Hello Again!

What a long hiatus I have taken from blogging! Time to start up again. Lots happening as the year comes to its end...I have moved into a cute little house with my love, and it's so very wonderful! A happy house of love :) I'm finally healing from my accident, and there will much family doings with my daughter & her boyfriend visiting for the end of the year and my mother coming in early 2010. President Bartlett is growing like a weed and delights me with his crazy kitten antics! J. and I have gone vintage bicycle crazy, and I bought him a 60's Raleigh Sports 3-speed for Christmas. I will be starting a nice long Juice Feast in January, and coming off juice onto a high-raw, gluten-free vegan diet. From all my research I have great hope that this process will really turn the tide on my autoimmunity and that pesky gallstone. I have hesitated to consider juicing in winter, but now I see it as the perfect time to rest and hit the reset button.

Oh, and we had Snow!!!

Feast Breaking

That's me & my guy, on a recent trip to Florida!

Howdy! I'm breaking out into solid food yeeehaw :)
It's time to stop juicing for a little while, so I can eat out this weekend in celebration! You're SUPPOSED to slowly come out of juicing with blended juices, greens....yikes. I did good at first: blended juice & light soup (the soup, btw, was Yummy! I simmered vegetable broth - Imagine brand - with a large piece of Kombu seaweed, and added garlic, onion, Bragg's aminos & hot pepper sesame oil. mmmmmmm.) But then, the darned simple processed carbs sang their siren song and Boom, I was chowing down on bread & hummus. Really good hummus. :) Still having juices during the day; tonight's meal will be marinara on kelp noodles, and tomorrow night we will have brown rice & steamed vegetables. So, it's not ALL bad. I'm making good on my commitment to try to eat 80/20 (80 % raw, 20% cooked), and I made sure to eat some greens with my meal last night. On May 11, Kris Carr's Adventure Cleanse begins...I'll be part of that, with a commitment to eat 80/20, or raw until dinner...and NO processed white sugar, NO processed white flour, NO oils other than olive, flax, hemp or coconut. It's a 28-day cleanse program that also involves juicing every Wednesday (or whatever day you choose), and you can read about it at http://www.crazysexylife.com/ Somewhere in there J. will JuiceFeast for a week in preparation for his annual physical & blood profile, so I'll be joining him in that. Next JuiceFeasting go 'round we'll keep the juices more simple...I tended to concoct drinks too full of variety. Simplicity is the key. I did manage to get processing time down from an hour and a half to just one hour in the morning - veg. prep at night helps. I'll need to drink more additional water, I was kind of bad about that. And last night while working out, I was reminded of how much my joy in life is connected to my ability to move & groove, so we re-committed to staying active and working out more during the week. On a lark I decided to do something I've read about as being really healthy, and I've seen other people doing it but never thought I'd bring myself to do it too - I hopped from the mucho caliente hot tub to the really-kinda-chilly swimming pool, and back again - twice! A little hot / cold therapy for the immune system. And it was way fun! :)
Yay for new experiences!

Ah, cravings!

(That's Boyfriend kitty in the garden)

All this time with no food cravings, but 10 days in and I got 'em, big-time...for veggie meatloaf and mashed potatoes! And last night, for no apparent reason, for refried beans. My whole life I was crazy for carbs. Nothing's more comforting than processed simple carbs...right?! After I went veg, I pretty much lived on processed carbs. That was something like 25 years ago! I only really started eating vegetables and fruits in any appreciable amount about 2 1/2 years ago, and now, on my JuiceFeast, I ONLY shop the produce section. It's the most wonderful revelation. And yesterday I missed my cooked carbs, but not enough to want to change anything. This adventure just keeps getting better! The benefits of the JuiceFeast are amazing: I have lost almost all the extra weight I have carried since I was 15, my skin glows, my crow's feet & some of the extra lines on my face have disappeared, I'm eliminating waste from all the years of SAD eating (Standard American Diet), I'm loving learning about the diversity of incredible vegetables & fruits, and about nutrition and health...my hair is thick and oddly, getting curly?!!...I feel light and, when I get enough sleep, energized. I've had NO trouble with my gallbladder, and I've reduced my thyroid meds. And I'm only 10 days in...I can't imagine going back to my old ways. I plan to eat an 80/20 vegan diet when I end my fast. That's 80% living foods ("raw") and 20% cooked (like, vegetables, brown rice, quinoa). I've got incredible cookbooks with amazing recipes for totally healthy treats, so I won't have to do without desserts :) Every recipe I've tried from raw food sites & blogs and my recipe books has been truly wonderful.

Ok enough about the wonders of JuiceFeasting. Juices today:
*spinach / apple
*rasperry / apple / grape / watermelon / ginger
*carrot / mixed lettuces / watercress / radish / pear / celery / cucumber
*lettuce / tomato / basil / carrot
MSM water w/lemon

No add-ins other than E3-Live...didn't feel like having anything extra or any spices.

ps: JuiceFeasting ROCKS!