Trinity set up a "tea" in the living room. It was cute to see her selection of food for this little get together:
bananas
salad
raw trail mix
grape tomatoes (which Angelina obliterated and begged for more - she is a tomato freak!)
cheerios
Not a bad spread. Good healthy choices. (like there's much else to pick from these days in our house!) Then daddy shows up after making a dumpster diving run with 3 bags of sweet and salty chex mix and they were happily munching on garbage food again.
Rite of Passage
So Trinity took advantage of me being on the phone with a long lost girlfriend to get into trouble. She cut her hair. Very sad, although probably much needed. Her long hair was just getting beyond my ability and her patience to keep tangle free.
Now the girls are all tucked into bed and so are their babies, at the top of the stair.
It's off to bed for me too. No more up til crazy hours on the internet for me!
Oh, yeah. I dropped 3 pounds since starting the Hallelujah Acres 60 day challenge last Thursday. Two of those were pounds I found over the holidays. But the other one pound was very significant for me. It dropped me down into a weight range I haven't seen since Arizona. Hooray! I have to say, I am totally loving the green smoothies. My cravings for sweets and garbage food are gone and I am having no problems with avoiding foods that aren't good for me. I only had one green smoothie today though. I need to make a larger quantity tomorrow morning so I will have more for later in the day. The girls drank up all my smoothie this morning, but I'm not complaining! How else do you get raw collard greens in a 3 and 5 year old?!
Okay, so over the holiday weekend I talked with my brother and sister-in-law. I knew from talking with my mom that they were eating vegetarian and raw foods so thought I would find out what was going on for myself. I had a great time talking with them both and especially found inspiration from my SIL in how well she has managed to stick to a high raw diet. Kudo's Sharon! I know how hard it is to feed a family that may or may not be completely on the same page with you in what they want to eat.
At least my girls are young enough that I still control what they eat. It is just a matter of weaning them off of the unhealthy stuff. I am trying to educate them so that they will understand why mommy is making different choices for our meals. I may be creating little monsters out of them as last week when I was in Walmart, they were loudly chanting, in unison, "Fruit Loops are not healthy, Fruit Loops are not healthy, Fruit Loops are not healthy!"
Anyway, back to my inspirational siblings. One of the books that my SIL had brought home from the library that got my brother fired up was a book by George Malkmus. He is the guy responsible for the Hallelujah diet which I had heard of back when I was a raw foodist. So I decided to check the site out again, as I am in that search mode - looking for whatever will inspire me and educate me so that I will stick to eating healthy. (and stay away from the lifetime supply of krispy kremes in the basement!)
As luck would have it, they are starting a 60 day challenge on January 7th to do their diet program. I looked over the basics and it is extremely similar to the Fit For Life, Not Fat For Life principles that I wrote about back in 2007. You can read all about the hallelujah diet here but here are the basics:
85% raw, uncooked, unprocessed food
15% cooked
Breakfast - Barley Max
Mid morning - fresh vegetable juice or piece of fruit
Lunch - another serving of Barley Max, followed by a vegetable salad
Mid afternoon - fresh vegetable juice or raw veggies
Dinner - first a serving of Barley Max, then a LARGE salad, followed by cooked vegan whole foods if desired
Evening - fruit or fruit juice
This reminds me so much of FFL principles - eating at least 50% raw food, nothing but fruit til noon, making a big salad the first part of a meal so you won't eat so much cooked food - all great tips to reduce cooked food from your diet. I signed up to participate in the 60 day challenge even though I know I will not do it exactly as written. For one, I am not buying Barley Max. Barley Max is no doubt a great product, as it is a blend of raw organic alfalfa and barley which are highly nutritional. But I will make my own green smoothies and fill them with a variety of greens that are also highly nutritional and not widely eaten. At the very least I can be inspired and have the accountability and support through their program. I'm gettin' excited!
(note: scroll down and pause the music player at the bottom of the page before playing video)
He said he would drink a green smoothie every day if he could have meat.
He hasn't quite gotten it yet. But if I can keep this up, hopefully he will get on board as he sees the changes it is making for me. Plus, I was re-reading some of my entries back in 2007 and he totally feels better when he is eating raw. It is just the need to make it easier for him to eat raw foods and he will do it. Green smoothies is a good place to start. :)
This blog started out to be about my journey back into raw food, then quickly became my life line to friends and family as we left the big city and relocated in the Iowan countryside. Sometimes boring... sometimes fun. Such is my life.
Psalm 25:5
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Read the blog; Feed and Educate a Child for $25/mo
Odds 'n Ends
