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A good Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving turned out so much better than I thought. I had so much fun spending time and sharing meals with family and friends. My husband did all the cooking and I did all the uncooking. Best of all nobody noticed that I didn't eat turkey or stuffing, it was great. The toughest thing was that I am a slow eater and I was always the last one at the table to get done, what can I say greens take a long time to chew.
My Dad enjoyed eating the raw meals I prepared him so much, that he stayed raw until dinner the whole time he was at my house. He said he felt so much more energetic and happy. He also ordered a champion juicer after he tasted the juices I made him with mine.
He also read my copy of Victoria Boutenko's 12 Steps to Raw Foods and is now convinced that the raw food diet is the best diet there is. He talked nonstop about how amazing the book was the whole week he was here. He also told all my siblings about it and suggested they try the raw food diet. Too funny! Maybe by next Thanksgiving my whole family will be raw.

I'm thankful for my family...but a little nervous for dinner tomorrow

My Dad is visiting for the Thanksgiving Holiday and we have been having a fantastic time. I have been preparing all the delicious salads and green juices I would normally eat and my Dad has been really enjoying them. I do add some cheese and a few other cooked foods on the side for him to enjoy along with the raw foods. He is the biggest supporter of my diet he will try anything that I prepare and always loves it. Today I made a huge salad, some basil pesto and a side of raw collard greens for lunch. I showed him how to add the pesto and the salad to make a yummy wrap. He enjoyed it very much and he told me that he was going to start buying collard greens and making wraps when he got home.

 Here is a shot of my collard wraps with salad and a little raw kimchi on the side

It is so special to me that he is enjoying the raw foods I prepare for him. I just love
making my salads, cutting up my fruits and sprouting seeds. I am so relaxed and happy eating this way.
My husband too will try any raw dish I prepare and always likes them, but he still loves his cooked food best. He is eating healthier since I've gone high raw, which makes me happy.
I am not sure what will happen tomorrow it is my first Thanksgiving on my diet. We have lots of family coming over tomorrow for dinner so I'm a little nervous. My husband is brining his turkey as I write this. I am planning on making a few raw dishes to add to the potatoes and stuffing my husband will prepare. I hope nobody notices that I am not eating the cooked ones. Thanksgiving food has never been my favorite type of food; even before going raw I didn't like it very much. I don't like foods that make me feel too stuffed and too sleepy. Hopefully we will all be able to focus on being thankful for being together rather than on the food.

Feeling foggy today

I feel like hell today! Yesterday I felt so great all day, I was so happy and I ate my usual raw meals all day. Then in the evening my son told me that he wanted pizza for dinner. We went to his favorite pizza place and got take out. It smelled and looked so great that I had two slices. I ate them with a large salad, while I was eating they tasted really good. Shortly after we finished dinner I felt like I had a huge rock in my stomach. I stayed up late to try to digest all the food I ate. I never felt like I fully digested it even though we ate so early.

With my usual raw meals I always feel light and good after I eat them, the opposite of how I was feeling after eating pizza. This morning when I woke up I still felt full, I drank my usual liter of water with lemon hoping that would help flush me out. I still feel like the pizza is sitting in my stomach I also feel very foggy. I stopped eating dairy so maybe my body is having a hard time dealing with such a heavy meal. I have always had problems digesting dairy and am lactose intolerant.

Before I went high raw I ate so much cheese and yogurt. I probably always felt really bad after I ate it but didn't realizes how bad until now. Going without it for a long time and then eating it again made me realize that I should not eat it again. I know I will feel better by tomorrow, I'm back to my delicious fruits and veggies today.

I think it was good for me to go through this it reconfirms that my diet is making me feel happy and good. The foods we eat have a profound effect on our moods and our well being. I will not look at pizza the same way again.

Reflecting on my juice feast.

Well I haven't posted in a while, I've been trying to process all that I went through with the juice feast. I had a lot of trouble drinking the recommended 16 cups of juice. I had my ups and downs some days I wanted to quit and others I enjoyed the process. It was difficult to get used to making so many juices all day. I was really getting sick of ALL juices. I stopped my fast after 8 days, my body just could not go to 10 days.

When I broke my fast I had a green smoothies and some Italian prune plums. After that my body just craved fats. I ate nuts and seeds, which I was not supposed to do until at least day 3. I even ate some chicken. I was craving foods that I had given up and stopped thinking about until after my fast. It was because my body wanted fats, it just wanted to feel full.

Perhaps if I drank enough juice on my fast I would not have felt this way. There is no way to tell, it was a new experience for me. I am so glad I did it.The group support was amazing! Enough time has past since the fast that I'm actually thinking of doing another one this spring. I never thought I would feel that way or ever want to juice again. For a few days after the fast I could not go near my juicer. But about 3 days later I did juice again and I have been ever since.

After the juice fast I let myself eat whatever I wanted and feel how ever I wanted without judgement. I knew I would be back on track in no time. Giving myself this permission made that period of feeling off balance last only a few days. I did stick to a mostly raw diet, but I was not eating as clean as I was before the fast.

I am so glad that I am back on track now and feeling good.

My fast continues

I am the type of person who forgets to eat, if I'm really happy or really sad I don't eat. This is OK on a diet with solid foods but it is dangerous on a juice fast. First thing in the morning I was drinking a liter of water,my stomach felt so full that I was fooled into thinking I wasn't hungry, great if you are on a diet and want to lose weight. Not great if you are on a juice fast and your calories are greatly reduced anyway. Because of this I had an extremely difficult day yesterday. I'm trying to process everything that is going on right now. It has not been easy.

Getting to know myself better

Today is day number 6 of my juice feast I woke up feeling good. Last night was difficult I was not feeling very well, but after a good nights rest things are better. I have to say it's actually been positive for me that I had such a hard time yesterday. This juice fast is a journey, I'm learning a lot about myself some good some bad.

In some areas of my life I give up too quickly when things start to get difficult. For example on the first day of fast I thought I broke my juicer while I was making my first juice of the day. In my mind I thought to myself that I could not do the juice fast. I was relieved then I realized I needed to forge ahead and not quit. I pushed the reset button and it worked again. But sometimes in my life I'll put things off for another time when I'm faced with difficulty. Instead of addressing the problem and finding a solution right away even if it takes a few days to implement.

This juice fast helped me to see that I have to stop doing this. It is very counterproductive. I feel so clear right now and I can finally analyze my life and stop some of my bad habits. I can't explain why I feel so clear. My diet before the fast was pretty clean I ate pretty much all fruits and vegetables. I didn't eat sugar, caffeine or any processed foods. I felt pretty great on my diet, but this fast takes it to another level. I am really glad I am doing this, it is much easier doing it with a group. It's nice to connect on our forum and discuss ideas and any difficulties we are having. The support helps a lot. My husband and son have also been so great during my fast without their love and support it would be much more difficult.