It's been a pretty good day...

Good Morning!

Today starts day four of my veggie diet and I feel fabulous! I have so much energy and almost this buzzing feeling in my body.

My Flax, sunflower and sundried tomato raw crackers turned out fabulous! I didn’t have to change a thing! The parchment worked well and I can’t believe how good they are!

Patrick really likes them too. The Shoya I added really brings out the flavor of it all and I LOVE the jalapeno in them.

I just made myself some parsley, celery and green apple (only 1 apple) juice for my snack and it’s surprisingly very good and refreshing. Yum

It’s around 1:15pm and I am VERY hungry so I am planning on some raw peanut butter on a piece of Ezekiel toast and a handful of cherries. I am slowly adding more raw into my diet. Yum!.


Wow. Ok it’s already 6pm and I am very surprised I am not hungry yet.
I am making some “V8” juice tonight for myself for dinner.. (tomatoes, parsley, carrot, garlic, celery, cucumber, ginger – still wonder what the “8” is in the V8!) Patrick will be having an Amy’s organic meal and some juice too.

I feel pretty good.. have some intestinal “issues”.. but I think that is normal with any drastic diet change.

The crackers were so good and they are gone! Need to like triple the recipe next time!

Veggie diet for a while...

I am working on my liver a bit right now. I want to do the liver cleanse diet (Dr. Sandra Cabot) for 30 days. I would LOVE to go for 2 months but starting with a 30 day commitment.

Today is the start of day three on veggie. I have actually GAINED (back to 231# - blech!) but I am not concerned, I know it will come back off. I am eating too many nuts and seeds and nut butters and granolas. I need to rein myself in on these.

I got beet and green apples to juice and also I want to do my own type of "V8".. I also got tomato, garlic, cucumber, ginger, celery, carrot, parsley (not sure what the other veggie is in V “8”) but this juice sounds great.

I am also making some flax, raw sunflower seed, garlic and sundried tomato dehydrated crackers and hummus. YUM!

I have not officially started the ACTUAL liver cleanse yet as I have not finished the book but I feel I have a jump just doing veggie already.

I have LOTS of energy and I am also very interested in doing as much RAW as I can.
Mom gave me an old RAW cookbook (10 years old) that is one of the very first Raw cookbooks and the author opened the very first raw restaurant in CA.

I like the look of the book, it's very well made, fun and inspiring but some of the recipes have crazy ingredients I have never heard of (and I am a foodie) and I am not sure how practical it is, but I am really loving reading it:





I have also been talking to a lovely lady that is a Chef at a Raw restaurant. (talk about an amazing job!) her name is Michelle Joy and this is her site:

http://purerawjoy.blogspot.com

Michelle is giving me pointers and inspiration and just plain excitement. She has lost 160#!.. I am truly enjoying reading her blog, it is fantastic and has recipes and food combo ideas that are really helping me.

Check out her recipe for Raw Mumbai Spaghetti:

MUMBAI SPAGHETTI
- 1.5 large zucchini's spiralized in bowl

In cuisinart with S blade, add veggies and whir up a spicy sauce:
- 3 or 4 Roma Tomatoes, quartered
- 1/2 red pepper, sliced
- 1 large clove garlic, sliced
- 2 slices fresh ginger, diced
- squeeze of fresh lemon/lime

Pour sauce over spaghetti.

Shake the following spices/seasonings on top of sauced noodles:
- 5 shakes turmeric
- 1 squirt cayenne juice
- 3 shakes coriander
- 5 shakes chili powder, salt free, Frontier brand
- 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

Blend and mix up with your fork and enjoy!

Barely any salt/fat...and sooo yummy. When food is spicy enough, you forget there's no salt or fat. Nutritional yeast has only 1 gram of fat and 5 mg sodium
per 2 Tbsp serving. 2 Tbsp of olive oil have like 30 grams of fat... Nama Shoyu has like 900 + mg of sodium per serving... I keep citing that, i know.

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*** need a spiral slicer!! anyway I think this sounds VERY good and I am going to make it soon.

Dawn and I went to a Raw restaurant here in Orlando called "Cafe 118 Deg".. I was blown away and VERY interested in how they can make such amazing gourmet food that is RAW. This is where I got turned on to the flax, sundried tomato crackers. We had some with Raw cashew "hummus".. it was delish.

I found a RAW bootcamp I have been reading about - it's very hard core.. NO fat, nuts or seeds and only raw veggies and fruits. and also I am going to search for more Raw weight loss success stories I love reading these.

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I have been reading so much lately about the Raw foods movement.
I REALLY feel drawn to this in an incredible way.

Part of me wants to just jump in, buy all the supplies (I need a vitamix, a new dehydrator with slick mats, a spiral slicer and a mandolin.) but I know I have to take it slow. Hell a vitamix alone is $400.

Today I am making a flax and sunflower seed raw “cracker”.. I am using an old dehydrator mom gave me.
It’s an old Ronco round one. There are no temperature adjustments (my recipe said to set dehydrator on 105Deg) or a fan but I am pretty stoked.

I cut rounds of parchment to try to use instead of the slick mats (sort of like silpat) that most raw foodies use in their dehydrators. I hope and pray the parchment will work!

This is the recipe I am using:

Southwest Flax Crackers

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

1/2 cup julienned sundried tomatoes
1/2 cup flax seed
2 cloves garlic, pressed – is this enough?
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced – I started with half a large – seeds and all
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 T lemon juice (I ended up needing juice from a LARGE lemon )
1 T lemon rind
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup ground raw sunflower seed or raw pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Nama Shoya

Directions:

Soak sundried tomatoes for at least 1 hour in just enough water to cover them. (added a T of Shoya)

Soak flax seed for at least 2 hours in just enough water to keep them from clumping. (I soaked mine over night in the fridge)

Put sundried tomatoes and soaking water in a blender pitcher. Add garlic, jalapeño, cilantro, and olive oil to pitcher. Blend until you get a slightly chunky paste. Pour tomato paste into a bowl and stir in flax seed, ground sunflower or pumpkin seed, and sea salt.

Spread on teleflex sheets (I am going to try parchment first.. ) using a rubber spatula.

Also use a knife and score mix and dehydrate at 105 degrees Fahrenheit for 3-4 hours. Using a knife, carefully cut into squares (scoring first really helps). Continue to dry for and additional 6 hours. Flip crackers and dry until crisp. I generally dehydrate for a total of about 18 hours. You can use more or less jalapeño, depending on your taste.

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(I ended up needing juice from a LARGE lemon and added extra shoya )

I had a hard time getting my bullet to mix at all so I finely chopped everything and mixed it together by hand. It was VERY thick.

It has been in the dehydrator for about three hours and the kitchen has a wonderful smell. I HOPE these are as good as the ones Dawn and I had at Café 118Deg!

Whew... It's been too long..

Well I can't believe how much time has passed.
I actually considered deleting all my posts and starting over because I have actually gained several pounds and felt really bad about this. I had made it to 213 so I have gained 9 pounds.

I decided to just keep on keeping on as this really is a journey. It has been four months since my last post.

I have struggled allot and been on and off low carb and gone veggie for a while for a liver cleanse and then back to low carb and then now.. just simply off. I have eaten whatever I wanted for about three weeks now.

Patrick and I went to Chicago (loved it!) to attend a wonderful wedding for my cousin Kenner and his new bride Agnes.

The festivities were amazing and very life affirming and what a wonderful woman Agnes is.

I ended up going off my diet big time and have really not been able to get back on.

The last week I have been dealing with a lot of stress because I am getting a Colonoscopy and EGD test in the morning (dealing with lower abdominal pain for a very long time - finally ready to figure this out but a bit afraid).

The stress has really thrown me for a loop and now I am up to 232 pounds.

I tell myself I am still down from my orig. 257# high but it's very depressing that all this time has gone by and I am so stagnant in my weight loss. I tend to dwell on this too much.

Tomorrow are the gastro tests and today I am doing a clear liquid diet day. I made several batches of jello and have been drinking gingerale and such.

I have to do the bowel cleanse this afternoon (yeah!, fun right?) and am sure NOT looking forward to that.

Anyway I am planning on getting back to low carb withing the next 7-10 days - I want to give myself a few days after the tests to get my electrolytes back up as low carb really depletes them the first month or so and this bowel cleanse will certainly deplete me big time!

I plan on it not being more than a week before I am back on my WOE.

I am actually looking forward to getting back on plan and will just journal and count calories until I get back to Atkins.

I am making a goal to lose 40# (be well under 200) by my birthday on Dec. 24th (Christmas Eve). What a great gift to myself this will be.