It’s been an interesting but tiring day! Lots of thunderstorms and construction to get through today. I was literally surrounded by lightning most of the day (up close and/or in the distance). And when I stopped for gas in Holbrook, there was a sandstorm going on. I’ve been in sandstorms before in Lake Havasu so it was nothing new, but it wasn’t fun this time since I wear contacts and some sand got in my eyes.

I ate very, very little today on account of my upset stomach this morning. When traveling I eat lightly anyway (cuts down on stops). But today I ate next to nothing. That’s probably why I feel lightheaded and exhausted right now (well, that and because I just randomly started my TOM, 8 days late!) However, tomorrow will be better. I have a much shorter drive and will finally be reaching my destination of Southern California. I have a couple of apples and bananas for a late breakfast tomorrow. Then once I reach Cali I’ll do a little grocery shopping.

The Albuquerque Whole Foods I went to this morning (the one on Carlisle) was pretty nice. They seemed to have a little less fruit then the Tulsa one; however, they had more local stuff. According to the checkout girl, the other store in Albuquerque is the bigger one.

Anyway, I am exhausted beyond belief. Time for some R&R before hitting the bed.

It’s official – Friday is Universal Studios/Wisteria Lane day. I’ll update more on that later!

I only have time for a really quick catch-up; I’m here in Albuquerque but leaving shortly to complete the next leg of my trip. Tonight I’ll be in far western Arizona (Kingman).

My fitness level has definitely improved in the last 2 years; I got proof last night. Albuquerque is 5300 feet from sea level (just over a mile high) and I was still able to briskly walk up 8 flights of stairs carrying a heavy bag with absolutely NO problems! I didn’t have to stop once! 2 years ago when I traveled through here (and Flagstaff, which is even higher in altitude) I was tired just walking and felt light-headed if I moved too quickly.

Yesterday’s trip went well although I drove through a couple of storms and tons of construction. Saw some cool lightning in Amarillo TX. My toothpaste lid somehow opened on its own (due to changing altitude – everything gets pressurized) and squirted all over the compartment in my suitcase. But it wasn’t too hard to clean up.

I have some photos to post – NM is truly beautiful – and I will post them tonight! I rave about NM scenery every time I come through here and photos don’t do the place justice. But the mountains are pink and/or red. Some of them have green/yellow grass and plants growing. The combination of colors make for a truly stunning scene.

Foodwise, I seem to be on a “100% raw fruitarian every other day” thing. Monday was perfect; yesterday was OK but I had 1 1/2 cooked meals. My stomach is a little upset this morning, but I ate plenty of grapes for breakfast. There is a Whole Foods about a mile from where I’m at now and I’m going to stop there before hitting the road again!

I’m leaving in about 5 minutes for Cali… will be in New Mexico tonight!

OK, I have been running around all day getting a long list of stuff done. And all I’ve eaten today is [plenty of] melon and [plenty of] grapes, plus a handful of golden raisins and pistachios. And…

I feel so euphoric right now that I can’t believe it. I should be exhausted. But I’m not. (I also only got about 5 hours sleep last night). I had a period of about 15 minutes this afternoon where I felt “tired”. But I perked right back up.

I wish that I can share this wonderful and amazing feeling with other people suffering right now from low energy, fatigue and/or depression caused [in part] by their diets. If someone miserable got to feel this, there is no way they wouldn’t think that a low fat fruitarian diet is the best diet in the world.

The thing is, I used to be miserable and tired and dragging. And it’s a complete and utter miracle turnaround that I get to feel so energized and joyful and alive now. I can’t believe how good of a mood I’m in these days about 95% of the time. Some of you may remember my older posts, where I complained a LOT about being tired, achy, miserable, etc. (Check out 2008 and 2007 if you want to see what I mean).

It wasn’t easy getting to this point – from Jan-May (all the way from when I first starting cleaning up my diet), I have gone through several natural detoxes and cleanses. I’ve even gone through some pretty major emotional detoxing, the worst of which was just a few weeks ago. But these days I feel so fantastic, amazing, alive, happy and energetic, that I am truly floored. Truly amazed at what simple ‘eating mostly/only raw food from nature’ can do to a person.

I wish everyone can feel this good, I really do.

May I just say that orange-fleshed honeydew melon is absolutely delicious!!?? It doesn’t taste like regular honeydew (which I personally don’t like). It almost tastes like cantaloupe, but a bit different… hard to explain but it is so amazingly yummy.

Anyway, the plan is still to leave tomorrow for Cali. I have a million and one things to do today but it’s all written down on a list, which is keeping it manageable.

Fruit is not allowed to be taken into California, (and yes they stop you at the border to make sure you don’t have any) so whatever I bring with me needs to be eaten before I leave Arizona Thursday morning.

Speaking of which, I am going 100% raw fruitarian starting today. As shallow as it sounds, I want to be as slim as possible before I see my family and friends on Thursday/Friday… so I have about 4 or 5 days to lose an additional inch or two. It’s going to be well over 100 degrees throughout much of my road trip, which means all I’ll really want is fresh fruit anyway. I’m bringing a couple of awesome raw nut and dried fruit combos with me as well – pistachio/golden Himalayan raisins and dried mulberries/macadamias. Mmmm. I think for fruit, I’m going to bring bananas and melons for Tuesday, Wed and Thurs. morning, because they are pretty easy to deal with. (Mangos are a little too messy to bring, as I learned in Branson). Maybe some berries and a couple of apples as well.

Anyway, I’ll update more later… time to go get my car serviced and hit the Sprint store for a replacement wireless headset for my cell phone!

(Totally non diet-related post ahead!)

This is what happens when you don’t log into your Wordpress blog for about a year or so (from Summer2007RoadTrip.com):

Over 78,000 comments… all but probably 3 of which are spam!!!! This ought to be fun to clean up… especially considering I am not upgraded to the latest version of WP on that site, therefore, I can’t delete them all at once.