Wow, three days behind! There's a reason. My husband has been working on a huuuuuge work project and has been living, eating, and (not) sleeping at the computer for days. Poor guy is glad it's nearly finished! Bathing the kids and washing the dishes seems like a picnic by comparison!
Saturday (Day 13) was a great day. It was the first day for ages that I didn't eat a single bite of cooked food - no nibbles of my son's leftovers or 'tastes' of the cooking. I had orange juice for breakfast and felt wonderful afterwards, and salads for lunch and dinner. The dinner was actually supposed to be a green juice, but since my juicer is dead I ate the ingredients instead of juicing them. I snacked on fruit and nuts and it was so easy.
Yesterday I photographed a wedding and I didn't eat cooked food! That's huge, since I usully 'need' it after work, but yesterday's wedding was in the morning and I was out of there by lunchtime. I had a great shoot powered by OJ :-) and felt happy, energetic and centred. After work, though, I met my family in the park instead of at home, and we ate lunch out. There was only one cafe near where we were, my son was drenched and euphoric playing in the fountain, and there was no way I was dragging him away just to find raw food! I ate a vegie burger. It was a good homemade one, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to - it felt greasy from the grill and a bit strange. Today I have my first pimple in many months - maybe thanks to the burger? Dinner was supposed to be almond milk but I'd forgotten to soak almonds and we were off to my in-laws' for dinner, so I made the fruit salad I'd meant to have for lunch. Mmmmmmm! My son ate some too - he's always loved raw fruits, nuts and vegies.
Today I again adjusted the menu. Breakfast was supposed to be bananas and blueberries, but I just can't face anything except orange juice for breakfast now! Lunch was a cucumber salad which tasted amazing - fresh and zesty and fun - but which didn't keep me full for long. When I got hungry I made another salad, like the cucumber one but with celery instead of cucumber. Tasty! Dinner was again supposed to be almond milk but I ended up having a salad of mixed green leaves. Just felt like it. I also tasted some of the rice and lentil salald I made for my husband - it was yummy and I felt fine afterwards.
I'd been feeling a bit discouraged by my almost daily 'cheating' on the program. After all, I committed to doing the program and I'm not doing it properly, so I'm not getting the maximum possible benefit out of it. On the other hand, I am getting an amazing amount out of it regardless, and the option is always there to do it again (and again and again!) and keep testing different aspects of this new lifestyle. Today's daily instructions included some lovely heartening words about not giving up, about the benefits to sticking with the program to come even if we have cheated, and about how much easier this process is going to become as we move forwards. It was a great mental pick-me-up!
I haven't done any formal exercise over the past few days. While my husband has been doing this huge work task I haven't wanted to ask him to mind the kids while I exercise, or to do any housework, so by the time the kids were asleep and the house was cleaned up I was truly ready for bed. Plus I've been reading a great book ('Breath' by Tim Winton), and since I so rarely indulge in reading fiction, I devoted all my spare seconds to it! I truly love reading. I'm on my way to becoming an English teacher so I'd want to love literature!
The happiness exercises for days 13 and 14 were ones that I'd already done during the 21-day cleanse, and while it would probably be beneficial to do them again I'm not going to do them now. The reason is that I'm really interested in today's happiness exercise and am going to jump straight to it! The exercise asks us to write about what we believe constitutes a healthy lifestyle (for ourselves). So:
I believe that for me a healthy lifestyle starts in the mind. When my thoughts are relaxed, happy, positive and confident, my lifestyle always improves.
I believe that diet and exercise are really two sides of one thing - like yin and yang. When I am exercising every day I desire fresh healthy whole-foods, and when I start eating fresh healthy whole-foods I have an increased drive to exercise. My muscles feel as though they are twitching with energy and ready to go!
I believe that fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are essential to health.
I believe that meat and dairy products are ruinous to health.
The jury is out on whole grains for me. After this program I plan to try eating small amounts of rice, quinoa, barley, millet and other whole grains and see how that works for me.
I believe that wheat products are not good for me - they make my sinuses feel inflamed.
I believe that pulses are best (and yummiest!) eaten as sprouts.
I believe that consciously trying to eat a diet built on compassion has effects on the rest of our behaviour - we become more compassionate in other areas of our lives.
At this point I don't believe that I need to be a 100% raw vegan to be healthy. My idea of my 'ideal diet', which I plan to follow after this program, is:
Breakfast: Smoothie with orange juice, leafy greens, banana and berries.
Lunch: Raw soup or salad or vegies dipped into raw dip.
Dinner: One of the fancier raw recipes, plus a green juice (if the recipe doesn't include lots of greens). A couple of times a week I'll eat a few of spoonfuls of the cooked food I make for the boys, if it's steamed or baked vegies or stir fry or rice with beans/lentils - no wheat products or anything greasy. I'll experiment with raw ways to enjoy my favourite flavours, especially those from Indian, Asian, and South and Central American cuisines.
Snacks: Geen juice or almond milk or fruit. Raw biscuits! I've dreams up a recipe for sticky date cookies that I can't wait to try!
Food for on the bike on long rides: Raw biscuits, dates, nuts, fruit, nut milk, dried fruit, homemade cordial (it's raw and made with orange juice, orange zest, and maple syrup). I know most athletes can't handle fruit before a workout but I'm going to give it a go before I write it off. No sports gels for me, please!
Post-workout snack: Smoothie with orange juice and two bananas, or apples dipped in nut butter.
I'm looking forward to it! I'm salivating at the thought of all this wonderful raw food :-)
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