I am worth it!

The sun was out today and it sure helped to improve my mood! It was still pretty cold, but nice to have some UV rays to go along with the cold. It is so hard for me when it is just grey outside. North Texas winters are notorious for being grey. The upside is that we don't have 3 feet of snow, though.

My brother and sister-in-law are coming into town this weekend to house shop. I am very excited to see them and their three lovely children. We are hoping to take them to Bliss, our favorite raw food restaurant. My brother is chef, so I want to show him some "gourmet raw food" since all he's ever encountered has been at my house. What he will eat there will be a little different than what he gets at my house -- salad, vegetables, guacamole, etc. I am interested to see what he thinks. We will be celebrating his wife, Heather's birthday so it will be great fun -- she is one cool lady!

I am dreaming about a raw food retreat -- ALONE. I am craving some personal space time. I am wondering if any of you are aware of low cost retreat options. I would like to recharge my batteries and spend some time refocusing on why this lifestyle is so important to me. Health is such a funny thing. When I take a step back from it all, it is almost humorous that we find all find it so difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle despite the fact that we know how good it is for us, and in my case, have experienced the enormous difference it can make. It is a constant struggle to stay healthy and anyone who tells you it is not is just plain lying. The key is that we know why we strive for it. The very first reason on everyone's list should be "because I am worth it." When I forget this, and occasionally I do (more often than I would like to admit -- a side effect of having three kids, a husband, and a lifetime worth of lessons on how to put myself last), I bring out my trusty old mantra and remind myself over and over and over, "my body is my temple." I am worth it! Life is short and I want to live every minute that I can knowing that I can enjoy it to the very best of my ability, so staying healthy is definitely a big part of being able to enjoy life.

Got my Bliss On!

Today I finished my Christmas shopping. The kids and I went into town to finish up and I realized that we were near Bliss Raw Food Cafe' so we went there for lunch! It was so GOOD! I had coconut kale enchiladas. I know, it sounds not so good, but it was delicious! Even Jake liked it! Jake got a Vietnamese Pho Soup, and Emma ordered a Margarita pizza. We split some brownies for dessert. They put frosting on their brownies which makes them very chocolaty -- I need to learn how to make the frosting.

We wrapped presents all afternoon. One person would have to go out of the room so we could wrap their presents and then we would switch. Our children buy Christmas presents for us and each other with their own money so they get excited just thinking about each others' reactions will be when they open the present they gave them. Jake even adopted his own angel from the Salvation Army tree this year. They are like other children in that they would much rather spend my money than theirs, and complain about how expensive things are and if I would only give them 3 more dollars they could buy something really cool. However, it is good for them to stick to a budget, and to realize that it is not how much you spend that matters.

Rough Start to the Master Cleanse, but good 1st Day

Well, the cleanse started out a little rough this morning. I drank my salt water this morning and all seemed to be fine for a few minutes. Then, all of the sudden, I started gagging and next thing I knew I was running to the bathroom. Needless to say, what went down came back up. It was not fun, but I immediately felt better and was able to continue the regimen for the rest of the day.

Wish I could say as much for Wayne. He chickened out after a long meeting today. He bailed on me. I can't really blame him, to be honest. It is difficult to do this. I made dinner for the kids tonight and felt quite hungry. I also made the mistake of visiting Bliss Cafe's website (a local raw food restaurant) and checking out their new menu. I was having some pretty big cravings for Bliss! Perhaps I will go there to celebrate making it through the cleanse.

Have I been truly hungry? No, not really, but the habit of eating is what makes it hard! It is so natural to pick up a piece of fruit when I walk by the kitchen and chomp on an apple or enjoy a banana. I wonder how many times I have grabbed a piece of fruit or handful of trail mix and eaten it when I really wasn't hungry. Something to think about, isn't it.

Good food, good books, good music, GREAT company!

We took parents to Bliss tonight. Actually, I guess you could say that they took us -- they wanted to treat since it was my birthday last week. It was so very good! The new menu is not up yet, but they do have a couple of their new dishes available. My mom had spaghetti and "meatballs," my dad had margarita pizza, I had rawsagna, and Wayne had rawko tacos. We all tasted each others' meals and everyone had a delicious meal, as usual! For dessert my mom and I split an orange persimmon sheezecake that was so very good! I have got to learn how to make some of these desserts! Wayne and my dad split a white chocolate one, and it was also good, but ours was the bomb! Wayne and I both had a Chocolate Bliss elixir, Dad had Hemp Horchata, and Mom had Minty Hemp. They were impressed.

Miranda, one of the chefs, was there tonight, and she was so nice and friendly. She chatted with us about why she went raw in the first place (to look better) and all of the benefits she received from being raw (health) that help her stay raw. She said, "I am no longer addicted to my food." I think that is so true! I did not realize how addicted to my Standard American Diet I was until I started eating raw foods. Sugar and flour (white stuff) were the worst culprits and I did not realize the hold they had on me until I tried to eliminate them. Now, I enjoy and love my foods without feeling like I NEED them. When I finish eating somewhere like Bliss I feel happy, fulfilled, and healthy, not full, bloated, and full of gas. I also feel good about myself. I no longer think, "Gosh, I shouldn't have eaten that," or "I feel so fat," or "I can't believe I ate all of that."

After dinner we went to Half-Price Books, one of my favorite stores! It was fun just to prowl around by myself -- no kids. It is neat to look at all of the books. I got some books for school -- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and some critical thinking books. We also got a couple of CDs, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Good food, good books, good music, great company -- what more could I ask for?

Looking forward to some Bliss

I wore my new leggings today and got numerous compliments which made me feel really good! Like I said yesterday, I would never have even imagined myself buying, let alone wearing leggings even 6 months ago. Today I was receiving unsolicited compliments from strangers -- who would have thought?

Tomorrow my dad flies in and we are all so excited to see him! He is coming in early so I am keeping this short tonight because I have got to get some sleep. Dallas' Bliss Raw Food Cafe is calling my name; we are taking my parents there for dinner tomorrow. I hope their new menu is up and running.

Master Cleanse Delayed

Thank you to everyone for your well wishes and support on my cleanse. Please keep all of that support in your front pocket because I will need it again soon. For now, I am postponing the remainder of the cleanse due to my friends' and families' disappointment with my plans considering it is my birthday next week and they had made some special plans. At first, I thought I would just keep going with the cleanse, but then I realized it really wasn't very good timing. Two days after my birthday is Phillip's birthday, and my parents are coming to visit and I want to take them to a Raw Food Meetup and to Bliss Cafe (a delicious raw food restaurant). So, the cleanse is still on, but delayed a bit -- when I do it, I want to be able to fully concentrate on what I am trying to achieve.

I did do the cleanse today, though. (Poor Wayne, he didn't know whether to say anything or not, but finally expressed his disappointment late this afternoon. I am glad he told me.) Anyway, my impression of the cleanse is, "WOW!" Let me say first, my colon feels pretty darn clean. I cannot imagine what could be left after doing it for even one day. That being said, I did feel like I had more energy and that I was in a better mood. I felt a little hungry at times, but when I felt hungry I drank a lemonade and the hunger subsided. I wasn't tired at all, and that was something because I did not sleep well last night due to some thunder storms moving through our area. The salt water was a little bit nasty, but I made it so it was warm and drank it through a straw and that definitely helped me get it all down. Also, I was definitely glad I was near a toilet for a few hours. Neither of these things was bad enough to scare me off from doing the full cleanse. I am glad that I found the cleanse and my experience with it today makes me want to follow through on the 10 day cleanse soon! I am thinking I will start October 29th or 30th -- that will be a good way to stay away from all of the Halloween candy and reaffirm my health commitments. I will keep you updated! Thanks again for all of your support!

Slowly recovering

I am still quite itchy from my shellfish slip-up. Benadryl has been my friend these last few days and I don't think I would have any skin if not for it. I am hoping that by tomorrow morning I will be back to normal.

It is good to be eating my raw food again. Today I got onto meetup.com and joined a few raw food groups in Dallas. Now that I know I really like it and would like to make it a part of my permanent lifestyle, I am ready to find a community of people who are making the same kinds of commitments to themselves and their loved ones. I told Wayne I was having a serious craving for my favorite raw food restaurant -- Bliss. He agreed that it sounded very good. We will have to plan to visit soon.

Today I visited the library and looked for anything and everything on raw food diets. They didn't have very much, and everything they did have was checked out (which made feel good), so I put my name on a waiting list. I want to try some un-cook books before I purchase them. Some of them seem to have exotic ingredients that aren't very practical for everyday living. If you now of any good ones, please pass them along.

YUM!

Yesterday we went to Bliss, a new raw food restaurant and elixir bar in Dallas.  It was so good!   Miranda made some suggestions about what we should try.   Our friend Matt ordered the rawsagna and a superfoods caesar salad.  His plate was absolutely beautiful!  The tomatoes, which were the outside layers of his rawsagna were huge and succulent.  The other layers were mushroom, zucchini, and different sauces (red, green, and orange).  Matt has never eaten raw cuisine, so I could tell he was taken back a little bit.  I think he expected it to look more like cooked lasagna.  He was surprised to find that, "it actually tastes like lasagna."  Of course we all sampled it and I thought it was delicious!  Matt thought it was a lot of food and was not able to eat it all.  He also had a Minty Hemp elixir and a gogi berry sheezecake.  Matt said he would go back again.

Wayne had the Thai Noodle Bowl.  Of course I am fairly new to raw foods so I was wondering how in the world they got noodles that were obviously not squash.  Turns out they were made of kelp and they were excellent!  Miranda explained that they come in a package and are dry, but once you add the sauces they obtain their noodle-like quality.  Wayne really liked his dish. All of the herbs and spices mingled together made it look and taste wonderful.  I think that my children would like what he had.  He drank a goji berry lemonade elixir, which was a beautiful color, and had a banana chocolate sheezecake for dessert (more on that in a minute because I had the same thing).

I had the Rawko-Tacos Plate.  The plate was absolutely gorgeous!  The taco shell was red and it had ground sunflower "meat", a beautiful salad, salsa, and even sour cream on top.  YUMMY!  My plate was the hit of the table.   Wayne and Matt both loved it.  Eating it was a very messy experience, but well worth the effort!  I also had an elixir called chocolate bliss -- my children would LOVE this drink!  For dessert I had a chocolate banana sheezecake.  It was so very yummy!  The good thing was that my sweet tooth was more than satisfied and I did not feel like a heavy blob after I ate it.  My mouth felt clean and not filmy.  The texture of the cake was perfect, and Wayne said he would definitely be having that again.  

Overall, our experience was wonderful!  There is only outdoor seating and we were lucky to be there on an evening when the wind was blowing and the humidity was low.  I highly recommend going if you get a chance!  Miranda told us they were adding a children's menu and I would take Jake, Emma, and Phillip.  I can't wait to take my friends and family back to my new favorite restaurant!