Day 8 & 9 Feeling GREAT!!!!!! Also, cleaned out my food

                     I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday, I took the children rollerskating.

It's a little fuzzy but the blur in the black skirt is Spice. 

Today I want to talk about the energy that I feel. It is amazing!!! I was talking to a friend of mine after I left I noticed that I was talking a million miles an hour. Little confession here. I got hooked on the 5 hour energy shots. Which is part of the reason that I decided to go raw.

    To have the natural energy through the right kinds of food. I also don't want to become a slave to anything. Which is what happens when you are addicted to something. After I realized how much and how fast I was talking I realized how GOOD I felt. I can't really describe it, I felt like I had taken one of the shots. The difference was that I didn't have a crash. When I finally did get tired, it was a healthy tired. I did notice however, that I did start to get the munchies around 9:30ish. I figured out that it was because I was tired. I needed to rest but wasn't able to. I had to pick up my hubby from the airport at 11:30pm. But I slept well when I finally did crash. 

Here is my day

I was mostly raw yesterday. It was again a little tricky because we went to my sisters house. She does not do raw but I made it work. I did try some of her "Fire Dragon Chili" I really liked it. I had about 1/4 of a cup. I may have to get that recipe. 

Today, I feel a little tired but that is because I went to bed LATE and wonk up early. I couldn't  fall back to sleep so I went to the gym. I may have to take a nap a little later. Anyways, I wanted to show you what my fridge ect looked like before I cleaned it out and what it looks like now. 

I don't like to though away food so I gave it to my niece and her husband who just got into their new place.  I helped both of us, I got rid of a ton of stuff and they don't have to go and spend the money for it. 

These are not in order. But I will explain each section. 

This is the small drawer in my fridge before I cleaned it out. This is where I usually keep the cheese, sandwich makings ect. 

                                         This is the second drawer where we keep our dairy. 

                                                       
                                                     Bottom drawer is a fruit drawer.

                                                    Oh my, ya all of the sauces and milks.

                                           Freezer. this shelf is frozen veggies and grapes.

                                                       Frozen greens for shakes.

                                              Shelf where the nuts and grain type things go.

                                                 Top shelf in the fridge. Greens for salads.

 Eye level to Beeps and Bear this is what I usually have here as well as grapes or other fruit.

 Middle shelf  veggies and other things. These tomato's are going to be turned into salsa. :0) Then eggs. Hanging on the side is an onion.

                                                                        Juicing veggies

All in all not so bed right? Like I said before I was doing the "Clean Eating" 

I cleaned it up and cleared some of the stuff away so here are the pictures of the after. I also added pictures of my pantry and other placed that I put food. 

        This is now the second shelf up. Still eye level to the kids so they can pick healthy. :0)

 Bottom drawer. Ruby Red Grapefruit. (Pink doesnt work so well in my back ground), Plums. 

Dairy drawer, still kept the yogurt and butter but added more Grapefruit and Pomegranates

The door. I only kept a few of the sauces. Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Spicy Mustard. Some Ranch for my children.  I also kept my bee pollen

                           Cheese drawer, Eggs and the cheese and meat, tortillas under that.

Same as above.

      Eye level, Raspberries, Strawberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Beans, Had the Tomato's but I ate them all. Mmmmmm

In my cupboard Bananas, Red Pears. SOOOOO GOOD!!!!

                                             This is my pantry. Top shelf is where I keep things that I need to refill and can goods.

                                                        Grains and my sunflower head. Below are more refill and other grains ect.

 I decided to open the drawers to show you what is inside.  This one is Pop Corn.

 Roots, Sweet Potato, Onions Potatos. 

                                                         Sweeteners and Corn shells.

 Pastas, All Wheat or grain. No white here folks.

 Floor, In the buckets are my flours to make bread and then I have my Brown baking sugar.

                                          On the side of the drawers are my vinegar's and oils.

Later today we are going to take the kids to a 5K  and a kiddie run. It will be a good time. Will post those pictures tomorrow. 

                                                   
I also have decided to put on a feast!!! I have wanted to speak for a while now about health as well as sharing my journey. I think that it is time to just jump in and DO IT!!! Sooooo, the last part of February I am planing on setting a date. I am excited!!! I will be sharing my journey from where I was a child to now. How I am feeling and what it was like to do this. And I am also going to talk about the importance of eating raw.
    It's not an all or nothing here, You don't have to start jumping headfirst into the pool here. But it is always good to continue learning about health. Anyway,s look out for that with an official date, time, place. Also please feel free to let me know if you are interested. I will need to know how much food I will need, and also get a place large enough. :0) I will let you know a price as well.
   Hugs, Emily

Day 6 Life is GREAT!!!

   Today is day 6 and it feels like I have had a break through. I posted earlier about how I wanted sustained energy. I have to tell you it has been a little bit of a struggle in the way of feeling like I miss meat, CHEESE!!!!, eggs, ect. I have NOT been perfect in the last 5 days but I have been trying. It is amazing what happens when you just TRY.
  This morning I woke up at my usual 5:00am to start my day. I usually roll out of bed and convince myself that this is what I do and that  I LOVE (convincing myself again) mornings. Well, today was a little different. My alarm went off and I almost jumped out of bed. Ready to go!!!!! I was surprised by this. I didn't have any extra sleep or anything like that. I just felt refreshed and ready to go to the gym. It was very nice to feel this way. I hope that I can continue having this side effect!!!
   I was asked by a friend on myfitnesspal how to do a 30 day raw till 4. That is what I am going to talk about today. I will tell you my daily schedule and what I eat and when.
   5:00 Get out of bed dress and drink a HUGE glass of water. Big enough that my tummy hurts. I think my glasses hold around 20-24oz. Sometimes  I squeeze half a lemon into that.
  5:30 Hit the gym
      a) Warm up 5-10 minutes
      b) Weights
      c) HITT workout usually on the treadmill (If I have time) or run
      d) Cool down/stretch if I am not running late.

  6:45 Home to make my kids breakfast before most of them head to school.
 (I drink another big glass of water at this time and make myself a veggie juice.)
    8:10 Those who are in school are gone and I start my fruit portion of the day.
This can look like some of the other posts that I have posted. Bananas are usually involved at this time. I will eat a big bowl full of fruit. This morning I had 4 Bananas chopped up and in the blender I had Mangos, Strawberries, and Dates. Blended up and mixed into my bananas.
   9:00 I do school with my son whom I am homeschooling this year. I will set him up then maybe get some blogging in. :0)
   11:00 We walk to go and pick up "Beeps" who is in Kindergarten.

Isn't she cute. :0) This is our baby.

When we get there I play a math game with Buddy. It goes like this "I am thinking of two numbers that when times together equal __________" If he gets it right I have to do 5 burpees. If he gets it wrong he has to do them. It is fun and I get a little more cardio in and he gets more math. :0)
   12:15 We are home and time for lunch :0) Today I want to the store and purchased some of the big plums I will eat as many of those as I want to. I am guessing around 5 of them.
   1:15 More school for Buddy and studying for me as well.
   2:45 Pick up "Spice" from school.

This is "Spice" Not real name. She is our second oldest.

3:00 If I walk back to pick up "Bear" it is time for me to leave again.

"Bear" is our second to the youngest.

 

 If I am hungry I will grab something Banana, Strawberries, Pineapple, Apple, Grapes, what ever I have in the fridge. That is easy. I can walk and eat or if I am running late I can drive and eat. :0) I will usually leave at the same time. If I want some extra reading time I take along a book and read while I wait.

4:00 Home and homework time with snack in I want it. Same kind of food as above.

5:30 Make dinner: Tonight I am going to have a salad. As will the children but I am going to make Home made mac and cheese for them as well. With Wheat Noodles.

If I am still hungry I have a bakes spaghetti squash that I will eat with salt and pepper. Mmmmm

6:30 Free time

7:30 Finish homework and clean house.

8:30 Story time and scriptures

9:30 Kids get ready for bed Family Prayer and bed

10:00 Time with my hubby. He is not home right now he is at training so this wont happen till Friday.

10:30 TRY to get to bed

11:30 Usually get to bed.

 

Now that you know my schedule and what I am going to eat today back to the question.

What is raw till 4 diet and how do you do it?

Raw till 4 simply means that everything I eat is raw and vegan until 4:00 pm. After that I am still vegan but I can have cooked foods if I feel like it. Or I can choose to stay raw for the rest of the day. It really depends on what I feel like doing but after you eat cooked you should not eat raw again for 3-5 hours after you eat cooked. Different foods digest at different speeds. :0) Like a race car. Vroom Vroom. Some things like cooked food takes longer to digest then raw food does. Especially fruit!!! You also should not mix veggies with fruit. I usually add only a LITTLE to my morning juices. Usually half an apple. 

I am still studying food combinations I will post more about that in another blog after I fully  understand it.

 I hope that this helps. :0) You should just jump in and do it if this seems like something that feels right. You don't have to be perfect you again just have to TRY!!!!

 Hugs, Emily

This is my oldest "Sugar" This was last winter at a piano recital.

Then there is "Buddy" our one and only living son. Right smack in the middle of the girls.

 

Buddy and my Hubby. Love my family!!!!

Day 3 What to eat!?!

  Sunday is my dear husband's birthday. Because we don't go out on Sunday and we date once a week we decided that it would be fun to go to Wingers. But being committed to this 30 day raw till 4:00 then vegan after that I had to think outside of the box. We ordered the bucket of fries. Yes I did have some. Then my MAIN dish was their all you can eat dinner Salad. with a side of sautéed Onions, and Mushrooms, Guacamole, and  Salsa. It was pretty good. My original plan was to order one of their salads and just have the meat and cheese take off. Then I looked at the price and what was left. Ya, NO!!!! I was NOT paying $9.99 for lettuce, tomato, and olives with a dressing. It was the first time that I had ever gone out and tried to put together my own concoction. It was tricky but fun as well. I felt like I was doing a treasure hunt or doing one of those word finds.
  Well, I am in a hurry and I need to get dressed for a party. Which I will blog about later tonight. Hugs for now.

This is a picture of my husband. :0)

Day 2 Old habits Or Tastes are Sometimes a Hard Thing to Kick. But its OK!!!

This post I figured that I would add some pictures!!! If you are anything like I am I LOVE looking at pictures!!! This is my morning juice which had Mint, Cucumber, Romaine Lettuce, Beet, Half an Apple. This is what it looks like before I mix it all up. Mmmmm Right!?!

                                            This is what it looks like after I mix it up. Better!!!

LOL I had to add this picture of my son. After all it is the Halloween season right? He is pretty scary in this picture.

Let me tell you a little bit about my son. He is the sweetest boy you will ever meet. He opens the door for people. Whenever we go anywhere he will almost always open my car door for me then wait and make sure that I am in then close it for me as well. He was walking past our dear neighbors house and saw that she was on a ladder and went up there and held onto it for her. He just loves people and is an all around good kid.

He always wakes up early in the morning. He came down just after I had finished making my morning juice so I asked him if he would like to spend some time with me and have some of my juice. He said yes so I put some in my fancy glasses and put a cucumber on the rim and we had a good morning chat and had a healthy juice together. He is so funny He loved these pictures that I took of him being crazy.

This is my morning breakfast. And below as you can see the kids REALLY loved it as well. It doesn't look very good but it was WONDERFUL!!! The sauce was 5 Dates, Strawberries, Banana, Coconut Water, Chocolate Powder, Blend till SMOOTH. Then I chopped up more Bananas.

I know that the kids were acting a little silly but they really loved it and started to dip strawberries into the sauce.

Here is Sugar dipping her strawberry in the sauce. She is a little crazy about berries.

For snack I had 1.5 Plums. They are the huge ones.

Lunch I had another concoction that I made at my sisters house. It was half thawed Mangos, Raspberries, Truvia, 3 packets, Blended it with water until smooth. Then added more Mangos, Fresh Raspberries, Strawberries (Half Thawed) Then for a late snack I had cooked Spaghetti Squash with Pink Salt, & Smoked Paprika,

Sounds like I had a pretty good day right. Well, for dinner we were supposed to have spaghetti with home made Sauce. Fresh from the garden, blanched, peeled, and cooked down. Well, that kind of happened. But when you visit other people who live out of town you have to be flexible right? They had white noodles and french bread. I think my biggest down fall is french bread. I LOVE the stuff!!!!

I am embarrassed to say how much I had. But, if I am going to be truthful (Which I am) I have to spill the beans. I had 3 or 4 thick slices!!!! Probably half a loaf. Ugh!!! But like I said in my heading "and its OK". This is life and I am going to have weak moments. This is where I apply "Try 'Till you Win" the only way to fail is to give up all together. I wont give up AND I did stay vegan. Except what might have been in the noodles and the bread. I have no idea what might be in the bread but noodles do have egg. I didn't think about that until now. Hmmm. I guess the same applies. Tomorrow is another day and I will do better.

 This morning I went to the gym and did weights on my shoulders. It feels wonderful to be going in the mornings again. More on that later. For now, good night.

Deciding To Try Something New With My "Diet"!!!!

  As I sit here and think about what I want out of life, where I long to head as to my health and where I have come from, I have decided to put my pictures up of myself at my heaviest and what I look like now. I will also journal for the next little while about my new goal. I want to get to my ideal weight and I also want to have a lot of energy. To accomplish this I will be eating a mostly raw, vegan, low fat, high carb "diet".
   Please be nice as we all have imperfections and we are all working to become better people.

Above: My starting place at 216lbs.

Not a whole lot of a change but here I was 194lbs. My hubby and I ran the haunted half marathon.

  I live by the law that "modesty is the best policy" however, I wanted to share that I still have a little bit to go before I hit my goal. With my shirt on it is not to bad. I have a few friends and family who think that I don't need to loose anymore weight. I am currently at 153.6lbs I have come a long way but I still have about 15-20lbs to go.

I get asked how I was able to lose most of my weight and I always give the easy fast answer. My Fitness Pal and going to the gym most days. Which is mostly true but I have also found some KEY things that we must do in order to make any real permanent changes. Which is a different post. But I did need to make a bold commitment to make some changes. I have been working on doing a 30 day raw challenge!!!

My plan is to do a LOW FAT,  High Carb, Vegan diet. Mostly raw.

I have done MANY "diets" in the past and have found success in most of them. The problem was that I didn't maintain the release of weight permanently. I want to not only achieve my goal and perfect weight for my frame but also to become extremely healthy!!! 

SO.... Here we go!!! Tomorrow I will be committing myself to a vegan, mostly raw low fat diet.

 You may be thinking "what is she talking about low fat, high carb, vegan?"

Here is what I have been doing for the last 2 days.

Breakfast: Juiced veggies with  little fruit. This is when I wake up to get my system going with amazing raw enzymes and minerals. When you juice your veggies your body can simulate into your bloodstream in 15 minutes!!! It makes it so that your body does not have to "sift" through the fiber to find the treasure your body needs to cleanse as well as use to feed your cells, blood, ect.

Veggies and herbs that I have been juicing include: Broccoli, Carrots (not a lot), Beets and the greens, Romaine Lettuce, Cabbage, Lemon, Celery, Ginger root, Mint, Cucumber, Peppers, Kale, Water Cress, Cilantro, Parsley, Radish. Just to name a few. Fruit that I put in it is usually half and apple.

Later when I feel hungry I will be eating fruit!!! In fact I will be eating a LOT of fruit until 4pm. As much fruit as I want. :0) No calorie counting as I have done in the past. If I am hungry I eat fruit. As much as I want. Half a Watermelon. Sure why not? Today I ate about half a Pineapple, 5-7 Bananas, 3 Pears, 3 large Plums,  1 Mango.

Tomorrow I will probably eat Grapes, Bananas, Nectarines, Plums, Strawberries, and anything else that I think sounds good. :0)

For dinner I think we will be eating Baked Potatos, with fresh Salsa. Maybe a Salad with veggies.

My goal is to write on this blog almost daily to let you know how things are going.

 Oh, I feel it important to let you know that I am planning on making this a life style if you want to know more about this way of eating please read this book called 80/10/10.

I will not be weighing myself for the 30 days. I have done some research and it is said that, at first from bloating, healing of the damage done by low calories, Processed Sugars, and many other things that we have done to hurt our system, it is normal to gain before releasing. So because of this I will not be stepping on the scale. So at the end of my 30 days I will post pictures and my numbers. 

Hope you feel free to follow my journey.