So, I’ve decided to experiment with the Paleo Diet today. I discovered that I already have been pretty much eating the Paleo way except that I add in grains and a little dairy. So today I’m going to cut out grains and only have Greek Yogurt with my lunch. I’m curious to see if this way of eating will be easy, or if I’ll crave grains.

So far today I’ve had only fruit – bananas and some pineapple. (Edit: I’m still hungry after having 2 bananas and some pineapple, so I’m going to have some eggbeaters!) For lunch I’ll have Greek yogurt, an apple, some raw veggies (carrots and celery) and a turkey cutlet. Dinner will be veggies, another apple or maybe an orange, blueberries and chicken. Snacks will be carrots and celery.

I’ll update more later and report on whether or not I was able to stick to the plan and how I felt on it!

I am still surprised to be even thinking about doing a Paleo type of plan. Three months ago I wouldn’t even think of it, let alone experiment. My how times change…

Proof that I’ve been sitting in front of the computer wayyy too long today: I’m sitting here giggling maniacally over the Marky Mark pics I posted a while ago on the skinny website. (Not in a mean way because oddly enough even with the weight gain, I think he’s still hot!)

Today’s food intake hasn’t been very impressive. It’s already 8:20pm and I’m only up to 575 calories. Oops. It’s all been mostly healthy stuff although I didn’t really stick to my meal plan for the day. So far I’ve had bananas, half a yogurt, a turkey cutlet, some grape tomatoes and a bagel thin with fat free cream cheese.

Time to get dinner started!

Later Update: I’m up to 1250 calories altogether for the day.

I was absolutely exhausted this morning! My “get up at a decent hour” trick didn’t work like it usually does. Usually if I know I’m going to be tired in the morning but want to make sure I get up at a particular hour, I’ll set my phone alarm for one hour before I want to get up, and put a caffeine pill and glass of water next to my bed. When the alarm goes off, I immediately take the pill and set the alarm for one hour later. Usually I will stay awake from that point on but enjoy around 30 minutes lying in bed daydreaming and/or meditating. (By the way, I don’t do this very often, just on days I know I’ll need to get up earlier than usual).

This morning it didn’t quite happen that way. I took the pill, ended up falling back to sleep, had vivid dreams and slept an additional 2 hours. Sheesh. Oh well.

It’s a totally gorgeous day out today and I intend to get outside at some point, but so far I’ve been chained to my computer working.

I have today’s menu all planned out and so far I’ve stuck to it: fruit for breakfast and snack, soup, yogurt and an apple for lunch, and lean protein, veggies and more fruit for dinner. Seems reasonably healthy and low-cal.

I ate well over 1200 calories today. As posted on the ‘What Did You Eat Today?’ thread on the Skinny forum, here was my intake for today:

B: 3 small bananas, half a pear (310)
L: 3 small bananas (270)
S: bagel with fat free cream cheese (170)
D: 1 cup raspberries, 1 banana, a serving of steamed mixed veggies, a handful of orange grape tomatoes, and 3/4 of an oven-baked turkey breast (over 500, not sure exactly of total)

Lots of fruit, some veggies, protein and even some grains in there. I’m happy with what I ate today.

I went and bought free range turkey breasts today (boneless skinless). So yeah, raw meat. It ended up being OK although I have scrubbed my kitchen from top to bottom and disinfected the sink three times tonight alone.

I just need some cooking tips for the turkey breasts, I accidentally overcooked it but it was still pretty good. VERY filling.

Earlier this evening while out driving, I had either a mild panic attack or a low blood sugar attack, I’m not sure which but I’m now 99% sure it was the latter. It had only been a few hours since I’d eaten. And it was scary. I honestly thought I was going to pass out behind the wheel. My vision narrowed and I felt myself blacking out. Thankfully I was literally 3 minutes from home, (although it didn’t matter, I was on a two-lane road with nowhere to pull over!) but I grabbed a couple of breath mints (peppermint) out of my purse and popped them in my mouth. It seemed to help almost immediately, so it must have been blood sugar.

I’m not sure why my blood sugar would tank though since I had eaten the bagel with fat free cream cheese only hours earlier. Scary stuff!

Edit: Oh, I know! I suspect it has to do with the past several days of very light eating. I’m not sure if this happens to other people, but my body tends to react the strongest to super low calorie days the day after I do it. The day I eat lightly, I’m fine, but the day after, I feel the effect. It makes sense now.

Today is a beautiful sunny day! We are supposed to get some warmer weather in the next several days (60’s), which I am very much looking forward to.

So far today I’ve had a bowl of bran flakes with vanilla almond milk, and a large Honeycrisp apple. I love love love Honeycrisp apples, they are sweet, slightly tart and crunchy! I’ve decided to eat at least 2 apples per day until all the apples are gone out of my fridge. I know they are no longer in season and I don’t want to end up letting them go bad. They seem to last a long time in the fridge though.

For lunch I’m planning to have soup, yogurt and toast. I found a coconut milk yogurt that is both non-dairy and non-soy and has the live active cultures in it. Only problem is, it’s not very tasty! But it’ll do for now.

I seem to finally be getting used to the antibiotics. They aren’t making me feel nearly as bad as before. However, today’s noon dose was the last one until tomorrow night. Since I cannot drink water after midnight tonight, I cannot take the antibiotic, nor can I take tomorrow afternoon’s dose. So I’ll be skipping a day. (You have to drink lots of water with Bactrim, I’ve been going through more than a gallon per day lately!) I think it’ll be OK to skip a day.

Tomorrow I’ll be drugged up most of the day. How fun… I’m going to try and do the main website updates before my appointment tomorrow. Not sure if the Valium will be worn off by tomorrow morning though? Anyway, I’ll be sure to update here when I can about how everything went!

I can’t believe it’s been so effortless to stick to only raw foods the past 2 days! Wow. I am doing very well. Today for breakfast I had lots of fresh delicious berries, then 2 bananas as a snack. Lunch was raw sunflower seeds, nuts and raisins. I also had 2 ounces of the raw milk cheese and now I’m eating a huge green salad, with romaine and other lettuces, herbs, carrots and cabbage with a little bit of fresh guacamole and pico de gallo drizzled on top. The combination of it all is absolutely delicious!

I don’t have dinner planned, as it’s already 4pm, but if I get hungry later I’ve got lots of fruit and veggies to choose from. I may whip up an experimental fruit/veggie salad or something. I didn’t intend to go 100% raw right away, but I’m going to just go with it as long as I can.

Overall I feel pretty good today in every sense except that I’m tired, but that’s because I only slept 4 or 5 hours last night!

I decided to put my moving checklist into a separate post. I will be keeping track of the tasks that need accomplishing on here and will cross things off as I finish them!

Moving Checklist:

• Finish packing kitchen
• Finish packing bedroom
• Finish packing computer room
• Organize and pack magazines and mail on entry hallway table
• Organize and pack magazines and mail sitting on dining room table
• Pack bathroom stuff
• Clean bathroom
• Throw out the rest of the magazines under coffee table
• Finish organizing and packing stuff in hall closet near door
• Pack stuff in hall closet in hallway
• Pack items in dining room cupboard
• Finish packing items in bedroom closet
• Wash load of whites
• Wash load of colors
• Get keys to new apartment

May as well keep track of what I’m eating today, too!

Food So Far Today (Friday):

• Green smoothie (pineapple, baby greens, cantaloupe, frozen banana)
• 1 apple, 1 pear, pineapple chunks
• Take out (veggie burger, mashed potatoes)

Food So Far Today (Saturday):

• Apple
• Pineapple
• Yogurt

This will probably be the last post I do until the actual day of the move (Sunday). But feel free to check back often, I’ll be keeping this post updated regularly!

I’ve eaten SO clean and healthy today! I’ve had a green smoothie (made with blueberries, cantaloupe, frozen strawberries and some baby red lettuce), some fresh fruit, lots of locally-grown cherry tomatoes (which were absolutely AMAZINGLY delicious), a cup of unsweetened almond milk, a ‘no-sugar-added’ cup of applesauce, half an English cucumber, some fresh veggie juice (cucumber, tomato and celery), and homemade veggie soup, which I made another batch of this afternoon. It came out even better than the last batch.

I swear, locally-grown pesticide-free tomatoes are the tastiest fruits in the world! Or the ones straight from someone’s backyard garden. Mmmm.

The bad news is that I’ve only taken in about 600 calories so far today! And it’s already 5:30pm and I finished dinner a few minutes ago. Oops. Way too low calorie.

Plus I took a 45-minute power walk earlier.

I wonder if I should just stick with what I’ve eaten and call it a day food-wise. I really don’t want anything else to eat, except maybe some red grapes. One super-low calorie day won’t hurt nobody, right…? I don’t know why today was so “clean and healthy” but my body just wanted it for some reason.

OK, I tried… and the truth is, I just don’t like kale. I had it again in a smoothie this morning and it was just… yucky. It overpowers the fruit in the smoothie, oddly enough.

So I’m just going to stick with other greens like chard (which may actually be slightly more nutritious than kale), spinach, dandelion greens, etc.

I made a smoothie this morning with the following ingredients:

• 167 grams frozen strawberries
• 149 grams mango
• 227 grams cantaloupe
• 208 grams oranges
• 94 grams kale
• a few ice cubes

Total calories: 372.

I got a nice burst of energy about 20 minutes after finishing the smoothie.

But definitely no more kale. It’s such a rough and scratchy vegetable, I don’t see how it can be good for our digestive systems anyway?

I made my sister, niece and I a smoothie yesterday evening before we left to get the puppy. Since they aren’t keen on greens, I made it with: a banana, pineapple chunks, strawberries and a few slices of orange. They really liked it. That was my dinner (along with a few sunflower seeds).

I have a ton of tomatoes I need to use in a soup or something today. More on that later!

I’ve officially been off dairy for 11 days… (it would be two weeks but I found out there was casein protein in something I thought was vegan last Wednesday). So… I’ve been feeling a bit ‘out of sorts’ over the past week and a half. I’ve been more irritable and cranky than usual. I thought that was from adding in more cooked vegan food.

Last night things started getting weird. I started to sweat – a lot – for no reason. I turned my AC down to 68. And still… I was sweating nonstop. Not to mention I was getting some aches and pains in my leg muscles. And I couldn’t sleep although I felt tired. I turned down my AC to 66. (I know, ridiculous!) Still I was sweatin’. Not to mention my tongue felt disgusting and I had a bad taste in my mouth. Very odd stomach pains on and off. And I had terrible insomnia. I slept 3 hours the night before, and 2.5 last night. I got up at 3am and went back to bed this morning and tossed and turned for hours.

I suddenly realized that I felt like I was going through… detox. All those symptoms are exactly how my previous detoxes felt!

So, my question is/was, what am I detoxing from? Dairy and dairy products are the only thing I’ve recently given up. So it must be that!

It’s well known that when a person gives up dairy, their body gets rid of the excess mucus. I experienced that a lot last week. It’s gotten better over the past few days. (Sort of).

But an actual detox from dairy? No way! Why?!

So today when the sweating started back up (which it did about 30 minutes ago), I did what I usually do: opened up my trusty google browser and started searching for other people’s experiences. And boy did I find some interesting stuff. Apparently, people sometimes do go through detox when they give up dairy for long enough. During my previous high-raw fruitarianism, I would still cheat with dairy every few days or so (and sometimes once I ate it, I’d have to keep eating it for the following few days. I really have had a hard time giving it up!) The longest I went before was 7 days.

So I guess when I hit the 10-day mark yesterday, my body realized that I mean business this time. So it’s “cleaning house”.

I can’t help but wonder how I’ll feel in another few days?

Other people who have gone through this usually start feeling better by week two. I am going to consciously up my distilled water intake for the next few days.

So, onto swiss chard wraps… ok, that probably sounds gross to some of you. I’ve been looking for a way to include raw swiss chard into my diet since it’s SO nutritious. The only problem is that it’s a bit too bitter to eat plan. So my solution today was to make a swiss chard, green chile hummus & yellow pear tomato wrap. And it was delicious! I warmed the tortillas up for just a minute or two before adding the veggies and hummus.

Mmm… I foresee many ‘veggie wrap’ experiments in my near future!

I’ve done pretty good on food intake today even though I’ve had NO appetite! I had 3 quarters of a pound of cantaloupe for breakfast; 2 swiss chard wraps, plus a romaine, tomato and guacamole salad for lunch. I’m not sure what dinner will be. I’m really working on upping my raw veggie intake again. I may have a veggie burger and spinach salad later. I’m not sure.

I remembered why I hate soy products this morning. Every time I eat a product with soy in it (especially when I haven’t for a while), I wake up the next day feeling uncomfortable. It also gives me headaches.

I am trying to go with soy-free vegan products, but yesterday I had some vegan pot-stickers from the Whole Foods deli, and they had some sort of soy oil in them. Not only did it leave a bad taste in my mouth, but I woke up feeling really blahhh today. They also had sugar and salt in them. Needless to say I won’t be having those again!

So anyway… so far today I’ve had a banana, some orange-flesh honeydew melon and some watermelon. I will be having some mango a little later. I got up at 11:30am today so I’m running behind in my eating schedule. Since it’s already 3pm, I am just going to wait until dinnertime to have something cooked.

I got on the scale this morning and it read the same number that it did the last time I weighed. I’m not surprised, though, since once again I’ve been doing lots of resistance training, which leads to muscle gains. But I’ve definitely slimmed down more. Everyone is noticing.

I wish this “tired blah” feeling would pass… it’s amazing what certain oils and ingredients can do to a person when they haven’t had them in a while!

I was sick and tired of cheese and other fatty cravings… they seem to strike me on most days when I’m doing only fruit through the day.

So… I came up with a solution to get myself off the cheese and other fatty foods for good and eliminate cravings. So far it’s working – I’ve been doing it since Tuesday!

I’ve bought these “organic all-natural vegan” items in the past few days to have for lunch and/or dinner:

• Amy’s Vegan Veggie burger patties – 140 calories, all natural and made only with veggies, spices and grain! And delicious! (And no soy, to my delight).
• Van’s All-Natural Blueberry waffles (vegan and wheat-free)
• Some all-natural plain popcorn
• Organic all-natural hamburger buns
• Organic spelt bread
• A couple of the other Amy’s all-natural organic vegan dinner items (black bean burrito, etc)

I’ve eaten most of these things once or twice in the past few days and have had NO problems. Everything seems to digest fine and I don’t break out or get an upset stomach. The only item that is a little bad with sodium is the veggie burger, which is 18% of the daily amount. I wish I could add pasta in to have with lunch or dinner on some days, but as I’ve learned on more than one occasion, my body can’t deal with any type of it. (Wheat free, rice pasta, white pasta, etc). Oh well.

What I will do/have been doing for lunch and dinner is have one cooked vegan item, and either fruit and/or raw veggies on the side. And of course up until lunch, it’s only fruit, seeds and a few nuts.

I will continue to do this for a while and see how it goes and if my weight loss continues. It’s going great so far. The veggie burger is absolutely delicious! I use just a bit of mustard on it and it’s so good that I feel like I’m “cheating” with something absolutely sinful.

My main short-term goal is to eliminate all animal products. Once I’m off the cheese for a few weeks and no longer have cravings, I will make my next step, which will be to go back to high-raw fruitarian.

So what do you all think? I probably should have done it this way first. Going high-raw AND vegan at once it just too darn difficult.

In regards to exercise, I’ve been doing yoga, (M has showed me a couple more poses), the stairs and my airdyne. I feel body getting stronger by the day!

I found out yesterday evening – to my disgust and surprise – that I have a mouse running around my apartment. That would explain why I haven’t seen more than 1 waterbug around my apartment for the last month or so – the mouse must be eating them. (For that I appreciate him/it). Usually this time of the year I’ll see like 1-3 [dead or almost dead waterbugs] per week.

I live in one of the nicest apartment buildings in this city… wtf??!! Water bugs and mice? I’m moving as soon as my lease is up in September!!

I did some online research and discovered that mice eat the same stuff I eat. And more importantly, the stuff I have lying around my apartment!!! Fruit, seeds – in particular sunflower – and other seeds and veggies. So after reading that this evening I went around throwing my bags of seeds and raw products made of seeds (lots of them) into the fridge. I also put most of my fruit in there, except for a few mangoes that are ripening and a bunch of bananas. The mangoes are bagged up so I hope that keeps it out. That would suck if I couldn’t ripen fruit out in the open anymore in my apartment… what on earth would I do?!

The maintenance guys are going to come put out traps tomorrow, but I’m in a bit of a pickle… I’m going out of town from Wed-Sun this week. What if a trap kills it and it sits there dead for days on end? I will be so horrified upon returning to a stench like that. (I will be horrified to see a dead mouse anyway). This really sucks. I wanted to get a humane trap, but it really isn’t practical! I live in a high-rise, what will I do with it if I see it? Throw it off my balcony? I so feel bad and don’t want to kill an innocent creature, but I don’t know what to do.

Anyway… I will think of a solution!

So, I have a fridge full of fruit that I need to try and eat before Wednesday afternoon when I leave for Branson. I made out a menu plan for tomorrow (and will make one for Tuesday). Basically I will be stuffing my face with fruit all day; hopefully enough so that I won’t want or crave anything else! Here Monday’s plan:

Get up at 9am. (Ha! I’m still up and it’s 2:30am).

9:30am: lots of mango
11:30am: melon (I have cantaloupe and a Galia)
1:30pm: Grapes, peaches
3:30pm: pineapple, sliced English cucumber
6:00pm: Papaya
8:00pm: Lettuce, handful of sunflower seeds

Normally I don’t eat as much as I can and if I’m not hungry, but I’m going to try a new tactic that was suggested to me by a low fat raw vegan: eat as much fruit as you can – then eat a little more. Eat it throughout the day so I never get a chance to get hungry for anything else. Eat so much of it that eventually my stomach learns to ONLY want fruit and will learn to accommodate more of it at a time. And it will. Clearly my digestive system already prefers it hands down to anything else! My eventual goal is to have three large fruit meals a day with a salad and non-sweet fruits at night and a little seeds or nuts most nights.

I will get there…… I will. I will. By the end of this summer, dammit, I will be a full-on low fat, raw food vegan/fruitarian. I am so close.

Anyway, I am a little freaked out right now… there is a mouse running rampant in my apartment. He stays out of sight for the most part but I hear little things that tell me he is nearby. I hope since I put up all the seeds and most of the fruit that he goes on his merry way!

You haven’t lived until you’ve been in a high rise during 60-70 mile an hour sustained winds… we had another crazy thunderstorm last night and the winds were the highest I’ve ever seen in my life! I’m only on the 9th floor yet I felt the building vibrating and shaking. The sound was a loud roaring complete with my windows rattling to the point that I thought they were going to come crashing in! At one point I heard a car alarm going off downstairs in the garage, and it sounded just like my car’s alarm, so I rushed down 6 flights of stairs to see if it was. (It wasn’t). I then walked down to the lobby of my building, where people were arriving for a party, and people were coming down from the higher floors to see what was going on with the storm. (People on the higher floors get buffeted around quite a bit in high winds). There are some tree branches down around here from the wind and lightning. Crazy…

I’ve decided to go total 811RV again – 80/10/10 raw vegan with 80% carbs (fruit) and 10% fat and protein – for the next 7 days. My fridge is full of tons of fresh sweet and non-sweet fruits… plus lots of greens, so it seems like the perfect time for it. I’m going to hold off on most fats except for a brazil nut every other day (for my selenium) and maybe a handful of seeds from time to time. For some reason lately I’ve really gotten tired of gourmet raw foods, like the seed bars, green veggie chips, granola, etc. My body is mostly craving fresh foods these days.

I will start posting my daily food list each night before I go to bed!

For me this plan includes mono meals of fruit throughout the day, and then greens and non-sweet fruit (like cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes) for dinner.

So far today I’ve had cantaloupe and three large bananas. I have lots of ripe bananas right now so I’m going to continue to eat them through the day when I’m hungry. Surprisingly enough one of my current best organic batches of bananas came from Wal-mart, of all places. They are Dole organic bananas in clear plastic bags, and they are absolutely divine! And they ripen pretty much perfectly.

Some of the sweet fruits I’ll be living on for this next week are: bananas, green and black grapes, cantaloupe, pineapple, pears, watermelon, oranges, honeydew melon, blackberries and raspberries. (Possibly strawberries after I hit the Farmer’s Market again on Wednesday). The non-sweet fruits I have are English cucumbers, regular cucumbers, assorted tomatoes and red peppers. The greens are spinach, mixed salad greens, celery, red chard, mustard greens, dandelion greens, red leaf lettuce, romaine and baby bok choy.

I’m going to continue juicing veggies but not as often… I think it’s really important to get the whole vegetable – including the fiber – so I’m going to eat as many “whole” fruits and veggies as possible.

I’m also continuing my near-daily exercise! My hour-long walks are definitely my favorite activity. I’ve also taken to taking the stairs more often in my building.

I’m determined to get in the best shape possible before my road trips next month!

I discovered recently how much I love plants… I bought a couple of them in the past few days – parsley and sweet basil. I’m trying my best to keep them alive! They are doing really well right now and I don’t want to break off the leaves to eat… yet.

Hey all, sorry I haven’t been updating lately! Truth be told I just haven’t felt like it. I’ve been very unmotivated to get online at all lately.

Early last week (Monday and Tuesday) I really screwed up on my diet, eating several cooked meals and drinking booze. In the process I gained back 4 pounds, which sucked.

I am happy to report that my five-day “cleanse” went very well with only a couple of minor cheats. I also worked out 4 out of the 5 days. I stuck mostly to fruits and veggie juice with occasional raw granola & snacks and once had a cooked meal. I am happy to report that I lost the weight I had gained the week before plus another half pound… I am still amazed that every time I clean up my diet, the weight just starts melting off.

I am going to continue in this fashion except cut back just a tiny bit on the fruit. This type of plan seems to work very well for me:

Breakfast - green vegetable juice, plenty of fresh fruit
Lunch- Raw granola (I have several flavors of it now) w/almond milk
Dinner- veggie salad, a 2nd veggie juice (optional), a cooked vegan meal of some sort, or a nut butter/honey sandwich on spelt bread
Snacks- in the morning – fresh fruit. Afternoon/evening – raw snacks (I have many variations now, including a raw chocolate bar, which is delicious)

I will allow myself a vegetarian cooked meal (with cheese) once a week from now on.

My body seems to crave exercise in the first part of the day after I eat the fruit and drink the juice, and it seems my muscles can go on forever, so this is when I’ve been exercising.

My sleeping schedule is still messed up but should be back on track by Tuesday.

So right now my weight is 21 pounds down – 160.6. I am so close to an MDR! I haven’t weighed in the 150’s since December 2006. And my stomach is still flatter now than it was when I was in the 150’s last time.

In other news, I found out last week that I’m going to be an Aunt again, as my younger sister (the one who lives out here) is expecting her second child. I’m really excited!

I’m really hoping that by the time I go to California in mid-June, that I’ll be close to weighing within my average BMI range. I have to hit 149 in order to officially no longer be “overweight”. I’m going to shoot for that, although it’s still around 11 pounds down. I’m upping my exercise regime to see if that speeds things up.

So…. I started feeling better yesterday as the day wore on. By about 5pm I felt pretty good! And so I decided to break my diet with macaroni and cheese and 2 glass of wine. (I wanted to finish off the bottle of organic merlot I had in my fridge).

Anyway, needless to say my soft skin has disappeared for the time being. Yeah – only one cooked meal and 2 small glasses of wine and BAM: gone. Sharp vision is gone as well. I know they will return in a couple days though.

I did not enjoy the cooked food or the wine and have decided that that was the last time I will enjoy either of those two items. For the past couple of weeks I have been looking for a strong inner conviction to truly become vegan. And last night I found it… I now believe in my heart that it is wrong – for various reasons – to eat meat or animal products. I got the conviction deep in my heart and soul, and it’s what I needed. A visit to sites like all-creatures.org and cok.net (compassion over killing) solidified my resolution.

I do not wish to offend the meat-eaters who read my blog so I will leave it at that! (Don’t worry – I won’t be preaching about not eating meat on this blog, either).

So as of today I am 100% raw vegan. I am no longer afraid of the detox and cleansing process that will likely continue to take place; I got through it yesterday (although painful) and I am fine.

Anyway, after all of my experimenting with fruits and greens over the past few weeks, I now know which ones I love and which I only ‘like’. I’m going to stick with the greens I enjoy – spinach, dandelion greens, bok choy and other tender baby greens for blending, and romaine and other lettuces for salads. My favorite fruits are oranges, bananas, pears, mango, berries, melons, grapes and tart green apples. I will still eat other fruits but not as often. I’m also eager for my trip to Southern California in another couple of months – I know they have lots of other fruit that I’ve never tried but want to (like dragon fruit, etc).

Today so far I’ve had a large navel orange and a green smoothie comprised of spinach, dandelion greens and bananas. I plan to eat a couple of pears, some berries, another orange or two, and some pineapple throughout the day. In the evening I’m making myself a large salad with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices, mung bean sprouts, broccoli sprouts and shredded carrots. (I’ll take a picture of it if it comes out OK!) An ounce of sunflower seeds will finish off the day’s eating.

Unfortunately it is extremely windy outside so I can’t go walking – plus it’s supposed to storm violently here later, so I’m stuck on the elliptical yet again.

TOM is over early this month (only 3 days!) so I will be weighing myself mid-week. I don’t want to weigh myself now since I had wheat pasta and wine last night… GOK what the scale says right now!

Well isn’t THAT nice…

I have eaten very lightly today. I had only fruit until lunch time, when I had chicken and greens, more raw veggies for an afternoon snack, and for dinner I am having white king salmon. I can’t back out of the salmon now since it’s already defrosting. So, dinner will be salmon and probably a mixed herb and romaine salad with nuts and olive oil & garlic pepper sprayed on top. I got this awesome thing at Bed, Bath & Beyond called “Misto”. It’s a spray bottle for olive oil. You pour in about three ounces of olive oil and then can spray it onto salads, veggies, cook ware, etc. Only a tiny amount comes out in the spray so you get almost no calories.

Anyway, it’s going to be a very low calorie & clean eating day! I am thinking about taking a walk after I eat (if the storm hasn’t started by then).

My fruit adventures may be over for now, but my vegetable ones are not. I’m going to continue eating several servings per day, especially now that I bought some digestive enzymes! I got two types – one that helps digest protein, fat, dairy and carbs, and another one that helps digest veggies and beans and prevents bloating/gas.

Although my heartburn and stomach pains have finally gone away, so I may not need them.

Anyway, I’ve been running around a lot today and didn’t get a chance to eat lunch. It seems appetite suppression has already kicked in from doing low carb because I actually forgot about lunch. So for dinner, I’m planning to have a large salad and some eggs. I’ve been looking up some recipes online and have decided to experiment a bit with salad ingredients. Tonight’s salad is likely going to have:

• Two kinds of lettuce – butter leaf and red leaf
• Baby spinach leaves
• A few slices of strawberries (so few that the carb count won’t matter)
• Sliced cucumber
• Slices of roma tomatoes
• Fresh mint leaves
• Slices of red pepper
• Grated carrots (If I can find my grater!)
• A little bit of olive oil drizzled on top
• Sunflower and sesame seeds sprinkled on top

Mmmm… does that not sound delicious and inventive (at least for me)? I will take a photograph of the salad if it comes out looking good!

I also got some raspberry vinaigrette and a roasted red pepper & artichoke bruschette topping to try on future salads, plus some other fresh herbs I haven’t tried before. I really need to get my Aerogarden set up so I can grow my own!

While at Akin’s earlier, I grabbed some organic teas – a sleepytime tea with passion fruit & chamomile, a blueberry leaf tea, and some parsley tea. (I love parsley – it really helps with water retention and bloating!)

So, something interesting happened while I was out running errands. Some people I [sort of] knew from my old AA group called me. They told me they knew the reason I had stopped coming to meetings (T and another friend who turned out to be a total nutcase) and said that they miss me, want me to start coming back and want me to be sober and happy. I told them that I haven’t had a problem staying sober lately and was generally happy, so why go to meetings? They acted like they didn’t believe me. (Not in a mean way).

Now I can’t but wonder if someone there has been reading this blog, or perhaps someone saw me going into a liquor store last week when I was buying wine? I mentioned in a couple of previous posts that I had had a couple glasses of Riesling a few nights ago, and another night last week had three glasses of organic chardonnay. That is hardly getting drunk or needing AA, as far as I can see it.

They were really nice and said they missed me a lot. But the phone call sounded like an intervention! Grrr. I know they are worried, but at the same time, just because I don’t go to meetings doesn’t mean I’m depressed or out getting drunk. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I’m sorry to say this, but the majority of the people in the AA program I was going to seem to have either traded their addiction for another one (excessive caffeine, smoking or serial dating) or are horribly self-absorbed people that I wouldn’t want to be anything like even if I never touched another drink in my life. Then there are the ones who have true mental illness. Am I wrong for wanting to separate myself from that? Am I wrong for wanting to focus on other things in life and not worry about ‘not drinking’ every single day? The stringent program and worrying about ‘not drinking’ only made me want to drink even more. My worst binge-drinking episodes were the ones I had during “relapses” in the program.

I don’t know… maybe I’m only fooling myself. But for now I’m OK. Life is OK, I have a spiritual connection with my HP, and there are a good many other things to do in life than stress out over alcohol. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to enjoying a couple of glasses of wine maybe once or twice a week. I learned some really good things from the program while I was in it, such as to not hold grudges or resentments. Before doing my 4th step back in July 2008, I was holding an awful lot of resentment towards various people and things in my past. But today, I can honestly say I hold none. And anytime I do incur a new grudge or anger against someone else, I pray for them for a few nights in a row, and the grudge/anger goes away! (This truly works, by the way.)

Anyway… I told them I may show up to a noon meeting sometime soon. But I doubt I will. If I went to a meeting now I’d be a hypocrite, anyway.

Enough updating for now… I think it’s time to get dinner started. (Although to be honest, I’m still not hungry!)

I have learned that I don’t like Arugula at all. Dandelion greens are OK – not my favorite – but fine when mixed with other salad greens.

I have also learned that the fat is now just melting off of me! Even after my vodka and cheeze-it binge the other night. Tonight I’m going to break into my designer jean stash and see if any of them fit me yet. I think my body has finally got the hint that I mean business.

I have learned that eating super-nutritiously causes me to almost never be hungry. My body is now getting fed most (if not all) of the nutrients it needs, so by the time dinner-time rolls around, I forget to eat! When I look back on what I have eaten for the past few days, many would say that my calorie counts are way too low. But for some reason I feel healthier and more energetic than ever.

I’ve been having really interesting meals lately… mixing together odd combos of veggies, fruits, seeds and protein. Right now, for example, for lunch I’m having a mixed salad of green lettuce, dandelion greens, red peppers and sesame seeds, plus some mango and pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Some would say I’m really going all out over this new eating plan… especially now that I bought an Aerogarden indoor planting system which I will be using to grow herbs and other veggies. I’m also going to buy a sprouting kit and will be growing all sorts of healthy sprouts to add to my salads. (This website has some interesting info about sprouts and all of the vitamins, minerals and enzymes found in them!)

Some might say I’m going overboard, but if you look at the sorry state of our nation’s food supply, I think I should have done all this stuff long ago!

I am just dying to get on the scale! My clothes are still getting looser, and my lower stomach and waist are just deflating like crazy! I swear every day they look a little smaller.

But I’m glad I’m waiting… I know the number I will see on the scale when I do finally get on will be well worth the weight. (Sorry, terrible pun, I know).

I went to town on mango and carrots last night. Mango is seriously my absolutely favorite fruit in the world. The cool thing is that on my eating plan, I don’t need to portion myself on fruits or veggies. It seems the more of them I eat, the slimmer I get. I’m trying to balance it so that I eat at least 6-9 servings of veggies per day and 3-4 of fruit now.

PMS is sure making me tirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrred. Possibly because I’m not eating as many carbs as I usually do around this time. I had a very hard time getting out of bed today. I slept through my alarm too which is highly unusual.

However, once I get up and about I feel energetic and clear-headed.

I had a bit of mango, 2 omega 3 eggs and 3/4 of a yogurt this morning for breakfast. Right now I’m snacking on carrots and a pear, plus just had some wheat grass juice. (I bought the powder and added it to some water, which isn’t the tastiest thing in the world, but it’s not too bad). A later snack will by my usual raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds, plus some spinach. Dinner will be a huge salad with at least 5 types of veggies, plus either chicken or fish, and maybe some kiwi or an apple.

My younger sister is so impressed with how quickly my stomach is getting flat that she is going to start taking coconut oil capsules! I’m trying to get her to start taking wheat grass, too.

TGIF!