Off track

yep, I'm off track right now.  Lot's of life challenges being thrown my way.  Refocusing on health this weekend.  Going to take a trip down to Monterey with Lisa and Maya. Going to get outside, eat much more fresh produce,  get some sun, do some walking on the beach.  Time for a reset.

My mood is up, my mood is down.  Life can just be so challenging sometimes.  But I am committed to my good health.  So let's see how this weekend shakes out.

100% raw, day 17

I've been 100% raw for 16 days, beginning day 17 today.  I'm down several pounds.  I've lost a fair amount of belly fat above my waste line.  I have more energy.  I'm eating a lot of fruits and vegetables.  I'm eating some nuts and seeds.  The vast majority of my diet is now high water high fiber.  I am loving it.

Why am I doing this?  It just feels so good and feels so right.  There have been other times when I was high raw, 70 - 80 percent.  But I always wanted to try to go 100%.  I'm really glad I'm doing it.  I love this stuff!

And Day 6 begins, 100% RAW

Ok, last night I was craving something other than a salad, and when you go 100% raw, you gotta be creative or you'll be too bored.  Time for soup.

I found 2 plump organic tomatoes, golf ball size, plus 1/2 dozen large organic cherry tomatoes.
Threw those in the blender with two peeled carrots, a handful of cilantro, an avocado, the juice of a lemon, sea salt, onion powder, garlic powder and curry powder.

Blended it into a very smooth, creamy soup.  Sooo good!  Filling, savory, taste tantalizing.  Can warm up on the stove to taste without hurting the enzyme activity.

It's perfect...

And day 6 begins with 3 navel oranges.......
I made more soup to bring with me for lunch, plus bananas, dates, oranges... Let's see how we do.

DAY 5 of MY 100% Raw Challenge

And now day 5 begins of my 100% raw challenge.  I have been high raw before, but have never attempted to go 100% raw for any lengthy period of time.  It's actually pretty exciting, thinking about doing this for 100 days, which is something I've been playing with as a goal.

This morning's breakfast was a Very Green Juice consisting of Arugula, Chard, Spinach, Kale, Green Apple, Celery and Lemon.

The arugula has a pretty strong flavor, and I would venture to say that most folks would not like it in a green juice.  Probably not the most stellar tasting drink I've ever made.  But, I drank down about 25 oz of it, and it was pretty satisfying nonetheless.

                                          ARUGULA


I've discovered that Chard stems are quite juicy, so there's good bang for your juice buck there.  Spinach is always an old favorite in the juice, so I'll keep that one going as a staple.  According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who is a leading researcher on the nutritional density of a wide spectrum of foods, kale is one of the most nutritionally dense foods on the planet.  Kale has become an every day staple for us in both juices and salads.  Green apples are a great way to add sweetness to the  juice, and lemon is a must have for it's astringent and detoxifying properties.  I also had 4 or 5 freshly cracked walnuts after my drink for a bit of crunch and satiety.  And that was breakfast on Day 5 of my 100% raw challenge.  Let's see how far we can take this thing!

Day 4 of 100% raw streak.

Today is day 4 of a 100% raw streak.

So what did I eat?  Woke up, had an orange.  Went for an hour long bike ride.  Came back, had a green juice, consisting of celery, green apple, chard, parsley, spinach, kale and lemon.    Went for an hour hike.  Came back, had a huge salad, with kale, spinach, mixed baby green, romaine, cilantro, freshly cracked walnut, and Asian Pear.  With just a hint of vegan goddess dressing.

Delicious.  

Make your next bite a healthy one!!!
Here's some inspiration:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151196463302501

A Self Care Package

I have a life coach that is so incredibly supportive in helping me define and reach my goals.  She's practical,  she's spiritual and she's unrelenting in holding me to my commitments.  Janice is great.

Last week I was telling Janice that I was having a particularly tough time with my daughter, who's now a teen, as well as dealing with the fallout of a stolen car.  I was overly stressed.

Janice asked me what I thought I needed right now.  I thought long and hard about it, and said, "I need a self care protocol.  I need to focus even more on self care in the upcoming weeks. She asked me to further define that.

So I told her to give me a couple of days, and I would send it over.

After a couple of days, I gave her my list of DAILY self care tasks:

Exercise an hour a day or more.

Take better care of my teeth.  (It's an act of self love!)

Limit screen time...  Do not spend the entire day in front of the screen.

Gratitude List Daily, and Journaling about my progress on these goals.

Read spiritual books/self help books, a few pages daily

This was about a week ago.

So how am I doing?

Well, I can say I have exercised almost every day.  I did miss yesterday.

I have been doing the flossing and brushing twice a day.  This is great for me, I usually don't like flossing and a lot of times it has only been once per day.

I have been conscious about limiting my screen time, although I would still say it's too much.  I am really trying to limit it to 6 hours a day.

I have done the gratitude exercise most days with my wife Lisa, and it's great because she likes it too, and shares the  things she's grateful for with me.

Where I've come up short is in the reading area and the journaling area.  I know I need to do better here.  I have been glancing at a book called "Ask and you shall Receive by Jerry and Esther Hicks.  I need to spend more time in that arena.  

All in all, though, it's been good to shine the light of consciousness in these areas.  Bringing focus and intention to those areas that I know helps me feel better is always priceless.  Having a list like this of things that aren't really that time consuming but have plenty of bang for the buck helps me refocus my energies when I am lagging, and breaks up the day into a nicer rhythm.

I'll try and keep you posted on my progress, and especially, how doing this stuff makes me feel.  So far, so good!