Joyful Expectation...

...That pretty much describes the state I'm living in these days. I am so happy with my life and my family and how far I have come in the last decade. I am so grateful for Yahweh's constant guidance, even when I had no clue He was there or that He cared. So many things are coming into line. It's very similar to how I was feeling right before I met my husband-to-be. I was absolutely cherishing every one of my days as a single woman, knowing that at any moment I was about to meet my perfect mate, because I had prayed and was standing in faith. I used to dance to our wedding song in my living room, imagining how he would look and how we would feel... and sure enough, he emerged out of the woodwork in short order. :-)

This time the breakthroughs that I know are imminent are in the area of finances and in our callings and creative gifts. Every day another divine connection is made... and we're almost at the tipping point. Satan is sweating bullets because he knows he can't possibly hold back the immense deluge of blessings coming our way. Ha ha! Any day now... Yet I'm not feeling the least bit impatient because I absolutely know it's going to happen. I dare say I may even feel a slight bit of nostalgia for these days of "light affliction" when they're gone...

Nah! What am I thinking? As the Word says, don't waste time worrying about yesterday or tomorrow; each day has enough trouble of its own. I love living in the moment!

Piece a (raw chocolate) cake!

I continue to be amazed at how little food I'm eating and how little I'm tempted to have anything cooked, no matter how delicious I know it is. I have a major sweet tooth and I was in a 2-hour meeting yesterday with a huge batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies -- something I normally could not resist if my life depended on it, hehe -- they smelled great and everything, but I took one look, said no thanks, and actually paid attention throughout the whole meeting! Who says miracles don't happen today??

Seriously, though, I've noticed several "fringe benefits" this week as a result of going raw:
-- more energy (crucial)
-- fewer and less dramatic mood swings
-- clearer thinking; greater ability to concentrate
-- satisfied on much less food; rarely hungry
-- no cravings
-- I actually FORGOT to even think about coffee, which I'd been trying to give up unsuccessfully for ages.

Yesterday I had a banana for breakfast, another banana and water for snack, raw homemade vegan corn chowder for lunch (yum!), an Omega 3 bar right before I left work, a few bites of salad and 1 date for dinner.

I'm definitely planning to incorporate a lot more raw food in my diet permanently, if I don't go 100% raw. Very eye opening.

Day 5

My appetite continued to decrease yesterday -- not meaning that I didn't want to eat, but that I was satisfied with much less food.

breakfast -- mango, banana, spinach smoothie; and later green tea
snack -- Omega 3 bar
lunch -- green salad, handful of pistachios
dinner -- an apple and 2 dates

I even cooked bean burgers for my husband and kids, and for a split second thought about eating one, but didn't really want it... so amazing to me!

Today I feel a bit nauseous, but I'm not sure if it's a detox thing or if it's related to Scarlett puking half the night last night. She seems to have had the same thing Isaac had a week ago -- congestion for a few days, followed by a night of puking, a little diarrhea the next day, and then fine. Darn daycare! I realize it's so important that I continue to be conscious of their nutrition and make improvements whenever possible. If they were home all the time I'm sure they'd never be sick, but constantly being exposed to other kids who do get sick means their immune system has to work a little harder -- and therefore I have to work harder at feeding them the right things.

Day 4

I hate to say it, but this raw thing is almost anti-climactic. I'm really not struggling with it at all. I do feel more energy, but not a huge amount like I was hoping for. I'll see how the rest of the week goes before I decide anything, though.

Yesterday's food:
breakfast - banana, pineapple, spinach, water smoothie
snack - Omega 3 food bar, apple
lunch - a few pistachios, 5 celery stalks w/a little almond butter (wasn't hungry for anything else!)
dinner - big mixed green salad w/lots of veggies
dessert - 5 dates (I was going for a little energy surge right before vocal rehearsal at 7pm -- I sing for my church)

Last night I went to bed around 11 pm and woke up this morning at 5:20 am voluntarily, before my alarm (I did have to pee, though)! I'm a tad tired, but nowhere near my usual exhaustion under these circumstances. (I normally can't function without AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep, and then coffee.) Ok, so maybe the energy increase is more significant than I thought. I was just hoping to be running circles around my toddlers by now, but I'm not quite there yet. :-)

Day 3 Raw

So yesterday was much better in terms of my appetite. I didn't eat a ton but I felt satisfied. I'm not noticing any detox symptoms yet, which is encouraging. Here's what I ate yesterday:

breakfast - smoothie with strawberries, pineapple, banana, spinach, and water.
snack - Omega 3 food bar; blueberries
lunch - the 2 salads I had for dinner last night
snack - half a banana
dinner - raw spaghetti w/raw tomato basil sauce (the spaghetti is actually zucchini and yellow squash cut like spaghetti with a fancy veggie cutter my dad & stepmom got me a couple years ago). I made myself a huge plate but could only eat half.
evening snack - 4 dates, handful of pistachios

I also sipped on water throughout the day, but not a whole lot. My dad has been vegan for years and 100% raw for about a month and he actually told me he doesn't drink any water anymore. He gets all his water from his raw food, which is the purest source of water you can find these days.

So Far So Good

Yesterday was my first full day of eating all raw. It went pretty well. The only thing I didn't like was that I ate a lot more than my husband and was still kind of hungry after dinner, whereas he was fine. But maybe it was more psychological. I'm definitely more of an addictive personality than he is, and more of an emotional eater.

So, mainly for my own sake, I'll list what I ate throughout the day and see how it compares to the rest of the week.
breakfast -- water and a smoothie with banana, pineapple, and spinach
snack -- water, 100% raw Omega-3 food bar (almond butter, dates, raisins, agave nectar, quinoa, sesame seeds)
2nd snack -- 2 apples, water (didn't have time for actual lunch)
dinner -- handful of raw pistachios, 8oz. glass of carrot/celery/spinach/romaine juice. Green salad (spinach, romaine, tomatoes, celery, avocado, cucumber, carrots - no dressing), and broccoli & cauliflower salad w/red onion (tossed w/homemade dressing w/almond butter, lemon juice, water, garlic, sunflower seeds).

The hardest thing was not eating during the movie we watched after dinner. I managed to get by just drinking water and eating about 7 raisins - lol, but I so wanted to snack.

Today I feel good and notice a slight increase in energy (I didn't have to drag myself out of bed even though I went to sleep a little later than usual).

R.A.W.: Ready And Willing (surprisingly)

So today I went on a shopping spree for my week of eating raw (my husband is joining me -- brave man). I'm so blessed that I live near Trader Joe's, because I was able to find so much great stuff at a reasonable price. I'm actually totally excited for this! I'm even going to start tomorrow instead of Monday like I originally planned. For the past week or so I've been trying to listen to my body more attentively, rather than just assuming I know what it needs/wants, and I've discovered it really doesn't want as much food as I normally give it. It likes water, fruit, and greens mainly. Duh -- lol.

I predict one of two things will happen over the next week. Either I'll notice that I have a lot more energy and feel better overall before the week's up, or I'll start detoxing and feel like crap for a few days. If it's the latter, it will still be okay because it will let me know that I'm not eating as healthily as I think I am, and it will motivate me to continue for longer than just a week. But hopefully it'll be the former, and I'll still be motivated to continue.

Wow. Me, raw. Who'd a thunk it?? :-)