March 2009

The elimination/detox phase has finally let up again after three somewhat unpleasant days… I woke up this morning feeling good again. I didn’t sleep well at all last night – tossed and turned until 5am, so really I only got about 5 hours of sleep but I feel fully rested.

They say during your body’s rejuvenation/elimination/detox periods, old cells and wounds that were medicated before healing naturally (which would include ALL of my old cells/wounds since I’ve taken Advil on a regular basis all my life!) flare up again temporarily [usually only mildly] and re-heal themselves naturally. Well, this may sound totally crazy, but here goes… As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I got into a bad car accident in December 2004 and injured my right eye. The cornea got scratched up pretty badly. Of course I was put on meds, including eye cream/drops. So imagine my surprise a few nights ago when that eye began hurting and feeling dry/scratched up again out of the blue! I couldn’t figure out what was happening and checked the eye in the mirror to see if I had something in it. Anyway, after about an hour of intense irritation (where I likely didn’t help matters by rubbing it) there was one sharp stab of pain, and then the situation cleared itself up.

Last night as I was meditating before bed, it occurred to me what had happened: it was my body systematically cleaning up old wounds! This means that the pot/alcohol tasting & smelling incident that happened Saturday night (that I thought was from a year ago) was in fact probably from 5 years ago – winter/spring of 2004, when I was going out nearly every night smoking and drinking with a bunch of friends from a night job.

If I was fasting on juices or water, this cleanse would behappening a bit faster. They say you go back approximately 120 days for every day fasting. So I don’t know how fast the raw foods diet/detox works, but if I’m already on 5+ years ago, that’s pretty darn fantastic!

This all sounds completely insane I’m sure, but it makes sense to me. This website talks a lot about natural hygiene and how the body can heal itself when given proper rest, raw foods and/or through fasting.

So onto other things… the Farmer’s market starts around here on April 11th… less than two weeks away. Yay!!! I’m really excited because lately the produce at Whole Foods has been disappointing. I’ve found mold growing on tomatoes and strawberries, plus the bananas have been sucking, not to mention some of the oranges just don’t ripen. I hope the FM around here has some good fruit! I am also going to start ordering produce online from an organic farm in California that does free overnight shipping. Their stuff will be a LOT fresher than WF’s stuff that comes from South America and Mexico.

I figure, if I’m gonna eat raw foods, they better be fresh and high quality!

I’ll probably update more later…

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I finally got a juicer…. yay! It’s Jack LaLanne’s Power Juicer. I already made a test juice and it came out fabulous: 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 2 handfuls of mixed baby greens, 1 large naval orange and 3 pineapple chunks. Mmmm.

Now I see why people complain about how messy they are, though… sheesh!

I’m going to make a second juice later this evening. I will be able to use the juicer at any time of day or night because it’s pretty quiet – much quieter than my loud ear-splitting blender.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

I know I keep raving about all these benefits, and it’s probably getting old to read, but I have a new one:

Smooth and silky hair.

Now, when I was doing my semi low-carb diet with eggs and chicken every day about a month back, I was also raving about my nails and hair. My hair was really shiny and soft then. My nails were also growing longer.

The difference now to my hair is that it’s smoother and silkier. I went through a period over the past month where my hair was just OK – nothing special, although I was “shedding” which usually happens around this time of year. Anyway, today I woke up with amazingly smooth and manageable hair.

The difference with my nails now compared to my eggs diet is how strong they are. Usually when I clip or bump a nail into something, it will chip or break. Well, with all the fruit peeling I’ve been doing lately, I can’t believe that none of my nails have broken or chipped! Peeling oranges is a pain and I can’t tell you how many times now I’ve jammed a nail into one accidentally. Today for the first time EVER in my life, I was forced to trim and file my nails down because they are just getting too long!

So anyway, here is a growing list of the benefits of this fruit & veggie diet so far:

• Smoother hair
• Softer and smoother skin
• More energy
• An amazingly happy mood 98% of the time
• Tons more mental focus and clarity (except during detox periods)
• Improved eye sight, smell and taste
• Rapid weight loss
• Nicer looking skin

Some of you are wondering how it is that I’m not going hungry eating only fruits and veggies. Well, the key is that one has to consume a LOT of fruit. I had to start small with one fruit or serving at a time. I worked my way up to two servings over the past week or so. Now I am happy to say I can eat about a pound of fruit at a time. This morning I consumed about a pound of pineapple for breakfast. One pound of fruit is generally 3 medium-sized oranges, or 2 1/2 pears, or 3 medium apples, or 3 cups of grapes, etc. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to be able to consume that much fiber at once, but now I can do it. So basically, the key is to just eat as much fruit at a time as you can. I never stuff myself, but I do eat until I just don’t feel like eating anymore – then take a few bites more. People who have been on this diet for years simply eat huge servings of fruit in one meal and are good to go for hours and hours.

The only slight difficulty I’m having is the greens/veggies… one is supposed to consume a good portion of greens and veggies each day. (The greens round out the diet nutritionally to make sure you are getting all of your vitamins and minerals). The only way I can get enough in is to blend them up in smoothies or order veggie juice at Whole Foods. I’m just not one of those people who are comfortable munching on greens or veggies for long periods of time. I have an uneven bite, so long chewing isn’t extremely comfortable to me. Lately I’ve taken to eating romaine lettuce (which I LOVE) like chips. I grab several leaves of it off the head, wash them, and munch them one after the other when I’m watching TV or on the computer.

Onto other things! My favorite pair of “fat” jeans have officially been retired. I made the decision to retire them when not only did I spend the day constantly pulling them up, but when I was able to take them off last night without even unbuttoning or unzipping them. The jeans are a stretchy pair of DKNY’s. My Calvin Klein’s (which are one size up from the DKNY’s but not stretchy) are next in line to be retired… I am wearing them today and have had to keep hitching them up.

I still haven’t gotten on the scale. I want to SO badly but just can’t bring myself to do it. I am going to wait a few more days.

I got a really good workout in today. I went power-walking and had loads of energy. By the time I returned home, however, I was a little tired. Unfortunately 2 out of the 3 elevator banks in my building were out of service for whatever reason. The 1 elevator still in service was being held up somewhere on one of the higher floors in the 20’s. A crowd was gathering down in the lobby. I hate crowded elevators (especially now with my heightened sense of smell – blechhhh!!) so I decided to take the 9 flights of stairs. I will admit that I was huffing and puffing by the time I got up to my floor. I had eaten some cantaloupe before going out for a walk. Now I know that isn’t the best “energy” fruit. Apples, oranges and/or pears seem better for workouts.

I got a couple of emails from readers asking me how I have been emotionally since adopting this new way of life/eating. The truth is, eating this way brings me a constant source of contentment. The euphoria I was getting in the beginning has faded to a pleasant state of mind. I always seem to be in a good mood (as noted earlier by my younger sister who is used to me getting irritated quite easily). Not only that, but when I am outside, I feel a sense of being connected to nature. It’s really hard to explain. I never got this feeling before so it’s hard to articulate. But as an example, when I was out walking earlier, I was compelled to take this photo of two ducks geese (thanks for the correction!) along the Arkansas river:

Those same two geese were walking along the path when I returned. (I walked 20 minutes along the river and turned around and came back). They were walking along the path together, like companions. They both stopped at the same time to look towards the river and peck at the ground. They seemed to be communicating with each other like an old couple or something. I just thought it was so precious. It reaffirmed my decision to be vegan. Seeing these two birds together, obviously communicating with each other, caring about each other enough to spend time together to walk along the river together in companionship, was amazing. A real eye-opening experience.

I have changed seemingly overnight in certain ways. Last night I was very sad thinking about how I have spent my entire life eating animals and being addicted to animal products. Yet they all are living, breathing, feeling creatures. They are our companions, not food. This certainty hit me very strongly last night.

Last night I drove over to a house on the far west side of Tulsa where my sister works in the home of an 80-something year old woman with dementia. It was an extraordinarily clear night and we stood outside for 30+ minutes looking at the beautiful stars. It was so clear and dark there that I was able to see star clusters and galaxies!

That experience, coupled with today’s duck goose experience, made me realize that the path I am on now is the right one. There is a whole spiritual aspect to this that I won’t get into. But… I know I’m doing the right thing now.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }