I've been thinking: if I'm making this diet change for my emotional health, then I better change my out look on this diet change! Sure, I messed up this weekend! But at least I caught it! And today, I didn't juice again and I was being really lazy, but around 11a, I picked myself up and cleaned the upstairs and a lot more! I'm doing so much better than I've been paying attention to, and now I'm going to pay more attention to the positivists. It's been a few days since I've weighed myself, but I had lost some weight! At Yoga class last week, I was able to move a lot better and didn't feel like my gut was in the way! As gross as this may be, my bowel movements are becoming more frequent! (Rose talks about this being the most important part of weight loss because if the garbage gets stuck, it'll just add on the pounds!) All in all, I'm doing so well--I never actually believed that I could be this emotionally stable! I'm on freaking cloud 9! (By the way, what is it about cloud 9 that's so awesome? Mr Tate never assigned that term for us in high school!) Alright folks! I'm off to bed now so that tomorrow I can juice and get my day started the way it aught to!
Here's to tomorrow!
Stats:
Weight - (a few days ago) 179-3/4!
Green Lemonades - 21
I've been forgetting things lately--a lot. I forgot my supplements two days in a row! The most important of which was the St John's Wart, 5-HTP, Evening Primrose and Vitamin D. All of which are for my depression. I didn't realize exactly how important those were! I'm way more tired, my passion for proper diet is waning, I'm not feeling confident--it's amazing how that can all slip away so fast! Because of all this, I started my day off with the Green Lemonade, like usual, and 5-HTP! I got the rest of my vitamins in at lunch.
Changing the subject: My milk is coming in much better! I was a little concerned about how my milk production would be if I was eating even less meat than before. I skipped ahead in the Raw Food Detox Diet to where Rose talks about nursing, kids, and teens. She shared her experience with her waning milk supply. After being told to eat stake, ice cream and other foods like those, she realized that cows make milk without eating all of that! They eat tons of grass! She started consuming 2 lbs of greens every day! And her supply came in better! I was very encouraged to read that. It has been even more encouraging to experience it for myself! I have also noticed that my daughter, Jessenya, doesn't seem so ... picky? Things had to be just so--granted, girls just seem to be that way--but she isn't so finicky. She really seems to have calmed down! I'm sure it has to do with the nutrition she's getting from the Green Lemonade! Oh, Green Lemonade; as a wise man once said, "You are loved like a fat man loves his cake!"
Stats:
Weight - Probably around the same.
Green Lemonades - 10... wait... I messed up my counting... I'm at 12! Woot!
So I skipped blogging yesterday because I didn't do much of anything healthy. I did get up early with Jairus and drink my Green Lemonade. But let me back up and share how my night went.
I took a detox bath --late, but I got it in! The recipe (for those who are interested) is:
-16oz lemon juice
-1 box baking soda
-2 scoops Arbonne Unwind Bath Salts (optional)
And before that I used a natural bristle body brush for a detox method that Natalia Rose suggests on page 58 in The Raw Food Detox Diet. I felt great after! And I noticed the next day that my stretch marks didn't look as pronounced! It was awesome!
We got to sleep late but I was feeling great! We went to bed around 11:30 and an hour later I woke up thinking that the detoxing was working--it turns out that I had food poisoning. How cool is that. *Sigh* So I got even less sleep then I would have and I was really weak when I got up in the morning. So the whole day I did virtually nothing. I didn't eat right, I didn't do anything around the house--it sucked. And it sucked because at some point I was feeling better physically but emotionally I was checked out. It's probably because--despite the good start that I had--I didn't follow through with the "goodness." I fell into old habits and didn't listen to the promptings from within to do something healthy, mostly turn off the TV. And again I didn't go to sleep when I should have! Grrr.
But today I forced myself to do stuff around the house! And eventually I started to feel better! I ate right (maybe not enough to eat, but I ate right!) and I got stuff done and (more importantly) I spent 45 solid minutes reading to my son! And then 15 minutes playing with my daughter! It was amazing! Yay!
So not so much about diet for the last couple days, but one day at a time! See you tomorrow!
Stats:
Weight - Low 180s
Green Lemonades - 4
Properly combined meals - 5
Today was one of those mornings where the thought of waking up repulsed me. I was so incredibly tired and it's my own fault! Harry Potter really isn't THAT awesome; I shouldn't be giving it the precious hours I have to sleep. The lack of sleep is messing with the results of my experiment! *Sigh* Not to mention my interactions with my family. I was able to see with deafening clarity (yes, the sight was such that I could hear it) that dieting alone is not going to give me the results that I want as far as my mental & emotional health goes. I'm going to have to throw myself into all aspects of self -care if I'm going to beat out the Postpartum Depression without medication. A good night's sleep every night, a refreshing shower every evening, an early start to my day so I can have "me-time" before the kids wake up, and a healthy diet are all necessary for my health. So, I am now committing myself to taking my shower between 8:30p-9:00p, being in bed by 10:00p, and waking up at 6:00a.
Alright, now that I have that out of my system!
I stuck to my Green Lemonade for this morning! A whole 32 oz! It tasted much better this time--we put in more ginger and it helped even the flavor out a lot more. We ate a breakfast of Rainer Cherries, blueberries, and gooseberries. After our last midwife appointment, we swung by Chipotle and cheated on the properly combined lunch. My lunch time philosophy has become as such: If I have the drive to eat a properly combined meal, I will do so, if not, I will eat a healthy meal! And it's worked out okay so far. Of course it's only day two. Rose explains the "Quick Exit Combinations" on pages 34 and 35:
"The first thing you want to do is eat foods that are the easiest to digest and move out of the body. (Please refer to the Quick Exit Hierarchy of Food on page 27.) The second thing to do is eat these foods in "quick exit combinations." This means that when you make a meal out of high-quality, quick exit foods, the combinations of the foods in your meal should also be as easy as possible to digest. As you've learned, the quicker the food is digested, the less waste matter it will leave."
So the categories for foods that she lists are:
1) Starches
2) Fleshes
3) Nuts/Seeds/Dried Fruit
4) Fresh Fruit
Rose explains that none of these should mixed together because doing so causes putrefaction in the stomach leading to the body spending more time digesting and less time with waste management throughout the entire body. Raw veggies, however, can be mixed with any of these categories! However, mixing anything with fresh fruit isn't suggested. She shares that cooked veggies combine well with the first two categories to make a good solid meal. Some where else (regrettably I cannot remember exactly where) Rose explains that ideally we should wait 30 minute after consuming fresh fruit before continuing on to the next meal or snack and that approximately 3 hours should be given after eating a properly combined meal before having a snack.
All of this to briefly explain what I'm talking about when I say "properly combined meals." Alright! So now it's time for me to move on with the rest of my day! Here's to tomorrow!
Stats:
Weight - 185 (I got to use a scale today.... I wept inside!)
Green Lemonades: 2
Properly combined meals: 3
In January, I have the pleasure of standing next to a dear friend of mine on the day she gets married! I am so excited for her and her fiance but I'm nervous too because I REALLY don't want to be a frumpy matron of honor who has just let herself go. Therefore, I have decided to try a detox method that's safe for nursing mommies and their babies. It's called the Raw Food Detox Diet (the book is by Natalia Rose) and it's safe because it's a life style change rather than a traditional diet. My husband, Jairus, and I have decided to start off small. On page 48, Rose presents the Green Lemonade recipe and suggests drinking it on an empty stomach a half hour before eating a breakfast of fresh fruits. We have decided to try this for one week and see how we feel! Here's the recipe for those of you who are interested in trying it (as from The Raw Food Detox Diet--brackets [ ] are my addition):GREEN LEMONADEMakes one serving1 head of romaine lettuce or celery [we're sticking to romaine for this experiment]5 to 6 stalks of kale (any type)1 to 2 apples (as needed for sweetness--I recommend organic Fuji)1 whole organic lemon (you don't have to peel it)1 to 2 inches fresh ginger (optional)I know, it's a lot of lettuce! You should have seen the looks on people's faces when we bought 6 days worth for 2 people!This morning was our first day trying it out--well, Jairus has had it before, but that's besides the point. It really didn't taste too bad! Mine was about 24 oz and I drank all but 4! To get the most enzymes, we have to drink it within the first 15 minutes of juicing so I was gulping it down as fast as I could. I actually felt tingling in my extremities when I was about half way through, it was very strange. Half an hour later I had half a plum and about an hour after that I had about two cups of cherries. I'm really proud of myself! I was able to stick to the fresh fruit breakfast and wait the recommended 30 minutes before moving on to a lunch of yummy tofu and brown rice! It was an awesome experience and I'm sure I would have more to say about having more energy but I stayed up WAY too late last night watching Harry Potter. As a side note, I've noticed that my milk production has been doing better today after having the Green Lemonade!Stats:Weight - 170ish (I don't currently own a scale)Days of drinking Green Lemonade: 1Properly combined meals: 2
