONT BE AFRAID to BEAT up your dough.
 
Place your dough into a BIG bowl that has been sprayed with cooking spray and knead it about three more times. This just puts some of the spray onto the top of your dough. Cover it with a big dish rag and place it in your oven. Let it sit there for about an hour. Check it and see it if has doubled in size. If it has, push it down and take it out of the oven.
 Get your loaf pans ready by spraying them well with your cooking spray. Grab a nice sized ball and fold it so that it is smooth on the top. You will want to turn it and fold it again. For beginners don't worry about trying to make them the size of the pan. I like to take a chunk of dough about the size of a soft ball and work with that. You will fit 2 of these in one pan. Do this until all of your dough is used.
 Place your pans into the oven for about 10 Minutes. Turn on the oven at its LOWEST setting mine is about 170 and let it bake for 15 minutes. It should be doubled in size again. Turn up the heat to 350 and let it bake for about 30-35 Minutes. If it is Wheat it will be a nice brown. If White then it will be a golden brown.
  Take out of the our oven and top with butter. If you are watching your calories you can do a quick spray with your cooking spray (Olive Oil) or you can even get a clean spray bottle and add some water to it. Put it on a fine mist and spray the top.
  Dump them out and enjoy!!!

Banana Bread with an added little something.

  I came up with this recipe one day when I needed to get rid of some bananas and oranges. Give it a try!!!
 Preheat your oven to 350. Get 2 bread loaf pans and spray well, set aside.

 Banana Bread with a zing of Orange.
   4 Over Ripe Bananas (Smashed)
   1 C Honey or Sugar
   2 Large Eggs
   2 tsp Real Vanilla (you can use imitation but the real stuff makes a difference)
  3/4 C Oil
   1/2 tsp Salt
   1/2 tsp Baking Soda
   1 tsp Baking Powder
   1 Whole Orange Zested and Juiced (Optional but really makes a statement. Without it you just have regular banana bread.)
   1 Cup Nuts your choice (Optional)
   1 Cup Chocolate Chips (Optional)
       If you use both the nuts and chips only use about half of each. Or eyeball how chunky you want your bread.
   Mix all of these ingredients together until well blended!

 2 - 2 1/2 Cups Flour (If you use honey use 2 1/2 cups of flour if Sugar use only 2 cups of flour. Also,if you used Honey use all wheat flour or half wheat half white. The more wheat the better it will taste with your Honey. If you used Sugar use white flour.)
 Mix well and place in two well greased bread loaf pans. Bake at the 350 for 50-60 minutes.
Can make into muffins as well. Bake for about 25-30 minutes.
 Stick a butter knife into them. If it comes out clean they are done. Note: With your bread the top will be cracked and brown. If you pull it out to check and it wobbles at all it is NOT done. DONT stick anything into it just put it back into the oven and close the door. If you set your timer then you should be good with not having it wobble. If it is a little doughy bake for another 5 minutes and check again.
 This is an easy recipe and a good one to teach a beginner who wants to wow some friends and family. :)
   

Recipe for Caramel Candy

This is a great candy recipe it is not hard to make but it does take some time. I hope that you will try this recipe. Once you try it you will do it again and again. It is great over popcorn or by itself.

Start with buttering a pie pan or a 8x8 or 9x9 pan then in a large pan and a small or medium pan.
 In your large pan combine
  1 Cup Sugar
  1 Cup Corn Syrup
  1 Pinch of Salt

In the other pan combine
  1 Cube of Butter ( I use salted but unsalted would work)
  1 Can of Condensed Milk

Place both of your pots on the stove and turn them on. The sugar one place on a Medium heat and the milk a Medium High heat. Stir the Milk mixture so it doesn't burn!!!

 When the butter is melted and the mixture is warm and slightly hot combine with the sugar which should be creating little bubbles in its pan.

 The mixture will boil up a LOT so don't worry about that. Turn the heat up to HIGH. Let it boil down to about half of what it started and turn the heat down to Medium. Start to stir the mixture without stopping so it will not burn on the bottom. When it condenses down again to about half again and starts to darken in color it is time to get a bowl of cold water. When it kind of starts to boil away from the sides of the pan place a small amount of candy in the water. When you drop it into the water if it forms into a ball it is time to put in about a tsp. of Vanilla and turn off the heat. You can pour it into your pan at this point or you can leave it a little longer. The longer you leave it the harder it will get. If you like hard Caramel Candies then just keep cooking it until it is hard when dropped into the water.
 Note: Get new water after every test. You want the water to be cold.
 Hope that you will try this and please let me know how it went!!! Hugs The Bryars