Sunday, July 17, 2011

Raw Week, Day 1

So I've decided to adhere to a raw vegan diet for one week. Today is day one.
I should lay out my goals and expectations first:
I'm hoping that this week will jump start my weight loss. I expect to have more energy, feel more healthy, and lose some of my unhealthy food cravings. I'm also hoping that it introduces me to more recipes that include high amounts of produce and lower amounts of simple sugars, salt, and unhealthy fats. I'm also taking this day by day. This is quite the challenge! If I find food that I enjoy, I'm hoping to eat 75% raw vegan on a daily basis.
Here is what I DO NOT expect. I don't expect to lose 50lbs or 6 dress sizes. I don't expect to want to become 100% raw vegan at the end of the week.

Now that I've laid that out, here is Day 1

For breakfast I had a chocolate cherry smoothie with Swiss chard. With my new food processor makes smoothies so much better than my old blender. Finally there weren't little bits of leaves in my glass! I didn't take pictures of the smoothie, sorry.

For lunch I had the most delicious salad! I purchased a "Half & Half Spring Mix/Spinach" salad mix and topped it with raw vegan taco filling and an awesome ginger lime dressing. It was fantastic! Of course, I'm trying to stay away from soy, so I didn't have any vegan mayo for the dressing, so I made some! I also used almond milk instead of soy milk and olive oil instead of vegetable oil.


After that fantastic salad, I really wanted something sweet, so I had some peanut butter fudge I made last night and covered it in a chocolate sauce on the side. For the chocolate sauce, I just mixed together some agave syrup and cocoa powder. Delicious! The fudge tasted more like coconut than peanut butter so I'm either going to try adding more peanut butter next time, or I'll use almond butter instead of the coconut butter. It was still good, just not what I wanted.


I'm going to make tuna salad for dinner, not quite sure what I'll do with it just yet. I'm not sure I can do 2 salads in one day. I'm also hoping to make some raw ice cream this afternoon so it sets in time for dessert tonight!
Eating like this is very labor intensive. It requires quite a bit of prep. Maybe it will get easier as the week goes on, but this is definitely not a diet for people who are really busy. Also, with my weird allergy to raw fruits and veggies, I'm quite itchy right now, but as has happened in the past, I'm hoping that it will stop after a few days.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Oh no!

So I bought a pair of new pants the other day. Just one pair of pants and 2 pair of shorts were my goal. I'm trying to lose weight, so I didn't want to spend a ton on clothing. I'm also trying to limit the amount of clothes I have. Who really wears 30 t-shirts? When we got to the store the hubs said "You always take a long time to try on clothes." Fine. Challenge accepted. So I went into the fitting room with my 20+ items and tried them all on under 20 minutes. That's less than a minute per item. I would put the item on and quickly check if it fit in the right places before tearing it off for another item. I got 2 great pairs of shorts. They feel like I'm wearing pajamas! I've been wearing them every day since shopping. But today, I felt like wearing jeans.
So I grabbed my new jeans and put them on. They felt really good in the fitting room, I was surprised that the first pair I tried on fit. So I pull them up, button them, and realize.... I'm still standing on the pant legs. They're too long. Way too long. I grabbed "Long" pants. Anyone who knows me knows that I might have long legs, but I'm still a shortie. So, boo. I'm going to have to have them tailored. And lesson learned, no more rushing in the dressing room.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Neti Pot Review

As a long time allergy sufferer, I've gotten tired of popping pills that might or might not work or that might or might not cause side effects. I got especially leery of allergy medicines while I was pregnant. Of course, at that time I had to resort to wearing those nose strips all the time just so I could breathe because it was before I discovered the Neti Pot. What a relief! It's an easy, safe, natural way to keep your nose and sinuses clear!
The Net Pot uses a saline solution to flush out your sinuses and nasal passageways. You fill the pot with saline and pour it through one nostril and out the other. I decided to try it when I received a free offer from NeilMed. They offer their Nasal FloNeti Pot for free. The first time I tried to use it was awful! I couldn't get the water to come out of the opposite nostril. It went down my throat, into my ears, anywhere but the other nostril. I tried a few more times and then gave up for about 6 months. Enter allergy season. The worst allergy season in the history of Michigan (or so I've heard). I decided to try again and finally succeeded. Sort of. The water kept coming out from the lid and making a huge mess. So I decided I needed a different pot.
I went out and purchased the Sinu Cleanse Neti Pot.  It seems much smaller and is easier to handle. This one worked even better and I can breathe again!
Summary:

NeilMed Nasal Flo-
Pros: Free, large, comes with great booklet.
Cons: Bulky, leaky lid, only comes with a few packets of saline powder

Sinu Cleanse-
Pros: Easy to handle, doesn't leak, comes with 30 packets of saline powder (at least mine did), lighter, easier to clean
Cons: Plastic seems fragile (but is holding up fine), cost (it's inexpensive, but not free), small



I was not compensated for these reviews. These are my own opinions that reflect my own experiences with the aforementioned products.